The world around

- Shaunak has a baby brother now. He was born a couple of weeks ago, we are yet to go to Mumbai to see him. Shaunak turned 2.

- A few more babies in Ojas.

- Arnav is now settled in Australia. Ketaki has gone to the US.

- Aaditi will mostly shift to Kothrud in a few months time

Tihir

Mihir is greatly influenced by his imaginary brother 'Tihir' - I invented this character, rather had to. Tihir is the guy who does all the wrong things and as a result sleeps on the Terrace everyday.

This is how it works (Statutory Warning: These behavior depictions can create permanent fear about kids in the minds of people who dont have kids yet. But they are true stories.)

Scenario 1:
Mihir: I will not wear clothes when I go to school today.

Daddy: Oh, ok. Tihir tried that the other day and he felt very cold..the terrace is soooo windy you know.

Mihir: Daddy, I want to wear clothes, I am not Tihir.

Scenario 2:
Daddy/Mummy: Mihir, brush your teeth and do your 'susu' before you go to bed

Mihir: I dont want to brush teeth. I will do susu in bed today.

Daddy: Tihir does that actually...thats why he sleeps on the terrace

Mihir: Daddy lets go to the bathroom!

Scenario 3:
Mihir licks walls. He is asked to stop right away, he keeps doing it.

Daddy: Mommy, this is not Mihir, he must be still at school. This guy is Tihir, make sure he sleeps on the terrace tonite.

Wall-licking stops right away.

PS: My friend Amit Kumar (from office) has a one year old. He read somewhere that parents should practice to not use Negatives (like the word 'No') to tell children what is ok and what is not in terms of behavior. He has taken it up seriously and tells me that this has fantastic results when applied on his sweet one-year-old Aayushi. I am eagerly waiting for Aayushi to complete 2 years.

Mihir at 2 years and 9 months

- Has learned that adding an 's' to anything is used to identify the plural. He probably picked that up in school and he uses it everywhere, even with Marathi words. His usage '1 kaju, 2 kajus', '1 khurchi, 2 khurchis', '1 pakshi, 2 pakshis' and so on.

- Makes it a point to not miss the 4 Pm cookery show on Zee Marathi hosted by Prashant Damle(Aamhi Saare Khavaiye) everyday. Applies his observations from that show to his play. These days he uses real ingredients like Rajma seeds, Cashew nuts, etc with this play utensils and does 'real' cooking operations on them (like he sees on that show) - including cutting, chopping, refrigerating, soaking etc. He then 'serves' his dishes to us.

- Becomes impatient at birthday parties and asks for cake even before it is cut :) Puts us in a somewhat embarrassing spot but explaining to him that this is not how it is done is yet to yield results.

- Keeps referring to his teacher and school every now and then. Also comes home with bruises and bumps almost everyday but does not tell us how he got them.

- Bath is a big pain everyday. Always associated with high decibel levels.

- Attends my conference calls sometimes (I take most of my calls from home). He says a lot of things on the call, thankfully the phone has a mute button. (On some calls, he is the only one who talks sense).

- 'Listens' to TV soaps while playing, doesn't watch much. Yet that day there was a picture of Smita Talwalkar and her daughter-In-law in some magazine and he correctly told his aaji which soap either acts in. ("Hi na aaji, Abhilaasha madhye aste and ti ahe na, ti Asambhav madhye aste").