14 months and 29 days

People always say he smiles just the way Praveen does but I can never tell. It doesn't seem that way to me at all. Considering I can tell he looks like Praveen quite a lot, it surprises me why I can't see a resemblance in their smiles. The resemblances seem to stop there, however. He is showing us more and more of his hot temperament as he is growing up what with having learnt to smack people on their faces. We have tried the methods of shouting "Pranav!" very loudly and putting him down, shaking our heads vigorously to indicate that it's not on to do that, holding his hands tightly, and a few others, one more unsuccessful than the previous. I spoke to Anna about it and she said that she has noticed how he hooks his finger and tries to get the other person's eye when he wants to get something from them. She says it's normal behaviour for this age. As they can't express feelings in words, this is their way of talking and getting attention(needless to say, all my speech lessons are failing miserably). With hitting she suggested saying things like "Stop, no more!" and then saying "Be gentle" and showing him to pat the person gently by taking his hand. It all sounds very promising and is clearly progressive parenting I suppose but hard to persevere with it when all he does is hit you first and then pat you gently later! Yeah, not really working, is it? Still, we will have to stick with it. If there is one thing I don't want him to grow up doing, it is hitting and shoving people. That just crosses the line for me, somehow. The way he is keeping at it though, we seem to have a long, rocky journey ahead of us.

On to more pleasant doings, I think I have said before too, he is now at the stage of waving to everything that moves - cars, trucks, the bus, passers-by, trains and sometimes even to either of us for no good reason. It seems that's his way of greeting people now because when he sees his dad in the evening coming up to the front door through the kitchen window, he smiles and starts waving at him. He also associates waving with going out and associates going out with objects his dad or I use when we go out - like the car keys, his dad's sunnies, my handbag and watches. He has taken to swinging my handbag around his shoulders with one strap falling out and threatening to trip him and waving, pointing to the steps leading towards the garage. He also wore my watch and did the same thing once. He points only to the garage when he does this, not towards the front door which we don't normally use when we go out, as it generally goes in these countries. He points to the front door only when he wants to go outside for a play in the front yard.
He seems to have outgrown his nappies these days. He is waking up almost every day with wet pants and full nappy even though it's summer. The bugger hates covering a blanket on himself so I can't do much to keep him warm. We are not sure if it's the cold or his outgrowing the nappy that's causing this. We have decided to move on to the next size anyway. It's another way of seeing your baby grow: growing nappy sizes!

He is again in the lowest trough of his hunger strike days. Yesterday he absolutely ate no breakfast or dinner. Just refused point-blank. I have to wonder what he really is eating at the childcare because the girls don't seem to complain that he is not eating there. They are always encouraging me to let him feed himself sitting on his hig-chair but that doesn't work either. I have been giving him a different variety of meal each day and trying distractions of all kinds and I can still only get him to eat about half of what he usually eats and yesterday was the worst. In the end, after I decide that I should stop trying ti feed him immediately if I want to hang on to my wits, I have been giving him a bread slice with a lot of cream cheese on the side. He accepted his porridge in the morning today, so may be that's a good sign of improvement. I have hope yet, because he has done this before and he returns to his eating phase eventually. I just hope it is soon. If only my good-mood-meter didn't depend so much on the level of contents of his stomach! Are all mothers like this? Why is feeding our kids so important to us? As much as common sense dictates that they won't starve themselves, it's simply impossible for me to not get worked up about his not eating through any of his meals. Is this a plain nurturing instinct that humans and for that matter, animals are wired with? I guess I should learn to relax a little, but I know that's harder than feeding him!

Praveen is always complaining how overgrown his hair looks these days but I am putting up a resistance. I think kids look cute with lots of hair. I told him all child male models in all catalogues have long, wild-looking hair and they are cuter for it. He says its summer and will bother him, but I am not giving in yet. That's the difference between Praveen and me: he always thinks about what's right for Pranav in a practical way, I always impose my likes and dislikes on Pranav without giving his comfort enough thought. Typical, bossy parent. It's a good thing I have Praveen to balance me sometimes.