Starting play group for Aarush

After a long battle with myself, I finally gave into my hubby's wishes and decided to search for a play school for Aarush.
We saw a couple of those, met the staff, questioned the teacher but could not still make the decision to send him. The thought of him being with the strangers, not only to him but to us too, did something strange to me...

Then one day, my mom told me that we can try sending Aarush to a nearby play group which her friend runs..
Today, we went and met the principal, saw the school. It wasn't very big or those extra modern 5 star hotel kinds..But it had a homely feel to it. The staff was experienced.
The factor that the principal was known to my mom did make a lot of difference...

And so it was decided that Aarush will start going there initially for 1-2 hours....

I felt the pain, the anxiety which every parent must have gone through for searching a play school, because we all want the best for our kids!!!

Cheers to us all!

Rule #1: Parents name their babies and not the other way round

Yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.

(Morpheus, in "The Matrix")

In general we the parents name their babies and tell them their and our names. Aarush started speaking and remembering words a few months back (Mumma is the first word) and I was happy that he learnt to pronounce my name quite clearly. But these are just the rules or mere guidelines. And rules are meant to be bent. A couple of weeks back, Aarush suddenly started calling me with a different name. And from that day onwards I did not hear "Neerav" from him. The new name is "Neennu". For past four years my wife was looking for a nick name for me, I think now she has found one.

The day when mankind discovered wheels

The battery driven scooter which my son got on his first birthday still continues to be a passion for him even after 7 months..
Every morning the first thing he wants to do is take a ride on it...He has figured out that the more the pressure used to press the pedal, the more the desired speed..
Though besides driving the scooter on all its wheels, Aarush has figured out different ways of driving it...
Out of the three wheels, one is battery operated and two are manual, till few days back he used put the scooter on its one side and manually rotate the wheel.....and if the side too had to be according to his wish...
These days, he choses the side which has automatic wheel up, pushes the pedal and enjoys the scooter in motion.....SIDEWAYS!!!

Father's Day

I was in Washington, DC for a week on an official trip so was away from Aarush for about 10 days or so. When I met him after returning, he was a bit shy and was not able to contain his joy. 06/15 was Father's day but we celebrated Father's Week. Aarush being 18 months old can not buy any materialistic gift for me but had certain things up his sleeve.

The best gift for a dad would be that his kids learn new skills. I'll give you guys a glimpse of what he learnt in past couple of weeks:

1. Acupressure: As per dictionary acupressure means "treatment of symptoms by applying pressure with the fingers to specific pressure points on the body". I have 5 moles on my face. Aarush recently learned acupressure (I don't know how) and applies his skills on all of them.
2. Self Defense: Aarush goes to a nearby town park every evening. These days that park is full of kids of all shapes, sizes and age. Usually, there is a group of (older) kids who practice judo (or any other for of martial arts, they all look the same). Aarush observes them daily for about 10-15 minutes and tries to imbibe whatever he can. We got to know about his newly acquired skill a couple of days back when he demonstrated it at home and was looking damn cute when he uttered those "hooo-haaa" while waving his hands.
3. Responsible These days Aarush's mom is in Maryland and would be returning in first week of July. But while she's not here, Aarush takes care that I do not forget her. He reminds me daily about her side of bed and doesn't let me sleep on that side.