Sunday, March 28, 2010
A's first trip to the park
We took A to her first trip to the park. She was bundled into her red pram and we walked to the neighbourhood park (one major advantage of Bangalore is that every nieghbourhood has a nice park for walking with a play area for kids). She did much better than i expected- she was staring at the sky and trees for the first ten minutes and then promptly went off to sleep. Unlike S who spent her first visit to the park in her pram howling so we had to rush back home. So S was playing in the playground with the hubby while i was pushing A around with her granddad!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Of 2 am soaps and late night movies
I am now the expert of what all comes on TV at 2 am in the night, courtesy A. A sleeps peacefully throughout the day and is wide eyed from 11 pm onwards when the rest of the house starts shutting down. 11 am t0 4 am is my official time to look after her since my mom sleeps at that time, so after many unsuccesful attempts to switch off the light and put A to bed in the bedroom, i give up, come to the living room, switch on the TV and mindlessly flick through channels. The preferred ones are Star World and Star Movies since those are ones with subtitles which can be watched on mute, and now i'm up to date on eposides of Prison Break (never heard of it before), Sons and Daughters and other such serials. Miss Friends though- thought there was a 12 am episode running earlier.
The hubby, who gets his daily 10 hours of sleep insists i should keep A awake more during the day. Frankly dont see how that is possible, since she is too young for us to distract her with some toys or a story. She only cries when we try to keep her awake and then we're forced to put her to bed The hubby also suggested putting water on her or giving her a cold water bath!!!! after some unsuccesful attempts to keep A in a sitting position to keep her awake - she slept through that as well!
My cousin, who had the same problem with her daugher, suggested giving a sleep medicine in the night which would break the cycle once and hopefully change it for the better. But i feel A is too young to give such medicines, so will go back to the mindless surfing of channels for now.
Btw can't beleive there are so many teleshopping channels suddenly- rather many channels only have teleshopping at 2 am in the night- do people really shop at this time?
The hubby, who gets his daily 10 hours of sleep insists i should keep A awake more during the day. Frankly dont see how that is possible, since she is too young for us to distract her with some toys or a story. She only cries when we try to keep her awake and then we're forced to put her to bed The hubby also suggested putting water on her or giving her a cold water bath!!!! after some unsuccesful attempts to keep A in a sitting position to keep her awake - she slept through that as well!
My cousin, who had the same problem with her daugher, suggested giving a sleep medicine in the night which would break the cycle once and hopefully change it for the better. But i feel A is too young to give such medicines, so will go back to the mindless surfing of channels for now.
Btw can't beleive there are so many teleshopping channels suddenly- rather many channels only have teleshopping at 2 am in the night- do people really shop at this time?
Friday, March 12, 2010
A joins us
A, our darling baby daughter joined us on the 10th of February. She turns one month tomorrow, and how the days have flown by. The birth story is a long episode and will take another post but suffice it to say it was not I how had expected it to be!
Handling two kids is really a handful, but i luckily have the support of my mom and a full time baby maid. End of this month i will be leaving for Bangalore with my mom and the two kids and am there for two months, by which time i should have learnt to manage two kids on my own a bit better hopefully.
S seems quite happy with the new arrival and keeps kissing her, pulling her 'chubby cheeks' and patting her. She helps out with bringing the nappy and soap and shampoo for bath and keeps asking to comb the baby's hair. But her other behaviour has become quite terrible and i feel she is showing her unhappiness with the new kid getting the attention in other places. She starts crying and wailing loudly for the smallest of things- if we ask her to get off the swing (we have a swing now at home- Daddy's gift for S on her second birthday, she loves it and spends at least an hour on it everyday), or dont show her Nemo for the 100th time in a week, or if her Ajji has lunch instead of watching Nemo with her- really small things which she would have been ok with earlier. She has also started wailing to go and come back from school(but luckily over the last few days that has got better). So far we have been able to manage my mom (her Ajji) looking after S during all the feeds - in fact my mom only looks after her most of the time since i need to give so much time to A. But today my mom had to go out for sometime and that also coincided with A's feed time. When i got up from the living room where i was sitting with S to feed A, she started crying and stamping her feet, insiting that i should carry her, I carried her for 5 minutes and then A started crying louder and louder and I tried to explain to S that see A is crying , i need to feed her , why dont you sit next to mama and read this book, but she insisted that i carry her, andcontinued to sit ony my lap. Finally i put S down and she howled for some time before the maid took her to the swing to distract her. Hope S grows out of this soon, or i'm going to be a very tired and upset mother soon!
A is quite different from S. Firstly she looks more like the hubby whereas S looks like me. She is also a night baby- most nights she is awake from 2:30-4:30 feeding and playing and sleeps through large parts of the day. S had got the day-night routine right from day one and used to play quite a bit during the day and wake in the nights only for the feeds. Also A is quite aggressive in her demands from day one and insists on being carried on the lap most of the day even when she’s awake, while S used to play quite happily in the Moses basket by herself. Anyway I now know most of the late night shows on tv and have caught two three movies with subtitles running at 3 in the morning! Wonder when this cycle will reverse- its manageable now since my mom looks after both the kids in the morning and I get sleep till 8:30-9 am.
Other updates in brief
We celebrated S second birthday on the 6th with a Jerry cake, a swing and motorbike from her dad, earrings from me (ears not pierced yet though!), earrings from Ajji and flowers and new dress from her Bua. Decided not to have a party and call other kids since I was not sure whether I would be in the nursing home or at home, and anyway S doesn’t really play games at birthday parties, or interact that much with the other kids- maybe for her third birthday she will herself be excited about a party, and cake and friends
We played Holi this year after a long time. It was S first Holi experience and she really enjoyed playing with the pichkari (its got lights and she still plays with it), and the water gun. WE played within the building and there was another kid (muchy older) who kept throwing water on S and the hubby helped S in spraying him back with water. S was not very thrilled with the colours being put on her face so we put only a bit on her face and more on her arms!
We moved house, sold our old place and rented a new one. Two main goals- one to move into a better apartment (achieved) and two to reduce the ties to Bombay ( I don’t like this city). The packing and unpacking was quite hectic but my mom and dad were there to help, otherwise it would have been very tiring in the ninth month. The new apartment is quite nice- the security is good, the neighbours are friendly (one of them came over with a packet of brownies to welcome us) and best of all, there is a girl of S age in the flat below us- so far the interaction has not been the best given S mood swings and temper tantrums, but am hoping it would improve over time
For New Years this year we went to Kashid, a beach resort about 3 hours from Bombay to a friends place. It was with old college friends and well worth the effort (driving there and back over two days) and S enjoyed all the attention being the only kid there! My friend has a dog- and S kept feeding him biscuits, running after him etc. My friends kept her well entertained pointing out flowers, birds, giving her various creams to play with (she loves that) and she played in the beach and water with the hubby. New years night we went to my friend's parents friend place where there was another girl of S age, so some time went in playing with her toys, running around with her etc.
Back to the two kids now!
Handling two kids is really a handful, but i luckily have the support of my mom and a full time baby maid. End of this month i will be leaving for Bangalore with my mom and the two kids and am there for two months, by which time i should have learnt to manage two kids on my own a bit better hopefully.
S seems quite happy with the new arrival and keeps kissing her, pulling her 'chubby cheeks' and patting her. She helps out with bringing the nappy and soap and shampoo for bath and keeps asking to comb the baby's hair. But her other behaviour has become quite terrible and i feel she is showing her unhappiness with the new kid getting the attention in other places. She starts crying and wailing loudly for the smallest of things- if we ask her to get off the swing (we have a swing now at home- Daddy's gift for S on her second birthday, she loves it and spends at least an hour on it everyday), or dont show her Nemo for the 100th time in a week, or if her Ajji has lunch instead of watching Nemo with her- really small things which she would have been ok with earlier. She has also started wailing to go and come back from school(but luckily over the last few days that has got better). So far we have been able to manage my mom (her Ajji) looking after S during all the feeds - in fact my mom only looks after her most of the time since i need to give so much time to A. But today my mom had to go out for sometime and that also coincided with A's feed time. When i got up from the living room where i was sitting with S to feed A, she started crying and stamping her feet, insiting that i should carry her, I carried her for 5 minutes and then A started crying louder and louder and I tried to explain to S that see A is crying , i need to feed her , why dont you sit next to mama and read this book, but she insisted that i carry her, andcontinued to sit ony my lap. Finally i put S down and she howled for some time before the maid took her to the swing to distract her. Hope S grows out of this soon, or i'm going to be a very tired and upset mother soon!
A is quite different from S. Firstly she looks more like the hubby whereas S looks like me. She is also a night baby- most nights she is awake from 2:30-4:30 feeding and playing and sleeps through large parts of the day. S had got the day-night routine right from day one and used to play quite a bit during the day and wake in the nights only for the feeds. Also A is quite aggressive in her demands from day one and insists on being carried on the lap most of the day even when she’s awake, while S used to play quite happily in the Moses basket by herself. Anyway I now know most of the late night shows on tv and have caught two three movies with subtitles running at 3 in the morning! Wonder when this cycle will reverse- its manageable now since my mom looks after both the kids in the morning and I get sleep till 8:30-9 am.
Other updates in brief
We celebrated S second birthday on the 6th with a Jerry cake, a swing and motorbike from her dad, earrings from me (ears not pierced yet though!), earrings from Ajji and flowers and new dress from her Bua. Decided not to have a party and call other kids since I was not sure whether I would be in the nursing home or at home, and anyway S doesn’t really play games at birthday parties, or interact that much with the other kids- maybe for her third birthday she will herself be excited about a party, and cake and friends
We played Holi this year after a long time. It was S first Holi experience and she really enjoyed playing with the pichkari (its got lights and she still plays with it), and the water gun. WE played within the building and there was another kid (muchy older) who kept throwing water on S and the hubby helped S in spraying him back with water. S was not very thrilled with the colours being put on her face so we put only a bit on her face and more on her arms!
We moved house, sold our old place and rented a new one. Two main goals- one to move into a better apartment (achieved) and two to reduce the ties to Bombay ( I don’t like this city). The packing and unpacking was quite hectic but my mom and dad were there to help, otherwise it would have been very tiring in the ninth month. The new apartment is quite nice- the security is good, the neighbours are friendly (one of them came over with a packet of brownies to welcome us) and best of all, there is a girl of S age in the flat below us- so far the interaction has not been the best given S mood swings and temper tantrums, but am hoping it would improve over time
For New Years this year we went to Kashid, a beach resort about 3 hours from Bombay to a friends place. It was with old college friends and well worth the effort (driving there and back over two days) and S enjoyed all the attention being the only kid there! My friend has a dog- and S kept feeding him biscuits, running after him etc. My friends kept her well entertained pointing out flowers, birds, giving her various creams to play with (she loves that) and she played in the beach and water with the hubby. New years night we went to my friend's parents friend place where there was another girl of S age, so some time went in playing with her toys, running around with her etc.
Back to the two kids now!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Happy New Year : Part 1
Happy New Year : Part 1
Happy New Year to my darling S. Last year was a mixture of ups and downs- struggling with managing a full time job and bringing up S, managing two houses, a terrible first trimester, difficult maids, S breaking into school ( 10 days of heartbreak for me to hear her cry) as well as tons of joy everyday- S first nursery rhyme, first full sentence (“Thank you God for the tiffin”), first tantrum, first fall from the swing and monkey bars at the park, first sports day, first swim at the pool…. and so many other firsts I could go on. Its been a great 2009 and the only resolution I make for 2010 is to spend more time with S and to be a more patient mother. First should be more easily achieved with my 6 months maternity leave coming up in a couple of weeks, second promises to be a stretch with the second baby to arrive soon!
2010 is going to be a struggle, I was quite a paranoid mother when S was born and fussing over anything and while I have resolved not to be as fussy this time round, old habits die hard and am sure while I may not have the time and energy to be as particular as I was last time, it will still be a very big struggle managing two kids, especially with S entering her “Trying Twos”. Lot of people ask me whether S knows she is going to get a brother/sister soon, and I say that she really does not understand the concept. The hubby and I have told her many times that there is another babbu coming, and she will need to play with the babbu and be loving to the babbu, and she does stroke my tummy and say Hi to the babbu once in a while, but my sense is that she really does not understand the entire concept and how the baby is going to be very small, and will take up some of mummy and daddy’s time etc. Keeping fingers crossed that S takes it all in stride.
The last few weeks have been quite hectic. Almost like we are trying to fit in all the socializing and outings before the second baby comes and life changes quite dramatically again. Christmas was a long four day weekend since there was another holiday on the Monday after.
Christmas day (Friday) we spent the evening at a college friends place. She has a one year old son and S was quite friendly with him- she pushed him on his swing a couple of times and even tried speaking to him. Then after some time she became more interested in his toys and spent most of the evening going through all of them. There are some really cute pictures of the two kids together. This is my college friend whom I have known for close to 14 years and it was really nice to see our kids playing together! Similar feeling to the other day I had gone to another close friend’s place whose son is 4 years old and he played with S for about an hour.
The next day we went for the night show of 3 Idiots. The first half of the movie is brilliant and had us in splits. The second half drags unnecessarily and some of the incidents are too unbelievable, But overall we enjoyed the movie, and so did S who was awake for part of the movie and enjoyed the song “All is Well” and still repeats it from time to time. Anyway the movie finished only at 1:30 in the night and it was well past two before we slept. S and I slept till 10 the next morning (she woke up again in the last ½ hour and was so excited by the whole experience that she refused to sleep even after we got home and was jumping in the bed well past 2). The hubby had a shoot in Pune the next day so he was up and away pretty early. Luckily S slept till 10 otherwise Sunday would have been really difficult to manage without the hubby.
Sunday night we hosted a party at home for my friend who was down from the States. She is also expecting and must have been quite shocked to see S in one of her vomiting states (we fed her dinner a bit early since guests were coming and I think she was too full!). Anyway S had her dinner again and settled down after that and sat on one of the sofas watching Nemo on her Daddy’s laptop and venturing out once in a while to take some chips from one of my friends. Dinner itself wound up pretty early since everyone was tired from their hectic traveling schedule- only one of my friends landed up at 11 pm after everyone at left and S was still awake so they both played together for some time. Finally slept at some 12 midnight
Monday was relatively less eventful. Had some office work in the morning, spent the day lazing around, and in the night went to Mainland China for dinner. Its one of my favourite restaurants in Bangalore, and once I heard that they had opened a branch near my place was waiting to try it out. But food was disappointing- very oily and I had a slight stomach upset after that.
Will update on New Year weekend in next post.
Happy New Year to my darling S. Last year was a mixture of ups and downs- struggling with managing a full time job and bringing up S, managing two houses, a terrible first trimester, difficult maids, S breaking into school ( 10 days of heartbreak for me to hear her cry) as well as tons of joy everyday- S first nursery rhyme, first full sentence (“Thank you God for the tiffin”), first tantrum, first fall from the swing and monkey bars at the park, first sports day, first swim at the pool…. and so many other firsts I could go on. Its been a great 2009 and the only resolution I make for 2010 is to spend more time with S and to be a more patient mother. First should be more easily achieved with my 6 months maternity leave coming up in a couple of weeks, second promises to be a stretch with the second baby to arrive soon!
2010 is going to be a struggle, I was quite a paranoid mother when S was born and fussing over anything and while I have resolved not to be as fussy this time round, old habits die hard and am sure while I may not have the time and energy to be as particular as I was last time, it will still be a very big struggle managing two kids, especially with S entering her “Trying Twos”. Lot of people ask me whether S knows she is going to get a brother/sister soon, and I say that she really does not understand the concept. The hubby and I have told her many times that there is another babbu coming, and she will need to play with the babbu and be loving to the babbu, and she does stroke my tummy and say Hi to the babbu once in a while, but my sense is that she really does not understand the entire concept and how the baby is going to be very small, and will take up some of mummy and daddy’s time etc. Keeping fingers crossed that S takes it all in stride.
The last few weeks have been quite hectic. Almost like we are trying to fit in all the socializing and outings before the second baby comes and life changes quite dramatically again. Christmas was a long four day weekend since there was another holiday on the Monday after.
Christmas day (Friday) we spent the evening at a college friends place. She has a one year old son and S was quite friendly with him- she pushed him on his swing a couple of times and even tried speaking to him. Then after some time she became more interested in his toys and spent most of the evening going through all of them. There are some really cute pictures of the two kids together. This is my college friend whom I have known for close to 14 years and it was really nice to see our kids playing together! Similar feeling to the other day I had gone to another close friend’s place whose son is 4 years old and he played with S for about an hour.
The next day we went for the night show of 3 Idiots. The first half of the movie is brilliant and had us in splits. The second half drags unnecessarily and some of the incidents are too unbelievable, But overall we enjoyed the movie, and so did S who was awake for part of the movie and enjoyed the song “All is Well” and still repeats it from time to time. Anyway the movie finished only at 1:30 in the night and it was well past two before we slept. S and I slept till 10 the next morning (she woke up again in the last ½ hour and was so excited by the whole experience that she refused to sleep even after we got home and was jumping in the bed well past 2). The hubby had a shoot in Pune the next day so he was up and away pretty early. Luckily S slept till 10 otherwise Sunday would have been really difficult to manage without the hubby.
Sunday night we hosted a party at home for my friend who was down from the States. She is also expecting and must have been quite shocked to see S in one of her vomiting states (we fed her dinner a bit early since guests were coming and I think she was too full!). Anyway S had her dinner again and settled down after that and sat on one of the sofas watching Nemo on her Daddy’s laptop and venturing out once in a while to take some chips from one of my friends. Dinner itself wound up pretty early since everyone was tired from their hectic traveling schedule- only one of my friends landed up at 11 pm after everyone at left and S was still awake so they both played together for some time. Finally slept at some 12 midnight
Monday was relatively less eventful. Had some office work in the morning, spent the day lazing around, and in the night went to Mainland China for dinner. Its one of my favourite restaurants in Bangalore, and once I heard that they had opened a branch near my place was waiting to try it out. But food was disappointing- very oily and I had a slight stomach upset after that.
Will update on New Year weekend in next post.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sports day
Aah.. sports day turned out to be not such a sporting day. In my previous post I had mentioned that I was in two minds whether to take S for her sports day or not since the hubby was not there, and it would involve getting up far too early in the morning. Anyway I decided to push myself and make the effort to take S. My colleague whose son is one month older to S had his Sports day just the day before and my colleague said he really enjoyed himself, so that basically clinched it. I had these visions of S running in the race and being delighted to spend time with her playschool friends outside school (especially since she talks about them so much!)
That was not to be. I woke up S at 7:15 am, a whole hour ahead of her usual waking up time of 8:15-8:30. She was most reluctant to drink her milk so early and after a lot of pestering and running behind her she finally drank her milk, got ready and we were out of the house by 8 am. Her bad mommy had not planned adequately and S was the only child there not to be wearing the school T shirt. I had left it behind in the other house, and when I enquired in the school about buying a new T shirt for the sports day they said they were out of stock and it would take a couple of weeks to get another one- too late! Anyway I put a brown T shirt for S- as close to a yellow T shirt as possible which is the colour of the school shirt, but she still stood out like a sore thumb. I only reassure myself that she would not have noticed it- I mean how often do you look down and see what T shirt you are wearing? And also the other kids are not big enough to point out that S is wearing a different colour T shirt!
We reached the venue and the other kids from her playschool were already sitting in a group. I tried to persuade S to join them- mentioning the other kids in class whom she chatters about, and even the teachers stepped in, asking her to come join them, but she was to have none of it. She clung to me and refused to go near her playschool group. I was a bit surprised since she usually rushes off inside her playschool without a backward glance, but I guess this was firstly a new environment (sports field) and also it was early in the morning for her and she may have been cranky! I don’t know what exactly she was afraid of, but she clung to me for the next half hour.
The LKG class started with the March past- it was more of ribbon waving than march past but all the kids were excited, the parents were even more excited and even S was riveted watching them. Then it was time for the playschool races. The parents had to stand on one side and the children on the other side (with the teachers) and run from the teachers to the parents. I took S to the start line and made her watch the first two races (they were of the afternoon batch of the playschool) so she would get an idea of what was expected of her. She seemed enthu enough, but when her name was called for the race she again clung to me and refused to go to the teacher at the start line, I tried to persude her that her friends are standing next to her, and mummy has to go to the opposite side and she is to come running to mummy, but no there was much of crying and stomping of the feet at the thought of mummy going away so I had to run in the race alongwith her! After the race, we went to the other side of the field where some of her playschool friends were and she spent about ½ hour running around the field and generally watching what they were doing. One of the boys tried to take her hand and make her run with him, but she was more comfortable being by herself and generally running around the place. She ran onto the main track a couple of times, where the senior kg races were going on, and had to be retrieved by the teachers/or me.
Finally around 10 am the certificate and medal ceremony happened. A good thing I liked about the sports day was that there were no prizes for first/second etc- all participants got a certificate and gold medal. They were called to the dais and the teacher gave them the certificate and put the medal around the neck. S of course screamed loudly when they put the medal around her neck, so I had to quickly take it off. S gets really uncomfortable when people (including me and the hubby) try to put things on her- a brooch on her shirt, or a necklace around her neck etc. She must be the least dressed up girl I know- no clips, no jewelry (ears also not yet pierced- I was too scared when she was young, and now she’ll pull at it, so will have to wait till she’s old enough to ask for it!). So a befitting ending to a cranky first sports day.
I used to love sports day at school- I used to take part in everything (was quite the enthu cutlet), hardly used to win any prizes (maybe a third in a race where there were only 5 participants) but I used to still enjoy taking part in all the track events. Hopefully S will enjoy the sports days more as she grows up. Or maybe she takes after the hubby, who is completely disinterested in all sports- both watching and participating!
That was not to be. I woke up S at 7:15 am, a whole hour ahead of her usual waking up time of 8:15-8:30. She was most reluctant to drink her milk so early and after a lot of pestering and running behind her she finally drank her milk, got ready and we were out of the house by 8 am. Her bad mommy had not planned adequately and S was the only child there not to be wearing the school T shirt. I had left it behind in the other house, and when I enquired in the school about buying a new T shirt for the sports day they said they were out of stock and it would take a couple of weeks to get another one- too late! Anyway I put a brown T shirt for S- as close to a yellow T shirt as possible which is the colour of the school shirt, but she still stood out like a sore thumb. I only reassure myself that she would not have noticed it- I mean how often do you look down and see what T shirt you are wearing? And also the other kids are not big enough to point out that S is wearing a different colour T shirt!
We reached the venue and the other kids from her playschool were already sitting in a group. I tried to persuade S to join them- mentioning the other kids in class whom she chatters about, and even the teachers stepped in, asking her to come join them, but she was to have none of it. She clung to me and refused to go near her playschool group. I was a bit surprised since she usually rushes off inside her playschool without a backward glance, but I guess this was firstly a new environment (sports field) and also it was early in the morning for her and she may have been cranky! I don’t know what exactly she was afraid of, but she clung to me for the next half hour.
The LKG class started with the March past- it was more of ribbon waving than march past but all the kids were excited, the parents were even more excited and even S was riveted watching them. Then it was time for the playschool races. The parents had to stand on one side and the children on the other side (with the teachers) and run from the teachers to the parents. I took S to the start line and made her watch the first two races (they were of the afternoon batch of the playschool) so she would get an idea of what was expected of her. She seemed enthu enough, but when her name was called for the race she again clung to me and refused to go to the teacher at the start line, I tried to persude her that her friends are standing next to her, and mummy has to go to the opposite side and she is to come running to mummy, but no there was much of crying and stomping of the feet at the thought of mummy going away so I had to run in the race alongwith her! After the race, we went to the other side of the field where some of her playschool friends were and she spent about ½ hour running around the field and generally watching what they were doing. One of the boys tried to take her hand and make her run with him, but she was more comfortable being by herself and generally running around the place. She ran onto the main track a couple of times, where the senior kg races were going on, and had to be retrieved by the teachers/or me.
Finally around 10 am the certificate and medal ceremony happened. A good thing I liked about the sports day was that there were no prizes for first/second etc- all participants got a certificate and gold medal. They were called to the dais and the teacher gave them the certificate and put the medal around the neck. S of course screamed loudly when they put the medal around her neck, so I had to quickly take it off. S gets really uncomfortable when people (including me and the hubby) try to put things on her- a brooch on her shirt, or a necklace around her neck etc. She must be the least dressed up girl I know- no clips, no jewelry (ears also not yet pierced- I was too scared when she was young, and now she’ll pull at it, so will have to wait till she’s old enough to ask for it!). So a befitting ending to a cranky first sports day.
I used to love sports day at school- I used to take part in everything (was quite the enthu cutlet), hardly used to win any prizes (maybe a third in a race where there were only 5 participants) but I used to still enjoy taking part in all the track events. Hopefully S will enjoy the sports days more as she grows up. Or maybe she takes after the hubby, who is completely disinterested in all sports- both watching and participating!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A quick update
S has her first sports day tomorrow. Yes she is less than 2, and people can ask (like my boss) what sports do 2 year olds play, but I think it will be fun for her to interact with her playschool mates, and more fun for me as mom to watch S run around all over the place. While the hubby has been teaching her to run fast and come first in the race, I think it would be a great achievement if she runs in the right direction and reaches the end line without getting distracted. The big question is whether to go or not. The hubby is off to Sri Lanka for four days for some office offsite, and I would need to manage all alone. I know this sounds like I am a helpless damsel and cannot manage S on my own without the hubby, but now that I’m in the 8th month everything is so much tougher, and I understand from the teachers that the playschool parents would need to get actively involved in the races since the kids will be too young to understand properly. And I don’t want a situation there where S is the only kid whose parents are not running in the race since a) Daddy is not there and b) Mummy cannot run…Also it starts at 7:45 in the morning, we are all so lazy that we wake up only around 8 am so it means getting S out of bed early, and getting ready fast instead of lazing around the house on a Saturday morning. But on the other hand it would be so cute to see S participating in her first Sports day, and I don’t want her to miss out because I’m pregnant/too lazy. Will think over it tonight…
Separately S has started interacting with her cousins much more post Diwali. We skype both my brothers once in two weeks and S is totally thrilled when her cousins show her their Santa Claus outfits /stockings/tree etc and keeps jumping up and down in front of the laptop. We also skype my sis-in-law who doesn’t have kids as of yet, but she and her hubby keep S well entertained with a collection of stuffed animals.
We have also started taking S swimming as much as possible- roughly translating into once in two weeks since the club we are members of is about an hour from the house. We usually go on Sunday morning, have a leisurely swim- S has her floaty boat where she can put her legs through it and float around in the water. There’s also a kiddies pool there which is much more shallow where she can walk around, and if we remember to take any of her bath animals (pufferfish, Nemo, frog, fish,penguin etc) then S usually runs around the kiddies pool playing with them. Good fun. There is a nice park also in the club, and after her swim S usually plays in the park for some time. Then depending on our enthu levels we either have lunch at the club itself (easier since S can run around in the big lawn there while we wait for the lunch) or we’ll try out some new restaurant in town. Anyway by the time we get back home its usually 4 in the afternoon, and all of us crash out till about 6 in the evening! So a simple swim turns out to be a day long affair. But S really enjoys it so its worth it.
Am having second thoughts about changing S school from January onwards when I’m planning to take my maternity leave. We will move house and the current playschool would be pretty far from the new house, so I signed her up for a new playschool which is much closer to the new house. It would be difficult to take her to the old playschool since it would take half an hour to get there, then the session is only for two hours which means if I go home, I need to again leave in an hour to pick her up, and there’s nothing for me to hang around there doing for two hours, and the total travel time for me would be two hours – and when I’m supposed to be relaxing on maternity. But S really likes this school- she keeps talking about her friends in this school- she knows some 5-6 names, and last week when the baby maid took off, I left S at school from 9:30-1:30 everyday, as against 9-11 only and she attended the second playgroup, and had her milk and snacks with the teacher without any complaint (and was reluctant to leave when I went to pick her up)-so she’s pretty much well settled here and she would need to get all settled again in the new school. Also the new school is a Montessori and focuses more on learning, and doesn’t have as many toys and playground stuff like slides/cars etc as this school and S really loves them. Wondering what to do!
Separately S has started interacting with her cousins much more post Diwali. We skype both my brothers once in two weeks and S is totally thrilled when her cousins show her their Santa Claus outfits /stockings/tree etc and keeps jumping up and down in front of the laptop. We also skype my sis-in-law who doesn’t have kids as of yet, but she and her hubby keep S well entertained with a collection of stuffed animals.
We have also started taking S swimming as much as possible- roughly translating into once in two weeks since the club we are members of is about an hour from the house. We usually go on Sunday morning, have a leisurely swim- S has her floaty boat where she can put her legs through it and float around in the water. There’s also a kiddies pool there which is much more shallow where she can walk around, and if we remember to take any of her bath animals (pufferfish, Nemo, frog, fish,penguin etc) then S usually runs around the kiddies pool playing with them. Good fun. There is a nice park also in the club, and after her swim S usually plays in the park for some time. Then depending on our enthu levels we either have lunch at the club itself (easier since S can run around in the big lawn there while we wait for the lunch) or we’ll try out some new restaurant in town. Anyway by the time we get back home its usually 4 in the afternoon, and all of us crash out till about 6 in the evening! So a simple swim turns out to be a day long affair. But S really enjoys it so its worth it.
Am having second thoughts about changing S school from January onwards when I’m planning to take my maternity leave. We will move house and the current playschool would be pretty far from the new house, so I signed her up for a new playschool which is much closer to the new house. It would be difficult to take her to the old playschool since it would take half an hour to get there, then the session is only for two hours which means if I go home, I need to again leave in an hour to pick her up, and there’s nothing for me to hang around there doing for two hours, and the total travel time for me would be two hours – and when I’m supposed to be relaxing on maternity. But S really likes this school- she keeps talking about her friends in this school- she knows some 5-6 names, and last week when the baby maid took off, I left S at school from 9:30-1:30 everyday, as against 9-11 only and she attended the second playgroup, and had her milk and snacks with the teacher without any complaint (and was reluctant to leave when I went to pick her up)-so she’s pretty much well settled here and she would need to get all settled again in the new school. Also the new school is a Montessori and focuses more on learning, and doesn’t have as many toys and playground stuff like slides/cars etc as this school and S really loves them. Wondering what to do!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Catching up with old friends
Lately with managing a full time job, looking after S, and also being pregnant (and putting on too much weight which means I get much more tired more easily, and it takes me 5 mins to do what I could earlier do in a minute) I’ve been getting the feeling that it’s the same old routine on the weekdays and rest/doctors visit over the weekend and no time to meet friends, have a night out and generally see what the world is upto.
With my mom coming over for two weeks (due to a maid exigency, I fired one of the baby maids in a sudden burst of irritation- she had come on and off for the last 1 week, after taking a 10 day holiday, and was acting pretty strange saying she’s unwell and cant tell when she can come to work, though she seemed perfectly fine on the days she did come) I took full advantage of having a grandparent at home and finally managed to catch up with some old friends and we also managed to fit in a movie.
Friday night was dinner with old colleagues, some of whom I had not met for more than 2 years. Good fun cribbing about old bosses and catching up with what people are doing now. Our old team in office used to be quite close knit, we used to step in for each other quite a bit, and go out quite often. The team was a new one, and I guess we were all learning together. We went to Da Vincis which is an Italian place and has excellent pizzas! Only thing is that it doesn’t serve liquor, and while I did not mind, the other people in the group has second thoughts about leaving and going to another place!
Saturday night was a bachelors party for a friend who is getting married next month. It was largely college friends, and some people from my friend’s workplace. We met at Hard Rock Café and for once I found myself in the funny position of being the only person in the group not drinking. And the funniest thing is- most of these people either never used to drink at campus, or used to have just the token drink. And frankly Hard Rock Café is not the place to be if you are not drinking, because the music is really loud and you cant have a conversation, and the food is not great either. But the music was nice and a couple of our college friends had landed up early and requested for some old college classics such as November Rain, Dire Straits etc. We also quizzed the to be couple about each others favourite things and managed to pull my friend’s leg quite a bit. Though we couldn’t complete it since the music was so loud we could hardly hear each other. I had to leave early around 11, since I was tired. Somehow the travel to the place, the loud music and the chairs made me feel quite uncomfortable and by around 11 I was really tired and ready to drop. Hope this is only a pregnancy thing and not a sign of me growing old! I have never usually been the first to leave a party, especially with college friends!
The next weekend, I met up with colleagues from my old workplace for lunch. We went to this really nice Italian place called Café Mangi. I’ve been meaning to try out these new places for some time, but my hubby is not one to experiment with new places, and usually waits for others to go and then recommend them. I strongly recommend this place- both the pastas and pizzas are amazing, only thing is that the restaurant is small and the seating is slightly cramped. The last time I met these ex colleagues was 2 years ago and then I was carrying S- they must be thinking I’m constantly pregnant. They were quite disappointed that I had not got S along- but it was her nap time and she had not been sleeping properly the whole week so I thought better if she gets a good nap at home, and I would also not be rushed to finish early. There was another girl of about 4- the parents are now based in Dubai, and the lunch was actually to meet them on their annual holiday from Dubai; she was quite disappointed at having no company and spent the afternoon going under the table from one parent to the other. But was otherwise extremely well behaved, no running around the place, tantrums etc. Wonder whether S would sit so still when she is older!
Anyway in Dubai, I believe that they make kids take written entrance exams to join nursery there! Quite a strain for the parents (in teaching the child) and the child- in taking an entrance exam so early in life! I think the purpose of such a thing is quite silly- the school is supposed to educate you, if you are already supposed to know stuff when you join, then what is the purpose of sending the children to school? Towards the end of the lunch another colleague landed up with his 14 month old son. What a cutie, and he actually ate mashed potatoes that his parents ordered for him. Till date S has never eaten anything which has been ordered for her in restaurants, except the odd French fries which also she gets bored of within 10 mins. Was chatting with the mother who said she’d just finishing her one year sabbatical from work and would be resuming work in January. One year sabbatical sounds good- her son is not so dependent on her anymore and she also is keen on getting back to work. She plans to drop of her son and maid to her uncle’s house everyday, and then pick them up on the way back. Sounds like my busy schedule- drop S of at school, rush to work, then pick S up from school and drop her home, then rush back to work, then home for lunch and then back to work, and finally wind up by 6:30 – 7 and go home and meet S in the park. Why is it that the women only have to adjust their work timings to look after the kids, I wonder. …
Finally the hubby and I managed to catch a late night movie- Kurban. I don’t particularly like either of the main actors, and agreed to go along just because we hadn’t seen a movie for some time, but was pleasantly surprised with the acting and the plot. It is a similar terrorist husband plot to New York, but is much more realistic and facts are not glossed over like in New York. It comes as a real shock to the wife when she realizes that her husband is a terrorist and only married her for a visa to enter the USA Quite different from New York where the wife pretends she doesn’t know her husband is a terrorist. Hello- surely you would notice if your husband disappeared at all weird hours of the day and seemed secretive about his activities. Anyway this will probably be our last midnight movie with S in tow- she woke up around 12:30 and refused to go back to sleep. She ended up watching the bomb sequence and kept saying bad man/policeman/bomb etc. She still remembers it and says” That day, bomb, bad man” so I don’t think it’s a very good experience/influence on her which should be repeated.
The pregnancy is getting quite tiring now that I’ve entered the third trimester and also put on tons of weight. I have another month or so in office and then I plan to take my maternity leave and prepare for the next baby- more like I will need some rest as I cannot imagine working and looking after S in the 9 month! Last time I worked till the last day, but this time I feel I am getting very tired already- by the evening my stomach and back are both out!
With my mom coming over for two weeks (due to a maid exigency, I fired one of the baby maids in a sudden burst of irritation- she had come on and off for the last 1 week, after taking a 10 day holiday, and was acting pretty strange saying she’s unwell and cant tell when she can come to work, though she seemed perfectly fine on the days she did come) I took full advantage of having a grandparent at home and finally managed to catch up with some old friends and we also managed to fit in a movie.
Friday night was dinner with old colleagues, some of whom I had not met for more than 2 years. Good fun cribbing about old bosses and catching up with what people are doing now. Our old team in office used to be quite close knit, we used to step in for each other quite a bit, and go out quite often. The team was a new one, and I guess we were all learning together. We went to Da Vincis which is an Italian place and has excellent pizzas! Only thing is that it doesn’t serve liquor, and while I did not mind, the other people in the group has second thoughts about leaving and going to another place!
Saturday night was a bachelors party for a friend who is getting married next month. It was largely college friends, and some people from my friend’s workplace. We met at Hard Rock Café and for once I found myself in the funny position of being the only person in the group not drinking. And the funniest thing is- most of these people either never used to drink at campus, or used to have just the token drink. And frankly Hard Rock Café is not the place to be if you are not drinking, because the music is really loud and you cant have a conversation, and the food is not great either. But the music was nice and a couple of our college friends had landed up early and requested for some old college classics such as November Rain, Dire Straits etc. We also quizzed the to be couple about each others favourite things and managed to pull my friend’s leg quite a bit. Though we couldn’t complete it since the music was so loud we could hardly hear each other. I had to leave early around 11, since I was tired. Somehow the travel to the place, the loud music and the chairs made me feel quite uncomfortable and by around 11 I was really tired and ready to drop. Hope this is only a pregnancy thing and not a sign of me growing old! I have never usually been the first to leave a party, especially with college friends!
The next weekend, I met up with colleagues from my old workplace for lunch. We went to this really nice Italian place called Café Mangi. I’ve been meaning to try out these new places for some time, but my hubby is not one to experiment with new places, and usually waits for others to go and then recommend them. I strongly recommend this place- both the pastas and pizzas are amazing, only thing is that the restaurant is small and the seating is slightly cramped. The last time I met these ex colleagues was 2 years ago and then I was carrying S- they must be thinking I’m constantly pregnant. They were quite disappointed that I had not got S along- but it was her nap time and she had not been sleeping properly the whole week so I thought better if she gets a good nap at home, and I would also not be rushed to finish early. There was another girl of about 4- the parents are now based in Dubai, and the lunch was actually to meet them on their annual holiday from Dubai; she was quite disappointed at having no company and spent the afternoon going under the table from one parent to the other. But was otherwise extremely well behaved, no running around the place, tantrums etc. Wonder whether S would sit so still when she is older!
Anyway in Dubai, I believe that they make kids take written entrance exams to join nursery there! Quite a strain for the parents (in teaching the child) and the child- in taking an entrance exam so early in life! I think the purpose of such a thing is quite silly- the school is supposed to educate you, if you are already supposed to know stuff when you join, then what is the purpose of sending the children to school? Towards the end of the lunch another colleague landed up with his 14 month old son. What a cutie, and he actually ate mashed potatoes that his parents ordered for him. Till date S has never eaten anything which has been ordered for her in restaurants, except the odd French fries which also she gets bored of within 10 mins. Was chatting with the mother who said she’d just finishing her one year sabbatical from work and would be resuming work in January. One year sabbatical sounds good- her son is not so dependent on her anymore and she also is keen on getting back to work. She plans to drop of her son and maid to her uncle’s house everyday, and then pick them up on the way back. Sounds like my busy schedule- drop S of at school, rush to work, then pick S up from school and drop her home, then rush back to work, then home for lunch and then back to work, and finally wind up by 6:30 – 7 and go home and meet S in the park. Why is it that the women only have to adjust their work timings to look after the kids, I wonder. …
Finally the hubby and I managed to catch a late night movie- Kurban. I don’t particularly like either of the main actors, and agreed to go along just because we hadn’t seen a movie for some time, but was pleasantly surprised with the acting and the plot. It is a similar terrorist husband plot to New York, but is much more realistic and facts are not glossed over like in New York. It comes as a real shock to the wife when she realizes that her husband is a terrorist and only married her for a visa to enter the USA Quite different from New York where the wife pretends she doesn’t know her husband is a terrorist. Hello- surely you would notice if your husband disappeared at all weird hours of the day and seemed secretive about his activities. Anyway this will probably be our last midnight movie with S in tow- she woke up around 12:30 and refused to go back to sleep. She ended up watching the bomb sequence and kept saying bad man/policeman/bomb etc. She still remembers it and says” That day, bomb, bad man” so I don’t think it’s a very good experience/influence on her which should be repeated.
The pregnancy is getting quite tiring now that I’ve entered the third trimester and also put on tons of weight. I have another month or so in office and then I plan to take my maternity leave and prepare for the next baby- more like I will need some rest as I cannot imagine working and looking after S in the 9 month! Last time I worked till the last day, but this time I feel I am getting very tired already- by the evening my stomach and back are both out!
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