What's in a name

Yesterday while we were trying to put Venky to sleep, our discussions wavered towards names and their meanings. Vibhu started telling me how some names can have more than one meaning and he used "Venkatesh" as an example. Vibhu said that if we break the word, it comes out to be Venkat & ish - this could mean Venkat's God OR God Venkat. While giving this expalanation, he said "Venkatesh" quite a few times. Everytime Venkatesh (our Venky) responded with some sound. So, the next time we tried to hear what he was saying properly. It turned out that everytime Vibhu said "Venkatesh", Venky said "Cha -da -lee" i.e. "Choudhary". Thereby, completing his name :).

Well, there can be no better explanation, isn't it? We never taught him that. We racked our brains to figure out how he learnt that, but we have no clue. Good news is that Venky now knows his full name and can say it :)

Learning the language

Venky now has almost 200 words in his vocabulary. He is building is up from sheer observation. He definately know the names of stuff that he wants. Some of the more interesting ones are

1. Anda - egg. That's exactly what he wants for breakfast in morning. In fact you can hear the repeated chant of "anda, anda, ANDA....". Sometimes we've have had to give him a half boiled egg since he would not wait for it to boil completely.

2. Gana - song. As soon as Venky gets into the car for a ride, he points to the stereo and says "gana". I don't know where that trait comes from, since both I and my husband are not music lovers. As a result, we don't have any music CDs in our car. So we have to put on the radio. If you've been in Hyderabad, you'll know that all radio stations play Telugu songs during any decent hours. With no offence meant to Tollywood, while we don't understand the lyrics, even the music beat is a little tough to tolerate. Thankfully, there are no visuals in radio - at least we are saved from watching the latka, jhatkas of 90Kg heros and 80Kg heroines.

3. Baby - All soft toys are his babies. Since he is the only baby in the house, I don't know how he relates to them :). Venky pats them to sleep exactly like we do to him :)

Venky knows that there can be more than one word for the same thing/action. He brings his book and says "book" when he looks at me and "kitaab" when he looks at my maid. He also translates "dog" for them - "kutta". A couple of days ago - the little telugu girl asked me as to how he knows Telugu. I told her that Venky doesn't know Telugu. At that very moment he told her "kucho" and then looked at me and said "baitho' - sit.

Venky knows who is Tejoo (2 yr old boy, our next door neighbour), Kiya (1 yr old girl a couple of houses down and his "meal-mate"), Dada, dadi, Annama(grandmom - next door Telugu Aunty) etc. But ask him where's mommy and he points to his Dad. He interchangably uses mommmy and papa to address both of us whenever he wants. And people told me that the first thing a child learns is who is his mom! God help this generation!

The power of words

Venky is learning the power of words ... and we are learning it with him. Gone are the days when he could only cry and sulk. Gone are the days when we would only guess and ignore. Now, Venky makes himself clear. Single word, no nonsense, to the point.
Here's an example.
Venky used to cling to me just before I left to office. He would cry hard to see me go. And I have to let you know that it felt really flattering. It convinced me that my child loved me with his whole heart and wanted my attention 24*7.
A few days back, Venky clung to me as his usual routine, and while I was strategizing on how to take leave, he came out loud and clear "GHOOMI" ie. take me out! Aaah.. so this is what he wants.
Okey, I gave him a ride. As the car stopped, he smiled at me and said "Bye" and got off without any tears.
Hmmph! It was love for "Ghoomi" that I mistook as love for "Mommy".


And yes, I have to give him a ride everyday now before I can ride to office.

The Biker Dude

Venky championed his bike by the time he was an year old. That was really "his" toy. He cruised on slopes on it. He threw it, picked it up, pushed it and when it gathered momentum jumped to sit on it.
He really looked like a three year old performing such feats. And with all the rough handling ... the bike broke one day.


We rushed to get him another one 'cause we knew how attached he was with his bike, but Venky did quite like it. He has still to champion that one as it is a little different than the previous bike. He gets frustated every time he is on it.

Slowly my son.. this will come to you as well :)

The Frist Steps

Venky had been cruising very well by the time he was 9 months old. I was pretty sure that he would start walking anytime in his 10 months. Vibhu was going to US right in that month and I had been teasing him that he was going to miss this important milestone.

So, we were doing the last minute packing as Vibhu was scheduled to leave by a late night flight, I heard Bina call me. When I rushed to the kitchen, she said that Venky was walking. Since, Venky still couldn't stand well, I almost disbelieved. By that time Vibhu joined me and Venky demoed his new found skill.. a couple of unstable steps :)

That one was especially for Dad! Vibhu had a winning smile on his lips

Between 5 and 15 months

Yes, I stopped writing on Venky's journal @ 5 months. Why? Well.. here are the reasons in the order of severity.
1. I got lazy - Yeah! I did :( I started work and really didn't want to touch the laptop after that.
2. Accessing that baby journal was a pain - Yes some 5 click process
3. Couldn't share my writings - The journal had very restrictive access policy. C'mon... If I write , I want people to read it!

...And in the meantime my baby grew into a toddler. He started walking, running, driving the toy bike, taking simple instructions and conveying simple things... And I never wrote them down. I let many precious moments slip away from my memory.

But not anymore... this Blog is where I'll put them down. So all you folks in blogville .. welcome to a mommy's world

Crawling

Ever since Venky's grandparents have come, he is hitting one milestone after another. He started saying dada, baba, mmmamm, he started sitting, he started on solid diets, perfected his rolling over and circling using his hands to reach his toys.
But what happened today was the least I expected. As usual when I came back from office, my MIL had news for me again. "Venky is crawling!!". Crwaling! CRAWLING!!! I really couldn't believe it. But my MIL demoed it for me immideatly. Venky was crawling indeed. Although the ratio of effot to movement is still quite high. But yes!! he is crawling.
After sometime Venky's dad arrived from office. This time I broke the news - "Venky is crawling". The reaction was pretty much similar to mine. Crawling! CRAWLING!!! :-D

Potty

We had bought the potty long time ago (basically in exchange of some other product which did not work ). A couple of weeks ago my mom suggested that I should start using the potty. So finally today I decided to bring it out. I made Venky do a trial sitting to see if he was ready for it. Much to my amusement, he fitted perfectly on the potty and it looked more like a small chair meant for him.
Venky drank his milk and slept. Once he woke up, we did a Sri ganesh of the potty

Sitting!

Ever since I put him on his car seat, Venky has preferred sitting to lying. He refused to take his pram ride lying, he even refused our laps. In fact it was easier to put him to sleep rocking his car seat than any other postion.

I always knew Venky is going to sit early. In fact I had thought he was going to sit before he was going to roll over (which happened only 20 days ago).

Since last week, I started encouraging Venky to sit on his own. He would sit for a second and go "dhum". Tonight when we repeated the excercise, I realized that Venky was sitting a second longer than a second... and then another second ... and then another.. By the time Venky fell "dhum" on his side it was good 15 seconds and Vibhu said - " I think you can put it into the journal enty now". :)

The Frist Fall?

Ever since Venky was 2 months old, I made his daytime sleeping/playing arrangements on the floor to avoid any falling accidents. Today when I came back from office Bina reported that Venky had screamed loudly and cried with tears. He had his first fall!! Venky had dirtied his diaper and my MIL went to another room to get a new one. Venky took two somersaults in the mean time and landed on the floor. He screamed and had the whole house assembled around him in the next second :) Yes, my son had fallen down full two inches from the mattress to the floor :D I was not sure that it qualified for a "FALL" but after I heard the decription of the brouhaha he created, I decided that it did!!

Welcome GrandPa

Venky loves shouting. When I say shouting it means literal shouting on the top of his voice. For almost two months his talking constituted of only one form - shouting. Then he graduated to an "AAeeyaa" kind of sound. He would often say "Aayeyaa" with the thumb in his mouth and it would come out transformed as words like "kachche" much to my delight.

Venky's grandparents arrived on 11th Oct. They showered him with all attention and found meaning in all his efforts. As with any doting grandparents (and to my amusement), they felt he was a very advanced baby.

I had a long stint with office on 12th Oct after a long time thanks to the peace of mind I had about leaving the baby at home under safe supervision of grandparents. As soon as I arrived home, my MIL told me that Venky has been saying "dada". I was amused again and had no doubts that she had heard what she wanted to hear :) But Venky cleared my doubts immideately and went on to say "da-da-da". A very apt welcome to his grandad :)

The first Roll

The doc has been asking us since the last two visits ..
Does Venkatesh roll over?
Noooo... not yet.
Does he try to?
Nooo....

And so have been all our relatives and friends.
Venky must be rolling over now?
Nooo....

With Venky not showing any signs of trying to roll over, I was convinced that he is going to sit before he rolls over.

Finally I joined office part time on 1st September. This way I could take a break from all the diaper changing and still not miss my baby's development. Husband dear has offered to babysit during the time Iam in office

So, I got a phone call today from Vibhu. With Venky crying in the background, I thought he probably wants to know where to find diapers/changing clothes etc. But Lo! He says,
Our son has taken his first roll today. I put him back straight and he got upset :D

I was sooo.. happy (and relieved, we won't have to say those Nooo..s anymore). And sooo.. jealous. I get away for just 4 hours and he takes his first roll. I missed it :(

Once I got home, Venky treated me with another couple of rolls. My god! my baby mastered the technique in a day!!! :D

The Arrival

Born at 5.40 am after 4 hrs of labor.

I suddenly heard someone else's screms admist mine. And then, I realized that I didn't need to scream anymore. The baby was out. I heaved a sigh of relief and said
"I can't believe I've finally delivered."
The doc laughed and started stiching me up. Suddenly I realized that I should find out the gender of my baby. Altough who cared, what the gender was. I asked the doc and she said
"It's a boy."
"Okey" I thought.
Then someone suddenly brought a tiny and extermely red face in front of me.
"This is your boy."
I noticed he was wrapped in a pink towel.

Welcome to next generation... Baby boys in pink :)