Sheep shifter

Some recent developments:

• Language - Kirin is picking up words so quickly now; every day, something new comes out of his mouth. Including: every time he sees a Mini, he points and says, "Mama car." (He even does this when we aren't around, with Laura, our shared nanny.); he can say please and thank you; he enunciates "water" in a clear, posh English accent; he helped me count to ten in Punjabi; today's new word was "dinosaur" (one of his favourite new books is called Dinosaur Roar); he still occasionally calls me "Rav" but mama is always mama.
• Favourite words include: Izzy; Hanna; fast (said when running); peepee (Johanna has started potty-training); Rav.

Green thumbs, part two

This is an example of Kirin being less helpful in the garden. Johanna's mum/Kirin's granny bought us a couple of lovely trees to plant which required digging a fairly deep hole, filling it with compost and planting. Kirin thought it would be a better idea to stand in the hole instead – but as you can see, he is trying to shovel some dirt in, too.

Green thumbs

One of the real joys of our little flat in London is the garden. Johanna has been doing a great job of making it even lovelier by tidying it up and planting some new flowers and trees. Project number one has been replacing some ratty old grass with a new flowerbed.

As you might expect, Kirin appears to be on his way to becoming an avid gardener. He loves watering the plants and as you can see, he is also more than happy to help his mama add a little colour to the back yard.

NB, 1: See Paul, he's still wearing the hat.

NB, 2: If you are wondering what dangerous gardening tool he is holding in his hands, they are Mr Potatohead's glasses.

New experiences, part two

Last weekend, we went to see Neena and Paul (pooaji and fuhfher respecitvely) in Sarajevo. And as I mentioned in the previous post, travel is about new experiences.

First, he finally decided to wear a hat. As any parent of a small child will agree, getting a little kid to cover his head to protect against the sun is next to impossible. But for some reason when Neena and Paul's landlord (who own a hat shop in the middle of town) gave Kirin this baseball cap, which is much less trendy than the ones we tried to put on his head, he loved it. I think it may have had to do with the fact that fuhfher was wearing his hat, too.

Second, he had his first professional haircut. In the past, Johanna has done a good job of chopping his fast-growing hair but it usually requires a few days of patient trimming; little boys aren't good at sitting still in one place for 15 minutes and when you have a pair of scissors near his head, that's not an ideal combination. Amazingly, he didn't seem too bothered this time. But once again, he may have been emulating his fuhfher who was sitting in the next seat getting a haircut, too.

New experiences

One of the joys of travel is discovering the world beyond the daily life you inhabit. This is even more the case when travelling with a child. For Kirin, every day brings new experiences but there are certain things that it is simply not possible to do in London.

By way of explanation, the only way to get around in Paraty Mirim was by boat. Appropriately enough, the canoe at top was called a Canadian canoe. Amazingly, even though I was paddling, we didn't tip over once and Kirin seemed to enjoy canoeing across the bay. (We got him the cutest little life jacket, just in case.)

And, as has been noted on this blog before, Kirin loves fruit. Here's a pic of him enjoying a drink on Ipanema.