Butt of course!

I'll make this quick. Vishnu and I play with balloons a lot. We attach colorful strings to them and sing "Myyy (insert color) balloooon". As soon as one goes 'pop' Vishnu asks me to get another one from the kitchen cabinet. I have a stash of toys and toy-repair-material hidden there, so whenever anything gets broken, that's where we rush to.

There was nothing remarkable about last evening. Vishnu was playing with his toys on the living room floor and I was standing by the kitchen counter. He ran towards me and ended up planting his butt on the floor. It must've hurt because without batting a eye he said "Mommy, bring anoo* butt"!!

* anoo = another

Of sloppy kisses and Euclidean geometry...

I wrote this post a few weeks before Vishnu's 2nd birthday in late January. It's incomplete but I decided to post it anyway...



A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen banging pots and pans around (cooking) when Vishnu stopped by. He said something but I tried my best to ignore. It's past dinner time and I'd had a long day at work. But he just stood there, clutching a small red car, and looking up expectantly.

Me, no longer able to ignore him: "What is it, Vishnu?"

Vishnu: "Mommy thi-thi"
Me: "What?"
Vishnu, extending his arms: "Mommy thi-thi"

Clueless, I bend down to hug him when he throws his tiny arms around my neck with all his might and gives me many sloppy kisses on my forehead, eyes, and nose!

After a few seconds, he smiles triumphantly and says "Mommy thi-thi"

Yes, he meant to say "Mommy kissie" and give me a hug and kiss!

That was the first time. And he couldn't have a chosen a better moment. Blinded by drool, with my glasses on the floor, I felt like I'd hit the jackpot. I guess this is how St.Bernard-owners feel.

Vishnu will be two soon and his vocabulary has skyrocketed. Now he says things like "Unni drive mommy car" [His grandparents call him Unni fondly and now he refers to himself as Unni]

That reminds me about his other great love these days - driving a car. Relax, I don't actually let him drive. We've worked out a deal. I drive on the streets and he drives in our parking lot. I kill the engine and then let him touch the steering wheel in our parking lot. To my horror, he's figured out how to turn the headlights and blinkers on, sound the horn, shift gears, and more, in a few minutes. I'm
worried about this a lot because I've heard of four-year-olds taking their family sedan for a spin.

When he's older I'll tell him about the dangers. For now, I'll just hide the keys.

On the academic front, he's quite the master of Euclidean geometry. Just kidding. He knows all the basic shapes, plus several quadrilaterals and polygons. But geometry is his favorite topic at present. It's actually quite funny to see him seriously
utter "octhagon, hesagon" while arranging his blocks. Upper and lowercase letters, basic colors, numbers upto twenty are all done too. He's beginning to read small words such as bus (his favorite thing). I feel quite ill-equipped here. I've no idea how to teach him to read and I don't want to do it wrong.

But he's figured out the letter sounds from the phonics songs on Youtube.

I feel like I should do more to help him learn...