Guys and Girls

This one's for Summy. I couldn't resist posting this, though I'm not supposed to write about her.

She was learning genders for animals in Hindi. "Haathi, Haathini, Sher, Sherni, Bile, Gaay". She stopped and stared at the words "Bile" (bull) and "Gaay" (cow). And then she said:

"Daddy, if a cow is a girl, why do they call it a "guy"?"

DinkyMan

I call him that, because he talks like he's in a Marvel comic book, with sound effects.

He hits head on something, and says, "Bonk!".

He sees somebody sleeping, he says, "Khrrrrrr. Khrrrrrr" (that's his sound for snoring).

He rings the doorbell and says, "Ding Dong!" musically.

He bounces a ball and says, "Boiiinnng! Boiiiinnng! Boiiinnng!".

Walking, talking, entertainment.

Pranav Ball

Pranav is a very polite and friendly baby in the apartment play area (though not always so polite and friendly to his sister). He doesn't just stare at other babies or play alongside them, but wants to play WITH them.

The other day, he brought his baby soccer ball to the park. There was another toddler, same size, looking at the ball, and I suggested to Pranav that he could play ball with that boy. (What was I thinking?)

So, Pranav walked over with a smile and handed the ball to the other boy. The other boy's face lit up, and he hugged this new ball.

"Tho! Tho!", said Pranav, trying to tell his friend to throw the ball to him. The other baby just stared back. As far as he was concerned, the ball was handed over to him, and was now his. (Fair enough.)

"Peez! Peez!", said Pranav, now starting to want his ball back. (Peez = Please) The other baby didn't understand, and hugged the ball closer. So Pranav went close and tried to grab the ball back.

That was when the other kid started to wail. He ran to his grandpa for support.

Now, this was a shock for Pranav. He looked stunned, then his lower lip jutted out, cutely and comically. Then he started to cry, ran to me, and hugged me tight. He would not let go of me for the next five minutes.

During those five minutes, the grandpa of the other baby talked to him and cajoled him into returning the ball.

This incident seemed to stick in his mind because that night, in his sleep, he kept whimpering and saying "Pranav ball! Pranav ball!".

I was afraid that he would never ever share anything again, but he still fetches other kids' stray balls for them, like a puppy. I think he'll be fine.

Party Time

Pranav has just learned the Happy Birthday song. He goes:

"Appy Birday to yoo. Appy Appy Birday to yoo. Appy Appy Appy Birday to yoo."

So when he got his first birthday party invitation today, from his sister's friends, Summy and I were excited for him. He looked over the invitation card with great interest, exclaiming about the balloons, stars, and the picture of Mickey Mouse on it.

Sameera and I made a big deal of it, saying, "Pranav gets to go to a birthday party! Pranav gets to go to a birthday party!".

Pranav watched us. Eventually, he got excited too. He got off the sofa, where he was sitting, and went "Birday Party! Birday Party!".

Then he turned around, said, "Pranav go Birday Party", and started running away.

"Not right now.", we tried to tell, but there was no stopping him.

He ran straight into the bathroom and pointed to his potty seat. That's when we realized that he was actually saying, "Pranav go Birday Potty!"

He's in for a surprise when he gets to the party on Sunday, dressed in his best diaper, and there is not a potty in sight.

Edited to add: I just remembered that Pranav's baby potty seat has pictures of baby birds on it. He calls they "baby boodies". When we said "Birthday Party", it sounded to him like "Birdie Potty". Of course! It's all clear now, later. Much much later. The smarter the children get, the slower I get.

How about this.

We were going to sleep at night, and that's the time we say "Good Night" to everything that we can think of. Toes, knees, eyes, ears, shirt, diaper, lights, fan, Akka, even to the bathroom, and the water and the shampoo in there.

This night, Pranav was haggling with me to watch his favorite videos on Youtube instead of sleeping. (What's the world coming to when a not-yet-18-month-old has favorite videos on Youtube?)

"Watch ABC balloons?", he said, hopefully, starting to slide down the bed.

"ABC balloons, Good Night.", I said.

"How 'bout, Kangaroo?"

"Kangaroo, Good Night."

"How 'bout, Gummy bear?"

"Gummy bear, Good Night."

By this time he was settled back into bed with a mischievous grin.

"How 'bout, Dora?"

"Dora, Good Night."

"How 'bout..... , How 'bout......."

I waited because I could see his brain working at it.

"How 'bout, Ducky?"

And so it went on until he started to yawn, and finally, fell asleep.

P.S: I realize that Youtube is not a safe place for a kid to be. I only allow Pranav on there, because I get to choose what he sees. Summy, being older, is not allowed on there unless I am there too. I have personally seen Summy's friends stumble upon inappropriate videos while surfing around with little supervision. So please do be careful if you are not already.

Being Careful

Pranav was standing on a stepstool, next to a low table on which the laptop sits. He was watching "The Gummy Bear Song" on youtube.

It seemed so cute, the baby using a stepstool to get up to the computer, so I got the camera and started to record him. I got closer, and said, "Dance, Pranav!".

He looked at me, danced a couple of steps to the music, and then stopped.

Again, I said, "Dance, Pranav!".

He looked at me again, seriously, and said, "Fall down.".

Which I roughly translate as follows: "Dear Amma, you might be too busy to notice, but I am perched precariously on a narrow stepstool. If I dance around on this, I will fall off."

At least one of us uses their head.

Sowwy

Pranav is a pretty tough little guy. He falls down in the park a lot, then dusts off his hands and pants and goes running again.

But there are times when he likes to be made a fuss of. At bedtime, he said, "Boo boo" and pointed to his toes. "Kiss?" I said.

"Kiss.", he said. Then after I kissed his toes, he gave me his other foot. "Kiss."

Then he said, "More kiss. More kiss.", and kept passing me one foot after the other to kiss.

Finally, he looked at his toes and apologized to them, "Sowwy."

When Cows Fly

Today while driving in the car, Pranav pointed out of the window.

"Look! Cows!", he said.

"Cows?", I said, looking all around and not seeing any cows. "You see cows? I guess we've gone past them. Bye, cows."

"Bye, cows.", he said.

Then in the evening, in the park, he said:

"Look! Cows!".

I looked around. Again, no cows.

Then I saw him looking and pointing up at the sky. Sure enough, there were the black "cows", flying in the sky. Technically, they weren't really even crows, they were eagles.

But Pranav had fun running around while looking up (and meanwhile, tripping over things), saying, "Catch it! Catch it!" and laughing.

Midnight Sun

Last night, I put Pranav to sleep. I turned on the light in the attached bathroom, so that I could see him easily from outside the bedroom.

Soon, I heard his voice calling "Amma". His eyes were closed when I went to him, so I lay down next to him. "Sunny", he said. He talks in his sleep all the time, so I said, "Yeah? Is it sunny?". He kept saying "Sunny", "Sunny", "Sunny", until I finally realized that he was telling me the bathroom light was too bright for him.

Funny bunny.