Vandhuttomla - Part 2

She can now go on all fours and rock. It is cute to see this yaanai pose. It all started by lasting for a microsecond, then a second, then a few seconds and now she keeps rocking until she gets bored or she slips down by herself as the distance between hands and knees increase due to rocking. J paati sings “aaanai aanai” rhymes for her and she enjoys that. Here is the full version

ஆனை ஆனை, அழகர் ஆனை

அரசரும் சொக்கரும் ஏறும் ஆனை

கட்டிக் கரும்பை முறிக்கும் ஆனை

காவேரி ஆத்தைக் கலக்கும் ஆனை

ஆனை வந்துதாம் தோப்புல

அரசெலை வந்துதாம் ஆத்துல

நம்ம ஆனைக்கு பட்டம் கட்டி

ஊராள் ஆனைக்கு சுட்டி கட்டி

நம்ம ஆனை வா வா

ஊராள் ஆனை போ போ

குட்டி யானைக்கு கொம்பு மொளச்சுது

பட்டணம் எல்லாம் பாக்க வாங்கோ

She is yet to crawl, but from the yaanai pose throws her body to the front and moves. Because she can move faster on her tummy, she always prefers that. The other day she tried to sit on her own by turning on the sides and firmly pressing the palms on the ground, but she missed her balance and fell down. She tried it again a couple of days later, this time she was almost close to sitting, but fell down again. So, she isn’t trying nowadays. She can however sit for a few minutes without support if we make her to. But K paati asks me not to do that because it can create a hunch for the babies it seems. She can say “Ma, ma, ma, ma, Ya, ya, ya and a few other blabbers which are hard to decipher”. But she wouldn’t say it if we request her to. She says it by and to herself when she is busily playing. I used her bath tub once and she loved splashing the water and had great fun. But I have temporarily stopped it due to the sudden weather change in Chennai and have planned to resume when the weather is back to normal. Chittu now knows her surroundings pretty well, can clearly recognize faces. When she sees me, she throws her hands and thaavifies towards me irrespective of whoever she is with. Whenever I leave her for a few hours with mami or J paati and return, I should lift her immediately. She won’t even give me time to wash my hands and feet. She would cry her heart out by the time I wash and come. Similarly when S returns from office and says a HI to her from the entrance, she would give her best smile to him. She plays happily and is herself when she is in our house or in J paati’s house. If she goes to S perippa’s house in the first floor, she doesn’t cry but is not as playful as she normally is. If she goes to S’s chithi’s house in our same building, she cries uncontrollably and makes them bring her back to us and calms down as soon as she sees me or S or K paati. Same thing with C maami’s house (J paati’s neighbor) too. C maami and her daughter-in-law felt so bad about this, because during the initial 4 months, she used to spend time in their house atleast an hour a day without any hitch.

Chittu is also learning to spend time alone with J paati in my absence. I’m kind of training her on this and went for the movie Vaanam, a wedding reception and a birthday party leaving her with her paati. Earlier Chittu used to smile for anything and everything. But now, her smiles have reduced. She smiles only when she feels like. When I ask J paati, she says “Neeyum naanum edhukkeduthaalum chumma sirikkaromaa? Adhuvum valarradhu” Sigh! My little girl has already started growing! Good news is that thumb sucking habit has also reduced considerably. We’ve made it a practice to go to Shirdi Sai Baba temple every Thursday for night 9.15 pm haarathi. It gives a sense of peace and serenity and makes our mind cool and calm. I really enjoy this and wait for Thursday to come. Also, we went o Adyar Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple on a Friday evening and Chittu had good fun in that trip. We’ve got the settlement for S’s ancestral property. This has been pending for quite sometime and finally things fell in place. Needless to say, we call it Chittu’s luck. But a lot of tension and mental pressure went behind this and it pained a lot when rounds of discussion were done amongst S, his brother and sisters. We learnt the lesson that “When it comes to money or property, there is no space for the term brother or sister” in a harder way. But All is well that ends well and finally everything happened smoothly and now everybody is happy.

Chittu’s 6^th month review was done on 14^th May 2011. She was given Hepatitis B (HBV) 2^nd course vaccination. But weight gain was 40 gms lesser than the expected. My leave was approved until 31^st May and because I was going to start work, Dr.S asked us to give Ragi porridge with milk and sugar, mango milkshake, boiled vegetables and idly. She even asked us to give curd rice and rasam rice. When I told her that we will do annaprasana in July, she was not willing to agree and asked us to start immediately. So, for the time being I have said a YES to her, but will be giving rice only after annaprasana, which we have planned in Guruvayoor on July 17th. Praying to Lord Guruvayoorappan that everything goes on well. Chittu took the prescribed supplementary food pretty well.

It rained heavily on 1^st June evening and Chittu was down with fever on 2^nd morning. She had 100˚F temperature. I gave her two doses of Crocin at 7 AM and 11 AM and took her to Dr. S at 2 PM. She said it is an air borne viral infection due to sudden weather change and asked me to continue with Crocin and because Chittu had slight cold prescribed T-minic oral drops and Nasoclear nasal drops. She also asked me to come immediately if temperature crosses 101 as some babies might throw fits. So, I gave Chittu a dose of Crocinall 3 medicines at 5.30 PM. At 10 the temperature shot up to 101 and I was scared. Also, she had pooed a number of times (the consistency was normal however) and the entire area was reddish in color. So repeated Crocin, applied rash cream and put her to sleep. But poor baby couldn’t sleep at all and we were awake till 3 in the morning. I checked temperature again and this time around it was normal, but to rule out any further risk, gave her a mild dose of Crocin after which both of us slept slowly. It was June 3^rd and P akka’s engagement was happening in Pudhukottai. Congratulations P akka! So all of them including S were going in a van from Chennai. I had already decided that I wouldn’t travel with Chittu during the day as it could be hectic. At 6 AM, V athai, athimber, P akka, Sonu & her family dropped in at our place. They picked S, B athai and her son M anna, M athai and her son V anna and started. K paati was also going to a wedding in Thiruvanmiyur. We got up and waved them all good bye and went back to sleep. So it was me and Chittu only. I woke up at 9 and checked her temperature, it was just 0.02˚ above normal. So I gave her a reduced dose of Crocin and immediately she puked the medicine with the milk. I cleaned her up, she was tired but active and playing. I gave her porridge at 11, checked the temperature, it was normal. After allowing her to play for around 15 minutes, gave her T-minic, she puked again and all the porridge came out. I didn’t know what to do. By then mami came home. She asked me to get ready, do my Friday pooja and go to work and said she will take care of Chittu and she put her  to sleep. I went to office at around 2 in the afternoon and within an hr mami called and said Chittu puked even water. I was worried. I called up Dr. S, but she was leaving the clinic and asked me to come to her home at 7. There, she prescribed Domstal and asked me to give it half an hour before food. I gave two doses of that and Chittu is no longer puking. She is much better now, but gets tired very soon, is active and playful, doesn’t like the taste of anything except water and wants more and more of it. So, that is the story of sickness and Chittu is in a quick recovery mode now.

Updates from my end, I bought a new Scooty Pep+ (Mauve) new mobile Nokia X3 (both these are sponsored by J paati…Thanks ma!) I joined work on June 1^st. My office location is changing to a farther place and so looks like the new project that I am going to be assigned to would force me to shift my residence. I’ll go by the tide as it takes me, so let us see. As of now, I don’t have a desk, PC, phone extension, I’m not allocated to any project, I am going to the old location only (which is hardly 20 mins drive from home) and spending hardly 2-3 hours in office. Mami is coming to cook in the mornings too from last Monday, so things have become a little easier for me. It is a difficult task to have the baby and cook and pack and clean. But now I have more time to spend with Chittu and I am happy! :D

Hopefully from now on, I will have enough time to update this site frequently as I used to before. Yet to blog hop and get updates from others’ site.

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!!

4 months completed

It was T paati’s (our tenant cum family friend) son’s wedding on 21^st March. So, many of our relatives were here last weekend. Big thatha & paati from Srirangam, Kutty thatha & paati, Twin mama and Twin chithi from Hyderabad came over. All of them had a great time with Chittu. She was continuously having fun, shouting back and laughing for more than 5 minutes when Big thatha was talking to her. All of us were seated around in the cot and enjoying those moments. I could even catch it in the handycam as Chittu was too involved in the talks and didn’t pay attention to the camera. Big paati “alainju thirinju” got a bindi achu for Chittu, which we had been planning to purchase for quite some time now but couldn’t find one in the stores. Mama thatha, P anna & Big A akka also came. P anna is having his Board exams and came to get blessings from J paati & thatha. Both Big A akka & twin chithi were highly elated when they were allowed to carry Chittu for a couple of minutes. Both of them are just 10 years old and this is the first time they are carrying such a small baby.

T paati’s grand daughters S & M had come from Singapore for the wedding. They were so fond of Chittu and were going and coming up and down all day. They did small small stuff – like opening & placing Chittu’s mosquito net, dancing for Chittu (Kilimanjaro song) and entertaining her, taking her rocker around wherever she goes, singing rhymes to her and so on. Taking these responsibilities made them feel so happy. They were almost about to break down when they bid us good bye yesterday. Very sweet kids!

It was Chittu’s 4^th month birthday yesterday. Nowadays Chittu is making a lot of hand movements. It is so forceful that most of the times she ends up beating her thighs. However she doesn’t bother about it. She is still trying sincerely to move on her tummy. She knows the art of spitting out water given to her with a “burrrrrrr” sound or through the corners of mouth. S mama bought her a couple of dresses. One was a cotton choli & long skirt which can be worn after a couple of months or so. The other one was a Rajasthani cross knot top & panchakacham – like the one in Dol Bhaaje song. It was so beautiful but a little tight. So we took some photographs for which Chittu posed very cutely and later returned it in the shop :P

V athai came today to invite us for S papa’s aayushyahomam which falls on April 4^th. A anna, V aunty & S papa are coming from the US on 31^st for this function. If everything goes well, that will be the first function that Chittu will be attending. There would be a good bunch of relatives there who would play “Pass the ball” with Chittu. I am sure she will be in my hands only during the feeds. My maternity leave ended on 28^th Feb, I had requested for an extension of 3 more months. But my organization is asking me join back on 1^st April. I had asked them to reconsider as we haven’t started any supplement food and have told them that I can join only on 1^st June. Yet to get a reply from them. Fingers Crossed!!!!! And it has been decided that we will be going to our home on 10^th April 2011. I came to mom’s place in my 9^th month of pregnancy, so according to the tradition we will be going back in the odd month – Chittu’s 5^th month. A herculean task of finding a maid, cook and getting them trained before I join work is awaiting me.

Ending this post with a customized song by Kutty thatha

கன்னதில் என்னடி காயம், அந்த குண்டு கொசு செய்த மாயம்

In the tune of an old MGR, Jayalalitha song - kannathil ennadi kaayam