We've arrived at Vidhi's "Nani House" (as her mom puts it to her) yesterday. They have stairways running between ground and first floor. Vidhi's must-be-close-to-mummy-at-any-cost nature almost had her falling down the all twelve steps, but for last second hand holding by her papa. Heart leaped to throat and prayers rushed to lips. Someone once said, "I thought I loved my wife a lot, but for my baby, I will willing throw her under the bus without even flinching," on Quora. I don't think I am there yet (should I even be?) but I am on the way, and incidents like yesterday's just highlight the delicate nature of this relationship.
Incremental words in Vidhi's vocabulary include more animals (hen, cow, crow, ant, fish, zebra, horse, butterfly), non-noun terms (open, close, hot, lift, yellow), relationship terms (chacha, nana, nani, kaka, kaki, dada, dadi, aunty, uncle), body parts (eyes, nose, tummy), and more household items (clock, spoon). She understands and can point to but cannot pronounce almost all major body parts (head, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, chin, tummy, hand, leg, fingers, toes). She refers her head as "bumm" as in head is bummed when her's hits something which is not unusual. She can promounce but doesn't understand few numbers like one, two, three, four, seven, nine.
Vidhi is walking like a pro now and likes to walk and run in large open spaces like garden, corridors, shopping mall, showrooms. She falls often, of course, but gets up quickly and without fuss. Things are more within her reach at home. She can be seen sneaking into kitchen, opening the snacks cupboard and munching whatever her hands could lay on. And she is junk food junkie! She is still very fussy eater of food and prefers limited diet of ragi, suzi, cerelac. Everything else must be often pureed in mixer and must be fed between running story and her favourite toons. She wouldn't eat even slightly spicy sabzi but will eagerly chew on indoori namkeen and kurkure. Her favourite vegetable is apparently lady-finger.
Vidhi got supply of new cartoons from her Mami. Brainy-Baby video of animals are her favourites. Words "dog" and "cat" always accompany "bow bow" and " meaw". She likes and asks for Vodafone's "zozo" ads.
Her mom and I have decided that if she (1) eats all regular food without fuss from anyone's hands, (2) goes to anyone and has fun without being clingy to her mom, then she will becomes the best-baby-in-the-world. She is smart (hows to throw stuff in dustbin, wipe after being wet, can fetch small objects, learns words super fast, observes and mimics) and just need to be sociable. Oh, she is grossly underweight but given everything else we'll let it slide.
Vidhi has ability to quickly impress people in first and short meetings. Given her mom is nearby, she doesn't cry much, is very active, speaks a lot, and generally comes across as nice kid. Her being youngest in her peer group helps that her infractions are excused. True colour is revealed at long exposure to Vidhi's tantrums. She cried her brains out when her mom went to toilet for total of one minute in train. This puts her mom under undue stress as she only needs to carry her (underweight but 8.5kg still), feed her, make her sleep, take her to toilet, bathe and change her, etc. And in some instances, Vidhi gets a mouthful, which she understands and either silences or erupts into sob.