She is one helluva girl!

Each day there are so many incidents that make me roll over in laughter and muse me with this girl. She is just too too...beyond words.

Incident 1

I called up the daycare a day ago to ask them to ensure that she doesn't sleep for more than one hour because she doesn't sleep until 10 in the night. So the daycare supervisor spoke to Nishka asking her "Tum raat ko time se soti kyun nahi ho?" (Why don't you sleep on time at night?).

And I was told that she thought for few seconds and responded "Papa Mummy kaam karte hain. Mainse kaise soyoon?" (Papa-Mummy work at night. How do I sleep?). All the people in the daycare were in splits laughing at her statement.

Incident 2

Nishka bosses around the house a lot on everyone. Especially on Anirudh. She fights with him on anything and everything try to get things her way. Poor Anirudh has such a tough time trying to peacefully play with his own toys or read his own books. So much so that Anirudh has to really ensure that she is nowhere around to cuddle with me. One day the anger at both sides (Anirudh and Nishka) became to much that Anirudh shouted at Nishka saying "Tere ko pata hai tu meri wajah se aayi hai is duniya mein. Agar main nahi bolta na papa-mummy se mujhe ek chhota bhai-bahen chahiye to tu nahi hoti." (You are in this work because of me. If I hadn't asked them for a baby sister-brother, you wouldn't have been here) And he walks off angrily.

Hearing this made me smile. I wanted to say something to Anirudh but then I stopped. Some things are better left unsaid.

Incident 3

Nishka has a big fascination with the fridge. The moment she figures out someone has opened the fridge she has to run and peep inside the fridge and try to even grab something out of it irrespective of whether its of use to her or not. It was like a treasure found and she would try and run away with it lest anyone takes it back from her. t

Few days ago our cook was putting something in the fridge and Nishka as always ran over and was observing her putting something in the fridge. Nishka pushed herself in between the cook and the fridge, re-adjusted the stuff that the cook had put and said "Isko aise nahi rakhte. Aise rakhte hain. OK?" (This is not how you put it. You put it this way.) And then closed the door herself. Our cook looked at me and we just smiled looking at this little dadi-amma giving out instructions.


 

My adorable bachhas

Anirudh had participated in National Science Olympiad and National Maths Olympiad this year. Although he didn't do well in the maths one but apparently he did pretty good in the science one and thus got selected for the Level 2 exam. He studied hard for the level 2 or rather I made him study hard for it and going by his word it was pretty easy. Now its a wait and watch for us to figure out how his scores are.

About 3-4 weeks back, there was a live Ben 10 show happening in Siri Fort Auditorium which Anirudh wanted to go to. So mommy betu duo went for the show. I used to watch this cartoon series with him earlier but haven't watched it since 2-3 years. So many characters have changed and been added.

During the show I kept asking him questions - Who is that? Is that character good or bad? What powers does this one have? etc etc. After the show got over on the way back he tells me thank god the show didn't have all the other characters also. Else you would have kept asking me "Who is that? What is that?" about each an every character.

On the way back home Anirudh noticed the sign "Use Dipper at Night" at the back of a truck, misreads Dipper as Diaper, and asks "Why are they asking us to use Diaper at night?" :D

It took me a few seconds to realise his folly and I had such a good laugh. I later explained to him what the word was and its meaning.

Nishka is growing up real fast. I was talking to her Preeti Mausi the other day and I told her how she has become a miniature adult conveying her likes and dislikes, her thoughts, her demands all in her own style. She is yet to turn 18 months and since a week she has been clearly showing he preferences for clothes she wants to wear. When I was dressing her up after her bath yesterday and was trying to put her clothes on, she did not even wait for me to pick the t-shirt I had intended to maker her wear and instead lurched for another one lying close by and tried to wear it on her own. I tried to take that tshirt from her hands but she just wouldn't allow. Finally I had to put on the t-shirt she wanted to wear. And showing her preference is not limited just to clothes. She choses which shoes to wear too.

We had introduced Nishka to crayons about two weeks back and she loves scribbling with it on paper. She has already scribbled on the walls with pencil. I have downloaded a coloring app for kids on iPad few days back and she just loves it. The moment she spots the iPad she says "De do.." and wants me to open her coloring app. She thoroughly enjoys how colored lines appear on the screen when she touches it.

Her vocabulary is increasing by the data. She tries to repeat what we say like a little parrot and is successful 80% of the times.

Things she says on her own are -
 - De do
 - Chee-ye for chahiye - when asking something to be given to her
 - Duddhu for milk
 - Khaya (when hungry)
 - koo for School when we tell her Bhaiiya School gaya
 - Hato - will push me around to go
 - Ch-O for Chalo
 - Soyee - for sorry
 - iPad chaiye
 - Ninna - when she is sleepy
 - Khicchi
 - Paantha for parantha
 - Chao - for chawal (rice)

She wished her Dadu "Happy to you" 2 days back making Dadu very elated. And more so when I told him that you are the first person she has ever wished on birthday.

She cannot pronounce R, L and N in certain words. For e.g. she says No, Nahai (for wanting to take bath) but when she has to say pani (water) she will say pa-yee. She recognises hot things and immediately says "Hot hai!" on touching warm or hot things. I was trying to teach her to say Ram-Ram and she always says it as kao-kao..it really makes me laugh and wonder how can ram-ram be same as kao-kao?

She can take bath n number of times in a day. And I'm sure I will also not worry even if she does when the summers are here. But as of now I've to ensure that the bathroom doors are closed rightly as I have found her few times in the bath area with her being half drenched in water.

She is becoming a handful but then seeing both my bachhas cuddling and doing masti together gives me such happiness that cannot be ever described in words.

Some anecdotes

I was trying to put Nishka to bed and patting her. She sits up after about a minute and starts patting me back saying "Ninni...ninni.."

Role reversal?? Abhi se?

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While Anirudh was working on his homework, Nishka took away one pencil and scribbled on the wall much to my shock. I scolded her for doing that. And in return got a big scolding back from Anirudh for scolding such a little baby saying "She is so small. How will she know she is not supposed to do that?" And took Nishka away carrying her in his arms and gave her a rough paper and sat with her while she scribbled.

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Nishka took apart the little cubes from Anirudh's Rubik Cube one night after Anirudh had gone to bed. Next day Anirudh noticed one cube piece lying near his bed and said "Koi baat nahi. Main isko jodh doonga." (Nothing to worry. I can fix this piece back.)

When I told him that all the other pieces have also been taken apart like this, he had a totally bewildered look on his face and asked me who did that? When I told him your lil sister and I didn't scold her as you don't like me to, his first reaction "Where did she get so much strength from?"

And the second reaction, "Nishka - this is coming out of your pocket money when you grow up!"

My reaction - Good that they can sort out issues like these between themselves :D
 

Bha-ee-ya is back & talking nineteen to the dozen

Two days ago Anirudh came back after spending good 17 days of his winter break at Dadi-Dadu's house and Nishka was sooo super happy to see him back. She kept following him everywhere calling out "bha-ee-ya". She would love it when he would carry her in his godi. She actually missed him a lot when he was gone. Every time the doorbell would ring she would ask "Bha-ee-ya?". She would look around for him calling out "bha-ee-ya" all over the house many times a day.

Anirudh too was so happy to see her. The moment he arrived, he ran straight to the washbasin to wash his hands so that he can pick her up and play with her. During his stay with his grandparents, they asked him if they can get his admission done in Jaipur itself so that he can stay there with them. His instant response was "Nishka ko bhi yahan bula lo fir main bhi yahin rah jayunga." (Bring Nishka also here and then I only I will stay here). Today morning when he woke up to get ready for school, Nishka was sleeping. Anirudh just wanted to wake her up and play with her before he left for school. I had such a tough time ensuring he doesn't do that because if he had woken her up all my morning chores would not get completed :)

Frankly, although I was happy that he was having a good time in Jaipur with his grandparents and his cousins but I had started missing him too after 10 days. I so wanted to cuddle with him, talk to him, hug him. Since two days of his arrival he is sleeping next to me with his arms wrapped around me. And I tell myself - "My baby is back!"

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, Nishka is talking nineteen to the dozen. Sometimes you can figure out what she is trying to say and sometimes you have to guess. She is at a stage when she is able to copy the sound of the words and repeat them after us.

Our cook always says "Namaste!" with folded hands to Nishka whenever she comes. Nishka would give a big smile to her every time and after couple of days Nishka would also fold her hands and say "atte" to the cook the moment she saw her.

Bhaiyya would be pronounced as bheeya earlier but now its very clear bha-ee-ya.

She is super fond of "Chiya". The moment she hears one she would look in the direction the sound came from and start saying "chiya". You can distract her from anything by just saying the word "Chiya".

Other words that she says on her own are:

• Aana - Chanda (Moon)
• Jhoo-aa - Jhula/Swing
• Paantha - Parantha
• Nahai-Nahai - for wanting to take bath
• Ko-hai - "Kaun hai" (Who is there) whenever the doorbell rings.
• Gi gaya - Gir gaya (It has fallen down)
• Duddhu - for asking for milk
• Tuttu - For saying something broke

Currently, the fascination with moon is so much that she wants us to show it to her even during day time. And we have to tell her "Chanda ninni karne gaya" (Moon has gone to sleep),

"Paantha" is always the response we hear if we ask her if she is hungry and wants to eat anything.

"Gir gaya" is used even if something fell down by chance or if she has thrown it deliberately. She uses it even when she means "Kho gaya" (something is lost).

She has now observed and learned the names me and hubby call out to each other. So she will call out to me as "Nidhi" and to hubby as "Anu" :)

Whenever her Papa comes home he has this habit of saying "How do you do?" to her. And now like a little parrot she has started saying "How do do?" to her Papa dear the moment she lays her eyes on him. On weekends its good 30-40 times in a day when she asks him that. It sounds so super adorable!!

She loves music and starts swaying/dancing to the music she likes. One of her favourite songs these days is "Disco deewane". The cutest part is when she says "ahaa" at the right junctures.

Her favourite games are not the toys we give her but opening the drawers of the kitchen and taking out the various bottles of spices, plates or spoons...anything she can lay her hand on and leaving them in places which we figure out only after a day or two of them being missing.

Totally badmash but totally adorable bachha she is!

 

A long overdue post

Its been 2 months since the last update I wrote here on what all the kids are up to. And when I think back its LOADS. It will probably take 2 posts to encapsulate all.

Since Nishka had started walking before her first birthday, I had been indulging in making her wear ethnic wear. On Dussera she wore a pretty salwar kurta which she got as a gift on her birthday. I treated the Diwali as it was first one for her. She was just 20 days young on her actual first Diwali. I very enthusiastically bought a lahenga-choli for her and matching bangles to wear on Diwali. She looked super cute walking around in it. She had such fun shaking her wrists to hear the sound of bangles clinking. Soon after the bangles were all over the house.

She loves to see Bhaiyya and Papa play Wii. Whenever they are playing she will go and sit in Papa's lap. And if Papa dear has started playing without her in his lap, she will go and stand next to him continuously making "Uuun..uunn.." sound till Papa pauses the game and picks her up to sit her in the lap. She loves it so much so that once Anirudh was playing a solo game she still went ahead and sat in Papa's gogi with her eyes on the TV screen :)

In December 3rd week I went to Houston, TX on a office trip for a week. I was a little apprehensive as this was the first time I would be leaving her for so many days. I had never left her even for one night and here I had to for good 7 days. But thankfully she was a total angel. She would get a little sad and quiet sometimes but overall she did just fine. Her Dadi-Dadu had come over to help out in taking care of kids in my absence. Anirudh also behaved quite responsibly. He would not fuss when waking up or getting ready to school. He would do skype with me often. And they would secretly show me Nishka in the skype so that she doesn't see me as a possible outburst could have happened on seeing Mumma.

But as much as an angel she was then, she has become a total pain since past two weeks when it comes to night time sleep. Earlier she would easily sleep by 8 PM or max by 8:30 without any fuss. And now she would be super sleepy but continue fussing and whining and doesn't sleep before 9:30-10 PM. And even then she doesn't sleep peacefully. After every 2 hours or so she will start getting uneasy, tossing, turning and whining. Will want milk and then want to poop. So since two weeks both mine and Anurag's sleep has totally gone for a toss.

My guess is that she probably thinks Mumma will go away again if she sleeps. I may be wrong. I really hope I'm wrong and that its just a phase.

The one good thing that came out of this trip was that she was weaned off without any trouble :)

Nishka is also about 75-80% potty trained. I had bought a potty ring and had started seating her on the pot since mid November. Since I observed her morning routine of doing the big job after her morning milk, I tried it. We were successful in using the potty in the mornings. It took about another two weeks before she started telling herself after doing it in the diaper and another week to start saying "potty aayee". And recently she even tells us "potty aayee" when she needs to pee. But this week I feel she is going back to not being trained when she is telling us "potty aayee" only after doing the job and sometimes not even telling. I just hope this is just a phase and she progresses on her potty training.

She has now started talking nineteen to the dozen these days but that calls for another post!
 

Tid-bits from the past month

Anirudh has been after my case for losing weight since the past few months. And now he even cracks jokes on me relating to my weight and my paunch. Here are two anecdotes as a proof -

There were two cars parked next to each other in front of the relatives house we were visiting. I looked at both sides of the cars trying to see which side should I use to go inside the house as Nishka was in my arms.

Looking at my dilemma Anirudh says "Aap to kahin se bhi fit nahi aayogi!" (You will not fit from either of the sides) and ran away laughing leaving me fuming.

Another incident was when one day I was lying in a posture that was making my tummy/belly protrude quite a bit. So he comes and starts caressing and talking to it as if there is a baby inside still. I actually spanked him for that :)

He is becoming such a tease these days..uff!!

Coming to Nishka, she has been walking quite comfortably since a few days past her birthday. And she is loving it so much that if she is awake, you will see her walking around the whole house all the time. It does get a bit tiring keeping an eye on her lest she gets herself in trouble.

One funny thing is that when she has to get in or get out of the kitchen, she crawls out instead of walking. And this is because the kitchen floor is about half an inch lower than the rest of the floor outside it. And we all laugh as if she is climbing down/up a big step :)

She is also completely comfortable drinking milk from glass. Its been more than a month since we weaned off the bottle and minus the initial hiccups in the first week, it has been a smooth sailing.

Its really fun watching her talk. The expressions on her face, the movement of hands, the intonations...everything is just so precious. Both me and hubby feel that she is going to be a big chatterbox.

Recently I started singing few nursery rhymes with her and she has picked up some words and actions for each of them. So when I sing the "Johhny Johnny! Yes Papa!" rhyme, she will say "Ha! hah!" after the lines "Open your mouth..."

She makes twinkling action using her fingers when we sing "Twinkle twinkle little star..." and even says "Up" after we've sung the line "How I wonder what you are..".

She loves to sing "Eeya eeya o" from the rhyme "Old McDonald's had a farm.."

But for all this she has to be in the mood. Coz if she isn't, how much you coax her she just won't say all these stuff.

Some of the other stuff she has learnt is kissing. Or shall I call it licking? :D The reason being whenever I ask her to give puchha or pyari kar do, she licks us :D

She has also learnt to do flying kiss. But its a little messy flying kiss because she kind of blows out her drool along with the kiss. Anirudh especially runs away whenever she does that as he finds it really 'ewww'.

I'm trying to introduce her to veggies in her food these days. I had been making her khichdi with carrot, lauki and green beans for sometime now. Also introduced her to palak and methi paranthas besides the aloo ones now that its the season for fresh methi and palak. One day made her taste soya nuggets and she ate that too with interest.

Cheerios has been her favourite snack for a long time now but recently I gave her wheat coconut cookies from a bakery nearby and she enjoys eating those too on her own.

But despite adding more of home-cooked fresh and nutritious stuff, she still is loosing the baby chubbiness that she used to have. I guess its because of her being too active and walking around a lot. There are times I wonder if she ever gets tired with the amount of walking she does.

A picture post

Sep 8: Bhaiyyu saath masti

Sep 8: "Mujhse panga mat lena!"

 

Sep 8: Bhaiyyu saath piggy back ride

Sep 9: Counting fingers

Sep 9: "Aise count karte hain!" 

 

Sep 9: Wrestling in progress

She has to have whatever you are drinking/eating.

Sep 16: "My happy babies!"

Sep 23: Pouting and crying because Bhaiyyu scolded her.

Sep 24: Sweetie pie

Sep 29: Enjoying sitting on the terrace at 6 AM.

Sep 30: Birthday girl

Sep 30: Nishku-Nanu

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.



 

Keeping us on our toes

It really feels time is flying when I realise how soon she will turn 1. This tiny little munchkin who was not even a foot long when born is growing nice and good *touch wood* and becoming so bratty and difficult to hold her at one place. But the moment she flashes that beautiful smile of hers, we all forget about her badmashi's and how much she keeps us on our toes.

She has learnt how to climb off the bed now and that makes us keeps our antennas up all the time. She can walk but prefers to walk on the bed rather than the floor. My calculations say that she understands bums get hurt less when falling on the bed compared to falling on the floor and thus inclination to walk on floor has reduced.

We used to play a game with Anirudh when he was about 9-10 months and ask him "Anirudh kitna bada?" and he would raise his hands over his head. I started playing this game with Nishka also and since about a month she also has understood it and when we say "Nishka Kintee badi?" she gets a big smile on her face and then raises her hands above her head and we say "Itnee badee".

There are three fishes hanging from the crib mobile on her bed. I would take out one fish and give it to her saying "Fishy!" whenever it was diaper changing time to distract her. Its becoming next to impossible keeping her from wriggling out whenever we need to change her diapers or clothes. She now recognises the word "Fishy" and now when I ask her "Fishy kahan ha?" she will immediately turn her head towards the crib and give out a big smile the moment she spots them. Once I asked her the question when we were in another room. She looked around the room and when couldn't find the Fishy, gave me such a bewildered look that I had a hearty laugh.

After I told Anirudh that Aryan now sleeps in his own room in his bunk bed, he got really inspired I guess and has now moved to the other room and sleeps there. So its been 8 days and its going all well. So far only twice he has come to our room in the middle of the night as he had a nightmare. Also, another drastic change that has happened is that he doesn't even want any cuddling before going to bed like he used to. He eats his dinner and if there is time, we all sit and chat and the moment he realises its his bed time (around 8:30 PM) he says "Good Night!" to us and retires in his bedroom. He feels very happy about sleeping on his own in his room and wants us to commend this big achievement.

One new thing that I've started noticing is that he has become over sensitive. You try explaining him something and he gets irritated and offended. Most of the times he behaves in a "I-know-it-all!" manner. It gets to me sometimes and there are times when i just hold myself back and let him be.

On Sunday, while playing with Nishka he growled so loudly that Nishka got scared and started crying. So I scolded him for that and pretended to give him spanking. He didn't like that at all and for the first time he was angry at Nishka and me because of Nishka. He was so angry that he said I will not play with her or do anything with her any more. He told me that he gets scolded because of Nishka all the time and he hates that! And he said a lot of other stuff also which was totally unreasonable. But I let him be unreasonable for once. Later when he had cooled down and I teased him about what all he had said, he asked me to forget all that and that he was just angry. So things have resumed to normalcy now :)

Nishka also got her first big injury on Sunday. She was standing holding on to a side table and god knows how she slipped and hit her head on it. Since I was right there I picked her up immediately and started rubbing her forehead assuming she must have hurt herself there. If you have noticed how babies cry..with no sound coming, no breathing..just a teary soundless wailing expression on their face for couple of seconds ..that's how it was for initial 5-7 seconds. Which is longer than the usual 2-3 seconds that happens making me realise that she had hurt herself bad and then I notice the red mark near her right eyebrow and realised that she had nicked herself there. I got scared initially too and immediately gave her Arnica and applied Ferrum Phos at the wound. We could see few drops of blood had come out making me even more worried. But in about 5 minutes she dozed off after crying her heart out. She was anyways sleepy and I had been trying to put her to bed for long. She was her usual playful self when she woke up. And nb next day morning, when the medicine rubbed off from the wound, I saw that the nick was not as bad as I had initially thought it was. So that gave me and hubby  a big relief.

But that doesn't stop her from continuing her badmashis. She always seems to be on the prowl for finding new ways to get hurt. And keeping Mumma-Papa on their toes.

 

Prospective Olympic winner at our home

At dinner table yesterday we all were discussing India's performance in the Olympics and the medals won by our athletes. All this while Anirudh was quietly eating and I assumed that he was not listening. But then looks like he was and that too quiet intently.

He chipped in - "Agar naughtiness ka koi event hota to Nishka usme teeno medals jeet kar aati!" :D

Story telling

Anirudh participated in story telling competition in his school and came back super happy after coming in the 2nd position.

He had told me a week before about the competition and the story he plans to narrate. He then asked me to help him out in making the props of the characters in the story. After deciding that we shall get to it sometime later in the day, we both totally forgot about it until the evening before the competition.

So after finishing the dinner and putting Nishka to bed we got down to it. Thankfully Nishka was so co-operative that she went to sleep without a fuss that day.

So out came the white sheets, after some searching though. Out came the crayons, the pencil, the scissors. I drew out the outlines of the chracaters using pencil - A king and his three princes.

I then emphasized the outlines using a black sketch pen. As I kept completing one character I would pass it on to Anirudh for coloring them up.

We also needed to draw a dragon but I wasn't confident to draw it freehand. So I asked hubby to trace it on an A4 sheet using his laptop which we then pasted on the thicker sheet and then carried on to repeat the steps of outlining and coloring.

After all the coloring was done, we got down to cutting them to their shapes and then pasted ice cream sticks for holding the props during the story narration. I was surprised that we finished the whole of the activities in just about 40-45 minutes. That's a feat in itself!

I forgot to take pictures after we had done making the props and when Betu returned he had lost the props for one prince and the dragon. So here is the pic of what he brought back -

Since these were all drawn freehand, the shapes of face/eyes etc. may please be ignored.
I also want to capture here the story which he narrated  -

एक राजा था| उसके तीन बेटे थे - तरुण, वरुण और अरुण | तीनो बेटे बहुत आलसी थे| वो कुछ काम नही करते थे| सारा दिन बस सोते रहते थे| राजा ने एक दिन तीनो बेटो को बुलाया और कहा "कल मेरा ज्न्म दिन है| मैं तुम तीनो को रू100 देता हूँ और तुम लोग जाकर मेरे लिए एक तोहफ़ा लायो| तुम्हारे पास 1 दिन का समय हॅ|

तीनो बेटे चल दिए राजा के लिए तोहफ़ा लाने | तरुण जगह जगह घूमा. यहाँ गया. वहाँ गया | बहुत घूमने के बाद उसको एक कलाकार मिला | उसने बहुत सुंदर चित्र बनाए हुए थे | तरुण ने सोचा की राजा को यह खूबसूरत चित्र बहुत पसंद आएँगे | उसने सारे चित्र खरीद लिए और वापस महल की ओर चल दिया |

वरुण भी खूब इधर उधर घूमा पर उसको कुच्छ समझ नही आया. घूमते घूमते वो जंगल पहुँच गया. उसने वहाँ एक गुफा देखी. उसने देखा गुफा में कुछ चमक रहा है. वो गुफा के अंदर गया तो उसने देखा एक बहुत बड़ा ड्रॅगन बैठा है जिसके सिर पर एक बहुत बड़ा चमकदार मोती है. वरुण ने ड्रॅगन से पूछा "क्या तुम मुझे अपना यह मोती दोगे? मैं यह अपने पापा तो तोहफ़े में देना चाहता हूँ." तो ड्रॅगन बोला "अगर तुम यह वादा करो की तुम मुझे रोज़ मछली ला कर दोगे तो मैं यह मोती तुम्हे दे दूँगा." वरुण ने वादा करा और उसे मछली ला कर दे दी और ड्रॅगन ने अपना मोती उसको दे दिया. वरुण खुशी खुशी महल की ओर चल दिया.

अरुण भी अपने भाईयों की तरह इधर उधर खूब भटका पर उसे कुछ भी पसंद नही आया जिसे वो अपने पापा को जन्मदिन पर दे सके. घूमते घूमते वो इतना थाक गया की एक पेड़ के नीचे जा कर सो गया. जब वो सो कर उठा तो उसने देखा पास में कुच्छ ग़रीब बच्चे बैठे थे. वोह बहुत भूखे थे. अरुण ने अपने पैसो से उनके लिए खाना और कपड़े खरीद दिए. बच्चे बहुत खुश हुए. और अरुण वापस महल की ओर जाने लगा.

यह सब राजा के सिपाहियों ने देखा लिया और महल पहुँच कर राजा को सब बता दिया |

अगले दिन जब तीनो बेटे राजा के सामने आए | तरुण ने अपने खरीदे हुए चित्र राजा को दिए और राजा ने बहुत खुश हो कर वोह महल में लगवा दिए | वरुण ने अपना बड़ा चमकदार मोती राजा को दिया और बताया की वो कैसे उसने एक बड़े ड्रॅगन से लिया है | राजा बोला की वो उस मोटी को अपने मुकुट में लगवाएगा | जब अरुण की बारी आई तो उसने उदास हो कर बोला की मैं आपके लिए कोई तोहफा नही ला सका | तो राजा ने उससे पूछा की उसने दिए हुए पैसों का क्या करा तो उसने बताया की उसने गारीडब बच्चों के लिए खाना और कपड़े खरीदने में वो पैसे खर्च कर दिए | राजा यह सुन कर बहुत खुश हुया और बोला "यह मेरे लिए सबसे अच्छा तोहफा है" और फिर राजन ने अरुण को इनाम दिया |"

ह्में इस कहानी से यह शिक्षा मिलती है की तोहफा हमेशा पैसों से नही खरीदा जाता. और हम किसी के लिए अच्छा करते हैं तो उसमे हमारा भी अच्छा होता है |

I've no idea if he had read this story somewhere or was it a mix of his imagination and a previously read story. But I really liked the way he showed enthusiasm and participated.

P.S. Don't know why but hindi text is not legible in Chrome but appears fine in IE.

What do you say to that?

Yesterday  I was making Nishka poop making "shhh" sound and Anirudh starts singing "Dum maaro dum..." :D

So what are the kids upto?

Everyday is new with Nishka these days. Almost everyday there is something new that she does.

She has learnt to climb stairs now. Although we have only 3 steps inside the house that go to the terrace, she easily climbs them and then crawls outside on to the terrace.

She had been able to stand for 5-10 seconds since long but only on hard surface. But now she is able to balance even on soft mattresses. And its just not that. She stands and starts clapping her hands and looks around for appreciation from all who are sitting in the room. The best part is the big smile that is plastered on her face all the time. It just lights up your mood and makes you feel so happy inside.

Earlier she could not sit from standing position. She would bend a little and unsure of herself would stand straight again. She would try that a couple of times and then would cry as if calling for help. But now, she keeps bending her body and will sit with a big dhammu. Initially it would hurt her bums I guess and would have an almost crying face as the hosue has stone floors. And she would look at us for sympathy. But we would clap and smile and say "Very good Nishku!" and she would immediately start smiling. Now she is a pro at sitting down from standing position.

Due to rains we had some ants coming inside the house. And one day we saw her crawling away rapidly from one position to another. And that's when I saw that she was trying to grab ants and had managed to actually grab one in her hand. I had to quickly release the ant from her palms and moved her to an ant-less area. She does that with both big ants and small ants.

When I'm teaching Anirudh, she always wants to grab the books/notebooks/pencil that Anirudh is working on even if I giver her another one. The ones I give her interest her the least. And few days back she climbed over the chowki (bed table) that Anirudh uses to study while Anirudh was using it and sat on it. Me and Anirudh were laughing away looking at her antic and looking at us laughing she was happily clapping away.

She has a certain affliction towards eraser. The moment she finds one she grabs it and always puts in her mouth. We have to be so careful and watchful because of this habit of hers.

When I try and pull her away from Anirudh when he is working on his homework, he will ask me not to do that and that he can handle her. And then he proceeds to talk to her in such a soft yet firm tone. He would say "Nikku, bhaiyya abhi home work kar le? Fir 5 min mein aapke saath khelega. Aapko jo chahiye de dega."

As for her speech progress, I would now use the word "talk" rather than "babble". The reason being the expressions on her face when she babbles makes it appear as if she is actually conversing. I especially feel that she has learnt the word "chali gayee" as so many times she says something and it sounds exactly like that. She understands "aa ja" and will immediately crawl/lurch towards me when I say that.

She hates being diapered and will cry and wail as if we are torturing her.

Anirudh has a lot of syllabus in this year. So far he is doing good. His Hindi writing has improved a lot but he still makes lot of mistakes when it comes to half letter and maatras (मात्रा). His maths has been pretty good ever since I can remember. But its getting tough now but with little explanation/logic he grasps quickly.

His spellings have also improved drastically and I don't get really worried whenever he has dictation tests.

What I'm worrying about most is his behaviour/attitude. He doesn't tell me the things as they are. He twists them as per his convenience. He lost his maths practice sheet at school so he took one of his classmates without the classmate knowing about it. He then erased the classmates name and wrote his own. I caught it immediately as the handwriting wasn't his. He confessed to what he had done and the worst was we found his original sheet right in his bag itself.

I've tried to talk to him to make him understand the implications and why he needs to convey the things truthfully without being scared of being pulled up for his wrong doings. He seems to have understood but only time will tell how much he implements what I've told him. He is a great guy as such and I guess I should give him the leeway of behaving like a child his age when he does such things.

One has to listen to him converse to other elders. The way he reasons with them, the way he explains his view on various topics, its simply amazing. There is so much maturity in his tone an thoughts.

There are days when I feel he is still a 8 year old child and there are days when I feel he is 8 but going on 18 when he gets so adamant and stubborn about certain things.

Life as a mommy of two is full of lots of ups and downs and so far I'm sailing fine. And I hope for smooth sailing in the future too.

I love basketball

We have a basketball basket on our terrace which we got affixed when Anirudh started playing it last year and really started to enjoy it. And when he plays regularly it shows in his game.

I usually sit with Nishka on the terrace when he is playing and she loves to see Anirudh dribble the ball and also when he throws it in the basket. She squeals with delight. So once Anirudh is done playing he will sit with Nishka and play "roll the ball" with her.

Here are a few pics of her playing with a ball of her size :)



Trying to roll the ball towards Anirudh

And yay! We succeed!

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.

And its back again

The mood swings of Anirudh is what I'm talking about. Remember this post - http://anirudh-nishka.blogspot.in/2007/06/crying-stubborn-and-defiant-child.html and this - http://anirudh-nishka.blogspot.in/2009/11/who-wants-to-be-boy.html and ? Almost everything with some addition and some subtraction is back. Everything I tell him to do or not do is responded with a big smirk. Or with an irritated "Achha theek hai na...!!!" He blatantly walks away, completely ignoring what me or hubby are telling him. It has been going on for a little more than a week. So after I had had enough yesterday I told him if whatever Mumma says or does irritates him so much I will not say anything to him. And even at that he got so angry and emotional saying "You don't want to be my mumma....theek hai...jayo..mat bano meri mumma!" And I'm left totally flabbergasted and confused at his reaction.

Kuch karo to problem...kuch nahi karo to bhi problem. I let it go at that moment. And rather for the entire day. I broached it again at night time when he was in bed and I slipped next to him and cuddled with him. And then I asked why is he so irritated and angry all the time? Is something bothering him? Something at school? Or otherwise? But he said he doesn't know himself. I  asked him to think over again and again he said he really doesn't know. I just hugged him tight and said he should talk to mumma if anything is bothering him or to share anything that he would like to. And at that he just snuggled in further closer to me and dozed off within seconds. And today morning the first thing he told me was "Aapse cuddle karke sone mein bahut mazaa aaya." And I just smiled.

I know he is adjusting a lot with me being busy with Nishka when I'm home. I also know he needs me to spend time with him but he doesn't say so because he himself wants me to take care of Nishka..his adorable, cutie sister. He just loves her to bits. I did try to spend more time with him over the weekend. We did go for our morning walk on Saturday but in Sunday he just didn't budge. I tried to reason with him and make him understand about him watching too much TV or playing games on Wii or on the laptop. He simply tells me "I know ..." and continues with it.

But seeing him in a happy mood today morning, I'm hoping for better days ahead.

Coming to Nishka and him, yesterday when he was reading his book and Nishka was lying close to him, she started to grab the book from his hands. And when I was trying to stop her, Betu tells me "Karne do na usko. Main usko mana kar doonga agar zyaada pareshaan karegi." I just smiled and started to click a few pictures. Here is one

And I left them together to make breakfast feeling happy and so contented.

I'm loving it!

Its been more than a month since I started going to work again. Earlier I would come back 2 hours earlier and since April I leave by 7am and reach home by 6pm. Nishka has adjusted well to this new routine. Although she clings to me when I reach back home in the evenings. Going to the loo becomes next to impossible if she sees me. And since a week she has started this new habit of sucking my cheek as if kissing me when I come back home. The first day it happened I hadn't even washed my face. Second day I washed my face also and again she did that. And now it has become a routine. I just love the way she emotes her love towards me.

With the evening hours being divided between Anirudh and Nishka and not in equal ratio as Nishka is taking away the bigger chunk of it, I feel bad about the little time I'm getting to spend with Betu. I'm trying to think of ways for more bonding time with him over the weekend at least. One thought is to go for morning walks together. Another thought is  to bake something together. He really loves to be there and help me out when I'm preparing something for baking. We haven't painted together in a long time too. As I'm writing this so many thoughts are coming to my mind. So this weekend definitely is going to be good :)

Anirudh is as usual very loving towards Nishka. Other day she was trying to lean backwards when lying in my lap to the point that she would have fallen off if I wouldnt have held her tightly. So I said "Nishku...pitti khani hai?" And Betu immediately said "Usko pitti nahi karna. Uske naam ki pitti bhi mujhe de dena." I felt so overwhelmed looking at his love for her and also thought that this girl is going to be spoilt rotten by such a loving brother.

Nishka has started moving a lot lately..turning sides, flipping over, showing her excitement by moving her legs and hands in excitement. And since a week so many times I have found her at the edge of the bed at night. The first day it happened I felt something touching me near my calf. I woke up startled. And I saw her there, fully awake and touching my legs. I was so surprised as to how she reached there and pulled her up. And put an extra pillow towards the foot of the bed.

And since that day so many times I have found her completely rotated, or again found her near my legs and I've to pull her up number of times during night. And today morning when I woke up at 5:30am I didn't find her next to me and when I looked towards the foot of the bed she wasn't there also. This startled me and as I was about to get up I saw her sitting in hubby's lap. And I asked a little bewildered "What happened?" And hubby replied "Nothing..she was up and playing so I took her in my lap". Then about 15-20 min later when Betu was up too, I saw them lying next to each other with Nishka cuddling with him and babbling away. And these are the moments when I feel such bliss and thank God for giving me such lovely children.

Another new thing that Nishka does lately is trying to grab whatever I'm eating. She wants to eat it too. Funniest part is when the look on her face when she sees me picking something up and instead of putting in her mouth, eating it myself. She will follow my hand with her eyes and after I would have eaten it she would look up at me and start smacking her lips. As if conveying that she expected  I would give her something to eat too. If I'm having water, juice or tea...she wants to hold the glass or mug. If she is in my lap when I'm having my dinner, she tries to grab the plate.

Its so much fun to see her growing up. I'm simply loving the motherhood...once again.

Happy Birthday Betu

You turned 8 today. 8 - That's a big number. You are really a big boy now. And when I look back I wonder how fast these 8 years have flown by. And this year is a special birthday for you as you have a baby sister too. I woke up today morning and left you sleeping next to each other. When I returned to the bedroom you both were awake and playing with each other. I just smiled. A really happy smile. And then I wished you and you wanted Nishku to give you a puchhi too. So I brought her lips to your cheek and she also kissed you a happy birthday. You were so happy. And coincidentally she babbled something to the sound of "Bhuu...gua.." And you happily declared that she also wished you happy birthday.

Seeing you so happy in the morning made me so happy too. And when I told you I had made your favourite aata halwa, you asked me "Kishmish daali hai na?" (You have added raisin also?") And when I said "yes" you were super happy. We offered the halwa first to bhagwanji and you sang the Gayatri mantra. And then relished the halwa. And then it was time for me to leave for work. With the promise of buying your gift and taking you out for a dinner, I left for work leaving you in a happy mood.

May you always be happy and healthy my jaan. We all love you loads!

Jab meri shaadi hogi...

Yesterday me and Betu were reminiscing about the times when Nishku was in the tummy. And suddenly he said - "Mumma, aap mujhe bhi roti banana sikha do."(Mumma, teach me how to make a chapati - Indian bread). I asked him why? He replied "Jab main bada hoyunga, aur meri shaadi hogi, main bhi apni wife ke liye roti banayunga." (When I will grow up and get married, I'll also make chapatti's for my wife).

I had such a big smile on my face hearing this. He was recalling my pregnancy days when I was on bed rest and the days when cook would be off, hubby would make roti for me. I hope that Betu has these sweet thoughts when he grows up too. His wife would be so lucky :)