Time travel - A peep into the gap

Wow....the last post was just 6 days after the new year that was 2011. And now here we are in mid June 2013.


I have been putting off restarting the blog as I did not know where to begin, what to update, what to omit, the sequence to follow etc. Finally I have decide to just do it...no updates, no formats nothing..I start from today, now!!!

But just a brief outline of what happend in the past 30 months or so.  Mid Jan 2011, I called it quits at my work... the same place I have been working for 13 years. Of course....I was very sentimental about bidding adieu to the place that I really grew up in, that saw my transition from a mere school girl to a crazy, rebellious teenager to grown up woman with her head well set on her shoulders. Career wise there was a growth from Insurance Assistant to Operations Manager. In personal life, I became a wife, mother of 2 kids and 25 kgs heavier!! But not surprsingly, once I set my foot outside the office as an employee for the last time, I was feeling much lighter and have not missed the workplace a single day..why not even a minute after that. I have settled into the role of a SAHM and am very comfortable with it now.  My life now revloves around my favorite place, my home, and my favourite people, my kids!!!  Life is happy, peaceful and very rewarding.  I am truly happy!!  Appu has grown a lot...and at 9.5 yrs is very close to puberty.  She is in grade V at DPS Shj.  A very good student and is one of the Prefects of Nile House this year.   Aarush baby is now almost 4.  He too started school this April and is in KG1 at DPS Shj.  He is an absolute charmer and has wrapped me around his little fingers!  He is my little pet monkey!!

Im seriously into wt loss now and have been successful at putting off a few kilos. The endeavour continues and I am confident that I will see success this time!! 

I am still not a great cook.....but I have improved leaps and bounds.  From a person who could not make a decent omelette, I can now confidently manage the kitchen and can cook up a lot of tasty dishes in no time.  I can proudly call myself a good housewife now!! I love making typical kerala vegetarian dishes for lunch. 

Thats just a brief outine.  Now back to NOW!! :)

Johnny Johnny..

Bappappa!
Eating Sugar?
Bappappa!
Telling lies?
Bappappa!
Open your mouth!
Bappappa!

Sweet 16!

Prince Aarush turns sweet 16 months today! And in these month, he has become the apple of my eye and the clown of the household!

My first born was as docile and sweet as they come at sixteen months, happy among her toys, with a cheerful smiling face always. She was happy to sit in mama’s lap in the car or in her pram whilst we go out. Infact, I don’t remember her trying to climb onto our coffee table even. She was an absolute angel with a halo around her. But my second born seems to have the halo replaced with two tiny sharp horns! And I adore him because of those tiny two!

He loves climbing over all the furniture be it chairs, stools, bed, tables and has infact scared all our chairs up the dining table!!
He has 8 big pearlies which he flashes unabashedly at all!
He has a clear preference for his dad and call him atha, acha and when overwhelmed by love achachi! He says his name as aaris / aas / aath depending on his mood. His vocabulary is otherwise limited to amoomma, amma and aayi (bye).
He is familiar with parts of the body too and has developed his own style of pointing out to the parts. He squints to show his eyes, inserts a finger into his ear, sniffs to show his nose and grins to show his teeth.
He is a little finicky about cleanliness and gets upset when he spills his milk onto himself or gets his hand dirty.
He still drinks milk from bottle only though he is fine with the sippy cup for water and juices. He has a sweet tooth and biscuits are his vice!
He does all his job nappies still but makes a yucky expression after having done his potty and looks down after peeing. Can I take this as a first sign of readiness for potty training?
He hits and bites!  And kisses to make up immediately after that! 
He loves pencils and colur pencils and scriblled a few times on the floor which I was luckily able to wipe away. He has (ouch) made a few scribbling on the wall as well which, alas, I am unable to wipe away! Can’t believe that I let him do this as well whereas I was so strict with the girl on this!
He has even managed to learn a couple of bharatanatyam mudras! He copies his sis and poses in “mandi” with his hands stretched out in “pataka” and does a few steps singing theyya they!! He even folds his hands and does the Namaste prior to starting the steps! It is absolutely hilarious to see him do this.

Here’s a happy 16th month birthday to you my little rowdy!

Tantrums and vacations!

As if to mark the graduation from babyhood to toddler hood, my now-not-so-little-one threw his first tantrum yesterday. The cause for the meltdown – being forbidden the pleasure of heaving himself up the stairs at a clinic where we had taken Appu. No way was he going to allow mamma’s able hands to help in accomplishing this feat.

I allowed him the fun for a couple of steps and would put him back on the lowest one. This set him off and he started screaming and hitting me and just squatted stubbornly on the floor! There were almost 20 pairs of eyes staring at me with contempt and judging me as a highly irresponsible mother who allows her one year old to climb the stairs without any support and worse still, not being able to pacify him when he threw a fit. I was so relieved when our token number blinked on the screen that I threw the crying, screaming bundle into mom’s arms and rushed to the doctor’s room with Appu. While with the doctor, I could hear the loud wails and my mom’s unsuccessful attempts at calming him!

Appu’s school has reopened today. She was fresh as a lark in the morning all set to go to school and show off the two new gaps in her mouth where once her teeth had been! The past 77 days, she used to get up at 5.00 in the morning and accompany mom on her morning walks religiously. As a token of appreciation, the grandma gifted a pretty orange colored watch which she proudly wore to school today. She has completed the first level at Brainobrain with flying colours. She has brushed up on the swimming strokes and mastered the breathing technique. She has also made a lot of new friends and developed a lot of social skills which is so good. I don’t know if I am imagining this, but she is now more confident and outgoing than she was at the start of the vacation. A vacation well spent, I should say!!

Can you believe I let him do this?

See for yourself, have I not grown?

This tiny bundle we brought home last year is now a self propelled high powered engine.

                                                                Aarush on 26/07/2010

Happy Birthday Aarush!

My dearest baby…Congrats on completing one year. What a fun filled and eventful year it has been for us, isn’t it?Ever since your arrival, we have had so much more fun together and bonded more as a family.  Tiny little one, you have spread so much happiness in our lives!

With your sister, I have always felt that I have been inadequate since I failed to capture and enjoy a lot of exciting developments and she grew up too fast for me to catch up with her. I've tried not to make that same mistake with you. I made sure that right from day one I would cherish and treasure each moment with you. Though there were some not so good and some extremely bad days, looking back I can truthfully say that I never felt saddled by it all.  And now I am so thrilled to see you transform from the tiny helpless tadpole that you were to a lion cub prowling around on all fours, to a miniature he-man on tiny twos, always an energetic and babbling and drooling bundle!

The coming year is going to be as eventful and busy one for you and we look forward to seeing you dish out loads of exciting surprises for us, reaching numerous milestones, filling our house with mischief and laughter and enjoying each moment of our life with you.

My precious little one, as you go ahead on this beautiful adventure of life, may you be blessed with abundance of love, encouragement and support from your family and friends. May you have the faith in yourself to stand by your beliefs and convictions in face of oppositions. May you have the courage to face the obstacles head on while proceeding on the path of truth. May you have the confidence to get up after each fall and move on steadfastedly. May you have the strength in you to forgive and to be fair. May god bestow upon you good health and wisdom and may he be the guiding light for you along your path of life.

Happy Birthday my dearest little son!

Musings of a mushy mom

Aarush is soon going to turn a year old! My boy seems to be the topic that I blog about most. Can’t help it as I am enjoying motherhood so much more with him that with Appu. As I mentioned in an earlier post, with Appu I was a mom with bare minimum involvement. Though I must add, I am enjoying Appu more these days. Even though she does give me real hard times, I am discovering more and more about her each day. I am amazed at how matured and grown up she can be at times, how utterly irritating and nosy a pest she can be at times and much to my disdain how rebellious and totally defiant she can be at times.

Aarush is fast becoming a very delicious cherry pie topped with a generous scoop of the yummiest cream. Its unbelievable that this is the very same baby who was so peaceful just a few months back, charming all with his ready smiles, open arms and constant drools. Overnight he has turned into a little rascal whose mission each day is to be up on his oh-so-tiny twos, stuffing himself into anything that he can barely get his body into, conquering new heights, demolishing anything stacked up neatly in any corner of the house, ripping pages of any old magazines or books within his reach, practicing and improving his biting skills mostly on his sister, openly proclaim his dislike for the way ammoomma has arranged the kitchen and implement changes at his own will.

He does very little crawling nowadays and prefers to go around his business with on his feet. In cases of major emergencies, such as his rightful place of honour on ammoomma’s or amma’s lap being usurped by his sis, he can even manage to change gear at short notice and race around with his arms raised hollering tiny mouthfuls at her. He loves pushing and lugging things around and I encourage him. (Yeah.. ulterior motives here..I am hopefully raising a lad who in the future can be at my beck and call for rearranging the furniture around the house. He loves music and can actually dance. (Yes, I consider the wiggling and jiggling and the bum shaking accompanied by the flaying hands as dance!) He likes to chew on everything he comes across and now we have remotes drenched in his sugary drools, half-swallowed-but-pulled-out-by-the-rescue-team curtain tiebacks, chewed-and-curled-up sofa edges what not. The other day I discovered a threadbare patch on a blanket of his. No points for guessing.

I feel so blessed when at the end of a day made so tiresome by the above antics, the little one curls up beside me, warm tiny body of his snuggled against me, a little head in the crook of my arm, breathing deeply, smiling at times and sleeps contently through out the night. My little baby, aint Amma lucky to be your mom!

Lovely locks and curls

The soft curls are encroaching upon the limited space on the tiny forehead and the nape. Time for yet another first. Yes…Aarush’s first haircut.

The curls are adorable and I am unreasonably and shamelessly sentimental (boo… hoo !!) about having his first strands of hair removed…! Soon this too will be done…after his first birthday on 26th.

To each its own!

Yet another milestone in Aarushland. He is now able to correlate things to their use. Here are a few cute examples in his words:

1) Don’t leave any hair brushes leaving around.. I will use it to comb my hair ---- so what if I use the side without bristles!

2) Wonder why amma is finding it such a task change my diapers? Poor thing ..she has to sing, coo, shout , snarl…what not to keep me from wriggling…Cant she understand that I have better no time to waste and need to rush off to my next adventure…come on …just give it to me and I know where it has to be kept!

3) First off all at grandma’s insistence they put this (girlie) tinkling silver (girlie) anklets on my legs…doesn’t she know I am a man and this thing feels so girle! On top of that it keeps coming off even when I take a nice stretch on bed…! Umpteen number of times I have to sit and struggle with it unsuccessfully trying to get in back on my leg. U cannot blame me for not trying enough!

4) All the tidbits of paper left around by my messy sis…I go around cleaning up the place singing
Bits of paper,
Bits of paper;
Lying on the floor,
Lying on the floor;
Make the place untidy,
Make the place untidy;
Pick them up,
Pick them up.
Shove it into your mouth,
Shove it into your mouth!

Look before u leap..!

My feisty over confident young one thinks he is already a master in the art of walking. So much so that he tried his two little feet at a more interesting act…leaping, though only to end up flat on his face literally ending up with a red nose tip and bump on his forehead.

The young fans...

Been to Madras Light Vegetarian Restaurant in Abu Shagara. A small not so fancy place. But excellent food. The Madras filter coffee was just right..strong, sweet and hot….They serve excellent fried idlis as well but since we were early we did not get to enjoy it.

Watched the super duper hit, Shobana / Mohanlal starrer Manichitrathazhu for the nth time last evening. It was telecast for the nth time again on Asianet in honour of Late M G Radhakrishnan who passed away last week. Shobana never fails to impress me with her grace and expressive gestures. It’s a movie that will never bore you and deals with the relatively lesser ventured subject of dual personality. One of the few female-oriented films in recent times and Shobana has done complete justice to the role. The movie also has excellent music with my and B’s favourite being Palavattom Pookalam.

Appu enjoyed it thoroughly especially Shobana’s dance. It warmed my heart to see the little girl concentrating on the mudras and trying to identify them. Think it gave her a sense of pride to realize how the relatively simple steps and mudras she is currently learning gets interwoven to create beautiful a dance sequence. I was bombarded with questions about Shobana after the movie…who was her dance guru, how many years she learnt, did she learn the steps as well, when she did her arangetram etc etc. Shobana…u have got a die hard fan!

Talking of fans..Aarush is besotted by Waka Waka and more so by Shakira. He loved the score since he heard it the first time and invariably shakes his little bums back and forth. But ever since he watched the video, he is not willing to settle for anything less than the compete audio visual experience. Shakira’s energy and charm seems to have bowled him over!

Appu / Aarush updates

It was just yesterday that I did a post about Aarush’s first steps. We had started counting the no of steps that he could make at a do. I was stunned to see that by the time I reached home in the evening he could manage to walk across the hall! Oh my little one…amma is so proud of my fast learner. After a long time, got to click some snaps of the two. Shall post them soon.

Appu’s looong vacations have started and yet a dilemma as to how to get her to spend her time fruitfully. Though I am averse to the summer camps that are available in every nook and corner I might eventually have to settle for one. Have seen a place near our hosue which offers Keyboard, hip hop, art and craft and English speaking and writing skills. She will be resuming her swimming classes. I also have plans to put her in for iceskating which is available at Sharjah Women’s Club provide we can get a time that can fit into our schedule. Appu has started taking Bharatnatyam training since 3 months from a guru of mine. I had trained under Mohan sir for a short duration only though. We started off the classes on twice a week basis at out house. But the uncooperative people (L) below our apartment was having problems with the noise. We decided to shift the classes to the house of another girl who is in the group. Appu is the youngest in the group of 3, the others are both 10. She has a keen interest and has improved vastly over the past weeks.

Aarush at 11

How time flies…the last post was when Aarush was barely a creepy crawler and within this short span ... he is a nosy explorer…!

At 11 months he has crossed the following milestones:

1) Can stand independently …he has been doing this for over 2 weeks now
2) Can pull himself to a standing position from sitting. He squats on all fours and then in the blink of an eye leaps up and looks around proudly for the ready appreciation from mom and grandma!
3) Can take 1, 2 ,3 ,4 (omg…the numbers keep increasing by the minute) steps independently….
4) Can climb up on low chairs but not down
5) Has 8 big white pearlies…(5 on top and 3 below)
6) Can blow kisses with a wet open mouth
7) Can wave bye
8) Can bite and prefers his sister’s tummy and hands above all for the task
9) Can identify me, B, my mom, his sis and a few of our neighbours by their voice
10) Can pull out all the stuff out of his toy box the moment his mother turns back after clearing the place
11) Can crawl out of bed and drop safely onto the floor…again an act which he feels deserves immense awe from the all

Vaccinations

Aarush had the 6 month shots yesterday. Two sharp jabs on each of his legs! The second one had him screaming at his loudest. It breaks my heart to see the little one in pain. But to make up for that, I made sure that he enjoyed a warm and cosy sleep on my chest until the early hours of the morning.

He is now 7.9 kgs. The length and the head circumference were not checked by the doc.

Appu was feeling very sad about the shots and infact by the time we reached home she was actually in tears!

Magic No. 6

Yet another milestone that we have reached! Aarush has completed 6 months today. He has turned into a noisy attention seeking little brat.

The last month witnessed a huge change in Aarush's diet. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Aarush was introduced to solids by the month beginning and has by now had a taste of wheat,oats,ragi, vegetables such as pureed carrots, mashed potatoes and fruits such as cooked and pureed apple and mashed banana. So far the going is great and he has been enjoying the new meals. I still breastfeed him though it is mostly restricted to night and early morning feeds. Due to the work pressure, expressing has been cut down to just once a day and I am able to express just enough for one feed. So I have had no choice but to put him on follow on formula. Accompanied by the change in the input pattern, there is a major (and not so pleasant!) change in the output patterns as well. Gone is the sweet smelling, tumeric / mustard yellow, easily washable poo and is now replaced by more bulkier stuff that makes me want to put a peg on my nose!

Aarush has now become adept at rolling back and forth and loves to roll across the available space during his floor times. He has also been attempting to raise his body up on all fours. He has become very mobile now and somedays I wake up to see my little baby sleeping perpendicular to me on the bed. B has been pushed off and now sleeps on the day bed; the little man and I have the whole bed for ourselves now!

His social life is also developing at a great pace. He loves attention and demands it with ready smiles and friendly purrs. He has a clear preference for the fairer sex as well! From coos he has graduated to babbling; so much so that he can maintain a steady babbling conversation if someone responds back in his current vocabulary.

My little baby has outgrown most of his clothes (some of them barely used) and we are in the process of getting a whole new wardrobe for him. Now we are looking forward to his "choroonu" which will be held when we visit India in Feb.

Meal time for Aarush

We introduced solids to Aarush 2 days back. We started off with ragi. He seemd to like the taste of it. He was hoping for me after 2 spoonfulls. However, we kept the quantity to bare minimum since it was the first time. All was Ok except that his daily quota of poo ( 4-5 times) was absent.

Treasured traditions

Almost all the ancestral houses in Kerala would undoubtedly have one thing in common…walls adorned with photos of most of the members. The common ones are portraits taken of newly wed couple and of the new additions. The babies are more often than not in a much loved pose..that is on their tummy, with a lovely smiles or drools. My grandmother has saved photos of me and all my cousins in this posture. My father in law has similar photos of B and all his grandchildren. We had got one such photo of Appu’s taken in her 4th month and the photo now adorns the shelf in the living room back home. So keep up with the tradition, we got the Aarush also to pose. Mind you … the photos have to be taken in studio to keep the spirit fully alive. So here the photographer has gone click…click…click…

4 months old

Aarush has turned 4 month yesterday. Appu woke up early in the morning to wish him 4th month birthday. At 4 months, Aarush is a active little happy baby who is developing well. He can now roll from back to front and vice versa like a pro. Each time he accomplishes the task, he loves being cheered. Then its a series of rolling over and waiting for the cheer, rolling over and waiting for the cheer and so on. Little show off he is! At times, he puts his head down and tries to pull himself up on his knees as if about to sit up and crawl.

At 4 moths, these are few of the things that he very clearly loves:

1) Appu - Oh..he loves his big sis! The moment he hears her voice he keeps twisting and turning to catch a glimpse of her. Put him in a room full of people and he will have eyes for her only. He loves the way he reads fro him, sings nursery rhymes for him, performs some Bollywood item numbers for him etc. She too is a thoroughly doting sis. I am amazed by the way she gets him to sleep. The other day I was tired and aksed her if she could cuddle baby for sometime. She started singing a beautiful old malayalam song "Aayiram Kannumai" and within a few minutes he was fast asleep. it is then that I learnt that this is his current favorite and mom sings this song while putting him to sleep. Now I have started using this melodious tool as well.

2) Ammoomma - Just like Appu, he too loves Ammoomma and breaks into peals of laughter on seeing her. He loves the way Ammoomma talks non stop to him throughout the morning when they are alone.

3) TV - Ooohhhh. If the TV is on and he is anywhere in the room, you can witness two tiny pairs of eyes glued to the screen.

4) Cooing - He loves cooing along with his dad. Its supposed to be some boyish game between them and they have a mini competition trying to see who can coo the loudest. One day I decided to joing the game and gave out a long loud coo. The little one had a clear look of appreciation on his face and was looking at his dad as if to say " Not bad Acha....she took can do it!"

5) Evening bath - he loves his evening bath soaking and splashingin his little tub. However, he is not too fond of the 2 little blue ducks who share the tub with him!

Breastfeeding

I am quite contented by the progress in breastfeeding. Aarush is still on breastmilk exclusively and he has been steadily gaining weight. I am regularly expressing in the office and so far the going has been good. I have been able to carry home enough supply to last him for the time when I am away. He also has no problems getting to my breasts when I am back.

Aarush has 7 feeds a day now. Out of this, 4 times he is on expressed breastmilk. I express 3 times a day - before I leave for work as he is usually asleep and it also saves a lot of time for me, twice in the office at about 11.30 am and 3.30 pm. This depends a lot on my work schedule and I admit I am finding it quite tough with the increased workload due to the year end. In my absence Aarush has about 480 ml of milk and I am so far about to meet this demand while expressing. The other three times he feeds directly – once when I am back from office, before bedtime and one night feed.

Aarush has not been waking up on his own for the night feed for the past week or so. But, nevertheless, I get up once at night to give him a feed and he suckles well. I do not know whether it is a good practice. But I don’t want to miss even a single chance of feeding him directly. Also I get extremely full and it gets very inconvenient for me.

I hope I can carry on this way for the next 2 months until Aarush reaches 6 months!