♫ 20 months ♫

Liya is celebrating her ♥ 20th month ♥ on the face of the earth. Well, let's see what is she up to these days.

Linguistic:

She is able to form complete sentences. We do speak Malayalam at home. But as you know she's been exposed to the world of books, and she has non-Malayalam speaking friends around that she is picking up English faster. [I do teach her too].

She talks complete sentences over the phone, especially with grand parents. She 'asks' for everyone  at home. She greets family with 'Salaam', she ends the conversation with Salaam, Baa bye and See you!

The amusing part is that her talking style is highly rhythmic and tuneful.

Singing and Dancing:

She continues to dance, but her usual steps have been altered to some new 'rocking and hopping' steps. She sings many songs, remembers the lyrics of several rhymes both in English and Malayalam.

She is an excellent bathroom singer too. Her singing skills pop out when she is on commode! :D

Her favorite rhymes/songs (that she sings alone) are:

English: Baaa Baa Black sheep.., Humpty Dumpty Sat on wall.., Johny Johny yes pappa.., ABC alphabet song, Twinkle twinkle little star.., Five little ducks..., Clap your hands..., Good night moon, Brown bear.. etc.

Malayalam: Koo koo koo kooo theevandi.., poopy, minnaminni, kaakke kaakkee koodevide..., thappo thappo.., arippo thirippo.. etc etc.

Drawing:

She loves scribbling with pen. She scribbles everywhere. I often wonder how does she find pens and markers. She scribbles on her hands and body and show off to her grand parents (during video chats). She scribbles on sofa, papers and books, as well.

Funny quotes:

She often repeats her own 'funny' quotes without any reason. Few of them are:

#1. Her friends Ayan's teeth have decayed and one day, when Liya didn't allow to brush her teeth I told her "See Ayan baby's teeth have decayed. Your teeth will get 'worms' if you don't brush". I used the word 'worm' because she is familiar with the illustration of 'worm' (in her lingo- bem) as it is there in one of her books. At times, she reminds  herself that 'Abeebi teeth bem le..' (Ayan baby's teeth have - worm- decayed, right)!

# She adds "ashooo" to express her astonishment especially when something 'gets over' or something unexpected happens. (Similar to saying oops!)

# She loves her only one cousin (J's niece) Diya so much. Once when she was talking to my MIL, asked for Diyatha (that's how L calls D), but she was sleeping. My MIL said, "Diya uranga (Diya is sleeping)".  That line caught her enthusiasm, and she repeated 'Asshoo, Iyyatha unga' [Oops, Diya is sleeping ]. She babbles this sentence whenever she feels like, no matter if there is any need to add or not.

# My SIL had undergone a minor surgery on her feet, to remove an usual tumor. I had told Liya 'Aunti got a wound on her feet'. Liya often says 'Aanni kaalu muyi lee' [Aunti's leg has wounded, right?]

People:

She knows who and all there in her dad's house and mom's house. She loves my youngest sis most, whom we call Shani and L calls Saana. She also likes my younger sis Sheby, whom she calls Shibi. [hmm, she calls her aunties by name ].

Attitude towards strangers: 

She has become more social and active. She mingles and plays with kids in the ground. But, always keeps a bit away from strangers [which I feel is better in someway], doesn't like strangers touching or nearing her, but she greets everyone including strangers with 'Hi or Hello'.

Books:

As you must be knowing, she reads lots of books. She loves books more than anything. Even if, she is cranky or drowsy or angry, the only way to get her into 'normal active' mode is by getting her a book.

Her all time favorite book is Goodnight moon. She rhymes it, knows the names of each and every object in it. She shall 'Fill in the blanks' if I read it aloud.

Eating Habits:

She continues to be less fussy, but lately she has started disliking plain rice. [While she loves flavored rices like lemon rice, biriyani, Tahari etc], began loving Pizzas and french fries.

She often gets a sudden craving for Strawberries. We never used to obtain Strawberries, but she learned the name from a book, and she owns a strawberry in her 'toy' fruits collection. That's how she developed an 'unknown' bias towards Strawberries. She would shout 'Saaw beyi' whenever she sees it, especially while we shop, and ensures that we have bought at least one box. Needless to say, she eats it very often.

She eats almost everything, drinks milk, fresh fruit juice etc. She is totally on homemade/organic food. No baby food or outside items, so far!

Sleeping on her 'way' to Sofa!

Sleeping:

Like always, she sleeps peacefully through the night, and 3-4 hours in the day time too. She can sleep anywhere, anytime she wants. She sleeps while sitting, eating, traveling etc. One day she slept 'while' she was trying to climb onto sofa. Can you believe that?

Antics:

What she hates most in this world is her Mamma's laptop. She doesn't like mamma working on it at all. She doesn't mind if I do any other work except on Laptop. [She knows different ideas to keep mamma away from Laptop, I will elaborate on it in another post, Insha Allah]. She messes up home like hell, but she thinks that she is actually cleaning it...lol!
 Luckily, I don't have any friends/relatives here, who would walk-in before giving me a call. :P

Activities, learning and so on:

- She learned to wear shoes without help. Interestingly, mostly wears the shoe on proper feet, rarely gets exchanged too.
- At times, she combs her hair herself.
- She learned to undress if she did not like the clothes that I chose.
- She tries to bathe, wipe and massage herself.
- She mastered the arts of 'sliding' and playing in the mud.
- She identifies 'Gmail' and 'Skype' as the 'means' to video chat. If she sees any of these two open in comp, she would scream..shaat (chat)!

Most dangerous 'learning'...? Of late, she learned to open Dishwasher even if it is fastened with it's locking latch. It makes me worried that she would open while it is running. Hence less 'washing' on Dish washer these days.

Beauty conscious?

She was never liking any extra 'fittings' or decorations on her, but things have changed [girls are always girls..huh?]. She loves wearing all girly items, and she spends a lot of time in front of the mirror to appreciate her beauty, and comments 'aahh, waah' etc. She even lets me to secure a bun on her hair (even though she doesn't have thick hair).

Guess, I have told so much. Thank you for bearing with me. :P