Vedika - Day 649

These days Vedika is absolutely adorable. Unless she is crying. And she still does, waking up suddenly in night, reciting unknowable phrases, and indicating perhaps, though one cannot be sure, signs of nightmares.

Her vocabulary is expanding at rapid rate. Her knowledge has moved from nouns to colours and shapes. She understands equivalence of Hindi and English words referring to same object and action. We had feared her lack of understanding colours which is quickly disappearing. She has gotten decent grasp on vegetables and fruits. And while she still cannot, naturally, carry out conversation in any specific domain, her word repertoire is enough to carry out regular conversation to all extent of daily life.

Her imagination is seeing signs of ripening for she can discern patterns of animals in shadows and dirt marks. She can mimic her mom's cooking with grass, stone and dirt as ingredients. She can recite counting from one to fifteen, alphabets from A to Z, and all seven days of week. Often times she does this subconsciously for when asked, she falters. She has great memories of all the rhymes which we played to her over the years. She can sing along fully to Johny Johny, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCD song, and few others. She has developed preference for Teletubbies too and while it's not sure if she understands anything other than Twinky-winky, Dipsee, Lala, Pooh she does recite and delights in these names.

She has matured a little to be managed by her papa and chacha for hours as long as she is paid full attention to. She plays, demands action (swings on legs, or horse-riding), and teases. Her shoulders half hunched, eyes sparkling, hands raised, ready to dhappi is often her favourite way of sneaking at our back or reaching out to us. She still doesn't understand concept of hide-and-seek and while she can find someone who is hidden, when asked to hide, remains obviously visible and near the seeker.

She has developed a new style of hand twisting, sign of her early dance moves, which she repeats when excited. On recent birthday of her Chacha, she was the one who blew candles. Four times. She seem to love this!

Vedika was fond of brushing her teeth from day one. She still is. We've got her an small toothbrush. She demands toothpaste too, though dentist recommended fluoride free toothpaste for kids, we cannot find any, and we give her a sliver of regular one. She must participate in any tooth brushing session, morning or evening. Currently, she just eats her toothpaste but still does all the regular motions. As touchy as she is in any other matter, you can freely take her toothbrush and brush her teeth yourself, and she'll let you do it. She tries to spit but cannot and having drunk toothpaste and water, just spits out her spit.

She has become absolutely choosy about clothes she wants to wear. There isn't any pattern though, and it appears primarily to be driven by her desire to not wear anything. She runs about when robing or disrobing her. And if her mind is set of not wearing a baniyaan or frock then God have mercy. Her tiny naked frame running around avoiding clothing is a sight to see.