First timers for Arya on our Konkan Trip!

 Cold winter air on the face.

 Mom dad by the side all the time.

 Good-old mom-cooked food to eat at unexpected but beautiful locations!

 So many ducks and pigeons in cages making weird sounds. Talking to them and calling them near.

 A window seat to stand and see the trees, houses, people and cars actually move backwards. Wow!

 Rhythmic vibrations of the bus for a sound sleep.

 So many happy faces in the bus. Two new friends – Mandar and Sakshi!

 Vast expanse of water and roaring waves that seemed about to go over the body!

 Cool sea water at the feet!

 Sand rushing back to the sea from under the feet with the retreating waves!

 Mom splashing water high up with her feet.

 A ride on the horse-cart at the beach.

 A place to stay with trees and gardens all around.

Arya experienced all this and more for the first time...on our Konkan – Harihareshwar, Srivardhan and Dive Agar trip last weekend.

Kids love toys, but not necessarily the one's we get them!

Since Arya was turning 11 month old on Monday the 19th December 2011, I thought of getting a gift for him on the way back home from my class. Yes, we make it a point to celebrate every 19th of the month for him (at least for his first year)! I’m sure he might be thinking “Hey, what’s the big deal?”

From a local toy shop I got a big ball for him. But since I am a woman, and that too ‘a mom’, I am both gifted, and entitled by nature to buy something more, like a beautiful toy mobile phone.

Arya loves playing with our mobile phones and we love to see him finally silenced for a few minutes so that we can relax. This phone has 3 modes – numeric, alphabets, and songs ‘n’ greeting. It has colourful buttons and a huge bright blue light at the top. It can stand on its own and the screen shows letters and numbers as you type. Here’s a photo I downloaded from the internet.

First, I gave the ball to him on Saturday and placed him down in front of it. But, what was I thinking? Arya screamed on top of his lungs and rushed to grab my legs. He must have thought that this huge object that can move on its own might crush him. It seemed threatening to him. Since then we are introducing it gradually to him. Now even after 2 days he gently tries to poke the ball only when we are around, and yet comes rushing to us thinking that the ball might chase him.

About the phone, Maushi and I were desperate to show him that for the past two days. Yesterday Yogesh got a pack of cupcakes and lit a small candle on one. Arya wanted to grab the candle and the knife too. (Kids want anything that is dangerous.) We did the usual song and cake cutting.

Then we showed him the gift. Arya’s face lit up with all the buttons and the big led… and the voice and he loved the musical tones. We felt so proud for getting him something that he loved (and especially after the ball incident). It is so fulfilling to see happiness in your baby’s eyes.

Today morning after playing with his mobile for about 15 minutes, my boy suddenly dropped it and went back to playing with his favourite baby oil bottle!!! It is transparent, filled with oil and has a white cap. As simple as you can imagine!!! I’m thinking, what’s so great with this baby oil bottle that fascinates him so much???

Only he can tell.

Missing the Baby

Dear Arya,

I am missing you a lot, just like most days in office. It is now 5.30 pm and it is still an hour and a half before I will see you again!

I love how you yell 'AYE AYE AAA' from inside the house the moment we knock the door ever so lightly. You are already waiting for us long before we knock. We love to hear your voice outside. It makes me smile even though I am tired.

You become so impatient for me to lift you up while I'm still dropping my helmet and removing my shoes. I know I should wash-up before I pick you up, but I can't let you down. After all you've been waiting... You get so excited, that you almost beat me up with both your fists, when I hug you, making me realize yet again what I am missing every day.

And you are getting sharper by the day. You have understood that when mom or dad wear helmets, they are leaving... and that's when you come to me so that I will hug you and maybe not go to office. It is your attempt to try and keep me home. You don't like it when I put you down or give you back to Maushi on my way out.

You've learnt to wave goodbye to me in the morning. It is heartbreaking. You don't realize yet that tata means we will be away from you for 9 hours!

Hey, it is nearing 6 pm now so I'll pack up to come home!

Love,
Mom.

Weekend wedding, Arya's talk, and the pampering!

I got silver kadaas / anklets for Arya’s feet on Saturday. They have little ghungroos on them... so he goes chum chum chum the entire place now. My parlour lady wasn’t available to do Arya's haircut. The boy hair grows like anything. The last cut was just 2 months ago! I'll have to get it done coming weekend. I also put 4 of my dresses for stitching and counting days to get to wear them.

I visited my mom’s place. My parents were very happy to see their grandson say words like 'AAEEE, AATYA, AAJJI, MAMAA, PAAPA'. Yea Arya has started jabbering this for the past week and a half. It is such fun to watch. He opens his mouth wide AAAAHHH to say AAYEE. So now my aunt (UM) wants me to let him call her Aayi. She says he can call me Mama. :) I'm not sure but, OK.
My mom also got to experience what a tycoon my son could be. Running up to corners and climbing every piece of furniture!

On Sunday UM made Idli Sambar. In the evening we went out for Yogesh's collegues wedding. Weddings are fun and here I met the people he works with. I'm not saying fun food-wise, but emotions wise. It is a new start for the couple and everyone in their families. Or, am I too senti these days?

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While we were travelling for the wedding, I had a sudden sharp pain in my right arm. And it didn’t go away. As always I began to wonder why...I had done a lot of cleaning work in the house over the weekend. Was that why? Or was it because I carried Arya over my arm for a long time to comfort him. Nope. It wouldn’t cause such a sharp pain. Was it the bike ride? Or was it carrying the laptop for so many days finally is having its toll?

Yogesh applied some ointment to it, yet I woke up in the middle of the night to reapply. I was thinking of the reason for the pain even in my sleep. And it suddenly struck me.... I had washed Yogesh shirt! 1 shirt! I can't imagine that I’ve become so delicate and pampered!

Kanchan believes that our (i.e. me and her) bodies are not made for physical labour. We are made for only light physical work, like sitting in front of a computer. I think she might be right! Is that funny?

My baby's first birthday coming up!

Arya is turning 1 year old in Jan 2012. Planning to throw a bash for him.

Need to do loads of planning.... lists of guests, cake, menu, decorations, gifts, invitations, clothes, venue, shopping, etc etc etc....

Wondering when it would be an ideal time to start?

For the venue, I need to choose from the 2 options below -

1. The club house in my society that has a big terrace and is surrounded by trees on one side. It can be decorated by some professional guy. We can have colored lights, 1 banner on the stage and balloons all over. We can have a buffet on one side with chairs... need to give this a thought. It sure would be nearer to my home and easier for everyone to come.
2. Any restaurant these days gives you a party space for free if you give them an order for X number of plates. They have professionals who can decorate the space for you. Pro - you do not have to bother with the prep and food arrangements as they do it all.

Invitation cards would not be needed since we would call up people on phone. Email invite would do for others...

Date is another thing... do I keep it on the 19th which is his b'day, but falls on a Thursday? Or should it be a convenient weekend party for everyone?

Still humming the same song!

Does it happen to you? Do you wake up in your bed, and have some song playing in the mind for no reason at all? Yea?

Do we hear that song in our dream? Or has our subconscious mind heard it playing somewhere while we were sleeping? Was someone singing this song yesterday? Dunno.

But I know for sure that when I wake up in the morning with a song in my head, it plays endlessly throughout the day, even when I am working or feeding the baby. If I’m talking or focused elsewhere, the song comes back to me as soon as my mind has a few cells of free space to play. Sometimes it can be my favourite song, so for that day I'm fine. But a few times it is just some stupid song like an item number from a Hindi flick. And it won’t go away, no matter what! I’ve tried singing that song aloud, giving it due importance so it would go away. It doesn’t. I try singing something else ALOUD. But no help.

Today I woke up with another good song. It is from Linkin’ park, titled “Somewhere I belong”. The lyrics are good, but it has a very heavy music. I have a flair to remember the music - as is - from any song that I hear even a couple of times. And so I now have a head full of metal beating against each other with some fast paced wordings!

Here it goes...

I wanna heal, I wanna feel,
Like I’m close to something real.
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

Birds at Pashan lake

On our way to office in the morning from Wakad to Narhe by highway 4, there’s a beautiful lake at Pashan.

I read an article that Pashan Lake is a home for huge number of migratory birds coming in winters. We do see native birds here throughout the year.

This year Pune municipality has decided to renovate the lake and secure the boundaries by constructing huge walls around the lake and creating a pathway for bird watchers! Needless to say that the work is half done and the number of birds coming here is reducing year on year. This year the numbers have dropped once again. So now there may be a path for birdwatchers, but alas there would be no birds!

Half the lake itself is covered with water plants, particularly near the HEMRL side, and there are no secure resting places for birds. There is constant human interference too!

The city used to boast this lake as a bird watchers delight. Well, one more delight fading away.

Yet, I see a few beautiful non-native birds here resting on the walls. It is a pleasant sight to start the day. I hope we save the lake - their environment.



Detailed article at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-28/pune/29482725_1_migratory-birds-pashan-lake-human-interference

Beds and growing up

A few months back when LO was 5 months old, he began to hold on to the sides of his cloth crib and to roll on one side to look over the edge. He also did not have much space to stretch or move around in it. I tried in vain to ignore these symptoms. Yes, him growing out of the crib. But eventually I had to include him in our big bed.

I asked Yogesh to fold the crib and put it in the overhead storage space. He did it in no time.
And there I was heartbroken, standing and staring the empty space. Till today I had bumped my toe so many times on the edge of the crib and cried out in pain. I had tried to find places where I could keep the crib so that I won’t fall over it. And now I couldn’t imagine him not in the crib there. Shouldn’t I be happy that my baby is growing up! But then, I would miss him being so little too! What an emotional mess a mom can be.
Today LO occupies nearly 50% of the space on our bed, changing angles, sprawling his hands and legs in whatever direction he wants until one of us is cornered or thrown off the bed altogether, to sleep on the mattress on the floor! So far so good…

work and loads of it.

Friend on office messenger at 10.30 am

“Hi dear. How was your weekend?”

“ Very bad, loads of baby work, house work and no one to care about that OR about me.”

“Don’t fret. Your kid and house is your responsibility. Do not expect other’s to help. Do whatever you can, and let them feel the guilt.”

“No one would ever realize what I am going through.”

“They will, don’t worry”

Him on email at 13.15pm

“So how’s your day? Had food?”

“It’s fine. How’s yours? Didn’t eat yet.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Exhausted. But ok I guess.”

“OK. Take care, eat fruits.”

“Oh, you gave fruits in tiffin. I didn’t realize. Thanks v. much.”

Head banger

LO is developing a nasty habit. He bangs his head on the wall whenever he gets the chance to! We pad the walls near his bed with pillows, but since he has learnt to stand up, he raises his head above the pillows and bangs his forehead on the wall. It might be a great game for him, but it is a shocking for us to watch. Sometimes while playing, he accidently sits with his back to the wall. And as soon as he realizes that there's a wall behind him, he starts rhythmically banging the back of his head on it. Other head banging targets are my forehead (actually anyone’s forehead), anyone’s tummy, pillows, furniture like stool, sides of the bed, doors, etc.

As always, I read about this on the internet. It says that boys are more susceptible to this behaviour than girls. They do it when they are bored, or overstimulated, or if they have ear pain, or teething, etc. etc. etc.! So pretty much anything and everything. What’s more, only 20% of the boys seem to do it! And my baby is one among the minority! What a life!

Night-time awakening

LO woke up again this night at around 3.00 am. *Groan*. He has been waking up at nights from about a week ago. I’ve not had sleep for 2 consecutive nights and hence office just seems to be some halo I walk into every morning. Some days I seem to be sleep-walking and my tongue doesn’t seem to move quick enough to form clear words while talking to people. My analytical skills and typing skills have degraded. My appearance is just a little bit better than the at-home-and-with-a-baby look, barely passable office attire. These days the time and energy is too limited. On top of it all, my face says I’m an owl. I think I can expect someone in office to call me a retard soon enough!

I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the net about what to do to make the baby sleep through the night. Feed him, form a bed time routine and teach him to sleep back on his own. Assuming that he might be hungry at nights, I tried feeding him different kinds of food at different times to see if he feels full enough till the morning, but it hasn’t helped. Articles say children have frequent light sleep cycles with deep sleep cycles, and so when they half-wake up, they don’t know how to go back to sleep! Whew! Hence to make sure he doesn’t fully get up, I pat him on the back when I see that his fingers are twitching or when he changes sides in the bed. See! I am awake when he starts moving in sleep!


The only bed time routine that I can afford in my limited time as a working mom is to feed him, put a diaper on him, change his clothes, and rock him to sleep! I can’t afford to wait for him to go to sleep on his own, especially when the big bed is inviting me to sleep. Maybe someday when I have the time and patience to do that, I will. I'm hoping he will learn it on his own. Till then me, and yea a few times Yogesh, will have to be the two night owls, guarding our prize.

LO loves me!

I had read that babies’ as little as 8 month old give parents loads of kisses when they are in the mood! I never thought this was literally true until...Babies make life so easy!

For about a month now LO stands on my lap, and grabs my hair strands near the ears with his tiny fists. With a sudden jerk he tries to bring my face closer to his (he ends up banging his head on my forehead, and it hurts!) Oblivious to the pain, he immediately follows this by kissing my face (read licking). My face gets covered with slime from his wet kisses! The best part that is all the time he keeps saying something like 'booae booae' sometimes sounding like "boy boy". I am the one lucky person to receive this affection most number of times, since I don't have a moustache and a beard, you see. What’s more, if we have him playing in the lap & if we start making booae booae sounds, he immediately starts the whole routine again!