Sunday, November 23, 2008

Eighteen months.....

... And Puttachi technically leaves babyhood behind.

There is only one major update to give you all for this month. She is a chatterbox. She talks non-stop all the time - except when she is sleeping (Thank heavens for small mercies).

Put on a piece of music, and she has to dance compulsively, and she has to make everybody around dance too. Once she gets into the mood, she sits on the floor, puts taala and sings sa-ri-ga-ma (her version of it) and doesn't allow anybody else to sit in peace either. All of us have to beat the taala out (not on our laps, no, but on our other palm - just like she has seen my mom do to teach her students), and sing with her, as long as the mood grips her. If she finds something interesting in a book, she has to make sure that everybody has seen it at least fifty times.

She doesn't let S~ and I get a word across to each other. She has to be the one to talk, we are the listeners, and nothing more. We have often asked her to please keep quiet and sit in one place, reminding me of that definition of parents - "Parents are those people that teach their child to walk and to talk and then ask them to sit down and shut up." There isn't anything truer.

She speaks in complete sentences. Her first complete sentence was "Puttachi Dothe betha" (Puttachi wants dosa - of course, she said her version of her real name, not Puttachi). And after that, she has been speaking quite easily in full sentences.

She explains things when we don't understand what she is saying, by using actions and other related words. I can't stop saying this - everyday is a surprise.

A couple of days ago, S~ put three blocks in front of her and asked her, "Count them - how many blocks are there?" She pointed to each and said, "One-thoo-thee". Shocked, I took away one block, and asked her to count how many were there now. "One-thoo", she said, confidently. We are still regaining consciousness. And conducting more experiments to ascertain that it was not a fluke.

She loves the alphabets - whenever she finds big letters anywhere, she insists that I read them out to her. I have no idea what she understands, though. S~ got her a lovely singing and speaking alphabet-fridge magnet set, which she loves.

Each time I start a Puttachi update, it runs into pages, so I am really holding myself back now.

Oh and yes, one update of my own - we moved into a beautiful new place - a very good location too. Since I don't know the first thing abut managing an entire home all by myself (along with a hyperactive chatterbox), I am still running around in circles, and am not able to set aside a sizeable chunk of time for working/mailing/blogging. Yet. So if you are wondering why the silence on the blog/mail/phone, now you know.

7 comments:

rajk said...

First of all, congratulations on the new home! And hats off to you for still finding time to post updates on your blog!! Hope some of your industriousness rubs off on me just by reading and commenting on your blog!!

Anonymous said...

hey Shruthi congrats from my side too for moving into a new house and yea I love kids and simply love hearing them out though I'm not sure If I'll be saying the same thing when I get married and have kids of my own. But till that time comes I'll continue to enjoy your Puttachi posts.

anoop said...

18 months and she counts! congrats on moving to a new house.

Junius said...

ther are 65 posts labeled "baby", that says it all

Anonymous said...

Heheee...Lovely to hear about little puttachi's updates. I'm sorry I missed seeing her this time. I did see a video of her dancing with her tata when I went to B atthe's house. She is very cute and adorable. Lots of hugs and kisses to puttachi :)

praneshachar said...

abhinandanegalu hosamane vasakke
your committment to post inspite of all odds is commendable and I simply adore your grit. nice to see u back and hope some more much more will flow from your pen with lot thoughts which will give lot of people one or the other solutions in parenting or otherwise.
hope to see you soon
pranesh

Mama - Mia said...

:)

you have a little genius on your hands, dontcha??!! :)

congrats on new home and all that jazz!! hope to see ya once sister's shaadi is done!!

enjoy yoursleves!

cheers!

abha

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