Most moms would agree that the one real reason that they go through nine months of labour and childbirth is to hear the baby - be it the first cries, the cooing during the early weeks, the 'tha-tha-tha' or 'ba-ba-ba' during the initial months and await to hear the baby call out 'amma' or 'ma' or 'mom'. From time to time, my little girl would cry out Amm-mmm-ma and it gave me much pleasureto listen to what I term 'the golden word'. Whenever she called out Amma, Prashanth would pop in and teach her to say 'Appa'. Obviously he wanted her to address him as well and not just make me happy.
Last week, when Aditi was down with a bit of cough and cold, she had disturbed sleep during the nights. The tickly cough irritated her throat, leading to more coughs during the night. Eventually she would get up, all upset and demand to sleep with us on the bed. **Sigh**. On one such night, when she started coughing, I picked her up from the crib and put her on my lap to rub some Vicks Vaporub on her chest. The vaporub usually acted like a miracle and the cough always subsided. That night, Prashanth woke up and was examining her chest for any signs of infection. Aditi who was half sleep uttered clearly 'Amma' followed by a quick 'Ma'. Then she looked up at her dad who was still busy with the steth and said 'Aitipa' (short for 'Aditi appa') and pointing in his direction again said 'Aitipa'.
Both of us had huge grins and were overjoyed that our little one called out to us even in the midst of night. Its not too often that we get addressed as Amma or Appa and it certainly made us so happy that we spent the next couple of days telling the grandparents about it. Aditi hasn't learnt to say 'Appa' as yet. She would often address her father as 'Aitipa' or 'Yebbbbba' when shes too tired after lots of physical activity. The father is trying to get her to say just 'Appa' and the lessons still continue.
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I believe the purpose of blogging is to jot down incidents and happenings for posterity. Another small incident to indicate the the little girl does everything with a purpose. Last evening, after we returned from work/nursery, I gave her a bottle of milk. Then I gave her a biscuit as a snack and switched on the cooker. Aditi finished half of the biscuit and when I turned around, she was pointing at the dining table. I could hardly make out what she was trying to say and did not give much attention. Then she started putting both her hands under the table cloth. Atleast at this stage, I must have understood something. Yet, I proceeded to give her dinner and put her to bed. When we sat for dinner, I straightened the table cloth, when I found a biscuit piece on the table. That's when it all came together. The poor girl had left her biscuit under the table cloth and was desperately trying to look for it and I was so ignorant not to make sense of it. I have definitely learnt my lesson and shall try to comprehend what my baby says/shows in the future.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Snow in Spring
The shops have huge banners outside that say 'Mid-season Sale'. Going by the seasons, snow falls during winter. March was the season of hope as the days grew warmer and longer - more daylight during the day. Over the last few years, we've seen snow in March. And so, end of March was the end of snow. Little did we know that the British weather would be so unpredictable in April too. There was a little bit of snow in the first week of April. But the first thing that greeted me last Wednesday morning was the white layers on every roof top. We live atop a hill and the view outside extends to all the homes in the slopes below us. I came down to find the garden covered in a white layer of snow. Although we've got used to the snowfall now, I still feel excited to see snow in my garden. It was terrbily cold that morning, but the snow melted by midday and things seemed normal when we returned home that evening.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
DIY and its (dis)advantages
Most pieces of furniture bought in this country come flat-packed and needs to be self- assembled. Honestly, I am not a particular fan of DIY. The first few pieces of items we had to assemble on our own were Aditi's travel system and her crib. By the end of it, we were not so happy. Prashanth would crib over the lack of instructions on the single sheet of paper provided and it would be a mess by the time we finished it. Imagine doing DIY with a naughty baby around, trying to grab every tool and screw she could place and preventing us from completing the challenging task of assembling the furniture. Over the years, although our DIY skills have improved and we have a bigger tool box - electric drill, different types of hammers, various sizes of alan keys, screw driver set, spanner set and what not, yet I am not fond of self-assembly. So when it came to buying furniture for the new home, I desperately tried to avoid DIY stuf. Unfortunately for me, I could not avoid it completely.
We managed to find living room and dining room furniture and wardrobes that came ready assembled. But the bedroom and study ones came flat-packed. We decided to assemble the bed frame after Aditi slept. It took well over 2 hours to put up the frame and we were exhausted at the end of it. Little did we realize that we would have so many pieces to put together. I particularly hate screwing up the pieces together.
When it came to putting up the stair gates, we decided to do it when Aditi was around. She in turn banged the gate and happily scratched the walls. She still keeps testing the gate on the top of the stairs to see if its really sturdy. It was extremely difficult to keep a baby at bay and help Prashanth with putting up the gate.
In India, we would not even dream of trying to assemble furniture on our own. It was left to the carpenters. I understand that it is due to the availability of cheap labour. But in the western world, I am surprised to find that people even build houses on their own without much professional help, something that is unheard of in our country. With all its disad(in my opinion), DIY is still a passion amongst people here. But I'm sure we'll never be fond of the 'assembling' art and will seek professional help as much as possible. Feel free to express your views on DIY.
We managed to find living room and dining room furniture and wardrobes that came ready assembled. But the bedroom and study ones came flat-packed. We decided to assemble the bed frame after Aditi slept. It took well over 2 hours to put up the frame and we were exhausted at the end of it. Little did we realize that we would have so many pieces to put together. I particularly hate screwing up the pieces together.
When it came to putting up the stair gates, we decided to do it when Aditi was around. She in turn banged the gate and happily scratched the walls. She still keeps testing the gate on the top of the stairs to see if its really sturdy. It was extremely difficult to keep a baby at bay and help Prashanth with putting up the gate.
In India, we would not even dream of trying to assemble furniture on our own. It was left to the carpenters. I understand that it is due to the availability of cheap labour. But in the western world, I am surprised to find that people even build houses on their own without much professional help, something that is unheard of in our country. With all its disad(in my opinion), DIY is still a passion amongst people here. But I'm sure we'll never be fond of the 'assembling' art and will seek professional help as much as possible. Feel free to express your views on DIY.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Sleep - How it all happened
The popular saying 'sleeping like babies' is extremely misleading as not many babies that I know of sleep for 20 hours a day. At least, Aditi was not so. She slept for probably 10 hours out of 24 and the rest was spent either feeding or crying. During the first 4 weeks, my mom and I had many sleepless nights not knowing what would put this baby to sleep. And she would not sleep until midnight which made us even more tired. We would be terrified when the clock struck 9pm.The drama - as we called it would begin by 9pm and go on until midnight, when she would finally be rocked to sleep. In those early days, moving her from my lap after a feed to the bed would result in lots of crying and I would have to feed her in lying positions for as long as 40 minutes to put her to sleep. In short, it was tiring and not so much fun.
Sometime around the sixth week, I was introduced to mommy blogging. I was happy for 2 reasons - to take my mind off feeding Aditi and learning that most mommies had similar problems that I faced. The solution to the sleep issue came in the form of Tharini's 'A Tale of two sleepers'. As I read the entire post, I was thrilled to find that sleep training was possible even when the baby was as young as 2 months old. We started playing a classic CD on Ganesha hymns. We had to break the 'rocking to sleep' habit and to get Aditi to sleep in her crib. She was co-sleeping until about 2 months. I was told of CIO, but was not in favor of letting my little baby cry so long and tire herself although I knew that it worked well for a few other friends.
The musical mobile fascinated her and it was constantly played during the day. Wished we had a remote controlled one so we did not have to wind it up every 6 minutes. Thanks to my father who would play the mobile on and on endless number of times until Aditi fell asleep. At night, the musical mobile proved a distraction, so had to be removed before Aditi could sleep. I would leave Aditi in her crib, play the CD, sleep beside her on the bed and keep patting her until she fell asleep. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but I am thankful to many bloggers who guided me to teach Aditi to sleep.
When she was about 2 weeks old, amidst lots of protests, we bought a pacifier. My mom wasn't particularly inclined to give Aditi the paci as she found it terribly difficult to break my habit. It seemed that I would never give it up and would ask for the 'va-va' all the time until about a year. Aditi used the va-va to sleep until about 5 months and then stopped using it on her own. When I gave her the va-va, all she did was play with it and throw it after a little while. Instead she took another approach to sleep.
Come month 4 and Aditi started sleeping on her side. She chose her right side and placed her leg on the pillow beside her. As soon as the CD played, she would be asleep is less than 5 minutes. Oh and what a change was that to the endless rocking that happenend a few months ago. I was happy mother and started enjoying mommyhood. She would nap about 5 times a day - 30 minute sessions, and I chose to work around her nap times.
Around month 6, there were more changes to the sleep patterns. She started sucking her thumb! If she was sleepy, she would suck her thumb and all I had to do was put her in the bed and play the CD. She would sleep off in a few minutes. She had 2 well defined naps of about an hour in the morning and an hour and half in the afternoon.
The sleep technique came in handy on our trip to India. She would sleep off in a jiffy, but the trouble was the sound of two wheelers and constant honking on the road outside. India trip brought its own sleep problems. As she did not sleep in her crib for 6 weeks, she insisted on co-sleeping after we returned. And we would wake up all cramped every morning. Yet another habit to break....I strated to put her on our bed to sleep and place her in the crib as soon as she was asleep. This worked well and sometimes she wakes up at 4am demanding to sleep with us. And we sleep happily not having to share the bed with our baby.
Mommyhood does teach us lots of patience, but I also learnt to persevere and be steadfast in whatever I chose to teach my little girl.
Sometime around the sixth week, I was introduced to mommy blogging. I was happy for 2 reasons - to take my mind off feeding Aditi and learning that most mommies had similar problems that I faced. The solution to the sleep issue came in the form of Tharini's 'A Tale of two sleepers'. As I read the entire post, I was thrilled to find that sleep training was possible even when the baby was as young as 2 months old. We started playing a classic CD on Ganesha hymns. We had to break the 'rocking to sleep' habit and to get Aditi to sleep in her crib. She was co-sleeping until about 2 months. I was told of CIO, but was not in favor of letting my little baby cry so long and tire herself although I knew that it worked well for a few other friends.
The musical mobile fascinated her and it was constantly played during the day. Wished we had a remote controlled one so we did not have to wind it up every 6 minutes. Thanks to my father who would play the mobile on and on endless number of times until Aditi fell asleep. At night, the musical mobile proved a distraction, so had to be removed before Aditi could sleep. I would leave Aditi in her crib, play the CD, sleep beside her on the bed and keep patting her until she fell asleep. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but I am thankful to many bloggers who guided me to teach Aditi to sleep.
When she was about 2 weeks old, amidst lots of protests, we bought a pacifier. My mom wasn't particularly inclined to give Aditi the paci as she found it terribly difficult to break my habit. It seemed that I would never give it up and would ask for the 'va-va' all the time until about a year. Aditi used the va-va to sleep until about 5 months and then stopped using it on her own. When I gave her the va-va, all she did was play with it and throw it after a little while. Instead she took another approach to sleep.
Come month 4 and Aditi started sleeping on her side. She chose her right side and placed her leg on the pillow beside her. As soon as the CD played, she would be asleep is less than 5 minutes. Oh and what a change was that to the endless rocking that happenend a few months ago. I was happy mother and started enjoying mommyhood. She would nap about 5 times a day - 30 minute sessions, and I chose to work around her nap times.
Around month 6, there were more changes to the sleep patterns. She started sucking her thumb! If she was sleepy, she would suck her thumb and all I had to do was put her in the bed and play the CD. She would sleep off in a few minutes. She had 2 well defined naps of about an hour in the morning and an hour and half in the afternoon.
The sleep technique came in handy on our trip to India. She would sleep off in a jiffy, but the trouble was the sound of two wheelers and constant honking on the road outside. India trip brought its own sleep problems. As she did not sleep in her crib for 6 weeks, she insisted on co-sleeping after we returned. And we would wake up all cramped every morning. Yet another habit to break....I strated to put her on our bed to sleep and place her in the crib as soon as she was asleep. This worked well and sometimes she wakes up at 4am demanding to sleep with us. And we sleep happily not having to share the bed with our baby.
Mommyhood does teach us lots of patience, but I also learnt to persevere and be steadfast in whatever I chose to teach my little girl.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
My first haircut
Mommy calls it my album but I have never had a chance to voice my views. For a while now mummy had been contemplating cutting my hair that kept falling on my eyes and on my back. For those of you wondering why we did not have my head tonsured during the recent trip to India, I learnt that there is no such custom on my dad's side and girl babies are not allowed to have their head tonsured in the temple. So my parents decided to cut my hair unceremoniously here at home. Last weekend when the sun was shining in all its glory, mummy embarked on the project. Dad was away at work. So it was just us at home. First she wrapped a towel around my neck and held it secure with a big nappy pin in the front. With a comb in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, mommy carefully started cutting my hair on the back . All i saw when I turned around were some strands of black stuff and I dint know what to do. As it did not hurt me, I stayed put munching my biscuit. Mummy then started combing my hair in the front and using the scissors started removing some of the hair from the front. It was all over in less than 5 minutes and mummy swiftly removed the towel and cleared up the place around. She showed me a mirror and I was only too happy to see my reflection (as I always am). Check out my new haircut!
Saturday, 22 March 2008
From baby to toddler
My little girl is growing up fast. She's masterd the art of walking and refuses to hold my hands for support. She wants to walk all over the house and has almost forgotten crawling. When she loses balance and falls to the floor, she gets up immediately and resumes walking. She keeps us entertained for hours by her act of walking. She can get on and off the bed and sofa with ease. However she analyses very carefully the depth or height from the top to the floor and then comes down quite slowly and carefully.
Food habits have changed recently. She wants a bite from our plates almost always. Wants to feed herself and many times refuses to let me feed her . Obviously this behavior is way too annoying for me cos the area around her highchair gets very messy and the time taken to feed her increases multifold. This is one new habit that she's probably picked up at her nursery. She is happy to share her food with the parents and tries to feed her daddy or me before she puts it in her mouth.
Talking is another new acheivement these days. Her favorite rhyme is 'Twinkle twinkle Little Star' and she likes to sing the 3rd and 4th lines of the rhyme. She goes 'Aaaaaaaaaa' in a typical tune of 'Up above the world so high' and looks up at me or her daddy giving us a minute to sing the line. Then continues to sing the tune of the 4th line and expects us to sing the same. Probably she's heard the rhyme on her musical mobile almost from birth and likes this particular one very much. She tries to talk different words other than the usual 'Thatha', mostly imitating what we speak.
Aditi can now understand whatever we speak and can instantly recognize her toys. If we ask her to get the ball, she scans the room to look for the ball and brings it to us. She can also open and close lids of plastic boxes and gets excited when she's done it. However I can never get her to wear her gloves for more than half a minute and have already lost 2 of them . She tactfully uses her mouth to take off the glove from one hand and uses this hand to remove the other one and throws them away. Most often I keep an eye for her gloves and take them away from her just in time. And she loves to kick her shoes off. Its difficult to find her shoes that she will never be able to kick off.
There have been a few other changes at home. Its been 3 weeks since I took up a new job and its going alright at the moment. We have moved home to our own peice of land and have been busy doing it up.The easter weekend came in handy and we've spent most of our time sprucing the house up. Aditi loves the new place especially the stairs and loves to climb up the stairs. She's yet to learn to come down the stairs on her own, still enjoys climbing them up. Prashanth pciks her up from the nursery whenever he's at home or gets in early and its a joy to see her face all happy and smiling. She comes running into our arms and quickly puts on her coat, hat and gloves and jumps into the pram to be wheeled away.
Its been snowing all day here and we've been watching the spring snow. There's a white layer on our well lawned small rear garden. Its Aditi's first snow and I've been pointing to the white bed on our garden (other than her birthday when it was snowing really bad and her daddy had to scrap the ice off his windscreen at 4AM in the morning) We have 2 more days to enjoy nature's beauty before we get back to work on Tuesday.
Food habits have changed recently. She wants a bite from our plates almost always. Wants to feed herself and many times refuses to let me feed her . Obviously this behavior is way too annoying for me cos the area around her highchair gets very messy and the time taken to feed her increases multifold. This is one new habit that she's probably picked up at her nursery. She is happy to share her food with the parents and tries to feed her daddy or me before she puts it in her mouth.
Talking is another new acheivement these days. Her favorite rhyme is 'Twinkle twinkle Little Star' and she likes to sing the 3rd and 4th lines of the rhyme. She goes 'Aaaaaaaaaa' in a typical tune of 'Up above the world so high' and looks up at me or her daddy giving us a minute to sing the line. Then continues to sing the tune of the 4th line and expects us to sing the same. Probably she's heard the rhyme on her musical mobile almost from birth and likes this particular one very much. She tries to talk different words other than the usual 'Thatha', mostly imitating what we speak.
Aditi can now understand whatever we speak and can instantly recognize her toys. If we ask her to get the ball, she scans the room to look for the ball and brings it to us. She can also open and close lids of plastic boxes and gets excited when she's done it. However I can never get her to wear her gloves for more than half a minute and have already lost 2 of them . She tactfully uses her mouth to take off the glove from one hand and uses this hand to remove the other one and throws them away. Most often I keep an eye for her gloves and take them away from her just in time. And she loves to kick her shoes off. Its difficult to find her shoes that she will never be able to kick off.
There have been a few other changes at home. Its been 3 weeks since I took up a new job and its going alright at the moment. We have moved home to our own peice of land and have been busy doing it up.The easter weekend came in handy and we've spent most of our time sprucing the house up. Aditi loves the new place especially the stairs and loves to climb up the stairs. She's yet to learn to come down the stairs on her own, still enjoys climbing them up. Prashanth pciks her up from the nursery whenever he's at home or gets in early and its a joy to see her face all happy and smiling. She comes running into our arms and quickly puts on her coat, hat and gloves and jumps into the pram to be wheeled away.
Its been snowing all day here and we've been watching the spring snow. There's a white layer on our well lawned small rear garden. Its Aditi's first snow and I've been pointing to the white bed on our garden (other than her birthday when it was snowing really bad and her daddy had to scrap the ice off his windscreen at 4AM in the morning) We have 2 more days to enjoy nature's beauty before we get back to work on Tuesday.
Friday, 14 March 2008
New life in the nursery
Aditi was first sent to a nursery once a week for a couple of hours when she was about 8 months old. That continued for about 3 months until we left on a vacation to India. On our return we knew that she had to be sent to a full time nursery for I was to start work soon. The nursery hunt began and I had shortlisted 3 nurseries close to my workplace. I booked an appointment with each nursery the following week. It was close to Christamas and the first one I visited was being painted and brightened up for the new year. There were no kids in the baby room and all the furniture/toys had been moved around. The lady who showed me around definitely did not know the 'Sales' tactics and I was not impressed. I rejected it straightaway and looked forward to visiting the other two. Nursery 2 was a big hit. The lady was overly courteous, took me into a separate meeting room, gave a nice tour of the place and handed me a big booklet including a balloon for Aditi and I was quite happy with the place. The only issue was the food provided was made by the school kitchen and there was no separate cook for the nursery. Nursery 3 was really wonderful from every point of view except that it would take slightly longer for me to get there and back. There wasn't much open space for the kids to play, but the weather is so unpredictable here that I wasn't bothered too much. I decided to go with the last one and invited Prashanth for a viewing. He was happy too , but somehow I had this feeling at the back of my mind that I should visit Nursery 1 when it's all completed and done. But before I could book an appointment , I left for India and left it at that. On my return we discussed and wanted to visit Nursery 1. This time I was more than impressed and decided to put my daughter here straightaway. On hindsight I do not regret my decision and firmly believe first impressions could sometimes be misleading and incorrect.
Aditi has been there for about 4 weeks and the staff there are absolutely wonderful. She's adjusted pretty well and although my first week at work was a bit of tension, I now eagerly await to see her happy face every evening. She does crafts, painting and made a mobile yesterday with the help of the staff. The nursery itself is on the way to my office and its extremely comfortable for me to drop/pick her up. They have an in house cook and cater to all types of meals. All said and done, I'm happy I reconsiderd my initial decision and decided to go with my instincts.
Aditi has been there for about 4 weeks and the staff there are absolutely wonderful. She's adjusted pretty well and although my first week at work was a bit of tension, I now eagerly await to see her happy face every evening. She does crafts, painting and made a mobile yesterday with the help of the staff. The nursery itself is on the way to my office and its extremely comfortable for me to drop/pick her up. They have an in house cook and cater to all types of meals. All said and done, I'm happy I reconsiderd my initial decision and decided to go with my instincts.
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