Chinipie's Developments II

Chinipie completed 4 months yesterday. She is a complete joy to be with and has been surprising and amusing me with her little acts of wonder! The expressions on her face changes from radiant to excited to innocent to mischievous to anger. She is growing more active with each passing day, leaving very little time for me to log them down. Here I try to capture some of her activities of the month.


Ulta-Pulta

On Friday, 3rd Aug I was absolutely thrilled with my darling's achievements!
For past couple of days, I was worrying that Chini is not getting enough time on her tummy and was constantly thinking of newer ways to give her more tummy time as she fussed whenever I put her on her tummy. By doing this, I had wanted to strengthen her neck and shoulder muscles so that she would be able to hold her head higher and try to raise her chest, at the least.

And my little sweetie doubly delighted her momma with not only holding head higher, chest up high but also by rolling over!!

This happened when I was massaging her in the morning. Her morning massage and bath is a routine that naani had set and we still continue on that (As a matter of fact, she gets very irritated if her morning routine is delayed!). I start massaging on her legs, then the chest, tummy and hands before turning her on her tummy to massage her back. Since, past 3-4 days, I let her stay her on her tummy until she showed some discomfort, just to give that much required tummy time. Sometimes, she would totally refuse to let me massage her back. Other times, she would happily try to move her little neck around before fussing to be moved back to comfort. This morning as I was turning Chinipie to her abdomen, I was wondering if she would stay some extra time on her belly. And this is when she must have thought is the best time to remove all the fears from momma's mind! As I turned her to her tummy, she rested her hands onto the floor and lifted her head and chest high up. 'This is it', I thought gleefully, 'Now she would fall back to the floor. Fall back to the floor she did; But on her back!! I was filled with such a joyful surprise that I kept looking at her with wonder! and as I was about to call out to DH to share the NEWS, Chini lifted her tiny bumchi's up and turned to her left side (this little feat she has been doing ever since she was 20 days old), using her right palm as support, rolled over to her tummy!! No words came out of my throat and I got back to my massaging business with renewed enthusiasm. She responded to my eager hands with an 'aen!' and I complimented her on her achievements as I massaged her tiny back. After the massage was complete, I showered her with lots of kisses and just then Dad came in to say good-bye as he was leaving for the office. And he, too, happily shared our enthusiasm and made a note to himself to fix the fourth side of her crib over the weekend!

In the afternoon, again she practiced her new moves while an ecstatic momma was clicking away the pictures!!

Feeling you softly with my hands!

This is one of the most cherished moments of my mommyhood! Chini had just got up from her afternoon nap and was all fresh. As she had surprised us in the morning, I had pulled her crib to the bed (I usually do this only during the nights), while I was finishing the chores. Hearing her up, I went to her, pulled her crib out and started talking to her. As I bent down to kiss her, she smiled reached up to my face and with her tiny hands, felt me all over. She touched my eyes, moved over to my nose, my cheeks, my chin and my lips as I baby-talked to her. I wanted this moment to go on forever and couldn't resist myself to kiss her little palms when they next came to my lips!!

Ever since, she has been stretching out her hands and feeling me all over stopping at my lips as I speak. And she still leaves me mesmerized!!

Just two days back, she did this with DH and to him this was completely new and as she did this, he got excited and said, "Wow! This is something new" to which the proud mom says, “Yeah, for you!!

Handful of ...

Since last month, she has been continuously discovering her hands. This month, she has started reaching out, sweeping and swinging for everything in sight, trying to grasp it though her grasp is still not firm. If she is lying down chewing contently on her hands and something is shown to her, she would stretch both her hands and bring it down to her chest to play. If she finds it interesting enough, the object would find its way in her mouth. Initially, she used to be very happy when she would successfully clutch something. Now, more of her energy is consumed in the struggle to get to the object. The striking part is more the effort she puts in getting to it, easier it is to drop it as soon as she holds it! She does not fret over the dropped object but immediately focuses back to where it was kept (mostly table or bed if she is sitting and stroller or bed if she is lying down) continuously looking for the next object(read victim)! And if there's nothing in sight she goes back to tasting her hands. :)

There is this incident, happened in the beginning of the month and which I lovingly call "A spoonful", when she used to get excited over everything she could hold. I was trying to bottle-feed her so that she starts to develop the taste (just to make it easier when we are traveling in the car). When she totally refused to take the bottle, I tried feeding her with the spoon. She took a little but continuously tried to clench the spoon. Finally, when I thought she had enough, I let her have it. The spoon was the regular stainless steel cutlery. She got excited and started waving her hands. The spoon struck on the dining table and made a sound. This, probably, excited her more and she did it again and again, looking at me every time, she could make the sound and her eager hands moving faster than the last time. And then, instead of the table, the spoon struck her! As a rule, I did not react to it. For a split second, even she did not. And then, with her mouth wide open, she started crying. I took her in my arms, she kept crying for a while and then I showed her the spoon again. She stopped crying, took it and started playing again. But this time and henceforth, she was careful not to hurt herself. A lesson learned!

This is a picture of her when she was being careful..

Early milestones

I am not sure if these would typically fall under early milestones, but as I have not seen any other baby doing this so early, I would take these moments to feel proud of mothering an extra-ordinary child(yeah! clearly i am obsessed with mine!).

One morning, two weeks back, as DH was getting ready for the office, he found the Chinipie was awake and all fresh. He played with her for a while and then put her on the bed on her tummy. She looked at me as I wished her 'Good Morning' and with a smile kicked her legs while extending her arms towards me. DH pulled her back, while I called her to come to me. And guess what! She caterpillar-ed her way to me!! She would put her head down; using it as a pivot, and her feet as support, she would lift herself up and then push her whole body forward! Both of us just kept looking at awe as she came up to me and rolled over with a delight!!

Chinipie, still, cannot sit up without a support and somehow, she has figured this out (I guess after she has tumbled a few times!). So if she wants to sit and reach out to something, she wants us to hold her (she is very expressive. if we don't, she knows how to get it!). There are times, when she would support herself with her hands and sit all by herself. When she does this, I stay close by and let her play by herself. As I said, she has figured out, that if she doesn't have a support to sit up, she would topple over. So, if she finds something interesting to reach out to, she would take support of one hand while trying to thrust her up and reach quickly with the other hand, getting it back to support in time. She tries to balance herself on one hand before taking up the other one. Also, she alternates the hands in the hope of getting to the object. A couple of days back, I had seated her in the crib, where the peek-a-boo bird of the piano on the crib wall captured her attention and she tried to get its legs while supporting herself with her hands. She tried every trick she knew, also, toppled over once or twice, but didn't give up. In an attempt to reach to it, she left both her hands and tried to balance herself on her little bumchis. My protective hands immediately tried to clench her as I thought in shocked state, "uh-oh, she shouldn't sit up so soon or else her spine would be damaged!” But I contained myself and let her be as she sat without any support for one whole second before starting to fall off! That's when I held her, and bent down to kiss her. She, not wanting to be interrupted, concentrated back on the peek-a-boo bird.

Another day, she was on my lap as I worked on my desk and she played with her teether, my pen, notepad and every other thing which she could see on the desk. One by one, she would reach to them until either in an attempt she would push them further away so that they would fall off or she would successfully clasp them and drop it while bringing them closer. One particular item was being pushed farther and every time she was trying to jump out to it with a force more than before. She was so determined to get to it that she rested her little feet on the chair, and jumped, rested her tummy on the side of the desk and extended her arms. When I realised, she was trying to stand on her legs!!

Old ones in a new wrap!

Her old favourites continue to be so but with a new flavour.

Earlier, she used to look at and talk to the rattler and pull-me-down doggy hanging from her rocking chair. One of us had to pull it for her. Now, she pulls it herself and squeals with delight every time she does so!

The same applies for the playmat doggy and other toys hanging on it.

She still loves to go out in her stroller but loves it even more when she realizes we are going in the car!

When in stroller, she has developed this habit of kicking down her toys. She would play with whatever is in her hand and when she gets bored, she lifts her legs up, clasps it between her legs and bring them down and kicks and kicks until it is well out of sight!

Speech Development

One of a major development this month is that Chini has started shrieking and shouting, though when she does that she is either wet or tired or bored. Her short eki's and eku's have now changed to the long kheeeeee's and gheeeeeee's and occasional short gu's and ga's.

Around ten days earlier, I was transferring the photos from the camera to the laptop, when Chinipie got up from her nap. I sat her on my lap, as I continued to work. The laptop on the desk fell in the range of her sight and she started banging her little hands on the keyboard. I let her do it as I sat back and watched. Even after a while she didn't stop and I casually asked her, "bachcha, what are you doing?” She turned around, looked at me, "gheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and got back to her business with the laptop.

A Promise..

Motherhood is a wonderful feeling.. puts one on the top of the world! but the real challenge comes in when you have to be a perfect blend of being a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a d-i-l and a s-i-l .. and then suddenly you start giving everybody a damn and are content just being a mother.. and then suddenly you stop and think of the day when your baby would no longer be just YOUR baby and you try to promise yourself not to become too possessive. And then your baby looks up at you and smiles and again you give this promise a damn and are content just being a mother and make yourself a new promise to enjoy these moments to the fullest..


Then comes the question of your career.. you find yourself at cross roads.. whether to get back to your career or wait for some time or take small steps towards your career. You are thoroughly confused as you always thought yourself as a career person or a person who would perfectly balance the work and the family. But then the very thought of career fills you with guilt! Guilt- of leaving your baby with strangers or with people who would probably give her everything but not the love of a mother - which you feel your baby doesn't need to be deprived of.. even for a single second. You can't bear to be away from your child for a tiniest moment and know, for sure, that you would miss your child, more than any other person you have ever missed in your life. And the very thought of missing your child wretches you! Just then, the career person in you pokes you and makes you feel more wretched for neglecting. And then your baby looks up at you and smiles and then again you give your career a damn and are content just being a mother and make yourself a new promise to enjoy these moments to the fullest..

She

Smells So Good

Sometimes all I want to do is press my face against Chinipie and breathe her milky-self in deeply.
So I do.

It's great being a momma.

I love

her tiny feet so much that I keep kissing them the whole day.

The portrait snaps had come a long ago and the walls of our house are decorated now.
Not to mention, this is my favourite snap of them all..

Miracles of Motherhood!

You might be the worst singer in the whole universe, but your voice is the sweetest and most melodious to your baby's ears!


You might be the laziest person when it comes to scratch your gray cells to come up with something, but with your child you would be at your creativity best!

Fresh Mornings

Our mornings now-a-days are so fresh and bright as never before! We wake up to Chinipie's chuckles and gurgles and beaming smiles as we wish her good morning and recite our little morning prayer. And then all her coos and goos are sure to shake off the remnants of sleep from mum's and dad's eyes. She has that twinkle in her eyes and is all active cycling her legs and hands as she gets attention and is showered with kisses.

Her ways of waking up the parents are more or less the same. Usually, after the early morning feeds, she would look up at me and smile. (I really love it when she smiles at me when nursing, with which I am bestowed almost all through the day!). If my eyes are still closed and she realizes that she would have to make an extra effort to wake up mom, the smile would be followed by a 'aye'!, then a second 'aye' and then another 'aye' until mom opens her groggy eyes, looks at her and smiles back. And this is what her catch is! Just open your eyes and make an eye contact - she would make sure that you are not able to close your eyes again! She would smile at you so sweetly that you would die out of guilt of not playing with her if you dare to close your eyes!!

The morning chit-chat and the enthusiastic echoes between baby and mom tempts dad to wake up and join the clutter. What else could be a better start for the day!

Here's a picture captured when Chinipie was practicing her early morning yoga :)

Weird Dreams!!

Before I forget, I want to log the weird set of dreams I had in the morning. They were in a series one after the other and after each of them, I distinctly remember waking up and thinking, 'that was a strange one!' before passing off to the dream world once again! I now remember only two of them.

In the first one I see myself Chinipie, but when I look at my arms, she is not there! And yet I am nursing him. Scene change- DH is sleeping on the bed on his side and now wants to change side. I almost yell out,'Careful! she is sleeping just behind you!' and he turns very slowly so as not to hurt her as both of us look down at his side and again there's nobody there!! hmmm. very weird!

In the second dream, all three of us are swimming, when DH and I get out of the pool to discuss something leaving Chinipie in her floating tubes in there by herself (?!??) when she realizes that her momma is not beside her and calls for me. We are standing just outside the pool and I turn around to see her coming out of the pool using the steel rails. I warn her to be careful when she stuns me by standing on her two little feet with me poking DH with my elbow saying ecstatically, 'Look, she is standing on her own!' Again, a weird one!!

If my theory that some of the dreams are mostly based on whatever we have been thinking or whatever happened during the day, then I think I can understand the basis of these dreams to some extent. They might have some root in the events occurred earlier in the evening. I was looking into some of the baby magazines, where I had read that it's not safe for the babies to sleep in the bed with parents and I had thought to myself, 'These people are very careless. We all grew up this way!'. Chinipie has her own crib and sleeps in there in the night, but mostly when I take her out of the crib for the middle of the night feedings, I feel very tired and sleepy to put her back in there. So, I carefully, let her sleep with me by my side. This might explain the dream 1 to some extent.

The dream 2, I guess, is related to my visit to one of our neighbours, in whose lap Chinipie had tried to put her feet when she was holding her in her arms. This neighbour, who has one year daughter of her own, was surprised that such a small child would want to stand! (Talking of the visit to the neighbours reminds me, their lovely daughter, A, was very happy to see the baby and me there and was happily trotting around me when Chini, pecked on my shoulder, had noticed her and started shouting herself in excitement! You should have noticed the look on both of their faces!! Chini looking down, shouting with excitement and A looking up, bewildered, silent (she had been chirping happily just a second before) and wondering as to what is happened suddenly!! I take it as an indication that I should arrange play-dates for Chini or at least, start taking out her to the classes held for babies. Time for her to make her own friends! :))) Swimming would have been there because DH and I both love swimming and plan to take Chini for the sport once she's old enough. So, now that I look back, I conclude that these dreams were not as weird as they had seemed early in the morning. May be the other ones which I have forgotten would also have some linkage.

Or may be, the only basis for these dreams is that my thoughts and my life now are prevailed by Chinipie - I, literally, eat, drink, and sleep Chinipie!!

All gone!

You remember the clothes momma was folding (if you have read the last scrap)? Well, momma had carefully folded and neatly piled all the clothes, when Her Highness got up and royally claimed all of them as her play things! Helpless momma just looked over her work being rummaged through with twinkling eyes and chuckling hands.. ;o)

Naani would have been so happy!

Just now Chinipie did what her naani always wanted her to do! She slept all by herself!! Naani would have been so proud of her if she were here. Ever since, Chinipie had come home, naani had been taking care of all her needs except the nursing (obviously!). Whenever Chini had wanted to sleep, she would either want to be cradled or rocked or nurse before passing out. And every time she would do this, naani would wonder, "why every time!?!". According to her, babies should go to sleep by themselves at times. For instance, if they are well-fed and playing by themselves; after some time when they get tired, they should sleep by themselves. She said all her children, the four of us, used to sleep this way. After saying this, she would try hard to recollect how many weeks or months old we were to sleep by ourselves. It was difficult for her to remember as her youngest child, i.e. myself, has also crossed two and a half decades since she last handled such a small baby. Nonetheless, she would always wonder why an off-spring of her own flesh and blood not follow the same thing!

And today Chinipie did it all by herself. After nursing and bathing her, I put her down on her rocking chair (I had to prepare the next meal) where she played by herself with occasional talks and exchanged smiles with momma. Later, I put her on the bed, while I talked to her and started folding clothes(had finished a large load of laundry). She kept following me with her eyes and after some time, got tired and pacified herself by sucking on her fingers and just dozed off!!
Leaving me with a thought - only if naani were here..

Chinipie's Developments I

It's been a while that I gave updates on Chinipie's developments. There is lots to share as she has passed the quarter mark and is continuously up to something. It is fun watching her grow especially when she keeps my hands- full and me- busier than ever. Here I sum up her activities chart..

21 July- 28 July


All Flowery

Chinipie has been discovering that she can do many things with her
hands and she is continually amazed with every new discovery she makes; sometimes even surprising her momma. I almost laugh with wonder when I see her inspecting(!) her little hands. She would lift them, palms fist-ed in front of her eyes, and keep staring at them, turning them around clock-wise and then anti-clockwise before finally taking them to her mouth (read tasting them). In fact, this little discovery of hers has eased my pressure a bit and now, I can take my shower even when she is awake. What I used to do was either take my showers in the evenings so that DH could take care of her or wait for her to sleep
before going for for a quick one; this one was risky as most of the times, I would have to come out in haste to pacify the howling little angel. What I do now, is buckle her up in her stroller, tie little wrist-rattlers and give her a Baby Einstein aquarium toy(this one is designed for strollers with fish, turtle, sea-horse in the little aquarium and little rings, fish, and starfish dangle outside). She loves the dangling toys and tries to catch them, fist them or move them around; making my showers so much peaceful. I keep the stroller just outside the bathroom door for the just-in-case.

To her tiny hands, every thing within the sight is pick-able. One afternoon, I was playing with her on the bed and left her alone just for a while (it was safe as she was in the middle of the bed and has not yet started rolling over and she was still within my sight and reach range) to get a pair of socks for her from the other end of the room while keeping an eye on her. Though i kept talking to her, she started crying. I saw her lifting her tiny bumchis up and turning to her side and suddenly she stopped crying. I thought her fingers would have found their way to her mouth and that's what would have pacified her. I came back to the bed to find her tiny fingers busy indeed- trying to pick the flowers off the bed. I had this bed-sheet with a cream back-ground and pink and purple flowers printed all over. I couldn't suppress my smile on this cute act of hers!


I have got so much to say.......

Chinipie is one talkative baby. She now not only talks to her toys but to the lights and fans, too. She responds to us with her 'eki's' and 'eku's and in fact we have started talking back to her in her language(:)), at times, to encourage her talking. When she talks, her eyes do so too! They are filled with so much eager and delight that one would wish 'if only we knew what she is talking about!' For past few days, when Dad comes back home from the office, he is not only greeted with a smile but beaming eyes and enthusiastic "eki eki inga inga eki eki aye aye unga unga..... ekiiiii" all said in a single breath! The first time she had said this, both, DH and I, had looked at each other with wonder, asking each other,"o yaar! kya bol gai?" This has become a routine now. It looks as if dad's darling daughter tells him what all she did during the day and how happy she is to see him back home.


Chinipie's talks would not be limited only for her dad or only for the evenings, but keep her momma equally fascinated during the day. One morning, she woke us up with her enthusiastic blabber. Her non-stop chattering accompanied by twinkling eyes were so expressive that left dad wondering whether she just a beautiful dream!

In a casual conversation with one of my friends, I updated her with Chinipie's evening rituals. She narrated an incident when her then 10-month old daughter who still couldn't mouth words, had still showed daddy how mommy had hit her on the cheek in his absence. My friend, of course, hadn't hit hard and her only intention was to discipline the little one for something. On hearing this, I thought for myself, "So far, So good!". :))


A surprised nana

Chinipie loves to sit; her alert eyes exploring the surroundings. It is quite funny to see her sit up though as her head keeps nodding. If we try to lay her on her back when she doesn't want to she would show her discontent. So, she sits on her dad's lap when we are having dinner, or on mine, when I am sorting the mails or working on computer; in her car stroller or in the rocking chair. The other day, she was sitting on my lap, while I was talking to nana on the phone. When I got tired of holding her (she needs lots of support to sit) and thought of giving my arms a little rest, I put her down in her crib, and she started crying. My dad's question was, ' why are you making her cry?'. I, instantly, seated her in her crib itself propped with pillows(she needs all kinds of support) and she stopped crying and started looking around again. When I told this to naana, he was delightfully surprised, 'dhai mahine ki bacchi baithne lag gai!?!'

And the proud mom smiled.


Social skills

Chinipie has been very social ever since we started taking her out for the evening strolls. She loves getting attention and responds with a smile to everybody who oodles her.

On Friday, DH and I, decided to dine out. This was our very first dinner in a restaurant after Chinipie's birth. Very carefully, we chose to go out when Chinipie would have normally slept. So, I nursed her and put her in her car seat (she usually falls asleep in the car) and she fell off to sleep as soon as the car started. And was sleeping through our appetizer course. As we were waiting for our main course, she got up and refused to stay in the car seat any longer. So we picked her up and took turns in seating her on our lap while having dinner. This is the trick that usually works for us when we are having dinner at home. But this time it did not as she would sit for a while and then start fussing again. Finally, I perked her up on my shoulder and this seemed to work as I could feel her gnawing happily on my shoulder and cooing contently; while DH and I resumed our dinner and conversation. A while later, we realized that her voice is getting louder and more frequent. I tried to turn back and see her face to try to guess what she wants or what would have captured her attention. DH, sitting across the table, suggested that she is just enjoying herself and nothing else. As he said this, he saw the couple at the adjacent table look at her and smile. And I could see a smile on her face, too. For sure, she had wanted attention and knew exactly how to get what she wants!


Baby's Day Out!

On Saturday, all the desi colleagues at DH's office had kept a get-together at Pymatuning State Park. I was very excited as this was the first outing for Chinipie. Unless, I consider our visits to the malls and department stores which I do not count as the outings. For me the outings have to be outdoors. With her feeding and crying, how much hard I tried, we couldn't leave our house at the decided time (I made a note to myself to keep a margin of at least one hour before making an appointment in future). On our way to the park, she slept until the last 20 minutes and got up hungry. For such times, I keep the formula and bottle as a reserve, which most of the times is a risk because she hardly takes the formula, but this time luckily she took it. I said, 'luckily' because by the time we would have been able to find a place to stop, her cryings would have been so loud that Dad would not have been able to concentrate on his driving. She played for a while before wanting to be picked up. Meanwhile, we could not find the exact meeting spot in the park and were going in circles with her cryings growing louder. Finally, with the directions over the phone and a couple of more wrong turns, we got to the place. As DH was unloading the stuff from the car, Chinipie also un-loaded herself. I thought that changing her diaper in the car before joining everyone else would be comfortable for all of us and asked hubby to give me a hand while I fetched my diaper bag. And this is when the things got messier with the diaper leaking and dirtying Chinipie's and momma's dress! What was just a one-minute job of changing a diaper went on to a 15-minute one including a change of her clothes (here my habit of always keeping an extra pair with me proved worthwhile), cleaning her back and legs and cleaning momma's dress too.

The rest of the day went quite uneventful as far as Chinipie is concerned because as luck would have it, she again chose to just eat and sleep for most of the day. For the brief period when she was up, I had taken the activity play mat along in which she would have played for not more than 10 minutes. Here's a snap of Chinipie sleeping in the sling with DH, something which she has quite taken to recently. I have also added the snap when we first used the sling. She looks like a little kangaroo in there, doesn't she?



P.S. While trying to fish out an appropriate dress for the picnic, I tried some of my pre-pregnancy ones which didn't fit me (obviously!). DH on watching this remarked, "tumhe apne kapde bag se baahar nikaal lene chahiye. waha pade pade sab shrink ho gaye hain"(Seems you should take your dresses out from that bag. They all have shrunk being inside that bag)! love love love... fluttering eyes.. :)

Perfection

Whoever said that "Nobody's Perfect in this world" was wrong!!

I have come to believe-

Babies are perfect little human beings in the whole world.