Astrovelo

Adit is just one month short of his second birthday. It has been a couple of months since I wrote his last progress report. During this time, his vocabulary and verbal skills have gone through the roof. At this age, Ashwini used to talk in complete sentences with proper grammar. Considering that he is a boy, he is doing quite well.

He tries to imitate every word that he hears. Usually, he is not successful, but he says something that sounds like it. After a few tries, he mostly gets it right. The longest words that he can properly pronounce are: Cantaloupe and Temperature.

Earlier we had to phrase a question so that he could give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Adit, do you want to eat toast? Do you want to watch Dora?

Any other question was answered by just ‘mmmmm’. Now, we can have proper conversations.

Adit, what do you want to eat? – kix and milk

Adit, what do want to watch? – Thom DVV. (it means: Thomas DVD)

Adit’s first full sentence was: Ashwini hit me. Now, his sentences are getting longer. They have all the parts but not proper grammar: Ashwini pinch me leg. Adit play choo-choo train ament. (ament means basement) Adit sit Ashwini chair. Adit done bed. go down. drink milk.

If he wants me to go with him somewhere, he grabs my finger and says: Dada, march.

Many times, we don’t understand what Adit is saying and have to get help from interpreter Ashwini. I don’t know how she can always make out what he is trying to say. She is also a very good teacher and helps him say words correctly. Here is a very funny conversation that we have heard a million times:

Ashwini singing a song: …now you are so beautiful, you have become a … Adit: fufferfly.

• No, Adit! butterfly.
• fufferfly.
• NOOOO, Adit! BUTTERFLY.
• FUFFERFLY.
• say butter…
• butter
• say fly…
• fly
• now say butterfly
• fufferfly.

All this coaching has finally paid off. After Ashwini went away on Monday, he started saying ‘butterfly’ properly. Here is a video of this song from “Little Einsteins” sung by Ashwini and at the end, I have edited in Adit’s part recorded tonight.

Adit has memorized several books and many many songs. He can complete every line, if we leave out last word or two.

His babytalk creates some very embarassing moments. He very excitedly points with his finger while screaming, “Dada, fag… Dada, fag…” when he sees a flag somewhere. When you hear him say “Swiper … faak” after he spots the great villain from Dora the explorer: Swiper the fox. From his tone, you can just imagine a similar situation of the same gravity: someone from a Star Wars movie saying… “Oh, who is that? Darth Vader… F$#K!!!”