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 :)..