Party Time!

I know... it has been ages since I blogged. I came online thinking I will work. Then, I realized I just had to blog about today's experience.

We were invited to Rajeev's boss' kid's party. Vidur had a fabulous time. There were kids (obviously), lots of balloons, b'day caps, goodies, cake, chocolate fountain, scrumptious starters, yummy food, and ice cream. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by Mickey Mouse. Before I go ahead, I must explain something. Vidur watches Mickey Mouse Club House on Disney channel everyday. This is more of a ritual. He needs to watch the cartoon to drink his milk. Therefore, Vidur was excited to see a life size Mickey (though I think if Mickey was real, he would not be as tall as an average human). Vidur ran around whilst keeping an eye on what the older boys were up to. As the other children and adults played games, he danced. He also managed to trouble a few other children by snatching their balloon or pulling their shirts.

Five minutes after we got there, Vidur made his presence felt by pulling out the balloons decorated around the table on which the cake was kept. The host was kind enough to say this is what kids must do! After the games, Vidur got a really cute car tattoo on his hand. I had waited till almost the end to get it done. This is because I was so sure that he will not sit in one place or he will ruin the tattoo or his/my clothes. But guess what? He did neither. He sat still as the tattooist drew a red car on his hand. As soon as the tattoo was done, Vidur sat still for another five minutes as I blew into the color to help it dry faster.

There was a clown who made those balloons that twist into a fancy shapes. The clown made a crown like thing for Vidur. Vidur, however, refused to let the clown place it on his head. I suspect he was scared of the clown's colorful hair and red nose. Quite frankly, I find clowns scary rather than funny (I did ensure that Vidur was not aware of my bias. I would prefer if he forms his own opinions :)). They are too colorful and have wide scary mouths on a painted face.

Next was Mickey's turn. Vidur ran to Mickey. He turned, looked at me and said 'mickey'. I was quite surprised as I had not expected Vidur to make the connection. Mickey was very friendly. He ignored the few naughty kids who threw paper pieces at him. I guess he is used to this. Vidur watched other kids shake hands with Mickey. He would put his hand out, but quickly snatch it back when Mickey made a move to hold his hand. I am not sure if he was scared. But, he refused to go nearer or touch Mickey. He was fascinated though and continued to jump out of Mickey's way with a giggle. I guess life size versions of cartoon's are also scary? Not sure... Anyways, the bottom line is Vidur had a great time! Birthday parties are fun.

Adventurous Vidur

Vidur has become more of everything. He is more naughty, more active, more accident prone, more violent, more stubborn, and the list just continues. He has so much of restless energy in him. I was told by my boss that this is the beginning of the 'Terrible Twos' phase. I must admit that sounds very scary. Weren't things terrible enough? :)

What does he do with all that energy?

Event 1:
The TV cabinet is Vidur's favorite hangout. It looks like this (given on the left).

Vidur loves climbing the side where the books are stacked and watching out of the window. We have to be careful though, things may fly out of the window. Based on his mood, he tries one of the following:
a. Climb the grills to hang on the curtain rod.
b. Climb on the TV to explore the colorful glass vases kept on the other side.

As you can imagine, both are extremely scary!

Event 2:
He throws everything down the balcony. I have to share this with you. It was a Saturday and after cleaning up my cupboard, I was watching a movie with Rajeev. Vidur was playing with his building blocks. I sent an SMS to a cousin and then left it near me on the floor. After this, I went to the kitchen, made dinner and then watched another movie. Sunday, I start looking for my phone. I was unable to find it. Rajeev and I searched the entire house, but no luck. I get the message 'The phone is switched off.' when called my number. This was weird because there was some charge left. I declared the phone lost. I had a fleeting suspicion that Vidur must have something to do with it. He must have thrown my phone down the balcony. Anyway, we give up and I decide I am not going to replace my phone till Vidur is older.

Monday evening, a few auto drivers come looking for me. I know these auto drivers as they are from the auto stand I use to go to the bank or take Vidur to his doctor. I wondered what they were doing there when I suddenly see my phone in the hand of an auto driver. He asked me whether the phone was mine. I said yes and asked him where he got it from. I had not traveled in an auto for over a week and was sure that I had not left it there. He said that some children in their colony were playing with different parts of the phone. He put it together and found my photos in the phone's camera gallery. Therefore, they thought it might be mine. I was stunned at how my phone had found its way back to me. My guess is that my son did throw my phone down. Some child must have entered the compound and found the parts of my phone. The rest you already know.

I thanked the auto drivers profusely. I offered them money, but they firmly refused it saying that they returned it because they knew me. They said they were not expecting anything in return. Nice people.

Event 3:
Vidur climbs everything that has a grill on it. He climbs the windows using the headrest of the bed as footing. He hangs on the curtain rail to switch on the air conditioner. He also climbs the small grilled part of the balcony to get on to the bigger grilled area. Though the grill is locked always, it is scary because he climbs all the way to the top. There was this time when I was talking on the phone and this boy climbed the grill. I run to ensure that I am near him. Vidur decided to try free falling. He just lets go. Thankfully, my reflexes worked well that day. I dropped the phone and immediately caught him. I take no chances these days.

He is extremely accident prone these days. He falls often. He has cut his tougue, burnt himself slightly, and cut his chin. He had to get stiches on his chin. Overnight, my over cautious boy had converted into an adventurous daredevil. Just today, he walked into the wall! Off all things! So, am hoping that this phase passes over quickly and Vidur is safe from himself again!

Deepa's Wedding

A lot has happened since I last blogged. Have been putting off blogging as there is so much that I have to capture in this space and have been busy and lazy! What has kept me so busy? Well, first there was my sister's wedding, work, and ofcourse, my son, Vidur.

Vidur was very busy before Deepa's wedding as he was helping my mother and me shop for the wedding. He has run around in circles and entertained everyone at Nalli, Kumaran, RMKV, Joy Allukas, and several more shops. Thankfully, people in Chennai are very child-friendly and therefore, they laugh at all his antics. Of course, the downside is that Vidur is thrilled by the positive attitude and therefore, he gets hyper and uncontrollable! Not only was Deepa's wedding memorable, the days before were equally special! Karthik, Deepa, Harish, and Rishabh came early. Vidur and Rishabh (Karthik's 1 year 10 month old baby) had a lovely time. Their relationship seems to oscilate between love and hate. :D One minute they would be kissing/hugging each and the next, one would get whacked by the other. Both were fighting for Harish's attention. If you don't know who Harish is. Here is a short description. Harish is a child magnet. He is absolutely GREAT with children. Vidur is generally a mommy's boy. He loves people but most times I have to be around him. But, as soon as Vidur sees Harish, he doesn't need me. This fascination was a blessing for me before and during the wedding! Harish, on several instances, as given me a nice, long break from being mom! He would take care of Vidur and allow me to just breathe for a sec! (Bless you, Hairsh!)

Deepa's wedding was a lot of fun! Vidur had a blast. Vidur loves Deepa's in laws a lot. We, the girl's side, had gone to greet the boy's side. As soon as they arrived, Vidur jumped from me to Sriram's (Deepa's husband) father. Vish uncle is another person who is great with children. He stops so talk to every child he meets. Children love him too. Vidur is equally fond of Mythili aunty. There are times when he refuses to back home with us. :) Sriram is also a perfect uncle who tried to do EVERYTHING (hee hee) possible to make Vidur stop crying.

What he loved most about Deepa's wedding were the plastic chairs in the hall. He and Rishabh seemed to take it onto themselves to rearrange the chairs. (This really bugged my father! But there was no stopping these two. :)) Megha took on the role of an elder sister. She monitored their movements.

For the reception, Vidur and Rishabh were dressed in identical suits. They looked absolutely adorable! The most memorable incident was when the band began to play and Vidur began to dance. First, he was dancing right at the back. He realized that he was not getting enough attention. He ran all the way to the front and then began to dance. He would pause in between to check if he was being watched. If no, he would call out and demand that they watched him. I was really proud as he danced very gracefully. ;) He danced for 1.5 hours straight with no breaks in between. There was no stopping him.

Like I said, Deepa's wedding was incredibly fun, touching, and very memorable for all of us!!

Play areas and schools

A few months back Kavitha (my cousin) called and suggested we take the kids out. My hubby was in Madurai conducting training and both Vidur and I were equally bored. I therefore, jumped at the idea of taking the kids to a place where they can play. Kavitha took us (Aarav, Vidur, and me) to a play school called Hanzel and Gratel. This place has a five rooms:
1. One had 4-5 mini cars and a see-saw
2. A toy house which allows the kids to play inside it; this room also has several toys
3. A box full of colorful balls and small play pen
4. A desk, coloring books, crayons, storybooks
5. A screen to view cartoons and animations

My husband reflected that it is sad that we need to take our children to places such as this and that they don't play in the streets as he used to as a child. This is true. In our apartments, there are no kids of Vidur's age. Most people are retired. Who will Vidur play with? I hope we have an oppurtunity to move into a complex full of young families with children, next time around. Till then, we have to make do with such places. I am grateful that there are play areas such as these that give my child an option to play with other children. No wonder mothers put their children in play schools very early these days. I can sense the restless energy in Vidur and he must be terribly bored playing with adults all the time. I also feel that children pick things up really quickly when they go to play schools.

Similarly, I had taken to Magic Hats (in Sathyam Complex). Here, you can leave your child while you watch a movie. They have a huge slide, an area full of color balls, several toys, computer games, and a huge screen to watch cartoons. The ladies there are trained to take care of children (really young children also). They also give the children buscuits, juice, and bread. I am not ready to let go of my boy, therefore, while Rajeev watched a movie with his friends, I stayed with Vidur in the play area. Vidur did not have company as most other children were older than him. I must say older children are very mean to younger children (my sis says I was pretty mean to her too! :/). I guess most of them are too grown up to play with a 1+ child. They only want to play with children their own age or older. Anyway, Vidur had a great time and that's what matters.

Last weekend, we took him to Fun City (in Citi Center). They have a small play area for smaller children and a parent is allowed to accompany their child. Vidur was very clingy that evening and he refused to go to my sister. Then he noticed that Deepa was entering the play area and he immediately jumped to her. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. He went down the slide and climbed up the slide, threw a few balls out and then collected them and put them in again, moved the huge blocks out of the toy house, played on the see saw... my mom, sis, and I, enjoyed watching him play.

What holds Vidur's attention?

I am feeling very guilty about not blogging. It has been a long time. Work, my sister's marriage preparations, and Vidur kept me busy. I have been dying to share the list of things that fascinate Vidur. Here they are:

Animals
Firstly, he loves dogs (I love dogs too and therefore, I am secretly proud of this!) He stops to talk to a stray dog and enjoys watching Micky (my parent's dog) on the Webcam. He loves his stuffed doggie. He gives it a hug very often and carries it around. He also feeds it whatever he is eating. He insists that the doggie open its mouth and so, he keeps saying 'aaaa, aaaa'. They make a cute picture. He is also fascinated by other animals. He loves watching the goats eat garbage from the balcony. During his evening walks, he stops and stares at the cow (with huge, colourful horns) that is tied to a pole. He thoroughly enjoyed his time at the Doha zoo. Vandalur zoo was a big disappointment for him. (will not go into the details here; it was my fault after all. All the animals were in their den and we were under the hot, merciless sun hoping for a glimse!)

Escalators
Vidur loves escalators. He insists on standing on it as it takes him up. When it is over, he demands that he be taken on it again. We had taken him to Citi Center last weekend. There are four pairs of escalators in this mall. He loved every minute of it. He is yet to understand that escalators are unidirectional and kept insisting that we go back to the one we left. So, rather than have him run around the mall pulling stackes of clothing with him, we prefer accompanying Vidur on the escalator over and over again.

Beach
A huge gang - My parents, sister, grandmother, sister's future in-laws, hubby, vidur and I - visited the beach two weeks back. It was a pleasant evening. Vidur enjoyed playing with the sand. He took a fistful of sand and threw it around. He was not too keen about the water and the waves. He refused to stand in the water. :) He played football with other kids (for about a minute). His dad promptly bought him a ball. But Vidur was through playing football. He wanted to now cover the plastic stools near the bhaji stall with sand. His grandfather made him sit in a merry-go-round. He looked majestic sitting in a red car. He was very reluctant to leave it.

Electrical Machines
He has to be around when we switch on the TV, microwave, blender, grinder, or open the fridge. He has learnt to switch the TV on/off using the big round button on the TV. We are having a really diffciult time getting him to stop. The naugty boy watches the ads and switches it off when my program begins!

Ads
Vidur is facinated by commercial advertisements. Regardless of whether it is a fairness cream or a Harpic ad, he loves it. He stares at the screen in awe. My cousin's son, Aarav and Rishabh, also love ads. So it must be the catchy tone, the attention grabbing incidents that capture their interest.

Music
He hears a tune and he starts dancing. He dances when our neighbor plays music, when a car with a musical tune reverses, anything that sings. It is a pleasure to watch him enjoy the music.

Vidur's first haircut

Vidur's hair had started curling at the ends. He was looking shabby in a very cute way. I decided to give him a haircut. It is getting really hot here and because he is so active, his hair is always dripping sweat. So, I took him to Green Trends for his first haircut. There I was asked whether I wanted him to use the electric razor. I said No, please use the scissors to trim his hair. Green Trends has a separate kids section. The person asked me whether Vidur would sit alone. I said no, can I make him sit on my lap as you cut his hair. He said ok and escorted me to the gents sections.

From here, things got tough. The person cutting Vidur's hair was very patient and kept talking to him. You must be wondering what Vidur's reaction to the scissors was. Well, he was fascinated. He wanted to turn his head an watch his hair being cut. We had to distract him to stop him. What I love about salons is that it has mirrors. Vidur loves mirrors. Like I have mentioned in my previous posts, Vidur loves to look at himself and give himself a kiss. So he sat still for sometime. He snipped and snapped a lot. But it seemed to take a really long time. And Vidur did not plan to sit idle for so long. He again tried to look at the scissors. We tried to distract him using our phones. The hairdresser was finding it incredibly difficult to cut Vidur's hair while he sat on my lap. So I had to make him stand on my lap. I am sure this must have looked very comical to a third person. The hairdresser managed to cut off the curls, but was not able to give Vidur a close cut. The middle of his head still seemed to stand up. I decided that this was sufficient for a first haircut. I got back home.

I was thrilled about Vidur's new look. But guess what?! No one noticed that Vidur had had a haircut. They didn't believe me. I was reminded of Aamir Khan's dialogue in Andaz Apna Apna 'Baal kate bhi hai aur patha bhi nahi chalta!'

Vidur being Vidur in a train full of people

I had planned a fun long weekend at Bangalore. There were two reasons why i opted for Shathabdi Express:

1. My cousin advised me that chair car travel may be better than a sleeper berth. She advised this because she had traveled with me last time in the night train. She had witnessed Vidur howl his heart away.
2. I was really not sure which to opt for. Also, I was eager to start my holiday faster by reaching there the same day.
   

I boarded Shathabi at 5:00 pm. As I settled into my seat, I scanned around. There were two old men seated at the window and middle seat. The old man in the middle was reading a very serious looking book on religion and God. He did not look up till Vidur kicked him in his excitement. The old man looked very seriously at his thigh, repositioned himself (probably in the hope of increasing the distance between my son and himself), and got back to his book. This was when I realized that this journey was not going to be a pleasant one. I gave Vidur some milk. I could imagine the old man seated next to me look at me through the corner of his eye. He must have wondered how I was going to mix the milk with a hyper child on my lap. However, I managed to do this task efficiently (I was praying through out!). I enjoyed the few minutes of not having to control Vidur as he was busy slurping. As soon as the milk was over, Vidur decided he must be let down. I managed to keep him on my lap till the train started. Once off my lap, Vidur scanned the environment. He was happy to see that there were so many people.

He ran up to a big, bearded man with a skull cap. He was fascinated by his beard and he reached out to give it a tug. Luckily, the man moved away anticipating Vidur's intention. Vidur decided to walk all the way down the aisle. On the way, he stopped to talk to people, tap them on their arms to draw their attention. There were two people seated along the aisle, working on their laptops. One of them was very sweet to Vidur and he encouraged him to bang on his laptop. The other was not sure how to get Vidur to stop doing what he was doing. He was probably thinking to himself, 'Where's the mother? Shouldn't she be teaching her son some manners?' Vidur continued walking up and down, enjoying himself thoroughly.

I boarded the train looking like an optimistic mother with an angel for a child. Thirty minutes later, I was looking hassled with a naughty little prankster for a child. Most people responded beautifully to Vidur. But, I couldn't allow him to trouble people over and over again. People had other things to do like eat and sleep in peace. The final straw was when the server serving hot tea and coffee said 'Please take your child out of the way. Coffee is hot.' What he said made sense, but what was I supposed to do? Vidur refused to sit in one place. He had gotten the taste of freedom and was not about to let go so easily.

To top it all, Vidur was very sleepy. I had hoped he would sleep once the train started. But, Vidur had other plans. Sleepy Vidur was not able to walk straight and was swaying dangerously on his feet. I did not have much of a choice. I spent most of the journey from here standing outside the AC compartment near the toilet (I would have used the term restroom, but that really does not qualify for our trains). Vidur was very upset. I had taken his freedom away and separated him from all those people! He tried to get down. When this didn't work, he tried howling his protest. I desperately tried to make him sleep. Several really nice people stopped to talk to me about the kid and what I do. All I kept thinking is, 'I am trying to make him sleep. Can't you see?' But I am really grateful, else my journey would have been absolutely boring. I also got advised that should try the night train next time. I should let Vidur tire himself out during the day so that he sleeps peacefully in the train.

Finally, 90 minutes before the end of the journey, Vidur gave in. I could finally go sit in my seat. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep too. By this time the other children in the train were up and were playing. Their noise and the general excitement of people when a train is approaches its destination woke Vidur up half an hour before the actual arrival. The children were happy to see Vidur was up. Vidur was desperately trying to rub sleep off his eyes. He gave up and closed his eyes again. A kid right then screamed hello into his ear. Startled Vidur was finally up and I was so bugged with that kid. Vidur decided that it was time t get off the train now. He insisted that I stand and lept pointing toward the door. The train finally stopped and Harish (my cousin) and Deepa (my sister) finally relieved me of Vidur and my luggage.

I am not going to travel anywhere for some time. I need time to recharge my batteries...