Astrovelo

Ashwini getting ready to root for the Texas Longhorns in their game against Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.

Here is her monthly update: (Don’t miss the last bullet in this list. She made her dada proud.)

• There isn't much change in her physically from last update to now. She can just run faster, balance herself better and doesn't fall down as often.
• The big difference is in her vocabulary. She now knows names for all her toys, animals, characters in books, and most of the household things around her. These days she is talking all the time. Non-stop. Even though, we don't understand everything she says, it is quite entertaining.
• Ashwini still can't say the 'S' and 'R' sounds. It is quite sad for her teacher, Sara. Ashwini can call many teachers and kids by their proper names, but, she says 'yaya' for Sara. Her other teacher's name is Mariah, who has to answer to 'manana'.
• While outside, she is always on the lookout for cahds (cars), trucks, birds, ducks, airplanes, Hun (Sun :)), Moon and of course tharsh (stars). She is getting a lesson in Astronomy quite early in her life. When she can't see the stars and Moon in the night, she knows because the sky is 'cowly' (cloudy). She used to confuse Sun for Moon, but, now she knows the correct names.
• Lately, she has been demanding to listen to children's songs in the car. Marathi songs in my car and English songs from her Kindermusic class in her mother's.
• Her food habits haven't changed too much but, her dexterity with spoon has. These days, Ashwini wants to feed herself with a spoon or by her hand and holds the sippy-cup or bottle by herself. She doesn't like it when we try to feed her.
• She has been good about sleeping through the night lately. She wakes up once or twice but goes back to sleep in a minute or two; Many times without us getting involved. I think the end of Summer has something to do with it. She gets too hot. She needs to have a fan in her room to be comfortable while we sleep under a blanket.
• Yesterday, she was in her playroom when I was looking through mail. She came to me and said "dada hand". When I showed her my hand she held a finger and said "dada walky walky walky". So, I stood up and she led me to her playroom. There she pointed to her bubble toy sitting high on a table and asked for it by saying "dada baboo". She knew what she wanted and knew how to get to it. I was surprised that she could think through a process and then acted on it.