Anand is running around…

Anand is running around with his cup of Cheerios, growling "mine, mine, mine!" It is very cute, and not a bad way to start the morning. Although this head cold I've had for five days now is not contributing positively.

In general, Anand's list of words has significantly improved in the last weeks. He now has reasonable control of:

• doggie
• Ellie
• uh-oh! (said whenever he drops / throws something)
• milk
• hi
• bye
• amma / mama
• daddy
• ball
• mine

As well as tons of other vocalizations that appear to mean something to him, if not to us. And he understands a lot more than he can say -- if you call out to him, "Anand, get Amma the blue ball," you have a decent chance of actually having him bring me the blue ball. (The blue part is probably accidental.)

He also clearly understands no, although it is almost certain to send him running in the opposite direction to do exactly what you just told him not to do. Giggling the whole way. Anand is quite naughty.

Not bad for almost 14 months.

I was feeling so exhausted last night with this cold that I started calculating when I'd last been pregnant, because that was the last time I felt so utterly exhausted, such that I literally couldn't summon the energy to get up from the damn couch. And then I started thinking about when I'd started thinking having a second child might be a good idea. Give or take a month, we figured out that Kavi was probably right around 16 months when we decided to try for a second child. What this tells me is that Anand is entering the super-cute period, which I remember lasted from around 14-20 months of age.

I know some people like babies, but I do not. It's the mini-toddler that slays me. They're almost all pleasure and very little pain -- it's dangerous. Kev and I are quite firm on stopping with two kids, but sometimes already, as I watch the two of them playing together and being insanely cute, I do have that momentary feeling -- it would be even more fun with three of them.

And then I go bang my head into a wall until the feeling goes away.