Growing up so fast

S is growing up so fast ....
Just the other day I told one of my colleagues (who asked how the baby was) that she is now a big girl and he had a good laugh given that the big girl is 11 months!! But its true, S has changed in so many ways ...
She no longer fits on my husbands legs- when S was born she used to fit exactly on hubby's lap while he was sitting down. Not the case with me since I'm a foot shorter than the hubby. Now her legs come up to my husband's neck when she's lying down
S is halfway towars being toilet trained now- the credit for this goes entirely to my mom-in-law who is with us for a month and keeps taking her to the loo every hour and asking her to pee- yesterday S took my mom-inlaw's hand and led her to the loo and then peed!!!
I can now make out when S is hungry (she starts chomping on whatever's in her hand), when S is sleepy (rubs eyes, or starts walking around in circles) or when S is generally cranky (she starts clinging to the hubby or me) as against her crying for all three things earlier
S can now walk, run, jump up and down (when she has tantrums- yes that started a week back) and even dance (her favourite song is Emotional Atyaachar- she shares my good taste in music!)..though it would be a lie to say that she used to lie peacefully earlier- she was always a very active baby and used to virgoursly move her hands and feet from day 1
S can interact with other kids now- mainly limited to pulling their ponytails, or getting whacked by soimebody's cricket bat, or trying to take a toy from someone else
S can understand a lot more- she knows the names of her favourite toys (dinky, crocodile), items in the room (sunflowers painting, picture of Lord Krishna, sun mask, coloured light), knows who her pappa/dada and her mamma, her ajji, the maids are and who S is (she points to herself when we ask who is S), what noise an aeroplane makes (she looks into the sky when she hears this), what sun and moon are....
S can express herself more- when she wants to go somewhere she will take our hand and lead us there, she knows when she is doing something naughty- she puts her finger up saying no no no and continues to do the same, she can understand nursery rhymes (her favourites are ding dong bell and ba ba black sheep), she keeps showing her photo to whoever comes to the house
S clearly has her favourites- she will eat dal rice with gusto and give so much trouble for her oatmeal, she will dance only to some songs, she will respond to only some rhymes...this must be true for every kid, but what strikes me is her consistency- if something was her favourtie yesterday, it will be her favourite today also, she will only look at her own photos while eating (my mom said i was like this as well)- the other day her Maama (my bro) gave her a picture of her cousins and she gave it back to him within a minute
S now goes on the slide (her favourite) and on the swing (not too kicked about this). She can also keep herself entertained looking at other people while the hubby and I have a coffee at CCD
S can now reach for all the troublesome things in the kitchen- the gas switch, the vessels/bottles on the ledge, open the drawer for the dustbin. We can also no longer hide most things from S- if we are eating a chocolcate she has to have some of it or we need to go to the other room and eat it...
time just flies with S now, soon she will be 1..
Here's looking at you kid

A hectic wedding and a good break

Just finised attending my sis-in-law's wedding. We stayed at a hotel for four days and there was a lot of travel involved but surprisingly S took it all in stride. My main worry was her eating her solids- firstly it would have to be the packaged stuff, secondly we would need to fit it in somehow between all the functions and lastly- there would be no bouncer and entertainment for her which is so essential. Further S had a bad cold and that really reduces her appetite. But somehow we managed. The hotel was helpful in giving us a high chair even in our hotel room, my mom was very hekpful during the wedding functions- she held S while i fed her and S was also obliging. We even managed to squeeze in a day long visit to temples and a relatives place after the wedding day where we had to feed S in a hotel/ in a temple room etc. WE are planning a 3 week trip to the US and I guess this would be good preparation for that.
S really enjoyed the wedding functions- the hubby put mehendi on her hands and feet while she was asleep! During the wedding S was busy rearranging the furniture in the hall- she kept pushign the chairs all around the place. She was wearing a pata-kasa given to her by her Ajji from Papa's side. The reception was more of chair pushing alongwith playing with her secnd cousins- A who is 3 years old and Sh who is 21/2. Sh kept giving her stuff to play with/eat and S was quite happy to be playing with another kid and was following her around quite a bit. All teh relatives would keep calling S to come to them, but she started this new habit of puting her head down and frowning when new people call her- very cute. If you leave her alone for some time then she takes to new people.
Anwyay now with the wedding functions over we are enjoying a five days break at my mom's place. S has taken to the home cooked food well. ITs much colder here than back home so S is bundled into sweater, shoes, pants all the time. But she is enjoying herself and keeps wandering around the much bigger hall poking her nose into every nook and cranny! As for me, I am gettting a good break.
Cheers and wishes for a Great New Year