Quirks...

Kodi's mom in all her sweetness graciously permitted me to post kutti boy's quirks instead of baby girl's (the second one gets less attention being her original reasoning). In our case it is quite the opposite it seems like. Well of course as parents we are being way more relaxed with our second compared to the first child. But in terms of attention I can see that this little girl is slowly and steadily hogging away attention from my sweet son! Well something about being a girl child and being chubby I guess..and may be because after a long time there is a little baby girl in both sides of the family - every one is enjoying the girly cuteness...
My brother who used to be mad about my son (and still is but likes to tease me by deliberately acting like he now only favors my daughter) - after he came for baby girl's naming ceremony - is all nuts about her. He calls me and asks me first about her and then about kutti boy. I get upset and refuse to answer him unless he tells me "ok ok they are both No.1 to me"! :) In light of this I humbly requested Kodi's mom to permit me to post on the first child rather than the second! And also because Kutti boy has more quirks I can write about than baby girl who is only 3m old and is one "chill out" happy camper!

Now for a few quirks that come to mind - in some random order.

a) Kutti boy (KB) is a stickler when it comes to certain things. For example - when it is night time he has to go around the living and dining rooms and close all the blinds. He goes around saying "Kalose, Kalose" and closes them. If he pulls something out of the drawer and he hears his father come back from work, he rushes to go downstairs to see him...but even in that excitement he remembers to close the drawer before he goes downstairs.

b)He loves to act silly and play silly. For example - he will pick up a little flash card and suddenly put it against his ears and say "hallou" as if it is a phone. And then he will put that on his head and say "Hat". And put that same card on his eyes and say "Gulass" (glasses). Put it against his neck on the back and say "Jacket"! :) All in quick succession smiling away!

c)He loves music. Among the music quirks: he stands by the synthesizer or the CD player as it plays songs and he acts like he is a music conductor and sways his hand up and down (with his fingers cupped as if he is holding a stick in his hand - I have no idea where he got this - he has never "seen" a symphony ever).

d) Sometimes he sits in his car seat or on the couch and for a few seconds one can see a song is playing in his head because he is swaying his hands like a conductor.

e) He makes up random silly little songs...For example he calls Butterfly - Balasee. Last night before going to bed while his dad was changing his diaper he started singing "Light ona non anon anon"...in a sing song tone. B repeated in the same sing song tone after him. He immediately looked around and saw a butterfly balloon and said "Balasee lasee lasee lee" in the same musical way. And went on with other objects in the room.

f) He is crazy about shapes. Has been since he was a baby. Especially circles. He used to call circle "Ka Li". Now he says circle and Kali interchangeably. When he was close to one he used to look at the full moon and say "Ka li". And I used to worry as to how to make him look at the object rather than it's parts! Because I would show him the picture of a bus and he would look at the head lights and say "Ka li"! If I remove two square shaped dog stickers from the sticker book, he asks me to pick up the rectangle (says it as "duguthang") from underneath and give it to him! He looks at the stalk of a bell pepper and says "hesagan"!

g) He is a drama king. Loves fake coughs. Always a real cough is followed by couple of fake ones for effect. And he then looks at me. If I don't ask him "Are you okay?", he will prompt me and say "Are you okay?"! And of late every day for either lunch or dinner - we play this drama. He will adamantly refuse the food. Then my mom will come and say "Paati kudukanuma, Amma kudukanumma?". (You want Patti or Amma to give it?") And he will say "Vendama". (don't want food). And my mom will say "Patti dhan kudukka poren" (Patti will feed you). And he will say "Mamma, Mamma". And my mom will tell him "Appo, koopdu Ammave, Vaa maa koopdu. Sapadren maa sollu" (Call out for your mom, tell her "I will eat"!). I will be in the living room all this while and I have to come back to the table when he says "Sapadren maa...vaa maa..!" Sometimes we have to go through two rounds of the same drama before he starts eating!

h)He gets so frustrated if while playing blocks a piece doesn't fit where he wants to put it. He starts crying! I don't know what to do about this!

i)He loves his little sister to bits. He calls her "Sister Papa" or "Kutti paapulu" - all his own terms. When I am nursing her and her little feet are sticking out, he drops what he is doing and comes running to her, holds her feet with shrill shreiks of "Kutti, kutti"...and grinds his teeth while petting her.

j)He loves to imitate people. When he sees my mom eating Chapathi he imitates her jaw movements. When he sees B drinking Gatorade and swishes it in his mouth after a run, he imitates that. When he sees B stretching after his jog, he imitates that in the most adorable manner with his little legs outstretched and his hands trying to touch his feet. He imitates my nephew's sudarshan kriya breathing exercises...imitates his little sister crying exactly in the same tone!

Ok I think I need to stop here so any lone reader who actually makes it this far doesn't fall asleep totally! I realize also this is more for my own record! I may forget all this about him! Thanks Kodi's mom - thanks to you I have some of this in writing!