22 months

Letter to my son on his 22 month birthday:

Dear Niyor
Today you turn 22 months.....and boy! what a difference a month makes!You have grown up! You are now speaking in two word phrases (and you even copied a 3 word phrase the other day while Deta and I stared in amazement!!) .......I had tears in my eyes when last night you said "Wovooo Mama!" in reply to my "Goodnight....love you" during bedtime!! Your lingo is a weird combo of korean, english and assamese which mostly only mama follows........but it's so very entertaining hearing you babble and try to speak and copy whatever mama and deta say or what you hear your friends/teachers speak!!You are now a busy toddler...totally preoccupied with one activity or the other.......you take time to open up to new people but once you are in your element there's no stopping the social butterfly in you!!

Lil' flirt!




Rohan and Niyor playing with Trisha

Eyeing Shravya(at Rachi mei's place)

Lil' Guy trying to make a very korean V sign with Rohan's mom!

"Must you click all the time Mama????"
You absolutely love to brush your teeth....more so because the toothpaste has a tasty flavour!

The shoes I bought for you last month don't fit you anymore........!!! Clothes are getting a tad tight too.....so you are growing!!
All of a sudden you have entered the terrible twos and there are times when you test Mama and Deta's patience!! The tantrums are worth taping....so we can show you what an aggressive and stubborn Lil' Guy you can be at times!!
Pretend play tops the list of your fav things to do this past month.......Our play conversation these days:
Mama : "Niyor kot jai?"(Where is N going?)
N : "Ner buja jai" (N goes to bazaar)
Mama:"Bazaarot ki kinibo?"(what will N buy?)
N : "ice, foot, eggie"(rice, fruit, veggie)
And then you force feed mama all the ice, eggie and foot!!You do this with Deta too when he's home....you take mama's big bag,wear mama's/deta's shoes and go shopping.......you are such an entertainer.....!! You stay angry with Deta whenever he's late from work.....you are one emotional guy!
You love to "Curr" (colour!).....and insist that Mama/Deta draw cars for you and you simply have to curr Kaka's white car,Putha's jeep,Ner's red car,Deta's green and Mama's yellow one! In the above pic Mama drew Payal mei and Ner (at your request of course!) and you kept blowing kisses to both the faces after "curring" them!

As with most kids your age.....you love to cook! And you make it a point to feed Mama,Deta and all your friends(the teddy bears on your playmat,the stuffed animals!).......it's a joy watching you play....


This past month you've learnt to clean up your mess and throw the "tashh"(trash!).....one day one of your car doors broke and Deta told you to throw it in the trash coz it was beyond repair....you did it beautifully.....well, the next day your book tore and you threw it in the trash as well!!And then Mama had to explain how the book can be fixed with glue .........all you said was "fit...goo"(fix...glue!)........I think you kinda got the message!!

Songs you loved this past month....and simply had to shake your bum and legs to:
mauja hi mauja
clap your hands
jiggy jiggy
bumbum bole
and the others I forget!

"Yummy poo...ees!"

N's scrabble art!

Dadas and Meis have a hearty laugh!After our last India trip you have categorised all of Deta's/Mama's freinds as Dada/Mei!!

and here's our scrabble champ of the day....or rather night!!

Your toys of the month include "chukchuk poo poo" (train) and poka(pocoyo),pato and eieee(ellie!)......every time you say chukchuk poo poo I break out in a smile coz it's so darn cute hear you say it in your toddler voice!!Have to capture it on tape one of these days.......

enjoying "poo...eeees" with meis and dada!

company of friends,yummy food and wine ....what else do you need on a saturday night?!!(thanks meis and dadas for the yumm mummum!!)

N's first piece of photography......that's our well scrubbed floor!

the kids' activity group gang (pre-republic day celebration!)

You were fast asleep while all your friends played, did craft work and learnt their ABC's!

A half awake but not there yet Lil' Guy!

"The very hungry caterpillar"....you love this book.... it has yummy food pics!

"Yummy!"

Books figure majorly in your life....you go to bed reading a book or listening to Mama and Deta's stories....."Goodnight moon" is still your favourite bedtime book! You sort of know now that Anai,Putha,Kaka,Aita,Payal mei,Nupur mei,Amit moa,Doda are in India ("Indday" as you say! when Mama asks where you where they are!)

"Hi sun!" is what you say to the rising sun every morning as you rise and run to the living room and see the sun!

getting ready to go to the buja!

"Which shoes do I wear today?" You have a major shoe fetish kiddo....just like Mama did as a kid!

This past month.....your absolute fav people in the world....pocoyo, pato, ellie and some car....you make them ride in a unique style...I'm sure they love it too!

Lil' mechanic at work!You love to repair stuff....cars, tv, bikes......with your tools just like "boda bida"(bob the builder!....don't freak Anai/Aita/Kaka/Putha ....I don't let him watch too much TV...just around 15-20 mins per day!!)

"What's all this white stuff?!!

with Rohan.....your first time watching snow....it was a very light shower that day!

view from our apt window!

You started eating independently the moment you reached Guwahati(Nov 2007) and now you are a pro! But Mama still likes to feed you sometimes......!!
You still make a mess but it doesn't matter at all....what's a lil mess .......you enjoy good food.....no more boiled peas/broccoli please....Mama has to make it yummy and you'll eat!!!

We enjoyed snow this past month......it was beautiful! Light showers are fun....you went out with your schoolmates to play with snow........and had a good time!

Cars cars cars!

"How cool is this car!!"

on a cold winter day....ouside the car museum!

simply had to buy you a miniature beetle!Deta often argues with me saying that I'm spoiling you rotten!!

at the car museum......your obsession with cars keeps growing with every passing day!

trying your hand at photography!

Lil' mopper!......you snatched the mop from Mama on this particular day and I had to click!I bought you a toddler size mop a few days ago but it's not as much fun as the real thing!!
In toilet training news the peeing in the pot is happening sporadically but pooping isn't happening at all....it's okay ....let's wait till spring arrives!One step at a time........


In other news....You have transitioned to sleeping in your own room and ever since the move you ,Mama and Deta are all sleeping well!And there's so much more to write.......but I have to rush........
enjoy your day Lil' Guy.....I love you....cannot imagine the world without your presence........keep being the high-spirited, tender hearted kid that you are........happy 22 months!
Muah!
Mama

India trip tales......at last!!

Well.....I'm settled down more or less to domesticity in Korea......before my memory runs out I better jot down all the interesting things Lil' Guy encountered and the many experiences he had on our India trip(20th Oct 2007 to 22nd Dec 2007).....
For starters......we set off for India on 20th October 2007...this time around it was Lil' Guy and me on a solo trip..for the first time..and boy was I stressed or what ....way out of my wits even a month before the actual date of the journey!!More so because I suffer from motion sickness...and I also have a really wild imagination which was conjuring up horrid images of a tantrum throwing Lil' brat and all hell breaking loose on a 10 hour long airplane ride (not to forget a transit period of 6 hours at Changi airport! well....to cut a long story short we had a pleasant flight.....with just one episode of puking (not me! i was medicated.....) all over clothes and body....thankfully there was no passenger in the seat next to us so no fuss caused by a little splatter!! Anyways poor Lil' Guy may have been a tad overheated or lack of sleep might have caused him to throw up......so there I was cleaning up the mess with the help of a very sweet Singapore airlines stewardess and it struck me that although I'd packed 3 extra sets of clothing for Lil' Guy I'd got none for self!Oh hell.....I wore my sweater and the "scrubbed of puke" pants (3 cheers for huggies wet tissue!)....discarded N's as well as my puked on clothes....and started walking up and down the entire length of the plane coz N would just not sit still....can't blame him poor kid! he had to wake up at 4 am for the flight!! well...I reeked of puke inspite of deo sprayed at regular intervals! ....we sure had an adventurous 6 hours of travel!!....the first thing i did on landing at Changi was buy a fresh set of clothes for self......and once that was done Lil' Guy and I enjoyed a much craved for lunch of masala dosa at the food court at Changi!On the Singapore-Bangalore plane ride Lil' Guy 's diaper leaked (thankfully it was not poop but pee!)......another round of changing N's clothes and scrubbing (off my newly bought clothes of pee), and more scrub scrub till Lil' Guy dozed......phew!
After what seemed like ages we reached Bangalore and it was such a relief to see my mom, sister and bro-in law! Niyor however stuck to me like glue for the entire 7 days that we were in Bangalore!Even while I went to the dentist for a much dreaded dental check-up and tooth extraction he would not go to anybody but me and I had to carry him on my lap while my favourite dentist checked my teeth and gave me the horrid news that I needed to get 3 teeth extracted!(He did warm up to Payal mei (my youngest sis) and would knock on her door to ask her to come play with him all the time.....poor mei had to oblige him a lot...she had an exam to take during the same week!) Stranger anxiety wore off a bit for N and he let Anai(my mom) be with him in the cab while he napped and I went through one tooth extraction.......the other two I decided it wasn't possible with N in just a week.......amidst all that we did meet up with a few people.......N met Eshaan(our friends' kid), Anshuman dada(K's cousin's kid)......my pals Rakhi and Roopa......but we missed meeting Maanas and Sachi,Google and Adrija.........and many otherpeople!Oh well....next time!


Watch N perform for his grandparents in the video below(unedited version....this was after a full evening of dancing)! A lil' Govinda in the making....what say you?!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

From Bangalore we made another plane ride to Guwahati (Assam) and there N spent a glorious week with his beloved Aita and Kaka.......he absolutely adores his Kaka!He'd go for morning walks to see birds/ducks.....he'd even get Kaka his slippers every morning and be all "Let's go!" He'd play with his cousins Ribu and Rinki for hours on end........dance to radio FM ....it was all fun and games!!

After a week in Guwahati we left for Dibrugarh and by then Lil' Guy was in his element........being the social person he is and generally having fun! I guess the stanger anxiety or whatever it was wore off and he realised these people are not strangers....they are family!!

He majorly bonded with his "Mei"s (my sisters!).....let me not forget to mention that N remembers his Moa and whenever he looks at photo albums and spots Moa he says with a cheeky grin..."Moaaaa!!"Payal mei taught him how to split his legs and exercise, and how to jump and even now whenever he splits or jumps he says "Mei"!! and he hung on to Nupur mei a lot....she'd push his blue bike around and he'd shout in glee!!Anai and Putha also figure in his list of favourite people in the world.....he had a lovely time with both sets of grandparents and they just adore him.......he had an amazing time riding elllie in Kaziranga and this time around he even socialised with all of my mom's friends!He took a while to get used to Aita but he remembers her with fondness and is proud to be able to say "Atta" now!!

Wedding time was hectic but inspite of all the chaos Lil' Guy had a great time......meeting his american cousins Rhea and Rohan, and hanging out with his Nisas and Apas(K's bros-in law and sisters).....and interacting with a horde of relatives and friends!K landed on 5th Dec and Lil' Guy clung to him instantly without any cold stares(which is what he gives people sometimes!)......we had a beautiful time during this trip....inspite of certain bouts of sleep deprivation!The wedding was beautiful.....looking forward to going back to India more then ever now....there's no place like home!!!India rocks!