2½ Years!

Dearest Athi,

The last post I wrote about you was way back in Aug 2021. I missed out on your second birthday post - Sorry. I wouldn't miss out anything going forward. 

There is so much of catching up that needs to be done from where I left off in my last post. First of all, your talks. You started speaking out words as you neared 2 years of age, and in the next couple of months, your vocabulary has grown immensely well, and these days you keep talking non-stop. You are well versed in Tamil, and know quite a few words in English. There was this one instance where your answer to a random question I asked, completely bowled me over. I was stunned at the way you understood the question and gave the reply in an instant. 

(Scenario - Lying in the bed, trying to make him sleep) 

Me: Bul, ipo nee enna panlam'nu nenachitu iruke?

Athi: Amma, na ipo TV pakalam'nu nenachitu iruken.

There was no stopping you after this. You pretty much knew what you wanted, and always made it a point to make the other person, who was listening to you, understand what you are trying to communicate. The tinge of mazhalai in the speech is oh-so-cute. Whenever you are involved in self-play, you keep talking random stuff with yourself. These days there isn't a time when we see you silent, except for this one thing - no, its not sleep, this is different - Listening to stories.

If there is one new trait that you have very recently picked up, its got to be listening to stories. Not exactly sure how the transition from listening to songs to listening to stories during sleep-time happened - it was something pretty abrupt if I remember it right, but so glad it happened. Because songs were usually played on phones, but stories have to told by us, humans. You get transfixed and watch ever-so-keenly when someone recites a story or sings a song to you. You pester for stories every time someone is trying to make you sleep and it has to be a new story every time. You keep asking - Amma th(k)adhai sollu, pudhu thadhai.. (You are not able to pronounce 'ka' as yet) and refuse to sleep unless we say something. But in 5-10 mins of the story telling (story making) you get drowsy, and doze off. There have definitely been more days where I have slept off mid-way telling you stories, but you don't seem to mind and doze off on your own in a little while. There have also been days where you wake me up if I dozed off asking for more stories.

Another thing to point out exclusively is, you sleep through most of the night, and hardly ever wake up asking for Milk. This has been one of the biggest milestones, personally for me. The midnight milk runs are the most dreadful ones, because we lose sleep over it. These days you either demand milk before you sleep off at night, or you drink one, only in the morning. Your night wake ups are limited to asking - amma madi..amma madi.. and climbing on my lap and dozing off there. As I try to fidget around in my sleep, I realize my legs are heavy and remember you sleeping on it, and have to roll you over onto the bed. This has been a regular occurrence, but since this doesn't really impact me much, I am quite fine with it, at the moment. 

Your Thatha craze has reached new heights, and you want him, only him, for anything and everything. Right from making you brush, taking you to the loo, feeding, bathing, dressing up, going out, sleeping. You are so happy around him, and wouldn't want to leave his side ever. All the love you shower on him is definitely all the efforts he has taken. He keeps you engaged almost all through the day, involving you in almost everything that he does - watering plants, running grocery errands, visiting relatives, and never says a "No" for anything you ask (this one is a bit tricky). You and him are always one team, I feel so glad that you guys have each other.

The food struggle is real. You are on a great rejection spree and reject almost everything that we offer you, almost all through the day. Its becoming a bit of a force feeding. Its only during times when you are unbearably hungry that you eat whatever that is offered to you. And there are also once-in-a-blue-moon kind of days where you demand you need this and eat it happily when its offered. Ghee, Butter and Sugar are your staples. Sugar - the one food that we want to introduce ever so slowly has become your first love, thanks to Thatha. And surprisingly you do seem to like Cheese and enjoy a bite of Cheesy Dosas once in a while. The rest of the food intake are mostly mood-driven.

Your love for parks has grown sizably well.  You love the slides the most, especially the round ones. From fearing to slide over it a year and a half ago, to climbing the stairs and sliding down without a tinge of hesitation, you have really grown. Thatha takes you the park almost once a week, and then when you go to my parents' place, there is small park with slides inside the apartment complex where you spend most of the evenings. You have also started doing a fair bit of cycling. The Decathlon balance bike is your absolute favorite. You love vrooming around on it within the apartment complex at my parents' home. 

Car -the one word that you keep repeating almost all day. 

Car saavi enga? Enga porom? Car la poroma, bike la poroma? Car la paapa mattum thaniya front la ukandhukren. 

Saying that you are crazy about car is an understatement. You are obsessed with it. You enjoy the rides and refuse to share the front seat with anyone but Thatha. In the recent past, we have started taking quite a lot of auto rides, and you do seem to enjoy that as well. I guess, movement makes you happy, be it car, bike, auto or even cycle.

You went on your first flight trip (to Meghalaya) and first train journey to get your head tonsured. You enjoyed both these trips immensely. Your reaction to you getting your head tonsured was such a sweet surprise to us - you didn't make a flinch when it was getting done, in fact you were as excited as us to get it and done and enjoyed it thoroughly, and admired your mottai so much.

You are going to school next week, and I am an anxious wreck. You are quite excited about it and we have been preparing you up for it for a long time now, but still I am worried the way every mom would be. Hope you have a great time there. I will definitely pen down how your first day at school looked to me next week.

One with the mottai!

Love,

Amma