More than a handful

Vidur is very naughty! For most questions, he responds with a yes these days. The only two questions to which he says a no to are:
1) Shall we give the rest of your food to the crow?
2) Do you want to sleep? (even he is dead tired)

I was very proud that my son says amma (mother) and appa (father). But lately he has derived his own meaning for these. He says amma to anyone whose attention he wants to gain. He says abba (derived from ba which means come) when he wants to be lifted and when he doesn't want someone to leave him and go. So, most people will wonder why this child is screaming amma and appa when they are standing right next to him.

Recently people are asking me, "so has he started talking?" I am not sure how to answer this. He is talking, mostly baby talk. He talks a lot to himself also (I always thought it was a sign of being crazy). He is not talking English or Tamil if that's what people are asking. He uses several Tamil words in his diction such as amma, appa, anna, thatha but all these have completely different meanings than what is univerally accepted. (BTW I refuse to feel worried that my son has not begun 'talking'. He will 'talk' when he is ready. I am constantly adviced that I must keep talking to him. I do talk to him! People are so quick to judge how you are as a mother.)

Most days, I spend in guilt thinking "Am I losing my patience more often these days?" He is always doing things he is not supposed to be doing, eating things he is not supposed to be eating, and being in places where he should not be. If I look away for even a minute, he may open the shoe rack and taste a shoe, eat mud from the potted plants, play with his own pee or shit, grab anything interesting enough from the edge of the table, and so on.

Vidur has the learnt the age old trick of protesting using tears if reprimanded. Today, he hit me on the head several times with a big block (talk about a whole new angle to domestic violence). In turn, I glared at him and snatched the blocks from his hand. He immediately started howling as though I had struck him. When I tried to console him, he tried to whack me again! As per his rules, he should be allowed to whack me. How do I handle this? I have tried explaining saying 'Amma paavum" (meaning mom is a poor thing). Doesn't work, he still wants to hit me. I am sure he still loves me though. You can only take such liberties with your mother (hee hee). After all this, he still manages to look like an angel when he is asleep.