Life update

It’s been long since I spoke about what’s going on in my life. I guess it is time for an update. Life with a toddler is pretty tough. Especially a toddler who doesn’t care about food or eating. Every time he eats something for lunch or dinner, we feel we have accomplished something. He is so full of energy that we get tired easily, running after him. My day starts after he is asleep at night. That’s when I read books, browse the Internet on my phone and feel like I have some “me” time.

We now introduced him to TV and I have actually changed my opinion about TV ever since. We did not let him watch TV until he was like one and a half years old. But after introducing TV, I see lot of development in him. He finds cartoon shows funny and starts laughing out loud. He has learnt a lot thanks to the cartoon shows. His vocabulary has grown quite a bit – like the word “amazing” which one of the cartoon characters says and he immediately picks up that word. He recently watched the “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory” movies. Before watching these movies, he was scared of fish and other sea animals. While watching the movies, it looked like he was scared sometimes. But now he loves fish and is no longer scared of them. I see such improvements in him thanks to TV. I think there is a lot to learn from TV and movies too and one doesn’t have to learn only from books. Also limiting the time is the key. Keep a fixed time limit on TV watching. Don’t make him sit in front of TV for whole day.

So far, my son has not thrown tantrum in any shop. We usually get him more toys than he asks for. Maybe that is one of the reasons. Sometimes he asks for toys which are not appropriate for him. In such cases, I distract him with another toy which I am sure he will like. He gets distracted and is happy to get this new toy. So he eventually forgets about the toy that he demanded earlier. Also I noticed that my son is usually a good boy and I can make him do stuff by pampering. I don’t have to yell or shout at him. Also shouting doesn’t accomplish anything as he will definitely not do something if I yell at him. There is a lot I am learning as a parent.

Regarding language as discussed in my earlier post, we only talk to him in mother tongue. We have spoken to him in mother tongue ever since he was born. But since he goes to day care, he has picked up English and talks to us in English these days. He does speak some words from mother tongue as well. But I was right, we don’t have to talk to him in English at home as well. Since he anyway converses in English in daycare, he will learn English on his own.

I am spending most of my time on a Facebook readers and movies groups where people keep posting something interesting all the time. Also my high school classmates formed a whatsapp group with 60+ folks. Few of us started chatting a lot on that group, which annoyed others. So now we have a mini group of 10 folks who discuss everything under the roof – most people on this group are book lovers. So we keep recommending books, discussing science and religion (atheists vs theists). It is an interesting mix of folks – two of my close friends are in the group, along with folks whom I am talking to after many many years. Both the classmates group and the talkative group makes me nostalgic about school and I am so happy to get in touch with these people after a long time.

The only drawback is that with the addition of TV and these Facebook and Whatsapp groups, my reading took a hit. I have not been able to read much as I am spending my reading time on these activities. These days, we watch at least 2 movies on the weekends.

After our trip to LA, we got some confidence and then went on a trip to Arizona with the kid. He was well behaved, even though his food was an issue. So we got more confidence and decided to take him to India. We are going to India in May so busy with that as well.

I find it difficult to manage a single kid. I still don’t understand how some women manage two or more kids along with a full time job. Super women indeed.