Tuesday, April 5, 2016

D: Dumptrucks and diggers

It all began with a bunch of flashcards. We had bought them with the intention to teach a fourteen month old Pickles more words. In one of the sets was a section on transport and vehicles. Pickles immediately took a liking to this set and in particular to one of a train and another of a motorcycle. I think they have been his most favourite possessions for a long time. I doubt any such cards have been so widely used and loved. But I digress. This post is not about those cards. It's about another one in the same set.

I came home from work one day to an exasperated looking G, who said Pickles was looking for something called a bugga-bugga and she couldn't for the life of her, figure out what it was. When I asked Pickles about it, he used his limited vocabulary to tell me the same thing,

"Bugga-bugga, amma?"

And he was looking everywhere for it. And help him, I did. I started asking him if it was this or that and he still kept looking. Finally, we all gave up and tried to get him distracted with other things and that was that. Later that night when we went to bed, he saw this flash card of a dump truck on the side of our bed and his face lit up. Immediately, he picked it up and said "bugga-bugga". And then it flashed! I had been telling him about animal sounds and continued with vehicle sounds and I may have said something that sounded like that.  And there began our tryst with 'bugga-bugga', which soon became "dumper tuck"(much to my dismay!). And of course along with it was "gggggrrrrrr", which eventually was "digger".

There came many many books from the library with the truck and digger labels. I was actually very surprised to find so many and it was oddly comforting to know that this is fascinating for many kids. We probably have read all of the books on diggers and dump trucks. We have spent many a mealtime and bus journeys with several of them. Pickles knows the names of most of the existing trucks (tipper truck, backhoe loader, articulated lorry, forklift and whatnot!). It is another matter that I know all about them now too, attributed to many many readings over and over again. Of course, along with it came the toys, some that R bought for his truck-crazed son and some of course which were gifts from friends. And now Pickles has a collection of trucks and diggers that'll put a builder to shame.

And now, ever since we've been in India, Pickles has been teaching his mamama (grandma) and everyone around, all about them and I wont be surprised if they'll have caught the bug before he's done.

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