Sunday, December 20, 2009

Welcome to the catwalk... aka. My Friday shopping spree

Meet fashionista Divya take on the catwalk (or should I say catsit) at 7 months of age...

Pretty in tulle


Serious island look


Just ... CUTE


Sweet baby fashions...


Let's go for casual and comfort...


A supermodel needs accessories ...


Merry Christmas!


Nothing beats classic country


Well.. except this maybe...


No male models, you may ask... Where's your patience I may reply..

Mr. Cute


Cool casual


Let's rock and roll...


The model strikes a pose...


Is this cute?


Hi there.. Wanna hang out with me?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Images in my mind

I take numerous photos of Divya, and with that girl growing cuter and cheekier by the day, it is hard to pick a favourite. There are the other type of photos though which are never captured by the camera. The ones that last for about 1 second and are imprinted in my mind forever. Those that I can see with my eyes closed at any time. These are my favourites.

There's the one where I dressed her in a pretty blue dress with white polka dots and a red bow placed tantalisingly under her chin. She looked lovely! I put her down in her cot dressed like this and fast asleep. When it was time for her to be awake and I didn't hear a sound, I went in to see what she was upto. There she was grinning at me with the ENTIRE big bow stuffed into her mouth and chewing on it as if it were the most delicious thing she ever came across.

There's another one where I strapped her in her car seat with a pretty hat on that pretty head, one with straps that fastened under her chin. I opened the boot to put something in and saw my very satisfied child who had managed to undo the strap of her hat and had pulled it such that the strap fell directly over her forhead into her mouth and she was making a sumptuous snack of it.

Then there's the one in the bath which is full of colourful toys but the object of her fascination was the cap of her bath oil. She fidgeted with it for a bit and then turned to look at me with a question in her eye and her mouth crammed full of this little cap: What should I do next, I can't exactly chew this?

The most recent one was captured towards the end of her feed when she decided to bite. Her little hands made tight fists as she bit hard and her eyes had the glint you can only have when you have planned something evil and executed it to perfection.

These are my favourite photos of my cheeky monkey!

The question

At 5:15 am on Sunday morning, the one day that Raghu can dream about sleeping in, Ashwin turned to him and said:

Appa, I have a question for you.

What? Responded Raghu sleepily.

What does Banana start with?

How did I get an arabic child?

This is the first time that Ashwin has attempted to write his whole name. This is a birthday card he has coloured for his friend Havish.

He started with A on the right of the page, made what he deemed to be an S, added a H, and an adorable W, inserted an I where he could find place and then had to put the N on top.

My baby boy is writing!


From blog

L is for Elephant

My little boy has started to understand phonetics and this time for real!

What does bat start with? Bat. Ba. He says to himself. B! With a well warranted smile of pride spreading accross his face! He can work out words beginning with B, P, D, G and many more! How far he has come from just a few weeks ago!

His favourite game these days goes like this:

If my name started with M, what will I be?

Mashwin. Mashwin, letting it roll on his tongue. If my name started with K, what will I be?

Let the learning begin!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

First serious attempt at using scissors

From blog

Nearly 4

A party needs an invite and a boy needs to be occupied.

You are invited, of course!

From blog

sandcastle

Ashwin goes to a story and craft session called bookwork in Karratha and they do the most amazing crafts. Since I am a mean mom and can't imagine saving up the pileload of crafts that come home with him, I have decided to scan them and save them here for him in this blog. So here's the first one.

From blog

Painted with ice cube and sand castles dipped in actual sand. Isn't it lovely?!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Phonics

Amma, what is this? asked Ashwin pointing at the letter "S" on his wall borders.

That is "S" Ashwin, I replied and S says "ssssss". Perhaps I was too ambitious but I sensed an opportunity and I was not about to let it pass. So I rambled on:

"Ssssssssssss" like Saturday, Sunday, Sweet, Sorry, Savithri Paati, Santa Claus...

BALLOON, Ashwin added helpfully to the list.

Nothing says Ssssssss like a balloon, or wait, perhaps he is talking about the balloon deflating! After all, he is my smart boy!! :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

His little brain is overworking.

The other day, there was a cyclone awareness briefing at the library (Karratha is a cyclone prone area) and I left Ashwin and Divya with Raghu and went to attend the briefing with my friend. Ashwin was not at all pleased. I explained to him that there was a policeman at the door and if you were not big people, he would not allow you to go in. How could I leave him at outside and go in?

"Then, you also don't go in. You take me home"

I told him that the policeman was telling me all about cyclones and teaching me how to take care of my children if there is a cyclone.

"Oh, he said that you have to carry me and tell the cyclone, GO AWAY, don't bite my children, is it?"

Not really darling, he told me that I have to have a radio and battries at home and to keep the door closed and things like that.

He processed this for a while and the questions continued.

"If there is only one parent and one children at home, what will the policeman say?"

He will say wait until the other parent comes home in the evening and then come for the briefing.

"If there is only one parent, and no parent comes home in the evening, what will the policeman say?"

He will say please can you leave your children at your friend's house and come for the briefing.

"If there is only one house, and bob the builder did not make any other house, what will the policeman say?"

I don't know, perhaps he will say tell Ashwin to stop thinking so much?

while I'm on the brag train

Divya loves to watch water from the tap. Her already big eyes get even wider as I turn the tap on and as if by magic, water comes out! She flaps her little hands and legs in appreciation.

The other day, I took her with me on a trip to put a dirty nappy into the nappy bucket in the sink. She looked at the tap and then at me at the tap and then at me again with a command: DO YOUR MAGIC! Needless to say, I obliged.

She is not yet six months old, mind you!

She's got many other tricks up her sleeves too. Her favourite activity now is to sit in her highchair and drop everything on the tray onto the floor. This has Ashwin in hysterics and he faithfully picks up the fallen toys (and utensils and spoons...) and puts it back on the tray. She drops it again to much laughter from Ashwin. Thank God for older brothers!

Identity crisis...

I was having a chat with Ashwin the other day when I asked him,

Ashwin, are you Indian?

He shook his head vigourously.

What are you then?

I'm vegetarian.

Confidence - thy name is Ashwin!

The otherday, we went for a wonderful storytime session called bookworm here in Karratha and the theme of the day was post office. They read stories about letters and postman and did an excellent craft of converting a diaper box into a postbox. Then they wrote some letters to put in the postbox for the postman to deliver.

When it was letter writing time, I had to feed Divya so Ashwin turned to a nice lady and told her that he did not know to write his name. So she offered to write it for him if he told her the letters in it.

A.. W.. H... he began as she wrote. He shook his head vigourously when she got to "H". That's not H. I will show you.. He took the pen from her and "elegantly" wrote a capital H to teach the lady. (look hard next to his "name" to find his H).

From blog

Cloth diapering and loving it.



Rainbow baby!



Coordinating colours with bedding...



What??! Don't you always dress according to bedding??!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Rapid fire narrative

At a birthday party last Saturday,

"Amma, you know something, the party man gave me a chocolate and I said to him please can I have one more chocolate because I have a baby and he gave me one more chocolate and I said thanks my mother will give it to him when he becomes a little bit bigger baby?"

And then I couldn't resist the cuteness and so I ate him up whole.

Friday, September 18, 2009

My new coiffure...

Ashwin says my hair is very pretty and very smart - just like him!

Raghu says I look like a gulti with Thirupati mottai.

If you have no idea what to say, try "Your hairstyle is nice - it makes you look years younger! Not that you looked old anyway.." That will make you my new best friend.

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Silly girl!

Divya was in the bathroom in her rocker this morning while Ashwin was in the bath. She was most fascinated by the ventilator on the roof - and she wanted to eat it. She arched her back and craned her head forward and opened her mouth wide and thrust her tongue out and even screamed at it for good measure - but the ventilator just wouldn't budge. May be if she arches her back just a bit more, she'd get there...





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Thursday, September 17, 2009

First giggles

At my local mother's group last Tuesday, I was lamenting that Divya has not started giggling as yet and that I couldn't wait to hear the sweet sound of her laughter. Well, she understood and obliged me the very same day!

I was just narrating to her something that happened at the shopping mall that day, when she broke out into giggles! I immediately called Raghu, appa and my in laws and they were all rewarded with her boisterous giggles...

The easiest way to elicit giggles from her though is for her to just see Ashwin. My daughter loves my natural comedian and if he just whistles at her, she breaks into her wonderful giggles. Love how she will turn her head 180 deg to look at him and give him a lovely smile, in the middle of a feed.

Last night, Raghu laid her down in bed and shouted boo at her from behind the dressing room. And she giggled. This being the first time he was SEEing her giggling, he was thrilled. He carried on "boo"ing with increasing intensity until BANG! he banged his nose on the wardrobe hard - and that got even more giggles.

Keep laughing my pretty Rani! We all love you!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Twists and turns of fate


Well...
His wish has been granted!

We have bought a wonderful house in a lovely suburb that... has a swimming pool in it! We all loved our new house and were making grand plans of moving in when...

Raghu's work transferred him to Karratha, a town about 1500 kms away from Perth. So we have to rent the house, but that's not the end of the world. We convinced ourselves that we would have a grand time in Karratha and return in about a year's time and the we would live in our own sweet house when...

Our best friends in Perth bought the house diagonally opposite ours on the same street! And we will have to wait a year to enjoy their company as our neighbours.


Wah wah wah...

Just how big is very big??!

A conversation over idlis for breakfast this morning:

Ashwin: Amma, yesterday I had 4 idlis, right?
Me: Right (although the yesterday was actually many days ago and I make mini idlis)
Ashwin: Today I'm going to eat 5 idlis.
Me: That's good. You will then become a very big boy!
Ashwin: I will grow up very very very very very very very very very big right?
Me: (Not knowing the scale ) Right.
Ashwin: Then I will not fit inside this house!
Me: We will build another house for you then, a very big house.
Ashwin: giggle giggle..
Me: What's so funny?
Ashwin: I'm laughing because then all the clouds will come inside my house and I will be wet!

In all this while, he had eaten nearly 2 idlis.

Ashwin: Enough.

From "this close" to there!

After a day of being "this close" to rolling over, she actually rolled over! Twice that day and not once since...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The magic chain & crisis management

Ashwin was wont to waking up at night with nightmares. He would often dream of some animal coming to eat him or push him. As much as I tried, I could not make him understand that they were dreams, figments of his imagination and not reality. I was losing my sleep over it too and so we made the magic chain.

I crocheted a chain with some beads in it and kept it on the altar. We prayed to God to make it a magic chain so that if someone tries to eat him or pinch him or beat him or push him while he is wearing the chain, the magic chain will push them away.

This is his most prized possession now. He will not go to sleep without it. He would wear it 24/7 if I let him.

The other day, in a moment of mischief, he climbed up on his chair and pulled open the cover on the security monitor and punched some numbers in it. The alarm started to beep slowly at first and then blared so loudly that I'm sure cars on the freeway would have heard. I ran to get the phone to call the security agency and he ran in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" I asked him.
"I'm going to wear my magic chain so that the police will not buchkoo me" he replied.

The lure of TV

From August_2009


At least Ashwin pretends, even if badly, to be looking at the camera. This dame is an unabashed TV addict.

A sweet moment + milestones

As I held Divya in my lap, she stared at my thali with such intensity, willing it to rise upto her. When the stare wasn't enough, she tried shouting at it too. I held it up to her for a closer inspection. She sweetly opened her mouth as if it is only natural that the thali be sampled. I obliged and gave her a taste of it and she promptly scrunched up her face in displeasure.

Love this dame and every moment with her.

She is "this" close to rolling over. She has started rotating today. She will lift her bum high up in the air and try to roll over but that damn arm comes in the way.

She has been "standing" (bearing her weight on her legs) for about a week now. When she had just started doing it, her face would break out in a big smile and she would beam with pride - look at what I can do! Now it has become so matter-of-fact. The moment her feet touches anything, she will stiffen her knees and want to stand. This is her current favourite activity, other than eating.

Speaking of eating, today also marks the day that she had her first proper feed of rice cereal. I have been offering her rice cereal off and on and she would eat a spoon or two and then lose interest. Today, she lapped up the first bowl I had prepared for her and then lapped up the second bowl too and then screamed for more. Rice cereal however is not the only thing in her menu. Adult food suits her taste better. She has eaten capsicum, egg plant, dosa, pancake, kheer and her favourite - strawberry! I hope I'm not jinxing myself with this post but I do believe this one is going to be a healthy eater (not taken after me, thank God!)


Eating is an intense activity, complete with fist clenching!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Mom must be crazy

 


for dressing me up in a swimsuit when I'm only 3 months old. Help!
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Don't hate me

because of how lucky I am...

My baby went to sleep last night (evening) at 4pm and woke up this morning at 6:30 waking up only once at 2:30 am for a quick feed.

Is she the best baby in the world or what!

(knocking on wood, hard)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Opera singer in the making.o

Divya has found her voice and has decided to hone her latent talent: She is going to be an opera singer.

She goes:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayaaaaAAAAaaa ayyaaaa AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa aaayaaayyyaaaa over and over until she is ready to fall asleep.

Beware of my little missy...

From blog
Dressed in her Anna's new swim vest, she is dangerous.

Dangerously cute.
From blog

The wisdom of a 3 year old

After a long day lesterday, Divya went down for her last nap before bedtime and I hurriedly cleared up the house. I folded up her blanket and put it over the sofa and Ashwin promptly pulled it down again. I lost it.
He did a stint in the naughty boy corner and said sorry, but I was still angry. I told him that because he wasted my time as I had to refold the blanket, I would not read him a book. Bless him, he didn't once object.
Still angry, I popped him on my lap and asked him why he did that and behaved like a naughty boy.
Because, he replied, I'm just a little boy.
I could use this reminder every single day my dear wise boy. I love you!

Gems from Ashwin's mouth.

He called out to me in the morning as I was bathing Divya:

Amma, look! Come here quickly!!

I rushed to see what it was that needed my attention so immediately and Ashwin pointed to the clock and exclaimed:

The little hand is little and the big hand is big!

wonder of wonders!

----------------------
After a concert the other day, we went to the pay machine to pay for the parking ticket. This machine only took cards so I fed my credit card into the slot, and much to Ashwin's amazement, the card came out through the same slot again.

What is it doing? He asked.

It's taking money from the card Ashwin, I explained.

He disregarded this explanation..

Oh, it laminated the card, is it?

I wish...

Oh, yes! She did...

After a few nights of very interrupted sleep, I was ready to take an afternoon nap one day. I coaxed Ashwin into sleeping as well so that I could have some quiet. Divya, however, had other ideas. I took advantage of the fact she is just a baby and put her in the bed between Ashwin and myself wide awake. I then sloely nodded off to sleep. Suddenly, I felt sharp prodding on my thighs - my little missy was kicking me to get my attention. And when I opened my eyes to look at her, she flashed me a beautiful smile.
Cheeky dame this one is.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

On vegetarianism and going of my "maanam"

On Saturday, Ashwin and I went to woolworths for some groceries while Raghu and Divya stayed home. As we were walking from the veggies section to the milk, Ashwin saw the people buying meat. And this is the monologue that took place:

"Amma, look" he cried at the top of his lungs as usual, "that man is buying fish"
"he is buying fish you know.. FISH"
"that man is buying FISH"
"We don't buy fish, right, we only like fish to swim in the water, right?"
"We don't eat fish, right, because we are vegatables"
, vigourous nod of head to correct himself, "we are vegetarians, right?"
"Only cat eat fish, right?"


While all the while, people were smiling indulgingly at him and my maanam was taking a slow flight through woolworths...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Can never guess what's coming next.

Ashwin wanted to learn the letter G today. So I printed out some activity sheets for him from a lovely site (www.first-school.ws) and he coloured a giraffe. He traced a capital and small G and I cut them out for him. He then pasted the two G's on his giraffe sheet and we put it up on the cupboard so that he can look at it and learn the G.

After all of this was done, he said to me:

Amma, I will give you a sticker now because you did such a good job with the cutting.

I took cue from him and told him that I would give him a sticker to. To which he reploed:

You will give me a sticker because I did such a good job of giving you a sticker?

G? what G...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Feel the love...

While coming back from a trip to the playground, the sun was going down and the sky was beautiful. I was walking by some pretty flowers on a hedge and thinking to myself how lovely they were and walking by when Ashwin called out from behind:

Amma, I got this pretty flower for you.

From blog

Sunday, July 12, 2009

It's this easy to make my missy happy.

Little missy wakes up and waits patiently in her cot for someone to appear while the fish in her toy bar keep her company. When I eventually happen by and pull off her blanket, her face breaks into the most gregarious smile and she kicks her little legs rapidly in gleeful anticipation of being picked up.

Love this little missy.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Definitions

The knob you turn to get water from a tap: tap "on"er
The person who picks up clothes from the basket and gives it to you: clothes giving-er

If he had two

Ashwin made a telescope at daycare. He was very fond of it and would use it to see anything, even the person standing in front of him.
His telescope was slightly crushed and so I told him I would help him to make another one.
After a brief ponder, he declared:

If I have two telescopes, I will keep one in this eye and one in this eye, you know that??!

Never trust a reptile...

Sitting in his seat in the back of the car, Ashwin asked me:

Amma, if someone finish your shoes, what will you do?

Why do you ask Ashwin, who will finish your shoes?

After a brief thought: crocodile, frog ...

It was only after I assured him that we can then buy new shoes did he breathe easy..

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Conversation with my son.

He: Amma, can I have one more chocolate?
Me: No.
He: Please
Me: No.
He: Please
Me: No.
He: Please
Me: No.
He: Please
Me: No.
He: Please
Me: No.
He: How many times should I say please??!

Unrelated, yesterday at his daycare, all 3 carers stopped me to tell me that my son has perfect manners and my heart burst with pride. May be I should have just let him have that one more chocolate...

Her best friends...

These people below are Divya's current best friends and receive the most endearing smiles and intense conversations...

Toys on her rocker


Chandelier and all lights
Red black and white bedroom clock>
Paati's nightdress
This ummachi that I made

Monday, June 29, 2009

The making of a passport photo

This is a photo essay of the odyssey to take a passport photo of a baby. The Australian passport office requires the photo to be of the baby looking straight at the camera with the mouth closed and a neutral expression on the face. Yeah right!

Sombal Muriching as I start


What is it you want to do?


Come again??!


NO


Keep up with this nonsense and I will punch you


You are making me cry...


OK.. Do you like this cute face?


You don't??!


What about my Kung-Fu pose?


Wait, I think I like this game...


This is real fun!


Are we done yet?


I'm 2 seconds away from falling asleep


Voila! The perfect photo!!