Dear big boy,
Yeah, that’s what you are. Things have changed so much that I have even stopped searching for my little baby. Not only am I convinced that the little baby is not going to return, but I have been enjoying the present so much, and I have absolutely no time to think about the past. I’m not sure if life can become any more exciting than now. We both have lots of fun, fun and more fun while handling all the challenges motherhood and toddler-hood present to both of us. As much as I would like to record each and every moment of our present, I find it more and more difficult to do. There are too many things to write. One of these days, I called my mother and said that since I was telling her almost everything that you do everyday, she should start writing a blog about you because I do not have time to.
About a month back, you started answering questions. Every question would have an answer. If the subject of discussion involved any word that you can speak, you would say that, otherwise you just answer some way, in your own language. You speak far too many words than I can count, but to list a few, here’s what you speak.
“Ba/Baa” for Bus, Banana, Ball, Balloon, Sheep, Bird, Book.
“Thaidha” for Bicycle and “Baaba” for Motor bike.
“Bubba” for Diaper, Biscuit, Hungry, Bread, Bottle.
“Ka” for Car and key, “Kaa” for Card, “Kaaka for clock”.
“Ma/Maa” for Cat (Meow), Rain (in tamil), Fish (in tamil), Nose (in tamil)
“Bow bow bow” for Dog
“Thein” for Train.
“Kauu” for both Rice and Curd (in tamil they are called choru and thayir. I understand that’s what you want to say)
“Shoe” (It actually started as the sound ‘s’ followed by ‘hu’ and after a few days you mastered saying shoe.
“Phoa” for phone.
“T-su” for tissue.
“Cheesh” for shirt.
“Amma” for Mom (in tamil) and for some reason, you say ‘amma’ for dad, baby, apple and sometimes all fruits.
“Toma” for tomato, “Petha” for potato and “Bava” for guava.
“Dum” for throwing or falling or the noise made by banging things.
Kengka (sengkang), ba (bakau), kaa (compassvale), bubia (rumbia), kangkaa (kangkar) are all train stations in our area.
“Enna” for “what” in tamil. ”Vaa” for “come” in tamil. ”Kaa (tha)” for “give me” in tamil. “Nana” for “I don’t want” in tamil.
“Kaka” for crow and thatha (grandpa) both in tamil. “Ka ka ka” is how you imitate a parrot. “Ka ka” also means ‘quack quack’.
This is all I remember right now. And you speak much more in actions. You ‘hush’ when you see someone asleep and you whisper to me just because you can. You show phone, finished, come, fly (the way birds fly), ball, balloon, eat in signs that we invented ourselves. You love to knock at the door when we tell you too, or whenever somebody mentions ‘door’. You roar to denote lion and tiger. You have mastered animal sounds. And you recognize most words from your word book and point to everyday objects in the house like table and window.
You know ‘amount’. You can measure. When I serve you biscuits, you ask for more. If I give them in your hands, you want in both hands. You want them in whole, not broken or cut in half. If there were a size difference, you want the bigger one.
When you want something, that I don’t seem to give within 1, 2 or 3 requests, you get angry, cry and run away. You don’t come back nor do you take what you asked for until I come down and comfort you. But I do owe an apology to you. Many a times, you look so cute while crying or throwing light tantrums that I just look at you and enjoy rather than stopping you. And not to mention the photo taking.
You can easily go from this….
to this…..
and again this….
in less than 1 minute.
You can play on your own for a really long time, which means that I can leave you in your playpen and have a good shower without having to stick my face out of the door every 5 seconds. It also means that I use your sleeping time for myself, only doing things that I want to do like using the computer because I can manage everything else while you are awake. Our new schedule works great. For the first time in your life, you have learnt to sleep for more than 1 hour during the day, in the same nap. You sleep for almost 2 hours every afternoon. Also you eat very well these days making me a proud mother.
You have learnt to put tissue papers to proper use. When your hands get dirty and when the floor gets wet, you ask for the tissue paper and wipe clean. One day you took the tissue and blew your nose, and got a good amount of booger in the tissue paper and your hands. Instead of worrying about why you should get booger when you are perfectly healthy, your father and I rolled on the floor laughing at what you did. We thought it was funny. You still try to do it often, except that the tissue is usually clean.
We pray together as a family every night before you go to bed using your prayer book. I’m so happy that you have helped your father and mother follow a regular prayer routine. Even though we started it only for you, we do it whole heartedly now. Since we taught you to put your hands together while praying, now you do it every time you see something related to religion. I don’t understand how to identify even chinese religious things but you put your hands together whenever you see one. Even though I want you to understand the difference between religion and God, it is perfectly okay for me if you relate them to each other now. You have all your life to understand God.
You love older kids. As soon as you spot one of them, you immediately switch to playing mood and run behind them, not knowing whether they want to play with you or not. You are very big boy like with younger babies. You pat and cuddle them and you are very gentle with them even though their little toes and sparkling eyes still hold your curiosity. And you entertain them. This last part is so funny, interesting and heartwarming at the same time. You play peek-a-boo with them and do funny actions to make them laugh. And then you pretend to laugh so that they would laugh more. More often, I feel like saying “Do you remember that you are a baby yourself?”. Except that you aren’t.
As for breastfeeding, we swing back and forth, and back and forth again. I manage to keep you with only night time feeding one day and the next day, all you want to do is to nurse. 2 days later I find myself more in control only to lose it again next day. But it’s okay baby. Things have settled down now and I’m in no hurry. Take your own time but please make sure you are free of nursies before you learn to say “amma, please…..” and “thank you for feeding me, amma”. That’s not going to look attractive.
You understand quite a lot. When you want the CD from the shelf and I say only big people use these CDs, when you want to play in the public toy car and I ask you to wait for your turn, when you want to sit in your friend’s pram and I tell you to wait until the other baby finishes using it and wants to share it, when you want to touch things from the shop shelf and I tell you that we touch things only when we buy it, you perfectly understand even though you feel sorry for that. I feel sorry too, honey, for not being able to give you whatever you want, but this is reality and I want you to understand it now, so that it would help you be a happy human being when you grow up and face realities in the world, realities that are hard to digest, but you would have to, anyway!
Love,
Mom
