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Monday, August 31, 2009

The last three months

Playing in the kitchen as I work

So as the title suggests, it's been three hectic months since I updated the blog.

Here are some memorable moments -

In the beginning of June, we did a Thulaabhaaram in the local Guruvayoor temple where Atri was weighed on a large balance with bananas. Little did we know then that bananas would turn out to be his favourite food. He was surprisingly very calm as the priest laid him on one side of the balance.

I took Atri to stay at my mother's for the first time as he turned six months old and he displayed a very strong stranger anxiety, going to absolutely no one and clinging to me as though I would disappear in thin air. I almost cut short a weekly plan to a couple of days as I had to attend to all his needs without a break and was missing S desperately to relieve me. Thursday arrived and S gave us a big surprise by taking the day off and landing up in Mulund. Atri's bad boy phase vanished the moment he laid eyes on his dad. May be he was missing him too!

End June also brought home Atri's uncle Kaushik, from Philadelphia who spent a few days with us. Luckily Atri didn't display too much stranger anxiety this time. We also dared to take him to Rajdhani restaurant with baby in tow - after two minutes, his patience was exhausted and we took turns pushing him around the floor of the mall while the others attended to their delicious thaali.


We love our meal times

We started Atri on solid foods just as he turned six months old, going by the book. His first food was mashed bananas, liking both the green and yellow variety alike. Next in line was mashed boiled carrots, stewed apple and then many many more. In the last three months, Atri has tasted the following:
Cereals - Rice, Ragi, Sago, Rava
Fruits - Banana, apple, papaya, chikoo
Vegetables - Carrot, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, beetroot
Others - Moong dal, Farley's rusk, Gerber's Oatmeal-apple-cinnamon, Gerber's Sweet Potato, Cow's milk, Rice Cerelac, bits of Marie biscuit, bits of Idli / dhokla
He has had them in all possible interesting combinations which is the subject of a different post altogether.

Me-Athai-Atri

My dad's sister, Lalli Athai came after 20 long years to India and she was nice to spend a day with us end July on her way back to the US. She got many cute clothes for Atri including an Auburn University jersey set :) He got along pretty okay with her I must say. However, he refused to stay quiet with my mom and sis the afternoon I stole out with Athai to take her shopping. They had to run to my house-help Nirmala's house to get her to quieten and mind him until I was back in the next one hour! My entire building and part of the neighbourhood came to know of this episode where a shopping-starved mom left her baby crying with her mother *red faced*

With my baby on Varca beach - Goa

After Athai's visit, it was time to prepare 'the big list' for our first travel with Atri. The last time I'd taken a flight out of Bombay was in November 2007, so it was a much awaited trip, first to Goa, then back home for a day, unpack, repack and off to Bangalore. We traveled Business three out of four flights. As we failed miserably in getting Atri to take to the bottle, and I had to nurse him during take off and landing, business class provided the much needed privacy. It was my first experience feeding in public. After the first flight though, I couldn't care much. But I do hope this was the last time I had to do it. Goa stay at Club Mahindra was fun. Atri enjoyed our taking him out at least five times a day if not more. We stayed mostly inside the resort, taking spa sessions, beach walks, admiring the landscaping in the resort and occasional buffet binging. We managed to stick to our diet most of the time though! Bangalore was good fun. Atri met another set of grandparents - Meera Athai and Athimber, who took very good care of us while we were there. S's parents were also there on a short break, so Atri met up him Paati after five months. S's dad had been with us for over a week end June as we were all down with flu / cold with no one to take care of us. Sadly, Atri did not show any extra familiarity to Thatha :)

Figuring out the Kinetic in Mysore

We went for a day trip to Mysore - the onward journey taking over five hours and turning out to be Atri's longest road trip. We met up with my aunt, uncle, cousins and my little nephew Sumedh making our trip worthwhile. The whole travel experience was very positive, and the next step is to shake off my laziness and get documents organized for Atri's PP - and get cracking on a peachy plan for a trip abroad.

The large living room in Meera Athai's house also injected a heavy dose of enthusiasm in Atri to get moving and he finally start creeping around. First hesitantly and then in all speed. Now he keeps rushing towards Nirmala's voice, any scraps of paper / plastic / threads and his stroller's wheels. He'll also do he needful to reach out to some of his favourite toys or their boxes.

August brought in the long-awaited visit of my in-laws from Chennai. They were in a day after we landed home from Bglr - so the hectic unpacking and clearing up the house was tiring enough to make me forget I'd gone for a vacation at all! Atri displayed his moody self to them despite spending a few days with them in Bglr. But there is progress and today I can leave him alone with them for a couple of hours, without breaking into a sweat. Atri's Paati has gotten two lovely personalised quilts made for him - Snow bunnies and Disney Friends. While Atri plays on his quilts - he'll realise how lovely they are once he's able to comprehend better and when he can read the alphabets. There's another alphabet quilt in the making. He's a lucky fella, what else!

I bought a cute pair of full denims from Mothercare with a comfy broad elastic waist band - I guess Atri will fit into it nicely by Diwali. Whenever I go shopping, there's only enough time to pick out Atri's clothes. Though I did have sometime inbetween to pick out a pair of skinny jeans for myself, to flaunt my new waist size :)

I have reached way below my pre-pregnancy weight, but as that wasn't my ideal weight to start with, I have a slight bit more to go. A diet and finding time for regular walks is helping and I hope to be a yummy-mummy soon (well, yummier)

Atri has started displaying affection generously - biting my chin or cheeks, patting my still jiggly belly and blowing BIG raspberries on it, which makes me burst out laughing. He can sit without support for some stretch of time and stands while holding onto hands or some support. He's very quick to sense that his dad is back from work / run, and coos as soon as he hears the doorbell ring, raising his arms up to daddy as soon as he spots him. His sleep has become disturbed and we fret about it a lot, but hey, I'm focusing on the positives here ;)

I hope to get regular on this blog as it's very tough trying to recollect what happened three months ago, as I'm realising now. Time is moving very fast and too much is happening too soon.

Atri - my little sweet potato, I'm falling more and more in love with you, as the days go by! God bless you my darling.

4 comments:

  1. How detailed, and how how wonderful! Nandita, you'll relive these moments over and over when you read it 6 months from now, a year from now, two years from now... gosh, am still dipping into my archives to relive moments with Ana!

    And, dhrishti chuththi podu - Atri is gorgeously handsome!

    God Bless you all, sweetheart!

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  2. awwww.... reading it all in one place makes me smile!! way to go nan!! and you seem to be enjoying it like you should be....that fellow is a heartbreaker with those eyes!!

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  3. Nicely written. Atri is just like a normal kid. SOrry to say, but it took me two years or mother hood to accept that I have children and I am a mother. You are doing great. I remember those days, the first (5yrs) i never gave bottle. Luckily I was in the US, and did not have problems public feeding - would step into the malls changing room and feed him there :). The 2nd(3.5yrs) would not touch any other nipple but mine. Damn, but to my luck, both took to tupperware sippers at 6months. So hand in there, you are doing it right with no bottle :). You seem to be a mom like me, I ground my own cereal for the kids and they still eat home food.

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  4. Lovely post Nanditha..I am maintaining a dairy chronicling Avyukts achievements. I thought of a blog but in the end decided on writing since I could add lot more finer details :)) But honestly its so much fun to read back and relive those days! I hope they will grow to appreciate the amount love & care we pour in raising them :)

    You got a regular reader in me now. Will add Atri to my blogroll

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