My little boy!

My little boy Neelu!

You are an absolute delight to me. Whether you are running around holding a DVD box saying "Bheem Bheem Bheem" (the title of an Indian children's cartoon), or trying to fight back against your (for now) physically stronger sister, you always hold your own.

You have recently transitioned from sitting in a high chair to sitting at the table. I can't wait for you to abandon the rocking chair. You already request that, saying "Bed" whenever I try to put you to sleep. I will be so glad to toss that space-hogging machine out the door.

But you won't sleep in the crib. It has turned into a dumping ground for papers, or your sister's birthday presents, laundry hamper, etc. That crib cost us a pretty penny, Neelu. I hope you will reconsider.

You have now mastered the art of getting off the bed. Frequently at around 10 PM, after sleeping for 2-3 hours, you will toddle out of bed and into the living room, half asleep, and collapse in my arms. It is a wonderful feeling but then I have to coax you back to bed.

When you wake up at night, around 2 Am, crying, I have learned to ask you if you want 'doodhoo' (milk). You will say 'Yeah', and I will then toddle out of the bed, into the kitchen to make you your milk. Then I give you the bottle, you drink a bit, hand the bottle back and go back to blissful sleep.

You really enjoy shoving everything into a glass of water. Today, we made an ill-advised trip to a restaurant. You dipped the taco shell into the glass of water. It was nasty but it kept you occupied so we left you alone. The, when the cake came, we fed you most of it, and then you insisted on trying to feed yourself the rest. You did an OK job.

You have learnt many words now. And phrases. You say phrases like "I want it". You also say "this", "song" when you mean guitar, and you even somehow recite the humpty dumpy poem.

Perhaps the cutest thing you do is when you play the guitar. We say '1-2-3' and you start strumming away on your little guitar like a rockstar, with your curls flying. You sing twinkle twinkle little star, as only a parent can love. You even trill the last word, 'sky', like I taught you.

When I come home, your sister and you race to the door. Of course, she beats you to the door and you start sobbing. But I always pick you up first, telling your sister that the little ones go first. I think she gets her revenge by punching you when we are not looking. You gotta fight back, Neel. Can't let women run all over you at this young age. You have to wait until you are much older for that.

Your curls are so pretty, we have never done the traditional head-shaving (mundan). I was never into it anyway, as I didn't see the point. But we now see that your hair is straightening out, which does not bode well for your rock star career.

I love how you have mastered the iPad. You can unlock the device, use your finger to navigate through the screens, find a game that you like and amuse yourself. I am glad we deleted the Netflix app. I was seeing some really sketchy stuff being played, Mr. Neel. We need to have a talk about that later.

Speaking of having a talk, I was hoping to have to save this for another decade and change, but you have developed a fascination with your thingie. You love to play with it. And, you are quite open about it. You even start to pull your diaper off so you can get to it. Do you think you could do us a favor and put the diaper back on, when you are done?

Thank god, that unlike your sister, you do not go absolutely bananas in the shower when I was your hair. You are actually quite peaceful as I scrub your ample curls. Simone was an absolute terror at it, but you are very peaceful. Thanks buddy, I really couldn't have handled two kids going nuts over having their hair washed.

You also do cute things when it comes to people. When your mama comes to visit, you wait outside and say 'mymee', 'mymee' until she comes into view.

You figured out how to open the door, and you even made it outside once, so we had to install a security keychain. When you discovered the keychain, you threw a tantrum. That's OK, we'd rather have you throw a tantrum and annoy us than face the sheer terror of not being able to find you in the house. You are far too precious to us.

Finally I'd like to address the issue of "tenk you" and "Yo welcome". We have to work on these, you don't get to say both.

You are only four months away from your 2nd birthday. I don't know what year 3 holds, but I am so looking forward to it, my little boy!