First Steps

Aditi could stand up with support over the last few weeks. She would use anything for support - coffee table, dining chair, sofa, her highchair, bed frame, the handle on a chest of drawers or kitchen cabinet, bookshelf, dustbin and not to forget mama's or papa's pants. She would stand for a little while and call for help - to sit down. Initially, she would carefully place one hand on the floor,while the other held on to the support and lower herself carefully onto the carpet. But she quickly learnt it was easier to ask someone to lower her down than try and hurt her bottom - which she did quite often. Early mornings she would stand up and rock her cot to catch our attention.

Not being happy with just standing and watching the world, Aditi made an effort to start walking with support. Now thats her favorite passtime. She would strat from one end of the sofa and move to the other end, lower herself and start it all over again. But she does only in one direction onto her left - as she did with turning over and thumb sucking.She favors the left side for some reason whatsoever.

As for mobility sans support, she favors the tummy dragging/crawling technique. She starts to crawl about 3-4 steps and then goes back on her tummy, although shes been doing more of the crawling lately. Her speed has increased tremoundously. Now she gives us a 'Catch-me-if-you-can' look while she tries to find her way from one room to another.She loves to play peek-a-boo with her pappa.

As her nap times during the day gradually decreases, Its become ever more important for me to have a watchful eye over her actions all day.

Sunrise and Rainbow

Inspired by Tharini of Winkie'sWays to capture the sunrise, I waited eagerly every morning only to be greeted by a gloomy day. The sun almost never came out in the last 10 days. It only rained and poured and our nights grew colder. However I managed to capture a rainbow and some snow. It was a nice afternoon and the rains had just stopped. A rainbow appeared in the sky and stretched from one end to the other. It is surprising how a simple rainbow can bring so much happiness and joy to our minds. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.


Rainbow on a wintery afternoon

A trip To London

This was Aditi's second trip to London, the first one was with her grandparents and parents in sunny July on a sight seeing visit. She was then 5 months old and totally enjoyed the Big Bus Tour, the tube journeys , the constant pampering by her aunts, uncles and cousins. This time though was a different story. She was now eight months old and always wanted to stick to me. Why would we make another trip to London so soon? This time it was to attend the housewarming ceremony of our cousin.
It was a lovely Sunday and we packed the typical puliyodarai and thayir sadam for our journey. Aditis brunch was slightly modified from the usual paruppu sadam to her favorite apple-banana-orange burst. We planned to leave Sheffield by 7am to reach London by 11am and hence avoid most of the traffic enroute. We did manage to leave at 5 minutes to 7 and were well on time. A short drive later fog and mist made the roads barley visible, but lasted only a few miles. After a short break and a quick change/feed routine for Aditi, we moved on only to be greeted by roadworks on the motorway. We manged to make it toour cousins place in West London by 11am. Aditi loved the new place for she could move and explore newer things around this house.
We had a nice lunch prepared by them and a quick nap before leaving for the ever vibrant Asian suburb of Wembley in NorthWest London.
The area where we live does not have too many South Asian shops and hence I always cherish trips to Wembley/Eastham(another Tamil/SriLankan region in East London). After some last minute shopping for the function, we decided to dine at one of the nicer restaurants there.The problem was there was a long queue of people waiting for a table and this restaurant would not take advance bookings.After about 30 minutes we settled down and Aditi sat on her high chair.
Usually Aditi is an early sleeper and goes to bed by 7pm. I hate to disturb her routine, but this day was different. She acted as our guest of honor and enthralled the audience nearby by her contant spoon/fork beating.It was almost 11 pm when we returned home, but sat chatting for another couple of hours sipping hot tea.
Their new home was just a 10 minute drive from where they lived, which made it easy for us to commute.Our plan was to leave from their new home, so we had to pack our baggage and leave once and for all. Surprisingly, the function began on time and was completed bang on time. Lunch was served, but Aditi who had been a very nice girl all morning decided that mummy would not eat. Our cousin had to distract her using all sort of tricks while we had a quick lunch. Soon it was time to bid good-bye to our cousins and to London and we were on our way back to home sweet home. Aditi liked the return journey and slept for most part of the trip.
I dont know what it is about London that makes it so special, but I have always wanted to live there. Except for a short span of 10 months in 2005, we have spent most of our times outside the great capital. Its probably because we are away from London, that makes it so much more nicer.