Reading

The little guy loves books. A good book can distract him from the worst scenarios of a 15 month old's mind.

On return from India, his eyes almost popped out of his head when he heard me read to Naina. He then cackled and laughed through the whole story of the Hungry Little Caterpillar. Just saying the name "Greg" is enough to distract him from eating, TV, playing, throwing balls, crying and running out the front door. Greg is the leader singer of the Wiggles, he loves to sing Hot Potato Hot Potato. And Greg wears a yellow shirt and black trousers. And Sarva is obsessed with that book.

He's now progressed on to books such as Where The Wild Things Are, Dear Zoo (can say Haathi, Snake and Giraffe and make the sounds for dogs and lions), anything else that's nearby. He's been known to read books on dinosaurs and colours and monkeys and zebras.

Funniest of all, is his demand for books exceeds all other demands, to the extent that if I read "All about my day" twice and put it down to read N a separate book, he will stand over me and hit me with said "all about my day" book. To the extent that I have to stop reading the baby dinosaur story for Naina and return to "All about my day".

Zoe and Beans: the story of binky boo

Sarva photos

Hold the boy back, there's food on the table

Silenced by sister

Who doesn't like balls?

Standing getting easier

Starting to get big

Catching up with sister, post first steps

Super size me?

Hazard perception test

Sarva

I've been a little distracted in the last few months so blogging has not been a priority. But my mind keeps coming back to how different little boys and little girls are. Sounds obvious. But let me explain.

Sarva is physically quite the specimen. There's no other way to describe it. He runs harder, he falls harder, he pinches harder and he eats... harder. His head is larger than N at the same time, as is height, weight, strength and pound for pound mischievousness.

At 9 months, Sarva was already talking clear words. On returning from India he could say "catch" very clearly, then pick up a ball, lick it like a fast bowler and then throw it. By 12 months he had progressed on to two words such as "haath hatao" meaning remove your hands from that object you shouldn't be touching little boy as well as "giraffe" "haathi" (elephant) and "haaat" (hot from hot potato). He's now at 15 months saying phrases such as ball gone and snake. However, what's been amusing us the most is his penchant for asking how we are at all times of day.

Sarva: "Hi"
Me: "Hi"
Sarva: "Kaise Ho" (How are you)
Me: "Teek hai (fine), tum kaise ho (and you)?"
Sarva: "Accha. Hi" (and repeat)

This conversation usually occurs at the bathroom door at 6:45 in the morning. It's hilarity. Obviously arguable that he's learnt a lot from his sister and how to get our attention by non-physical means, but it is such a pleasant surprise when he comes out with a new word. Like when at friends house recently he came out with "No touching". Seriously.

He's also been climbing stairs from about 10 months. On one occasion Naina opened the gate and left it open. He silently and confidently followed her up. And I've caught him counting on the steps as well. Deepti likes to walk him up the stairs in the evening saying the numbers. He's got to six already. I'm flummoxed. The boy's a verbal genius destined for reform school. You see....

In recent weeks I've caught him in the flour cupboard throwing rice and flour everywhere, about to hit me with a hardback book because I can't read fast enough, biting all three of us when we're not expecting, running out the door at great speed for the road, breaking both ducted vacuum door flaps through sheer force, breaking several dishes, breaking into the wipes bag and throwing wipes everywhere, breaking into the kitchen draws and throwing items everywhere, starting the washing machine by himself and most recently (which awarded him a smack), tipping the formula tin on to the floor, opening it and contentedly eating away at dry formula. Other favourite meals - wood chips, mud and spicey foods.

I'm sure this phase of naughtiness will evolve into something less destructive, but I'm not putting a date on it. Did I mention he likes to hit me with books when I don't read fast enough to him?

Raksha bandhan 2011

Raksha bandan is a regular festival where sisters give their brothers a small band as a reminder to protect against evil. In modern days, the brothers return with gifts, cash, jewellery or just a barbie watch from Big W.

The bands

Sarva was not impressed with N's attempt to apply tikka

He really messed it up

Band tied

The method to pacification and reminder of duties: sweets and the wiggles

N's look says it all. Don't think Barbie cuts it this year

After shower hubris

Naina wearing a bengali inspired coca-cola sari.

We have walking

Background: I have a form of muscular dystrophy which is of unknown origin. As a result, my milestones as a baby were slow including lifting my head, standing up, learning to walk. Before marriage, I went and saw the Genetic Counselling Service at the Royal Children, with the aim that there would be some news on my type of dystrophy. Essentially there was no information on inheritance - autosomal, x-linked, recessive, dominant. The thought was it was "probably" x-linked recessive, meaning male offspring inherit from their mom's. But with a big probably.

Fast-forward through to child #1. Walking, running and out the door at about 12 months. Being a girl child, it was less concerning as most likely she couldn't get it. However, back of my mind upon hearing #2 would be a boy, was the concern of inheritance, even though the chances were so low.

Sarva's milestones were fairly normal in retrospect. Lifting head on time, smacking sister down on time, biting Deepti whilst breastfeeding on time. His return from India as a small raging headbutting bull, who could stand at nine months further pacified those thoughts. The steps were there - one two small baby steps for the best part of July, so walking most likely commenced at 11 months. Second child syndrome.

Glad to report, on 11 August, he took those steps and hasn't stopped running. Or slapping down his sister.



And it is true. I sort of missed the first steps because I was looking at the fridge catalogue. 280L just aint big enough for the 9L of milk we need to buy each week.

Books

In a eurocentric way, I always pushed reading on to Naina. She was never overtly fond of books - the very hungry caterpillar and on safari were always big hits, as was in the night garden, but attempting the gruffalo, doctor seuss or other nice books ended up with me reading the book to Deepti as Naina jumped on the bed. I kid you not.

Going to India, the book reading stopped, much to my disappointment. Probably, in a house with two young aunts, two or three uncles under thirty, kids in the alleyway playing and door to door salesmen selling rice, potatoes, onions and eggplants, the very hungry caterpillar never had a chance.

Unsurprisingly, Naina came back still highly disinterested in books. She still loves on safari, grudgingly accepts the Gruffalo as long as she can press the musical buttons and Doctor Seuss's Sleep Book lasts a page or two.

But her interest in "kahaani" is roaring. The oral tradition rather than the written tradition etc. Coming back, every night Naina wanted a different Barbie story. Another post! Then Doraemon stories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon) (amazingly this show never came to Australia, but is one of the most popular manga comics for kids in India, so much so it is dubbed, into hindi). Then Hanuman stories. So after a futile series of attempts to read to N, we'd turn off the lights and begin proper story time.

N then learnt about Shrek, so Shrek and Donkey stories, then Shrek and Fiona, Dragon and Donkey and then this is our life where Dragon is Deepti and Donkey is me, St George and the Dragon (though honestly I don't know the story), The Hobbit and finally, Lord of The Rings, where all the bad dudes are Dragons and one of the characters (Legolas, the Archer, is renamed Sarva, the archer in Hindu mythology so Mummy Daddy, Naina and Sarva are fighting alongside Gandalf and Aragorn against Dragons at the Gates of Sauron whilst Frodo and Sam are fighting Gollum near the peak of Mt Doom).

I'm not sure what N thinks of the Lord of The Rings Trilogy (people don't die, they fall), but it has a 5 to 10 minute knock out effect. And for that I am grateful to Tolkein.