A discovery

My Chinipie made a new discovery today. and she was absolutely thrilled by it!! Really, you could see it on her face. Babies are so inquisitive by nature. Anything new captures their interest so soon and bores them equally sooner. DH's colleagues had sent a bucket of goodies on Father's Day. Along with candies and fruits, were bibs and rattler for the baby. I thought this is the best time to introduce the rattler to her. The rattler is very lovely, with a little tiger sitting on the top. So, for the past two days, I was trying to hold her attention rattling it and making roaring sounds. Rattling did not charm her but the roars did! Eventually, I thought, my baby is a very unusual baby and may be doesn't like the rattlers or would like them a little later when she would make me go crazy with throwing the rattler down to the ground and gurgling as her mom picks and gives it to her every split second (some weird imagination, huh!! seems like i can't wait for my baby to grow up!!). Anyhow, I shunned the idea of using the rattler as a rattler and started using it as a prop instead. I held conversations with her holding the little tiger by its tail and roaring every once in a while. I also named him "Sherkhan, the tiger" (jungle book creature, if you remember). My conversations are nothing but silly mumblings like

" I am Sherkhan the tiger. Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I will eat you up. Roarrrrrrrrrrrr (with the tiger going to her cheek or momma going all ga-ga over Chini's face and Chini with an amused look on her face)"

Now, this little girl of mine is very talkative and an intent listener! She dries up my throat, literally, with all the talking that she makes me do!! Today, as I was again putting up this act of mine, Chinipie was kicking her legs and arms, a definite sign that she was enjoying this while her momma's throat had started aching with all the talks and the roars. So, I just held the tiger by its tail and sat for a while looking at her. She, in turn, looked at the Sherkhan intently. "Wow!", I thought to myself, "This might be the beginning of her getting to know the rattler as rattler!" and in excitement I rattled the Sherkhan by its tail. She just kept looking at it and then at me and then started kicking her legs and arms again. There goes all my hopes and Sherkhan would always remain a roaring Sherkhan! But wait!! In her excitement, her arms boxed Sherkhan and poor fellow fell (I was holding the tail lightly, you see) with a, not roaring but rattling, sound. And this captured her attention! She stopped kicking and boxing and looked at Sherkhan as I picked and held the poor creature by its tail in front of her, then she looked back at me and then again at Sherkhan. Very cautiously, she brought her hand near it and touched it lightly; Sherkhan made a rattling sound but didn't fall off this time! Again, a look at Sherkhan, then at momma, and action repeat - with the blow growing stronger. Sherkhan again rattled, exciting her. With a gurgle, she repeated all the sequence and discovered that she can actually box with her hands, looked at momma with eyes filled with the joy of discovery and got back to fist the Sherkhan - poor Sherkhan, obediently rattled away every times he fell off and silently came back to hold his place in front of her - only to be fisted again!


Here's a snap of her, as she enjoys boxing Sherkhan down!

Happy Father's Day!!

This was first Father's Day for DH and I had wanted to make it very special for him. Mother's day had gone by unnoticed as we had just returned from the hospital with over-extended stay at the hospital and all of us drained-out with a newborn baby. I did not want the Father's Day to go unnoticed as well and all the while had contemplated various gifts for him.

These are a few from the list that I had thought of and discarded
- a tie with Chini's photos all over but discarded as the time was too short to order the tie.
- a beautiful greeting handmade by me on Chini's behalf - again discarded for two reasons - one i did not have sufficient accessories for the type of greeting i had wanted to make and second i thought that may be when Chini grows up she would want to make one herself and then her gift would not be unique.. hmmm.. seems like i am already expecting a lot from her ;o)
- a personalized pen from Chini, this i discarded as we s/w engineers hardly use pens and in fact with the net, we have even stopped writing letters or maintaining diaries; e-mails and blogs have taken their place! I did not want my chini's first gift to lie astray a few days later.

While i was trying to come up with ideas, discarding them, and trying again, the weekend came by and I thought, well I still have the whole weekend with me! On Saturday, we had to go to the bank to finish up some paper work and I had hoped to come up with some creative idea before the day ended. Bank took a longer time than expected - initially coz as soon as we were about to step into the bank, our little angel chose that particular time to shun her angel-ness and wear her howling face instead! and we could not enter the bank with a wailing baby, lest to scare people away. We tried to pacify her which took some time and then finally when we were able to coax her to sleep and entered the bank, we found (to our surprise) that there was only one banker, it being a half day, to tend to the customers with a long queue of people waiting. We decided to wait, anyhow, as our angel was acting like one and sleeping peacefully. We could not let this chance skip by! It was almost two o'clock by the time we came back home and found a note sticking on our mailbox that we have a package waiting to be picked up!! We were expecting one from my company and checked on the customer service desk for the same. Looking at me, the lady said, " Oh! yours is a realy big one. So, I kept it inside. Let me bring it". "Now", I thought, " A few papers shouldn't be a big package. Since when my company start with any concept called - BIG PACKAGE - ha!" Anyways, when she came out, she was holding a huge bucket of goodies!! and instantaneously, my mind began listing out all the possible people who could have send it. It couldn't have been from Cleveland as we have moved just a few days before Chini's birth to this place and hardly know anybody here. To be frank, I couldn't figure out who could have sent it. So, as soon as I had the goodies bucket in my hand, I searched frantically for the sender's note, hoping to find it there(or else, the whole weekend I would have done nothing but play the "guess who" game!). Lucky me, I found the note and was really surprised by the thoughtfulness of DH's colleagues! If, by any chance, any of you are reading this, I thank you. This little act of yours touched my heart!!

Happy Father's Day, indeed!!!


Edited to add: As for me, I sent a customized Father's Day Certificate from Babyzone hoping that he would print it and pin at his office desk.