Truly Inspired Mom

Dear baby,

You turned 20 months old. Wherever we go, people keep asking me your age; complete strangers and also people who we know every well. I started saying ‘almost 20′ a couple of days back. I get a feeling of nostalgia remembering your teen months. Somehow 20 months sounds like a big thing. As big as when you would turn 20 years of age.

The change that has happened during your 20th month is amazing. I bet I don’t remember most of the things that happened in the past month, but I try to say a few here.

Your dance video has become a local entertainment program here. Especially our immediate friends and family have been watching it repeatedly enjoying every action of yours. I wish I had shot the video during the day so we could see you better but when I can see you better, I’d rather put the camera down and enjoy looking at you. You have been getting better at your dance, picking up new steps from our dance program. How you remember the steps even now, I don’t know.

You have learnt to play in the play ground all by yourself. You are very strong and careful when it comes to climbing big kids’ ladders. I find it hard to relax and watch you fighting your way up the ladder, but you want to do it all by yourself and I want that too. Other than the sliding and climbing, your other favorite outdoor activity is hanging in a bar. You not only hang but also swing in a to and fro motion that reminds me of the way kids (and adults too) play holding the hanging roots of a banyan tree.

You walk for longer distances now. We don’t take the stroller while going out unless we go to the nearby market and buy lots of things for which I use the pram as shopping cart. You are very understanding and even though you run around everywhere we go, one loud “this way please” gets you in front of me, moving in the direction that we need to go.

Your talking has caught everyone’s attention now. I can’t really find out what you can’t talk anymore. If you are in the mood to, then you talk everything. You have mastered one and two syllable words but when it comes to three or more, you either omit a syllable or two or add your comfort zone letters (like baba) in the place of the syllable. It’s so cute when you put a stress on word endings especially when they end with s, x or ck. Some of the fancy words you speak this month are “gaabox” (garbage box), “mabox” (mail box), “babex” (the multivitamin that we take here), “koths” (clothes), “tatsh” (catch), “kosh” cross, “pesh” press and really a lot lot lot more. When asked where you want to go for vacation, you say “hawii” (Hawaii).

Edited: (How could I have forgotten this?) You seem to prefer x, s or ck only in the end of the word. You say “tetix” for taxi, “titush” for tissue and “bibis” for busy.

I’m still waiting for you to speak in sentences but as of now, you can relate to a story or incident or just about anything else by putting together upto 4 words at a time. For example, when you say “appa shoe buh-bye kaka”, you actually mean “appa is wearing his shoes to go out so I want to go too”.

Kaka is how you say your name. You absolutely answer when people ask you what your name is. It’s good to see you answering even when strangers talk with you. You respond to most questions and you keep on talking when somebody engages in a conversation with you. But now a days, I turnout to be the only person who can understand what you really mean. Even your dad turns to me for help in decoding your language. This is probably the only thing in your life which your dad can’t do himself!

You know who is uncle and who is aunty but when it comes to mentioning somebody, you use their names. You even address everybody by their names which makes our friends and relatives feel happy and for some reason, I think they feel important when you call them by name.

Books are serious business. You fix your own time for reading everyday. When you are ready, you call me to come help you with reading (studying?). When I enter the room, I find you sitting in your tiny baby chair in from of the table and you point to the book shelf waiting for the books. You go through all the eleven books in the series of baby’s big book in one sitting and if you are still interested, you continue reading your first book of the world. After every word has been said, every page has been grazed, you feel a bit content about the reading session. This takes a minimum of half an hour everyday at one stretch. All of your other books are scattered around the house which you spend separate time in reading.

We go out a lot so when we do stay home during the course of the day, it’s mostly filled with your chores, nap time, reading time and limited play and painting time. If we do stay home longer during some days, you demand to watch TV. I’m okay to let you watch TV for 30 minutes a day after which I start regretting my decision of not going out that day.

You have learnt to sleep on your own. I still carry you and walk during the day until you fall asleep but your night time schedule is very clear. You take a small cup of milk after dinner, we all get to bed and read a few pages of your prayer book and say a few short prayers. Then I switch off the light and you lay down and fall asleep. Well, that last sentence was too fast. In between ‘laying down’ and ‘falling asleep’ there are a few more steps that can’t be clearly defined. In short, it includes tossing here and there, climbing in top of dad or mom and jumping, laughing, singing and much more.

But falling asleep on your own also means that we have to be home by bed time. You claim the comfort of your own bed. We gathered with our friends on new year’s even in a beach and when it was your bed time, you started showing the exit and insisting that we go back to lay you down on bed.

The biggest change that I went through in the past month is that we are both free of nursing for the past 2 weeks. You still remember breastfeeding and sometimes wish that I feed you but you are perfectly okay when I don’t. I’m happy not seeing the disappointed look you used to have in the beginning when we stopped nursing completely.

I love you monkey boy!

Mom.