Chiku chronicle - Standing up phase

A visit to Guwahati to see Chiku was on the cards for a while, and I was quite happy that I could finally make it. It was a whole new experience for me seeing the tinytot after more than three months. There is a world of difference in the 'world' of a five month old and a eight month old baby. It started at the doorstep. D was holding him and opened the door. Chiku saw me and strained his eyebrows just like an adult; I could almost read his thoughts; who is this person, have I seen her somewhere? I laughed and made faces at him and he started laughing too. He laughs most readily when he is perched on his mother's shoulders. In a few minutes he was moving about on the floor playing with cups and spoons(the toys are for elders!). I was quite amazed that he is crawling so fast and is all over the place with his signature, thap, thap, thap sound. I was trying to connect the baby who was just about learning to turn over when I last saw him ,with this 'very very mobile' new person. Vethu mugham was more from my side than his!

D is the centre of his life, his idol. He adores her and the way he looks at her is all worship and 'how great you are' written all over him. He plays with his father and with me comfortably, till D is not in the vicinity. He has his ears totally tuned in to her and when she cleared her throat in the next room(and I barely heard it), he immediately started moving, thap, thap, thap in that direction. For me,it was one of the many sounds that I hear. But for chiku, his ears filters out every other sound and tunes in to his mom's voice; never mind that it was a very soft sound. After that you cannot prevent him from going and getting on to his mom's arms. You can try every temptation in the world, but his mom is holding him close and he is just not interested in anything else. True Fevicol baby!

He started tearing papers like all kids do and soon they hid away all the papers as he started putting the papers in his mouth. So he now has a different tearing session. Washed clothes nicely piled in a corner of the bed are his ready source. He takes them one at a time and tries to pull it apart. He does not get it, so he tries harder.He changes his posture, lays  down and pulls again.He makes great grunting noises to propel him to pull the cloth apart.When he fails, he goes to the next and tries the same action sequence once more. He has an endless supply of clothes as they are all his clothes and they are quite small and perfect to hold them in his hands. He tries to put them into his mouth and tear them apart.He has no teeth as of now and the exercise is leaving the cloth all damp with all his saliva all over the cloth.

His greatest fascination is the kitchen. D has put up a small sliding door to prevent his entry into the prohibited area. He makes a beeline for it anytime he is anywhere in the vicinity. He holds on to the door and stands up and is very eagerly looking in.Some activity or the other is going on there and he stands totally engrossed and interested. He makes all sort of sounds(as yet not decipherable)and his father tells him, 'this is  border area, visa is denied'. He does not sit there and holler. He soon decides to amuse himself elsewhere. There is always the clothes hanger placed near the sliding door. He heads for it and starts doing his standing up practice. He now wants to stand holding only one hand.The other hand has to clutch something else which is on the clothsline.He also wants to have only one leg firmly on the ground, the other leg has to practice being in the air! Now that he is comfortable standing up holding on to  a support, he is trying all these tricks. Like young children do when they learn cycling for the first time.

He has dumped the pram.It is only for tiny tots and he is a big boy now.So D takes him out in her bicycle, strapping him on to her chest. He likes it a lot. You see  he is so close to mummy, he can keep looking at her face all the time, it is outdoors with cool wind blowing and the scenery changing all the time makes him heady. This sight of mommy baby on a bicycle  is something of a novelty in there, as they keep referring to Chiku as the baby who goes about strapped to his mommy in a bicycle.