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.