The biggest two events in the past two months are that I have a thambi now (thambi is Tamil for little brother) and I spend many of my days at a new house - Barbara and Don McGregor's house. Both things have meant quite a lot of change for me, but they are both really cool.
My little brother Mano (check out his blog here) is pretty cute. I like to give him hugs and kisses and point to his head and eyes. Sometimes I play with his feet. I like to lay down next to him in his crib or on my bed. I like to say 'Baby drinking' when Amma is nursing. And I do a pretty good impression of him crying (the baby on the bus goes whaa whaa whaa). Though he does take up a lot of Amma's time and as a result I play more with Appa (who has been around a lot more, which has been awesome).
The McGregor's house is just down the street (so we walk there in the morning and back in the evening). There are kids of a range of ages there - my age (two!), plus three- and four-year olds. This means that I get to learn a lot, have fun and hear all kinds of words and sentences. We play a ton and get to explore the creek and look for birds and snakes and fish. Some of the older kids help me learn how to help out and put things away. Some mornings we build huge train tracks with bridges and TUNNELS! I've taken some of my habits home, like wanting to sit at the big table now for food (and not much in the high chair anymore), or telling stories by sitting across the room and then holding up the book for Amma to see, or dancing zooming through the room holding clothes on hangers (a substitute for the scarves at the McGregor's).
Then there were also some medium-size events over the past two months: I no longer use a pacifier for naps or sleeping (no more 'frog'), I no longer have a bottle (as a result, my milk consumption has plummeted since I don't really like milk from a sippy or normal cup, either hot or cold), and I am working on sleeping only in my own bed in my own room ('working on' because it is still quite the long time and routine to get me to sleep and I still wake up a few time in the night).
You should hear me tell a story. They are pretty long and involved, complete with expressive hand movements, though they mostly consist of words that are hard to understand. But you might hear words thrown in there like tree or pear or wash and get the idea of that story. You might hear words like car or truck and crash and ouch and get the idea. You might hear words like baby and amma and drinking and 'whaa whaa' and get the idea. Everyone finds these stories really cute.
My vocabulary continues to expand. I can say quite a few things in Tamil now (apologies for the misspellings), such as: venum (more), kanne (where is ...), vannakam (welcome - this one is complete with hands together in prayer position), tani (water), va (come), mooke (nose), palum (plum), mambalum (mango), and of course dosai! (dosa). And in English I am connecting up a bunch of things too, like asking for the pear to go in my bowl, or saying I had an ouchie on my foot, or I want the bath water to be hotter. I can say a bunch of people's names too.
I found out that I love to shovel. Dirt in pickup trucks or mulch in piles. It is best when the shovel is my size, but I will go for bigger ones if needed. I got my first black eye - but no it didn't have anything to do with the shovel (I was just running through Appa's house and didn't see the cabinet approaching).
Fruit trees are pretty cool - I really enjoy picking the fruit from it and then eating it (after washing of course). Amma's apple tree went wild in July with apples galore. Then Appa's plum tree went crazy producing a bunch of plums. Right now Amma's pear tree just finished making a bunch of yummy yummy pears (which we eat about 6 of daily. Luckily Appa got a fruit picker to harvest all of these (which, by the way, is a fun contraption to play with).
We rounded out the time with some hiking with out of town visitors up in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking around town, a family reunion on the Adams side (amma's mom's dad's family), a carousel ride in Nederland, a trolley ride in Denver, and a visit to the aquarium. We concluded the summer with another trip on the Georgetown train (yay!)
So as you can see, it has been a really big few months of my life!
My little brother Mano (check out his blog here) is pretty cute. I like to give him hugs and kisses and point to his head and eyes. Sometimes I play with his feet. I like to lay down next to him in his crib or on my bed. I like to say 'Baby drinking' when Amma is nursing. And I do a pretty good impression of him crying (the baby on the bus goes whaa whaa whaa). Though he does take up a lot of Amma's time and as a result I play more with Appa (who has been around a lot more, which has been awesome).
The McGregor's house is just down the street (so we walk there in the morning and back in the evening). There are kids of a range of ages there - my age (two!), plus three- and four-year olds. This means that I get to learn a lot, have fun and hear all kinds of words and sentences. We play a ton and get to explore the creek and look for birds and snakes and fish. Some of the older kids help me learn how to help out and put things away. Some mornings we build huge train tracks with bridges and TUNNELS! I've taken some of my habits home, like wanting to sit at the big table now for food (and not much in the high chair anymore), or telling stories by sitting across the room and then holding up the book for Amma to see, or dancing zooming through the room holding clothes on hangers (a substitute for the scarves at the McGregor's).
Then there were also some medium-size events over the past two months: I no longer use a pacifier for naps or sleeping (no more 'frog'), I no longer have a bottle (as a result, my milk consumption has plummeted since I don't really like milk from a sippy or normal cup, either hot or cold), and I am working on sleeping only in my own bed in my own room ('working on' because it is still quite the long time and routine to get me to sleep and I still wake up a few time in the night).
You should hear me tell a story. They are pretty long and involved, complete with expressive hand movements, though they mostly consist of words that are hard to understand. But you might hear words thrown in there like tree or pear or wash and get the idea of that story. You might hear words like car or truck and crash and ouch and get the idea. You might hear words like baby and amma and drinking and 'whaa whaa' and get the idea. Everyone finds these stories really cute.
My vocabulary continues to expand. I can say quite a few things in Tamil now (apologies for the misspellings), such as: venum (more), kanne (where is ...), vannakam (welcome - this one is complete with hands together in prayer position), tani (water), va (come), mooke (nose), palum (plum), mambalum (mango), and of course dosai! (dosa). And in English I am connecting up a bunch of things too, like asking for the pear to go in my bowl, or saying I had an ouchie on my foot, or I want the bath water to be hotter. I can say a bunch of people's names too.
I found out that I love to shovel. Dirt in pickup trucks or mulch in piles. It is best when the shovel is my size, but I will go for bigger ones if needed. I got my first black eye - but no it didn't have anything to do with the shovel (I was just running through Appa's house and didn't see the cabinet approaching).
Fruit trees are pretty cool - I really enjoy picking the fruit from it and then eating it (after washing of course). Amma's apple tree went wild in July with apples galore. Then Appa's plum tree went crazy producing a bunch of plums. Right now Amma's pear tree just finished making a bunch of yummy yummy pears (which we eat about 6 of daily. Luckily Appa got a fruit picker to harvest all of these (which, by the way, is a fun contraption to play with).
We rounded out the time with some hiking with out of town visitors up in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking around town, a family reunion on the Adams side (amma's mom's dad's family), a carousel ride in Nederland, a trolley ride in Denver, and a visit to the aquarium. We concluded the summer with another trip on the Georgetown train (yay!)
So as you can see, it has been a really big few months of my life!
