8 Months!

Dear Athiyan, 

You are only 4 months away from turning an year old. You are growing taller and naughtier by each passing day. Gone are the days when V held you up in one hand. You just cannot be held in hands any longer. You'd have to be lifted and rested either on the hips or with your face over our shoulders. And once somebody lifts you, they have to move around, because if they don't, you make weird noises and shake your legs, urging them in your own cute way, to move. 

Now that you know quite well about all that is in the house, you are getting bored easily with the usual stuff and demand being taken either to the terrace or to the swing downstairs or the road. While on the roads, you keep turning your neck on the either sides, a thousand times to see every vehicle passing by until it goes out of sight. If by chance we go stand near a plant / tree, avlodan, that poor plant will be dead, because you want to hold and eventually pull it off and take it with you in your hands. 

You almost detest sitting on someone's lap unless there is something for you to play. You love to stand (of course, someone has to hold you while you stand. Not on your own yet) all the while, even though your legs can not hold on more than 40-50 seconds at a stretch and make you fumble. You sit down for a couple of seconds, and are back up on the feet again. And oh, you love standing by the fish tank, banging on the glass with all your might (which unfortunately is still like a gentle tap on the glass) and watching the lights, the bubbles and the little fishes moving about.

Your day naps are dwindling by each passing day. You have started rolling over in the thooli these days. You push the cloth near your face with one of your hands (the other hand would be busy inside the mouth) and sneakily look out at the people outside and throw in your cutest smiles. Or put out your legs out of the thooli, almost as if you are going to get down. I believe its only a couple of weeks before you are going to fall out of the thooli yourself. I have already started hunting the house for cushions / small beds to be put under the thooli, so that you can have a smooth landing when you fall. After all these shenanigans, you doze off to 30-45 minutes nap. Some days though you sleep undisturbed for 2 hours straight during the day, which makes me a little worried about that night's sleep.  

Your night sleeps are completely different game altogether. Its a surprise everyday, something I cannot yet predict or figure out a pattern. Putting you through the first course of sleep is the toughest challenge which takes anywhere between 45 mins to an hour easily, its quite manageable post that. Some nights are very calm, with you sleeping for 3-4 hours at a stretch, while on others, you wake up crying every two hours. Sometimes, you move about with your eyes closed searching for something with your hands, and slowly grab either the AC remote or the nearest toy and use it as pillow and sleep. 

Once you wake up, you need people to watch you, if the ones beside you are sleeping with their backs turned to you, you make it a point to tap them constantly and wake them up, as if to tell, hey buddy, come on, wake up, even I'm awake! And the moment they turn around and look at you, you act as if nobody exists near you and talk to the ceiling. You're crazy like that. 

I can see two big developments this month. One is, you recognise people and have registered their voices. When someone calls you, you search around the place to find that person. Two, you have learnt to try looking at things that people ask you to see. Eg. If I spot a bird in the terrace and point it out and ask you to see, you look in that direction. Also you've learnt to clap with your hands, and even do it when ask you do it, a couple of times. 

From constantly rolling over to grab the things, you've graduated to moving like a worm to grab them. You still are yet to learn the art of crawling fully. It's only now that when you roll over, your right toe has touched the ground and you have started to move about slowly to grab the things that are in front of you. You have an attraction to all things other than toys, like, water bottles, your nappies, baskets, balloons, tissue box, and utensils. 

If you're in a great mood, which is either mostly after a good nap or when you're travelling out, or after food, you smile at anybody and everybody, neighbours, even random strangers on road. Especially when you're travelling in car, you love to look outside, and if some person cared enough to look at your side, you flash such a joyous smile, which instantly makes them smile back at you. 

Your konjals are mostly in the form of face slaps, and cheek / neck pinches or licking / biting the shoulders of the person holding you. Sometimes you do this even to the neighbors who come over to just play with you. Your evenings, after the terrace time, are spent at Subha Akka's (neighbour) house staring at the digital clock or beating on the stools, and conversing in your "Aaaaa" and "Ooooo"s with Subha Akka. 

You have started saying "tha tha tha" and other random words these days. Your drool though, still hasn't reduced at all, and continues to come out in litres. Also, anything you grasp is still first tested by putting it into your mouth. 

After a 6 month long break, you were finally back at the beach, and this time you absolutely enjoyed it. Though I am not too sure if you enjoyed the beach waters as much as you enjoyed watching the crows and dogs moving about on the shore.  I am sure you didn't hate it, because you were in your absolutely best self ever all the time ever since left home for the beach and came back home. Not one bit of tantrum or cry. Hoping we continue the beach tradition every month going forward.

Looking forward to growing with you. 

Love, 

Amma