Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Saturday 31 May 2008

From mamma's lamb to daddy's darling daughter

I am extremely happy to announce that over the last couple of weeks, Aditi has been spending more time with her daddy and getting much closer to him. This may be the case in many households, but my child was always stuck to me and refused to stay with daddy for more than a couple of minutes. When we sit down for breakfast or dinner at the table, the little one who would usually sit on my lap runs to her father and asks to be picked up. Of course, daddy is only way too happy to oblige.
It started one evening when I was busy fixing up some dinner for daddy who was about to leave on night duty. Aditi wanted to be picked up by me, but I was cutting vege and could not manage it single-handedly(and carry Aditi with the other hand). In my hurry to cook something before daddy left, I decided to let her cry. Prashanth who was sitting on the dining table was trying to comfort Aditi. For a couple of miutes, Aditi cried out loud. Then realization dawned on her. She ran to her daddy and asked to be picked up. He in turn bribed her with some Cheerios. Now Prashanth has never and NEVER had this request from his baby and was pleasantly surprised. From then it was no stopping her.
Nowadays, she smiles wide - showing all her 16 teeth, as soon as she sees daddy in the morning. If she hears his voice, she looks in that direction to spot him. During weekends, she has her lunch sitting on his lap on the dining table. She uses a spoon & fork at the nursery and insists on using a spoon/fork at home and refuses to touch any food with bare hands. Even finger food has to be eaten using a fork. And she turns the fork upside down as she puts the food into her mouth.

What triggered this sudden change in my baby - An argument between me and Prashanth. Me pointing out(he said 'nee kutthi kamikara') that he hardly spends any time with the kiddo and me and always spends time with the internet browsing 'ning' and other useless stuff which can wait until the baby goes to sleep. So he made an effort and I appreciate him for this act - to spend more time with us rather than rushing to his laptop in the evening. The evenings are now more lively and Aditi enjoys the attention she gets from daddy.

Little naughty things that the babe has been upto these days:
* Pretends to sit on my lap and then runs and sits on daddy's lap
* Insists on sitting on daddy's lap while she has lunch and while we have ours.
* Plays more with dad, but returns to mommy when hungry.
* Plays this game every evening and makes us laugh, she joins in too - asks daddy to pick her up, then jumps ove to mummy stays with mummy for a minute , then goes back to daddy. This passing back and forth game goes on for a while until she's bored and tired of it.
* Threw her shoes(new pair that she did not like) into the dustbin when amma was not looking.

Earlier daddy used to called Aditi - a little lamb as in Mary had a little lamb - cos she would follow me wherever I went - this includes the loo and shower room- or cry out loud if I did not let her in and shut the door. I am so happy that she's bonding with daddy so well. I have waited long enough for this and I am overjoyed now. This leaves me with some time for myself and daddy is soooo happy when his little girl comes walking up to him.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

"I am 15 months young"

When I was a teenager, I visited a well known doctor at his clinic in Chennai. After the routine examinations, as he was about to write the prescription, he asked me how young I was. I must admit that it struck me only after a little while that he was asking my age(how old I was). We are used to hearing the common phrase - 'how old' that the reverse doesn't strike us immediately. Thats the story of the title of this post. Now some updates on the little one.

I need not hire a cleaner to help me with the dreaded cleaning chores. My little girl goes around with a broom and imitates us in a typical fashion of her own. Be it the dining area or the patio, she roams with the broom and pretends to clean the entire place. She is upset if I dont hand over the broom to her when I'm trying to clean the place. That said, she's still a bit scared of the vacuum cleaner and prefers to stay away when it's in use.

She does two very sweet things that i'm yet to capture on video. Whenever I sit on the floor, she does an above turn with her back facing me, walks backwards towards me and sits on my lap. This is something both of us look forward too, and the very manner in which she turns around and sits down is fascinating.Talking of sitting, when she has to sit down, she puts the palm of her arms on the floor to support her, then bends one of her knees and then slowly brings the other to the floor.Until then the arms are still on the floor supporting her. It reminds me of the way my grandmom would sit on the floor using hands to support herself.

She loves outdoors. The front of our house has been blockpaved recently and we can safely let her do some walking around in that area. She loves to go around in circles outside until she's bored or tired of the walking. Walking has actually been replaced by running these days.

At 15 months, she's turning into a picky and fussy eater. The baby who gulped down anything that was offered to her now refuses food most of the time. This started about 3 weeks back and is getting worse by the day. Initially I could distract her with her favorite food, but now that seems very difficult too. For now, the husband is very supportive and helps me deal with her patiently, otherwise its a struggle when it comes to feeding. My MIL wisely told me last year that the child will eat everything when young and tantrums start around 18 months. This is turning true in Aditi's case. Any suggestions/comments/help on this one welcome.

Also I am becoming adept at doing one handed jobs for she wants to be carried all the time. People tell me its just a phase and it should go away in a while. We wish and pray that it goes away soon. Sometimes its difficult to believe thats she's completed 15 months. Her personality is changing every day and her face is loosing its babiness and getting more mature. She can speak a dozen words clearly and babbles a lot more. She can sing the tune of nursery rhymes with us. Her favorite song still remains the one she's been hearing for the last 12 months - a Ganesha composition, which still puts her to sleep.

She's a happy little child who's excited to go to nursery each day and comes home with the same enthusiasm and bringing more joy into our lives each day. How I wish time stays still and she remains like this forever.

Monday 12 May 2008

Tagged!

Mynanhipari has tagged me with this general questionnaire tag.

Last Movie You Saw In A Theater: Welcome

What Book Are You Reading: My first farm, 5 Little Ducks and about half a dozen touch and feel baby books

Favorite Board Game: Monopoly

Favorite Magazine: Women's era(always), more recently Practical Parenting

Favorite Smells: Incense Sticks - especially sandal ones

Favorite Sound: Early morning Suprabatham from the nearby temple

Worst Feeling In The World: Guilt

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake? Will my baby wake up before I finish my shower????

Favorite Fast Food Place: The one outside Foodcourt(after my recent trip to India)

Future Child's Name: Not sure if i'll have another one.

Finish This Statement. "If I Had A Lot Of Money I'd...” Donate half of it to charity and let the rest earn some interest in the bank.

Do You Drive Fast? No.

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal? No

Storms-Cool Or Scary? Scary

What Was Your First Car? Skoda Felicia

Favorite Drink:Ginger elaichi tea

Finish This Statement, "If I Had The Time I Would .....” Spend with my baby and hubby.

Do You Eat The Stems On Broccoli? Of course

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Color, What Would Be Your Choice? None (I am not a fan of hair dyes)

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You Have Lived In.
Chennai, Pondicherry, London, Belfast, Sheffield


Favorite Sports To Watch: Formula1

Nice Thing About The Person(s) Who Sent This To You: A mom who enjoys motherhood.

What's Under Your Bed? Nothing(Prefer to keep it clean)

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again? Yes.

Morning Person Or Night Owl? Morning Person.

Over Easy Or Sunny Side Up? Over Easy

Favorite Place To Relax: Any uncrowded temple (with my eyes closed).

Favorite Pie: Lemon

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Vanilla

You pass this tag to - Nithya and Mona

Of All The People You Tagged This To, Who's Most Likely To Respond First? Nithya I guess.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Long weekend

May is one month that has 2 long weekends and we look forward to this because the first and last Monday in May are usually bank holidays. Our plans to visit Rome during the first week of May pretty much got scrapped after we realized that Prashanth was working the nights on Monday. I was particularly enthusiastic on Friday as one of my school friends, whom I had met through Orkut, was visiting us on Saturday. She was visiting with her husband and two boys aged 5 and 2. We were up early on Saturday and polished every nook and corner of the house until it shone bright and clear.
The plan was for my friend to visit us that evening, so I prepared gajar halwa, aloo tikki and bhel puri. They had visited the shopping mall before they arrived, so the elder one was exhausted due to the walking and slept off on the couch after gobbling down his milk. The younger one refused his milk, but started looking into each of Aditi's toys from her red toy box. What surprised us was Aditi happily shared her toys and played with the little boy. Thanks to the nursery, she did not cry for the same toy that my friend's son picked. She picked another toy and decided to play with it until he was finished. The little ones ran from the kitchen to the living area and were 2 happy bunnies. While the kids enjoyed their new found company, the dads discussed current affairs and other miscellaneous topics - like which service provider's was the best broaband in the country. The moms caught up on all the school girls' gossip. We chatted on who went with whom and what happened later. My friend gave me useful tips on parenting and choosing schools. Three hours flew up in a jiffy and it was time to bid good bye.
We cleared up and awaited our next set of friends who arrived on Sunday and stayed with us for the night. They travelled from London, stopped enroute at the Balaji temple at Birmingham and came on Sunday evening. The South Indian tiffin varieties sold at the Balaji temple deserve special mention. They are prepared by volunteers and are simply so tasty that they are sold out in no time. Our friends got a big laddu prasadam and medu vadais neatly packed with 3 varieties of chutneys from the temple. There was a sale of mangoes at the temple and we received a huge crate of mangoes as well. We decided to go for a simple dinner, but by the time I laid the dishes, there was hardly any space left on my dining table. The simple menu was Chappati, Mutter Panner, Baingan Bartha, rice, murunga sambar, rasam, gobi-aloo fry, left over mangeout curry from lunch, mint thogayal and vadam. We chatted till midnight and the men stayed awake much longer.
The next morning was a bright sunny day and after a breakfast of semiya upma, we went out to the Botanical gardens, which is in the heart of Sheffield.
Aditi enjoyed walking on the lush green grass there. She was running all over the place and we had a tough time trying to run behind her. It was the first time she was walking around in an external environment other than the garden and the little paved area in front of our house. After some pictures and a few nic-nacs there, we returned home hungry and tired. Aditi slept off on our way home after all the running , the poor kid was too drowsy.We had a leisurely lunch and our friends left later that evening. Aditi enjoyed the company of the 2 new comers in the house and our friends had fun time with the kid. Back to work on tuesday, but surprise-surprise awaited me that evening. More about that coming up in the next post.

New home in pictures

A few other bloggers have been posting pictures of their newly done homes. I follow suit and here are some pictures of our new home.Living Room
Living Room

Play area

KitchenEntrance

Thursday 1 May 2008

When mom fell ill..

..dad took charge of the household.

In the last 15 months I have never seen mom fall ill, so this was new and surprising to me.Come Monday and amma was sick at work. Thankfully appa had finished his weekend of nights and was off for a couple of days, which came in handy and helped us prefectly. Dad came to pick me up from the nursery and mom joined us too. One look at her face and we could see that she was not keeping well. As she dragged herself home, Dad made it clear that he would take care and ordered mom to take rest. Dad made some great chai for mom and decided to cook dinner for us. Mom fed me my milk and took me upstairs to get some sleep. I was playing beside her on the bed while she tried to sleep. After an hour of lying down and not being able to really sleep, mom decided to feed me dinner. Dad meanwhile had prepared excellent pepper rasam and vegetable fry. The rasam was so good and made with so much love and care that mom could not resist letting me taste some. Yummy yummy rasam along with my usual paruppu sadam and boiled vegetables.
Dad was quick to do the dishes, pack my bag ready for the next day, clean the table and kitchen worktop - much to the delightment of my mom. Dad would usually not bother to be around in the kitchen and when he replicated dinner exactly like mommy style, mommy was pretty amused. Dad tried to feed me dinner so that mom could rest, but I stubbornly refused to let daddy take over. Mom then fed me and off we were to sleep again. This time the good girl I am when it comes to sleep - I slept beside mommy and off we were to dreamland in a couple of minutes.
When mom went to have dinner, dad had laid the table so neatly and arranged the items that it brought tears to her eyes. After dinner, mom returned to catch some sleep. Through the night, dad was so nice to mom, who was in a pretty bad state. Dad brought her water when needed, he prepared my night time horlicks, covered mom with extra blankets when she suddenly started shivering at midnight, fed her tablets, brought her Iodex when the cramps troubled her (oh yes, mommy has pretty bad cramps - not just during pregnancy - but they are eternal cramps which never seem to go away. The only way to keep them at bay is to take calcium tablets everyday) and took great care of her throughout the night.
The next morning mom decided to take the day off and since dad was at home anyway, she had company too. Mom could not open her eyes until 7AM. I woke up at about 6:30, but was quietly playing beside her and waited for mom to get up and brush my teeth. Dad woke up too inspite of hardly having slept for a few hours and took me downstairs as mom was too weak to even carry me down the stairs. I drank my milk and was playing happily. After a short discussion, it was decided to send me to nursery that day - a little later than usual and dad helped mom to get me ready. He dropped me at the nursery, took mom to the doctors, shopped for groceries and mom got some much needed rest.I must metion that mom was pretty impressed with how dad managed the whole situation so well.
When dad came to pick me up at the nursery, I wondered why mom had not joined us as was the regular routine. I was delighted to see mom waiting for me at home and we had a great evening together. The next day things were back to normal - except for mom's health, but we went back to nursery and office. Dad was really the highlight of this post for he managed everything so well that it was almost as smooth as mom always does. Mom plans ahead, but dad jumped in as the situation demanded and surprised us.
This is Aditi updating my blog until amma recovers completely from her fever, cold and cough.