Ponytail on the head :-)

Badmashi ram

Nishka has been showing a lot of changes in her personaility and doing a lot of things since I last wrote.

She was able to sit up herself, but only sometimes, by early June 2012. But since mid of mid of June she can do it quite easily. And now we just cannot leave her on the bed on her own even for 10 seconds.

She still loves to stand and now can stand on the bed for a few seconds without holding onto anything. Till two days back we were guessing that she will start walking by the time she turns 10 months. But since yesterday she has suddenly started crawling. Frankly crawling would not be an apt name. She does it so fast as if she is simply running on her knees.

She has become such a halla-ram. She just can't sit still at all...always trying to lurch, grab, stand and making loud noises. A new game that we have started is we will show her our palm and say "Taali...taali" (Clap..clap) and she will start clapping her hand on our hand. The smile on her face at such times is super precious.

She still doesn't have any teeth yet but looks like we may see some soon as she has suddenly started chewing her fingers all the time and drools so much.

A big change in her is that she has started throwing tantrums lately.  She throws her legs in anger. For e.g. I lay her down when she wants me to be in my godi, the "pair patakna" starts. If she wants my mobile and I do not give it to her, again the pair patakna starts. So you get the drift? I really wonder what's in store for me when she grows up more. Anirudh was such a sweet and calm baby compared to Nishka who is such a chulbuli badmashi ram.

She cries in such a heartbroken manner and with BIG tears if I pass by her and dont pick her up. So much so that there are times when her Dadu comes running to see if she has got hurt to be crying in such a manner and then he laughs when he figures out the reason.

Anirudh plays with her by making funny sounds and faces. He dances and sings for her and she laughs so much. He plays 'roll the ball' using his big basket ball with her and she loves it.

After meeting Avani in Bangalore a fortnight ago, Anirudh keeps saying "Avani kitni pyaree hai..kitni shaant hai. Nishka kitni badmash hai!"

Anirudh has suddenly matured a lot in these few months. The way he talks, the way he demands justification to whatever we are saying...its amazing but also gets a bit annoying especially when we can't reason with him...hehehehe...

He wanted us to buy an iPad for him. So after some discussions on why we cannot buy it, we both agreed that he will save his pocket money (Rs 500 every month) for 20K and the rest we will contribute. And now he calculates and adds up the money at the beginning of every month and also whenever he gets any money from relatives.

We also started another rule where any unreasonable demand for anything has to be paid from his pocket money. For e.g. he wants 2-3 things. We buy him one and the rest has to be bought using his pocket money. So since the money will go from his savings, he doesn't get stubborn about asking for them. Some concept of value of money is getting imbibed this way even though its limited to 'his' money :D

He has figured out how to browse for his toys and games and keeps telling me how much a Wii game CD is costing or how much a toy is available for. And if there is a discount advertised.

Its interesting to talk to him on an adult-to-adult level at times. And then it makes me realise this is my little bachha who has grown up so much.

First air trip

Nishka went for her first air trip on June 9, 2012. We went to Bangalore to celebrate the housewarming puja hosted by her Chachi-Chachu.

On the way she was a perfect angel sleeping throughout and waking up only in the last 15 min of the flight. 

She met her cousin Avani after 8 months and it was very interesting to see them together. They both looked at each other for long, maybe a little amused to see someone of their own size. And sometimes they would try and grab each other. They even fought over the mobile phone as both wanted to play with the same one :) Overall it was really cute to see them playing together.

We dressed them both in identical dresses on the housewarming puja day. They both looked really adorable. While Avani has a very sweet, gentle and soft appearance, Nishka on the other hand is totally chulbuli and badmash. It was so difficult to click them because of Nishka. When I sat them both on the couch to click, Avani sat calmly while Nishka kept leaping forward or turning sideways. So I had to further recline her down lest she sits up and that I can click a pic of them together.

She was very clingy to me all the time in Bangalore. And wouldn't go to anyone. On the flight back she was in a super active mode and was trying to hold and pull everything and anything she could lay her hands on. The below pictures are a mini snapshot of what badmashi-ram she was.

Anirudh started running fever the night before our travel. We had to continuously do sponging to bring his fever down. Anurag had returned from his Myanmar trip just a few hours back and was really tired. But neither he nor I could sleep. We anyways had to get up at 4 AM to catch our morning flight. His first two days there were spent mostly in bed and its on the third day that he was finally fine.

So on the whole a short but good trip.

She is growing and so is Anirudh

Its been sometime since I blogged about the activities of Nishka. And lest I forget I decided to write today.

Nishka turned 8 months on May 30. She is a very active baby *touch wood*. She loves to snatch/grab any book that Anirudh is reading. There are times when it gets tough to help out Anirudh in his homework when Nishka is awake and nearby. She will lurch forward and grab whatever she can lay her hands on.

She can sit quite properly now although at the beginning of 7th month, whenever she would look up or turn around she would go *dhammu* and wail with big beady tears. And with her pouty style of crying she would look even more cute. She is still not showing any inclination to crawl and me and hubby and for that matter everyone else also thinks that she will proceed to walking straightway. She will hold onto anything that she can find and will stand up. She loves to stand holding the foot of our bed and can cruise couple of steps to the right and back.

She is still to sprout any teeth. Her Dadi-Dadu are a little apprehensive as her 4 days younger cousin Avani has already sprouted 2 lower teeth. Although we keep telling them every kid has their own time lines and they seem to accept but I feel that they are still not at peace inside about it.

I still get those sloppy wet kisses when I get back home. She will initially hug me tight the moment I hold her. And then she pulls herself back, as if to check its mumma only, and then will give a big grin and again hug me tight. This goes on for couple of times and then the kissing starts. She will just eat my jaw, my cheek or my chin. And this is exactly how Anirudh used to do too. This whole showing-love act lasts for good 5-7 min. And I just cannot lay her down on the bed even to go to the loo or drink a glass of water.

If she is in my lap and am drinking water or the plain salted nimbu paani, she will want to drink it too. And I do give it to her. Can you imagine she likes to drink the salted nimbu paani which is fairly khatta? I was surprised when after giving her a sip she wanted more. And in fact finished almost 1/5th of the nimbu paani the first time and continues to do so.

Lately I've noticed that if I want her to eat the salty stuff it has to be nicely warm else she spits it out. So feeding her khichdi is not as painful affair as it was earlier. We had introduced Cerelac for her but she took it only for a month and then has stopped eating it completely. We can't even feed her two spoons of that and there are days when not even one spoon goes in her mouth. So these days I've stopped giving her Cerelac but am thinking of trying again as its been about a fortnight since we tried feeding her that.

She really enjoys throwing toys from her high chair and then looking down at them. I wonder what goes on in her mind at that moment. She still loves to play the bouncing games where she will sit on my leg and keep jumping up and down making different sounds. We play peek-a-boo games where I cover her eyes with a small cloth napkin and she will take it away and give a big smile.

If she is lying in my lap she will push her feet and lean backwards. She can do that continuously for 10-15 min. And that's when I say "Haan nonu. Duniya ulti hai..to usko seedha dekhne ke liye tumhe bhi ulta hona padta hai!" (Yes the word is upside down..so to see it straight you also have to turn upside down).

She has started making a lot many more sounds. These sounds are "De..de..de.", "taay...taay..taay..", "aye-te...aye-te". She makes another sound which sounds almost like gargling sound. And we all just love it.

She loves to climb over Anirudh and seeing them play is just so heart warming. He will let her pull his hair, pinch his cheeks as long as she doesn't wet him with her drool. The moment he can feel any drool he will just run away saying "yuck" :D

We sometimes play "Catch me if you can" with me holding Nishka and trying to catch Anirudh while running softly. Nishka simply LOVES it. She will giggle and laugh so much when we play this game.

Anirudh keeps giving those full-of-love glances at Nishka and telling me "Yeh kitni cute hai na!" and will go and give her a tight kichhi (kiss) if she is awake and she will also try to hug him back by trying to wrap her arms around whatever body part she can hold on to :)

Betu also comes running to give me a hug and a kiss when I come back home but then its more of a 'task' that gets done :P reason I'm saying that is he will come running, give me a hug and a kiss and then run back to doing whatever he was doing.

He still likes me to snuggle with him when its his bed time and wants me to tell him a story. He will specifically ask me "Apni waali kahani sunayo...book waali nahi". I usually make my own stories right there and then after asking him 1-2 characters around whom the story should revolve. He loves hearing me weaving new stories every time. And these are the moments that make me realise he is still a 8 yr old and not a 18 yr old which he usually behaves as.

We introduced Anirudh to "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney since approx 3-4 months and he loves reading them. So much so that he finishes a book in 3-4 days max. and then he starts demanding for another one. I'm trying to introduce him to Famous Five series by Enid Blyton which we loved as kids. But so far he hasn't liked it much. But I'm still trying to get him to read that. Let's see how much I succeed.

We have to travel to Bangalore this weekend. First air trip for Nishka and I'm hoping she is fine through the flight. She will also get to meet her cousin Avani. I am so curious to see her reaction to see someone her own size :D

At her 7.5 month appointment she weighted 7.5KG. Doc wants us to increase more nutrients in her diet by way of improved diet. We are trying to do that. Lets see how her 9th month appointment at the end of the month goes.

Got Nishka's ear pierced

I have been thinking of when to get her ear pierced for long. I had figured out that post tetanus shot its fine to get the ears pierced. However after a lot of deliberation we decided we will get them pierced as soon as possible. She turned 8 months on May 30 and on Saturday June 2, we went and got them pierced. We got them pierced at GK1 at the shop Silofer. He used a gold thread which had a gold bead head which is basically an earring too.

She cried for only 4-5mins and was ok later on. She is looking really cute with those earrings. Haven't clicked a picture yet so that would be another post.