Back float

We've been going swimming in the new pool quite regularly in the past month. Kabir is much more confident and has started putting his head down into the water to "breathe". Its amazing how kids naturally learn that its faster to swim this way when given sufficient time to explore. We play a game when we hold hands and go underwater and see who can hold the breath longer. He beats me a lot of the time! He has also started enjoying back floating with the help of his kick board. But now that the monsoons are officially here since yesterday (yay!), I'm not sure how often we'll visit the pool. Incidentally, I've also taken Anurag to the pool a couple of times this summer. But given how little it takes for him to fall sick, I'm being far more careful with him.

Anu talk

We ask Anu - Where does Zoya live?
Anu replies - Zoya lives in the laptop.

:-)

Its not his fault. Afterall thats where he has always seen her - in the videos and photos that bua sends and a couple of times on skype. Hopefully that will change soon.

My boys

A two month old pic - taken by Souvik on the bus to Kashid

The chronicles of raising Anu will be incomplete if I didn't mention the most arduous task of feeding him milk everyday. Ever since he got off breastmilk, the only way that has (partially) worked is to feed him milk using a katori and chammach. Thats right, a cup and a spoon. I was never able to get him to drink from a bottle and sippy cups only worked with water. So every morning and evening we sit down with a cup of milk and distract him with any thing that fancies his interest - toys, a cup of water to make mess with, a mop or whatever. And then we try to feed him milk with a spoon. When everything fails, Kabir comes to the rescue.

 But no matter how we try, the end result is usually the same. A big mess...

....and a victorious grin by the perpetrator.

So, God help us!

Cooling off

Kabu, Anu and some other kids from our wing cooling off on a hot morning

The big splash

Kabir's swimming camp ended on Monday with a big splash - a drop from the 5m high floor into the deep end of the pool without the support of a float!

Its amazing how far he has come along in the past 4 weeks. He's obsessed with swimming and asks me to take him to the pool everyday even after the camp has ended. Here are links to some more videos in which he is showing off his swimming skills to nana-nani.
Fun in the baby pool
Crossing the big pool width

First day of school

Anu started going to Sishu Vihar this week. He had been begging to go with his brother for some time now (Kabir goes to SV these days since its vacation time for regular school) and was very excited when we told him he could finally start. Unfortunately the excitement didn't last beyond first day of school. Anu fell sick right after day 1 and we have discontinued SV for now.