Talking surprises!

Vansh is lately making it a habit of taking us by surprise by talking the way he does. Suddenly he sounds so grown up and mature. He is literally a sponge these days, so quick in absorbing what we say, experimenting with the phrases and a bit and then making them a part of his everyday conversations. Its a pleasure to listen to him talk in a neat voice, forming and expressing his opinions coherently and being able to carry forward a conversation. It also means that we need to pick our own words much more wisely now lest be admonished by him and be told "Yeh koi tarika nahin hai" (This is no way!) The first time he said that (and he said tarakki, which means progress) I cracked up so loud that he kept repeating it after every sentence I spoke in an attempt to cause the same burst of laughter again. We still cannot help but smile when he says that. He expresses his displeasure using words by saying "Mere ko aise accha nahin lagta" (I don't like it) when I raise my voice at him or Jiya. He is increasingly using pronouns now and has to be reminded to use 'aap' for elders and not 'tum' or 'tu'!
A few days back, after waking up from his afternoon nap, he suddenly said "Vansh mamma ka sweetheart hai, mamma ki baat maanta hai." (Vansh is mom's sweetheart and listens to what she says) That, as is obvious, is enough to make any mom's day and so it did.

The biggest pleasure, apart from the fact that he is talking so well now, is the fact that its now easier to talk to him about something that he does and we don't like. Of course there are instances when he's being plain naughty and then doesn't have an answer, except a silly grin or a random "kaapa or badoom badaa", when we ask him why he did that. But there are some other like this one that happened few days back. Vansh and Jiya were in the same room and Vansh was just building some random structures with wooden blocks. Jiya was playing them too and in the process knocking down what he was building, reason enough to evoke screams from him, pull the blocks from her hands and as a result evoke screams and cries from her as well. When I asked him what happened, he replied by saying

"Dekho Jiya kya kar rahi hai. Sab sab gira rahi hai. Vansh ko nahin accha lagta." (Look at what Jiya is doing. She is making everything fall. I don't like it) and to Jiya in particular "Kya kar rahi hai ghonchu?" (What are you doing silly).

I told him that he could hand over the blocks himself to Jiya and make her happy or if he really wanted to build structures he needed to do that on the table so that Jiya couldn't get to them. He chose the former option as he usually does. And then took pride in handing her the blocks and eventually making her smile.

The other day we had to go for a birthday party and I came out of the bathroom wearing a denim top and pants. Usually Vansh takes a moment to look carefully and appreciate whenever I am wearing something dressy - Indian or Western, even if its with a simple "Wow!" That day he just stood looking and didn't say anything. I asked him "Vansh ko mamma ki dress acchi lagi?" (Did you like mamma's dress?) to which he replied "Nahin acchi lagti Vansh ko mamma ki dress. Mere ko yellow or orange dress acchi lagti hai jo mamma India mein pehenti thi" (I don't like this dress. I like yellow and orange dress that you wore in India.) Even though a little dampening for my spirits, his being able to form an opinion and express it verbally more than made up for it.

The picture above incidentally is taken on Jiya's mundan ceremony on Apr 14, 2008 and the yellow dress is the one Vansh was referring to :)

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