A good morning

Today morning, Aditi surprised me by getting ready for school while I was making breakfast. I finished cooking and turned around, lo - Aditi has selected and worn a dress, applied cream-powder-pottu and said 'surprise!'. Thanks to her I had a 10-min leisure which I used up in the reading 'hot-hot' news as soon as the newspaper was delivered at the door. A very good morning indeed...

Nidhi and I r the same for one thing - both of us can never get enuf holidays in life. Past two days she had her Math and Eng exam and today she did her best to get a holiday. But no chance...

I went to get my car washed. when it was done the guy called out to me saying 'Sasha' and looked sheepish as if he knew something was wrong. I had to lol :-)) S-a-n-t-o-s-h... I even spelled it from him when I entered the place. Either he can't write or he can't read... Yet another fellow who can't pronounce Indian names. That's y I never give out my real name - get very irritated when someone kills it. the worst ones r the ones who give up - 'I am not even going to try and say it!' I always think "well done with the loser's attitude!"

And, all this rambling just to get into the spirit of writing... Need to blog more often. Even though today I don't have anything special to say, this is just to start writing more and also to remind me of a simple thing - what a good morning it was! And all because I got to read the newspaper in the morning...:-)

Aditi at 4

Dear Aditi,

The first time u looked at me and smiled when u were a 1-1.5 month baby, you lit up my soul. i am happy to let you know, even today it's the same. :-)

You have many different kinds of smiles - the shy smile, when u accomplish something and show it to me, the soft smile to cheer me (or Appa or Nidhi-akka) up, usually accompanied by a hug, the smile that u put on when u dance, and then there is a real smile which is when u are really happy or amused or you are enjoying something to the most. Although i cherish every smile of yours, the real smile which shows all ur tiny teeth lined up in a perfect row, that's one that warms my heart the most. Everyday, i strive to see at least one such smile on ur face. When u first learned to smile, no one knew what could make u smile (the same thing would never work twice!), so me, appa, nidhi-akka, amumma and the maid would keep on trying to get u to smile. Even today it's like that - i never know when that perfect all-teeth smile will come. It could be something simple - like taking a ride on the carousel, or watching a particularly funny episode of Krishna, or something which Nidhi-akka says to make you laugh. Whatever it is, it lights up our day.

Talking. That's the main activity of our day. u talk, i talk. u talk more, i talk more. u talk some more and then, make me talk some more. and then, u talk again and then i am tired of talking and Nidhi-akka and Appa come home and u start talking to them. we can talk to u abt anything. everything will be entered, processed and given an output by ur tiny self. every thing is of interest to you. i can and have literally talked to you abt anything on earth, from cooking to space, from fish to God, from spoons to continents. U will listen, ask, talk and store. A couple of years later, u remind me i had told you something someday. And, that makes all the talking worthwhile.

And, same thing applies to books.

Aditi, u and i share a good wave-length - it's probably all the time we spend together. When u say something, i am the first one to get it. Or maybe it's bcoz u keep me on my toes, i need to be with you, if not ahead, to understand you and amuse you. Like for example, Appa and me were talking buying a new car and u butted in with 'mamma, can u buy a hiccup?', and i retorted 'u mean pick-up?' and Appa shook his head slightly at both of us! lol.

But i must confess, i dunno what you will say or do the very next minute. It's never what we expect... At your 4th bday party, u had to answer a question 'Whom do you like most - Amma or Appa?' and u said 'My friends. i love my friends the most!'.  And then gave appa, me and nidhi-akka hugs so that we don't feel bad.

i am trying to think of what are your qualities and ur nature and ur behaviour and what u r at 4 years, i am unable to find the right words. or maybe i don't want to judge u or slot u into anything. so instead, i am going to just write down a few conversations that have happened in the recent past. it will also serve to understand why we don't have cable TV at home.

Aditi : i have a pattern at school.
Me (not paying complete attention coz i am cooking) : Are you learning patterns at school? (it's something she has come across a couple of times in her prev school in CA)
Aditi : yeah, there is a pattern in my school.
Me : ok, tell me. what is it?
Aditi (gesturing with hand in chopping motions) : See... school, no school, school, no school.... Can u see a pattern?
Me (stunned) : O My God, you are talking of a real life pattern.
Aditi (excited smile) :yes, yes.
Me - speechless and cooking forgotten...
(Aditi goes to school on Tue and Thurs and it works out into a school-day, no school-day pattern if u work it out).

Santosh and i are watching a scene from Rangeela where Aamir Khan is selling tickets in black saying 'dus-ka-tees, dus-ka-tees, dus-ka-tees'. We didn't realise Aditi was paying attention too, until she asked "why is that man going arnd saying 'disgusting, disgusting, disgusting'"!!! :-))

We celebrated a 10-day long Ganesh Chathurthi Festival and Aditi was very involved with prayers and neividhyam twice every day. Once, she pointed to the agarbatti and asked "Why we have to do smoking for pullayaar?" :-))

I am discussing with Santosh "Nidhi has gone slim", Aditi interrupts with a shocked "What! Nidhi-akka has become Muslim?" :-))

Appa and Nidhi-akka are discussing the problems in their new office, school respectively.
Aditi : i also had problems in my school. But i am brave and managed it.
Me: How did u manage it?
Aditi : Simple, i changed my school.
:-))
(We had moved her from one school to another after coming to Texas.)

So, that is Aditi at 4 - Entertaining and Thought-provoking - 24X7. No need for cable-tv (Tv is television as she will tell you).

Happy Birthday from Amma, Appa and Nidhi-akka! May God bless you and happy long-life to you....

Best wishes,
Amma.

Dear God

On the morning of paal-kaachal in our new apartment in Texas, Nidhi is watching me as i boil the milk. I explain - "Now i am going to give the milk to umaachi". Aditi - "And, corn-flakes too?" :-))

All our saamaan arrived from California today. After the unloading was done and all the furniture fixed, i say "Thank you God, for bringing all our saamaan safely." Aditi can't keep quiet "Amma, u have to thank the truckers. they brought all our luggage."

All this from the child  who on Vishu day last year, when she received $100 from her Appa, we told her keep it safely. Immediately she kept it back near Vishu-kani and said "God will keep it safe for me!"

Aditi, i have to say, dear child, i am trying very hard but it's not easy to understand the little person that u are and the way ur head works!! Help me, God...

Butts, India, Tamil (Unrelated :-)

When Nidhi was small she had asked what kinda currency is 'bucks'? Aditi has gone one step further and calls it 'butts'. She will take something in her hand and announce confidently 'this is 5000 butts'.

After our trip to India, Aditi keeps talking abt it. Santosh keeps asking her questions abt her trip and her replies bring back memories.

Appa : Who's your friend in Chennai?
Aditi (without hesitation) : Selvi (the servant-maid in chennai).

Appa : What will thatha buy you in Chennai?
Aditi (again without hesitation) : Kinderjoy!

And, one conversation from Chennai - Aditi peers at her thin shirt-less thatha and announces to him:
Aditi : You are a skeleton.
Thatha(with a smile) : I am an old man.
Aditi (shakes her head) : You are an old skeleton.
:-))

One day in chennai, my mom calls me and tells me Aditi gave her a shock. It seems my mom told her Aditi is Appa's daughter, Nidhi is Appa's daughter and asked her if Amma is Appa's daughter too? Aditi shook her head and said Amma is thatha's daughter. Without someone expicitly telling her who is who she seems to have got it... :-)

Aditi's fav story from India is one of 'Woodcutter and the kodali' narrated by my cousin Jyothi exactly once during a busy wedding we attended in Kerala. After coming back, she sat on her father's lap and proceeded to recount the tale flawlessly, surprising us. Aditi has become a fav with all my cousins and uncles and aunts. Our entire family stayed in a hotel in order to attend a cousin's wedding and Aditi grew very friendly with Viji-chithi. She tells me even now that she needs to go back to that hotel bcoz Viji-chithi is waiting there for her. Praveen weds _______ (dash) and Archana weds ________ - has become our fav fill in the blanks with Aditi supplying the names. i am sure no one sat with her and expained who is marrying who but she seems to have picked up all these things herself. She is (was at that time) almost three after all!

Yesterday morning i was talking to myself aloud 'oh no, horlicks is finished' Aditi sitting on the kitchen counter announced 'Oh, let's go to india and buy horlicks. come, come, let's say bye to Appa. let's go!' :-))

Aditi picked up a lot of tamil when we went to India. She surprises us by using it at the most appropriate times after coming back here. Today morning i informed her 'Appa-ku padalai'. She thought for a second and replied 'Naan paathukaren!' Wow! :-))

Then and now...

I went back to my blog and saw that the last thing i had written abt Aditi was in Oct 2013. She says 'ibi book' for library book.

Cut to Oct 2014...

Today morning, Aditi announces : I am a boy.
Me : Why?
Aditi : Bcoz i changed my mind.
Me : Ok!
:-)) What else can u say...

A long long ago when Aditi was a tiny little girl... whatever i do, Aditi is always with me(this is to keep her away from TV and at three years i am happy to say she watches very little of it). everyday she sits on the kitchen counter with dangling legs when i stand next to her making chappathis and conversation. one day i gave her a small ball of chappathi-maavu. Having seen me roll the ball then press it flat and then roll out the chappathi i assumed she would have learned how to do it by now. She went on to roll the ball, press it flat and shape it nicely and annouce to me - 'see, dolphin!'. i was a bit taken aback and asked her if i heard correctly. she insisted it was a dolphin and needed to go to 'pool'. These were the days when we had visited Seaworld San Diego for the first time(we got a year round pass after that) so dolphins were very popular with Aditi. i learned a very valuable lesson that day that when life gives u chappathi-maavu, u can make even a dolphin out of it and it's completely upto u what u do with it. Also, i learned not to take my daughter for granted...

Also, just before that, the very first time Aditi opened a book and pointed out and said the word 'Dolphin' correctly, Appa took an impromptu decision and took us all to Seaworld the same day so that his daughter could look at real dolphins....

Snatches of Conversations

Driving home after school...
Amma : Nidhi, hows ur new science teacher?
Nidhi : Nice. She talks like our GPS.
:-))

Aditi is playing with Nidhikka's tiara. she places it on her head.
Amma : Are you a princess?
Aditi : No. King!
ha! Attitude... :-)

i sent Nidhi a flavor of pudding-snack which she doesn't like. When she's back home,
Amma : Did u like ur pudding-snack? i told u u will like it.
Nidhi : it was ok. i choked it down!
:-$

At school, Nidhi is taking a test on the computer after school. Aditi and i wait for her just behind her. A big boy from her class(4th-grader) walks up to her and makes a very 'Ewwww, what r u doing?' kinda face and asks her 'Why r u taking the test now?'. Nidhi gives him a look of steel, says 'Because.', turns back to the computer and says 'I want to.' Big boy slinks away with tail between his legs and i silently applaud my daughter.
:-)

In Aditi's words...
'ibi book' is library book.
'it's working, it's working', exclaimed jubilantly everytime the laptop is switched on.
'go there, go there', pointing to the bathtub when she wants to have a bath there.
'ong eck' is long neck, the giraffe has it.
'bushy tail'  is the one the fox has.
'odle doo' is cock-a-doodle-do of the rooster.
'to u' is the happy birthday song.
'gummy girl' is the gummy bear song.
'mandeel' is madila, which means mommy's lap.
'ketchups', 'thannis' - tomato ketchup and water, for some reason they r plural.
'got it!' when she gets something out of her sister's cupboard with great difficulty.
'found it!' when we r looking for something like jacket, shoes, etc.
'no way!' is wherever even a simple No would do.
'Not me!' is when asked are u sleepy/are u hungry/are u anything-nice.

last week, she approached me with 'gimme chips'. The next day her dad was at the ATM and she asks me 'give money'!

If u ask her she'll show you her eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, mouth, chubby cheeks, dimple chin, rosy lips, hair, shoulders, elbow, hands, fingers, nails, legs, toes, knee, thigh, feet, heart, head, brain and thoppai(stomach). She'll also show faces for happy, sad, surprise, angry, thinking and tasting a lemon.

Everyday she asks abt her thatha. She has a song which goes like this 'thatha, chennai, thatha, chennai, thatha chennai'(infinite loop). When thatha talks to her on the phone she gets very excited. And even if u fall at her feet she won't say 'ammumma', she just refuses witha shake of her head and a smile on her face. clearly she enjoys teasing us. Couple of weeks ago, as usual one day morning she asked me 'thatha enge?', i said 'chennai'. Then she said 'Amaaama?'. Ha! At last! For the first time!

she can recite nursery rhymes 'johnny, johnny', 'twinkle, twinkle', 'chubby cheeks', etc. All other rhymes she'll tell u the last word of each line like 'pat a cake', 'wee willie winkie', 'this little pig' and all others. she'll tell u the days of the week starting from sunday. My fav is 'sat-ur-day', pronounced with utmost clarity.  She can tell u the numbers from one to ten, sometimes skipping seven and eight - she doen't like them. And one day i just asked her for fun 'ten' and she surprised me by reciting the number line backwards, 'nine,six,five,four,three,two,one', again skipping seven and eight, clearly not her favs.

i have to stop writing because Aditi is saying 'apple milkshake', each syllable clear and deliberate. How can i not obey!

Lastly, posting my current facebook status:
Halloween is approaching and everybody here's decorating their house with carved lit-up pumpkins. i asked santosh if we plan to celebrate halloween this year. he said, 'y not?' and bought a huge pumpkin and asked me to make sambaar out of it!

This was just after summer vacation...

We got out of the car and started walking towards a mall. We put Aditi in her stroller. It's very difficult to get her to sit in it, but for once she was sitting without complaining. the seat-belt was not strapped on and i noticed that she was trying to buckle it in. i said to santosh "it's a good thing. she'll be occupied with it for sometime and sit quietly for that much time at least." Santosh said "excuse me, please look down." and what do i c - Aditi has managed to strap herself in! :-( when does she even learn these things! that seat belt is just like the one in the car and it takes a bit of effort to buckle up. aparently not for Aditi!

Aditi has learned a lot of words from Nidhi. Only Nidhi says 'thanks', we all say 'thank you'. And now, Aditi says 'thanks' for everything. For past two days she's been saying 'yeah' whenever she means yes. And yesterday, she was in Nidhi's room, i called her out from the drawing-room and she came running to me yelling 'commmmmmmmmming, commmmmmmmmming...' :-)

Aditi and i were going thru a book and we found the picture of a tiny wrist-watch. she gazed at it thoughtfully and i told her it was a watch. she tried it out aloud 'watch' and then ran to the wall pointing up 'clock, clock' :-) similar thing happens when she goes to a store and finds a top which is like mine. she runs abt saying 'amma-du, amma-du' (meaning mom's). i think the first time we noticed that she is making such associations is when we were in India last jan. her cousin-sister had a huge keyboard which she let aditi play with for a few mins. couple of days later she gave aditi a smaller piano from her toy-set. immediately aditi ran to the keyboard (which was covered with a cloth)and started pointing to it excitedly. her athai noticed this and was mighty impressed with her!

The first time i pointed out to aditi from a pic that animals(i think it was a lion) have tails, she turned round and round and tried to spot a tail behind her. she seemed surprised and then disappointed that she didn't have one!

a few days ago my cousin-sister was in chennai at my parents place and we skyped on her son's computer. all of us were very happy to see all of them. and yesterday, aditi starts pointing to the computer and saying 'shaadi, shaadi'. i understood immediately and asked 'shashank?'(my cousin's son). aditi nodded her head vigorously and corrected herself repeating forcefullly 'shashank, thatha, ammama!' it was daytime here and i told her they r all asleep in india. she keeps asking for them very now and then.

And the most important thing this summer is that Nidhi has learned to ride a bicycle. it took her just under a week. first two days i helped her and the next two santosh did. by the fifth day she was riding alone and we were all so happy. she announced happily to her grandparents on skype - 'i can ride a bicycle... *clap, clap, clap from chennai*... without balancing wheels! *willd cheers and applause from chennai*

Good summer, this!
 

Saami Rashikaname! (rekshikaname)

Santosh handed over the bell('mani') to Aditi when he was doing his puja. (Generally nidhi is the one who gets to ring it). Aditi immediately ran to the drawing-room, where i was sitting, and started doing puja to the TV! She would ring the bell, fold her hands in a namaste and say 'saami rashikaname' multiple times in whisper. i was puzzled for a second as to why the TV is being worshipped when i understood that it's becoz Vishnu Sahasranamam was playing on the home-theatre. Although the TV was off(no pictures of God being seen on TV), Aditi knew a God's song was being played.

i have noticed this before also that (only audio, no video being played) a bollywood number would make her dance while a devotional song would make her fold her hands and pray. Reminds us that children know/understand more than what we give them credit for!

Wordly Wise

Many writers have said that unless u sit and write everyday, ur writing will not improve. Practice makes writing better. i find that's very true. When i come back to my blog after a hiatus i find it difficult to write. Although the mind brims with ideas, words don't flow easily. it will take some time before i like what i write, but until then no other way but to plow on until i find a rhythm.

Ever since summer holidays started, Aditi has been following Nidhika arnd everywhere, doing exactly everything she does. Nidhi was pleased initially but after a point she got irritated - why is she doing everything i do? when i told her that she is a hero in aditi's eyes and wants to learn everything from nidhika, she felt better and even started teaching her a few things. the first thing she taught her was to say 'awesome'. so now we have two voices, one tiny another a little bigger, both saying awesome at random times, each in their own inimitable style.

i dunno when but a whole lot of words have entered our house. what i noticed was there would be a week or two of quietness(or older words) and then a week bursting with new-new words, each one spoken perfectly at the first attempt and taking up permanent residence in our house. Another thing i noticed was when nidhi started speaking she would hurry to say a word and many words would take up their own pronunciation and slowly evolve into the officially correct form. Like baikkut. Took some time before it turned to what is actually is - rabbit. Baikkut was infinitesimally cute and is still a part of our family. But not so with Aditi. She likes to say each word perfectly, starting with her some of her very first words, 'bear', 'turtle' and 'fox'. right from the very first time she spoke, u could hear even the 'r' in turtle.

somehow button, bubble, cycle, shark, apple, tree, leaf, hello - all have appeared and all of them soft, but clear. tree is 'chee', but let's assume that's american style. the easy ones like shoe, car, cheese, shell, book took no time, others like fofer(flower), pepper, lion, tiger, pider(spider) (last three spoken spookily for max effect) amaze me in their proximity to the actual words. thundu(towel), porum(enuf), paal(milk), pattu (patudu - got hurt), paatu(songs) take care of our tamilian roots.

The most dangerous word in our house is - wait for it - Bath! Anyone saying this word is at their own peril, coz the min Aditi hears this word she starts saying 'bath, bath, bath....' in an infinite loop, simultaneously trying to wriggle out of her clothes, grabbing a 'thundu' and running to the bathroom trying to drag u along. these days aditi has her bath first thing in the morning, then have another one with nidhika, douse herself with as much water as possible when i take a bath and then insist on an evening bath when appa comes home from office. in between if anyone said the word bath, she would insist on having one at that time too! Slowly bath is becoming a bad word in my dictionary.

Last month we went on (yet another) shopping-spree for aditi and she ended up with 7 new frocks and 1 pair of shiny shoes. This kick-started the dress-free-spree. Meaning Aditi would refuse to wear a dress after bath. Major tantrums happened and the child would act as if i am trying to kill her when i approached her with a dress after her morning bath. i had no option but to let her roam arnd nangu until noon, when i would insist she has to wear something if she wanted to take her lunch on the stairs outside our home where she loves to sit with me. it took 2-3 weeks for me to crack this one - turns out Aditi wanted to wear 2-3 of her fav ones among her new dresses. once i understood what she wanted i gave in happily, i had reached that stage where i just wanted to see my child fully-clothed at least, and then slowly we progressed to making her understand 'house-dresses' r not our enemies and she started wearing all her dresses once again. even now once in a while we have a 'dress-free day', but i don't mind coz it's only for a short part of the day thankfully.

Each one of us has to remember that Aditi is picking up very fast now. Once Aditi hurt her hand a bit badly, and nidhi and i were at home and we freaked out a little for a minute or so, both of us saying 'shit, shit, shit!'. And this leads to what else but Aditi explainig to Appa when he came home from office, pointing to her finger saying 'shit, shit, shit!' :-)

i dunno how she learned this but when she wanted something she would grab it or ask for it saying 'mine, mine, mine!'. alarmed that any child of mine could turn into such a rude brat i nipped it in the bud teaching her to say 'please, please, please'. Now we hear 'peesh, peesh' regularly and feel very happy with ourselves.

The latest starting this week has been the unexpected receiving of a heartfelt 'thanks' when handed food/water/toy/anything. it appears spontaneusly with the act of taking something from us accompanied by a grateful look towrds the person's face, who is handing over the said object. Well, as i always believe, it's never too early to start being polite, nor will it ever go out of fashion. i hope the 'thanks' is here to stay forver and ever too!

Aditi Updates - Part II

Pottu, Paatu, Bath, Baby, Papa, Bye, Hi, Shoe r the words pronounced perfectly by Aditi.

Then there r cute remixes - chee is tree, michie is mixie, dajee is daddy and there is something that sounds like 'thank you' which will be said if u fall at her feet.

tha-tha-tha-tha-tha... will go in an infinite loop, each 'tha' in a higher pitch than it's predecessor when she wants something that's in ur hands. after that comes the falling at feet part if u want a thank you.

A whispering, accompanied by folded hands (and surreptious tasting of fingers), sounding like 'saami rakshikaname' is done whenever we ask her to 'umaachi thozhu'. come to think of it, it is Nidhi's prayer even today after being taught as a baby.

she sticks to me like a fly the whole day. except the time when nidhikka and appa go out in the morning. then she sticks to each of them alternately hoping to con them into givng her a ride in the car. most of the time it works. appa will be super-busy at office but will take a detour to pick up Aditi before going to fetch Nidhika from school. A combination of trying to wear the shoe(saying shoe, shoe, shoe..), waving bye to me(saying bye, bye), tryng to capture the keys and bringing up her jacket during winter wins over appa's heart. And sticking to him the minute he bends down to tie his shoe-lace. She has worked her strategy to perfection.

aditi and i cook together, each busy with their own tasks. at the end we feed each other what we cooked, i get 'tholu'(veg peels) and pieces of raw-vegs. she gets something similar(in her opinion), but sometimes she is lucky coz she gets to eat a hot-hot papadam.

When u ask Aditi to do something - fetch something or keep something back - she obeys immediately. although, while keeping something back, she does it only for a sec and takes it back while looking at ur face to see if it's ok. a smart thing to do to keep u happy as well as for her to go on doing wht she was doing.

when she is thinking or has found something new, she frowns. (yeah, that's me there).

The 24-hour battle in our house is to save the library books from Aditi's hands. All three of us pitch in and even then it's not enuf sometimes. The last thing Nidhi does everyday is to keep the book she's reading above her head and fall asleep. And the first thing Aditi does everyday is to rush out of her bed and grab the book . If she likes the book she will relax in the bed, half-cover herself with a blanket and browse (imitating Nidhikka's manner). If she doesn't like it she'll simply tear a page or two. Or worse, look for a pen to scribble with.

If i ask her 'Aditi kochunda epidi kathuvaay?', she makes a sound exactly like Donald Duck.

She talks so much, accompanied by little fingers and gestures and expressions, words, sentences, questions - but a language which we still have to learn.
 

Aditi Updates

One. (the number one doesn't work yet on my keyboard, thks to Aditi. In addition, keys for i, j, k r missing). Aditi is Eighteen now. In months.

2. A very insistent "Amma,amma,amma,amma..." can be heard in an infinite loop when the following things r encountered :
    (a) the bathroom door doesn't open
    (b) the grip while getting on/off the bed is tenous
    (c) a book needs to be read thru... now
    (d) something interesting is happening outside the window

3. Some r called by names - turtle, fox, croc, bear, fish while others r by sounds - BOW (which was a very soft 'ba' little while back - appa's fav), meeeu, MOOOooooo, quack-quack-quack. Some have not yet been called but merely pointed out when we say the name - elephant, giraffe, hippo, camel, peacock. The fav animal is bear. And trips have been made to the zoo just so that she can watch her favourite animal. Another thing she likes is to go to nearby lakes and feed the ducks, geese, swan.

4. The most important thing in her life is to watch the garbage truck from the window in Nidhikka's room. Whatever she's doing will be abandoned in an instant the loud clang of the garbage-bins being rolled out is heard. She runs to the window and watches with fascination until the truck rolls away after finishing it's work.

5. WHATEVER i cook, if u ask her 'is the food nice?'/'did u like it?', she shakes her head NO. sometimes she scrunches up her face and screws up her eyes tightly to indicate it's horrible - just to make sure i get her point. It started as an innocent question i asked many months ago while feeding her lunch. her reaction was so hilarious that it has become a part of every meal she eats. i have asked the question in many ways and in different languages, just to see if she has understood the question in the first place - she refuses to budge from her answer. Meanwhile, i have grown a thick skin.

6. when she's upto some mischief, i call out 'आदू'. She has taken to repeating this and likes to say a drawn-out 'आ....दू....'. Mostly when she is abt to do some mischief, she calls out before i do and makes me smile and gets on with her mischief in peace.

7. Aditi likes short-cuts. She uses same words to mean different things - आदू  also means 'aaaappu' (flowers), and baby is used for little kids and 'birdie' as well. 'tat' stands for cat, bat, rat.

8. She loves to play with all of Nidhikka's friends and they in turn, adore her.

9. Last week, i asked her casually 'where is your thala-mandai?' and she pointed to her head. i couldn't believe it and procceded to ask her for 'kannu', 'mooku', 'vaay', 'pallu', 'kaadu' - all correctly pointed out. i was so surprised. although i taught her the english versions, she has picked up the tamil ones on her own. this performance was repeated in front of the rapturous audience of Nidhikka and later, Nidhikka and appa.

ten. Aditi had her first mottai in a barber-shop called Super-cuts. A week later we were in a garden and Nidhi found some flowers fallen arnd. She picked up a white one and placed it on her hair coz it matched her dress. Lo, World War broke out - Aditi wanted to do the same. How does one fix a flower on a motta-mandai? Just as we were abt to go home to fetch some cello-tape, she gave up the flower. Thank God.

And thus, life goes on. Entertaining and being entertained...

Attention Please

Achodi, said Nidhi, giving her sister a huge hug and deftly moved her aside, plonked her down and proceeded to carry her school-bag out of the door. Little Aditi followed her out saying 'daai, daai' (bye) waving both her hands. The sight of his little daughter was too much for Appa, who was ready to leave for office directly after dropping Nidhi in school. He changed his plan and took Aditi along and came back on a detour to drop her home before going to office.
Yet again, Aditi conned us for a ride early in the morning. something like this happens every morning and no matter what the rush, Aditi's wishes get max priority.
Last weekend Santosh was having a (rare) afternoon-nap. i was attempting to feed Aditi her lunch, which she didn't want and started shaking her head sayng 'no, no', crying out loud, doing her best to wriggle out of it. Nidhi was watching cartoons on my computer in her room. she came out (without being called by me) and started singing nursery rhymes, dancing, etc. and successfully diverted Aditi's attention and i quickly fed her the meal. The meal over, Nidhi thanked Aditi(for eating her meal) and I thanked Nidhi(for helping out wth her sister). Nidhi went back to her cartoons.
When Aditi was born, my neighbour in Muscat (has two grown up daughters) started telling me how all the attention was for the first-born and the second one somehow grew up and learned to manage on her own. i had assumed a similar thing with Aditi. but as the days go by, i realise the opposite is happening.
When Nidhi was a baby she had only me taking care of her(Santosh used to be super busy at office all the time). Now, Aditi has me, Nidhi and a brand-new Santosh (trying for a better balance between work and home). She even has Nidhikka's friends who drop in to play most evenings and who drop everything else and end up playing with Aditi only. on our recent trip to India also, one or the other adult (her Paati, athai, periappa, periamma, cousin-akka) would sit with her and keep her amused all the time.
Needless to say, Aditi's happy.
 

Little Ms.Smarty-Pants

The first time we bought a book for Aditi, i had picked it up in the book-store, ruffled thru the pages admiringly and declared to Santosh this is just the book i would buy for Aditi when she grows up a bit. She was one at that time and i wanted to wait for 6 more months. Santosh said no need to wait and bought the book immediately.

whenever one of us had the time or felt like it, we would sit with Aditi and point out different thngs like banana, train, grapes, bread, apple etc. from the book. Aditi would point out randomly and we would supply the words. she was immensely pleased. we would be busy reading our own books and aditi would sometimes sit by herself flipping the pages of her book back and forth.

then our samaan arrived and aditi was very happy to see nidhika's books. since the one thng i can't bear to give away is books, we still have books from nidhi's toddler days. now aditi had a lot many books to browse thru. she would tear up the ones she found boring. i would be cooking in the kitchen and she would be sitting somewhere i could see her, with a book in her hand. i would continue to cook with a smile on my face(unless she was trying to tear it).

in between all this, although we didn't notice it, she was learning a lot.

one day i was in the kitchen and santosh and aditi were sitting with a book of animals. a little while later santosh called out to me and pointing to a pic asked aditi what is this? 'wux' came the reply and my mouth literally fell open. indeed, it was a fox. i was so astonished that i asked her agan what is this? 'wox' she replied again. :-)) needless to say we clapped and danced and carried her arnd and aditi felt very pleased with herself. the best thing was when the first time she said 'wux' and saw my reaction she gave a big laugh and fell on her father's shoulders in such a cute fashion, i felt as if she's saying 'what's the big deal? u find this amusing?' :-)

the 'wux' became such a hit that aditi would point out to all the animals in the book and say 'wux'. i didn't mind. after all her nidhika, at age one.5, had looked at a real elephant and clapped her hands in glee and said 'bow-bow'.

i had taught aditi to show us the 'light' in each room and she would drag us to bulbs and lamp-shades. Now, i showed her the clock and she learned to identify the clocks in the drawing hall and bedroom. she also started looking at Lord Ayyappa's pic when i asked her to show 'saami-umaachi'.

Santosh and Aditi spend some time daily going thru one or two books. he succeeded in teachng her to say 'duck'. for sometime duck replaced wux and everything in the book became duck. this was a pattern - aditi would learn a new word and use that word everywhere. one thing was clear she was learning fast, touch-wood. when playing, when nidhika squealed with laughter and excitement aditi would imitate her squeals in pitch and tone.

she even learned fake laughter so that she could jon in when santosh, nidhi and i shared a joke. when i am trying to get her to sleep, if i ask her sternly to go to sleep, she would close her eyes in a fake manner, baring all her teeth in her attempt to squeeze her eyes shut. it's totally hilarious.

And, today morning, i showed her the same pic-book of animals which she had been going thru with her father. when we reached the bear, aditi started showing her tongue. it took a moment for it to click and i looked closely at the pic of the bear. lo, what do i find, the bear has a little pink tongue protruding from its mouth. wow, so that's what aditi's trying to show me.

now i have serious doubts. someone pls tell me just who is teaching whom.

The rampage called Aditi

When we named her ADITI, we wanted it to signify someone who's blessed with as much patience and prosperity as Mother Earth. I think there is also a hidden meaning in her name for the word - NAUGHTY. how else can u explain the non-stop mischief she carries on with all the time.

Ever since our samaan has arrived i realised one thing. Aditi has grown quite tall. i find that all the things that were unreachable to her two months ago(when we were packing in Muscat) are now available to her with ease. anything higher than that she climbs up the sofa and tries to reach out for. Somewhere in the earlier posts on this blog i had noted down than Aditi opened the draw on the lowermost level of our TV-stand. Now she is standing up and happily reaching out for the objects placed on top of the TV stand - a beautiful Ganesh and a few knick-knacks. Most of the breakable things i had r still packed or sent back to India. And whatever little remains, Aditi seems determined to destroy. She gnawed off the glittery things surrounding the Ganesh before we spotted her and rescued the idol. Now Ganesh is hiding behind the TV - I have to peep behind the TV to get His darshan in the morning.

To keep her occupied, i rush thru my household work and try spend as much time as possible with her. Nidhi comes from school and after lunch goes straight to play with her. whenever Santosh arrives from office he tries to spend all his time with Aditi while nidhi and i get bz tackling schoolwork. All this interaction with us has left her in no doubt that she is as grown up as us. u can see it in the nonchalance with which she imitates us - be it talking on the phone or combing her hair or trying out her Nidhika's hairband. she even places Nidhi's lunch bag around her neck and walks off towards the front door saying 'daai, daai' (bye, bye) waving her hands enthusiastically. sometimes when enthusiasam reaches the peak, she waves both her hands, looking very much like a little bird flapping its wings.

when we go out we put her in the stroller. as long as the stroller keeps moving she's fine but the minute we stop at an aisle inside the shop to look for something she wriggles out. we have tried every possible way to strap her in, but she out maneouvres us. as one shopkeeper exclaimed to her 'r u an escape artist!' :-( if we put her back in the stroller she will try to stand inside. i don't think one has to see this in order to understand how dangerous this is. so the person pushing the stroller(me or santosh, nidhi can't manage) has to keep out a hand and hold her while we move the stroller. the minute we stop she'll jump out again and go straight for the place where she can find a bottle or something breakable. she will then take two of such items, one in each hand and proceed on a wobbly walk down the aisle. Our heart misses a few beats until we can catch up with her and take away the things she is holding. the remarkable thing is that she will hand over her things with a smile and when u turn arnd to replace them in the shelves, she would have already moved on to finding the next breakable or tear-able item she can reach. Nidhi had only her father wrapped arnd her little finger, Aditi has all three of us. this is the only explanation i have for why we continue to take her out whenever she go shopping, rather than the more sensible option of one of us watching over her in the car or at home while the other buys stuff.

When Aditi first learned to smile(when she was a little less than 45 days old), i didn't have a blog. so i couldn't capture the moment in words, but i find that those magical minutes have survived in my heart. To put it in simple words, everytime Aditi looked at me and smiled, it lit up my very soul. There was no guarantee when or why she would oblige us and this made her smiles all the more precious. The same applies to being called Amma. You r in the kitchen either cooking or cleaning and Aditi is in the bedroom having a power-nap after having seen her sister and father off to school/office. suddenly u hear a soft voice calling out 'Amma'. you wait a minute although ur heart is fluttering coz u know it will happen again. And soon enuf, 'Amma' in a slightly louder and more insistent voice. You rush to the bedroom and find a little form looking a bit rumpled and tousled, tangled slightly in the blankets, but sitting up nonetheless, looking towards the door waiting for you. Ah.... what wouldn't i do for this little baby of mine. :-)

if santosh/nidhi were writing this blog i am sure they will also have some such thing to share abt how Aditi has captivated them. Why else do we tolerate all her naughtiness i dunno.

Just today Santosh was telling me he loves the way she goes on reverse gear. Soon enuf i had an opportunity to observe. Aditi would pick up a bottle or a toy and if she feels she needs a lap to park her bum, she will walk towards the person (me or santosh or nidhi) sitting on the floor. When she is two steps away from us she will turn away from us and then walk backwards until she reaches us and happily plonk herself on us, trusting the one she has bestowed herself upon to cradle her/comfort her/fuss over her.

When she drinks water from her bottle lying in my lap, sometimes she chokes up a bit. i immediately blow over her head or pat her a bit on the back or 'thadavufy' her chest until she settles down. Aditi is so fond of this action of mine that many a times she does such a thing wantedly. u can easily catch her at her false, forced coughing up and then her naughty little smile when she finds me fussing over her. i let her get away with it only for that naugty smile that pops out n the end. such a nautanki she is.

when i was unpacking things in Nidhi's room, i came across all her dolls. immediately i gave them all the Aditi who was hovering nearby(Nidhi was at school). Aditi squealed with such excitement, she started hugging all the dolls and carrying them arnd and playing with them. now from past two days she has learned to pat them to sleep and today we found her saying 'o,o,o' while patting them and making them sleep. some of the dolls r as big as her and it's so endearing to watch her carry a doll and sway to and fro patting it affectionately to sleep.

One of the first few things Nidhi learned was to 'show' her tongue, teeth, eyes, nose, etc. Now it's Aditi's turn and she has learned to show her tongue and her hair. She has also learned to identify lights and if u ask her 'where is the light?'/'light enge?' you will be lead to the nearest bulb/lightsource and little fingers will then point upwards to guide u in case u happen to miss the bulb by any chance. if u r carrying the said baby then the little one will lean towards the light switch and try to flip it back and forth to demonstrate the flow of light. Lesson learned? Then move on to the next one, where Aditi will sit facing u holding ur hands in her little palms facing each other. She will then push them together and teach u to clap your hands. she seems to think her mom is a weak student and i find her helping me the most with this lesson. i am happy to be a weak student as long as the teacher teaching me derives such an enormous pleasure in training me. Thank you, Aditi.

And if all the above she does is not enuf i have often caught her in tip-toes, and by that i mean the tippest of toes exactly like a ballerina, trying to open the front door handle. The lock is just above the handle (and unreachable as of now) but i am dreading the day when she grows taller, or worse, the door is left unlocked by chance. God help us!

Aditi at one

Aditi turned one last month.

Her date-of-birth came before her star-birthday. We tied some balloons and cut a cake. And, played some games. i devised a game where i would leave Aditi in the bedroom and run to join Santosh and Nidhi seated on the ground in the living room. All three of us would then call out to Aditi, urging her to come to us. The one she ran to would win. Three times Aditi ran to Santosh. Then Nidh and i cried major foul and asked him to leave Aditi in the bedroom. No use, she still ran to him. Hell, we even excluded Santosh from the game and asked him to remain in the bedroom urging Aditi outside. She turned in the opposite direction and ran back to the bedroom to her father. At this point Nidhi and i gave up and stopped the game. Needless to say, Appa was grinning as if his b'day had come early!

Star-b'day fell on a Friday. We performed a simple ganapathi-homam and aayush-homam at the local temple. Aditi was not willing to sit still and at last i gave her a bottle and made her lie down in my lap. Scenes from Nidhi's first b'day kept replaying in my mind - how she was clinging to me, got irritated with the garland and how the vaadhyar rang the 'mani'(bell) to distract her when she started crying. Incidently, Aditi and Nidhi have the same pavadai for their first b'day. The pavadai we bought for nidhi had extra cloth and my mom had saved it in chennai all these years - we quickly got it stitched for aditi. she also wore a 'juttu'/'peeli-kondai'(banana-plant-on-the-head hairstyle) with flowers. She even got the very first mehendi of her life done.

one of my cousins who lives here explained to me kindly 'one thing u have to understand, nothing happens on weekdays'. so when none of the people here could attend the celebrations we went ahead with just the four of us rather postpone the puja to the weekend. and we did have a jolly good time. her first wish was from her grandparents - the festivities started when my parents called up on Thur night(Friday morning for them) and wished Aditi. She loves to listen to the b'day song and watches in delight when santosh, nidhi and i sing it for her. Which we have been doing every month since she was born. :-)

For a long time i haven't written abt Aditi, the reason being i couldn't find words to write abt the magic she brings to our home. Be it waving 'haai'(bye) to her Appa and Nidhikka in the morning when they leave for office/school, following me arnd the whole day like a little kitten saying not meow, meow, but amma, amma, listening to music and trying to dance - each and everything she does brings a smile on our face. she has this style of walking when she knows u r looking - she will bend fwd slightly, raise her head, make sure we r looking at us and walk a few steps before crumbling in laughter - she thinks she is doing a catwalk for us. And, when she wants to impress us she does tiny push ups and gives us a smile and a look which says 'see what i can do'. After Nidhi's back from school and had her lunch, she spends some time playing with her sister. an hour or so. the best game is hide and seek. i think santosh started it and nidhi continued it, it's become Aditi's fav game. she would run arnd seeking her Akka and giving high-pitched cries in her excitement. she caught on fast and when Nidhi hides behind a door she spots her in the gap between the hinges. another fav game is when nidhi vanishes into a blanket and aditi has to find her out. nidhi sits on the ground and aditi climbs all over her trying to find some part of her akka. both r screaming with laughter and having such a lot of fun.

aditi has learned to point out her teeth, tongue and nose. when i tell her 'chudum'(hot), she blows with her mouth and makes hissing noises. also, 'brush ur teeth' brings abt an energetic rubbing of the front teeth with her fingers. the appearance of the first tooth was soon followed by us buying a toothbrush for her, when she takes her bath she chews on it and before i finish her bath i help her brush her teeth properly.

aditi loves to go out and the minute someone opens the shoe-closet she starts following them saying 'haai', 'haai', meaning 'bye, let's go out'. when we take her to the park, she runs arnd, plays in the swing and follows other children looking at what they r upto. initially nidhi would slide down with her sister in her lap. then we found small slides where santosh or i would place her on top and help her slide down. now she has learned to slide herself. we have to just make her sit on the top, she pushes herself fwd and slides down in joy.

serving as a reminder to us that she is looking at us and learning, she catches hold of a comb and immediately proceeds to comb her hair. similarly when she manages to get a mobile she holds it to her ear and listens with great attention and then walks arnd mumbling words in her own language.
we discovered the amazing Public Library here - 50 books for three weeks and renewals for another 3 weeks. Free, Free, Free. so after dinner everyday you will find santosh. nidhi and me in three corners of the living room each of us lost in the world inside our book. aditi runs from person to person trying to snatch the books, play with us, lie in our laps, etc. luckily we had bought her a picture-book just the week before we joined the library. so we take turns in showing her the pictures and reading aloud the words. santosh even abandons his book and plays running arnd after aditi(nidhi and i r too much of bookworms to do that much). Past two days Aditi has come to the conclusion that as a family, where books r concerned, we r a gone-case. so she has taken to sitting down with her book and flipping the pages and looking at the pictures herself. atta-girl!
 

Aditi's Pass-time

Every mom knows this rule that if ur baby (a toddler) is not to be seen arnd for sometime and it is unusually quiet, then definitely ur baby is upto something. The sooner u find him/her, the lesser a mess u have to clean up later.

In light of the above, i have been pleasantly surprised to find that when Aditi goes missing for a short while and no noise from her, she is engaged thus :

This has happened many times and though i still check on her to see what she is upto, she continues to gaze in admiration at the road and the cars whizzing by. Initially she was speechless with wonder, but now that she is used to the scene she talks/shouts out something in her own language or sometimes just chuckles loudly. I can see she is enjoying herself thoroughly in gazing out of the window. i love the fact that she has discovered at least one activity which amuses her, that does NOT involve me/her sister/her father!

Snatches of Conversation

Janmashtami, as proven in the past, is an occasion that provides the setting for many an interesting conversation. Consequently, i love to celebrate the festival with my children. This year, yet again, the 'Doubt of the Year' award goes to Nidhi Santosh.

"Will Krishna be inviting all other Gods to party in our house on the night of his b'day?"

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Nidhi's new school, here in America has Rocky the Coyote as it's lucky mascot. The children call themselves Cool Coyotes. When i read this fact on the school website and reported it to Nidhi, she said,

"Cool Coyote? Sounds like cool 'kozhakattai....'"

:-)

One of the reasons i couldn't select the name Kirtana for Aditi - Nidhi felt it sounded like 'kirukku'. Such a beautiful name Kirtana, spoiled forever in my mind thanks to Nidhi. A talent she picks up from her father. Mr.Santosh kills beautiful songs. He will sing it in such a way that u will be disgusted whenever u hear that song again, never mind that u liked it immensely before. We were just married when i happened to mention i liked the 'Zara zara mehekta hai..' song, the kind gentleman didn't lose a second before breaking into the song(beautifully i must add), but accompanied by such gestures, scrunching up his nose, waving his hands to clear the air, looking arnd suspiciously etc. as if someone has 'polluted the air'. That was the first time. since then he has killed many such using his famous techinque of translating a song into bengali or bihari... As for me, i learned my lesson quite fast and never admit i like a song in his presence.

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We were at a lake here and watching a couple of birds swimming in the water. we assumed they were ducks when suddenly they rose up and flew high up to join a flock of birds flying home. Needless to say we were startled.
Santosh : Did u see that? Those were not ducks. Can ducks fly so high?
Me : then they must be goose or geese or something like that.
Nidhi : Or they might be aliens. Did u see if they had only one eye?
Santosh and Me : ???

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Little Aditi has added a new word to her vocabulary since coming here. She finds everyone here telling her 'Hi, baby', 'bye, baby' so enthusiastically that now she no longer says 'tata' but has adopted the American style of 'Haaai' accompanied by waving her hands. This serves for bye too and u will be greeted and sent off with a very cute 'Haaaai' with a hand-wave if u visit our house now. Appa and Nidhika are smitten and spend an extra few mins for this whenever they leave for office/school.

One day, i was giving Nidhi some instructions from the top of the stairs when she was leaving for school. Aditi was with me and not to be outdone, she also shouted something loudly towards Nidhikka and beamed at us saying 'see, i can do it too'. 

the other day i was speaking to my mother on the phone. Appa and Nidhikka called out to me and were much amused to find Aditi holding her hand to her ears as if she's clutching a phone and she was walking arnd seriously blabbering something....

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One thing our house never lacks, thank God and thank the children - Entertainment.



 

The Move

Couple of weeks ago, Nidhi, Aditi and i took a nap in the afternoon. what was unusual abt the nap was that it lasted 4 hours. 4 hours is the longest i have slept without interuption(by Aditi) in the past year. And that's during night. During the day, if i get an hour's worth of nap-time then i beam the whole day as if i have been to Disneyland. So 4hours during the day was like  absolufantasticamazinglygreat. i was the first to wake up and loooked out of the window in amazement...

Hills, greenery,  palm trees, swimming pools.... i was in a hotel room. i realised with a start we had done it - Moved to the United States. In what can be termed as the quickest decision we have ever taken and the fastest move we have ever done - in two weeks time we had disposed off our things, packed the rest into cargo, got our visa, booked our tickets and flown!

One of the most difficult aspects of the decision was the journey - an 8hour and 11hour flight with a 11-month baby, with transit in between - altogether 25hrs. one word - nightmare.

Just a month ago we had come back from India and that was Aditi's first flight journey ever. We travelled together not knowing what to expect from Aditi. It was a midnight flight and Aditi did full 'kottam' in the airport. The bright lights and new sights added to her excitement. It didn't help that Nidhikka started playing in the play-area. Soon Aditi, Appa and Nidhikka were rolling arnd having fun. (Me? i was clicking pics and resting my back) Once we boarded the flight, i gave her the milk-bottle when the flight started to take-off. Aditi dozed off....and woke up after the flight landed! The 3hr 45min journey i didn't move a muscle coz she was sleeping in my lap (Thank you Indian Airlines - no basinette). The return journey was the same except she slept half the time in her Appa's lap.

And now, the 25 hour journey loomed in front of us. We opted for transit coz i couldn't imagine a 19-hour continous flight - what if i didn't get to move a muscle yet again. So, transit it was. A couple of hrs to/at Abu Dhabi and then onto Heathrow, London. 8 hours. She slept, i didn't move.

It was the London i had read abt in books - grey skies, rain. The crowd at the Heathrow Airport reminded me of Central Station. Nidhi, Aditi and i found a big bathroom(a family bathroom) and emerged an hour later cleaned and 'make-up'ped to find Appa shaking his head mumbling 'Ladies!'. He was then graciously given 10 mins to freshen up and join us in exploring the duty-free.

Nidhi had a major concern. The last couple of years (on and off) she has come across explanation of the Indian freedom struggle thru me, books and her teachers. She was deeply affected and had declared that she would never set foot in England. (if ever we took a holiday in europe, it would be switz, france, germany, never uk). Now here we were, in the middle of all these white-looking people, Nidhi looking arnd scowling at whom she felt was a Britisher. On top of that she had spent the major portion of the flight journey curled up in her seat. she was so tired that even the in-flight personal entertainment system couldn't keep her awake. sleeping in a curled up fashion can only make u more tired and here she was - totally irritated. To distract her, i pointed to all the shops and said 'Choice is urs. Which one u want to go to?' And guess what? She picked the book store! Overjoyed. That's me.

The 11hour journey from Heathrow to Los Angeles was completed with walking, playing, eating and a little bit of sleeping (in the basinette this time). Upon arrival, Santosh drove us to the hotel in a Hertz car(which had a GPS and a paper with directions written by me from the internet on how to reach the hotel, but we shall not disclose which one was followed.) Anyway, the most important thing was we reached the hotel in one piece. Had dinner and slept for sometime and woke up arnd midnite unable to sleep further.

Jetlag. The one thing that eluded explanation no matter how much i read/asked others abt it. Now, we understood. In simple words it means having ur lunch, going to sleep for a short nap (thinking u'll get up and explore the place in the evening) and waking up at midnite feeling so hungry (it's lunchtime) u cannot go back to sleep no matter what u eat. Three days of this went on. For the kids, it went on for a week. there is only so much you can do to adjust the food and sleeping times of children. Santosh and i would plan our day arnd the times the sleep and wake-up times for Nidhi and Aditi. Searching for a house, school-admission, everything else could wait. In a week's time they were ok. And, after that, in a week's time we found an apartment. The next day we finished Nidhi's school admission. She started her classes from the first day the school began.

Two weeks has passed by since we moved into this apt. Even now, when i am engrossed in a book or household work and suddenly i look outside i am surprised to find myself in America. I pick up the phone i am surprised to hear an American accent answer. i am amazed at how easy it is to walk across busy roads at signals with Aditi's stroller. So many parks, such beautiful grass on the curb-side. And, so many beautiful birds. we spotted a couple of hares in the hedges at Nidhi's school. Such smiling people at the super-market counters(does it matter if they r genuine or just doing their job). Wishing good-morning to strangers on morning walks.

But, all said and done, i couldn't help but ponder the basic question that kept me occupied ever since i heard abt this move of ours. How on earth can an entire nation to this? And, a developed nation at that. What abt the countless Indians who have set foot upon this land before me? All educated, intelligent people. How could they do this! i went against all my beliefs and my whole system (of education) was shaken. i had decided to check for myself when Santosh got down for a re-fill - what was it that flowed from the nozzles.. "How on earth can anyone, let alone an entire nation, call a liguid 'gas'?" And then i came across the word Gasoline. Ah, peace.

The Move is not yet complete. There r a lot many formalities remaining including the most important one of me getting a DL. There were lot of hurdles we faced(and overcame) when we had to wind up everything in Oman. How did we do it 2 weeks? The day before i made my decision i spoke to a friend in America. She asked me to take one day at a time. That's what we did. And, that's how we landed here. i dunno how long we'll be here. India (and parents) are always on our mind. But, i am going to take my friend's advice again. And, live one day at a time...
 

A Marathon Post : How Aditi was born

(i had written this long long ago, just after Aditi was born, but didn't have this blog. Found it now, so posting it here...)

Baby-name sites suggest the meaning of Aditi is Mother Earth, the one with abundant patience and prosperity. But to us, Aditi means Joy. Sheer, unadulterated, pure Happiness. Loads of which this baby has brought to our house ever since she was born...

Aditi was born two months ago, on 25th Sept 2011. So now i share my b'day month with Aditi and day with Nidhi(9th). The nine months of Nidhi's waiting for Aditi was complete at last and i have no words to describe how happy she was to see her little sister!

The best piece of advice i received during pregnancy was from Nidhi, of course. One particularly difficult day in the last month, she told me, 'Just chill, dude, chill'. Yup, that's what i needed. i chilled out and remembered to chill out until Aditi was finally born.

Since i had the tendency to go into pre-term labour, the doctor had asked me to be careful from 7th month onwards. i was taking it very easy, with no walks, no excercise, nothing at all. Just a little bit of easy-peasy cooking and the rest was taken care of by the maid. Santosh took over Nidhi's school-work and my stress-level was kept at a minimum. we crossed week upon week and kept count of the doc-visits, all of which were routine.

Then, dawned 12th sept. the day my mom was arriving from chennai. since she had visited us during 5th and 6th month, 12th sept was the earliest she could arrive for my delivery. i finished my morning routine and received a call from my cousin from a nearby country. Spoke to her for almost an hour, in which i jokingly told her my mom says hope u will be at home and not hospital when i arrive. i had told her no guarantee. Finished the phone call at 10 AM(i spent the whole time relaxing on the sofa with my legs raised up for comfort). 11 AM i started feeling uncomfortable. Braxton hicks, as usual, i thought. the pain started increasing in intensity. i called up santosh. he advised me to pop a vaazhu-guligai(also called my life-saviour during all nine months of pregnancy),to drink lot of water and lie down. Which i promptly did. Felt better for sometime. Then started feeling worse. Had my lunch and laid down again. Lunchtime arrived and santosh picked up nidhi from her school-van and came home. i was feeling OK and told santosh to go back to office after his lunch. then called him as soon as he reached office asking him to hurry home. Regular contractions. the darling guy didn't hesitate a minute. he hurried back home and in no time we were on the way to the hospital. i made my one and only mistake of the day - not take something for nidhi to eat in case our stay was long.

my gynacologist was on leave and i had met another doc in the same hospital. she was due in the hospital in an hour's time and meanwhile the nurse strapped me to a machine to measure the contractions. it was the first time i had seen such a machine and i wasted no time in asking the nurse all abt how to read the measurements. soon, santosh and i were looking at big, giant contractions(at least to our eyes). After sometime, the nurse unstrapped me and told me not worry coz the doc would be in in an hour's time. doc arrived. internal examination(the one exam i fear most in this world!). 1.5-2 cms. Wow, and u didn't feel much pain exclaimed the doc and proceeded to admit me for the night expecting the delivery to take place the next day - it was my 35th week. She also said there is a chance dilation may not happen further in which case i would be discharged the next day. however no food until delivery. thank you so much, for 9th months you r asked to stuff urself and one fine day, 'patni!'.

anyway, to cut a long story short, that night my mother arrived(and only then learned i was hospitalised) and next day she and nidhi waited at home for santosh's call saying 'baby's here!'. No call came, instead i was discharged (dilation remained the same at 1.5-2) and after making sure there is no risk of an infection to the baby coz of the opening, i came home to 2 more weeks of bed-rest.

37th week was complete. Pains on and off, and on again. 25th of sept was here. We drove to the hospital at 8 AM, this time with food, drink, story-books, color-pencils, et al,and Nidhi and my mom too. the previous day evening Nidhi had started crying when i started getting regular pain. so on 25th we made as if it was a picnic to the hospital and all of us tried to be in as good a mood as we could be. the previous night i had urged everyone to sleep well and not slept a wink myself. By 8:15 we were alloted a room(the paper-work having been completed by santosh the previous week itself - i could come anytime and just get admitted and have my baby!).

The first thing the nurse did was ask me to change into a white-colored hospital gown. it was more of a tent than a gown and in my tension i wore it ulta. the nurse corrected me, strapped me to different machines(monitor B.P. and measure contractions) and asked me to relax. a lot many nurses and doctors(dietician, anastesiologist, my gynacologist) came and asked me so many different questions. Lack of sleep and worrying abt the impending delivery, i was deteriorating rapidly. Rather my mood was. health-wise i was in perfect condition. the feeling of what-am-i-doing-here, pls-let-me-go-home-and-sleep was turning rapidly into a panic and santosh could see i was not doing well. he did a simple thing - asked me to just close my eyes and sleep. then he took nidhi away to a lounge. my mom was praying silently nearby. i fell asleep and woke up an hour later. refreshed and feeling better.

At, 10:00 AM a tall nurse(a britisher, all others were indians(mostly malayalees)) came and covered me with a huge acrylic blanket and disconnected all that needed to be and attached to the bed the rest. A male-orderly then wheeled the bed with me and all attachments to the operation theatre. My mom wished me all the best, nidhi sent me off with all the best, bye, see you soon, come back soon... all in loudest voices that i kept replying to until we turned round the lenghty corridor. Santosh walked quickly behind my bed and my mom thought he was going to wait outside the theatre. we had something more planned up our sleeve - santosh was to keep me company during the operation.
And, that is the single decision that i have been the most happy abt in my whole life. Whew, what an experience it was!

I kept watching the lights pass by overhead as the orderly quickly and comfortably rolled my bed into the operation theatre with practised ease. It was like stepping into another world. The first thing i noticed were the bright white lights - the whole place was brightly lit by what seemed like a 100 tubelights. And, the temperature was much lower than the air-conditioned corridor. There was a lobby/reception area where a lot of people were standing arnd talking. All nurses, doctors, orderlies. All dressed in green, including a green cap covering the head. And, remarkably cheerful and talking in what seemed to me like loud voices. there was one guy who was tall and good-looking who opened the double door to let my bed in. Looking all around me, i felt i had stepped into a movie or TV-soap. The good-looking guy was not part of the team that operated on me and i never did find out if he was a doc or a nurse or just a guy employed to open the door to cheer up patients with his good looks!

By this time, i can't really describe the state of mind i was in - on one hand i was worried and anxious abt the impending surgery, on the other there was the excitement that soon we'll have a baby in our hands. i was also trying to look arnd objectively and see if i could identify any person or instrument(no on both accounts) - it was my way of trying to control the rapidly escalating panic that had visited me earlier that day morning.

When we rolled to a stop in the operating-theatre's reception area, only then i noticed that Santosh had followed us in! The orderly asked him if he will be going inside the theatre and Santosh said yes with a smile. Then he showed me something in his hand and made sure i noticed that he was placing it under the pillow on my bed. then the orderly took Santosh to a small room inside to change into what i like to call surgical-greens.

One note abt my dear husband. He is scared of hospitals, doctors, injections, medicines, blood. Scared as in dead scared. Paranoid. he has a phobia of blood and a simple injection can cause him to break out in sweat and raise his BP high(as i have seen many times in the past. whenever he has to take an injection i literally fall on him and hold him down coz i am scared one day he is going to kick the nurse!). During the last few doc-visits during this pregnancy we had learned that husband was allowed to be present during delivery. as soon as i came to know this i told santosh that although it would be nice if he tagged along, there is no compulsion from my side that he shd be present. i left it up to him to decide what he wants to do. he had told me he would come, but i was sure if he changed his mind in the last minute i wouldn't mind.

When Nidhi was born, Santosh was away, in another country. He had left in my 8th month(after being forced by me coz i felt opportunity never knocks twice). although the decision has turned out to be the right one for us coz ever since we have lived here and grown to love this lifestyle, there has always been one regret, that santosh was not right there when nidhi was born(even though the doc would never have allowed him into the operating theatre in chennai). also, until santosh was there with me i was in perfect health. he left for abroad and 2 weeks later i was admitted in the hospital for pre-term labour(my due date was a month and a half away). i have always felt santosh is my lucky charm. of course, he cheers me up at all times and that always helps! so this time when i became pregnant the first thing we decided was Santosh would be by my side always. but never did i imagine that he would follow me even into the operating-theatre!

so here i was lying in my bed looking all arnd and wondering why do theatres have to be so noisy(based on my past experience, when nidhi was born the doc chattered away continously for the 45 mins i was inside the theatre, talking with her colleagues abt going to the market, meeting her friend and other such totally inconsequential rubbish(to my ears) all the while when i kept thinking hello, is my baby ok? can u plz concentrate on me! and, can we have some peace and quiet plz!)

Looking at the smile on santosh's face and the something that he pushed under my pillow, i started calming down. i was immensely happy that not only did santosh stick to his word of staying by me even during surgery, he even did it so cheerfully. While santosh was away, the orderly came back and pushed my bed into the actual operation theatre. i was rolled beside the surgical-stand(although a bed, it was quite narrow and made me wonder again why this kanjoosi and is this the norm all over the world). i was then asked to get up and perform some acrobatics. which means i was asked to sit up and move myself into the surgical stand. This i did with considerable grace, in spite of the fact i was as big as an elephant. but i knew moving myself like this was quite easy compared to the acrobatics i would be asked to perform later, like turning myself once the spinal anesthesia was administered. i wasn't disappointed.

as soon as i lay down on my new bed, i remembered to pick something up from under the pillow on my other bed. This was a very beautiful pocket-sized picture of Lord Krishna. The something that Santosh had given me just as we entered the theatre. It was Krishna as a baby, sitting with a cute smile and eating butter. Who can resist from smiling at this sight! And thus i was also calmed and comforted.

once i lay in the stand, i looked all around me. to my left a couple of nurses were counting and arranging the surgical instruments. behind them was a wall which housed a big clock showing the current time and numerous other clocks showing the time in many other countries. surprisingly india wasn't one of them. Then, straight ahead i could see a white-board with a green(of course) marker pen. a nurse was rubbing out the contents of the previous surgery and writing a fresh list of surgical instruments, with one of the nurses calling out the count of each of them being used. i could see titles like baby-sex, time, weight, etc. being left blank.

A couple of nurses asked me to sit up with both my legs dangling down the stand. one of them asked me if i spoke tamil or malayalam, while another pushed a stand to rest my feet on. My pillow was placed on my lap and i was asked to hunch over it. My blanket was placed in front of me and cellotaped to my gown at the shoulder(i know, i was equally surprised). then the anesthesiologist stepped up from the head of the surgical-stand(no, i won't call it a bed!) and went behind me. This lady seemed like one from a neighbouring country and she was dressed to the nine! Manicured hands, heavy make-up and a branded handbag(when she visited me in my room earlier), she belonged more in a beauty-parlour than in a hospital i thought. also i wasn't happy when i heard her complaining that a previous patient had asked technical questions of the nurse rather than the doc(herself). i could only think no wonder.

And now this doctor stepped behind me and threw open my gown to expose my back. the nurses who helped me earlier had moved away performing other duties. the doctor told me she is going to give me a couple of injections - test-dose and such. she told me to hunch as much as possible and started poking me with needles which i am sure were more than a couple of times than she said. since i had planned 'shut up and put up' to be my mantra during delivery, i didn't say anything and tried my best not to wince. a little while later the doctor started muttering 'can't find the spine' and started shouting at the nurses 'Am i to work alone or what! no one to help me?'. my panic started mounting again and it was all i could do not to shout out 'don't blame ur incompetency on the nurses!'.

one of the nurses started talking to me in tamil(remember she had asked me earlier) and i, in my confused state started replying to her in malayalam. i was asked to hunch in such a way as to push my spine outwards and somehow the thing was done and i felt the sharp stab of the final injection and i was immediately asked to lift my legs up the stand and lie down. all this happened in a rush and i was quickly made comfortable with the pillow placed under my head by the doctor herself. i thanked her and then thanked God silently. the anesthesia took a while to take effect and unlike the last time when i felt my body floating gravity-less from neck down, this time i just felt plain numb. my hands were spread on either side of me and stands put up for resting them. on my left hand and chest were plugged numerous censors which were connected to displays behind my bed. when i was sitting up earlier i had noticed the machines and could identify only one which monitors BP.

at this time, my gynacologist entered. i could not see her, but could hear her voice and imagined her to be perched on a stool while the anesthesia took effect. a strange thing took place when my doctor entered - the whole place fell silent. all the nurses shut up and only one of them was answering my doctor, who was asking something abt the surgical instruments(gloves or sutures or something i forget). for a minute i hoped, i really really hoped, perhaps there won't be any discussion abt markets and friends and vegs and lunches. and, let me tell u, there wasn't! :-)

a little while later my doctor came up to my side and checked if i was feeling numb. on my assent she informed me that she was starting the surgery by 'preparing me'(whatever that meant). i said 'ok, doctor', the first in the line of many OKs whenever my doc spoke to me during surgery. The time was 10:20 AM. Almost immediately i heard someone telling the doctor 'her husband is ready and waiting outside'. the doc asked me if he was planning to come in and i said yes, if it's ok with you. she said ok, but first let me prepare you. then i understood that preparation meant spreading a big blue 'tarpaulin' sheet across my body right up to my face. the excess sheet near my face was folded up forming a blue wall and that was to be the scenery i could gaze on throughout the surgery whenever i faced forward. but, i had no complaints as the scenery on my right-side improved much more just then, as Santosh slipped into a stool placed near my right hand.

My first thought was 'Arre, u look so handsome, u shd've been a doctor!'. :-)) in the surgical-greens, santosh looked like one of those good-looking doctors u find in movies. it helped that he was smiling steadily and didn't look a bit worried or tense. that helped me tremendously to calm down and from then on i didn't feel even a ripple of worry. All that remained was the excitement to see the baby! Many days after the surgery santosh told me he was quite worried and tense, but i had to say that he did an excellent job of hiding it - which was the best thing he could've ever done for me!

now on my left i had the anesthesiologist asking me how i felt and on my right i had my husband asking the same. the anesthesiologist kept asking me if i was feeling any pain and if i wanted to sleep. i refused her a couple of times coz i wanted to be wide awake so that i could see my baby asap when she was born. santosh held my hand and took out a couple of pictures for me to gaze at - Lord Muruga and Ayyappa-Swamy. Unbelievebly it was Tiruchendur Murugan(my fav God in the world) - a pocket-calender given by Chennai Silks. i passed on the Lord Krishna's photo he had given me earlier and santosh held the three pictures out so that i could gaze on them at all times. he asked me if i felt any pain and even though i replied in the negative, he wiped his forehead a couple of times which made me believe that although i was the one undergoing  surgery, given his phobia of blood, we were in this together.

Hardly 10-15 mins had passed when the doctor suddenly announced 'the baby'll be out in 2 mins'. i said OK and was totally unprepared for what followed next. There was a splash of blood and lo, the doc held up a beautiful baby facing me above my blue wall(the tarpaulin sheet). 'Wow!' was all i could say while the rest of the theatre erupted in cheer. The sight of the baby all covered in blood and mucus was one i'll never forget in my whole life. What an awesome experience! Santosh and i exchanged looks of relief and started smiling happily. A few mins later on my right-side the british nurse appeared holding the baby in what looked like an old towel. once again, we went 'Wow!'. the baby was abt to be taken for her first bath/cleaning. the doctor and nurse informed santosh that he could go and see. with an 'i'll be back', the new dad vanished from his spot in a second, like the grinning chesire cat in Alice's Wonderland and i was left to contemplate the red dots that had appeared on the blue wall by the spurting of blood. And now the doctor started her actual work and i felt quite a lot of pulling and pushing and tugging. The silence in the theatre continued to be absolute except for a couple of instructions to the nurses given by the doc in a low voice.

i didn't know what to expect next, but a few mins later surprisingly, the chesire cat, i mean Santosh returned and i immediately started asking him if he heard her cry,etc. He told me with great joy that Aditi opened her eyes for the first time and it was him she looked at before anything or anyone! he told me she had his nose and weighed 3.1 kg. We were very happy that the weight crossed 3 kgs (Nidhi was 3.5kgs) what with all the illness(not just the nausea) i faced during the intial days of pregnancy. We both agreed that the baby seemed to look tall, 'a long baby'.

Some time about now i felt a pain in my chest and i got scared thinking i am having a heart-attack. i moved my hands a bit trying to relieve the pain but it was of no use. i started complaining to Santosh abt it while the anesthesiologist noticed my discomfort and said she'll take care. apparently she injected Paracetomal into the IV and in a few mins the pain was less, though not gone completely. i couldn't help my thoughts which started turning filmy 'O God, pls let me live for my baby!' :-)

And then, yet again the british nurse appeared holding Aditi wrapped up and at once she placed the baby with her head resting on my chest. And lo, Aditi turned her head slightly up and gazed at me and i was thrilled! Yahoooooooo, i am a mommy once again! I said to santosh 'she's looking at me, looking at me!!! o god, she's so cute!!!' Then the nurse told me that she's taking the baby away to be kept warm in an incubator and as soon as i return to my room Aditi will join me there and we'll try breast-feeding. The doc informed santosh that if he wanted to go with the baby he could do so. The man performed the vanishing-act yet again (but, not before thanking doctor profusely) and i was left alone to re-live the past few moments when Aditi looked at me for the first time and trying to etch in my mind permanantly the sight of Aditi as she was being held up by the doctor as soon as she was born.

The major portion of the operation was after the baby was out and exactly after an hour since she began, the doctor announced 'Ok Saraswathi, the surgery is complete'. i thanked her very much and told her i also appreciated her whole team in the theatre. the doctor left after telling me that i will be spending an hour in the recovery-room and then can go back to my room.

my original bed was rolled by my side and all the nurses in the theatre joined hands to lift me from the surgical-stand and place me on my bed. i was rolled on to a room with a lot of beds seperated by curtains. i could see a clock on the wall on my right-side. the time was 11:20 AM. there were a couple of other patients too, a lady and a man. i deduced this from the voices and could not see them as the nurse had drawn a curtain around my bed. the nurse bade me sleep and waited a couple of beds away. at this point i realised i was feeling cold. And soon enuf i was shivering uncontrollably. the lower portion of my body was still numb and although i felt only a dull sense of pain, i could feel that my body was trying to work out the trauma of being operated upon. The nurse approached me and asked me if i needed anything and i told her abt the coldness. she said it could be a delayed reaction to the temperature in the theatre which was much colder than the rest of the hospital. she covered me with a couple of extra blankets, but my teeth continued to chatter on their own.

Later i learned that meanwhile, Santosh had gone back to my room to convey the news to my mom and Nidhi. Although the nursery was right next to my room, in which my mom and Nidhi were waiting, they didn't know that Aditi was waiting for them next-door! Soon Santosh, Nidhi and my mom went to the nursery and took turns to gaze at the the new-born. Nidhi reached out and touched her little sister for the first time - this moment was captured by Santosh in his mobile. Aditi was sharing the nursery with yet another new-born like her, born a few mins earlier that day. Santosh called up his parents and sister and informed them all abt the safe arrival of little Miss.Aditi.

Exactly an hour later, i was wheeled into my room, chattering teeth and all.

When i finished my post-graduation(after much hard-work) i had promised myself i would never write an exam in my life if i could help it - to spare myself all the tension and hardwork i put in whenever i hear the word exam! A little while later i joined the company i had gotten into thru campus and the very first thing they did was to give us techincal training for 2-3 months and make us write exams - to decide which branch we would be going into (Java, .Net, Peoplesoft, mainframes, etc.) Java was the most sought after, needless to say i did my best and was the only girl to get selected in my batch. i never kept up the promise i made to myself regarding exams!

In the same way, based on my last experience with Nidhi, i knew although the surgery was completed successfully, we weren't out of the woods yet. The challenges were just abt to begin. Starting with breastfeeding, Aditi's first su-su, first poop, etc. A few mins after i settled into my room, Aditi was wheeled in in her cradle. Once again she was placed near me and i gave her a 'kichi' on her head calling her 'kondai' for the first time. The nurse said shall we try feeding and i asked Santosh to wait outside for a bit. Nidhi firmly refused to leave my bedside now that her beloved sister was also here. My mom and Nidhi stood on my left side while Aditi was placed in the crook of my right arm, her face turned to me to help her feed. The second she was placed near me she started suckling! i almost had tears in my eyes - i was so happy coz i knew every baby takes its time and in rare cases some of them even refuse to do so(one of them in my own family). Thank God, first challenge met!

Santosh asked us anxiously from behind the curtains in the doorway, she's drinking? she's refusing? All of us, including the nurse started smiling and i marofyed a dialogue of SRK from Chak De - 'Jo use seekh ke aana tha, woh usne seekh ke aayi hai' and my mom started saying 'of course, she's Nidhi's sister. how will she not feed!'. i still remember during Nidhi's time, the malayalee nurse had said 'miduki kutty aana, palu kudikyanadu kandille!'.

I was forbidden to get up for 24hrs bcoz of the spinal anasthesia, but Santosh and Nidhi became permanent fixtures beside the cradle. Santosh spent so much time bending down to gaze at his baby in close-up that i thought he would be the one requiring back-care, not me after my surgery. i could see Aditi only from my sleeping position, though it helped that her cradle was in an inclined angle. Nidhi was greatly excited and talked thru the day alternately spending time with me and Aditi. My mom continued her prayers to thank God and alongwith Santosh spent the day calling up others and sharing the good news. As for Santosh, it was one of the happiest days in his (and my) life and i will never forget his face shining with joy! Oye, it made him even more handsome, as if such a thing were possible ;-)

The thing with C-section is the milk doesn't arrive immediately and the first few hrs the baby has to be supported with formula-milk. i remember being paranoid when i became Mom the first time. It took a day (with much suckling on Nidhi's part and much praying on my part) for milk to start flowing. This time i was prepared and part of my preparations included drinking oats-kanji daily from 8th month onwards. Kanji(oats, raagi, etc.), milk, butter-milk as suggested by my aunt and orange-juice(warm) as suggested by the dietician in the hospital r best for producing milk. And, i found it to be true thru my experience with Aditi.

But now however, few hrs after the surgery, milk had not appeared yet and as usual i had started my frantic prayers. All Doctors will tell you the only way for milk to start flowing is to let the baby feed as much as possible. Yes, i noticed Nidhi put in all her efforts when she was a baby. And, then there's little Miss.Aditi. Soon she caught on that when u can get formula with zero effort on ur part, y waste ur energy with ur mom? the more profitable proposition is to just enjoy ur mom's warmth when u r placed next to her and go right off to sleep. and this is what she did! As advised by the nurses we would poke her cheek, chin, ears in order to wake her up and continue trying to feed. Other than producing a red-rash on her cheek, this had no other effect. Aditi would get irritated at being woken up, cry awhile, suckle a couple of times(not enuf at all) and drop right back to sleep. And, wake up to be fed formula by enthusiastic nurses. A few hrs passed by, then i started getting really worried. Won't be i able to feed my baby?

The anasthesia took quite a while to wear off and i had a relatively pain-free 6 to 8 hrs during which feeling returned to my body bit-by-bit. Though my teeth were still chattering. At one point i noticed my whole body was shivering, but the only solution of the nurse and doctor was to to reduce the a.c. in my room. surprisingly this worked and by night-time i was alright. Santosh stayed back with me while Nidhi and my mom went home for a break from all the day's excitement.

The next day early in the morning (as in 3 AM or something), Aditi went in for a diaper change(not her first) after which the nurse informed me that she had passed her first motion and done her first su-su as well. Thank God! Once my mom came in the morning i hurried to inform her, as next to me, she is the most paranoid person regarding these things.

In the morning Aditi was wheeled away to have her first proper bath and at 11 AM(once 24 hrs had passed since surgery) i was taken for a shower too. The nurse will help u the first time and from then on, expect that u do it urself. Similarly with feeding, apart from the first time, it was solely upto us how we would manage feeding Aditi. i kept telling Santosh on how we r not keeping up with feeding and at this rate God knows when the milk will appear. santosh came up with a brilliant idea. i would feed Nidhi (by this time i could sit up and the first thing i did after my shower was to sit in my bed and take Aditi in my arms for the first time! Also, this gave us a much more comfortable position to feed from.) Placing numerous pillows for support and covered in cozy blankets, Aditi and i would sit down for feeding and Santosh would sit nearby. Whenever Aditi fell asleep, he would stroke her head with her baby's-cap and tickle her lightly. This would wake her up without irritating her and she would try to feed again. This simple but brilliant solution worked and in a few hrs Aditi was feeding well and could be taken off formula. Hurrah!

We stayed for 4 days in the hospital. Santosh and i would spend the morning with Aditi - talking to her, laughing with her, playing with her - having become parents a second time we wanted to savour the experience as much as we could. Later in the day Nidhi and grandmom(my mom) would come and it would be their turn to play with Aditi. The evenings would be full of friends and relatives dropping in to see the new addition to our family.

After being discharged from the hospital, Santosh and i took Aditi home in our car, nestled against me. Half-way thru we gave a missed call to amumma(my mom) to get the 'alathi' ready. When we reached our apartment, santosh parked as close as possible to the entrance of our building. And there stood Nidhi and amumma, standing with umbrellas so that not even the slightest of sun could touch the baby! i held Aditi and my mom helped with the umbrellas. Nidhi carried the balloons(left over from decorating the hospital-room) and Santosh carried a few essentials. After 'alathi', we entered our home.

And, lived happily ever after! :-)

Whenever i thank God for everything going so smoothly when Aditi was born, in the same breath i also thank Santosh, Nidhi, my mother (and my father for managing alone sending my mom here months together) - for being the most supportive family in this world and seeing Aditi and me thru everything at the hospital and ever after too!

Ok, so, if u r still reading this, pls congratulate urself for ur perseverance since u have now reached the end of this marathon post! After all, it's not so easy to give birth to a baby, then y shd reading abt it be easy! ;-)

Yet another Aditi update

Aditi goes abt her business in a very serious yet casual manner.

One day, last month, I stood watching her. She had begun to crawl fast and was done exploring the underground of the sofa. Abruptly she changed direction and turned towards the TV-cabinet. She reached for the handle of the drawer and i held my breath waiting to see what she's upto. Coolly she pulled it open and took out the umbrella from inside.

I didn't reach for my camera. It was the first time she was doing such a kurumbu but i didn't have an inclination to record it digitally. That's what happens with ur second child. you know the chances that u will go back and play the tape/dvd containing this particular scene is remote. Rather record it in your mind. i frequently find myself recalling Nidhi's baby-hood moments - the day she asked her first question, the way she would pronounce certain words... everything is recorded permanantly in my mind. In my experience, pics have a better chance of being browsed thru than videos being played back. Which is y once or twice a year we get prints made of all our fav pics. And every once in a while i sit seeing all the albums in our house.

However, with Aditi, i find myself less and less inclined to record/photograph. i just go with the flow and savour that particular moment. And, share it with Santosh when he comes home.

Blogs r different. Both santosh and i re-visit my old blog(which is full of Nidhi and 'Nidhi-ism') and derive immense joy in reading and refreshing our memories. Which is y even though a month has passed i am sitting and writing this down here - the first time Aditi opened the TV-cabinet drawer. The kurumbu is captured here and her cool and non-chalant attitude, captured in my mind.

In the same matter-of-fact manner, she surprised us last week. i was sitting on the sofa and she slowly held onto my dress and then the sofa cushion and stood up. Although she has been holding onto us and standing up, this is the first time she held a stationery/non-supportive object. A couple of days later i found her standing up using the cot and peering into the gap between the bed and the cot.

So, 7-and-a-half months and standing up with support. (What, i am making things clear so that when Santosh and i re-visit this blog in our old age, we won't have to peer at the dates and count and calculate her age!)

And, when i started writing abt it, i never thought every week there will be an update to the matter. Usually she will have a couple of spoonfuls and then start 'phoooooh'. Then, couple of days ago, she saw me 'peshanju-fying' the rice and started 'phooooh'. And yesterday was even better. In what can be described as an improvement of the very respectful manner in which she says phoooh, she went one step further - she stuck her tongue out at me and said phooooooooh. Yeah, thanks Aditi! i am most amused.

(The one thing i can't do is stick out my tongue and say phoooh. Nidhi and santosh are experts and have tried to teach me many times to no avail. Now Aditi has joined their club. Like i said before, i am the one who feels adopted in this family!)

The next post has to be of Nidhi - so much is happening and i am taking so long to blog abt it.... Plan, plan, plan... plan ur time, Sangeetha! Oh, that's me talking to me, pls ignore!