One One Eleven

That’s Ninad in action (walking), wearing my handknit Pebble vest. I made one for Anya, Rima’s daughter, liked it a lot and had to make another one for Ninad.

Ninad is 11 months old. Some highlights:

1. Standing and walking came back to back. Ninu learnt to stand independently and just after a few days, he started to walk. ‘He walks’ is an understatement, more like ‘he runs’. He is so thrilled to walk, he hardly walks on fours now. He is proud to be on twos, more adult like.

2. I finally solved the disturbed sleep problem. I used to take him to the park in the evening, which was very close to his bedtime. He was getting overstimulated and thus the disturbed sleep at night. I started taking him to play earlier in the day and that has given all of us some much needed sleep.

3. He is cutting two bottom teeth. Yay!

4. Ninad tasted ice-cream for the first time and did he love it! The cold feeling on his gums and tongue was something totally new for him. He couldn’t stand the cold factor, but he loved the taste a lot.

5. He got his first proper haircut. I had a beauty parlor lady come over to my place. I was very sure he wouldn’t cry. I was more worried about his restlessness, which did give the parlor lady a hard time. In the end, the experience was good. I won’t worry about his next haircut.

6. Ninad says “Amma” now. Isn’t that great? It’s not like calling out or addressing me, but he has definitely learnt the word. Hurray.

7. Separation anxiety is at its peak. Its worse at night. I am starting full-time job next week and I am not looking forward to it. Ninu has gelled well with his nanny and my mom is here for a few days, so things should be fine. Keeping fingers crossed.

8. Curd rice is his favorite food right now. It works every single time.

9. He started identifying a lot of things. Clock, diya, book, donkey (his stuffed toy), rice, chapati and so on. You just have to ask him ‘how does the clock go?’ and he waves his finger to say ‘tick tock, tick tock’. We have a clock with a pendulum and that’s the reason behind his action.

10. His earrings are off, so he looks more boyish, though I still have to answer ‘No, it’s a boy’ many times even now.

11. I saw a new face of his when we went to stay over at my mom’s place. My brother has a 7 month old boy and Ninu likes him a lot. He can’t stand it if I, my hubby or my mom play with him. Possessiveness in all its ugly form! I had enough after two days. We cut short our stay.

Top Ten

The last month has been a roller coaster ride for all of us. My husband’s office moved to city outskirts and because of that he transformed into a weekend Dad.  Ninad used to really miss him. Come evening and Ninu would look for his dad everywhere. That is when we decided to move closer to the workplace. Luckily, we found an apartment right next to his office and that triggered off a host of events.

Now that our new house is just minutes away from the office, even I started thinking about resuming work. Having been working for 4-5 years, it is really hard to sit at home. I wasn’t idle, I had knitting and reading going on all the time, but the adrenaline rush of deadlines, the stress of delivering something on time is something else and I love it. Fortunately, I found a very good maid who can take care of Ninad in my absence. I know her since sometime and she comes highly recommended from her previous employers. She has been with us since a week now and Ninad is already paly-paly with her. I will be joining work in another month and by that time, I am very confident Ninad will settle in well with her.

That was my story. What was Ninad upto the last month? When we moved to our new house, he went through a phase of high stimulation. Every corner, every object in the house was new and his exploration would go on the whole day. He stopped taking naps altogether and he would even wake up at nights (3 am) and explore his new place. Thankfully, this happened only for a few days and now he is back to his original sleeping schedule. He has developed quite a few new expressions. He has a question mark on his face whenever he wants to know ‘where is Dad’ or ‘what is that new thing’ or ‘what are you feeding me’. He has a reserved naughty expression whenever he is upto some mischief. There is also a fake crying expression when he wants to have his way which turns into a naughty smile when I say ‘dramebaaz’.

He can stand very well without support. He tries to take a step, loses balance and sits down. Another 15 days, he will be walking for sure. His latest object of interest is the switch. He loves the action-response — switch on and the lights are on, the fan rotates. He plays with switches endlessly. Next on list is his stroller. No, he doesn’t like to sit in it, but uses it as a pushcart. He pushes the stroller all over the house – sometimes on his knees, sometimes walking.

Ninu has four pearly white teeth now and all of them appeared one behind the other in a span of few days. I was eagerly waiting for him to sprout his first tooth and here he already has four of them!

He loves the play area in our new apartment. There are many babies his age and he interacts with them a lot. He shows his love by pulling their hair or their nose and naturally, those babies don’t take it in the right stride and they start crying. I have to come to their rescue and take Ninad away, which makes him pull their hair even harder. It is a sight to watch!

Nine

Ninu reached the nine months mark a few days back. The past month saw a lot of changes in him. He pulls himself up and stands with support wherever possible. What that means is he can stand holding my dress, his dad’s trousers, my mom’s saree – anything. He is no longer satisfied with just standing, he climbs on things and that is scary. He is trying to stand without support, hope he masters this skill in the coming month.

Behavior wise, there has been a sea of change. Ninu can understand every single word I speak. He follows Marathi, but since I speak to him Kannada, that is what he is going to pick up first. He understands and points at all these things – fan (his favorite object), crow (very helpful at mealtime), flower (the one on the bedcover), Papa (hubby is one proud daddy now), cooker (Ninu is really scared of this), Didi (his cousin’s photo). If he sees something new, he wants to know what it is. He stretches his hand Amitabh Bachchan style and asks ‘Eeee?’ meaning he wants to know what that thing is. When I answer his question, he has a very thoughtful look on his face as if he really understood what I told him!

He has become a picky eater now. If I try to feed him something which he doesn’t care much for, he starts shaking his head to indicate No. The shaking continues for a full minute even after I abandon my attempts of feeding him. He can drink fluids from a glass now, as long as it’s not milk. Water, juice, buttermilk are fine in a glass, but milk has to be in a bottle. Something tells me weaning him off the bottle is going to be tough.

The greatest news is of course about teething. Ladies and gentlemen, Ninu is finally getting a tooth. I can see his upper tooth peeking through the gums. My guess is he will get atleast 4 teeth by the end of this month.

So, what’s awesome about me?

Munchkin’s mom from The Munchkin Blog tagged me to write about seven awesome things about me. Now, if the tag was about seven awful things, I would have blogged about it in no time, but since it is about awesome things, I took so long to finally get around to jotting it down. I turned to my hubby for ideas, but he wasn’t of any help. I guess he thinks there is nothing awesome about me. Sigh!

Okay, here goes. (Why am I suddenly so self-conscious!)

1. I am a quick learner. I grasp things really easily. I am quite good at it picking up a new technique or a new skill. I learnt knitting and crocheting all by myself and am quite good at them and that brings us to the second awesome thing about me.

2. I am quite good at knitting. You want proof? Okay, let me shed my inhibition and say I am a very good knitter. I am proud of myself that I learnt this skill on my own and even mastered it.

3. I am flexible, body wise. I have been working out in a gym on and off since 7-8 years. I have gone to 4-5 different gyms in these years and every time my instructor told me that my body is flexible. I can do crunches, sit ups, stretches with ease. How I wish I was a few inches leaner!

4. My pain threshold is high. I had a bad case of RSI (Reptetive Stress Syndrome) and had severe neck pain. I underwent physiotherapy to treat that and the lady who used to treat me was amazed that I can handle so much of pressure. She was the first person who brought it to my notice that my pain threshold is higher than average. This was proved once again when I went through 20 hours of labor with no pain relief.

5. I am a fast reader. I can finish a big book in no time, provided it’s interesting. I finished The Eyre Affair in half a day.

6. I am good with kids. No, honestly. And this was even before my own baby arrived. I know how to play with babies and kids. I know what interests them, how to console them, distract them and entertain them. This has been proved on numerous occasions. There is a shy, little girl in my mom’s neighborhood and she hardly talks to anyone, but the first time we met, we both had a blast. She even invited me to her room to look at her teddy. Her mom was shocked! Till this day, the little girl who is not so little anymore comes running to me whenever I visit my mom.

7. I am particularly proud of my knowledge of Hindi film music. I have been listening to Lata, Asha, Kishore and Rafi since childhood and my interest only deepened with age and was further increased after marrying another Hindi film music aficionado.

People who know me can either agree or refute this.

Mischief Personified

That is what my cousin said when she saw Baby N’s photos: ‘Mischief Personified’. She hasn’t seen the baby in person, mind you, this was her reaction after looking at photos. I wonder what she would say when she finally meets him! And her words are true to the last vowel and consonant. My son at 8 months is so mischievous, I feel sad and happy at the same time.

He now understands single word commands. If I say ‘No’ in a serious tone, he knows that he has to stop whatever he was attempting to do. Like trying to stand holding the water filter, trying to get under the bed, putting that piece of dirt in his mouth and so on, the list is endless. But the moment I say ‘No’, he stops in his tracks. My son can shake hands now. If I offer him an open hand and say ‘Shake hand’. he promptly offers his right hand (and always the right hand) for me to shake it. You can see I am beaming with pride.

Diet wise, he eats anything and everything, except for fried items. Roti, rice, vegetables, fruits, popcorn, biscuits, toast, bread – everything. He wants to taste everything he sees – edible or not doesn’t seem to matter. I was holding a lemon the other day and he wanted to taste it. I let him lick and the expression was priceless. I wish my husband was at home to take a picture – that would have been one photo to treasure.

He doesn’t like it if I take away something he is holding. He fake-cries for a second and the next moment he is distracted by something else and he forgets. He was eating a biscuit the other day and I took it away to give him something else to eat and boy, did he scream! He gave me a threatening look ‘Give my biscuit back or else…’ and I promptly gave it back to him. I haven’t attempted anything like this again. Man, is he assertive. Wonder how things will be when he becomes a toddler. Can’t wait for that day!

Helpless

Helpless – that’s what I was the whole of last month. My little baby had bouts of stomach infections one after the other and all I could do was stand back and watch helplessly. As soon as he turned 6 months, he had a very bad stomach infection which lasted for 2 weeks. The infection itself was quite okay. He didn’t have any stomach pain, just pooping every few minutes. The most troubling part of it was the post-poop operation – rashes. He would cry out in pain and I couldn’t do anything. The medicine that the doctor prescribed seemed to trouble him even more and my heart cried every time I applied the medicine. Just when he was recovering and things were looking bright, he had another infection. This whole saga continued for 3 whole weeks.

Everybody, including myself, attributed this to teething. His gums hurt, so he puts everything in his mouth, hence the infection – seemed logical to me. What followed was an investigation as to what exactly was causing the infection. Looking at the kind of things he puts in his mouth, it is impossible to clean everything. Toys, books, phone, his hands, his toes, his knee (not making it up), chair wheels, stroller wheels (ewwww, I know), diaper – you get the idea, right? (Did you notice teether is not on the list? Yeah, he puts everything into his mouth, except the teether. Hey, I know one thing which is not giving him this infection.) We kept a close watch on him. Whatever he put in his mouth was cleaned thoroughly (atleast we tried). We restricted his movements, we changed his feeding bottles, we gave him all kind of medicines – we did everything we could but the infection recurred again and again. One fine day, it occurred to me that all this started just when we introduced a new formula into his diet. When he turned 6 months, we are supposed to switch to the next level and that’s what we did. Little did we know that this will give us endless misery. Thank my stars and the Almighty that the tubelight in my head lit! Once we stopped that formula, my baby is back to normal. He has his once-a-day poops now which is so relieving. (Pun is unintentional).

The little fellow has lost a lot of weight and looks really thin now. That doesn’t mean he is any less active. He can sit without support now, he learnt that really fast. He is very efficient in moving himself to that one place where he can cause the most damage. You leave him in the hall and walk into the kitchen only to see him right behind you. He is going places! He stands up with support and this is making me jittery. That day is not too far when he will learn walking and running and I will be running behind him. Atleast I will lose some post pregnancy weight!

BTW, do you know what is the most often repeated sentence in our house right now? “Don’t eat that”!

Half way there

It feels like it was just yesterday that we brought our baby home and our little fellow is already 6 months old. The past 6 months were like a roller coaster ride – highs of baby grins, cuddles, sloppy kisses and lows of feeding issues, sleepless nights and mood swings. Whatever it may be, the journey sure was interesting.

Ninu is an expert crawler now. He has found a technique which is somewhere in between crawling and all-fours and he is very fast at that. He covers the entire hall in a matter of seconds. He loves going under the armchair and hiding there. He waits until one of us spots him and then he grins widely as if to say “See where I am!”

His grasp is better too. He is slowly learning the princer grasp, he will get there one day. He sits really well with support and can manage for a few seconds without a support. He is more eager to stand rather than sit. His sleep schedule has gone haywire. He sleeps whenever he wants and I am not trying to change it. He wears dangling earrings now and looks just like a girl. I so want to dress him up like a girl. He is teething badly and has a stomach upset every now and then. I know it is normal, but I wish those darn teeth make an appearance soon and put and end to his miseries. We are making progress on the path of solids. He tried mashed carrot and loved it. Palak soup is his favorite now. He has learnt to say ‘Amma’, though he doesn’t know what it means. I love it whenever he utters that word.

When my baby was a few days old, I wanted him to grow up so that he could respond to me. I wanted his face to light up whenever he saw me – and indication that he knows his mother from the rest of the world. I badly wanted to see a smile and see myself in his eyes. When I saw his first smile, I wanted him to coo. That happened and I wanted him to hold me tight. Then I wanted him to crawl around. Then I wanted him to sit. Now I am badly waiting for that day when he starts talking. While I am waiting for the next big thing, I am forgetting to enjoy what I already have. Why am I in such a big rush? Why can’t I enjoy the drooling smiles and toothless grins that I have now rather than eagerly wait for something which will eventually come?  Am I the only one or all mothers are like this?

The Indian Vegetarian 100 Meme

I am taking up this meme started by Nupur.

If you wish to play along,

• Copy the entire list, along with these instructions, into your blog post
• Bold the foods that you have tried
• Strike out the foods you would never try
• Tell us your score in the comments
• If you wish to, make your own list or add to this one
• I am retaining the links, you need not do that

Indian Vegetarian 100

1. Ripe mangoes
2. Curd rice
3. Chaat
4. Phulka
5. Puran poli
6. Boiled peanuts
7. Samosa
8. Stuffed baby eggplants
9. Aviyal
10. Stuffed paratha
11. Masala chai
12. Tirphal
13. Murukku
14. Curry leaves
15. Banana chips fried in coconut oil
16. Jaggery
17. Vada pav
18. Tender coconut water
19. Paneer
20. Madras filter coffee
21. Boondi laddoo
22. Boondi raita
23. Navratan korma
24. Kokum
25. Masala peanuts
26. A home-cooked Indian vegetarian meal
27. Sugarcane juice
28. Sabudana/sago in any form
29. Horsegram
30. Maggi noodles
31. Podi with rice and ghee
32. Roomali roti
33. Bitter gourd
34. Nylon sev
35. Vegetable biryani
36. Thali at a restaurant
37. Plantain flower
38. Undhiyu
39. Nimbu pani
40. Papad
41. Kotthu parotta
42. Panch phoran
43. Drumsticks
44. Indian “French toast”
45. Sarson ka saag
46. Bhakri
47. Pav bhaji
48. Sitaphal
49. Glucose biscuits
50. Sprouts
51. Chole-bhature
52. Amla
53. Tomato “omelet”
54. A wedding feast
55. Grilled corn on the cob with lemon juice, salt and chilli powder
56. Cadbury’s fruit and nut chocolate
57. Sai bhaji
58. Solkadi
59. Indian-Chinese meal
60. Jalebi
61. Black forest cake
62. Bharwa bhindi
63. Kashmiri saffron
64. Misal
65. Ripe jackfruit
66. Idli-chutney
67. ‘Tadgola’
68. Bhut jolokia
69. Baby mango pickle
70. Meal off a banana leaf
71. Falooda
72. Moong khichdi
73. Bebinca
74. Daal baati
75. Methi greens
76. Basundi
77. Gunpowder
78. Appam-stew
79. Sweet lemon pickle
80. Ridge gourd
81. Bisi bele bhath
82. Coconut burfi
83. Caramel custard
84. Thecha
85. Rasam
86. Baingan bharta
87. Mysore pak
88. Punjabi wadi
89. Chhunda
90. Dal makhani
91. Paper dosa
92. Gongura
93. Hand-churned butter
94. Pakoda
95. Curd chillies
96. Mustard oil
97. Fresh cashews
98. Tomato pickle
99. Rajma-chawal
100. Chaas

My score is 84%. I think I got lucky because Nupur is Maharashtrian and most of the dishes on the list will be familiar to Maharashtrians or someone from North Karnataka, like me.

Sol kadhi is something that I have been wanting to try from a long time. The time hasn’t come yet. The best Rajma-chawal I had was in Kashmir. It was raining like crazy and we get into this small hut where we had steaming rice with spicy rajma. Yum! Wish I could have that again. I don’t think I will ever try caramel custard because I don’t like custard in any form and shape.

Some of the things which I would have liked to see on the list:
1. Garlic Pickle
2. Gajar Halwa
3. Panha
4. Onion Pakoda
5. Kadhi
6. Puliyogare
7. Methi Usal
8. Dhinde. In short, it is jowar dosa. It involves a long procedure of soaking jowar for days and removing the husk and grinding it and fermenting and what not. All I know is it tastes  just heavenly. You got to try it atleast once.

There is a kind of fruit which I have seen only in Bangalore called ‘Panneerale hannu’ (rough translation yields ‘rose water fruit’) which has a slight fragrance of rose and is mildly sweet. One of my all time favorite fruits. Since I can’t find any reference to this fruit on the net, I am leaving this off the list.

I know there are many more dishes which I want to be on this list, but can’t recall them right now!

I am passing on this meme to Anu because I know she too is a foodie. Anu, are you game?

High five

Yes, my son is all of five months old, err, young. Last month saw a lot of changes in him.

The Good

1. He is visibly rounder. I got many compliments from other mothers that my son is looking rounder and his cheeks certainly chubbier. Needless to say, I am gloating.

2. He loves to eat. I tried banana, mango and musk melon and he loooooved all of them. He wants fruits all the time. I tried Ragi for the first time and he likes it so much that he doesn’t want his rice anymore. Sigh, the joys of motherhood!

3. He mastered crawling and he is learning to walk on all fours (ummm, what’s that called?). I am pretty sure he will learn this new art in a week or so.

4. My son got promoted. He became a big brother when my sister-in-law delivered a baby boy. Wow!

The Bad

1. He has learnt the power of crying, so he fakes it whenever he wants our attention. He even fakes coughing which looks so cute, you want to cuddle him then and there.

2. He knows when I dress him up, it’s time to go out. He gets so excited that his arms and legs won’t stop until we actually step out of the house. He cries non-stop in the evening if I don’t take him out.

3. Now that he has tasted better food, he doesn’t like his bottle milk so much. I have to try all my tricks to get him drink the milk. Soon, I will run out of tricks.

The Ugly

1. He had an ear infection which he is still recovering from. He had pain for three days. I just couldn’t see him like that. Thank God the painful days are over.

Pregnany Tag

This pregnancy tag is doing the rounds in the blogging world. Since I am a brand new mom, I wanted to take up this tag. I don’t know any mom in the internet world, so no hopes of being tagged. So I tagged myself. Neat, huh?

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
Yes, it was. But, we didn’t think it would be so quick, so when I found out I was pregnant, it was a big surprise. It was like, “What, already?”

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
What do you think? Really, does it matter?

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
I was very sure the pregnancy test kit was rigged. There was no way I could be pregnant. Only when my gynaec convinced me did I believe.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
Not at all.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
26

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
Home pregnancy test kit

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
Husband of course. He was on the other side of the door waiting to know what happened.

8. DUE DATE?
December 25

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
Yes, a bit.

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Almost everything. Mainly ice creams. I have gorged on ice creams during those nine months and I don’t feel like even looking at it now.

Pani Puri, Pav Bhaji, mom made laddoos, sweet corn, jowar bhakri, chhole, spicy curries – you name it!

11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
Nothing

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD’S SEX?
Boy

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
Actually yes. I and my husband were sure it was going to be a girl but everyone else pretty much knew it wasa boy.

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
8 kgs.

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
Yep, two. One big and one small.

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
Both were planned.

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
None at all.

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
The Cradle Hospital, Bangalore

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
Oh, don’t ask. Technically 48 hours. The unbearable labor pain was 14 hours.

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL/BIRTH CENTER?
My husband. My mom was with us. This was in the middle of the night.

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
My husband

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
Natural

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
Nope

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
3.25 kgs.

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
December 6, 9: 41 AM

26. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN THE DOCTOR ANNOUNCED THE SEX OF THE BABY?
No reaction

27. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION ON SEEING THE BABY?
No reaction

28. DID YOU CRY?
Hmmm… no.

29. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
N!

30. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY
He is four and half months young.

Oh God, after writing this post, I am nostalgic. I miss being pregnant!!!