chiku has his communication tools

How a child learns and picks up stuff is totally amazing. Everyday Chiku is showing signs of new skills, new understanding and new tricks.
Today we had gone for evening walk and when we got back home I told him ávuthudu¨ for his shoes. He immediately took off his cap. It is quite a challenge to make him wear his cap and continue wearing it till we come back home. So when he gets freedom to remove, first thing is the cap. Shoes do not  matter so much!

The floor was chilly, so I did not take off his shoes for a while. He got a bright idea that though we just came back, maybe we are going out again. So he went to the shoe stand and started taking out our chappals and asking us eloquently through sounds and grunts, that please put on your footwear and we will go out. D was saying I am messing with his head, by not removing his shoes as soon as we got back home.

Chiku is an outdoors person and also likes to meet people and talk to them! He is a big hit with anybody who passes by on the road. He will give them a big smile and they will have to stop and say a few words to him and to us and then he is happy. D says most of the friends she has made on campus are through chiku. He smiles and they stop and he tells them stuff in his own language. Very few people can resist the charm of a 14 month old, so eager to make friends. Young mothers with toddlers are a sure target, but then he does not restrict himself to a small group. He smiles at the security person in the next block, he is a big hit with all the maids, he charms the vegetable vendor and the fruit shop man.

He is curious about  every dry leaf on the road, small stones and big stones and of course every passing vehicle fascinates him.

He has figured out the home stretch and usually it is a trying time for us, negotiating the route to get back home. He races ahead of us, his tiny head thrust forward and his hands backward, as though propelling him to move faster.

An extended session in the car park area and then we are back home.

And the minute we enter, he is telling us by sounds and bits of words and body language and facial expression, that it is okay we are back, when are we going out again?!