Two weeks ago, Kelly and I visited our family again. As we walked down the hallway to their apartment, Niraj, who is 4, came out, ran toward us and said “Hello!”. On our previous visits he always acted kind of shy and looked at us as if we were crazy if we tried to talk to him. It’s nice that he is finally catching on to some more English and feels more comfortable around us. Although, I think he still thinks we’re kind of weird! For a lot of the visit, he was playing with a purple balloon. At one point his dad and his older cousin took it from him and began playing a “monkey in the middle” type of game. It was very amusing watching them all having fun playing a simple game, even Niraj was laughing although he was being teased.
We brought them pictures from the Halloween party and they liked them. Niraj kept rambling on and on in Nepali, which he does a lot, about the pictures. His dad said that he really liked the pictures. It seems like the adults have the same kind of reaction to children’s incessant talking as American parents do. Its funny, Niraj will just be talking in Nepali and it seems like the adults are only half listening to him. Although I really want to know what he’s saying, when we ask his dad, he’ll just kind of smile and not say anything. One time when we asked what he said following a rather long, expressive speech, his dad told us he was simply commenting on the door knob!
Niraj is constantly moving and has a lot of energy. He is definitely a handful, but he also brings lots of smiles and laughs!