Milestones at almost 18 months

Sorry Atri - you have a lazy mother! I keep deciding to update your blog more often and I end up taking longer breaks than before...hope i will stick to my resolve this time as time is flying and your mom's memory is not serving her well :)

Before I proceed on what my son has been upto in the last three months - I want to capture all milestones that he has achieved in this post -

1. Bends over and picks up objects - especially if its a food item - we never waste food!
   
2. Tries to lift heavy things eg. my laptop
3. Plays peekaboo - behind delicately hanging curtains
   
4. Rolls balls and any such objects back and forth
5. Empties containers of contents and fills them- such as the cookie jar game
   
6. Is able to locate and remember objects of his liking in ours as well as neighbours' houses - eg. Biscuit tins
7. Imitates us- takes a napkin and dabs his mouth delicately after a meal - takes that from his dad I guess
   
8. Pushes and pulls toys while walking - poor old stacking turtle of his and now the cycle
9. Uses spoon successfully and feeds himself many dry foods
10. Points to nose, mouth and eyes when asked - rest of the parts we have not been persistent in teaching - he'll learn eventually
11. Runs well - especially when he sees the driver at the door - so that he can hitch a ride with him
    
12. Walks up stairs and climbs down holding a hand - we are not brave enough to let him climb down by himself :O
    
13. Walks backwards when we call him to us for a hug - how predictable!
14. Plays with the ball
15. Helps around the house - yes for sure, especially grabbing the broom from the househelp and showing her how to do a clean sweep under the sofa and such. Give him a napkin or a cloth and he goes about dusting every nook and cranny and even mopping floors - we have a diligent worker on our hands
16. When he throws something on the floor or does something funny, he'll put his hands to his mouth with an expression of 'AHHH'
17. Turns pages of books and bites them off too - even board books aren't spared
18. Points out to bow-bow and cat in the books - he'll open only those two pages
    
19. Knows the correct way to use many objects - laptops, chargers, mobiles, telephone, remotes, broom, comb, handbags etc etc
20. Has gotten very attached to his (formerly mine) blankie and we wont go anywhere without it. Fortunately needs it to sleep only.
    
21. Throws a tantrum when he is not allowed to go with the current love of his life - the driver or when he is all ready to go out and we don't take him out immediately
22. Has reduced two day time naps to one, since he started attending playgroup one month ago
23. Responds to many directions in English, Tamil and Hindi- sit down, get your mum-mum chair (to eat), keep your feet properly on the cycle, get your blankie, get me the remote, give this to daddy, etc
24. Plays excellent hide and seek - seeks me out in the first shot no matter where i hide even in the dark!
25. Kicks a ball or our heads - anything which comes in way of his foot
26. Speaks the words - mamma, da, light, ball, bo-bo, cat, mum-mum(food), owter (water) and some others which I cannot figure
27. Can distinguish the foodie pics on board book such as fruits and pretends to eat them from the page (born to two great foodies, what else can we expect?)
28. Shows the action 'not there' / illai / kaanum with his hands - when he sees an empty plate or a person he expects to see isn't around.
29. Throws the ball over his head - god save my cup of tea when he does that around me
30. Has been dancing to music for the last three months - some more steps have been added to his repertoire - more hand movement, bum movements (Kadavule!!)
31. Indicates to us that he's doing potty by lifting his tee and rubbing his tummy, inside the diaper of course! And tries to pull down his pants for us to clean him.
32. Co-operates while changing clothes by putting hands and legs in the correct openings of clothes - this is more accelerated when we utter the words 'Narasimha' (driver), 'tata' - with the hope of going out someplace and getting a ride in the car, for which he has developed HUGE fascination
33. Is in love with all wheelies, loves to sit in cars, cycles
34. Biggest milestone is that he's able to stay away from mom and dad for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, in his playgroup - interacting with kids his age or older and adjusting to environs other than home! God knows that this a BIG one for us!

The guidance for building this list is from the chart in Babycenter India
He is on or ahead of track in almost everything, except speech - I'm told boys are slow in this respect - or is he already learning to be the strong-silent types like his dad? Only time will tell!

A year and a quarter

Ok, for those of you who read the earlier story, nanny no.3 did not turn up - she supposedly fell sick on the day she was to join and then decided not to join after all, which is good in a way. I'd feel worse if I wasted time and energy explaining to her scope of work and then she quit on day 2 like the earlier one.
As I type this, Atri has figured out to dance and understood the connection between the word 'dancey' and moving his hands in a dangerously bhangraesque fashion - but we are enjoying it thoroughly all the same :) Rocking him to Channel V / MTV / VH1 to put him down for his morning nap is bound to have some effect somewhere!
We brought in Atri's 16 month with nothing out of the ordinary. No cakes or bakes this time. Just a screaming fest with another new nanny - he doesn't seem to like her at first sight, but we aren't giving up that easily. We have taught her to bribe him (with what else but biscuits) in order to get into his good books - lets hope that works. It's funny how vehement he is in his protest at bringing in yet another new person inside the house. It's almost like he is screaming at the loss of all the exclusive time with mama dearest and presence of an intruder.
He started walking on 15 Jan and it completely changed our lives! And just last week while visiting a relative's house with a staircase, he started climbing up confidently holding the side wall. He isn't satisfied just walking, wants more interesting avenues like climbing onto sofas, boxes, stairs, just about anything. It's been over two months that he safely gets down from the bed by himself - lowering himself onto the floor with utmost caution - it's cute to see his concentration.
He's yet not that into tv, but for certain ads featuring models / beautiful women. The Ponds whitening cream ad featuring a song from Bachna Ai Haseeno - Khuda jaane ye kyu hua hai, keeps him glued to the screen for the full 30 seconds and he'll come running to see this particular ad whichever room he is in, if he can hear it streaming in the air. The title song of the movie Wake up Sid, once manage to hold his attention for the full 3 minutes, which is HUGE for him.
Food wise we are only progressing to a wide variety of cuisines, still not giving him any nuts - which may be needless but I aint taking any chances.
He has been staying alone for a couple of hours with our househelp in the evenings when hubby and me want to go out for a baby-free date and it's a fantastic progress for us clingy parents. Yes, that wasn't an error. Sometimes the clingy baby in turn makes his / her parents so clingy that I wonder if he is more stuck to us or we to him! In fact both of us almost abandoned the thought of our first date together leaving Atri with our maid alone at home - but then we gave some mental pushing and finally made it.
The high chair is no longer of any use to us as our little acrobat easily wiggles out of the straps and buckles and is ready to stand on the table instantly bringing our weak hearts to our mouth. Thankfully it can be converted to a regular table and chair when Atri is ready to use it, so I am not entirely regretting my decision to spend on this piece of furniture.
I think I speak to him quite a bit but he hasn't started saying out any words clearly - mumbles a lot, especially when he pretends to talk to the dog next door, but we are still waiting for him to say some words with understanding :)

Too much too fast

Each day the thought that I haven't updated this space, pricks the mother's conscience in me...and today when Atri did two new things in a span of two minutes, I realised that things are going too fast and it's now or never. If I don't record these memories now, it'll all be washed down the drain of a multitasking mom's scant memory, which by the way has been proved wrong recently.
So what led me to this sudden posting is that we were watching CBeebies while eating breakfast, Boogie Beebies to be precise and Atri actually started imitating the dance moves the kids were doing on TV and he's not a guy who's attracted to the telly in anyway. All the Baby Einstein DVDs that we loaded up on are lying around, except when he decides to play with the DVD covers - to bang and throw them around of course.
The second thing that astonished me was that he has made the connect between the switches on the wall and the electrical appliances. We have a power shut down between 9 and 10 am everyday and today at 9 am when the lights and fans went off, he immediately tugged at me to take him to the switchboard so he could turn the switches on - I had to explain to him - "Not now baby, there's no electricity to power that" - while I understand electricity and circuits are some heavy duty physics to explain to a baby, he's not going to question me on that now - so I can plan my answers later.
One minute he seemed like a kid who didn't understand a thing and now he understands much too much!
It's been just three days that I'm trying to keep him diaper free after his first potty in the morning, taking him to the washroom every 45 minutes or so to make him pee. The second day, as soon as we pulled his shorts down and he entered the washroom, he started peeing, all amazed at the stream of water produced by his body :) Call it timing or whatever, am I happy or what that he's making such associations.
Some other ways in which he makes us smile:

• Lightly taps his hand on his forehead whenever we say 'aiyayo'
• Goes around giving imaginary things in people's hands when I say 'prasadam' - this must be the good side effect of diligently taking him to a temple each Sunday - where the priests in every alter give us the 'theertham' and 'kalkandu' prasadam.
• He can't tolerate the landline receiver being on the hook, the second he spots it in its place, he HAS to take it off, press the speaker phone button, press some random buttons and here the BSNL operator give us gaalis in different languages. He even pretends to have a conversation with her! This has been going on for a few weeks now. So people don't complain that you can never reach our landline.
• He has figured out where his food items are placed, including the secret hideouts in the neighbouring Paati's house. Last week I was feeding him chilled yogurt which he saw me remove from the fridge - when he saw that the bowl was getting empty, he promptly went to the fridge and started to egg me on to remove some more from inside. Biscuit dabbas' locations are all hard wired in his brains. Since quite some weeks, each day when he goes to the neighbour Paati's house, he pulls her sari towards the cupboard where she stores his favourite treats. Since a few days, he has figured how to open it himself, but asks us for help to open the tins.
• He has taken a huge liking to my fleece blanket of the last five years and needless to say has made it his. Just touching his blankie makes him put thumb in mouth and he gets a feeling of great comfort - if we are going someplace where we plan to stay late, we don't fail to carry the blankie with us.
• His interaction with the poodle next door is very heart warming, especially when he tries to lie down in front of him, looking at him eye to eye and having a romantic conversation, almost trying to kiss him :) I don't let him get 'that' close, in the poodle's interest.
• Food-wise, i cannot even make the effort to list down all that he has eaten. It's easier to make a list of what he hasn't eaten so far - probably just three items - nuts, eggs and bittergourd...he eats pasta, soups, regular curries we make at home with moderate spice levels that we eat, just about everything and I truly thank God for that.

Q1 results

Dear Baby,

You completed your first quarter yesterday and equally exciting news is that I completed the first quarter of momhood. It is a weird phenomenon where each day is so full, long and tiring and then weeks fly past us in a blur. From being completely at sea and overwhelmed when we brought you home on 8th December to today, we have matured as parents, as people.

The past 3 months, were a lesson in patience, love, selflessness and everything else that we had to learn to take care of the little helpless life in our hands - You. Today, I wont claim too much, but I am more confident that I can take care of you - and if we've done alright in the first three months, we wont err too much in catering to your needs - which for now are only milk and loads of love (this includes regular bum cleaning, singing, reading, rocking, hugging, kissing et al).

Your smiles have both dad and me weak in our knees. Especially the goofy smiles you give us when cleaning an especially big poopy job - it does make the smells more bearable :)

Your gaze is more fixed and I'm amazed how even boring stuff like curtains can hold your attention so.

You were born with a good head of hair, but your attempts at pulling them out with one hand while trying to stick the whole of the other hand into your little mouth, is not helping their growth. I try giving you a cloth to hold so that your poor head can be spared, but since you are a man of determination - you refuse to accept my offer.

You've become a pro at looking at dad and me, from time to time with your lower lip pouting out so cutely that we'll throw anything that's in our hands (yes even the laptop or expensive crystal) to attend to whatever it is that's troubling you. Such is the power of your little pink lower lip. I've always found this the cutest trait in babies and you've been reminding me of it since the last one month. Sometimes it's a prelude to a cry and sometimes you just make use of the lip alone to summon your slaves. What power!

The head holding bit, you managed to get that alright from the end of the first month itself, which the maushi (massage lady) gives herself all credit for and of course to me for getting her in so quickly on the job. Now when I put you on your tummy to give your bum some 'air time', you left your head perfectly well and even manage to do some push ups on your chubby little arms.

You've developed a huge fascination for your hands - and spare no effort in sticking one or both of them into your mouth. It can keep you occupied for a long time, well long enough for me to have my afternoon nap. Since your doctor declared that it is an important development milestone, we are in no way trying to get in the way of this love between you and your hand. Actually, it is this love that has got in the way of you turning on your tummy. About 6 weeks ago, your desire to get on your tummy was so fervent, that you'd try, try, try and then cry in frustration that you are not able to get there. But today this desire lies blissfully forgotten and I can see that your favourite rhyme is going to be 'One luscious, two luscious, three luscious lollipops'.

Your day time sleep has gone down sharply but since you sleep and let me sleep as well for most of the night, I don't mind keeping you entertained during the day.
You come up with a new word almost everyday. It started with 'Agooo' and now it includes many more like 'Tll', 'Dll', 'Khoo khoo', 'Gaai' and something that even sounds like 'Google'. I wont be surprised at the last one as my googling had sharply increased during pregnancy. Mornings and afternoons post-nap are the best times to have a meaningful conversation with you and I have noticed that you are happier to talk to me if I keep your bum free of nappies and diapers and pajamas. You will admit I am a very observant mom :)

Your legs are getting stronger (read kicks) especially when a hassled poor mom is trying to keep your bum dry by changing your nappy regularly. Also when I make an appearance at your crib after being absent for exactly 2 and a half minutes, you kick away in excitement as though you haven't seen me for months! When I hold you upright, the slightest something coming under your feet, you push down and do a jump of sorts - for which (also) maushi gives herself a lot of credit.

You've also learnt to stay alone with your mommy all day since you were two months old. I know it can be a bit boring seeing just one face apart from the house help and maushi's but what to do darling, something's gotta give!

I may have missed out on some things, but post pregnancy my memory has done a nosedive and I have no time or inclination to do a google on that.

Overall, we've been having a whale of a time, not counting the times I cry with you when you cry inconsolably for some reason, or when I feel I'm not keeping up with mommy duties as well as I should, or when I crave to go out and mingle with the rest of humanity.

It's a very long post this time, but hey its the First Quarter result after all.

A few more months / years down and we'll (me and dad) be reading this post fondly.

Lots of love and kisses to the pouty boy.
Mommy

We've been busy here :)

Each day is passing by so soon and I feel guilty that I have not been keeping any record of the happenings in the land where Atri rules. So many lovely moments are rushing past like a film on fast forward mode - so fast that if I don't record now, these memory files will be soon replaced by newer ones and unlike computer files, it's not going to ask my permission before it gets replaced. Some of those memories are so beautiful that I cannot bear to let them fade into oblivion. Hence the desperate attempt to get back to this blog - to preserve these precious moments forever.

Dear Choturam*,

You are in your 12th week now - well there's still time to reach the landmark of completing 3 months, when you'll no longer be called a newborn! The week and month disparity has baffled me right since pregnancy. (I'm weak in mathematics anyway - so you know whom to take your Maths homework to!)

Your social smiles that started at around 9 weeks have blossomed into goofy smiles, noisy smiles (would that qualify as a laugh?), winking smiles, gummy smiles (I can't say toothy, that's why) - and lots more. You knows to smile as the occasion demands - and since your dad is not much of a 'smiler' (more the strong and silent types) - I can proudly say you get your smiling genes from me.

Your movements are more co-ordinated than before, and the cycling / boxing movements get really fast and furious when mommy stands in front of you :) If this is your way of thanking me for all the prompt nappy changes, you're welcome darling!

We bought a carrier from Mothercare, choosing the 3 way as per your dad's wishes. Trying to go with something simpler I thought the 2 way would be a better option. It does turn out that with all the velcro fasteners and tight buckles, putting this contraption on is more like putting on a space suit. It took me two days to learn how to get this thing on myself and 5 days to figure out how to get you into it and 2 more days to figure out how to put on all the fasteners without getting your hands or toes squeezed inbetween the straps and buckles. Each time I tried to do a practice session carrying you inside, you would start howling, not having the patience to wait for mom to search and put on all the fasteners. Finally yesterday afternoon we decided to take you for a mall outing (rather take ourselves for the much deserved outing - see humanity at large and get back some semblance of our past lives) putting you in the carrier as mom and dad look around in the shops (turned out to be just mom as dad was busy carrying you). It was a bit scary trying out the thing at the site with no prior practice, almost like giving an extempore speech. However, we managed pretty okay in the parking lot (putting you in the carrier i mean) and you did not seem too angry with us for doing this to you. It was fun actually, and for a full 65 minutes you let us roam in peace, watching the shop windows, entering some shops, buying stuff (things that normal people actually do :) ). I said 65 minutes, not rounding it off to the nearest whole ie.one hour - very deliberately, as every minute of being able to roam free counted a lot towards making me feel better. Just looking at the hustle bustle of people around gave my mental state a good boost. Since you were so co-operative with us, we plan to do this a lot more in the coming weekends.

I've been home alone with you since exactly two weeks now and I must say the going has been pretty good. I'm not as scared or worried as I was 15 days earlier as to how I'll manage by myself. My self-confidence and bonding with you is getting better and better. I'm actually learning to have a good time with you as a little person, whether it's nursing you or cleaning your messy bum, remembering all the time the wise words from one of my dearest friends - "Consider parenting as a gift and not as a responsibility and you'll feel a lot lot better". I must make a special mention here that the beautiful heart-melting smiles you shower me with help me a lot when I'm stressed.

Here's to my little stress buster!

Love and cuddles
Mom


*This is to state that Atri, Choturam and Bumble are one and the same. His name keeps changing as per his parents' moods.

Milestones so far

Reporting from the 26th week of pregnancy - and trying to recollect the events so far before I forget them

14th March - LMP

14th April - Home pregnancy test - positive
Beta HCG - indicates 4-5 weeks pregnant

21st April - Repeat Beta HCG indicates levels well risen

2nd May - 1st Ultrasound (Dating and viability scan) which indicates pregnancy of 5-6 weeks
Informed both would-be grandparents

14th June - 2nd Ultrasound (first trimester - nuchal scan)
Baby corresponds to 13 weeks since LMP

20th June - Prophylactic cervical cerclage under GA

19th July - 3rd Ultrasound (Anomaly scan)
Baby's measurements correspond to the 18 weeks of gestation
Weight 220 grams
EDD - 20th December 2008

9th August onwards baby Bumble starts kicking in all earnest while we were watching Singh is Kinng