Neelu turns two!

Neel is quite the little fighter. A few days ago I offered to give them a piggy back ride but it would only work if Neel was in front. Well that was definitely not going to work for Simone, and so she started to fight. Neel had already clambered on my back and so here I was, on my hands and knees, with a kid on my back trying to fend off another kid's attack. But did Neel back down? Did he cower in fear or fright? Noooo. He climbed down and rushed to fight Simone, even though she is almost twice as large as him and has frequently demonstrated an ability and willingness to pound him into the ground. Little Neelu, always ready to fight.

I remember some scenes from his birthday vividly. I had gone to take a bath and I came out after the bath, and they were both quietly playing with their gadgets, Neel with some sort of etch-a-sketch device and Simone with the iPad. Wish they would always be so loving! Neel also decided he wanted 'shiso'. Shiso as I discovered was his way of saying 'cereal'. We had just got some new cereal in and so I fed it to him after dousing it in warm milk. He really liked it and I loved feeding it to him. Later on in the day he wanted it again, asking for it repeatedly. When I put the cereal in front of him, he said 'I want a spoon please' again and again until I gave him the spoon. He has perfect the art of repeating a request until it is fulfilled. But he asks for it so nicely, without rancor or anger, and you can't really say no. He is very mild-mannered child. Neelu then fed himself the cereal carefully and without spilling it. I put a bib on him but not one drop was spilt. I was very impressed.

For his birthday Neel got a vertical racing track that I had to put together. He and his sister enjoyed many rounds of racing cars on the track. I did have to force Simone to share equitably with Neel, pointing it out to her that it was his gift and not hers. Neel really loves his gift. It seems that overnight he has fallen in love with cars.

We dressed both kids and made it out to Costco and they BOTH fell asleep. Simone got the stroller and I had to schlep Neel on my shoulder the whole time. He is still little but carried a good amount of weight. In the afternoon, I took Neel to the storage space where he loved riding the cart that we use to transport stuff from the car to the storage space. He would do a 'dangle-dangle' where he dangled himself from the handlebar. He loved to do that.

He discovered the frame for the little toy stroller and made it his own toy, expertly pushing it all over the place. When it came time to return from the storage space, he refused to get in, saying 'No No No'. He wanted to instead go across the street, to a tree that contains a lot of birds and listen to them chirp. We did that for a bit and then I bribed him into getting back in the car with two goldfish crackers. It's like Scooby Snax for Neel.

We got home and dressed him up in a stylist outfit of a shirt, pants and a sweater and set out for the Grove. There we saw the penguin movie ad area, where both Neel and Simone posed for pictures. Neel was very taken by the trailer for the movie and squatted in front of the display and refused to move for a long time. We made our way to pottery barn where he fell in love with a car and his aunt ended up buying it for him. He never let go of that car all night. I had to feed him by hand because he would not put down the one car he had in each hand.

After Pottery Barn we waited in line at Cheesecake Factory where his Aunt also got him a piggy bank. I gave him a bunch of change and he shoveled it into the piggy bank. We then went up the escalator and down the stairs a few times. By the time it came for us to be seated, he was quite hungry and was clamoring for milk. We ordered water and milk and food. He didn't drink much of the milk but I managed to feed him by hand. He stayed away through his cake ceremony and then promptly passed out. He did manage to eat some cheesecake and especially at the glazed strawberry, or 'strawbie' as we call it.

What a lovely little boy you are, Neelu! I love you very much and love spending time with you. I know you won't stay little forever and that makes me enjoy the current times even more.