The first time Saisha sang Misha to sleep!

Day 2 of earthquake holiday went much as Day 1. Around noontime, Misha started feeling sleepy. So Saisha sang her to sleep. She sang many songs, mostly unintelligible to Mommy, and patted Misha to sleep. She covered Misha with a soft sheet and tried to lay her down when she sat up. Mommy took a long video as she tried to decipher the songs Saisha didi was singing - Are you sleeping, Sa-re-ga-ma, A-B-C-D, twinkle twinkle (on prompt) and many more!

Misha loves watching Saisha. She listened intently to her singing and gently went off to sleep! 

Kindergarten Kid

Saisha is now a Kindergarten kid, with a little sister (Aria/Misha) to boot!

Today is a school holiday in the aftermath of the terrible earthquakes that have struck Nepal and radiated till here for the last two days. For Saisha, it has been a morning of iPad, drawing, playing with her sister, watching tv and learning to read phonetically! All this and not yet lunchtime! But of course, Saisha's day starts at a very early 5-6am!

Today's sisterly activity was to horse around on the rocking horse. Misha's first adventure as a cowgirl!

Yee-haw!

Catching up

Its been a busy busy few months. Here is a recap:
June-July 2012: Trip to US/Canada. Ishi travelled business class all the way on British Airways while Mommy/Daddy alternated. Stayed with Bua, Fufa, Aditi didi and Kirti didi, and had a whale of a time! Visited Washington DC, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Niagara and Heathrow airport. Was as good as gold during the visit, and learnt to scream from her cousins! Loads and loads of experiences, videos and photo-ops. Big milestones - mastering walking, learning to climb tables/stairs etc., long road trips, new foods (french fries yay!)

August 2012: Start I-bambini playschool. Took to school rightaway, never cried. Teachers and classmates pet...everyone goes Saisha Saisha Saisha :)

October 2012: Second Birthday with both sets of grandparents. Celebrations at school. But Ishi wasn't impressed with the yummy birthday cake...cake? yuck! Everyone else enjoyed. Ishi discovered BALLOONS!!

Oct-Dec 2012: Diwali crackers and Christmas trees. Lots of fancy dress occasions at school from Dusehra lehenga, Halloween ladybug, Diwali sari and Christmas santa!

Jan 2012: Brr...cold days. With winter holidays and no Leela didi, Mom/Dad succumb to TV to keep Ishi entertained. With Cbeebies discontinued, we turn to Nick Junior -  Dora, Diego, Wonderpets, Blues Clues, Bubble guppies and umizoomis galore!

Its amazing how fast she keeps growing. While I think of her as a baby, she now very definitely has the longer lines of a proper kid. Post her second birthday, the terrible two's hit us, and now we see high drama when she doesn't get her way!

Her speech remains an area of concern. Still waiting for her to start speaking properly. Got her CT scan and other check ups done. Its wait and watch. She babbles a lot, and we can make out Baa Baa (from baa baa black sheep), Ei-ei-o (from Old Mcdonald) and Up-Up (from Twinkle Twinkle star).

She may not talk, however, she understands everything...including how to operate the ipad/iphone and the remote! She also loves helping around the house, carrying laundry clothes, picking up toys, keeping her glass on the table/sink, and forever trying to mop/sweep the house (which we don't allow of course!) She sits in the big potty (but yet has to grasp potty training), stands on the stool and washes her hands in the sink (within supervision), tries to feed herself with a spoon, can open the doors in the house (sigh!) and loves the playground slide.

2 plus already. Oh my God!! :)

Walkathon

The last couple of months have been focused on getting Ishi to walk independently. She would simply refuse. Then after her 18 month birthday (April 21), her doc gave us a scare by asking us to get a CT scan, blood test and urine test done. We decided to wait on the CT scan. The blood test identified low Vitamin D, so she went on a 5-day course on that. Funnily, the day we came back from the doc, we took her to the lawn downstairs and she walked on her own! Doc still wants her CT scan though :( We're giving her another month.


Ishi Walks from Rupesh Tripathi on Vimeo.



Ishi also started swimming (April 27) and she loooved the pool. She simply loves to splash around, and I'm getting her walk from one end of the kiddie pool to the other. So far she's taken to water like a fish! Sadly, within her first week, she caught a slight cold, so we're waiting to give her a couple of days before taking her back in!

She is a complete water baby and she loves to splash...

in the pool...

...and in mud!!

Return of Leela and fun in the sun!

After returning from our stay in Delhi, first order of affairs was to find a replacement for Leela. After much effort, we got Laxmi, a 42 year old with children and a grandchild of her own! She was obviously used to babies, and took to Ishi quite well. However, a few days later, Leela called up and wanted to return. While this again upset the apple-cart, without doubt, Leela had been with Ishi since she was a month old, and her superior knowledge in taking care of both Ishi and the house outweighed the financial implications of letting go of Laxmi. So we put our trust in fate, and got Leela back.

Ishi showed great adaptability, and was fine with both Laxmi and Leela. She did show some recognition of Leela despite seeing her after almost 2 months, though I'm not sure how much of this was our wishful thinking. In any case, she did not give us any trouble with all these changes in her well-ordered life.

With Leela back, and the days getting warmer, we've given Ishi more freedom to move about in the house. She still isn't walking/standing on her own, but she is exploring far more and learning new things. One of the things she has learnt is how to crawl over the threshold to the balcony. Here is the first time she did it.

28 February, 2012.




29 February 2012

Its Leap Day. A day to do whatever we feel like. Ishi feels like playing with mud!



The days are just packed! :)

Home away from home

Jan/Feb 2012, and Ishi's first stay away from home without me or her maid. I had to go to Khandala for a workshop for 10 days, and Leela - Ishi's maid - who had gone on leave in December, told us at the last minute that she would not be coming back. So 5 days before I have to leave Ishi was potentially without any caretaker (Dad couldn't take 10 whole days off work after all, and manage both Ishi and Nero!). So it was decided that Dad, Ishi and Nero would shift to my parents at Netaji Nagar, and then there would be 3 adults and Beena, their maid, to look after the whole jing-bang! Ishi's grandparents were of course thrilled, and after shifting half the house (took 2 cars), we moved to their place on 20th Jan. After setting up all our stuff and establishing a daily routine, I left on 23rd Jan.

I really missed everyone while I was away, but I was kept abreast of all that was happening through regular phone calls, and the following journal-like mails written by Rupesh.

Jan 26, 2012

Ishi Today

It's been two days since Pal went off for her workshop at Khandala. Ishi is doing just fine. And hence, so are we! Things have gotten into a routine now. Everyone has assumed their roles. Timings are set. And Delhi is much warmer and cozier than it was a few days back. Mom manages the early morning chores. Ishi's milk, poo, breakfast. Baba has mastered the art of feeding her. Through some unfair use of medical knowledge Involving her forehead and lower lip, I figure. So he is the one who mostly gets to feed her. I step in if she is getting cranky. I am mostly busy keeping track if everything's being done. Plus I manage her daytime poops, bath, change of clothes, cerelac prep and my favourite - tucking her in for the night. Even Bina has figured some pieces, like design of her makeshift playpen. So now every morning, post the cleaning, Ishi's playpen is all set and ready for her to jump in and mess it up. Plus the fact that Baba has managed to get Cbeebies on the TV next to this playpen, makes it the happiest corner of the house for her. Today we all sat and watched Rday parade. Ishi watched sitting in her playpen. She had a great time squealing and watching mom imitate her squeals. She laughed and laughed her heart out. After the parade she got her bath. Wasn't very happy. First some soap got into her eyes, and then I pulled her out of bath a tad too soon (as she thought, I was making sure she doesn't catch cold). After her lunch she slept soundly but woke up crying. I sat in her playpen with her and she was fine. But then Nero started barking loudly and I yelled at him. Poor Ishi got scared and cried and cried. I've decided never to scream at anyone or anything when she is around. I so hate to see her cry!! She is happy now. Eating banana with her gramps.

Jan 27, 2012

Ishi Today

It was an easy day at work today. Whole lot of people were away on long weekend and that reflected in the number of mails and calls. I could, hence, spend a fair bit of time playing with Ishi :) Ishi has been on vitamin D intake mission. Yesterday baba gave her a sachet of 60000 units with dinner. Today mom took her out in the sun and sat with her making vit D. Baba felt she needs some for her to get more stable on her feet and will help her to walk. I personally think she has enough strength in her legs with all the sit ups she does in her cot and play pen. She just needs more practice, floor time and confidence. With cool winters giving way to pleasant spring, she will be able to get more time on floor, barefoot and I see her springing away very very soon.

Jan 28, 2012

It was saraswati puja today. We went to vivekanand vihar for puja, blog and lunch. This was the same place where we stayed during my wedding. Went there for the first time after then. With Ishi. It was a strange feeling, knowing that place had a part to play in Ishi's being there! Otherwise a lazy day. After getting back from vivekanand vihar, we slept. Ishi got up around six. Ruining her routine. Ate some banana. Was whiny till daddy played with her and made her all giggly!!! She then was good as gold. Watched Cbeebies. Had dinner at 730. And then watched some more TV. Finally went off to sleep at 9.

I returned on Feb 1st, and we stayed back for a couple of days and moved back home the next weekend. In those couple of days, poor Ishi ended up with 5 (yes five!) vaccinations! Baba had got them deliveredat home. Since they were already due, and with an resident pediatrician at hand, we decided to get all her vaccines done while he would be at hand for any complications. So she got Dtap, Flu Shot and pneumococcal on Feb 2, and MMR and Varicella on Feb 4. She did have a bit of fever after the first 3 shots, but Baba said it was fine, and body's natural reaction. We gave her crocin. By next day evening she was fine, and we gave her the next 2 vaccines (which were live virus). Apart from some on site redness, she had no other reactions. But poor thing, now she doesn't like syringes at all!

Christmas 2011 - A time for gifts, family and good cheer!

Its the holiday season and its time for shopping!! On Saturday, Dec 24, we landed up at Ishi's school to realize there was no class. So we used the time to go shopping! We wanted to show her Santa too, so we took her to Ambience Mall. Here is its huge gift pyramid and christmas tree, and other xmas decorations.

 


We didn't see any Santas around, so it was off to the kids stores. Since our usual haunt 'Mom & me' was shut for renovations, we raided Mothercare! Top on the list was a car seat for Ishi. We finally got one..and its Pink! With butterflies! :)

Ishi - sleeping in her new car seat on the way back home from shopping!

But that was not all! Apart from clothes and woolies, we found another 'must have' item at the store - a playpen! We had been looking for one for ages! Here is Ishi store testing the one on display!

We got one with bars all the way around instead of the net. Though it gives a more 'jail' like look, she can hold on to the bars all the way around and move about. The net, on the other hand, is more confining and she had no hold on those sides. The units of the pen can also be used as room dividers and gates!

Then it was Christmas Eve! Dida and newly-weds Tuki Maashi and Deepak Mesho came over with cake and more gifts! Dida was fresh back from her Nepal trip and Maashi & Mesho back from their Kashmir honeymoon! They brought back T-shirt for Dad, pashmina shawls and glittery beads for Mom and a softer-than-soft yellow poncho for me! I love it! That night was one of the coldest Christmasses ever (almost 0 degrees Celsius!!), but our house was full of warmth and love. Here we are celebrating Xmas 2011.

Xmas Video 2011

'Tis the season to be jolly, tra-la-la-la-la la-la la la!