Easter 2013

Our first holiday with Riya. We expected the weather would be much better at this time of the year. But unfortunately it was very cold and freezing. It was our first outing with Riya and I was worried how she would react and how she would eat. But Riya did absolutely well and was very happy to be away from home. She enjoyed every bit of it. She was very excited about everything. She loved being with us all the time and playing with us. We took her to a farm thinking she would enjoy looking at all the farm animals and she had a great time. She wasn't afraid to touch any of the animals and was too excited. She didn't care about drinking or eating. All she wanted to do was to run around and play. She made friends with some lambs there :).. She interacted with everybody else. She looked and waved at people and smiled at them and showed them things and tried to say something to them. She looked at all the older kids and tried to interact with them. There was an indoor play area and some soft play for kids and she ran around and up and down every where. It was a pleasure to see her so happy. It felt like the trip was worth it though it was so cold outside. It was a nice break for all us after a long time. Riya is not going to the nursery this week neither am I going to work and Vaishakh has had 2 extra days off along with the Easter break. It's the best time we have had in months. I am already looking forward to my next holiday with her. It is so much different going on a holiday with a kid. Though we are always worried about how much they have slept, how much have they eaten, how much have they pooped, how tired they are and numerous other things, it is all worth it at the end of the day. The pleasure we have looking at them enjoying so much makes it all worth it.

The other highlight of this week is Riya's new cycle. Vaishakh assembled it yesterday and Riya has been very happy with her new possession. She had her first ride on the cycle yesterday. She took it to the park and also to to the hair saloon today. When we went out other times she enquired if we were going on her cycle. It's going to be difficult to tell her now that we can't take her cycle everywhere. We have to say NO to a lot of things these days and she has learnt to say no very well too. She nods her head and says nananana... Very clear about her choices :). She has started saying mama so nicely now. Her sweet voice saying mama keeps ringing in my ears even when she is not around me.

She was very tired today as she has been swimming and is soundly sleeping in her bed. I and riya had a lovely time in the pool and she didn't want to get out of the pool in the end. She enjoyed going her back in the water and she kicked her legs when I asked her to. Lots of fun this week and more to come as I am taking her to another soft play centre tomorrow with a friend and we have a bday party in the weekend.. Free yet busy week for all of us ;) !

17 March 2013

In her cute little pig tails

It's such an irony of our lives that we do not remember much from our first couple of years which we spend with our parents when we are the most loved and cuddled. I think Riya will not remember these days either. But thank God the technology these days that we can capture moments of her childhood.and show them to her when she is older. I wish our parents could do it as well. That reminds me that our video camera is spoilt and I am having a hard time. We need to fix it soon or buy a new one.The videos I have of Riya are so close to my heart. I watch them frequently and it reminds me of the days when Riya was a tiny baby. She looks so big now. I am still amazed everyday and feel lucky that I am seeing her grow right in front of my eyes. I able to spend ample time with her if not all my time. One days she is going to be like 5 years old and I won't even know when and how she grew up so big. I really want this moment to freeze and I want to spend more time with Riya when she is this age. It is so beautiful when she learns new things and is excited about showing it to us. She loves appreciation and claps her hands happily when she thinks she has done something good. She expects us to clap and appreciate her and I never fail to do so.

It's been a miserable week with rain and it has been very cold. But Rajni and her kids visited us yesterday and Riya had a lovely time with them. She loved looking at Jai and Maya and watched them in awe at whatever they did and played with them.. It was first time until yesterday, that she skipped her afternoon nap.She very easily managed without her afternoon nap and was no trouble at all. We all walked to the park though it was very cold and the kids wanted to stay longer and play but we decided to come back early. Riya walked quite a bit in the park holding mine and Vaishakh's hand. It was fun. We met a very cute dog - Ruby and Riya was excited. She ran towards her and instantly wanted to touch the dog. She stroked Ruby on her back and touched her near her face. Ruby was very friendly too and allowed Riya and Maya to touch her. We had a nice but tiring day. Riya also had her first little accident outside the house last week. She fell in the park and a couple of drops of blood came from gums. She had hurt herself but she didn't cry a lot. She is a very strong girl. We braved the rain today as well and daddy and Riya went swimming for the second time. I missed it as I had finish off some other work at the shops. I kept thinking of Riya and missed being there badly. Apparently they had a lovely time and enjoyed. Vaishakh said Riya took some time in the beginning to settle in the water and then she had been fine. Kicking in the water and walking, running and playing.

Our little model in her swimwear ;)

We have been playing pretend cooking and eating almost whole of last week since we bought her a cooking set last weekend. To top it up Maya lent her play kitchen to Riya yesterday and now Riya is all the more excited. She has been cooking a lot since yesterday. She brings the spoon and feeds us whatever she has cooked. She is making funny sounds like 'chussss' , 'ssssshhhh' while washing and cooking food. I badly need a video camera to record these things. I don't want to miss capturing her first cooking moments and experiences :)..

9 March 2013

A woman becomes a mother not from the moment of a child's birth but from the moment she conceives her baby. She thinks and imagines things about her baby and cares for him or her right from the time when they are in her womb. She worries about every single movement and also worries when there is no movement of the baby in the womb. She knows her baby right from those days. Such is a relationship of a mother and a child. These thoughts came to my mind as tomorrow is Mother's Day and I just want to remember all the lovely moments I have spent with Riya so far. I went through some of the old photos and videos. They make me so happy and make me realise how much I have loved every moment of being a mother. It is the most beautiful feeling and the most beautiful relationship I have known. I am also happy that I share this relationship with my daughter and someday she will share this relationship with her children.. I can't imagine how some people cannot be happy with having a daughter. When Riya hugs me tight and gives me a tight kiss when I come back from work I feel blessed. I realise i have missed her so much all the time I have been at work and I know how much she has missed me too :).

Riya has just started being more and more demanding. She wants things to be her way and is starting to get angry and throw things to express her anger. She throws phones, remotes and whatever is in her hand. i have no idea where she has learnt this :). She has had another round of cold, cough and diarrhoea and she has managed well this time. Looks like she is building up her immunity. She was miserable for 2 days and then she slowly recovered.

A couple of Kannada words she has picked up are 'beda' and 'aithu' :). I try to get her to talk so many words but she is not very keen on learning to talk. She will do it when she wants to do it.

We went to ikea today to buy some things which we need for our home. When we went to the kids section there was a play area. We went there to pick up her cupboard and I took her to the play area while Vaishakh picked up other things for her room. She picked up a saucepan and a spoon from the kitchen in the play area and behaved like she was mixing something and cooking. And then she went and fed whatever she had made in her saucepan to the cuddly toys in the shop :). How clever is that for a 14 month old. She has probably learnt this cooking game in her nursery where they play cooking ands baking. Another game which she has learnt is to play in the sand at the park. She has had she share of having sand in her eyes but still she likes to play with it. We carry her bucket and spade to the park these days to playin the sand. We had a couple of sunny days last week when I and Riya spent good time at the park and she loved being there. She almost runs around everywhere in the park these days.

4 March 2013

When she slept every two hours and was awake for less time during the day I used to grow restless thinking when would I get to spend time with her but now I wish she sleeps a bit more during the day. From the moment she opens her eyes at 7 to when she goes back to bed at 8.30 her energy levels remain the same . When she could not move around when she was a baby I used to wonder when would start crawling and walking but now I wonder why can't she sit in one place for 10 seconds :).

I am very happy that I have cherished every moment with her all this time and have enjoyed every stage.

Riya is growing into one cute doll. She has now learnt to say 'Tetha tig' for 'peppa pig' and has started loving it. I am really surprised how children at such young age can connect to such cartoons. I had seen children addicted to these cartoons but could not understand how. It's just been a couple of days since she has seen it and she has already started loving it. As soon as she sees the iPad she starts making the pig sound and says 'tetha tig'. It's very tricky to keep these kids away from the gadgets and tv but it is very important so that they don't get hooked to it.

My doll is also growing into a daddy's girl :). I was expecting this to happen someday but not so soon ! Anyway there isn't much I can do about this. Girls will be daddy's girls either today or tomorrow ....

13 February 2013

Long long time since I blogged. It feels like a new start . It is kind of a new start for us with Riya as a 'toddler'. Not a baby anymore. I call it a new start because Riya is so much different now . She now has a mind of her own and more importantly has the ability to execute them. She gets angry. She used to get angry and frustrated before as well but now she screams and resists from doing what she doesn't want to do. She has learnt to say 'beda' in Kannada which means 'I don't want'. When she has had enough of her meal she closes her mouth with her hands and says beda with a closed mouth which we find very very funny :). Sometimes when she does not want to do something she runs away from us. The other day i told her it was time to have some milk and I was about to pick her up to sit her on the highchair and she escaped from my hands and ran in the opposite direction. She is expressing all her emotions. She has learnt to express love . She has learnt to kiss. She has been blowing flying kisses for a while now but day before yesterday when I asked her to give me a kiss in my cheek she did it. She touched my cheek and kissed and then she turned my face , touched my other cheek and kissed. How sweet. I was floored. It felt like I was on cloud 9. She has hugged me and has kissed before but now she knows what it is.

She now literally understands everything we speak it Kannada and partly English. So now I and Vaishakh have switched to Hindi when we don't want her to know or understand something . Soon we will have to start speaking in Sanskrit I guess as she will learn Hindi too :).

Reading a book at night has become her favourite part of the routine now and she looks forward to doing it everyday. She loves her bath too and we need to bribe her to get out of the bath. As soon as she is out of the bath she starts pointing in the direction of her books and starts asking for one. These are her pop up books from which animals pop up to her and she absolutely loves them. She gets so excited as we turn the pages. Though we have read those books numerous times yet every time she is excited.

And last but not the least is her new skill of dancing. I wonder where she has picked this up from. She watches a show on tv in which one of the characters dances. She has probably learnt from that. She puts her music on , on her music player and starts dancing and enjoys it. She has learnt some moves like turning around, moving her shoulders. Se looks very cute when she does that. Here is a link of her dancing .

http://youtu.be/JLEvj-8YegE

24 Januray 2013

Riya turned 13 months yesterday and what a shame I had forgotten about it. I have subscribed to a website who send me emails every month telling me about my baby's development. Only when I saw the email from them, I realised that it was the 23rd and Riya had turned 13 months. I have also not written in so long. Is it because I have not had time? I don't think so, I have just not been in the right frame of mind to write anything and enjoy it. It's been such a busy month with me getting back to work and trying to settle Riya at the nursery and with the nanny. Every week is a challenge. Though it's only 3 days I work, finishing those 3 days looks like a big task to me every week. It's been 4 weeks now and Riya's second week at the nursery.

I can't say Riya has settled well yet. I am sure it will take her a couple of more months to settle down and actually enjoy other's company. At the moment she cries a lot when dropped off at the nursery and I have left this tough job with daddy! I am not sure if I could do it. Not that it is easy for daddy though but he does it as he has no choice.  I try to sneak out before she wakes up but this week she has been very aware of me not being in bed. She wakes up as soon as I get out of bed and starts crying in her sleep. It's very hard to leave her crying like that and come to work. Yesterday it really got me thinking if what I was doing was right. I was doubtfull about my decision to get back to work.

But apart from all this hassle we still continue to have our dose of good times with Riya. She is now very interactive. She now has a new favourite rhyme 'Open , shut them, open shut them, give a little clap, clap, clap!  Open , shut them, open shut them put them in your lap,lap , lap for which she has learnt the actions and does it along with me. Another new skill she has learnt is dancing :). It might sound funny but she really does enjoy music. She moves her body front and back to go with the music beats when she is sitting down. She does that when I sing some rhymes to her as well. And to me all of a sudden she looks tall!

She kinda said her first sentence last week. She said 'orange juiceu ' or something that sounded like that :). She loves her fruit juices and Vaishakh was trying to get her to drink water telling her that it was orange juice. She took one sip and before the next sip she closed her mouth and shouted 'orange juice' :) making it very clear to us that she would drink it only if it was juice and not water ! She is very demanding these days. She uses her index finger to point out at anything she wants and if we don't give her the right think which she wants, she gets frustrated. She identifies a few animals like a dog, cat, rabbit, elephant and a tiger among her toys .

Riya attended her friend Meera's bday party last weekend and she enjoyed thouroughly. There was soft play and Riya had a lovely time playing. She happily walked around everywhere and looked like she was very proud of herself as she could walk around all on her own. She skipped her afternoon nap and played on until 4 when we left the party and within seconds on getting into the car she was fast asleep! Wonder how easy a kid's life is. Eat, drink , play and sleep . Yet it is so hard being a baby sometimes :).

9 Jan 2013

Riya is asleep in bed with daddy and am on my way to work. I planned to start early so that i can come back early but also partly because i cannot say goodbye to her and leave her at home. So i decided to sneak out when she is still in bed. It's a big day for her as its her first full day without me or Vaishakh with her. She will be at home with her nanny untill 5.30 in the evening. It is going to be very hard to concentrate at work.

Riya can now point to her nose, leg, hand and tummy and can also show you how to brush :). But she is soo moody that she does these only when she wants to do. She tries to do twinkle twinkle with her hands but she cannot open all the fingers together and close them on her own yet. It is soo cute when she tries to open all her fingers one after the other to do twinkle twinkle little star

She has now recovered fully from her cold, cough and fever and is back to being her normal self. Full of life and full of energy. Screaming at the top of her voice at home. I am so happy to see her like this. She was so excited to see Vaishakh back from yesterday for some reason that she laughed at whatever he did or said .

Riya had 3 bday parties this year and now is finally done with all the parties. The last one was on Sunday which went well. She enjoyed sitting on the bouncy castle while the older kids jumped on it. She was probably happy with the bouncing. But she didn't want to go to anybody who came to the party and wanted to stay with me or daddy all the time. When it was time to cut the cake she touched the cream and licked it :) and everybody laughed. She was very keen to touch the cake as it was her favourite character 'Minnie'. I only wished she was in the best of her health to enjoy the party but well we probably cannot plan everything with a kid around. Things are bound to change .