The dark side of the moon!

Button is slowly developing a naughty side (thanks to much encouragement from my m-i-l). Can’t say am complaining now ☺ For example, he seems to love the game of peek-a-boo. My m-i-l hides her face with her hands in front of him and questions “Patti enga?” (where is grandmom?). The moment he touches her hand or pulls a hand away she says “itho” (here) and he smiles instantly. He repeats this with my husband too. However, when I hide my face and ask him “amma enga?”, he starts chortling loudly and refuses to pull away my hand. Beauty, beholder et al!

Similarly when my m-i-l holds her index finger to him, he is in a hurry to reach it.. be it with his hands or feet. When mommy dearest tries to repeat it, he gives me a look and usually puts his index finger in his mouth (surefire recipe to irritate me!) Oh, and once the index finger is in, he shows surprising strength and resists all attempts to pull out mentioned digit.


In other news, he loves his stroller. He got gifted his first pair of jeans and looks like a miniature-man (if you know what I mean, a mini mee type person!) when he wears it. He has been invited to his first b’day party tomorrow and I hope he likes crowds and socializing.


On an unrelated note, yay to Mr.Goyal for reinstating the Jet cabin crew staff. I know how traumatic losing a job suddenly could be and am glad that so many hundreds of people were spared that agony. Happy flying everyone! And I hope my good friends who insisted on watching me breastfeed Button on take-off from Chennai last fortnight are back to flying, hopefully more enlightened!

'Bomb'ay!

In the last week that I was away from the blog world....

Travel:
I discovered in the airport, on the Jet weighing scale that I had 100 kgs of luggage(travelers = me, Button, Husband and Mom-in-law). A good 40 kgs excess. Realised I would be bankrupt (given stock market situation or not) if I paid the actual amount. So gave Oscar winning performance to Jet airways man-at-counter about coming from the US of A and how hot India was and how Jet's service standards seemed to have improved since my last trip with them :) Well, it is not false, except that we returned over 2 years ago. And after all time IS a relative factor and necessity the mother of improvisation :)

In the flight, when Button cried before take off, 3 male stewards and 1 female air hostess rushed towards us, stood around me and insisted I feed him. While after six tequila shots I may be tempted to loosen a button or two, I wasn't planning to breastfeed for in-flight entertainment. Finally it took my irate husband to point out that they needed to fasten their seat belts and that our baby was 'our' concern. Phew!

Home
Yippee... am back home! To my lovely little home that overlooks the sea and the Worli-Bandra sea link. To my maid who has it in her nature to fight with me everyday. To my cook, who hopefully shall get the sack soon for putting 'dal' in salt instead of the other way round. To my 'apartment mommy society' (and there are already 6 of us with babies born this year). To my bedroom with its lovely white bed lamp. And best of all, back to life with husband. We are a family now :)

Button is settling down. We are trying to get him to sleep in his crib. But he gets up twice in the night(atleast) for feeds. So its tough. Am planning to persist with it as most books advise separate sleeping arrangements from month 3 itself. Also, I'd like to roll about in my bed for a change :)

Birthday
And I turned the lovely age of 29 on the 10th. Had a quiet b'day. Button wore ONLY new clothes from morn to evening. I got a slew of gifts from husband in his usual thoughtful and innovative manner. Good food from m-i-l completed the day. Next year (I have promised myself) I shall get smashed :)

Leaving on a jet plane...

Buried under mountains of clothes to pack... never realized there'd be SO MUCH to do before a less-than-two-hours flight back home to Bombay! Work seems to have doubled as compared to my trip from Bombay to here.

And to see my completely grown-up parents behave like kids with their sad faces at Button's departure, refusing to let me hold him except during b/feeding sessions.

And the streams of last minute visitors coming in to see the baby. (Didn't they know I was here in the last 3 whole months?)

And his vaccination yesterday (and fever to deal with)

But yippee... am glad am going back home..in time for my b'day... Bombay watch out for us :)

ps: Any Bombayites/non-Bombayites if you can suggest a full time/part time maid/nanny, I shall be eternally grateful and promise to buy you a drink/coffee/or anything else... gentleman's word.

Sayanora Kalpakkam... shall blog from Bombay in a few days, once I settle in.

Meanwhile, Button turned 4 months old today.
* He hates rolling over.
* Maybe its my imagination, but he seems to recognize his name and the word "fan".
* Loves to admire his hands and feet! (For narcissistic tendencies, his mom is to be blamed!)
* Hates to be wrapped up for the night.
* Chews his mittens with a vengeance.
* Gurgles, coos and sometimes says 'da'.
* He sings with me when I sing (offtune) his lullaby for the night(and no, its NOT my overactive imagination, I swear he really croons!)
* Is taller and chubbier and cuter than ever :)

Award season.....

I always knew I am brilliant, but receiving a 'Brilliant' award had me falling on my knees and thanking my lucky stars (well, almost!). I am happy to accept the Brilliant Weblog awards from Dinky's owner who thinks that I "manage the balance of convention and adventure and record it well!"


I take great joy in awarding the following people -
* KarSub for being the one who got away!
* Ms.Bhatta whose writing reminds me of radio shows and childhood book-swapping days.
* Nutty for almost being me a few years earlier and for the honesty and humour in her posts.
* Munchkin's mom for allowing me to keep my sanity intact by showing me the way!
* Priyanka for her cheer and bubbly spunk and her visible love for A.
* Lavs for being a Harry Potter fan!
* Margarita for ranking Al's performance in 'The Godfather' as her fave. You win instant approval from me gal!

The rules are -
1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with 'Brilliant Weblog'
4. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
5. And then we pass it on!

Oh and I made my first forever-best-blogfriend... and I can't wait to flaunt my award and my new found kinship. Here's to Cubby's mom who thanked me for "just being around". Thanx Abha. Your blog is fun and I look forward to lots of posts on life and cubby.



I am thrilled to award it to....
$ R @ ITW for being down-to-earth, helpful and good fun.
$ Nutty for getting under my skin. Someday we should meet gal!
$ Munchkin's mom just for being at the same place under the sun.
$ Parul for reminding me to take motherhood lightly and enjoy it.
$ Gayatree for being my soul sistah!
$ Priyanka as much for her enjoyment of travel (which brings me joy) as for her place in the fellowship of motherhood!

Go on! Spread the cheer :)

Abject Apologies...

My baby...

I did not mean to drop my mobile phone on your head. Am contrite. Truly sorry. Your sobbing (as against 'crying') broke my heart. But what humbled me even more was the fact that you wanted "me" to wipe away your tears and comfort you, even though I was the one who had hurt you. I guess it is true that child IS the father of man. I learnt from you today. Never again, I promise to be careful and keep my clumsiness in check. May the bump go away soon.

The Week that was...

Tidbits from the last week -

M-i-L visit: Button and I (and the husband) went to Chennai for a 4 day visit. My dear m-i-l had done up the house, gotten some new plumbing done and fixed an extra AC. Also being the ultimately-resourceful person that she is, she had arranged a cradle for the li'l one too. She rocks! We had a lovely time there, with Button really rising up to the occasion and not troubling me at all. Button got tonnes of clothes. He is now the proud owner of 13 onesies/sailor suits, 19 jablas, 14 Tees and 8 pairs of shorts. Also one track suit(!!) Enough to clothe a mini infant-army.

The husband and I went to lunch one day at a place called 'Cholayil Sanjeevanam' run by the Medimix group offering health food. However, on the day we went, we were served Onam special lunch. Great food. Really small helpings though (I felt like a meanie having asked for re-serves of the 'Erusseri' a record 11 times!) Bad service. But the food is super. The restaurant is in Nungambakkam, opp the ICICI bank.

Shopping: Bought lots of books for Button. Baby center says he should be read aloud to. Had a blast at Landmark picking up Fairy Tales for him (No, I don't believe in racial under/over tones blah) Twas' lovely trying to remember the much-treasured stories of childhood. Could almost remember the words in the books that I used to read out to my sister. Don't get me wrong, am not trying to be elitist, but I was surprised at the kind of crowd at Landmark (based on the kind of tamil used and the clothes) Pleasantly surprised actually, that all sections of the society seem to appreciate books and toys.

ITW: I finally connected to a really lovely person through the blogworld and 'aye yumm luvving eet' :) R from ITW and I had a medium-sized chat with Tejas and Ojas providing lovely background sounds with their sweet-voiced-mommy demands! Thanks R. Couldn't manage to go to the shop this time, but my mom would check it out this weekend.

Button's latest:
* He has begun to demand 'godi' all the time, demanding to be held, walked around and swung around.
* He had begun to watch trees and crows and cows avidly. He kept gurgling at a calf drinking water from a pot at our gate and then threw a crying fit the moment the calf mooed :) Amusing!
* Rolls over and then yells for attention! Is not able to roll back to position yet.
* Plays around during feeding sessions, irrespective of bottle or breast. Its quite a task getting him to feed properly.
* Gurgles in different ways and blows spit bubbles incessantly. Also clasps his hands in different positions depending on his mood.
* Has now started to lick everything in sight.. my mom's mangalsutra, my dad's poonal, buttons on my clothes (wait a minute, button licking buttons eh?!) his own clothes, top-to-toe on his hands during his bathtime.. sigh!

The old and the New!

My dear grandad is 92 years old. He has had an account in SBI for ages. My dad recently retired and therefore my family would be shifting from Kalpakkam to Chennai. My grandad decided not to shift his (pension) account to another branch in Chennai (he fails to understand core banking completely) and grandiosely announced his plans to use the ATM instead. He applied for the card and then these were his wonderful reactions to the card!

My grandad's reaction to the plastic -
1. He read the card guide cover to cover - thrice.
2. He refused to tear the card from the welcome letter (until I did it during his afternoon siesta, and got yelled at for it!)
3. He showed the card proudly to every visitor to our house in the last one week, and also called his daughters and grandchildren to announce that he now owns an ATM card.
4. He refused to open the 'secret' PIN code because it is secret!
5. Once cajoled to tear open the PIN intimation, he refuses to show the numbers to anyone and refuses to entertain any suggestions to change the printed PIN.
6. He used the ATM card for the first time today and took the card to the temple for a puja (a la a new car!) before he went to the Bank.
7. He has a brand new folder to store the receipts of each ATM transaction, already labelled and filed with his papers.
8. The bank manager gave my granddad an umbrella for being the oldest customer in their clientele to have applied for an ATM card (the other 80years+ pensioners refusing even the computerized pass book)

Please tell me how many of the above apply to you :)