Ro's latest....

Rohan will be 19 months old on Monday next week and he is still the sweet, playful, happy baby…as long as he gets his way. The terrible twos approach! Almost overnight, he can say so many more words (punkin, tukkey, cook me apples, gobble gobble have been added to his vocab), recite most of the alphabet, numbers, and even demands for specific songs to be sung to him at bed time. He has become more insistent and explores how far he can go before getting yelled at to stop doing something.

Elmo has his undivided attention and devotion, not Amma, not Papa. The mere mention of Elmo makes him stop doing whatever he is doing, even if he is fussing about a diaper change and he listens intently. Over the last few days I have been using that as leverage to get him to eat dinner “If you take one more bite, I will let you watch Elmo”- you get the picture. I feel so bad when I have to stop making him watch because he has this look of pure joy on his face when he says “Elmaaa” when I ask if I can stop the video. If the house is quiet during his dinner time more than likely he is engrossed in watching Elmo videos and we won’t hear a peep from him.

There is an Elmo toy that sits on his crib rail and as soon as he sees it, he says “Elmaaa” and holds it close to him and sleeps next to it on the pillow. If I ask him what PJs he wants to wear, he always prefers his “Elmaaa” pjs and will pick it out if it’s in the laundry basket! I already have the next size Elmo t-shirt ready for him :) He got invited to attend a toddler birthday party at an indoor play area and met a life size Elmo there. For a few minutes he didn’t know what to do or how to react. I had to push him to go give Elmo a hug and sure enough, he didn’t want to let Elmo go! I guess we don’t have a choice but to have an Elmo themed 2nd birthday party.

Anything with a monkey on it is the only other thing that comes close to getting this kind of a response from him. I finally hung up some art in his room and got matching crib sheets etc. There are two monkey paintings and a couple giraffe cutouts. He has a big smile on his face when he says “monkey” and correctly points to them. He can say giraffe too but it doesn’t elicit the same response as the monkey does. The monkey pjs he always preferred got forgotten once he got the Elmo pjs! Curious George books and videos are tolerated but he doesn’t get too excited.

His cleanliness and attention to detail is growing. Along with still picking up little pieces of dust and throwing it in the trash can, he now insists on pulling every door closed behind him. His new favorite thing to clean with is the broom with the handle. Of course he puts it right into the pot with the plant digging up the soil, which is my cue to take the broom away. He can get his summer sandals out of the shoe closet and puts them away when we are back inside. He patiently waits for me to gather keys and cell phone, holds my hand and walks to the door.

He says “Ya” for most questions except when I ask him if he wants to take a nap or get his diaper changed. Those are met with either protests or silence. I have to share the video where I asked him “Do you love amma, papa, all family members” and he says “Ya”. Of course, the “Do you love Elmo?” and “Do you love cookies?” got the loudest “YA”s.

He still sits in the empty kitchen cabinets but pulls out plastic containers and scatters them everywhere before the inevitable clean up later. He opens the pantry door and knows exactly where the banana cookies are. As soon as I get home, he stands in front of the snacks and says “Cookie…cookie”. I can’t fool him by handing him some other snack. He can say “nice” and “yummy”. Last weekend I was trying to get him to eat scrambled eggs and said “mmm mmm Rohan” and he immediately said “yummy!”. He also says “nutella” and demands bread toast with nutella from our plates. If I cut some fruit up and put it in a plate, he says “fork” if I haven’t given him one! He identifies hot things now and as soon as he comes near the stove he says “hot!”. If we are eating chapatis, he says “thaapati” and if I say it’s not chapati, then he asks for “naan”.

He has been read his books so many times that I just have to open the page and he can tell me what’s on the page. There is a book called “Night and Day” – a book of opposites and he says hot/cold, foot/hand, mommy/daddy, boat/plane etc.

Most days he is asleep when I head out in the morning but if he is awake, the first thing he says is “miiilk” and reminds me if I don’t give it to him in a reasonable amount of time. If I am already downstairs, he shouts out “miiilk” from the top of the steps till I give it to him. As soon as he has the bottle in his hands, he waves bye :)

He cries as soon as we walk into the doctor’s office and through all that crying he keeps waving bye. He waves bye bye to the nurses and doctor during his checkup telling them they should go away and not give him shots. He even waves bye to the toilet when he flushes it. He also cried so much when we took him to get a haircut that the lady there didn’t cut it short. So we had our first experience trying to cut his hair at home this past weekend. I just hope he doesn’t remember how bad his parents were with a pair of scissors.

He keeps saying “Paati, thaatha, aunty, amma, papa” over and over again. I feel sooo bad that he can’t be closer to both sets of grandparents. When he talks to them on the phone or on FaceTime he is so loving and affectionate, talking with a soft voice. He can identify family from photos and hogs the phone if we call anyone. He puts the phone correct side up to his ear and starts his jibber jabber.

We are outdoors most evenings since the weather is so nice and he pulls grass, wants to water the plants if I have the garden hose out, and even wants to skip rope with the girls across the street. He can say “pick”, “weed” and “grass”.

Ro has both of us wrapped around his little finger and Papa lets him get away with most anything with very few exceptions. I am the one who tries to discipline Ro but maintaining a straight face when he is saying something back in his baby language is not an easy thing to do. It’s so cute when he talks back with this hurt look on his face. Most times I just start giggling and have to turn away.

Oh…the most exciting thing over the last couple weeks has been that he is sleeping through the night in his crib for the most part!! YAY!!