Vedika - Day 582

"Aa gaya" and "chala gaya" define recurring themes of words Vidhi uses these days. Every person and object gets its presence announced by "aa gaya" and absence by "chala gaya", be it papa, chacha, mummy, aunty, ant, cow, or airplane. She would randomly call out things like cow or airplane, and when asked where, will simply say "chala gaya".

Aeroplanes are her favourite in-thing these days. Even a sound of passing plane will have her running to nearest member shouting 'aeroplan' and demanding to be taken to balcony to see it. Even when she is sleeping or drowsy, mention of very word in communication will have her alert and ready to run. She understand "aeroplane wings" as additional component, thanks to her Mom, and will actively point them out to us.

Vidhi is showing signs of becoming the grown up person she will be, at least till puberty hits her. She understands the context and meaning of 'shh' and talking in whispers. When she is made to sleep at night, she is at her playful best, with peek-a-boo within the sheets and talking in whisper lest mom hears her. Radhika is annoyed by my such attempts as this distracts from environment of absolute silence that must be created for Vidhi to fall asleep but it feels like such a fun time between father and daughter against mother.

Today she tried to do an absolute adorable thing. I had laid out photocopy of my PAN card on A4 paper and she tried to pick PAN card only, obviously to fail, repeatedly, not realizing that it's an image over larger white paper and not an separate object.

Vidhi visited Mysore Dassera prior weekend - the one where I lost my iPhone 4s - and enjoyed parts of morning in the zoo. Possibly not as much as I had hoped because enclosure of zoo kept most animals quite far from her and vision was short. She fell asleep in the middle of rounds.

Vedika - Day 578

Vidhi's vocabulary as of today...

A apple aeroplane ant anklet aunty auto

B banana balloon baby butterfly biscuit bird ball bat bag bear bangles bottle bell baby book back bye-bye bend

C car cat close clock chin chocolate cow cockroach chair cheeks curtain clean colour cap circle comb crocodile catch clap

D donkey dog duck doll drum dustbin door done

E elephant eyes ears earrings

F fish forehead flower fan finger finish fly

G goat good-day good-night gym giraffe

H horse house head hair hen hot hippo hands

I

J jump

K kite kangaroo kitty

L lion lips legs leapord light

M monkey moon mouth mango milk

N no nose nest nails neck

O open office owl orange onion on off

P pant pigeon pencil pen peacock potty put-in pink phone

Q

R rabbit rice

S sun spoon star sky shoes stick-it stone stana spider see-saw socks

T teeth tummy toes tea teapot tounge tub tata throw tree TV

U umbrella uncle up

V

W watch

X

Y

Z zebra

Vedika - Day 556

Vidhi got her 18th month vaccination of DPT this Saturday. For the first time, unfortunately, she suffered from her fever that lasted about 48 hours. During that period her body was very hot, her crying incessant and loud, and her body rigid and legs stiff. She recovered fully on Monday, though she still had difficult standing on her own. It was her first ailment and our first ordeal into infantile pain.

Oh, and on Tuesday night she cried non-stop for three hours from 2am-5am for no reason whatsoever. First bout from 2-4am was for no known reason. Second bout was because she didn't want to, yet still wanted to, watch videos on mobile.

Vedika - Day 549

Happy one-and-an-half year birthday Vedika!

(this is time where her Mum realizes that may be she doesn't like name Vidhi and wants to go by Vedika, because apparently, there was a girl named Vidhi in her life, who was her friend, who wasn't that good girl)

Below are key pictures from her last six months...

Vedika - Day 514

Today she came with broom and dirt hopper in full pretence of cleaning.

When I tried to blow her inflatable plastic hammer, instead of using it to "bumm" our heads, she mimicked (tried?) blowing up toy herself. So cute.

She now mimics God's Puja by moving her arms around and chiming bell in her hand chanting something which sounds like "om bhoor bua swaha."

Vedika - Day 500

Vidhi can now kiss you back without you forcing her lips to your cheeks. She understands instructions and makes the right sound of kissing. She even kissed her mother without being asked to. She shows more affection to her Teddy Bear than she does to people around her.

"Happy ... To You" is her version of famous birthday song.

Vedika - Day 479

Many notes...

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.

Vedika - Day 453

Vidhi is making rapid progresses on vocabulary and ambulatory front. Today marks the first day when she is able to stand up on her own without external support as this gives further and final push to her efforts of walking as primary means of movement rather than crawling. Today also saw first inkling that our walls will no longer be clean any more as Vidhi rushed to colour them after defiling floor already. My baby is growing up!

Vedika - Day 426

Vidhi's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds! Words that she seem to shout these days - all picked up in last few weeks - include "achchhee" (sneezing sound, copying her mother), "flower", "button", "pigeon", "chinti" (ant), "khana", "shoes","dog","cat","meaow","hen","teeth","tree","hello","open","done".

She also understands "nose" and "eyes" though she cannot pronounce them yet.

Vedika - Day 424

No words will do justice ...