29 December 2012

' Eeehhh :).. I now have 4 teeth and I can walk too' says Riya. Her teeth have given a new look to her face. She looks a bit different but one thing about her face hasn't changed and that is her cuteness :).  She has been walking a lot everywhere on her own and also falling down a lot. She had a couple of accidents last week. She is always in a hurry to walk and reach her destination. She is still very wobbly but still she wants to walk everywhere.

Her 1st b'day is being celebrated thrice :). She has had 2 parties now and another one to go next weekend. She has had a lovely time at all her parties. She also had a lovely time with family in Wales. She enjoys the company of my aunt and she loves her. When there were other kids around my aunt she went to her and asked her to be picked up. Looks like she didn't want to share my aunt whom Riya calls ajji with other children. She has had nice gifts for Christmas and her bday but this year she was more interested in the wrapping paper and the tags than the actual gifts. Next year she will may be wait for her bday presents and she might also have a wish list of what she wants.

She hasn't got rid of the cold completely and it has been sneaking in and out. Its almost a month now since she has had cold on and off. There are a few good days and some bad days. She has been a lot of trouble to feed since a couple of months now. THE big problem is she does not chew the food. I am sure she understands the concept of chewing because she chews on other foods like a crisp, a corn tortilla(another of her new favorite) , any spicy Indian snack. Right, she has started loving spicy snacks and she has started loving strawberries too. The liking has just sprung up all of a sudden. I have given her strawberries before but it has never been like this. This time she has started loving them. When she sees me taking them out of the fridge she starts crying because she wants to eat them instantly. She does not want to wait for me to wash and chop them. It's funny to see her do that. The other day she saw a picture of strawberries in my aunt's house and started crying saying she wanted mummum. Funny girl :)

The worst nightmare of starting work is yet to begin. I start work next week and I am feeling terrible about leaving Riya. I am going to miss every little thing, every little moment of fun, happiness, argument, fights , everything. I can't imagine how it is going to be at work and how I am going to concentrate but I am going to give it a try. I can't write anymore about this as it is very hard to even think about it. I wonder how I and Riya are going to deal with this.

Daddy's working from home..Yay..!!!

22 December 2012

I and Riya went to the park yesterday. I saw another mum with a baby who was about 7 or 8 months old and playing the swing. I instantly remembered the first time I took Riya on the swing. She was about 6 and half months old and could barely sit other own. But she had enjoyed sitting on the swing the very first time. She had smiled and was happy to play the swing. And yesterday all she wanted to do in the park was walk around. She looked at all the older kids in amusement as they ran and jumped around in the park. I am sure she was wondering when will she able to do all that they were doing.

She is now trying trying to play different things. She is now stacking her rings on the pole in the right way. She stacked the whole set for the first time last week. She is also learning to do her shape sorter. She has also done a couple of drawings and artwork :)

She keeps saying daddy , daddy all day now :). She tries to repeat lots of words after us. Today she was trying to say cat. She said tat,tat,tat though :).

She will be 1 tomorrow. If it were in India we'd have a biiig party with all the family and friends. But here it's an odd time as its going to be Christmas vacation and everybody is busy with their own plans. We are off course going to have a party later on with some friends but its a shame that we won't have much of our family around for her 1 st bday. Though we are not having a big party tomorrow but we a going to have a couple of neighbours and daddy is now busy blowing some balloons. We are going to do little decoration and we have a little present for her. We have also bought her a Minnie Mouse card which seems to be favourite character these days. Hope she likes them all...

16 December 2012

Last week has been the most tough week of our lives since I have had Riya. I can imagine how busy and tough the last week has been as I have not even found the time to click photos of Riya throughout the week. I have always been doing so many photos and videos of her since she was born but this is first week when I have not taken any photos :(. It has not only been tough for me but also on Riya. Riya went to the nursery for this whole week. I sat with her on the Monday but on all other days I dropped her off for an hour. She is not very comfortable in the nursery yet. I have no idea how will she manage without me for several hours. As the D day approaches I have more fear and anxiety filling up in my heart. Sometimes I don't want to think about it. I feel like shutting that thought off and enjoying to the fullest with Riya.

Riya is lot more fun now. She understand almost everything we say. She screams at us when one of complains about her to the other. She makes sad faces when we scold her. She tries to make us laugh when we scold her. She gives it a very good try twice or trice but if we still don't laugh she then knows that we are really angry and then she starts to cry. But most of the times we end up smiling and she succeeds in her goal to make us smile and escapes getting scolded. She is becoming very smart these days.

She has started loving having pictures of Minnie or dogs or anything on her dresses. She pats her tummy and shows us that there is a 'woof' on her top. The way she says 'woof' is just so cute. She loves dogs at the moment. We have a neighbour who has a small dog and Riya was very happy to see that dog yesterday. She did not fear even when the dog came and smelt her. She just stood there with all the excitement in her eyes and watched him. She likes her plate and glass which has a picture of a Minnie on it. She is also very playful now and very mischievous. She loves pulling out clothes and dropping them on the floor from anywhere like the washing bag, washing machine, chest of drawers, her changing bag etc. She is a handful now. But she is just a joy to watch. Today when Vaishakh took her inside to change her nappy she was being very naughty and they both were laughing and playing and having loads of fun. I didn't want to go and interrupt the daddy and daughter time so I just stayed out and heard them.

I have been thinking that it is the start of the December and the countdown to Riya's birthday starts. But the time has gone by so quickly that we hardly have a week left for her birthday. I can't believe she is going to be a year soon. We are eagerly waiting to celebrate the day which changed mine and Vaishakh's life. This day brought more joy yet more tears, more fun yet more responsibilities, more dreams and the willingness to fulfil each one of them. Its heavy on the pockets yet light on our hearts ;). It's the day our little angel came into our lives!

11 December 2012

My eyes filled up with tears again and again today on the way to the nursery on this cold and frosty morning. I was supposed to drop her off and leave her on her own in the nursery for an hour. It's her first week in the nursery. We started a settling process where we would settle her down slowly in the nursery building up hour by hour. We started yesterday but I stayed with her yesterday. Today I dropped her off and I feel terrible. It's just for an hour though. I am not sure how I will mange when I have to stay away from her the entire day. As I dropped her off and walked away I felt as if my hands were empty and I felt very strange as if a part of me which i was carrying with me all this time was missing. Do I have to do this? Is it necessary for me to go back to work ? This is the question I have been asking myself again and again in the last couple of months. The only thing that consoles me is that I am not going back full time and I will still have lots of time to spend with her. I feel that she will also enjoy there at the nursery playing with other kids. It will also make her more outgoing and she will able to connect with children her age and with others too quickly. I only hope this helps her in building up an outgoing personality. I will know how she was when I go and pick her up . Am sitting in a cafe near by now and sipping some coffee and thinking about all the lovely things she does.

As my mom is a housewife I always had the luxury of coming home from school and finding my mum waiting for me with some delicious snack or food and a cup of milk. I always enjoyed this hour of the day as I got time to sit with her and tell her about what happened in school and have a chat with her. I did this until I was in my engineering college. It's just that a cup milk had now turned to a cup of tea :). We sat on the swing that we still have in our balcony and chit chatted over some tea and snacks. I always wish I have such time to spend with Riya! Hope it will happen some day.

When I went to pick her up after an hour the scene was something which I had not expected. I was expecting that she will be playing around with something but she was cuddled up with one of the care takers in the nursery and was almost dosing off. She looked like she was a bit tired with crying. Her eyes were wet too. I guess this is what is going to happen for a few days or few weeks. It's not as easy as its said to be. The girls there said she was alright in the beginning but had slowly started getting cranky and had started crying. She cried on her way back to home as well and her mood wasn't great the whole day. We re going to try this again tomorrow and I hope it only gets better!

5 December , 2012

Riya had her first professional hair cut yesterday :). I have given her a hair cut myself thrice before but this time I was a bit tensed to do it myself. She does not sit still for 5 seconds these days , so it's hard to play around with a scissor around her cutting her hair. So I decided to take her to a parlour. It was a kid's parlour. Very neat and tidy and was set up like a kid's room. Having seen other babies at the saloon I was a bit nervous wondering how Riya behave but she was not as bad as expected. She was a bit cranky in the beginning but then when I gave her my watch to play with she was alright. She now looks very neat with the new hair cut. It was a nice experience taking her to a parlour.. Like a girl's day out :).


And her love for cuddly toys continues. She has so many cuddly toys now at home. Her new possession is a cute Dalmatian puppy and we have named him Jimmy :). When I showed her that puppy at the shop she jumped and hugged him. She would not let him go for any other toy. I tried showing her different cuddly toys and other toys too but she didn't want anything else as much as this one. So finally daddy had to buy it. She was not happy letting him go even at the till.

Another Wednesday and another Gymboree class. Managed to get a small video of her today playing with bubbles which is her favourite activity.

http://youtu.be/ZbLSJRB6uZU


We had the first snow of this winter today. It didn't last long, just about 20 minutes in the morning. I am not sure if Riya will understand the concept of snow this season but if she were feeling well I would definitely take her out. She has a bad cough. Poor girl. It's the second time this winter that she has caught a cold. The first time she escaped without much trouble but this time it's bad. It feels horrible to see cough and cry because of the pain. We cannot do anything much but just pray and hope that she gets well soon. What amazes me is that even the cold and cough doesn't stop her from being a pleasant girl. She still smiles at people and waves at them to say hi and bye. When I took her to the doctor today morning she smiled at people there and waved at them and immediately made some friends :). They came and spoke to her said goodbye before they left. Somebody also asked me if it was a 'he' or 'she'. How lame ! With those little earrings on, those beautiful long eye lashes and such a pretty face how could somebody mistake her to be a boy. Very silly of them :P

1 December 2012

Another milestone is what I thought when I saw Riya 2 days ago. She is now 11 months and almost 2 weeks and her teeth have finally decided to pop out :). I can see 2 tiny white dots in her lower gums. She has also been very irritable this week. Probably because of teething. She has been very cranky last couple of days and has not been sleeping well. Hope she gets back to normal soon. It feels very bad to see her in trouble.

It has also been a busy week as I took her out to her play and learn class and to another play group. She enjoys going to these playgrounds and classes. She loves the parachute game which they play at the play centre. They have a big parachute on which we sit all the toddlers down and they blow bubbles. Riya loves the bubbles time. This time she stood on the parachute instead of sitting and screamed with excitement. She stood for the whole time. And then all the toddlers go under the parachute and we wave the parachute up and down and she absolutely loves this game. She giggled and laughed. She used to go to level 2 play and learn but this week was her level 3. I remembered how we grew up from one class to the next in school and wondered if my parents felt the same. It made me realise that Riya is growing up and there are younger babies now. Also that Riya is not a baby anymore. She is a toddler !

Riya also her first session with her would be nanny :). I am planning to settle her down slowly with her nanny instead of leaving her with an unknown person and disappearing when I start work. I was very worried thinking about how she would react but this time was alright. We spent about 2 hours with her and I also left Riya with her for half an hour and Riya seemed fine. She was playing with her and didn't cry for me which is a good thing. Will she not miss me? Will she love me less than before if I start going to work? Will she love other people more than me? I will need to wait for my answers.

While I sit here and write this bit, Riya woke up from her sleep and Vaishakh said he would out her to sleep and went in. It now looks like Riya has out her dad to sleep as well as I can cannot hear Riya crying anymore but I can sure hear Vaishakh snoring :)..

27 November 2012

Riya turns 11 ! One more month and we won't be counting in months anymore. We will be counting in years. Wow, I still feel like I met her for first time only a couple of months ago. I was so trilled when she opened both her eyes for the first time and looked at me. And I can't remember when she grew up to be almost a year old.

I and Riya took a week off from our normal routines and I went to visit my aunt in Wales. We both had a relaxing week. Riya had fun with her Ajja and Ajji. She instantly bonded with them all and also missed them when we came back here. We don't have stairs in our house but there were stairs in my aunts house. Riya immediately crawled up all the 13 stairs on her own. I was behind her all the time when she did it but it still surprises me that how these tiny tots know what to do with everything around them.

Riya is now being very naughty. When she is doing something naughty she knows it and looks at us and makes sure that we are watching her and smiles at us. She laughs a lot more than before at all the silly games we play with her. She is very interactive as well. She is now trying to repeat some words after us. She interacts with people too. The other day when we were out she called out to a couple of strangers saying 'aai' 'aai' and waved at them.

She walked a lot as well today. She is now taking 10 to 11 steps on her own. She walked from me to Vaishakh and back to me many times today. She was also very happy and excited about it. I guess I have only a couple of weeks more now to prepare myself to run behind her all the time :).

My little tigress ;)

16 November 2012

Almost there !! I have been wondering that I was going to miss seeing Riya take her first steps. As I have to start work in January, I was thinking if Riya does not make an attempt to walk until then, then I wouldn't be around her to see it. But I didn't miss it because I saw her do it yesterday. Riya took 3 steps on her own and was still balancing on her feet. It's the most wonderful sight. The joy and sense of achievement on her face was amazing. She knew she was doing something which she had never done before and beamed with happiness and excitement when she was trying to walk. I encouraged her and clapped my hands and she was all the more happy. She waved both her hands in the air like a bird which she often does when she is very happy or excited. When I told Vaishakh about he envied me and was upset that he couldn't see it. But she did it again and again today. She is taking a couple of steps on her own and trying to balance well. Nt long now when she will start walking :).

The whole of last week has been both good and bad. Good, because it was Diwali and it was Riya's first Diwali. I and Vaishakh had planned to make it nicer this year. No Aakash butti, no rangoli, no diyas at the doorstep, closed doors and windows, dull lights in everybody's house, no crackers. There is no fun in celebrating Indian festivals here. With no family and friends around it hardly feels like a festival. We miss India the most during these festivals. Specially Diwali. So we decided to try to do everything possible to make Riya's first Diwali special. We bought new clothes, diyas and made all the traditional sweets and savouries. We dressed up and did pooja as well. But the sad thing is Riya was not well :(. She had her first round of cold. Flowing nose, fever, diarrhea. Poor thing, it looked it was viral. But along with her I and Vaishakh fell sick too. It was the most horrible situation. All 3 of us falling sick at once. Who would take care of whom :) ? Wish we had some help here.She was very clingy and cranky when she was not well. I had never seen like that. Luckily it got better by the day. And only today Riya seems to be back to her original self. She laughed a lot and played with us. Hope it doesn't come back again soon.

Riya also had her first accident. I have been trying to protect her from such accidents all this time but I guess it had to happen sometime. There is a reason why they are called 'Accidents'. She fell and bumped her nose. There were a couple of drops of blood in her nose. When I saw that my knees went weak and I had no idea what to do. I suddenly felt like a terrible mother who was careless with her baby.We went to the doctor and it turned out to be all fine but those few moments were very very difficult as a mother.I have to probably get used to these things now.

She is now consciously calling me 'mamma' and Vaishakh 'daddy' (dhadhi, that's how she says it) . She says daddy more often than mamma though :P. She is trying to make different sounds too. A new skill she is now learning is that she is trying to create her own games. She has a few numbered buckets. She puts the smaller buckets into the bigger one's and tries to make noise with them. She puts small balls into the big bucket and shakes it to make a noise or tries to toss it. She holds 2 cuddly toys and bangs them together or hugs them and tries to play with them. It's amazing to watch her do these things and learn new things everyday.

06 November 2012

Riya is now 10 months and almost 3 weeks. It has been so hard to find time to write these days. Riya keeps more busy these days and it's winter as well, so I guess I have become a bit lazy, courtesy the dull English weather!

Her baby face seems to be disappearing. I definitely miss the chubby bubbly face. But that does'nt mean she looks any less cuter these days :). She looks more and more like a girl now than a baby. Riya had another birthday party to attend last weekend and she wore her pretty yellow frock (not pink for a change). Looked like she and daddy were both very uncomfortable with the dress but I wanted her to wear that a get a couple of nice pictures. Off course I had to change her dress very soon into more comfortable wear. I wonder why all these pretty frilly frocks are so uncomfortable to wear when girls look so pretty in them :( .

Ain't I pretty :) !

There now seems to be a change in her routine. She has now come down to one big nap in a day rather than 2. All signs of growing up. And it also means she sleeps well at night. She is now probably developing something called FEAR. I read and researched a bit about it and it looks like this is the age when they start developing fear. She is suddenly scared of the weird noises some of toys make. One day she is scared of a toy and the next day she holds the same toy and bangs it on the floor and wall all around the house. All she needs when she is scared is a big cuddle from mummy. She is now calling me out as 'mamma' but only when she wants me. When I ask her to say 'mamma' she doesn't. She says it only when she is crying or needs me badly. I and Vaishakh initially thought is was a co-incidence that she called out mamma when she was crying but she has been doing it again and again. How smart are these babies! They do things just the way they want to.

She cried when Vaishakh left to work this Monday. Mondays are always hard. She misses Vaishakh the most on Mondays. This week Vaishakh was up and ready before she was awake. When she woke up she saw that Vaishakh was all dressed up. She jumped on him and didn't want to get down. She clung to him and when he left her and started walking towards the door she cried. Poor girl. I am already dreading the moment when I have to leave her and go to work. It's going to be very difficult on her and me.

Aah..As I write this bit I can see some sunshine from our window. That does'nt mean it's warm. It's still very cold out there but also a bit sunny which means it's nice to spend some time out. It's time to wake up Riya from her afternoon nap and take her to the park for sometime. I find the saying 'Make hay while the sun shines' so apt in this country. I am sure it originated here!

02 November 2012

I have been wanting to write since the last weekend and there is already another weekend starting today. I hardly find time to do anything else other than looking after Riya. Riya visited her friend Meera last weekend and had a lovely time. Vaishakh had a day off on Monday. I took a break from playing with Riya and let Vaishakh handle her for most of the time as I was not well. Riya is now so energetic that Vaishakh was exhausted playing with her on Sunday and Monday. There was a moment when he came and begged me saying "Can you look after her for sometime? " :).

This week has been a bit sunny and nice. It has been freezing cold with temperatures finally dropping to single digits but at least there is no rain unlike the last 2 weeks. So we have been going out almost everyday this week. Riya has started loving her afternoon naps for some reason. May be because it is so cold that she wants to snuggle in the blanket and stay warm. I have to wake her up almost everyday from her afternoon nap so that she goes to bed early at night. But she doesn't like me waking her up. After waking up we spend some time on the bed cuddling, playing, reading some book or watching a video. She has also been sleeping well at night in the last week. These are first few nights when I have slept through the night since Riya was born. I had almost forgotten how it felt to sleep through the night. I hope she continues to do it.

Riya took her first and only step on her own yesterday. She is trying very hard to stand on her own. She stands up without any support for a couple of minutes now specially when she is watching TV. She loves to walk these days. When we say 'walkie walkie', she knows she has to walk. And she is doing very well with it. She took another step today. Looks like she will walk before she turns 1.

She has been conversing with us these days. She is not saying any words but she is making lots of different sounds like 'nananana', 'mamamama', 'dadada'. She also mamma a couple of times last week but I guess it was just a co-incidence. She didn't call me mamma. But still it felt like music to my ears :). Her language at the moment is like 'eeeh,eeh?' to ask what's the noise there or where are you or why and an 'eeh eeh.' as an answer to many questions we ask her. Her tone differs according to the situations. It's very funny to see her do that. When we go saying eeh,eeh along with her she says it again and again as if talking with us. Vaishakh says he can't wait for her to talk. But I guess that's a long way. Once it starts there is no stopping her though :)..

October 25 2012

Riya turns 10 months old. 10 months seems a long time with respect to time but for me they seem like a couple of months. My memories of Riya's birth are still so fresh. The look on her face when she came out of my womb is still intact in our eyes. I and Vaishakh always talk about it and laugh. She had a frown on her face when we first saw her. I remember the feeling of holding her for the very first time. It is the best feeling in  the world. So much changes in the life of a woman when she becomes a mother. All her joy and happiness is
now associated with her child. One can only understand this when they experience it. Every moment spent with the child feels special. From their first cry to the first step they take, every moment is priceless.

Riya will be a year old in a couple of months. This is really unbelievable. It now looks like she is actually teething. She has had watery poop a couple of times last week on and off. Her lower jaw has thickened a bit and looks whiter than normal. I have been massaging her gums in the morning everyday telling her that we need to brush her teeth like that. She has found a game in that activity too. When I put my hand in her mouth to massage her gums, she pretends to bite me and I have to say oooch and take my hand out. She laughs at that.

She has now learnt a trick to escape from being scolded. When we scold for doing something wrong she bends her head to the side and smiles at us. This makes us smile too and once we smile she knows that the moment has passed and she carries on with her mischief. She is only getting smarted by the day.

She has started eating a variety of foods now. We have now discovered that she loves rice rotis. She has started eating chapatis regularly. She now eats a few finger foods like a piece of cucumber, a piece of bread, apple etc. I am just happy that she is ready to try to different kinds of food.

It's been a very dull week as it has been rainy and cloudy and dull most of the time. But I have been fortunate to catch up with a couple of friends for lunch this week. This has kept Riya busy too. It's the first time in months that we have not been to the park for 3 days in a row. I am not sure of Riya but I have definitely missed going to the park. One afternoon when it rained heavily I,Riya and her teddy Feddie sat cuddled up in our blanket and read story books. It was fun. We piled up all her books by our side and sat and read all of them. She sat with me in the blanker very patiently. After reading the books we both had a small nap. She loves reading books. She is always eager to turn the pages of the book and look what's in the next page. She loves her pop up books the most pictures pop up to her when she turns the page. Hope her love for books remains the same :)..

That's Riya's Freddie !!

October 20 2012

I have to write about what happened today. It's one of the most exciting and wonderful experiences I and Vaishakh have had. We will probably get to see more of such things from now on but today is one of the first times it happened. I, Vaishakh and Riya went out for shopping . Riya sat in the trolley comfortably to go around the shop.


We bought some stuff and put them in the trolley. Now the interesting bit. We were in the toys section :). We were just going past the toy section when Vaishakh stopped and looked at a 'Minnie mouse'. He showed it to Riya and asked if she wanted it and she immediately jumped and caught hold of it and was happy, so we thought we'll buy it for her. But then there was another one there. So Vaishakh picked up the other 'Mickey Mouse'  as well and showed it to her and she snatched the it as well from him. I and Vaishakh were talking about which one was nicer. We just turned to Riya , took both the toys from hands and Vaishakh told her ' You can have only one Riya, which one do you want?'. You will not believe what I say now but it did happen. She looked at both the toys again and again as if she was comparing them. She looked at each of them one after the other at least 3 times and chose one. Can you believe it? But yes she chose what she wanted. Off course she chose the 'Minnie Mouse' ,  probably because it was in Pink and more colourful. I and Vaishakh were awestruck. Hardly 10 months and she is smart enough to make her choice. We are happy she did not want both of them and also happy about how she chose one . But I feel that day is not too far when she will want both. This also shows she is now very clearly understanding what we say to her. I am not sure if I was clever to pick my toys when I was 10 months. But we try to always ask her what she wants when we buy her toys. We show her different toys and see what excites her more and buy that one. What she did today is probably a result of that.

She did not let go of her new possession until we finished our shopping and screamed once at Vaishakh when he tried to take it away from her in the shop. Her list of cuddly toys grows on and on. Girls will remain girls. Won't they ;) ?

October 17, 2012

9 months and three weeks but no teeth yet ;)... It does not worry me but I just find it a bit funny. She looks so cute with that face and no teeth. What we call 'boochu bayi' in Kannada. I can't imagine how she will look when she has her teeth. I am sure she will still look cute. My mum says I had teeth very late as well.

It also looks like she has lost some weight. Why not? She is jumping around the house all day. She does not sit in a place for 5 minutes now. She is always crawling, standing up, cruising and trying to walk all day.

She is getting a bit clingy these days. She wants us to carry her around everywhere. I read on the Internet that this is separation anxiety which develops around this age and lasts a good few months. She wants me to be around her all the time..

Her new skill is that now she waves her hand when we ask her to say hi or hello to somebody. She looks at them and smiles and waves at them :). Another funny thing she has learnt to do is to look under the sofa, bed etc. She bends her head down to the side and tries to look what's under them. She looks very cute and funny when she does that.

She has learnt to clap her hands when I sing to her which I find very amusing.

We bought her a new walker last weekend. She is trying very well to walk with it but we are not pushing too hard. I want her to take her own time. She will walk when she's ready. I am glad she is not walking yet otherwise I'd have more trouble at home :)

October 11 2012

Fewer posts last week as I have been very busy. Doing what ? Chasing Riya :). It is very exhausting these days as she is all over the place. She is trying to reach anything and everything in the house. She wants absolutely everything she sees. She has spilled the mustard seeds all over the kitchen a couple of times this week. As i mentioned in my previous post she loves playing the box of mustard seeds. We have child locks on all the cupboards in the kitchen except one. She very well knows about it and goes directly to that cupboard every time. She tries to pull out everything. We are so tired by the end of the day that all we want is a good sleep.

She tore a couple of pages from one of our books. She has the habit of pulling out all the books from the book shelf. I didn't mind that until now. But now I can't let her do that. She is trying to reach for the top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom and pull out things kept on it. She stands on her toes to look at the top. She stands on her toes to reach the third shelf of our book case and reaches for the photo frames there. I have just been running behind her everywhere asking her 'Not' to do this or that. I find myself saying a 'NO' at least a hundred times these days.


Her new skill this week is clapping. She has learnt to clap and lift both her hands up to say yeeehhh.. She looks lovely when she does that. She is probably very proud of herself doing that as she did that in front of everybody at her gymboree play and learn class. She is now very interactive with everybody in the class. She smiles at most of them and screams at the top of her voice. She loves it when they blow bubbles during the class. This week when the instructor walked towards us with the bottle of the soapy liquid she knew it was bubbles time and screamed with excitement and clapped her hands. It feels so great to see her like that. My heart fills with joy to see her so happy.

She doesn't allow me to stand in the kitchen and do any work now. She just stands behind me holding my dress and cries. She wants me to play with her all the time. She rests her head on my legs and stand there behind me until I pick her up, give her a cuddle and go and play with her. Makes me wonder how much she is going to miss me when I go back to work. She loves it when I play all the crazy games with her. She has so much energy right from the moment she opens her eyes in the morning until she goes to bed at 8 that it is impossible to match it :). I hope she is like this all the time. I guess I have written this earlier but I want to say again that this is the best time of my lifetime and I am going to cherish every moment of it.

Today when she went to have her bath she tried to catch the bubbles in her bath tub and was also trying to eat them. I and Vaishakh laughed and enjoyed watching it. Before I had her I always wondered why kids are referred to as a bundle of joy, but now I exactly know what it means :)..

04 October 2012

Planning to list all of Riya's favourites so far.

Her favourite toy from 3 to 6 months was the dancing yellow duck which her Ajja bought for her.
Her recent favourite toy has been the eggs box. She loves taking all the eggs out and never allows us to fill them in the box.
Her favourite cuddly toys are the dog which Vaishakh bought for me at a fair and the simba which we bought for when she turned 8 months. She absolutely adores it. She hugs it and bites it or probably kisses it :) because that's how she kisses. She does that to me and Vaishakh as well.
Her favourite book is the 'I love puppies' book. Whenever she goes to her book shelf that's the first book she pulls out. She probably likes all the pictures in the book. They are pictures of cute puppies as cute as her.
Her favourite breakfast is the fruit with yogurt cereal.
Her favourite snack is a pot if yogurt. She eats it anytime of the day.
Her favourite meal so far is paddu with lots if homemade curds. It's one of my favourites too. How could she not like it ;).
Her favourite game- peek a boo :D. She loves playing that with her daddy.
Her favourite game in the park was the swing so far but she has started enjoying the round about in the last couple of days. She likes taking rounds on it.
Her favourite bath toy is the dark pink seal. Wonder why it is pink in colour.
Her favourite toy from my kitchen is my box of mustard seeds. She always gets hold of it as they make a funny sound when she shakes the box.
Her favourite time of the day is the time I and she spend on our bed after returning from the park. She loves bouncing on our bed and climbing all over me. I have fun too. We laugh a lot and then fall asleep. Sometimes it's just Riya that sleeps and sometimes it's both of us. She is also very excited when it's time for her daddy to come in the evening. She listens carefully to the door getting unlocked and hurries to see her daddy!
Her favourite tv program is the 'tree Fu tom' which she watches everyday at her dinner time. She is not as keen to watch other programs.
Her favourite rhyme is probably 'wheels on the bus'. She usually smiles when I sing it to her.

Well, that's it so far. Can't think of anymore. Guess it will be nice to tell her about these things when she grows up.

September 30 2012

It feels like now Riya has started to understand what we speak. She responds very nicely to what we say.

Yesterday Riya was playing with one of her toys and I was sitting at a distance from her. There was a book lying near her. All these days every time I read a book to her I tell her that it's a book. Yesterday when I asked her to get the book to me so that I can read it for she did it. She went to the book and crawled to me holding it in one hand and pushing it along with her. We found it amazing and we were surprised. Today morning I gave her a piece of bread when I and Vaishakh were having our breakfast. She had already had her's but I want her to learn to ear herself too. That's why I gave her a bread. She ate some and then started playing with it. She made little pieces and they all fell down one by one on the sides of her highchair. When I asked her where all the bread had gone, she looked at those pieces in her high chair and looked at me as if telling me 'here they are' :). This is a new phase and I and Vaishakh are enjoying it to the most. I always talk a lot with her but now that I know that she is trying to understand me makes me feel very happy.

Guess it's a matter of a few months now. She will soon start talking and also arguing. It looks to us like she is building her character now. She has likes and dislikes. She gets upset, happy and angry according to the situations. It awes us every time. Makes me feel motherhood is just fantastic. All you need is just the right proportion of patience!

Looking forward to more of such things from now on...

September 28,2012

A great day spent with Riya. She has been screaming and chatting all day today. I was trying to teach her to say some words but she was not bothered. She went on speaking her own language. I gave up in the end. She never concentrates or listens to us when we are trying to teach her something. She tries to find something funny about it and plays along. Wondering how it will be when she will go to school and actually will have to learn a lot of things.

I took her to the park today and we had only been there for about 5 minutes and it began to rain. I had to quickly pick her up from the swing and put her in the buggy. But she did not want to get out of the swing. She cried when I put her in the pram. She has been doing this since the last couple of times. She loved spending time in the park and cries if we have to come back home. More than playing she loves looking at other babies and their parents.

Another funny incident which happened today was she had picked up our landline phone and was showing it to me. I wanted to get it back from her and when I started going towards her to get the phone she literally ran. I mean she crawled so fast holding the phone in her hand and screaming with excitement.She is so much fun these days. She crawled quite a distance and looked back at me and also saw that the phone in her hand was gone. She had left in behind on the floor in all her excitement to run away from me.

She also waits for Vaishakh in the evening now. As soon as he unlocks the door, she knows it and she quickly crawls towards the entrance of the house to greet her daddy. She is always so excited to see him and she runs around the house like crazy when he comes home.

Riya and I went to my workplace yesterday. I had to discuss a few things at work and also meet my colleagues. Riya loved it and had a nice day. It turned out to be a nice day luckily. The forecast said it would rain but it didn't and it was sunny as well. We took the train from Wimbledon to Gunnersbury where my new office is located. Riya enjoyed her trip on the train and also loved meeting everybody at my workplace. Everybody loved her too. She wore her red spotty dress and she looked great in it too.

I spoke about working part time at work and am happy it was accepted. It's a big relief that I will be going back to work part time. I will at least get to spend more time with Riya. But the hunt for a nursery and a nanny or the right combination of them is still on!

September 23 2012

Riya turns 9 months old today. Very bad day in terms of the weather unlike the sunny day we had when she had turned 8 :). Windy, rainy and cold. We could hardly step out. But we managed to get out for sometime. It was a crazy idea though.
I am afraid the weather is not going to be any better from now on. Winter is at our doorsteps. Riya is now so playful that I am worried about how to entertain her at home the whole day if we are not able to get out at all during the day.

We tried to get a picture of the 3 of us together but in vain. 9 months have passed and we still don't have a decent family photo :). We are always so busy clicking her photos that we now have at least a thousand pictures of Riya.

Riya turns 9 also means I have only 3 more months left with me to spend with her. It kills to think about going back to work. Time is flying at the speed of light and Riya is growing up everyday.I can't imagine that a little baby who fit in my arms a while ago has grown so tall now. These are the most enjoyable days of my life. Babies are fun once they turn 6 months old. I so look forward to spending each day with her. That one smile, one laugh, one mischief makes my day :D. Sometimes I am cross with her too but that does'n stay long. When I see her smiling at me and crawling towards me with her best speed my heart melts.

She is wearing her new white night suit now and looking as lovely as ever sleeping in her bed. This is the best time I can accumulate my thoughts and remember all the moments I spent with her during the day and pen them down. I sit in my bed, next to her's, look at her and wonder how much I love her.

A new development we are seeing in her is that she is getting upset with me when I scold her :). She somehow knows that she needs to go to daddy when I scold her for doing something wrong. How kids learn these things is a mystery. Everyday is new and I wait to see what new things I will get to see on that day.

September 21, 2012

Tough week because of various personal reasons. All that aside Riya still remains the sole reason of happiness in our lives at the moment. On one of the days Vaishakh said "Having kids is a very rewarding experience for the parents". I can't agree more. She has brought so much happiness in our lives. It's not that we have not been happy until we had her but the happiness she brings is just so much different. When we spend time with her we forget about everything else.

Riya has been very good with her bath for the last couple of weeks. She has started to enjoy her bath now. She still hates having to wash her hair but at least she is happy with her bath. She splashes water everywhere and plays with her bath toys. Funnily she didn't want to get out of her bath today. We picked her up but she sat again in the bath tub and started to play.

Mummy and Riya went to the Wimbledon station to pick up daddy today. It started to rain once we reached the station.We all together went to Starbucks and had a coffee. Riya enjoyed her time with us in the coffee shop. She looked at the rain outside and at the vehicles from the glass window. She looked at people around here. As usual she is always interested in looking at people.

She has been very cheerful today. She has learnt a couple of new things :D. She has learnt to play the Peek-a-boo game by herself. She covers herself with her blanket and peeps through it and smiles at me. It was amazing to watch her do it. She first did it at the play and learn class to which I take her every week on the Wednesday. Today she it at home and I am really happy that I captured it on the video too. She has also learnt to give me a hi-five. I have been teaching her to wave her hand to say bye-bye but she never did that. But she likes giving me a hi-five.




You'd imagine you'd never understand babies. Why they like something and why they don't like some things. This will always remain a mystery as they can't communicate and tell us what they think. But I'm sure the mums know exactly what their babies want. It's just instincts. Last night, I suddenly felt she wanted water and when we gave her water , it looked like she really did need water. She had a few big gulps. How I knew this, I don't know. Motherly instincts, that's what they are called :)..

September 17 2012

Chatty Riya.

As expected the fever which Riya had last week vanished in a day. It was probably her teething or the tiredness. Whatever it was I am very happy that it stayed for only a short span. It was Vaishakh's turn to fall sick next :).

Flu,cold,cough is in the air as the winter is fast approaching. I have to protect Riya from all this. I don't know how. But I will do my best. I must mention she has been doing her poop in the potty for continuously for more than a week now.

Riya seems to have mastered the art of making different sounds. We had been waiting as to when she will try to say something. I and Vaishakh kept prompting her with words like 'Ma','Pa','Da' etc. But she never tried to copy us and said any of those words.

Today she just went on and on. It's very strange and funny how babies learn new things. It's like a switch. Once they learn something new they keep repeating it and do it again and again and finally master it. It was very similar when she learnt to stand up holding on to things. She tried and tried and when she learnt it she started doing it very easily. We must agree babies are fast learners. She went on saying 'dadadada'..And also made different sounds and shouted when she was happy and when she laughed.
She first did it in the park when I and she were sitting on a bench after having played the swing, horse and the slide. After coming home I told Vaishakh about it and I wanted him to see it as well. She started doing it again in the evening. I and Vaishakh kept repeating after her and she kept talking. Damn the video camera battery. It always runs into low battery when I need it the most. The first time was when we took her swimming and the second time was today. I want to capture every special moment of Riya and hate to miss any. But I think she will do the same tomorrow as well. As she has now learnt how to make those sounds, I am hoping she will continue to do it frequently and I will be able to shoot something very soon. Who knows she might just say her first word in the next few days or weeks.Hhhmmm...

Mummy and Daddy are waiting Riya. When will it be and what will it be :D.

September 12, 2012

Riya falls sick for the first time and daddy gets a panic attack. Riya had her first dose of fever. She has been having a bit of temperature since yesterday night. She is probably teething, hence the temperature. She has a little bit of a runny nose too. She slept on us all night tucked in cozily in our bed. She probably felt safe being with us. And we didn't want to let her go either.

She has been very dull all day. We had to miss her play and learn class as she was not well. Vaishakh worked from home today in case we had to take her to the doctor. It felt very bad to look at her dull face. Otherwise she is such a bubbly girl. She only wanted to be cuddled. She came n climbed over me and slept on my lap a couple of times. She had her meals alright though. If we were in India we would be flooded with advices about how to get rid of her fever. And some would have given me reasons as to why it happened. We would have also visited the doctor. But we are here in London and there is nobody to give us any advices and the doctor told us over the phone to give her calpol without even having a look at her. Well she has been recovering. Her eyes were still dull but she was starting to get back to her usual self. She had started crawling around and pulling eveything she could reach towards the evening. She is now sleeping soundly in her bed. I think she is now feeling better. I want to see her get up tomorrow and smile at us when we say 'good morning' like she does every morning.

She's my strong little rockstar. I am sure she will be fine soon. This phase will pass away.

September 11, 2012

I have tried to write something a few times last week. But it has been crazy busy. Riya had a nice weekend. She visited her cousin Sam for his bday. She was very happy to see so many people. She was very well behaved. She enjoyed everybody's company. She was so excited all the time. She didn't want to be carried. She tried talking and said some things in her own language. Jai came and said to me that Riya had a conversation with him :).

I left her with Vaishakh for a couple of hours for the first time and went for some shopping with my sisters. I missed her but looked like Riya didn't miss me :). She was happily playing with everybody when I came back home and wasn't even bothered when I came. Looks like she will settle down in the day care easily as well.

She has been sleeping well in the last couple of days and her face seems a bit different. She doesn't look like a baby anymore. She is acting like an individual now with her likes and dislikes getting stronger. Getting her to drink the formula milk is still very difficult. It's been more than 2 weeks now. I am worried if she will settle with it soon or not. I hope she does.

We have observed 2 new behaviours in her. She has a new style of sleeping. She sleeps on her tummy most of the time but now she kneels and sleeps on her tummy. She looks very funny when she does that. She has a new style of crying as well. She raises her nose and makes a funny sound when she is starting to cry. I am yet to capture it in a video.

September 05 2012

Yesterday Riya slept at 11.30 pm unlike other days when she goes to sleep at 8. She had so much energy even at 10 in the night. It's impossible to match her energy levels.  I and Vaishakh were tired and sleepy but she wanted to play. We had our dinner and she sat with us playing with her toys, crawling around us and watching TV. Minal called me and I had to speak to her even though it was so late in India as she wanted to discuss a few things about her Accenture interview. I just hope it works for Minal and she gets through.

Riya was punished by mummy and daddy for staying up late by making her sit in her bouncer without either of us talking to her but she stayed there for hardly 5 mins. She makes funny faces and smiles at us and there it goes, our hearts melt :). We took her out of the bouncer and allowed her to play.

Finally we had to carry her to the bedroom with us forcibly. She didn't come to us when we called her and said we need to do JOJO now :). She probably understood and didn't want to sleep. She played on the bed for a while with us. I closed my eyes and said goodnight to her but she climbed up on me and was trying to open my eyes and pulled my hair. We put the lights off and I and Vaishakh slept on her sides. She was not willing to go her bed either. She didn't want to do anything what she usually does as a part of her routing everyday. After a lot of jumping around between us in the dark she started yawning. Then she came and rested her head on my hand and slept beside me. I sang a lullaby for her and she sang back to me in her own language and slowly she fell asleep. This has been probably the best moment of my motherhood so far. I have never felt so good. I often have this feeling these days that this is probably the best time I have had with her and in a few days that changes, there is a better moment spent with her. But what happened last night was THE special moment I spent with her. I will remember this always and even if there is a time when I forget about these little moments, I have this blog to read through and refresh my memories.

Love you my cutie pie :D..

September 03, 2012

My baby is getting smarter day by day :). She is now standing up holding on to everything but she has also learnt to land safely and slowly on her bum. Good for her. She is so active these days that I have started to get tired running behind her. She wants to discover everything in the house. She tore a book yesterday. So now it's time for us to empty our book shelf .

She now probably recognises herself. She looks at her videos and her own photos and smiles :). If she is screaming in a video she screams even louder as if she is competing with the girl in the video . It's very funny to watch her doing it.

She has now established a relationship with her dad. She loves Vaishakh now. She was away from him for 3 months. That's probably the reason she took a while but now they know each other very well and understand each other very well.

September 02, 2012

End of another weekend. 

She is now 8 months and 10 days old. It's now getting difficult to run behind her the whole day. Riya doesnt want to sit in a place for even a few seconds . She wants to stand all the time. She walks a bit holding on to the sofa. She wants to play the whole day these days. She hardly slept during the day yesterday and today and by the time she has her bath she is already dosing off :). She is soo excited during the weekends that she does not sleep much.

Bath !! It's a big battle. She hates having a head bath. But she does have beautiful curly hair which she manages to get messy by rubbing on all that she eats on to her hair . She runs her hand over her mouth when she is eating and then touches her hair :). Her lunch today was rice n dal paste with a pinch of salt n ghee, n looked like she liked it. Every time I give her a nice home cooked hot meal I wonder how will she manage in the day care as I don't think they will take so much trouble. She has started having strong likes n dislikes now. Vaishakh says her tastes are like mine. Why not ;)?

She did a very funny thing today. She was 7 months 6 days when for the first time she cried bcoz I scolded her. Today when I scolded her as to not touch the food bin, she went to her dad put her head in his lap n stayed that way for a while. She understands these things very well now. Smart eeehh? It's amazing how they learn these things.

She now laughs so much. I and Vaishakh got a couple of videos of her today evening. It's her new game of hide n seek with mummy n daddy. It's a pleasure to see her laugh and smile. Also to watch her sleep which am doing now ...

August 30, 2012

Riya did her her first poop in the potty day before. 

Yay!!! But that's it. I have been trying to get her to do her poop in the potty but no luck. She starts playing with her potty which looks like a giant frog. 

She is now holding on to things and standing up. I go out n come back to her room and there she is ... Standing holding on to the sofa and screaming in her typical singing way which she does most of the time :). It looks like she is celebrating her victory. I look at her and see that my tiny little tender baby has now grown so tall and strong. She can stand  now and also move bit by bit holding the sofa. It makes me feel that she will soon be a grown up girl and I will miss this tiny baby Riya.

I took her to a music class yday. She was the youngest among all but she enjoyed it. She banged the drums and crawled around and looked at other babies n mums and smiled. I will take her to those classes more often.

Today for the first time I felt she missed me when I was not around. This happened at Urvi's place. I left her with Urvi and went around to see her house with her son. When I came back after a few minutes Riya quickly crawled towards me and said somethings looking at me in her own language. I felt as if she asked me where had I been :D..

August 27, 2012

6 days have gone by in a blink of the eye.. Vaishakh's holidays are over and I and Riya will get back to our routines from tomorrow. I am not sure how Riya will react. But she is a lovely kid and gels into the environment very quickly. So I hope she will be fine. We have enjoyed these days thoroughly. We did a lot of things. We had our house warming party with our friends n celebrated my bday too . It was nice to see everybody after a long time.

Riya loved having everybody over and was very excited at the party. She went with everybody and smiled at everybody. She's such a charmer. All our friends loved her and said she looked like a doll . Some loved her eyes, some loved her hair but I love every bit of her.

I, Vaishakh and Riya might not have such a time in near future but we will cherish every moment of the last few days. I and Riya are visiting one of the day care tomorrow . I have tried to put these thoughts aside all these days but I think it's now time we start working towards it. We have to find a day care and a good nanny for Riya . 

Unwilling I will put my foot forward and start looking around.  I am not sure though if I will ever feel like getting back to work . Time will tell and you will know soon :)..

August 25, 2012

You never realise when girls start being girls :).

I am surprised Riya aleady loves looking at the mirror. This reminds me of my baby sister who loved standing in front of the mirror too. Infact she still does. Riya has started loving a couple of her cuddly toys too. She now knows which one is a doggie, which one is Freddie and which one is a teddy bear. Doggie and the White teddy bear being her favourites. She smiles when she looks at them. She hugs them occasionally which is very funny. She loves playing hide and seek with the mirror. She and Vaishakh played 'peek a booo' all day yesterday and she laughed all the time .

She had a bad evening yesterday. She didnt feel well probably ? She must be teething and in pain. Why do babies have to undergo this pain? If I do anything at all to take that pain away I would.

She has been her normal self today. She has played, been to the park, had proper food and slept well. I feel contented when she has a normal routine.

It's my bday tomorrow. I will turn 29. It's my first bday with Riya and as a mum. Am very excited. I know she has no idea and she won't be wishing me this time either, yet am excited. Crazy mum ain't I ??

August 23, 2012

Riya turns 8 months today...

We took her to visit central London. Luckily it was a nice day even though it's the end of august. Riya had a lovely day today . She loves going out. She took her first ride in the train today and she loved it. She looked at everybody on the train and smiled. People found her very friendly and adorable . Off course she is. They made faces at her to make her smile and she did. She is such a happy baby. All that she needs is attention. We also packed her lunch and she had her lunch in the park. Our first try. Didnt work great but it was not bad. We were surprised she slept only for half an hour through out the day today. She was so excited all the time . We came back home at 5.30 and gave her dinner. She went to bed at 7.30 today . She us very very tired and so are we ... :)

August 21, 2012

I and Vaishakh decided that we should start the process of weaning for her. Riya will be 8 soon and we think it's time . I always thought that I should have started weaning by 6 months. But when the time has come I feel it's not time yet :). I have no idea why I feel like this. We tried giving her milk in a bottle yesterday but she did not take it well. It's going to be tough. I have postponed the idea for a bit now.

She has also started eating chapatis now and I am very happy about it. Hope she starts eating rice too. Looks like she does not like rice. She eats almost all her fruits though.

I and Riya had a lovely time yday afternoon. She just woke up after a half an hour nap and we were just rolling on our bed. She laughed so much. She was in a very good mood. Whatever i said to her , she chuckled and laughed. I was calling her moti n she was laughing. We had nice fun. I just enjoy seeing her laugh.

Watching TV with daddy!

Vaishakh is off from work tomorrow and I am very excited for Riya . I am sure she will enjoy all the time he is at home . There will be more to write but I doubt if I will have the time.