Opera singer in previous birth??

That's what DH said when he saw Anirudh singing lately. And he actually doesn't sing any songs. He just picks up words and names of the objects that he sees and just starts singing them in the style of a tenor :D

So if I try to put it in words he sings something like this..

"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuujhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeee poooooooooooooooooooggggggggooooooooooooooo deeeeeeeeeekhhhhhhnaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiii................(I put on the richie rich on TV and he goes) nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.....muuuuuuuuuuujhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeee Mr. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaan deeeeeeeeekhnaaaaaaaaaaaaa haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..."

Get the drift? Hehehe..... So basically what he said "Mujhe pogo dekhna hai"(I want to see POGO) and when I put it on the richie rich cartoon, he said "Nahi mujhe Mr Bean dekhna hai". And when he says POGO he basically means he wants to watch TV.

So when DH saw Anirudh singing like that quite often he wondered aloud "Pichhle janam mein opera singer tha kya?" (Was he an opera singer in his previous birth?) and I had such a good laugh.

Some funny incidents from yesterday

Incident 1:
Me and Betu were driving back home after picking him up from his daycare. If anyone has been to the East Of Kailash area on the road that goes in front of the ISKCON temple, they will know how narrow it is with one-third of the road used for parking cars and how many Rickshaws that ply on it.

So as I was driving, a rickshaw came in front of our car and he didn't seem to be in any mood to give way. So I started honking. I had to literally honk 10 times before he gave way. And as we passed that rickshaw by, Betu looks out and waves his hand out the window at the rickshaw-wallah and angrily said "Problem kya hai?" (What's your problem). I was just so astonished at his reaction and had to tell him that he's not supposed to say like that. In response to which he goes "Woh theek se nahi chala raha tha" (He was not driving properly). I told him that still you are not to talk like that. He said "OK" and the topic got closed.

I tried to think from where he must have learnt this and realised when DH gets angry at Betu, he sometimes uses these lines. But it surely amused me how logically he applied these lines to a totally different scenario. And I had to tell hubby that he needs to be VERY careful of what he speaks in front of Anirudh

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Incident 2:
Yesterday was the day 2 of my migraine which usually lasts 3 days when its bad. And I usually like to sip on to some fizzy drink during my migraine. So as I sat sipping my limca, Betu comes to me and says "Aap coldrink pi rahe ho?"(You are having a cold drink?) and I said "Yes". then he says "Maine to nahi piya" (I didn't get any) to which I replied "Bachhe nahi peetey"(Kids are not supposed to drink them). And he points at himself and replies "Bachhe ne to nahi piya!" (The kid didn't have any).

I literally burst out laughing hearing him. And I just could not resist hugging him.

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Incident 3:
Yesterday at night I was again trying to make him understand the meaning of sorry again. So I started by putting his hand on his chest where the heart is and told him this is your heart. And its the heart which gets upset and then you cry when you don't like something. And that you need to say sorry from the heart and not just like that. All this while I was pointing to his heart. He said OK. I really didn't know how much he understood then.

But after 30 minutes he did something and I looked at him angrily. So instantly he said sorry in an angry tone. So I asked him "Aise sorry bolte hain?" (This is how you say sorry?) And that is when he remembered our earlier conversation and points his finger at his heart and said "Sorry!"

And I just smiled, hugged him and told him "Pyaru se sorry bolte hain" (You say sorry in a soft voice) and sent him his way to carry on with whatever he was doing. And that's when I realised that he will take some more time to understand the meaning of sorry :)

Does he really think so much about incidents?

I was just speaking with DH and asking him if Betu went to school fine since he drops Betu at school. And that's when DH told me that on the way, Betu asked him to say sorry to him because he (DH) had scolded him(Betu) in the morning. So DH said sorry and then a minute later he tells DH "Papa, main kal se nahi royunga" (Papa, I will not cry from tomorrow).

Betu was actually referring to the everyday crying affair when its time to brush his teeth about which I had posted yesterday which as you can imagine happened today also.

Me and DH are both are totally dumbstruck that he thinks so much into things and incidents. And its not just today when he talked about an incident which happened an hour ago. There are times when he remembers incidents which happened days ago and tells us that we scolded him that day or we slapped him and how he it hurt him. And it makes us realise that he's such a sensitive child and keeps things to heart which were unpleasant.

Or is he playing smart and trying to make us feel guilty? I wonder......

Meaning of 'sorry'

The other day Anirudh did some badmashi and I told him to say 'sorry' to me. He did say it but in a loud disinterested tone. Which obviously showed that he actually didn't feel sorry.

So when I told him "Jab aap sorry bolte ho uska matlab hota hai ki aap dubara nahi karoge. Aur uska matlab hotah ai aapko kharab lag raha hai." (When you say sorry it means you will not do it again and that you are feeling bad).

Hearing to this he waved his hands and nodded his head in negative and said "Nahi, mujhe kharab nahi lag raha. Meri tabiyat to theek hai!"

I was just so speechless as to what to tell him and how to make him understand what sorry meant. But at the same time I was quite amused how he perceived what I was trying to tell him. Shows that am not a good teacher when it comes to explaining things :

Thank you God for giving me such a loving child!

Yesterday I reached home late from work. Around 8:30 PM. So when I entered the house, Anirudh came running to me and hugged me saying "Mumma aa gayee!" And he kept telling his papa "Papa, Mumma aa gayee!" till his Papa said "Haan!" He must have repeated it about 4-5 times and showered me with the kisses.

He wouldn't even let me go to take off my office footwear or change into home clothes. He just wanted me to sit there. Whereas I just wanted to sit in the room quietly as I was having a terrible migraine since afternoon. But I played along as long as I could. He wanted to paint, so we painted couple of things. Then he wanted to watch Bob the Builder with me. So while he was sitting on my lap and watching it, I fed him roti and subzi. And by the time I finished feeding him his dinner I was all ready to crash in the bed.

So I went to the bedroom, changed and lied down. So he came to me with his box of puzzles and we made them together. This box has 4 puzzles of a Zebra, Tiger, Panda and Kangaroo. By mistake I told him "Lion waala banate hain!" He goes "Lion nahi hai. Yeh to Tiger hai!" :D

So after we finished with them, I told him "Mumma tabiyat theek nahi hai. Aap Papa ke saath khel lo" So he puts his hand on my head and says "Aap Ninni kar lo. Main udhar khelunga" I almost died seeing him so concerned about me.

And to top this, when I woke him up today morning, after cuddling with me for about 10 mins he asks me "Aapki tabiyat theek ho gayee?"

What more can a parent ask for is what I thought. A loving, caring and a concerned child!

I hate the brush-your-teeth times!

Yes I hate them! And I'm referring to the brush-your-teeth times for Betu and not mine :D

Its been so long since we started the daily routine of brushing his teeth but every single day he cries barring the very very rare days when he doesn't. Its such a task to make him stand on the moodha which is used to make him stand at an appropriate height to make it easy for me to brush his teeth. And invariably he gets a big big scolding and once in a while a slap from me when I'm trying to brush his teeth.

And this is exactly why I hate this brush-your-teeth times. Simply hate them. I hate that he cries so much. I hate that I loose my temper. I hate that I have to slap him to make him stand an let me brush his teeth!

I really don't know why he hates it. I've tried everything from different types of brushes with different kind of characters to different kid toothpastes. But *sigh* its just not working.

If you remember more than a month and half ago, I had done a post on his teeth brushing issues and how he wants me to sign a song. Now even the singing the song makes no difference.

But that reminds me yesterday when we were done with the brush your teeth song, he wanted me to sing the 'nahai-nahai' song. And when I told him there's no song for it he himself started singing, "When you get up in the morning, nahai nahai nahai..." and I couldn't help looking at him and smiling!

Sometimes it seems its just become a habit for him to cry when its teeth brushing time. Ohh boy! What do I do? Can I console myself that its a phase and will pass away? Any other parent facing this issue?

Saying 'Thank You'!

Me and Anirudh went for a walk after having our dinner. Since it had rained and drizzled most of the day, the weather was quite nice. Plus since we had been home all day, a walk seemed like a nice idea.

So as we stopped out, nice cool breeze hit us and it felt so good. After a long long time we had such a nice weather here in Delhi.

So we started to walk and Anirudh saw the moon and jumped with joy! As we were walking on, he asked me "Hum Mandir ja rahe hain?" because the road we were walking on leads to the Mandir close to our society. So I asked him if he wants to go and he nodded and said "Haan!" So off we went to the Mandir, and he bowed in front of the idols and made me put some 'bindi' on his forehead. :)

As we were walking back he suddenly said "Kitna achha lag raha hai!" :D He said so because the wind had gotten a bit stronger and was blowing right into us. It actually felt really really nice.

He almost ran instead of walking on the way back! I had to make him stop and wait for me because I was in no mood to run just after the stomach full of chhole puri's that I had made. And he would say "Jaldi aayo na yahan!" pointing to where he was standing. :)

And when we came back home and I switched on the laptop, he came to me and said "Mumma, bahut mazaa aaya! Thank you!" That brought such a big smile to my face and I thought how such little things make him happy and how he expresses it to us too. We adults don't thank each other enough for such little gestures. This is one thing that I have learnt from him time and again and I promise to be more thankful for the little blessings/gestures of love shown to me.

Deciding the food menu!

Recently Anirudh tells me very clearly what he wants to eat and he doesn't like it when I do not make the same thing. His choice varies from Upma to poha, to kakore (pakore) and today in the morning he demanded for 'chhole puri'. Since that requires chhole to be soaked for atleast 6-8 hours I told him I will make it in the evening.

In the evening when I was preparing the chhole, he came and asked me "Aap kya kar rahe ho?" When I told him I'm making chhole puri for you, he, in the most comical way, licks his lips and does a nice big slurp! Hahahaha..

This is a new habit which he has learnt whenever he gets to know of something being cooked or offered which he likes. And it gives me such a pleasure to see him appreciating my cooking!! :D

He's just so adorable!

Saturday evening we went to see "Chake De" - Me, DH and Betu. Since it had no kids in the movie, Betu wasn't interested in seeing it. I had managed to keep him quiet and still in the first half but couldn't in the post interval portion of the movie.

However, having a aisle seat and that too in the left corner of the hall helped us in a way that he didn't cause much of disturbance to others as he was going up and down the stairs. I tried to stop him from doing that but if he would sit he would talk so much that I decided that him playing on the stairs was less disturbing than him sitting next to me and chattering away to glory.

Soon he got a 'friend' - a boy approx 3 years older to him to join in the jumping-up-and-down-the-stairs game. And he sure did have a wonderful time with his friend. But why I'm writing about this is because whenever he would pass by me whether going down or coming up I would get a peck on my cheek - EVERY TIME! :D

He would take approx 5 mins to pass by me in each trip so you can imagine how many pucchas (kisses) I must have got in the 1.5 hrs of the movie :D

When the movie ended and I told him that we need to go, he asked hi friend "Chalo, ab mere ghar mein khelenge!" :D

Tongue of slip err... slip of tongue?

Yesterday night Betu was playing with the hose pipe of the vacuum cleaner. He would wrap it around us saying he's tied us up and now we can't move. But what in reality he would just wrap it around our necks like a garland and he were supposed to assume/think that we were tied down. :D

Later it became a snake that he was riding on and scaring us with making those 'hiss hiss' sounds.

After sometime it became the water pipe which he uses to water the plants..err..not so much to the plants as to the surrounding areas :D And then he aimed it me and with a naughty smile said "Main aapko geela kar doonga! Mere paani se pipe aa raha hai!"

We literally rolled down on the floor laughing but he didn't understand the reason. But obviously... :D

Although the second time he spoke it correctly but we just couldn't resist laughing and seeing our little son has already started with the slip of tongues :D

Yeh gate hai!?

Again one of a small incident that happened yesterday night after the cold drink - chocolate incident. We were sitting in our bedroom with the AC on. Betu was going out or coming in every few minutes and would leave the door ajar. I was busy reading an article in an old newspaper lying around and I guess was so engrossed in it that I incorrectly told him to "Gate band kar do. AC chal raha hai"(Please shut the gate. AC is switched on).

With a big frown on his face he comes real close to me and asks in a stern voice "Gate? Gate kahan hai?" "Yeh gate hai? (pointing at the door)" "Yeh door hai!" :D

So I had to rephrase my statement and say it correctly as "Please shut the door" and then only he proceeded to shut it.

*Sigh* everyday I think I know why the phrase "Child is the father of man" was coined. Don't you too?

This way or that way, its Mumma's fault!

Yesterday I made pasta for dinner for self and DH and carrot daliya for Anirudh. Me and DH usually like a glass of cold drink along with our pasta. So as we were having Limca, Betu wanted one too. We do not give him cold drinks as such. A sip or two max. No more. (We usually don't get or drink cold drinks except on rare occasions just because we don't ant to do something which we tell him "No" for.)

But he just went on and on about wanting one and started to throw a tantrum. Was I glad the tantrum started after he had finished his daliya? Meanie Mommy! Hehehehe..

Anyhow we finished our pasta but his tantrums seemed to be reaching no end. He started wailing and crying with tears flowing down like a river. But we kept telling him NO. I reminded him what he had said earlier in the evening when I gave him a glass of juice once we reached home "Mumma, no chocolate, no toffee, no cold drinks. Only juice!" He has learnt these lines by heart since he has heard it from me so often. :D

But nothing was helping. It had been 10 mins since all the drama started and I was getting tired of it. No..no..no..don't think I gave in and gave him some cold drink. I got up, took out a kitkat from the freezer and asked him if he wants to have it. It was just so amazing how the wailing and crying stopped in a millisecond and the face expressions change from being so distraught to gleaming eyes and a big big smile and you hear the words "Wow! Chocolate!"

Seeing the chocolate he immediately goes "Mumma, bachhe cold drinks nahi peete!" (Kids do not drink cold drinks). I was literally rolling my eyes. So with happiness flowing everywhere, we went inside our bedroom and he started to open the chocolate with a satisfaction that can best be seen than described. And as he is opening it, he goes "Mumma chocolate nahi khate na?"(Mumma we are not supposed to eat chocolate..right?) So I told him "Haan. To fir aap mujhe de do."(Yes, So give it back to me). But he said no and went on with peeling off the wrapper in the tiniest possible pieces.

After taking a bite he offered me a bite too. When I said "No Thank you. Give some to Papa" he says "Nahi papa ke pet mein dardi ho jayegi" (No. Papa's stomach will ache) I just couldn't help laughing at this.

But don't think that was the end of it. Today morning when he went for potty, he felt a bit uneasy in the stomach. So he very conveniently blames me "Mumma, aapne kal mujhe chocolate diya tha na? Mere pet mein dardi ho gayee. Chocolate nahi khate" (You gave me chocolate yesterday and because of that I got stomach ache. We are not supposed to eat chocolate).

I was left :O for few minutes thinking "Aise bhi aur waise bhi, saara blame mumma ka!" (This way or that way, its Mumma's fault!)

Aapne mujhe good job nahi bola?

Whenever Anirudh does something nice or something which I tell him to, I always say "Good Job!" or when he is coloring up or writing alphabets or telling me what is what in his books and if he says it all correct I say "You are doing such a good job!" And he feels so happy hearing it which makes it obvious that he understands that he is being praised.

There would be times when he would be so happy that he would go to his Papa and say "Mumma ne mujhe good job bola!". And now is the situation when he WANTS to hear them every now and then when he is at something.

I don't remember exactly what he was doing, but last week he must have felt that he had done a splendid job and didn't get to hear the magical "good job" words. So he complained to me with a little frown on his face saying "Aapne mujhe good job nahi bola?"

And I laughed so hard and had to actually say "Good job" without knowing what he had done to satisfy and bring a smile on his face.

Betu kahan hai?

Sunday afternoon when we were just lazing around, Betu decided to pull out all the photo albums one by one. The ones dated much before digicam found its way in our home because that's when the count of photo albums stopped increasing and the space on our PC hard disk started decreasing :D

This why we have just one album with pictures of Betu among the rest. As Betu was skimming through the first one, telling who is who and suddenly he stopped and started over again. He looked at the pics again and asked in such an innocent voice "Betu kahan hai?" (Where is Betu?) referring to himself.

Me and DH had such a big smile on our face listening to his question and didn't know what to answer. I tried to tell him "Tab Betu nahi tha."(Betu wasn't there then) hearing which popped another question "To Betu kahan tha?"(So where was Betu then?). :D

That's when I felt that probably he will not understand the whole concept so took out the lone album which had pics of him as a month young baby. He was quite amused and kept asking "Yeh main hoon?"(Is this me?) looking at them.

I somehow was expecting such questions from him one day but I guess I never thought of how I will answer him. I'm sure lot of other people with older kids must have gone through these questions too. How did you try to tell them why they weren't there in some pics because they were not born yet?

His new playschool!

You realise how much your child loves going to his playschool when on Sunday morning he wakes up and says "Mumma, jaldi se brush-your-teeth karenge, fir nahai-nahai aur fir school jayenge!" And it gives such a relief that you have done a right thing, chosen a right school and a place where your child looks forward to going! What more can a parent ask for?

These are some pictures from his new playschool which he started going to from July'07 when his old playschool plus daycare closed down.

With his teacher (Center)

Looking at the animals chart!


With his Papa!

With his friend Prithvi!

Wild love and play!

Anirudh has recently started to show his love and affection in the wildest possible way! Really really WILD way. He will press my cheeks, pull them, pinch me, bite me, jump over me and do just about anything. And it hurts, If you remember my earlier post on how he pulls my cheeks and say "Mumma Cheekoo". I then used to think that was quite wild enough. But what I didn't know was that he had much more wilder things in store for me. The only funny part when he does all this to me is when he keeps saying in between "Aur Mittal!"(And Mittal!) (our surname).

And its not just about showing love in this wild manner but while playing also he behaves so wildly. He would climb over my tummy, jump on it *ouch*..it hurts really bad then and so many times land on my tummy on his knees. He wants to box and today he boxed me right on my lips and GOD! That hurt so much. For about 10 mins they were quite swollen. I wanted to whack him right there and then but I just held on and told him with a frown on my face that it hurts Mumma. And when he knows he has hurt the other person, he behaves in such a funny way. He gets so defiant and will start shouting "No" every few seconds till the time I keep looking at him with a glare. And then he himself will way "No talking to you!" (trying to copy my sentence - I'm not talking to you!)

But today there was a bit of a change soon after he said this sentence after punching me on my face. He came to me and asked me in such a sad voice "Mumma, aap mere se baat nahi karoge?" (Mumma, you won't talk to me?). This is when I hadn't said anything to him besides that his punch hurt me. So I told him again "You hurt Mumma! Mumma ko bhi dardee hoti hai"(Mumma also feels the pain). So with an even sadder face he goes "Nahi, Mumma baat karegi!" (No, Mumma will talk to me) and he came over, hugged me and clung to me like a little monkey! And then he kissed me on that part of the lip where he had punched me and clung to me again.

Me being a typical Mom, all anger vanished into thin air and I also kissed him back.

But all things apart, is this wild thing a phase too? I know I try to restrict his cartoon watching where there is fighting and lot of action. But I do let him watch Tom & Jerry and Popeye quite a bit. Do you think I should restrict it too? Because there's lot of whacking and hitting in Tom & Jerry and in Popeye where lot of fights between Popeye and Brutus are shown.
But then its only because of Popeye that he started to have spinach :P because spinach makes him a strong boy just like Popeye!

*Sigh*...karoon to kya karoon?

Main smart ho raha hoon!

After we had all eaten the soup and were sitting in the bedroom each of us doing our own things. DH was reading the newspaper, Betu was reading err...flipping through some books and me just relaxing and playing the Brickbreaker game on my Blackberry.

Soon after Betu left the room and I could hear the sounds of water coming from the washbasin. I thought he must be washing his hands. Washing his hands is just an excuse he gives for playing with water. So whenever we tell him "Paani se mat khelo." (Don't play with water) he will promptly say "Main paani se nahi khel raha. Main hand wash kar raha hoon" (I'm not playing with water. I'm washing my hands). So for a minute or so I didn't say anything to him thinking let him enjoy playing with water. But when one minute extended into two, DH went out and saw he was washing his face, his hands and had even managed to put water in his hair all standing at the washbasin. So DH just wrapped up his washing-hands business and sent him back in the bedroom to me with water literally dripping out of his hair.

When I asked him "Aapne sir mein paani kyun daala?" (Why did you put water in your hair?) he matter-of-factly said "Main smart ho raha hoon!". Me and DH had such a hearty laugh hearing what he said that we didn't say anything to him but just wiped his hair dry and then me and Betu just snuggled together and watched one of his Baby Einstein DVDs. :D

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Edited: What he meant by "main smart ho raha hoon" was that he was getting all cleaned up and ready. Something which we say whenever we wash his face and comb his hair before going out - "You are looking so smart!".

Kissing me all over!

Yesterday late evening around 7ish in the evening I was making some tomato soup as demanded by Betu. And he was standing by my side all the time asking tons of questions and I trying to answer most of them.

So as it was boiling a small drop of soup splattered out and landed on my hand. Since it was hot, I said 'ouch' and started to rub that spot. He got so concerned asking me again and again "Mumma kya hua?"(what happened) despite me telling him "Kuch nahi" (nothing happened). So finally I told him "soup garam tha na, isliye dardi ho gayee" (since soup was hot, it hurt). The moment I told him that he took my hand and started to blow air on it and then he kissed at the spot where the drop had landed as it had gone slightly red there.

I was all smiles looking at his concern and love as he kept saying between the kissing and blowing air "Mumma koi baat nahi, theek ho jayega!"(Don't worry. It will get fine).

And that was not it. He then started to kiss me wherever he could reach up to...my tummy, my bums, my arms over and over again. Then he pulled me down and have me pecks all over my face the way I do. One on each cheek, on the nose, on each eye, on forehead, on chin and on my lips too :D

Once he saw me smiling he felt satisfied that now Mumma is fine and went off to do his things.

Laptop baby!

Anirudh has always been quite an observer even as a few months young baby. So he would pick up things/actions/words and would often leave us surprised! Proudly surprised that is! :D If you know what I mean :)

But when he learned to use the laptop - not the laptop as in whole but he figured out how to switch it on and insert his DVDs (and they would play automatically) we were quite surprised, awed and worried all at the same time. I'm sure some of you will say being surprised and awed is fine but why worry? Well, we worried for the laptop :P Lest he damages it in his moments of curiosities and trying to do things with it.

How he learnt it seemed obvious to us. By observing our actions. And he learnt how to minimise, pause, stop and select the options in the DVD menu using the touch pad in the laptop yet again by observing us. I somehow managed to click a pic of him working at the laptop (somehow because he doesn't allow us to click him without his permission :P)

In this picture he's coloring up 'James', a character from Thomas and his friends.

So now the time has come when all he needs us to place the laptop at his desired place and this too because he's been strictly told not to pick up the laptop on his own at all! Rest he manages to do it on his own. And he doesn't like any interference in anything! He HAS to do all by himself!

Its amazing to see the ease with which he works with the laptop. Really really amazing. Whenever I tell such feats about him to his Nanu, his Nanu says "Yeh ikkiswee sadi ke bachhe hain!" (These are the children of the 21st century!) :D