Sleep time song these days

Nishka's favourite sleep time song these days is "Tinka Tinka...Zara...Zara" after she heard me singing this song one day. So no more of "Nanhi Pari Sone Chali.." or any of the other baby sleep time songs for her anymore. :D

Some more anecdotes

Noting down some more anecdotes for walk down the memory lane in the future -

It so happened that I asked Nishka if she was hungry by asking her "Kuchh khana hai?" and she said "Yes." and I gave her something to eat. So now if you ask her "ASre you hungry?" or "Bhukku lagi hai?" and she will respond "Yes. Kuchh khana hai." And when you ask "Kya khana hai?" she will say "Kuchh khana hai!". And you keep getting the same response from her over and over again till the time you are ready to pull your hair out trying to figure out what she wants to eat.

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Nishka has learnt many a nursery rhymes and songs. But she will sing them only when she is in a mood. And when she is not in a mood and you ask her to sing something she will respond "Moje nahi aata!" in a very deep voice and a very serious expression.

It sounds so funny because "Moje" is socks in urdu.

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She is very possessive of her stuff and in fact possessive over her Bhaiyyu's stuff as well. So much so that Anirudh has to fight for his own stuff. And this possessiveness stands good for her eats as well. If anybody takes even one bit of her portion, she will immediately prance over to the person and very angrily say "Muh se nikalo! Woh mera hai!"

One day her papa dear took a slice of guava from her plate. She was so upset over it that instead of saying her usual sentence, she kept looking at Anurag with such dismay and moist eyes looking so hurt. Since he was not able to understand the reason for this reaction he asked me as to what happened. And when I told hm that you took her slice of guava, she is angry and upset. So quickly papa dear went and hugged her saying sorry but that brought out such a big wail and opened the dam of tears. Only when one more guava was cut and she was given more of it that things got sorted out. And that's the time I instructed papa dear to first ask her if you can take or not before taking anything in future.

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My day help is also picking up bits of English from my conversations with Nishku. So other day she was asking Nishka something and since Nishka was not responding she said "Tell! Tell!". Nishka turns to her and says "Aise nahi bolte! Aap bolo 'Tell me.'"
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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.


 

She is one bossy girl!

Incident 1

Its a weekend and usually I first bathe Nishka and then I ask Anirudh to go and have his bath. So about two weeks back I had just come out with Nishka wrapped in towel after giving her a bath and she shouts out to Anirudh- "Anirudh!! Nahane ghuso!"

I think I can delegate more of my tasks to her that involve instructing others to do something. What say?

Incident 2

Its winter time and Nishka was having some cough. So I was giving her a bit of warm water added with a pinch of salt to help her with the cough on instructions from her Dadi. So one day it so happened that I did warm the water but forgot to add salt. And out little dadi-amma has such a flustered expression and tone, gesturing to the glass in her hand and says "Kya kal lai ho? Namak dalo!".

I was having such a laugh and it took me a while to gather myself and do as she had asked - Add salt in her water. And that was not only incident since then. If anyone is not doing anything as she wants it, be it me, Anirudh, our house help or the cook, we all get to hear "Kya kal lai ho?" so often.

Incident 3

This was from yesterday and is a gem. I was driving back home after picking the kids up in the evening from the daycare. So Anirudh told me that Nishka peed in her pants multiple times and did not tell that she had to go to the loo. As we were standing on a traffic signal for it to turn green, I turned back to look at Nishka and was scolding her "Aapne kyun kara? Aapne bataya kyun nahi ki aapko susu aayee hai? Aap big girl ho gayee ho na?"

And guess what she responded to me. I'm sure no one can. Even I couldn't imagine it ever. She points to the front and tells me "Aap drive karo."

My jaw almost dropped to the floor and I couldn't say anything to her. What could I?

How sweet are the words

How sweet do the words "  I wuv you!" sound from the mouth of your 1.5 yr child especially when you are thousands of miles away.

Yes! Was skyping with Nishka said she gave a flying kiss and said "I wuv you!". And I just can't describe the feeling. It was so so precious.

"I wuv you too my betu. I wuv you too."

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.



 

A picture post

This is how I make Bhaiyyu mad! Whenever he sits down to study, I HAVE to sit on his study table :)

Nishka kitnee badi? - Itnee badi!

Sleeping with a pout..cutie pie!

Peek-A-Boo!

All dressed to go for an outing.

I love my Peek-A-Boo Book!

I love watching Dadu play Freecell.

Hamari Chhammak Challo!

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

And she walked!

Ohh yes she did! It was around 9:15 PM on the night of Aug 9. I was facebooking while ANirudh was playing with Nishka. And then Anirudh called out to me saying that Nishka is walking. I didn't pay much attention and without looking up said "hmm.." and then he told me in a stronger tone "Usne abhi abhi apne aap ek step liya!" That made me look up. Anriudh kept calling Nishka to come to him and then I saw it. One faltering step and another and another and yet another step! And then she reached Anirudh and he scooped her up in his arms giving her a hug. I was looking at all this with my gaping mouth growing wider and wider, totally astonished, super happy and overwhelmed.

I knew she would walk soon but I was taken by surprise that night. Its been 4 days since and she takes those 3-4 steps gingerly and then sits down. She doesn't feel confident about it yet is what I can see. I tried capturing these precious moments in my camera but the moment she sees the camera in my hand, she immediately sits down and crawls at super fast speed to grab the camera.

I guess it will take about another week or two and then she would be walking with more confidence. As long as we walk with holding her one hand, she is perfectly fine and she really enjoys walking like that. But the moment we leave her hand, you cna see the confusion on her face :)

She is her usual chulbula badmashu bachha. You can't leave her alone for a single minute. She loves to crawl on our terrace and more than that she loves to pluck the leaves/flowers from the pots on the terrace. And the latest attraction is to to dig her hands in the mud in the pots.

A new game that she has started playing is she will roll over Anirudh when he is lying down. And if we sit her up on Anirudh or for that matter on anyone else's tummy too she just loves to jump on him.

She still wants to eat everything we are eating. So I put a handful of cheerios in my plate and give it to her which gives her the satisfaction that she is being given what we are eating.

She is my personal dentist. She pries my mouth open and puts her fingers inside checking my teeth inside out. if I close my mouth, she will pull apart my lips and then I've to open my mouth for her to keep fingering my teeth.

We modified her play gym into a rocker couple of weeks ago and she just loves to jump on it and make it rock. And in these 2-3 weeks she has even figured out how to climb out of it. But I fear that she will fall flat on her face if no one is around to help her out.

Some pictures to feast on :)

Enjoying the rocker

 Oh no!! Mumma caught me trying to climb stairs!

And I reached the top!

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.

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.

Mundan

We got Nishka's mundan done on July 14, 2012 at Sheetla Mata Mandir, Gurgaon. This is the same place where we had gotten Anirudh's done as well.

Luckily there was no one but us when we reached. So we managed to get it done peacefully.

Nishka took it really well initially and played with her toys. She did cry in between but would get distracted with the toys and her favourite games on my phone. She would also calm down whenever I would sing her favourite songs or rhymes such as Lakdi ki kathi, Ichak dana bichak dana, Wheels on the bus, Chhun chhun karti aayee chidiya etc. But in the end she was least interested in the songs or the toys. So the last 5 min were a bit tough emotionally.

She would also stop crying when Anirudh would start talking to her. But Anirudh himself was getting uneasy and upset seeing her head being shaved and he also couldn't stand her crying. So when I called out to him towards the end to talk to Nishka to distract her, he did come but covered his eyes with his hands saying he cant see it. I could see he was trying to stop his tears as his voice was breaking when he was talking to her. But thankfully all was over quickly and we didn't get a single cut or abrasion.

She clung to me tightly for few seconds post the mundan but was calm and back to her playful self within a minute.

I hugged Anirudh also later and told him that you are the sweetest and the best brother Nishka could have ever asked for.

Here is a before and after pic of her:

You are one brave girl Nishka. Be like that...always!

Best place to play is...

...under the bed