Ari's milestones

Ari is now pulling himself up to stand up more and more. I knew he was thinking about standing up even before he did it the first time. It is almost too easy to read his thoughts, or perhaps it is because I am a parent for the second time around.
After rolling over at 2.5months he has not looked back. He was sitting with support at 5.5, unsupported at 6 months, crawling at 6 and at 6.5 is already standing holding on.
His personality is completely different from Nidhi's. He is not into books, except for chewing the pages. He will not stay where you put him down. He will go into another room leaving you behind. He will crawl under and behind furniture. He is already thinking about opening cupboards even though he cannot do it yet.
He loves his food and is eager to eat whatever we are eating. He wants a variety. He is not too keen on breastmilk and I think he may be weaned much earlier than Nidhi.
He isn't making a lot of sounds. At this age Nidhi was already making consonant-vowel combinations like ba-ba sounds, but then she was early with her verbal skills. Plus Ari is being subjected to Malayalam and English while Nidhi just learnt the latter.

An eventful week

The holidays for us started with a lot of drama. Last Saturday Ari had been unwell for three days- the usual cough and slight temperature. He had been responding well to paracetamol/ibuprofen the previous two days, however on Saturday his temp stayed up (>38) inspite of paracetamol. He also looked unwell and lethargic and we felt he ought to be seen by a doctor.
It being the weekend, we called out-of-hours. They took our details and called us back in an hour. While Rohan was talking to them, I was urging him to ensure we secure an appointment and are not fobbed off over the phone. Suddenly the lady on the other end decided we needed emergency medical attention and called emergency services. It was the craziest thing. Ari wasn't critical, we were willing to drive him to the local hospital, but she insisted.
Emergency services agreed that his temp was too high (>39 at this stage) within the paracetamol range and suggested we take him to A&E.
We left Nidhi at a friend's home (due to the norovirus outbreak at the hospital) and were in A&E around 5pm. After subsequent doses of ibuprofen and paracetamol, his temp was still at 38.
We finally got to see a paediatrician around 10pm. He was not happy with the temp and decided on some blood tests. We had also been trying for the last 2 hours to get a urine sample out of our little man.
We were admitted to the ward, and finally managed a sample, which was all clear.
While we were waiting for blood tests, a senior consultant came in to look at Ari. She diagnosed an ear infection and instructed for him to be started on antibiotics. There would be no further need for an investigation. This was past 12 midnight.
We waited and were discharged at 1.40am.
Then Murphy's law came into action. Our car would not start. In our anxiety and hurry, we had left the headlights on and the battery had run down. Rohan decided to wait for the recovery services and I took a cab home with Ari. I had a shower and was in bed by 3am.
Rohan returned at 4am.
Sun and Mon, Ari continued to be lethargic, needed to be held by one of us all the time. He was now completely off solids for 4 days and bf less than normal. Sun night he was breathing quite loud and fast. By Mon afternoon we decided we needed to see someone again.
We were back at the hospital around 4pm, this was Christmas eve. We were confident of being sent home with our minds put to rest. The nurse checked him, asked a few questions about his cough and put him on an oxymeter? to check his levels of oxygen. She was not happy and decided to monitor him for a couple of hours. At 7pm they decide Ari needs oxygen and would be admitted overnight. They suspected bronchiolitis.
Rohan went home to get me some stuff, Nidhi would be spending another night at her friend's home.
In the middle of the night they switched off the oxygen to see how Ari would do without and he seemed fine.
We were discharged at noon on Christmas day.
He was lethargic all through the day but his appetite was back the next day. He has made steady progress, though he still coughs at night and wakes up unsettled because of it.
It was a worrying week for us. Our little boy who was practically born smiling and is ever cheerful had not smiled for more than 4 days. It was just not like him.
He is still wanting to be held much more than before and cries easily. Hopefully as he gets better he will forget this painful episode and be back to his original self.

Embarrassing conversations

In the changing room:

Me: How's this top?
5yo: Your tummy looks big.
Me: That's because I just had the baby.
5yo: You did not JUST have the baby. The baby was born in June!

On marriage

Nidhi at the dinner table yesterday "I am going to marry Jonas when I grow up"
Me: "Is it? Not Anish?"
Nidhi: "No, Roshni said she's going to marry Anish. That's alright. Isn't it good that I have two boyfriends."
Me: "Yeah"
Nidhi: "It doesn't matter if Jonas is from England and I'm from India. That's alright. Because if he plays in the sun, he'll become dark."
Me: LOL

Weaning Child #2

The funniest thing happened today. Ari woke up from his nap just as I was finishing dinner. I held him as I drank water and gave his sister her after dinner sweet. As I put the dinner things away, opening cupboards, closing food containers, etc, looking at me handling all this food I guess it got a bit much for him. When I reached into a box and got out an after dinner treat, he could take it no more. He instantly reached out for my hands and directed it to his mouth. The texture of the sweet however was unexpected and he took it out again. I knew then that I have waited too long to start Ari on solids. I'd assumed bf would be as smooth as it was with Nidhi. But as it turns out our little man was keen on our food for a while now. When mum was still here she commented on how he watches us when we eat. Though I noticed it as well I never gave much thought to it as I'd intended on exclusive bf until 5 months and then gradually introduce solids as I had with Nidhi. But he did not take to bf as easily. After month 3, his weight gain plateaued. This was not helped by the fact that he was more mobile than Nidhi was at the same age.
Anyway we're going to start with solids now and see how he takes it.

Mum of two

I guess it's about time to acknowledge the fact that I am now 'mum of two'. And perhaps not too late to start a journal on the littlest member of the house.

Ari is a little over 4.5 months as I write this. Comparisons with the first born are inevitable. Ari is a 'smiler', his sister was ever-grumpy. According to their father, a frown is the first sign of intelligence, in which case the brother will find it hard to live up to the standards set by his sister.

In physical development however, he leads by far. Nidhi was content to lie on her back until she was nearly 6 months. She din't even make an attempt to roll over before then. It was as if one fine day she decided, may be it's time to look at this world from a different perspective and voila, she rolled over.

Ari has been attempting it from 1.5months. Mum said he would roll over soon and I didn't believe her. He surprised me by rolling over from back to tummy at 2.5m. By 3months he was rolling both ways.

Now he rarely lies on his back. If we put him down, he rolls onto his tummy, raises his torso and tries to balance on his fours.

He is not a great feeder, again unlike his sister. 5 minutes is a good feed. However his weight gain is satisfactory, he is 'thriving' in doctor-speak.

He adores his sister. When she is around he has eyes only for her. he puts up with a lot of mishandling by her. She in turn wants to be around him all the time. It is delightful to see her speak to him, telling him things he can't do yet, but will be able to at an appropriate age.

Nidhi is doing well at school, we have the parent's evening next month when we find out more. Her handwriting has improved significantly with the daily practice during the summer holidays.

She has learnt to ride the cycle and enjoys it a lot. She is bottom of the class in swimming and this is our next area of focus. The 10 minutes that she gets during the group swimming sessions at school just aren't enough and we need to enrol her in classes at the local leisure centre next term.

Behaviour at home continues to be a challenge. The key to disciplining is consistency which I find so hard. Hopefully things will be easier when Rohan returns from project in India.

Oh to be a child again

Today Nidhi was, as usual, non-stop chattering, when we noticed her brother staring transfixed at her. When we mentioned this to her she says, "I wonder what a baby's life is like. I wish I could go back and be a baby again."

More on maths

It's a pity there is so much focus on reading in schools here, not enough on maths. Nidhi loves her numbers. Yesterday she watched programs on the computer for a long time. Finally she asked me
 "How long did I watch computer for?"
I said " 2 hours"
"How long am I supposed to watch it for?"
I said "Half an hour"
"So I watched it for three quarters more"

And today,
"How long did I watch computer for?"
"One and three quarters hours"
"So I watched it for 1hour and 45minutes"

Family day assembly

Last month Nidhi's school had a family day assembly. Parents, grandparents and other family members were invited to a special assembly, where the children of various classes sang songs. After the assembly, the parents were served refreshments, while the children went back to their classes. Then the parents were offered the option of being taken on a tour of the school by their child(ren).

Since I help in the classroom one morning every week, I generally know what the children get upto in school. But I thought Nidhi would cherish the idea of showing her dad around. So after tea we went to Nidhi's classroom. She was busy at play with her friend Roshni in the home corner. I went and suggested that she could show us around the school if she liked. She ignored me and continued with her play. Thinking that perhaps she did not understand what I meant by 'showing us around the school', I said that she could show her dad where she had lunch or did PE, etc.

She stood up, turned towards us, and said, "That big hall where you saw me singing just now is where we have lunch. The other smaller hall (where we had tea) is where we do PE." Pointing to a room behind us, she said, "That is the ICT room." Then swinging around and pointing, she said, "That is Ladybirds class, that is Caterpillars, and this is Bumblebees. And that room in the middle is the art area."

Satisfied that she had done what we wanted of her, she sat down and continued her play. We had been dismissed. :-)

One month to go

N: I can't wait for the baby to be born
Me: Why is that?
N: Because I love the baby so much.

Film night

Nidhi had a film night in school a few weeks ago. Till that day she had never watched any film, in a theatre or at home. She had no idea what it would be like, but wanted to go nonetheless. When I picked her up 2 hours later, I asked how it went. Her response:

"I was very happy when it was over because I knew then you would be coming. I missed you. Did you miss me?"

Math and time

Nidhi said her class teacher asked her what was one less than 1000, and one more than 1000. She answered both correctly.

She has a good understanding of time, even though she is not able to read the clock correctly all the time. The other day I was asking her to hurry up because we were getting late for school. She asked me what the time was and I said it was 7.55. She knows we leave at 8.30 so she said, "We still have 35 minutes!"

Today I had told her she can play a game for 10 minutes more. After about 4 minutes I said, 6 minutes are up, you have 4 minutes more. She said "I don't think it has been 6 minutes, it's probably 4 minutes" !!

If only..

We live in hilly town. Walking back home from a trip to the library, park and McDonald's Nidhi complains about the walk up the hill to our home.

5yo: I don't like to walk up hill. Why can't we go some place where going and coming back is downhill?

All you need

I am humming "All you need is love"

Nidhi hears this and says "That's not true, you also need food. And you need someone to help you do things, don't you? So why do you say all you need is love?"

So cheeky

Nidhi: Mummy, do you feel proud of me?

Me(smiling indulgently): Yes, I do sometimes.

Nidhi: Do you know that pride comes before a fall?

Me (smile wiped right out of my face)

Story #2 and other things

Another story she wrote during the Christmas holidays. Sentence capitalisation is mine. She added the fullstops on her own, after every sentence, after she finished writing the story. I helped her with the following spellings: elephant, naughty, anybody

Tiger and elephant were frends. They loved each other a lot.

They were naughty. They loved each other more then they loved anybody in the world.

Even God and Jesus.

God and Jesus was very upset with tiger and elephant.

***********

4yo: Mummy, how do you know there is heaven and hell?

Me: Because it says so in the Bible.

4yo: But Bible may be a fairytale

***********

4yo: Mummy, when will God talk to me or send an angel to me?

Me: When he wants to Tochi.

4yo: But when will he want to? I have been waiting for so long. I've been waiting for 4 years!

***********

I can't wait to see God!

***********

4yo: Who is God's wife and daughter?

Me: He doesn't have any.

4yo (angrily): That's not possible. Ok, maybe he does not have a daughter. But he must have a wife or how can he have a son?