7 months, tag, quirks, update!

very month, this time rolls around, and I realise how hard it is for me to sit down and write proper updates. I am talking about Thambi's monthlies. And it is hard, not for any emotional reasons (heck no!), but simply for finding the right words to capture all that is current with him. And so, I let each day slide thinking I'll do it the next day. And before I know it, a monthly becomes a month + fortnight feature. But thank goodness for this tag by Kodi's mom, which gives me the much needed push to talk about the baby of the house, while revealing his quirks too.

I am happy to say that he has been settling in at the babysitting facility in my gym. The ladies there have found the secret to keeping him calm. As soon as I leave and he starts to fuss, they put him in the stroller, set him near the boom box, wrap a blanket over the stroller to block out any external stimulation, and let him fall asleep listening to the music. It makes complete sense to me, because that is how he sleeps at home too....listening to the music. And now...here's quirk # 1...his preferred music is rap music, and MC Hammer in particular. The ladies there swear by it.

Here's a quiz question : What does pizza sauce, cake, chappathis, bread, broccoli, ice-cream, coffee, gulab jamun and pancakes have in common? Answer : They have all found their way into the baby's mouth sometime or other in this past month. He is all agog about food now, only, not his baby food, but rather the novel exciting stuff that finds its way into all other mouths save his own. And already he has realised that he needs to be aggressive and demand his share, otherwise he ain't getting any! At least not till he sprouts a pearly or two! And the fun part is how he asks for it, and it becomes quirk # 2. The minute he spots a coffee cup, or an item of food in the near vicinity, his eyes open wide and become alight, his body turns stiff and he sits up straighter, his hands come to life as they get ready to reach out and grab and he starts to grunt confirming to me....that this is probably how the early man communicated. *grunt**grunt**grunt* until he gets a sampler. And *grunt**grunt**grunt* when he wants more. And the sweeter the item, the fiercer the grunt. I guess this effectively establishes the fact that he has a sweet tooth. Just like his Anna. Just like his Appa. And just like me!

I love playing little games with him. One of my favorites is the loyalty game. From time to time, I spring a bottle on him and test his steadfastness. And he n.e.v.e.r lets me down. So now the bottle has been relegated to the farthest corner in the shelf as a useless relic of his baby days. But thank God he doesn't treat the cup on the same footing. He likes to drink his water from it and sips like a champ, with the valves on. For me, this is a huge huge deal because Winkie never gave me the satisfaction of taking to a cup until it came to a struggle that lasted all thru to the end of his second year. Speaking of sipping, something funny and cute happened yesterday while we were at Ikea. We had bought a cold drink of Mountain Dew and were drinking it from a straw, when as usual, we heard the all too familiar grunt. *grunt*grunt*grunt* until his father brought the straw to his lips, thinking the most he could do would be to lick the straw. But the sipper champ did his thing, quite unexpectedly (I didn't think he would be able to counter the force of gravity!), and a sizzling burst of cold caffeinated fizz exploded in his tiny mouth, and he drew back in shock, his face contorted in the weirdest way possible! In a few seconds, he recovered though, and we discovered. That the sipper has already become defunct...he's ready for the straw!!

There's this other little game that I discovered quite by accident. Once you read it, you are going to think me a mean mommy to call it a game, leave alone having indulged in it quite a few times! If I raise my voice just a little bit, in annoyance, irritation or whatever, he immediately turns his face away from me. And keeps it turned, whilst stealing sly glaces at me every few seconds to gauge whether I am still irritated or annoyed. If I am, he turns away again and refuses to meet my eye. A few repeat rounds of this, and finally I smile. And I see a reflection of my smile on his face, as he relaxes and makes little sounds as if to say...Boy...that was a little scary, don't do that to me again Ma..! I was and continue to be simply astounded by the very adult emotion and reaction he displays during these times. And while that first time was an accidental discovery, the future repeat performances on my part, were not. How can I stop myself from watching him go from baby to little man and back to baby, in those few sweet minutes? *sigh*

The sight of Winkie gets him veeeeerrry excited. But there is a hidden clause in this. The optimal distance for his enjoyment has to be a good 3 feet above his Anna, which happens when he is perched in my arms or that of R. From this safe nest, he will watch Winkie and his antics in fascination, and bounce up and down in response. The minute they are within arm's reach of one another however, he becomes a little wary. For Anna, in all his sudden surges of love and affection has this tendency to squeeze his head a little too tight, while kissing him. And Thambi, likes that, not! Which brings me to the much overdue quirk # 3....Thambi's little jack-in-the-box springing antic. He suddenly springs to life, just as we are carrying him down the stairs while cautiously watching our step, and bounces and wriggles his whole body all over the place. And I just can't figure out what all the excitement is about, and why he launches into it at the precise point when we reach the 3rd step???

Okay, now I have a confession to make. A very silly, silly, and highly embarrassing one. And it is this : I make up many silly names for him. And talk to him in silly lang. And sing absolutely meaningless gibberish songs with great gusto. But this confession is not about talk and song...it is about the names. And its not a name outright....rather more of a little snippet verse in silly script which I use only for him, and which he knows is only for him. I conclude this because of the way he responds to me when I sing it. R picked it up too, and uses it sometimes, but it never gets that same instant look and smile as when I sing it. My mom picked it up too when she was here, and Winkie knows it by heart, tho he mixes up the words. (what words!!!) Okay...so you want to know what it is....I'll come out with it soon enough, after some more ramblings. The whole silly names thing actually deserves a whole separate post all of its own, because there have been so many that made the rounds at different points of time. Notable among them are *gulp*...Mushtaq Ahmed. Yup, you heard me right. I used to call little baby Thambi that from Month 1 to Month 4. And somewhere after that, the trail ended and it got left behind, in the annals of weird, but not so forgotten names. Now why would I nick my baby after a Pakistani leg spin bowler, you may wonder. Well, wonder all you want. Conjecture. Analyse. Fathom. But figure it out, you will not. Because figure it out, I have not! Its just one of those unexplained sillies! But I no longer call him that. What I call him now....correction..the little verse I sing to catch his attention...is a carefully rendered version and it goes like this...(and you probably need magnifiers to read this, for only the use of the smallest possible font size will allow me to come out with it!)

gustakhi ka mustakhi...

dushmana dushmana dustakhi!

And when that is done, I follow it up with...

kushmaniya dushmaniya

gundu gundu bushmaniya!

Okay, moving on, and fast!

Let's do #4 and make Thambi the quirky one again. This one is also about a song. But its a well known, established baby verse. Saanjaadu Amma saanjaadu...the minute I start singing it to him, he stops all movement and looks at me, riveted. Funny how a song that is supposed to have him rock back and forth in tune, makes him absolutely still. But I know the reason for that. It is the song that my mom always sang to him, and now when he hears it, he connects it to her, and stops in concentration. Its his lovable quirk. And a very useful one too. I store it deep inside, and brandish it, like a sword at the most opportune times, like when he deems he is done with eating and wants to blow messy raspberries instead; or when he can't even spare a few seconds for a diaper change, and wants to rollover and be on his way....I lovingly extract it and let the words escape my lips. And it stops him in his tracks. E.v.e.r.y time.

Speaking of stopping him in his tracks, this makes a definite quirk # 5! Ever since he learnt to roll over, that's all he wants to do and try. He is one of those practice-makes-perfection babies and not the quintessential new-skill-leads-to-next-skill child. In an attempt to challenge him to move forward, I enticed him with a little book that he could chew and munch on to his heart's content, placed some distance away. He stared at it for the longest possible time, part of the pensive strategy process, I reckon, and then managed to get ahold of it. But did he move forward like I planned he would? Nah ah! Why should he, when he can just roll this-a-way and that-a-way and this-a-way and that-a-way, and somehow find himself in the close vicinity of his drool-worthy object? I should just take him to the temple, let him have a go at it and accumulate some of the Almighty's favours in the process!

Okay okay, so I am being a little harsh on him...let's put things back on an even keel now. My baby has also learnt to confer sweet kisses. There are moments, when I suppose a rush of affection overcomes him, and he leans forward to plant some wet, slobbery ones on our cheeks. And there are moments, when the same rush of affection comes on, and instead of leaning forward himself, he will hook a hand around an ear (ours), another hand grasps the nose (ouch!) and anchored thus, he pulls himself close for the said contact. Lazy fellow! All said and done, it is terrifically blissful and flattering. Me and R always keep a count of who packed in more of these k's on a particular day. And I got a head start just today morning, when the chosen moment arrived just after we came home after dropping Anna to school. He hooked with his right, he grasped with his left, leaned in close and made my day. And just for that, I will choose to disregard the little scratches he left behind, reminding me to cut his nails!

And speaking of sweet nothings, a weekday morning ritual has established itself in our lives. We now undertake the morning drive to the train station to drop R off, who gets out of the car, opens Winkie's side of the door first, ruffles his hair and kisses him goodbye. All this while Thambi watches on silently. Then R closes the door and starts walking over to the other side. And the minute he closes the door, Thambi turns his face towards the window waiting for his father to reappear and kiss him goodbye. We make special note of it everyday. And I relish how he has tuned into this bit of regularity and has learnt to anticipate it. I just love it!

*For someone who has trouble finding the words, she sure has a lot to say!* Well, if that's what you are wondering, then its time to wrap up this post! So I'll do it with his last quirk. # 6. He coughs when he wants to get our attention. And he coughs as a way of speaking. He coughs to communicate something. At first, I got a little stressed thinking he was suffering from a very irritant throat. But pretty soon, I realised that he's just being deliberately noisy and practicing a new sound that he has learnt to produce. And going by his penchant for ""practice"", the cough is here to stay.

Am leaving you here with a snapshot of Thambi taken on the day he completed 7 months, and capturing one of his firsts....the first ever time he sat on a swing in the park, and he rather enjoyed it. It was a breezy evening, and the gentle up and down motion of the swing, put him in a trance.

And now for the business of winding up the tag of little quirks, I specifically tag the young man Chip, Ana, Little N and Chula!

And now for my very own tag...called the silly names tag, I tag Kodi's mom as a thank you gesture for getting me started on all of the above. Also on the tag list are :

The Mad Momma, UTBT, Boo & Moppet's Mom. I am hoping you guys will come up with sillier ones than mine!

Rules of the tag, if not already clear are : To reminisce and own up to all the silly names you have used to fondly refer to the main protagonists in your lives, and please...spread the tag love people!

Edited to add : I am also tagging Mnamma, especially after her comment confession of eccentric sillies. :D. I leave the rest of the bloggers' names for the tagged ones to pick up. I don't want to appear greedy, you see.

And now, I am off, to go wake up a sleeping, 7 and 1/2 month old Thambi, with my special song! ;)