Not just narrations, but expressed feelings make their way through Anika’s short conversations. When the happiness is intense enough and unstoppable, Ms. Pandey whispers: Anika is so happy.

Through the course of our trip, Ms. Pandey grew even more caring as time progressed.

Aur chahiye, Nai chahiye, Vahan Pe, Who that? Singalongs, Storytelling, Independence, Multi-words and phrases (09/01) What’s thaaaaat? (McDonald’s fly, smoke, motor) (09/05) Mama Anika Gugga Daddy going walkie walkie Safeway (10/01) Simple pleasures of life – stone throwing, carousels, sandcastles (09/20) Complete songs – Happy Birthday, Twinkle, Lakdi ki kathi (10/15) Jealousy – Mama walkie…

 This Fourth of July weekend, we decided to drive down Highway 1 to San Simeon and then onwards to Morro Bay to soak in the California sunshine. As an added benefit, we sneaked in one of those guided tours to William Randolf Hearst’s lavish country home – the Hearst Castle. As impressive as it was,…

Anika seems to be figuring out what fear is, and the first thing that seems to bother her is darkness. She was happily strolling out with Daddy to check the mail at 10 in the night, and out of habit, darted out from the front door towards the lawn. A few seconds later, she was…

It seems like Daddy is the gullible one when it comes to thumbsucking. When Mama is around, either the thumb is never sucked upon, or Ms. Pandey bursts into tears crying “No-no, Mama, no-no”, recalling the stern instructions from Mama. But, when only Daddy is around, the thumb is quietly slipped in, and Daddy is…

Every time Mama put Anika into the car seat, she used to say, “Let me buckle the baby into her car seat”. Ms. Pandey has picked up the tag line, and now as soon as the car stops and Ms. Pandey finds herself still strapped in, she starts asserting “Buckle, Baby, buckle, baby, buckle baby..”,…

Coherent, longer sentences seem to be getting easier for Anika to speak. Current examples, in relation to her strongest desires, seem to be: “Le’go (Lets go) aaoottide (outside).” “Le’go (Lets go) check may (check mail).” Some rhymes are also getting good treatment. The full versions of Twinkle-twinkle little star and Baa-Baa black sheep are now…

The current fad seems to be to force Mama and Daddy to do exactly the same acts that Ms. Pandey is doing. Yesterday, she sat on the apartment steps and asked Mama to “Mama, sit”. Poor Daddy was still standing, and that was unbearable, so she quickly responded, “Daddy, Daddy, sit”, patting her puny hands…

Ms. Pandey knows her way around. Literally. Today, Mama asked Anika to lead us to the mail box, which is a good 6-7 apartments away, and involves multiple turns. Not only were we lead successfully to the mailbox, but were guided back to our apartment after the mail had been collected. Ms. Pandey paused intermittently…

Mama is on a mission! She had a nightmare where Ms. Pandey’s teeth were sticking out like a rabbit’s, and guys were not willing to date her. All because of Ms. Pandey’s horrible thumb sucking habit. So every time the thumb was moved close to the mouth, a strong “No-no!” was uttered for 2 –…

Usually, its a tough act to get Ms. Pandey to say “Bye” to Daddy when he goes to the office, amidst all the hollering for “aaoottide, aaoottide, birdie, birdie, pool!”. Today, for some reason, an extra ounce of care swept her aside as she quietly whispered “Bye! See you Daddy!” Of course, Mama doesn’t remember…

Sadaf and Kazi were visiting us, and therefore Mama and Daddy were busy chatting, while Ms. Pandey was nitpicking through the bowl of fruit loops, when the whole bowl scattered all over the carpet. Initially Ms. Pandey didn’t lose her cool, and started collecting the fruit loops one by one back into the bowl, but…

When both Mama and Daddy are sticklers for cleanliness and order (though they are turning out to be extremely lazy in following through), Ms. Pandey could not be far behind. If Ms. Pandey finds pieces of paper – big or small – lying around the house on the floor, she picks them up and runs…

Mama’s tummy was not in the best of conditions, but her taste glands were revolting from the bland food. So Mama decided to cook her favorite cauliflower dish without informing Daddy. When Daddy realized the gross misconduct, there was a 5 minute lecture on why this was terrible for Mama (as always). I firmly asked…

Doe.. Deer, Female.. Deer, Ray.. Sun, Me.. name.. self, Far.. long long.. run, so.. needle.. thread, la.. so, tea.. bread, doe

Ms. Pandey was at a party with us, wearing her Dora-branded sandals. While wandering around, a 5 year-old came to her and pointed to her own shirt, and said “I am wearing Dora”. Ms. Pandey probably got the gist of the conversation, and in her own bragging way, pointed to her sandals and squealed “Dora!”.

Anika has gone through a whole list of identification procedures for most of her body parts, and points to them when asked about her forehead (“fore-te-te-te-te”), chin, eyes, nose, ears, hair, cheeks, and tummy. But after the “regular” body parts have been identified, Ms. Pandey embarrassingly points to her behind and offers up “Potty –…

Ms. Pandey was wreaking havoc on our family photo album, when Daddy stepped in and asked her to stop. “Anika, No-no!” Anika rushed over to Mama, and complained: “Mama! Daddy, Daddy, no-no”. Naturally, Daddy was not allowed to pick her up for the next few minutes.

Ms. Pandey had learned that things which had fallen down to the floor were gir gayi (fallen down in Hindi). She was using this to communicate fallen toys, objects and even requests to pick them up and hand it back to her (if she is sitting, for example). Today, gir gayi has taken a different…

Daddy has this (somewhat annoying to Mama) habit of listening to music alone. The only music he can listen to while doing anything else is elevator music, otherwise he cannot concentrate on either the music or the task at hand. Talk about un-parallel(led) processing. This gene has been quietly passed on to Ms. Pandey. She…

Rachna prepared a questionnaire for the guests for Anika’s first birthday, which was never given out for various reasons. Here is a snapshot of what Ms. Pandey could achieve by 12 months of age. How well do you know Anika? What can she really do and what she can’t… Take a guess! 1. Loves Elmo……………………………………….Y………….N…

Right on the heels of the first conceptual word (Aaoottide/Outside), comes the concept of closed – or “bund” as Anika puts it in Hindi. At first we thought that she was referring to a door, but soon we figured out that “bund” was uttered even when we closed the refrigerator, a box, or window blinds.

The version of Outside exactly how Anika puts it, as rephrased by Ananth and Surabhi. The word itself is not that critical a milestone, as Ms. Pandey was speaking profusely about topics ranging from nose, teeth, the moon and stars. It was the concept of inside versus outside that blew us away. When asked, “Where…

Within the first few days of comfortably and confidently walking around Dad’s listening room, Ms. Pandey made a direct play for Dad’s Triangle Celius speakers, and got a strong No! in response. The attempt was made a few more times, and was met with the same response. Since then, never has any attempt been made…

Futility reigned supreme when Rachna wanted to teach Ms. Pandey that the busybodies swimming around the Monterey Bay Aquarium tanks were “Fishes”. Ms. Pandey only referred to them as Nemo. Today, while reading her favorite, A Fish out of Water, Ms. Pandey pointed to Otto and purred Foosh!

Happy First Birthday, Anika! To celebrate this milestone, the three of us decided to brave the wintry Pacific winds and head down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since Anika had been really curious about haathi (elephants), bow-bow (dogs) and such, we had thought about visiting the zoo. But the incessant Northern California rains dashed any…