...What is the latest with Srinidhi?

He talks a ton now-a-days. Lots of complex sentences and new words every day. He pretty much picks up any word we converse, remembers it and uses it in right context. He often surprises us with words we hardly ever used!

He is versatile with his computer games and websites. All we have to do is login for him. He opens the browser, chooses his bookmark, navigates through the sites and plays games, activities, stories etc. Click on Yes/No/Cancel, drag and drop, scroll down, up, close popups etc. Same with CD games.

Suddenly one day, he realized, the cats need to be fed. Since then, every morning and evening, he drags me to the cat room and gets my help in opening the can to feed them. Pretty soon, he will figure out how to open the can. Good. One less worry for me! That is the concept, right - kids taking care of their pets.

He figured out, when he is bored with playing with his toys, games on the computer and watching TV, he can read the books, all by himself! On more than one occasion, we observed him flipping through the pages and mumbling the story to himself. He just doesn't push the pages, he recites the story just like we read to him!

He knows words are made of letters. When we spell words for him, he runs his fingers on the letters in sync. He knows several letters, but still does say the alphabets in order, past ABCD.

We are able to clearly negotiate with him. He learned the concept of rewards and working to get it and the patience needed for that. We are able to say, if you do this, we will get this for you; if you want to get this, do this first etc. He has enough patience to wait for his reward, some times few days.

He also understands reciprocity. We are able to tell him not to do unpleasant things by asking how he would like when others do that to him. He clearly understands the concept and stops his unpleasant behavior immediately. For example, when pushes away a book Veena reads, we ask him how he would feel if we remove his book when he reads. That works!

பாகற்காய்

A Balsam Pear (Bitter Gourd) from our backyard from this summer.

Appu and Appa fixing Ammu's crib. (Notice Appu got a haircut.)

July 17, 2003. Not-yet-three-months-old Srinidhi was getting the first taste of non-milk food. Amma made Kalkandu Saatham and at an auspicious time Veena symbolically fed Srinidhi.

Rollercoaster

Last couple of weeks have been charged with lot of emotions, forgetfulness and weird dreams. The dreams, we knew from what we read, and the past experience, has to do with pregnancy. In fact, we had more of it first time around than now. But it took a while for us to realize the rollercoaster emotions - mood swings, anxiety, inability to concentrate on anything and sudden drop in my creativity (as if I had some before!), all have to do with the pregnancy too! I have a plethora of subjects I want to blog. I have not been able to concentrate and do the write-up, instead I am blogging the easy ones and doing a mediocre job when I have to write. Now I know why!

I always get things done, albeit in the last minute (that is to put a positive spin on saying, I am lazy and don't get things done until the last minute :-). But this time, I doubt if we will do everything we want to do before the baby arrives. Hmm, let us wait and see. May be things will change after Amma arrives.

Pregnancy Dreams

Fathers Dream too

Mood Swings

Dad's Anxiety