We are home!!!

Yes, we are home now! Everything went on as planned. Thatha went for a seminar on IQ, EQ and SQ on 10^th April morning and came back around 11. I kept threatening him (jokingly) that I am going to record the fact (in blog) that he didn’t spend ample time with Chittu on the last day. Sentimentally, J paati did not want us to take photographs that day and Chittu also slept soon after bath and got up only when we were about to start. We started from there at around 2 PM after yamagandam and reached here around 3. S perimma and B athai took the traditional haarathi and invited us. The house was decorated to welcome Chittu. Thanks to B athai’s idea and appa’s efforts. Everyone was so happy to see Chittu. P akka and S perippa were around and playing full time. S’s Chithi who lives in the same apartment as ours, her son, daughter and grandsons came in later to see us. Again a fresh spell of new clothes were showered on Chittu. Other visitors included C athimber, his mom and M anna.

We kind of settled down and Chittu slept at 11 PM that day. By God’s grace and with T paati’s help we have got a maami who will be taking care of Chittu. She would come in by 9 in the morning and leave by 6.30 in the evening after preparing dinner for us. Though I will be joining office in June only, I have asked the maami to come from now itself so that Chittu gets accustomed with her in the next 1.5 months. I am still in search of a cook who can prepare our lunch, but no luck on that yet. It is tough to manage kitchen and Chittu in the morning. S is having a great time with his daughter. They play happily with each other and it is a pleasant sight to watch daddy-daughter having their exclusive time in the morning, evening and night.

The very next day we came here (11^th April), Chittu started adeptly moving on the floor. As usual when I rushed with my handycam, she simply refused to move. The colorful non-toxic rubber toys and the camel are her attraction factor. Now after a week, she is moving extensively and even posed for the camera. Last Saturday, with her dark pink colored piggy bank, she moved round the sofa and came to the place she started. A anna came home with V aunty and S papa. He had brought his Nikon D5000 portrait camera and clicked N number of pictures of Chittu and all of us. It was so lovely to see mottai S papa and Chittu together. The photographs have come out beautifully. We met them again at Gangotri, South Boag road a couple of days later. It was planned all of a sudden when A anna called on Friday evening and asked if we could join them. So we got ready quickly and went there. This was the first time we took Chittu in an auto. Both ways up and down, she slept and promptly got up after we got down. M athai and her naughty son V anna are here from Pondicherry for vacation. V anna doing his 2^nd standard, keeps going behind Chittu, plays with her and wants to carry her all the time. Just that I am worried that he is such a small boy and he shouldn’t drop her. So we place Chittu on his lap when he sits down but a strict NO NO to carry and walk around. He has a tinge of fear factor with me (rather only me) so he listens to what I say out of that fear.

In between Vishu came and went. On the Vishu day (14^th April) we started at 8 in the morning and went to Rama Bhakta Samaj. Thatha is a regular visitor there and was also a part of group who were reading complete Ramayanam in 9 days (called Navaaham) which started from the Rama Navami day on 12^th April. During this Navaaham, Thatha wanted me to bring Chittu to the samaajam. So we went there and I put Chittu in front of Sri Rama there. She rolled over and moved there much to the delight of people reading Ramayanam. We offered dry grapes and cashews for the Bhagavathaas and from there went to J paati’s house. Chittu spent a good time with J paati, thatha and S mama. J paati had got a beautiful dark purple coloured frock for Chittu and it looked so damn cute on her. In the little time we spent there, even T paati and C maami managed to take Chittu to their house for sometime. Chittu found it difficult again to move in the vitrified flooring. So J paati placed a cotton saree on the floor and made Chittu move on that. Once she mastered the act on the saree, we shifted her to the floor and she did an excellent job there too. Late in the evening, we went to V athai’s house to see her as she was recovering after her angioplasty. There again A anna took a lot of pictures again

Our 5^th month review is done on Saturday. No vaccination. This time again Chittu has gained borderline weight only. Dr.S has given a go ahead to introduce boiled rice porridge (with little sugar & milk or little salt, jeera powder & buttermilk) banana, hand crushed watermelon and sweet lime juice as supplementary food. We have started with the kanji – gave sugar and milk one for the first two days and Chittu took it well. She is ok with buttermilk and salt. Looks like she doesn’t like it as much as the other one. Once she tolerates kanji, will have to try others too. Fingers crossed that she should take them all in smooth stride. Later that day we went to meet SC papa, our family friend A uncle and L aunty’s son. He is 3 days elder to Chittu. Poor baby, has a born cataract and surgery is the only option to get this cured. Our sincere prayers with him for the surgery to go on well and the marathon post-operative care. We will be going for Narayaneeyam parayanam on 22^nd in PS uncle’s house. So more on that in the next post

An eventful week!

We’ve been away from this blog for quite some time now. Chittu has been keeping me little busy these days, that I couldn’t even login to update an important milestone. Yes, Chittu has started moving on her tummy. Last week, for a couple of days Chittu was awake till 1 AM. So in the early morning hours of 2^nd April 2011, Chittu was trying hard to move in our bed and after a number of trials….Woo Hoo! She started moving. The flooring in my mom’s home is of Vitrified type and is a little slippery. So if I put her on the floor, she is finding it difficult. But guess she will do it in the floor in another couple of days.

Another significant objective is achieved too – Bottle feeding. For the very first time, I have gone against my pediatrician’s advice to feed water in cup & spoon. Instead, I have started training Chittu with a feeding bottle. Initially she had trouble getting used to it, but since yesterday, she is taking it pretty fine. After hearing lots of stories from friends and relatives about breastfed babies completely refusing bottle, started with a lot of uncertainty. She was also letting the water go through the corner of lips. But thankfully, my perseverance paid off and this is more comfortable than the spoon.

We went to S paapa’s aayushyahomam on 4^th April. A anna said it felt as if he was lifting a bundle of cotton when he lifted Chittu. She had never been a kashku moshku baby. She is on the leaner / taller side but is of the correct weight for her age. S papa was a darling. She thought Chittu was a bigger doll and tried to touch Chittu, but A anna and V aunty kept her at bay. S papa was making cute sounds of “uuuummmm” frequently. Her ganeer voice was so different from that of Chittu’s squeaky one. Met so many of our relatives and as expected Chittu was exchanged between 25 – 30 people. She was a sweetheart and didn’t mind at all. Though that night, she should have had extreme body pain as she refused to sleep on the floor. She was in my mom’s lap for almost 2 hours and every time we tried to put her on the floor, she started crying. Later, we shifted her to bed and she slept like a log for 12 hours continuously. We met J who played Veena during my Seemantham. She gifted Chittu with a rattle set. P akka has become the unofficial Ko Pa Se of this blog. She has made this page popular among her friends and in fact introduced me to one of her friends with my screen name – chittu’s mom! A anna got Chittu a couple of clothes and Playskool Explore and Grow Musical Gear Center. We gifted S papa with a frock, skirt, sippy cup, couple of fairy tales book and a bowl

Purrrrrrrrrrrr is the buzz word these days. This is Chittu’s favourite time pass. And I am worried about her thumb sucking habit. Even while feeding, rarely she puts a finger through the corner of her mouth. I keep removing her finger whenever I see. Hmmmmmm…Fingers Crossed that she shouldn’t make this a habit. Nowadays, when I put Chittu face-up on my legs to bathe her, she tries to lift her head. When I put her face-down she licks my keens and tickles me. Also, she responds when we tickle her and laughs profusely. The other day S mama casually said “Cho Chweet” and this provoked a non-stop laughter with Chittu whenever we say this. May be she loved the tone which he used. Because of her beating habit, the thin bangles which she was wearing started breaking. So J paati has got her a pair of thick black bangles. The silver & muppuri kaapus that her athais got her for punyavaajanam are fitting only now and she is wearing those along with her anklets. In the nights, she moves closer and closer to me, pushing me to the edge of the bed. I call it “Chittu’s aakramippu”. Keeping up with the TN assembly election fever, I keep Rettai elai & Lotus symbol bindis for her though I make sure I don’t take her out on those days. Thanks to the achu that Big paati got.

I had a gift voucher from Odyssey and it was expiring on 8^th. So on the way back from aayushyahomam, got some board books for Chittu – Alphabets, numbers, animals, flower, Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Book and stuff.  The toys that Chittu had all these days were a couple of rattles, a projector soother and a pull and sing Dalmatian dog. Last week, J paati got her some non-toxic rubber toys (elephant, horse, lion, fox, teddy bear, duck with 3 little ducklings) which make a poing-poing sound when pressed. S wanted to get her a key based toy for a long time now. So, we bought a drumming brown bear which plays drums when we give key. Another one which I had bought was a cat sitting on a camel and the camel moves when key is given. So it has been a shower of toys week for Chittu.

By the way, Chittu watched India thrashing Aussies in the quarter finals, beating Pakistan in the semi finals and Dhoni’s winning shot of six and India lifting the world cup, though she wouldn’t have understood anything. I have got the last few moments of finals recorded. An interesting family trivia here – I was born in November 1982 and India won the world cup in 1983. Chittu was born in November 2010 and India won the world cup again in 2011 J

The count down which was started by S in days, has boiled down to hours. Yes, we have another 40 hours before we go home!!!! J paati started her crying sessions from Monday. She says she never cried even when she got her daughter married off (Yeah!!! Thatz ME!!) My mom’s house is at a distance of 40 minutes from my place and she can come anytime she wishes to. When she is unable to bear that, I wonder how grand parents who stay away from their grand kids in different states within India, worse in different countries cope up. I have started packing and have already sent one set of things with S last Monday. Chittu is busy making rounds to C maami and T paati’s house and they are trying to make the most out of the last few days with her. R athai & Al athai came home to visit Chittu. Sidhu (R athai’s 2 year old grandson) was such a sweet fellow and we had good time listening to his gibberish talks. He was amazed looking at the cows around here and kept running to the main grill door shouting “maaadu, kannukutti” And when he fell down he beat the floor shouting “Eiiii, enna??” which was such a pleasant sight to watch

That is it for the time being. Our next post will be mostly from our home. So until then…..Bye Bye!!