R at 21 months

-R has begun to play imaginary games. He takes a cup and a spoon and feeds me imaginary "echam mammu" and "cham mammu".

-He is a very "fair child", meaning, if he plants a kiss on appa's cheek or hugs him, he'll immediately look for amma to balance the score.

-His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds by the day. He loves repeating the names of familiar objects to himself or to me as though to memorize or revise. While chanting those names, he'll pause and say, "apam, beya".(for apram, vera enna..meaning, "what else")

-The bed-time routine of brushing the teeth, changing into bedtime clothes and rocking him to sleep has been taken over by hubby a while ago. But R needs his blanky at any cost without which he refuses to sleep. This, he has been inspired by the sesame street "Nighty-Night book". Hubby would invariably forget the blanky and start to rock him, when R will remind him. So, hubby would call out to me to give it. These days, R has taken over that duty and as soon as hubby starts to rock him, R will call out my name and ask demand for the blanky!

-The throwing of things phase continues :-(. Thankfully, things do not go out of the windows these days.

-He loves watching songs over the computer. He calls them "daanchu paatu". He seems to have an ear for music and likes melodious ones. But, he doesn't like still pictures and hence cannot stomach too much of carnatic classical. Although he listens, after a while he'll start to squirm and demand "daanchu paatu". His favourite is this and this. A smile lights up his face whenever he listens to these.

-The other day, my mother called up and after talking to her, I handed over the phone to R. R amazed me and her by actually conversing with her. He waited for her to speak and he replied to her questions in turn. He also humoured her by saying a rhyme! Needless to say, the grandmother went gaga over him.