Naptime with grandma

1 Jan 2012. Nischal is 3.

He was spending time with his sushi ajji( grandma).. and dad/mom weren't around. Automatically he insisted with grandma that he wanted the TV on.
Ajji - willing to sell her soul for a hug & a kiss - readily turned it on.
Thankfully, while Chota bheem pranced on onscreen, nap time also hit. Our man's little eyelids were drooping. He would still hit surface occasionally to make sure nobody turned his precious TV off.

Unlike the all surrendering ajji, our visiting aunt Usha - a teacher - still had her conscience switch in the 'ON' position. She took the opportunity and cleverly turned off the fan, and then the TV.

The drooping eyes snapped open - " Who.. What ..  Why ..? "
Usha aunty was clever - " No beta, the power has gone".
The little guy looked around to verify, and gave up. He went around the rooms for a little stroll, and then decided to join his already semi-napping ajji in the bedroom.
Ajji - unaware of Usha aunty's subterfuge - had her little stereo turned on with her bhajans singing her a lullaby.

Pat came the question: "How come the power is on here? The stereo is playing?"

While ajji scrambled for an answer, came Usha aunty to the rescue again   " No beta, we've put batteries in it. Thats how its playing"

Satisfied, and after testing the bed thoroughly for its springiness, the little master fell asleep after 10-15 minutes.

Painting nails..

Yesterday, a visiting guest was finding it hard to refrain from commenting about Nischal's nails. I saw it and mentioned it.. and he immediately jumped into the topic.
"Is there something wrong? Have you taken him to the doctor ? "
".. er..  No. "
"Then why are they YELLOW in color ?!"
"..Oh.. thats just was the color of the marker he found"
That brought out a smile.

Today Nischal found another marker.

His mom has had these complaints for a while .
"... I don't have a daughter I can share anything with.."
".. I would have taught her Odissi, Bharatanatya.. "
".. I could have dressed her up so nice .."
".. I could have taken her shopping ! .. "
etc. etc.

Combine the nail painting with the Chammak Challo dance obsession he's acquired.. his mom has some hope. :) So, I picked up a camera and tried taking pictures. He felt shy and started running inside. Then Gauri (the nanny ) called out - "then Pappa will take pictures of aNNa (his brother)" . That immediately turned him around.

Kung fu panda

Nischal's brother has a new craze these days. That is, apart from bey blades.

Its Kung fu.

But Nischal isn't about to be left behind. A few days back he was doing some of his moves with a crazy expression on his face while shaking it left to right. My cousin immediately caught on- "has he been watching Bruce Lee videos? "

kaa kaa

All vehicles, in Nischal's mind, are a variant of 'kaa'.
Its either 'kaa' or 'kaa kaa'

He points to pictures of buses, cars, tractors, etc. wherever he can find, and smile at you and say 'kaa' or 'kaa kaa' with a lot of enthusiasm.

So his dad set out to teach him.
He would point at a bus and say 'bus' . Nischal would smile at him, and say 'kaa kaa'

Dad would smile a " I'm not giving up with you yet" smile, and repeat 'bus'. Nischal would also smile indulgently while saying back 'kaa kaa'.

This back and forth went on for a while.

Dad kept wondering why his son wasn't learning. Then he tried to see logic in Nischal's uttering. 'kaa' for a car, and 'kaa kaa' for a bus seemed kind of right.
Finally, dad said 'kaa kaa'.

Nischal smiled with relief. Teaching this dad of his was turning out to be real hard!

1 am and the master is still awake..

Nischal now likes throwing the ball. And to encourage him, ppl around him do an appreciative 'aawww' each time.

Now he's found a Vicks bottle which he throws, and then rolls both his hands saying 'aaaawww'

He also tried waking up his sleeping brother - by first talking to him, then trying to put his forefinger on his nostril, and then just patting him and talking to him for a while.

He also went upto mom, and got dad scolded by pulling her hair while trying to chat her up (" If you can't put him to sleep, just tell me.. instead of waking me up so PAINFULLY!!") .

The last (so far ) was to bang his head at various locations on the side of the bed. His head finally succeeded in finding a hard spot. And the bawling started.

Now he's back in the cradle.. with dad hoping this might be the last round of 'in the cradle-out the cradle' game.

10 months - 12 months

9 months - 10 months