Showing posts with label Daycare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daycare. Show all posts

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Growing up really fast

There are so many different things that I have to write down here about Nishka and Anirudh since the last time I wrote. Nishka continues to amaze us with the new things she is learning. She is super active and wants to do everything that any of us is doing.

Her talking has improved a lot lately. Some of the words she says clearly are - Dadi, Daddy, Mumma, Chiya,  Nana and Daada. She tries to imitate the words we say and some words she is able to say exactly. But after saying them for a couple of times, she just refuses to repeat them again however much we try. For e.g. she said "good girl" for two whole days but however hard I tried later she ust wouldn't even utter it. Same happened with "Chalo", "Betu" and few other words. Some of the words she says sound similar to the original word. For e.g. diaper she says as 'dapa'.

I had been playing a game with her where I count her fingers and say one-two-three-four-five. And now whenever I start counting, the moment I have said the word "two" she says "thee" or "tee" and feels so happy after saying it. When we earlier used to ask her "Nishka kitnee badi?" she would just raise her hands over her head. But these days whenever we ask her the same question, she raises her hands and simultaneously says "ittee". Its just too adorable to watch her do that.

She walks more confidently now even though she falls down after 7-8 steps. I think she tries to walk too fast and that is why she falls. If she tries to walk a little slowly am sure she will be able to walk longer distance and not fall down.

She conveys what she wants to by making different sounds, whining or by other actions. For e.g. she is playing with Anirudh and I pick her up she would immediately push me back and start whining and I can understand she wants to go back to Anirudh and the moment I put her back, she is happy and playful again.

Other day she was making a lot of noise when I was trying to get Betu finish his homework. Since Anirudh was not able to focus, Anurag called out to Nishka and then put his fingers on his lips to shush her up. She looked at Anurag, immediately put her finger on her lips and shushed Anurag back. Me and Anirudh both just rolled over laughing looking at this. And I told Anurag that he has a tough road ahead :)

At the same time since about a month she has developed greater affinity with Anurag. She calls out to him, wants to go to him and showers him with her hugs and her trademark sunshine smiles. Its so precious to see both of them together playing and laughing and just being together.

But nothing beats the love/fondness she has for Anirudh. He wrestles with her, twists her, hangs her from her feet and she loves it while I get so damn scared lest she gets hurt. And when I get very uncomfortable with this wild play of theirs' I ask Anirudh to stop. But she immediately comes back to Anirudh and starts jumping over him to start it again.

She is very fond of flipping pages in a book. Be it her books or Anirudhs or for that matter any magazine. Her hair after mundan have grown but we feel they are growing at a very slow rate. I like to put those cloth hairbands but she just doesn't let us put any. She just pulls them out within seconds. We really have to distract her to some other things so that we can at least click a picture.

Nishka turned one on Sep 30th and we had organised a party. She was clinging to me most of the times but was not cranky or fussy and was giving her sunshine smile to all as long as she was in my lap. She enjoyed walking all over holding my hand and playing with the balloons. For the first time she even enjoyed the bits of chocolate cake that Anirudh fed her after cutting her cake. She was so excited during the birthday celebrations that even though she was sleepy she wouldn't sleep. Seems like she also wanted to fully enjoy her birthday celebrations :)

I've been wanting to get her off the bottle since about two months. But after trying about 1.5 months back I just stopped trying. But a day before her birthday i.e. on Sep 29, I again tried giving her milk using a small silver tumbler. She did fuss a bit but eventually drank it. I did a silent victory dance as it was too soon and I didn't want to jinx it. Later in the day also she did fuss looking at the milk in the glass but drank it. And since then there has been no milk bottle for her but only glass. Its been 5 days today and she still continues to fuss the moment she sees the glass of milk in my hand but I say "Nishka is such a good girl." and start singing her favourite rhymes and she starts drinking the milk. She doesn't finish the milk in one go and we need to give her a break of 10 min for her to finish the milk completely. But I'm glad the way it is progressing and glad that she is off bottle now.

Yesterday was Nishka's first day at daycare all by herself as her home nanny, who used to accompany Nishka to the daycare, is not well. In the morning Anirudh was so very worried as to how will Nishka be all alone. He tried really hard requesting me to take off from work but as I was not agreeing he started crying. I had a tough time consoling him and telling him that it will be fine (even though I knew it may not go fine and was a little apprehensive myself). I told him that even he went on his own and it takes a few days and it will be just fine. But as expected Nishka cried a lot in the first half. Was slightly better in the later half and was clinging to the head of the daycare in charge. And once Anirudh reached there after school she was better. Today her papa will drop her there at noon and I'm hoping things will be better today than they were yesterday.

Things have been improving with Anirudh with respect to his behaviour/attitude. He has also been doing better at school and there have been lesser spelling mistakes be it in Hindi or in English. His scores in tests have also improved even though me and Anurag both know that he can do much better if he is given better attention. And we tell him so too.

Although he doesn't say it but there are days when he feels I'm not giving attention to him as much as he wants. It shows in his behaviour. Sometimes I feel he also doesn't know why he is behaving irritated but I've observed many times that the moment I try and spend time with him, he gets fine.

Earlier packing lunch for Anirudh was never difficult. I used to have so many options. But now whenever I give him options of what I can pack for him, he will just say no or wrinkle his nose. Oh God...he makes me go crazy!! He will always demand stuff which is not possible. He used to love uttapam and now he hates it. He used to love omelets, now he abhors it. He used to love palak paranthas and now they are yuck. Uff!! I hope its a phase. I really really hope.



 

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The daycare to begin soon

We have to start the daycare for Nishka in the next 15 days. Its giving me jitters. She is 10 months young now and Anirudh was only 9 months when we started a daycare for him. But I'm still nervous.

I wonder about so many things. About her, about me.

How will she adjust? How much time will she take to adjust to the new environs? How it will change her schedules? How will it impact her emotionally? ..There are millions of questions/ thoughts going in my mind. Yes. So many questions even after having done it one time already. Despite the big difference this time that initially I will be sending Nishka's personal nanny (who takes care of her currently at home) to the daycare along with Nishka. So it wont be all strangers for Nishka. This will help Nishka gradually gel with other nannies at the daycare and then I will let go of her personal nanny. Also, Anirudh would be there with her in the same daycare after school.

Even then I'm getting cold feet thinking about this new phase in her life. Yeah..even then :(

Some things that I've to be prepared for
  1. Big bawling sessions when she is dropped at the daycare. :( :(
  2. Increased clingyness with me when she sees me around.
  3. With the increased interactions with external environs, increase in the risk of various infections.
  4. Increased stress at home as lot of things are being taken care of by the nanny when I'm at work currently. All that will fall back on me to handle now.
The logistics of drop and pick-up from the daycare is the most complicated. Since I go to work by my office transport, I will need to get the pick-up and drop points changed to the daycare. I will need to leave the house by 6:45 AM to the daycare, park my car there and leave for office in the cab,

Anurag will drop Nishka and Nanny to the daycare by 8:15AM. Anirudh will reach daycare in the afternoon by his school cab.

I will get dropped back at the daycare by 6 PM in the evening by my office transport. I will then pickup Nishka and Anirudh and drive back home using the car I had parked at the daycare early morning.

We will reach home around 6:45PM and then home tasks and attending to the kids will take all my time.

Gawd!! All this is making me so dizzy!! Will I be able to manage all this? And its not just about managing but managing good. Will I? I really wonder...

I'm desperately trying to look for a change in job where I've proximity/accessibility to the daycare but so far I've had no luck. I've been desperately looking for good work from home options as well but again no luck in this aspect. Keeping my fingers crossed for something good to turn up.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Celebrating the end of the summer camp..

I wonder if the celebration was because "Glad thats its over!" or was it because they felt "It went well!" :D

Anyhow, whatever be the reason, the function was pretty decent and all the kids were pretty excited. Anirudh and the gang of boys danced to song "Hare Ram Hare Ram" from the movie Bhool Bhullaiyya.

Here are some pics:


With his gang of boys! He is about 4-5 months older than the rest.


Dancing to the song!

The cutest part was when all these kiddies started to do twist during the bit of the pop portion of the song. It was so cute to see these little kiddies shaking their bums :)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Splash pool at his daycare!

Betu's daycare got this big splash pool constructed recently and today they kind of inaugurated it. The kids had a wonderful time in it . You can imagine the size of the pool by looking at that man sitting on the other end of the pool repairing the wall.

When yesterday night Betu told me that Neha Ma'm has asked to bring swimming dress and towel and they will go to the pool, I was kind of confused. Firstly I thought is he making this up? Coz I've not been informed by his daycare about this pool time. Secondly, even if it was true I knew there was no pool in the daycare. So it must be those inflatable pools. I SMSed his daycare supervisor to confirm and she did.

And today morning Hubby told me about a really nice pool that has been made up at his daycare and he saw it yesterday when he went to pick up Betu. Since its towards the backside of the daycare, we never even realised about it being constructed.

So today when I went to pick up Betu, I went and saw the pool. Isn't it so nice? I just hope they are able to maintain it well otherwise it will be such a waste!

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Hutch

Monday, August 6, 2007

His new playschool!

You realise how much your child loves going to his playschool when on Sunday morning he wakes up and says "Mumma, jaldi se brush-your-teeth karenge, fir nahai-nahai aur fir school jayenge!" And it gives such a relief that you have done a right thing, chosen a right school and a place where your child looks forward to going! What more can a parent ask for?

These are some pictures from his new playschool which he started going to from July'07 when his old playschool plus daycare closed down.


With his teacher (Center)


Looking at the animals chart!


With his Papa!


With his friend Prithvi!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

His first day at the new daycare!

He was happy, playing and eating a slice of cake (the non creamy ones) when we, myself and his papa, reached his new daycare to pick him up in the evening yesterday around 6 PM!

When he saw me coming he ran towards me and hugged me. When he was hugging me, he saw his Papa coming and Betu ran to him to hug him! After coming back from his papa, he opened his mouth wide to show me the cake that he had in this mouth which was his way of telling me he was having a cake! Seeing all this gave me such a big relief!

So on the way back, he's happily plopped in my lap and we are talking. This is how our conversation went:

Me : Aapne kya kiya new school mein?

Betu : Main Pithvi (Prithvi) ke saath khela.

Me : Aapne kya kya khaya?

Betu : Snacks

Me : Snacks mein kya tha?

Betu : Cake

Betu : Aap chale gaye the to main ro raha tha!

Me : aap roye the?

Betu : Haan! Main Mumma-Mumma bol raha tha.

Me : Aap big boy ho na? Rote nahi hain! Mumma shaam ko aati hai na betu ko lene?

Betu : Haan, main big boy hoon. Main nahi royungaa. Pithvi roya tha na ..woh mummy papa bol raha tha

Me : Prithvi roya tha isliye aap bhi roye the?

Betu : Haan. Fir didi ne bola chup ho jayo. Didi ne bola Mummy shaam ko aayegi!

Me : Ok Aapne khoob saara khela? Aapko mazaa aaya?

Betu : Haan.

His Papa : aapne ninni kari?

Betu : Haan kari thi.


Me : Aapko new school achha laga?

Betu : Haan! Achha hai!

And that was it! I needed nothing else to hear! Those were the only words that my ears were yearning to hear!

Monday, July 2, 2007

His new daycare started today...*sigh*....

Today morning we dropped Betu at his new daycare - The Oxford Kids. Somehow I was feeling so empty, so anxious leaving him at a totally new place with all new people.

And this is when he has been going to daycare since he was 9 months which is almost like since the past 2 years. So why am I feeling this way? I was up from 4 AM thinking about him going to the new daycare, thinking on what to send for his breakfast. Thinking on how he will adjust, will he cry, will he tell the new nannies when he needs to use the wash rooms, will he eat fine, will he sleep well....just about everything was worrying me.

I called up his new daycare an hour after leaving him and he was playing good. Another one of his friends from the previous daycare is also going to this new one so that's a big relief for both the set of parents that they have at least one familiar face in the crowd. When I called up this new daycare around 4PM, I got to know they have hired the 3 nannies from the previous daycare too! And that brought about so much relief to me! Now I'm just dying to meet him in the evening and hug him and cling to him. Hehehe..sounds so funny...instead of son clinging to mumma, its the other way round :D

But when I think on this behaviour of me, I feel so stupid. And I wonder how will I react/behave once he starts going to formal school. He will start nursery from next year. Anyhow, I not thinking that far as of yet. Right now I just want to see him!!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Yet another daycare!

It will be the 3rd ever since he started going to one since the age of 9 months. The first one was Kiddies Corner in Lajpat Nagar. After a stint of one year we shifted him to Pink Elephant in New Friends Colony. Reason for shifting was "Too many kids, too little space" which resulted in Betu catching infections quite often. And now just after about a year and few months at Pink Elephant, we need to look for another one. I would not have moved him from here at all if things were in my hands. The playschool and the daycare is closing down because of space issues. This was a rented place and the owner now wants it back. The management has not been able to find a place within its budget without increasing the costs for parents. We already were paying about 6K per month so I wonder what they would have increased it to. So they decide to close it down.

It was the perfect place we could look for. Be it the space, the facilities, the teachers..just about everything.

Anyhow, no point in thinking too much about it. We have already looked at 2 other options and now we need to decide which one to go for. One option is The Little Scholar and the other is Mother's Pride. Me and DH went today and saw both of them. We liked both. I was really amused with the bathrooms in one. They had washbasins built up for heights of toddlers. So if any adult would stand next to them, the heights of those basins would not even reach to our knees...maybe just halfway between knees and ankles! I found the idea so very cute and amusing!

Both these day cares are located quite close to each other and close to both our offices too. I guess a little more closer to my office than DHs. So by this weekend we need to decide on one and then take betu to the selected one on Saturday before he starts going there full time from Monday.

I've been trying to mentally prepare Betu by talking about a new school and new friends and as far as talking about it goes, all is well and he seems excited. Rest only time will tell.

Knowing his nature, I will give him about max 2 weeks to settle in there. Since he has been going to a daycare since he so small, I feel it won't take more than that. But also now that he's a big boy and has his share of likes and dislikes, I'm giving him that much space to settle down. I know for sure he will settle quite well.

I feel really proud of my son and thankful too when I look back when I started sending him at 9 months. If it was not for him, I would not be working as of now. If he had not adjusted in the daycare, things would have been totally different for us. Its not that I need to work to make ends meet. I need to work because I like to. I really appreciate mothers who quit working after having their child! Hats off to them. Staying home whole day and just managing the house will drive me nuts within a week. Managing the house is just not my cup of tea.

I would be lying if I just attribute it to the fact that "I like to work". We could easily do with extra money to give him a good lifestyle and good education and also to give us some pocket money for some of our whims and fancies :D. So basically its the need+want to work combined with need for money.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Joining back work and starting his daycare!

I had been on maternity leave from 1st week of March 2004 since my OBG had expected me to deliver around 1st week itself. But who knew betu had his own plans. So almost 1 month of maternity leave got wasted waiting for the D-Day.

By the time my maternity leave got over, betu was just about 2 months. As I had been working with this company since quite a long time I had accumulated about 40 days of leaves. So we decided that I will use them as well and join back work a month later. All got settled and my extended leave started.

This is the period when we started to try formula feed for betu since I would be joining work full time. From one feed a day for a week and gradually increasing it, betu did just fine and adopted to this other form of milk as well. Although I had to try many a shapes and brands of bottle nipples from Indian makes to imported before he settled on one. It was Avent and only Avent for him. Nothing else. DH used to say that betu doesn't settle with anything but the best! It was around 6-7th month that he started drinking from other shapes also.

Time passed and the day the came when I was to join back work. I was so nervous inside as I had never been away from him for more than an hour and a half. And here it was the question of 9 hrs. Somehow I went to work and got busy and everything settled fine. It must have been 2 hrs since I must have been in office when I heard a baby cry somewhere outside of our office. On hearing it I got so anxious and started to miss betu soo much that at one point I almost had tears in my eyes! I waited for lunch time as I used to come back home during lunch hour to feed him and also as I needed to relieve myself.

This went on for a month and then I spoke to my CTO saying if I could work half day from home and the second half from office. He understood my problem and agreed to this arrangement. I couldn't have asked for anything more. So this arrangement went on for 4 months till November when I decided that I should be working full time now as he had already started on other food items since long.

We started his diet other than milk when he was 4.5 months. We first started with daal and then with rice, banana when he was about 5.5 months and after 2-3 weeks we started his cerelac too. So many a things were added to his meals gradually like daliya khichdi, mashed potatoes, thin soup, suji upma although quite watery and what not. Whatever he liked, we gave. He was particularly not fond of sweets. So all tryouts for various meals for him were salt based.

Most of the times he was quite a good boy and would eat almost everything without making a fuss. And sometimes meal times would involve singing poems, songs and making voices of various animals and birds. That would distract his focus from the food and he would eat fine. When he grew older this method also would not work all the time and then I would put a cheeseling or a rice puff on every spoon of the meal. That used to amuse him a lot!

Till First week of January, we used to drop him off along with our full day maid at my SIL's place and in the evening we would pick him back. But by this time we had had a lot of problems with maids and their unplanned leaves that we decided to look for a daycare. After looking at 2 which were nearest to our house as well as work, we chose one that was walkable distance from my work.

Betu was 9 months and a week when we sent him to the daycare. It was a very tough decision for us to send him to place full of strangers. Handing over our baby to the unknown is not an easy thing. Myself and DH both felt that we had to be stronger at heart more than the child. He would get pacified after a few minutes of crying by playing with other children. For quite a long time everyday at the drop off time he would start crying. Probably crying is a softer word. He used to wail like crazy.

After about 2 months he got adjusted and the cryings would usually happen only on Monday's because of 2 day holiday of Saturday and Sunday. Everything went on smoothly till his ayah at the daycare left. She was quite a good lady and to quite a large extent our feeling satisfied was also because she used to take care of betu. We had built up great confidence in her.

So as things progressed we decided to change his daycare. And we changed it just a few days before he was to turn 2 years. The premises were much more spacious than the earlier one and since he was 2 yrs, we started his play school activities as well. Betu took about 10-15 days to settle down in this new place and then the time came when he would so happily jump off the car and wave us good bye when we used to drop him off at this daycare. Sometimes Monday's would not be as smooth again because of the gap of 2 days and little bit of crying used to happen. But nothing major for us to get disturbed about.

We could see remarkable change in his personality within the month of him joining playschool. That made us feel good that we had taken a good decision. A big relief and satisfaction for any parent I'm sure.