Chinipie's Firsts

July, the 14th, goes down as the day full of a lots of Chinipie's firsts!
And they are not the firsts that I had planned for this day! Yeah, I know, I sound stupid when I talk about "planning" firsts. They would happen at their own pace, provided, we talk about her developmental milestones. A few events, the parents can definitely plan! DH's company had organized a fun day out for 14th July at a water park nearby. Initially, I was excited to take my baby to the park and mark this as her very first visit to the water park. In fact, I was planning to buy a cute little swim suit for her too. But, later discarded the plan, altogether, as she is too young and the chlorine water might harm her tender skin. I did not want to take any risks and have postponed this first for a few months. Instead, confirmed to our friends that we would be coming over for their party - a birthday party they are throwing for their daughter's first birthday - the very first birthday party Chinipie has been invited to!!

The party was good and we had dressed Chinipie in a little Princess dress (again, her first ever!). Though, she slept through the party, she looked lovely in that pretty dress and received her first-ever return gift. This comes as a needless piece of information, but I want to add that I am one of those who hate overly girlie dresses and only pink for girls. But, for this time, we thought that as we are taking her to a birthday party, she should wear a proper party dress and we bought a pink little princess dress for her.

Earlier, in the morning, while I was busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen, DH was keeping Chinipie occupied. He was talking to her and playing with her in the dining room. DH was gently throwing her up in the air all the while talking to her when I heard her laughing! I couldn't believe my ears! She was actually laughing - loud and clear! She used to gurgle but this was the first time she laughed! I can still hear her laughter -filled with innocence and straight from heart! Her face had a radiance, her eyes had twinkle in them and her smile- that toothless smile - no words can describe it! I was speechless! I am speechless! I rushed to get the camera and capture the moment but as they say - some moments are best captured in our memories!!

Another of Chinipie's firsts was - her portrait photograph. For past few days, we have been trying to get her portrait done and have been taking her out nicely dressed and with a couple of extra dresses for a variety. Unfortunately, by the time we used to reach the studio, either she would start crying uncontrollably or the studios(Yeah, I say studios, coz once we drove almost entire town in hope of finding at least one of the studios open!) would be closed and we would come back home, disappointed. We didn't want to take an appointment as we never know that at the time of appointment, our girl would still be in good spirits. in fact, once when she was in good spirits and we couldn't find a single studio in the area open, we came back home and clicked the photographs ourselves (All 3 of us were so nicely dressed, you see!). As a weekend routine, we had to go grocery shopping and we thought that we might take a chance again. So, we dressed her up, took a couple of her dresses and went off again. She was sleeping when we left home. So, by the time our shopping was done, she was all fresh from her siesta and I did not want to waste a single waking moment of hers, so we rushed to the Target studio as it was the closest from where we were. Luckily, we got an appointment and Chinipie stayed through the family portrait and a couple more of her single ones. We could not go for a change of dress though as she passed out after all these activity. We are happy with whatever we could! I should mention here that the photographer was good (unlike the hospital fiasco!)- she chose apt backgrounds and was extremely good in capturing Chini's attention. I am eagerly waiting for the our copies of the photographs!