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.