Bashan!

I have no idea what "BASHAN!" means - and neither does Greg. Of course, William was saying it, so it could mean anything. Or, it could be William's pronunciation of a real word - not just one of his made up words. But, I'm not really sure what "Bashan!" would resemble.

He was saying it with such conviction, and with such determination and in such a methodical manner, it must mean something. Saturday morning, we decided to brave the Delhi heat (it was 98F by noon and very humid) and attempt some sightseeing. First stop, Qutub Minar http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/233 (highly recommended), second stop Lotus Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Temple (a modern Baha'i temple, not kid-friendly at all), third stop Humayun's Tomb. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/232 Here, William said, "BASHAN!"

The tomb is similar to the tombs in Agra - in fact, though Humayun's tomb is one of Delhi's top sites, if you're going to or have been to Agra, we actually think it's repetitive and not worth the visit. The main tomb (Humayun) is in the center. At each corner of the building are small rooms, each with one to three tombs in them. Each of these corner rooms had small alcoves with stone-carved lattice protrusions to let the air flow. We didn't take a guide, and I'm not really familiar with 16th century Indo-Muslim architecture, so please excuse the lack of technical terms :)

In any case, we entered the first corner room, and William started running into each alcove, all the way up to the stone-lattice-wall, looked outside and shouted, "BASHAN!" Then he proceeded to the next lattice alcove and repeated. The third alcove didn't have the lattice work, so he skipped it and went straight to the fourth (with lattice) and shouted again. It was very curious - especially because I still don't know what "BASHAN!" means or what prompted this.

We left that corner room, walked into the next one, and he did the same thing - shouting "BASHAN!" in only the alcoves that had lattice walls looking outside. When we walked into the third corner room, he said, "Come here, Mama!" and beckoned me over to the first lattice alcove. I walked over and he said, "Say, 'BASHAN!,' Mama!" Obviously, I had no choice. I then had to follow him to each alcove (again, only the lattice work ones) and say, "BASHAN!" myself. (The fourth corner room was under construction, so I didn't have to repeat again).

He's only 25 months, but given that "self" has become a favorite word (as in, "do it myself - go away") and that every now and then he comes up with very systematic and logical "games," I can't help but be impressed with how someone so tiny can act so old. Good thing there's another baby coming - William certainly doesn't count as a "baby" anymore!

Just FYI, Sunday morning we opted to skip the sightseeing and just played at the Embassy play ground. William had a blast climbing and sliding and driving the bus, despite the muggy heat. In fact, he had so much fun, he decided to keep playing and skip swimming - and he *loves* swimming.