Yesterday for the Diwali party we had invited (rather my parents had invited) two couples with small babies. There was N who was 2 years and 1 month and M who was 20 months. S was in a bad mood (her cold is getting worse due to the bad weather) and first she didn't interact at all with N and M and was clinging to her Pappa (yes she has started calling the hubby Pappa while Mom is still Caa like all other creatures). Then after some time she settled down and sat down between N and M. Now M is an aggressive girl and immediately ran over to S and pulled her eye. S was quite stumped (obviously she has not been beaten up before) and started howling immediately. After some time she settled down and started playing with N. N is much less aggressive (btw we have an interesting situation wherein the girl is aggressive and beats up the boy and the boy is quite peaceful and more interested in hugging and kissing) and they spent some time playing with the bells on the sofa. Rather N was standing on top of the sofa and S was wacthing in open mouthed wonder while playing with the bells on the sofa.
Then M came and hugged S as a form of apology. S was quite stumped with the hug but continued to ignore M (think she was quite upset with the eye pulling incident). After some time we went upstairs for dinner and the 3 kids sat and watched TV for about 5 mins then ignored the TV and played with the toys my mom had bought.
S had burnt some sparklers with the hubby in the morning and was not disturbed by all the noise
All in all a nice first Diwali for S
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Happy Diwali
Its S first Diwali and we have come to my parents place to celebrate it. Having a Diwali party at home and have invited two couples with babies to celebrate alongwith S. These babies are a year older than S but we wanted to have some kids around. S really likes interacting with other children the first day we got here my cousin's son was at home, and even though he is 8 years older to S she was watching him continously and even crawling around/cruising around after him. Of course she managed to hit him on the eye with her fish toy but nevertheless both of them enjoyed playing with each other.
We have taken a week off and going to both parents house for 4 days each. And a well deserved holiday it is. Last month has been really stressful- first S was unwell for about a week, loss of appetite, high fever; then I got tonsilitis and was completely out of sorts for a week (first time I slept in a different room from S since i couldn;t take AC/getting up at night to feed her) and then S fell ill again this time with cough and cold. That coupled with high tension at work (the US recession is taking a toll at work and everyone is carrying out reviews etc across the board which adds up to a lot work) which means lots of conference calls throughout the day and no rest (i miss my afternoon nap) So finally getting a break at home. Today we left S for the first time with myparents and went for a movie. Surprisingly I called up only once to check on her. Then my parents got S along to my aunt;s place where we joined for lunch. More kids there and more for S to play with. The hubby also introduced S to the dog (i caught him trying to make S ride the dog and lost my cool then!!) . I think S is getting slightly possessive now- when we got to my aunt's place she started crying when she saw us and then went only to the hubby and didn;t come to me for at least 10 mins!
The break from work is good, only S has got a bad cold and her appetite is poor, am getting stressed about her not eating well, but she is playing a lot and crawling/cruising all over the place so I guess not to worry too much and try try try again.
We have taken a week off and going to both parents house for 4 days each. And a well deserved holiday it is. Last month has been really stressful- first S was unwell for about a week, loss of appetite, high fever; then I got tonsilitis and was completely out of sorts for a week (first time I slept in a different room from S since i couldn;t take AC/getting up at night to feed her) and then S fell ill again this time with cough and cold. That coupled with high tension at work (the US recession is taking a toll at work and everyone is carrying out reviews etc across the board which adds up to a lot work) which means lots of conference calls throughout the day and no rest (i miss my afternoon nap) So finally getting a break at home. Today we left S for the first time with myparents and went for a movie. Surprisingly I called up only once to check on her. Then my parents got S along to my aunt;s place where we joined for lunch. More kids there and more for S to play with. The hubby also introduced S to the dog (i caught him trying to make S ride the dog and lost my cool then!!) . I think S is getting slightly possessive now- when we got to my aunt's place she started crying when she saw us and then went only to the hubby and didn;t come to me for at least 10 mins!
The break from work is good, only S has got a bad cold and her appetite is poor, am getting stressed about her not eating well, but she is playing a lot and crawling/cruising all over the place so I guess not to worry too much and try try try again.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Back to the Park
Today S was back at the park after a long break- first S was unwell then I was unwell. Its the first time we've been to the toddlers park after S has started crawling. Initially we sat on the mat and S was hesitatant to crawl out on the grass and even after much prodding, coaxing from me S decided to stay put on the mat and play with her toy. Then the brightly coloured ball of a neighbouring kid caught her eye and S ventured out on her own (without even a backwards glance at her mummy) literally bounding towards the ball. It would have been about 10 metres away. She reached the other kid and without further ado proceeded to pick up the ball and put it in her mouth. I rushed and stopped her before she could actually put it into her mouth and gave an embarassed smile to the other mother. While that mom was cool with S playing with her kids toys (i am also cool with that) and also S putting it into her mouth -I am not ok with this as you cannot spoil other people's things and the earlier you learn this the better). I dragged S back to our place but the attraction of the colourful toys was too much (anyone would think we have no toys at home) and she again crawled back there. This time the other kid was ready to defend his toys- he also crawled towards S. S swatted him on the head and crawled over him to reach th toys!!! I was quite shocked by this and also quite amused (is that bad?). i remembered my fear when a friend said she saw a kid hitting another kid with a frying pan in the daycare I am thinking of putting S into when she is a year old, but looking at this either S would be the one bonking the pother kid with the pan, or if she got bonked she would give it right back!!!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The daily battle with the solids
I started solids with S as soon as she turned 4 months. Couple of reasons why I started so early. Mainly I stopped exclusive nursing when she was 25 days old and I felt S was not getting as nutritious a meal from formula as she would have got from nursing so I wanted to supplement with healthy solids as soon as possible. Secondly S had developed this habit of vomiting quite often (at least once in 3-4 days) immediately after a bottle feed and each time I fed her I was gripped with this panic attack- is she going to vomit this time. And let me tell you, it is pretty scary to see a baby vomit with such force that milk comes out of her nose. Anyway I am digressing-the point here being since she won’t take in as much air during a solid feed, chances of her vomiting were lower.
And initially it was good going. S loved the porridge (millet + milk) which I used to give her once a day, and her meal used to vanish in minutes. Then came 5 months and I decided to increase meals to twice a day. The paediatrician also suggested increasing the number of feeds and there were suggestions of fruits, vegetables, rice and lentils etc etc. I quite excitedly bought a book of meals for babies age 5 months and above and started trying out the recipes.
But S never took to the feeding twice a day concept and starting going off her initial lunch time meal of millet nad milk as well. It started of with her clamping her mouth shut someeher halfway between the meal. Then we would need to entertain her for the second half and only the noisiest of toys (mokey banging drum, elephant banging drum) would elicit an opening of the mouth and the food would be thrust in. I had read somehwetre and some of my friends firmly believe not to force a baby to eat, and not to entertain them while eating as they will not get to realsie how much is their appetite and how much they want to eat - however I have always been paranoid about S weight gain (since she did not put on much weight initially) and try as hard as possible to get the last bite down, even if it takes upto 1 hour.
Then it started getting progressively worse with S crying from the moment she was put on the bouncer/high chair. With immense patience and entertainment about 1/3 of the feed would go in and there would be a very frustrated and upset mom at the enf of the feed (who would start worrying about weight gain, future eating habits etc) and a creying baby (whose mood would magically change once pulled out of the high chair/bouncer
I started getting advice from various family members and even maids about how to feed the child, the most popular being that they used to make their kid lie down on their legs and stuff the food into the baby’s mouth. I am uncomfortable with this for two reasons- first I want S to get used to sitting on a chair and eating food ( Nevermind that I have now shifted back from the high chair to the bouncer since S hates the high chair, but it is sitting nevertheless) as this lays down the foundation for future eating habits at the table. Secondly, S has a habit of crying very loudly if food is thrust on her and when she cries a lot she ends up vomiting her whole meal. So the whole exercise becomes pointless. I still stick to the bouncer and rely on a good mood (from S) and entertainment from whoever is around to get the solid meal down.
Entertainment is essential for any meal. It varies from popular songs on Dad’s mobile, to a showcase of toys (when my mom Ajji is around) to vigorously banging two toys (from my maid) and saying “Bird is coming” in a very loud voice. Some recent innovations are opening and closing my laptop (S loves to come and bang on my laptop when I am working next to her), bringing all the masks down from the wall towards S (we have a nice collection of masks, and S favourite one is the Sun mask from Phillipines which we call ‘Surya Mama mask’), putting on and off the multicoloured light and also looking towards S favourite painting hanging on the wall. However the entertainment only helps about 1/3 of the feed going in and if S is not in a mood to eat (meaning S clamps her mouth shut or starts standing up and down vigorously on the bouncer) then no amount of entertainment can change her mind.
I have also tried all sorts of foods in the hope that I can find the particular food that S likes. They range from all sorts of cereal- millet, rice, oatmeal, broken wheat, the popular “Cerelac” (I desisted as much as I could since the hubby says this is mainly wheat and not particularly healthy); to rice and lentils, all types of vegetables, fruits etc etc. All I can figure out is that S hates rice and lentils and anything else is acceptable if S is in a mood to eat. S however does like Gerber fruits quite a bit. I try to make fresh fruit as much as possible but I think Gerber fruits are slightly tangy and S likes that taste. Recently we had gone for this ‘babies’ party (covered further in post “A week of firsts”) and I enviously looked on as another mom fed her child a whole jar of Gerber vegetables. Somehow S does not like her vegetables too much – I gave her peas, spinach and beans (Gerber) and she absolutely disliked it. Of course most people I know would not particularly like the taste of this combination of garden vegetables so I don’t blame her. Recently S has been unwell and was off her solids quite a bit for about 2-3 days, so now I am not experimenting much and basically giving milk/cereal based stuff. Managed to get some very dilute vegetable soup in today and some fruit but not really experimenting with the other exotic stuff mentioned in my baby book. My cousin who was recently in town mentioned that I should start giving her some of our normal food so that she gets used to it because basically by 1 year they should be eating most of our food. I am slightly apprehensive about this because 1) she is not liking the baby food we give her 2) she has stopped opening her mouth for anything new (not even cheese which I think she would like) and 3) our cook makes extremely spicy food. Once a friend had come over for dinner with her son and I asked the cook to make food with no spice and my friend found even that too spicy. Anyway am off to my mom’s place for Diwali in another 3 weeks so will try some home made “normal” food there.
Anyway will battle with the daily solids feeds- have recently upped to three in the hope that even if S has half of each she will get something nutritious.
I was recently commenting to my mom- when will S become big enough to feed herself, Just then I bumped into a neighbour in the lift who mentioned she still fed her children breakfast else they would not eat anything nutritious (and they must be at least 15 years old!!!!). Hope this is not a sign of things to come.
And initially it was good going. S loved the porridge (millet + milk) which I used to give her once a day, and her meal used to vanish in minutes. Then came 5 months and I decided to increase meals to twice a day. The paediatrician also suggested increasing the number of feeds and there were suggestions of fruits, vegetables, rice and lentils etc etc. I quite excitedly bought a book of meals for babies age 5 months and above and started trying out the recipes.
But S never took to the feeding twice a day concept and starting going off her initial lunch time meal of millet nad milk as well. It started of with her clamping her mouth shut someeher halfway between the meal. Then we would need to entertain her for the second half and only the noisiest of toys (mokey banging drum, elephant banging drum) would elicit an opening of the mouth and the food would be thrust in. I had read somehwetre and some of my friends firmly believe not to force a baby to eat, and not to entertain them while eating as they will not get to realsie how much is their appetite and how much they want to eat - however I have always been paranoid about S weight gain (since she did not put on much weight initially) and try as hard as possible to get the last bite down, even if it takes upto 1 hour.
Then it started getting progressively worse with S crying from the moment she was put on the bouncer/high chair. With immense patience and entertainment about 1/3 of the feed would go in and there would be a very frustrated and upset mom at the enf of the feed (who would start worrying about weight gain, future eating habits etc) and a creying baby (whose mood would magically change once pulled out of the high chair/bouncer
I started getting advice from various family members and even maids about how to feed the child, the most popular being that they used to make their kid lie down on their legs and stuff the food into the baby’s mouth. I am uncomfortable with this for two reasons- first I want S to get used to sitting on a chair and eating food ( Nevermind that I have now shifted back from the high chair to the bouncer since S hates the high chair, but it is sitting nevertheless) as this lays down the foundation for future eating habits at the table. Secondly, S has a habit of crying very loudly if food is thrust on her and when she cries a lot she ends up vomiting her whole meal. So the whole exercise becomes pointless. I still stick to the bouncer and rely on a good mood (from S) and entertainment from whoever is around to get the solid meal down.
Entertainment is essential for any meal. It varies from popular songs on Dad’s mobile, to a showcase of toys (when my mom Ajji is around) to vigorously banging two toys (from my maid) and saying “Bird is coming” in a very loud voice. Some recent innovations are opening and closing my laptop (S loves to come and bang on my laptop when I am working next to her), bringing all the masks down from the wall towards S (we have a nice collection of masks, and S favourite one is the Sun mask from Phillipines which we call ‘Surya Mama mask’), putting on and off the multicoloured light and also looking towards S favourite painting hanging on the wall. However the entertainment only helps about 1/3 of the feed going in and if S is not in a mood to eat (meaning S clamps her mouth shut or starts standing up and down vigorously on the bouncer) then no amount of entertainment can change her mind.
I have also tried all sorts of foods in the hope that I can find the particular food that S likes. They range from all sorts of cereal- millet, rice, oatmeal, broken wheat, the popular “Cerelac” (I desisted as much as I could since the hubby says this is mainly wheat and not particularly healthy); to rice and lentils, all types of vegetables, fruits etc etc. All I can figure out is that S hates rice and lentils and anything else is acceptable if S is in a mood to eat. S however does like Gerber fruits quite a bit. I try to make fresh fruit as much as possible but I think Gerber fruits are slightly tangy and S likes that taste. Recently we had gone for this ‘babies’ party (covered further in post “A week of firsts”) and I enviously looked on as another mom fed her child a whole jar of Gerber vegetables. Somehow S does not like her vegetables too much – I gave her peas, spinach and beans (Gerber) and she absolutely disliked it. Of course most people I know would not particularly like the taste of this combination of garden vegetables so I don’t blame her. Recently S has been unwell and was off her solids quite a bit for about 2-3 days, so now I am not experimenting much and basically giving milk/cereal based stuff. Managed to get some very dilute vegetable soup in today and some fruit but not really experimenting with the other exotic stuff mentioned in my baby book. My cousin who was recently in town mentioned that I should start giving her some of our normal food so that she gets used to it because basically by 1 year they should be eating most of our food. I am slightly apprehensive about this because 1) she is not liking the baby food we give her 2) she has stopped opening her mouth for anything new (not even cheese which I think she would like) and 3) our cook makes extremely spicy food. Once a friend had come over for dinner with her son and I asked the cook to make food with no spice and my friend found even that too spicy. Anyway am off to my mom’s place for Diwali in another 3 weeks so will try some home made “normal” food there.
Anyway will battle with the daily solids feeds- have recently upped to three in the hope that even if S has half of each she will get something nutritious.
I was recently commenting to my mom- when will S become big enough to feed herself, Just then I bumped into a neighbour in the lift who mentioned she still fed her children breakfast else they would not eat anything nutritious (and they must be at least 15 years old!!!!). Hope this is not a sign of things to come.
Friday, October 3, 2008
A week of firsts
Last 7 days has been a week of firsts for S. On Saturday we went for a babies party – S was the youngest at 71/2 months, then there was another baby at 9 months, then two elder babies at 14 and 18 months and the eldest at 4 years. And it was an all girls (babies) party so we started the party toasting our daughters.
The hubby was a bit apprehensive about S behaviour and on the way there was mentioning that if S starts to cry we can leave early. I was slightly more chilled out because I am ok with babies crying and making a fuss and don’t expect children to be well behaved all the time. Initially S was a bit overawed by the new place (it was at a friends place) and the no of people there and when I plonked S down next to her 9 month “friend” S started crying. I held on my lap for about 10 mins to get S acclimatized to the place and then she was ready to go. She started crawling all over the place. There was a cycle which S was very enamored with and she kept crawling towards it and trying to climb on top of it. It was pretty light so once it fell on her and then my main job was to try and dissuade her from reaching towards it. The hubby placed her on it and S enjoyed herself for about 10 mins sitting on top of it. There are some really cute pictures of her on it. Other than crawling there wasn’t much opportunity for her to do her favourite of holding onto the sofa and trying to climb up since the adults were all comfortably placed on the sofas
The interaction with other babies was really quite limited. S was more interested in the toys and the furniture. I must admit I had gone with the notion that S was going to play with the other babies so I was a bit surprised but possibly at this age babies are not that social enough to play with other. However she took well to all the peoples there and didn’t cry when they lifted her. Her interaction with the other babies was limited to patting the 9 month on the head like another of her toys and pushing the 18 month old to get to the floor gym which was highly attractive with the colourful toys and music. S also got some pushes and pats on the head but took it all pretty much in stride.
I was also surprised to see the non-fuss created by other babies to eat their solids, but S didn’t look thin by comparison and is quite advanced in terms of crawling well, climbing by holding furniture etc so my worries on her not putting on enough weight were relieved for the time being.
Around 9:30 pm S started getting restless so after her night milk I put her to sleep. I initially put her on the bed surrounded by pillows but was gripped by paranoia that she would wake up and crawl over the pillows and fall off the bed. S is quite capable of this- in the morning she jumped from her cot onto the bed – S was holding the railing of the cot and bouncing up and down on the mattress of the cot (which is quite bouncy) and then lept from the cot onto the bed which is adjoining the cot. Anyway I finally put S to sleep in the other baby’s crib. This still did not stop me from going to check on her every 15 mins since it was quite hot in that room and S is used to sleeping the lap of luxury (she needs AC to sleep comfortably at night, much to my dismay since I can’t sleep in AC without getting the sniffles)
The party was also marked by a first in behaviour which uptill S was born (or from when I was expecting) consisting of getting totally smashed and making an ass of myself. This time I was confined to the social drink and my conversation mostly consisted of asking the mom of the 9 month old (who also happens to be my junior from grad school) of what she fed her baby, how many times a day, how did she find the work from home experience, how much does her baby sleep etc etc. We also swapped bitchy comments about our baby maids and their lack of imagination in keeping the child entertained.
The other first for S was her first haircut. Her hair has become very unruly. It is extremely curly and cute but gets totally tangled and S ends up getting her fingers stuck in her hair and also feels very hot due to the tangled mess. So I was going to get my haircut so thought let me take this opportunity and get S hair more manageable. Initially debated whether I should take S to a baby specialist hairdressing salon but decided I was more comfortable going to my own hairdresser whom I have been going for the last 4-5 years. And I think the decision was right. She was extremely gentle with S and while S was quite wriggly we managed to finish her first haircut in 15 minutes. Of course would not have managed without the support of her Ajji (my mom) who was entertaining S with her favourite giraffe thus helping me to keep her head steady and not suddenly jerk ( I was quite worried about S getting cut with the scissors since I had seen a boy rushing to the paediatrician during one of my visits to the doctor).S was comfortably seated on my lap and expect for the last 2 snips was quite well behaved. The hairdresser also did a decent job and finished off the whole process quickly and didn’t chop off too much hair; just the extra hair at the back while most of cute curly hair on top was retained. I must admit S looks even cuter with the boy-cut now – the hubby insists on retaining this in future as well, while I have these visions of S with long hair nicely embellished with clips and bands.
The hubby was a bit apprehensive about S behaviour and on the way there was mentioning that if S starts to cry we can leave early. I was slightly more chilled out because I am ok with babies crying and making a fuss and don’t expect children to be well behaved all the time. Initially S was a bit overawed by the new place (it was at a friends place) and the no of people there and when I plonked S down next to her 9 month “friend” S started crying. I held on my lap for about 10 mins to get S acclimatized to the place and then she was ready to go. She started crawling all over the place. There was a cycle which S was very enamored with and she kept crawling towards it and trying to climb on top of it. It was pretty light so once it fell on her and then my main job was to try and dissuade her from reaching towards it. The hubby placed her on it and S enjoyed herself for about 10 mins sitting on top of it. There are some really cute pictures of her on it. Other than crawling there wasn’t much opportunity for her to do her favourite of holding onto the sofa and trying to climb up since the adults were all comfortably placed on the sofas
The interaction with other babies was really quite limited. S was more interested in the toys and the furniture. I must admit I had gone with the notion that S was going to play with the other babies so I was a bit surprised but possibly at this age babies are not that social enough to play with other. However she took well to all the peoples there and didn’t cry when they lifted her. Her interaction with the other babies was limited to patting the 9 month on the head like another of her toys and pushing the 18 month old to get to the floor gym which was highly attractive with the colourful toys and music. S also got some pushes and pats on the head but took it all pretty much in stride.
I was also surprised to see the non-fuss created by other babies to eat their solids, but S didn’t look thin by comparison and is quite advanced in terms of crawling well, climbing by holding furniture etc so my worries on her not putting on enough weight were relieved for the time being.
Around 9:30 pm S started getting restless so after her night milk I put her to sleep. I initially put her on the bed surrounded by pillows but was gripped by paranoia that she would wake up and crawl over the pillows and fall off the bed. S is quite capable of this- in the morning she jumped from her cot onto the bed – S was holding the railing of the cot and bouncing up and down on the mattress of the cot (which is quite bouncy) and then lept from the cot onto the bed which is adjoining the cot. Anyway I finally put S to sleep in the other baby’s crib. This still did not stop me from going to check on her every 15 mins since it was quite hot in that room and S is used to sleeping the lap of luxury (she needs AC to sleep comfortably at night, much to my dismay since I can’t sleep in AC without getting the sniffles)
The party was also marked by a first in behaviour which uptill S was born (or from when I was expecting) consisting of getting totally smashed and making an ass of myself. This time I was confined to the social drink and my conversation mostly consisted of asking the mom of the 9 month old (who also happens to be my junior from grad school) of what she fed her baby, how many times a day, how did she find the work from home experience, how much does her baby sleep etc etc. We also swapped bitchy comments about our baby maids and their lack of imagination in keeping the child entertained.
The other first for S was her first haircut. Her hair has become very unruly. It is extremely curly and cute but gets totally tangled and S ends up getting her fingers stuck in her hair and also feels very hot due to the tangled mess. So I was going to get my haircut so thought let me take this opportunity and get S hair more manageable. Initially debated whether I should take S to a baby specialist hairdressing salon but decided I was more comfortable going to my own hairdresser whom I have been going for the last 4-5 years. And I think the decision was right. She was extremely gentle with S and while S was quite wriggly we managed to finish her first haircut in 15 minutes. Of course would not have managed without the support of her Ajji (my mom) who was entertaining S with her favourite giraffe thus helping me to keep her head steady and not suddenly jerk ( I was quite worried about S getting cut with the scissors since I had seen a boy rushing to the paediatrician during one of my visits to the doctor).S was comfortably seated on my lap and expect for the last 2 snips was quite well behaved. The hairdresser also did a decent job and finished off the whole process quickly and didn’t chop off too much hair; just the extra hair at the back while most of cute curly hair on top was retained. I must admit S looks even cuter with the boy-cut now – the hubby insists on retaining this in future as well, while I have these visions of S with long hair nicely embellished with clips and bands.
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