Word Attack!!

Azhaan Speak!

I play this game with Azhaan every day to see how much he knows about his family. I sit with him and tell him the names of people he knows and he tells me what he calls them. Here’s how our conversation goes:

Me: Azhaan, Andaleeb kaun hai?

Az: Mummy (mimmy, mammy, or ammi depending on his mood)

Me: Saboor

Az: Bua, Bwa

me: Ammi

Az: Nanji

me: Sidra

Az: Yaya(chaya also sometimes!)

me: Parvez

Az: Chacha

me: Anjum

Az: Chachi

me: Rayaan

Az: Baby, beebee, beebwee

me: Papaji

Az: Paeppaja or Peja

me: Junaid

Az: Mama

me: Shazu

Az: Phuppu

me: Dadu(what Sab calls my mil)

Az: Pa, or Apa(he calls her Apa because thats what my mom calls her…:D)

me: Abbu

Az: Jaea…from Jee, its evolved to Jaea, or sometimes Jaeee…I have no idea why he calls his father that…

me: Mansoor

Az: Chacha! (I keep telling him, your abbu’s name is Mansoor but he doesn’t understand!)

And lastly,

me: Azhaan

Az: Mai mai( and he taps his own chest!)

And this is something I had better record before he grows up and forgets it!!

I love this stage of kids growing up when they are learning to speak! he’s growing up so soon, mashallah and soon this will just be a memory.

School starts tomorrow!

Saboor’s school starts tomorrow. I’m relieved like anything. Two months of having him at home all day is enough to turn your hair gray! Add a distended larynx to that…from screaming at him constantly. Whew!

I suppose Az and Rayaan will miss him most during the day. I’m waiting for the day I can pack off Az also to school! God…How I dread the time it will take for him to get acclimatized to school! Saboor cried from June, right till August! And only then he kind of settled down in his kindergarten. Az here is more clingy and I dread the hard time we’ll have when I enroll him in pre-school next year, inshallah! Some people think 2.5 years is too young for a child to go to preschool. Someone ask the harried mother!

And now I got to dig out that uniform and press it and everything….Sheesh! And what to make for lunch for him tomorrow…he always brings back whatever I send him almost untouched!

Kids!

My MIL had some suitcases outside and Az and Rayaan promptly made use of them as seats. They played on top of the suitcases and then at some point, Az felt very loving towards Rayaan and he bent over trying to kiss him, saying ‘BeeBee’. Rayaan, affectionate and bumbling lil fella that he is, thought that Az was now his friend and tried to topple him over in an enthusiastic response. Needless to say, before the day was at an end, Az had bitten Rayaan because he was by now absolutely fed up of Rayaan trying to be friendly with him! Kids!!

Himmesh in the making??? Aaargh!!!

Azhaan has developed a new hankering. He wants to wear his cap all the time. The moment I remove it, he starts screaming, ‘Inna, Inna’ by which he means, put it back on, put it back on!

He’s gone to sleep wearing the cap and even after he fell asleep he refused to let me touch the cap. I tried pulling it out, and he started screaming in his sleep!! What’s with the cap fixation? And he’s not even two years old!!! Sheesh!

Biting real hard

Azhaan has a habit of biting Rayaan. Sometimes he bites him just like that. For fun. Sometimes he’s provoked and he thinks this is the only way he can retaliate. And sometimes I don’t know what gets into him.

Tonight, he bit Rayaan on his back. I don’t know why because I was in the kitchen making rotis. I only heard Rayaan wail and scream and Parvez bhai(Rayaan’s father) who was in the kitchen, making a noodle stir fry for himself went running to see what the matter was. Before I even entered the room, I knew what the problem was. It was Azhaan obviously. He bit Rayaan so hard that blood was coming out of the wound. Anjum(Rayaan’s mother) cleaned the wound and applied some cream. While I dished out a lot of spanking to Azhaan. I know. Cruel of me. But I don’t know what to do. I couldn’t stand there just like that while Rayaan screamed his guts out and Parvez bhai looking so much in pain himself, and feeling helpless.

To top it all, Az was trying to be cute. He puckered his mouth in a bow and tried to trick me into believing he’s an angel. And he started saying ‘BeeBee’ which is what he calls Rayaan. I got really mad at him. Anyway, I behaved badly too.

With kids, these things are bound to happen everyone says. Well, if Rayaan and Azhaan had been twins, I might have handled this differently. But Rayaan is a baby belonging to another set of parents. Parents who cannot even vent their frustration out because the situation itself is awkward.

Anyway, once we go to our separate homes, I hope these biting incidents will really slow down. They have to!!