Everything's a Chase Game!

That Manya is the epitome of naughtiness would be an understatement. The mischievous twinkle in her eyes 24/7 and the squeals of delight when she has accomplished what she is not supposed to give her away. 

I have so many updates to make that one post wouldn't just be enough. So, will stick to her chase games in this one.

Everything, I repeat, everything is a chase game. There is not a single activity that I can do without having to chase her around the house. It starts the minute she wakes up. The moment her highness opens her eyes (which is usually at about 5:30/6 AM), she wants me to be up and about - asap. No snooze time at all - she is ruthless. Any resistance from me is met with a high decibel scream, followed by her exit from the bed and out of the bedroom door. I have to run after her, bring her back to bed, place her with daddy - bring her some toys and then finish my morning routine first. 

After that, at the first and every diaper change, the same game follows. I plonk her on her changing pad, put the straps on - she wiggles, and wriggles, and in the nano second that I turn around to either pull out a new diaper, wipe or her cream, she is off!!! Her joyful screams are met with Vish's paranoid ones as he is scared about what if she does something on the carpet!

We go to the kitchen and dining area for the morning milk. She will snuggle and cuddle till I fix the lid of her sipper. That's her clue - she knows I am ready - so she takes off. After a chase around the living room, we settle down for milk. This is again repeated religiously at all meal times.

Cut to nap times. "Manya, let's go to sleep." And there she goes running to the other end. I am telling you if I do not shed all my extra weight because of this, it would only be due to the fact that I am a certified glutton!

Wondering if the game is never reversed? If M doesn't chase us. She does. When Vish and I are changing our clothes, or if we are just out of a bath, or if she spots some bare parts when we are sleeping or lazying on the couch - she rushes to us to pinch all the bare skin she can lay her hands on - she claws at it and giggles till no end. Oh how it hurts. We have tried to say no in a hundred ways but somehow she doesn't get it. (And please, don't you dare say children do what they see because I swear Vish and I don't go around pinching each other!!!) 

Oh god, the games these children play :(!

Say Cheeeeee!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeee (with the longest eeee ever) is M's version of 'cheese' ofcourse. I don't know if she likes eating it as much as she likes saying it but the passionate rendition cracks us up each time. I have to just trigger her with a simple question, "Manya will you have cheese?" And for the next 10 minutes we are assured that we will get to hear cheeeeeeee at regular intervals! 

The best part was that I was doing laundry in the afternoon when I heard the excited cheeee, only to find her highness in front of the window sill, pointing at the falling snow flakes, calling all of them cheese! I had to grant it to her, since they did look like the shredded cheese and the cut string cheese pieces I offer her. I did try to correct her though, but she didn't care much. So, we do have cheese topped trees and plants and the ground! 

13 Lesser Known Facts for 13 Months of Motherhood

So, I decide to end the year on a very factual note :D. The mommy me has completed 13 months and here are some facts that unfolded along the way - most of which I had never ever gotten to know before M came to us. If you are a parent, you'll end up nodding for most of these with a brave grin; if you are a parent-to-be, you'll learn these the hard way; and if you are nowhere on the horizon, this might just as well be Ripley's Believe It or Not for you :P.

1. Every baby goes through phases that come and go but during no phase will you get a full night of quality sleep, or a day during which you don't ask yourself - atleast once - what have I gotten myself into?

2. The top 5 things on mommy's mind at any given time of the day or night are: The last time the baby fed and how much, the next time he/she needs to eat. | The times at which the baby pooped in the last 5 days and other associated grotesque details, you don't want explicitly mentioned here. | Baby's nap and sleep schedule | Baby's favorite nursery rhymes and songs | Shopping lists for the baby.

3. Your baby can mortally wound you. Ever been knocked on the nose by the baby's rock solid head; or been bitten during nursing; or been kicked in the gut at massage time?

4. If your baby takes 10 minutes to drink 5 ozs of milk, he/she will take forever to drink 6 ozs. Go figure out the formula for yourself.

5. Proud of your cheerful cherub who never ever throws a fit at the grocery store? Wait till you go there the next time with friends or family - the worst tantrum of your life awaits you. On the same lines, never ever tell your guests or hosts what your baby eats and doesn't. There's a 100% chance, he/she will do exactly the opposite.

6. Spent the better half of the night searching for baby food recipes and then preparing them painstakingly - well, watch your toddler refuse even the first spoon of it. Amazingly, he/she will lick it off the floor if it has fallen by mistake. Fallen food enhances taste. Yes.

7. You always carry your diaper bag with you - even for a short shopping trip. However, the one time you take a chance to go to the local post office without that monstrosity, there WILL be a diaper blowout.

8. Somebody will knock at the door, exactly when you place your baby in the bath tub. And your phone will ring (most probably a spam caller) at the precise moment you put your baby down for her nap.

9. Never mind that expensive step-and-play piano or those blocks that you paid a bomb for - nothing excites a child more than tupperware and ladles and cutlery from the kitchen.

10. Your baby gets up by the clock - sharp at 5 every single morning. Plan an early morning trip to cash in on her morning spirits and that very day, she'd choose to get up an hour or two later.

11. You no longer wear your favorite piece of jewelry (or any jewelry for that matter) because your toddler either puts it in his/her mouth or yanks it so hard that you'd have to rush to ER for a third degree tear. You also will not find a mom wearing a Dolce Gabbana dress with a Coach Bag and Jimmy Choo shoes. Not because all her savings got blown up in diaper expenses, but because, if everything has to anyways smell of drool and milk, and look like it's been brutally pulled in all directions, you'd rather be comfortable in your PJs and flip flops.

12. It doesn't matter what your cleanliness standards have been up until the point your toddler gets on the move. The house is never going to be "clean" again. No. Never.

13. Inspite of the countless miseries that descend on you, you surprisingly find only infinite love in your heart for that little devil who has turned your life upside down yet has the cheek to hug you and lick you with such warmth.

Furry love

I have been wanting to do this quick post for a while now. For the last couple of months, M has been showing great affection to her furry friends - her soft toys. 

I have named each one and most of the times she also recognizes/identifies them by that name. For example, 'please get me Bruno', is followed by her hunting down her brown doggie.

That is not all, you have to actually see her "play" with them. She nestles the "head" of the toy in the crook of her neck or sometimes her chest and pats it, just like we pat her when she is in our arms. It doesn't end there, after her cuddling session, she promptly hands over the toy to Vish and me, and while gesturing, eggs us to pat it in a similar fashion. She makes sure we do that by standing on our heads with her arms folded in front of her, and if we slack of, she instantly shouts at us.

Lately, I have been noticing her walking with a few of her favorite ones (though it looks like she loves all of them equally but Minnie, Polo, and Dolly do get more attention - I feel :D) just like we walk with her at nap times. The funniest was, when the other day, she was showing Dolly the mirror, exactly how we show her mirror image to her! 

Onto regular milk now!

So, M has been weaned completely to regular cow's milk (whole fat, organic). She had been taking formula as supplement milk since month 9 (and before that primarily in her cereal), and finally she is off me and the formula. 

We weaned her over a little more than a month - one feed swapped every 7-10 days. 

How has she taken to it? Like she does to any other food offered. With a pronounced indifference - she doesn't even show, in the faintest of manner, that there has been a change. 

When I changed the first milk feed, I was all excited and expected her to show some reaction - but no - she had it with that same expression - "okay, this needs to be had otherwise this woman will be on my case the whole day." 

She does that for all other foods too - new recipes, new ingredients, new tastes - she doesn't show any excitement or refusal - there's that 'what the hell, let's get this over with' acceptance - which may actually be better than outright refusal but then the flip side is that I really don't know her "favorites"! However, I guess that is not a life threatening proposition, at this point at least :D.

The Joy of Giving

(P.S. I have a couple of long due posts and this is one of them.) 

For about 2-3 months now, Manya has learnt to "give". So if you stretch out your hands towards her and say, "please" or simply just "give", she will most likely give whatever she has in her hand or what is available within her reach (unless she really doesn't like you or is in a very bad mood :). She might expect you to promptly return the possession if it is very prized for her, though ;).

She gives quite happily and readily, and that really warms my heart. And you want to know just how gracious she is? If she has nothing to give and has chewed food in her mouth, she'll just pull out the gooey mess from her mouth and hand it over to you. Yucky, yes! But, I swear it's sooo funny (and cute - yes, I am the biased mom :D). 

Then there are those irritating times, when even if you don't want anything, she wants to "give". So, she will continue shoving things in your hand, on your body, on your face, and waiting for a sing-song "thank you" every single time. Such crazy drives sometimes can last upto 30 minutes. Guess, my next task would be to teach her to STOP giving, until then let's enjoy this season of sharing.

Under the weather

So, our little champ had her first bout of viral infection coupled with a borderline bacterial ear infection. Nothing very serious but boy! It is one thing to deal with a cranky/ tired/ sleepy/ hungry/ restless/ teething/ upset/ clingy baby and it is another challenge all together dealing with a toddler on antibiotics! It is like having a zombie on steroids. Can't communicate but trying to. Frustrated as cannot understand what's happening. Feeling energetic in fits and starts and clumsily falling all over the place in halfhearted attempts to walk, climb, run and what not. Not wanting to eat and feeling crazy with all the medicines. Sleeping through the day and awake through the night. Gosh! I could go on.

Anyways, looks like, we are getting better. Knock wood.

We have a "walker"!

No, am not catching up on The Walking Dead series. Though I am not sure the walker reference is all that a miss :P.

M is walking independently a lot. She walks pretty much like a zombie - with legs apart and arms stretched out - for optimum balance, I suppose! She plonks down often but is up and about again ever so enthusiastically. 

I am sure if she'd walk a little more slowly, she'd be able to go for longer stretches but then her highness wants to just run the second she stands up. 

We all learn when we need to, right? So be it :).

On her own two feet!

Since the last couple of days, M no longer needs support to pull herself to a standing position. She can stand up on her own and continue to stand without support for long stretches of time!

Slow and steady progress at the walking front too. She gets up on her feet on her own, and takes about 6 to 8 independent steps with her legs apart and hands straight front, in order to balance, I suppose :). And then she plonks down on her knees and continues walking on the knees (as against crawling on all fours). I wonder how the knees are not yet bruised from all the wear and tear :).

DIY: Baby Blanket to Toddler Poncho

If you are a mommy of (especially) a toddler girl who fast outgrew her cuddly baby blankets - those that could once swaddle her don't even make a decent throw in her crib no - this post is for you. 

In a casual conversation with a mommy friend, I happened to mention about this and voila, she came up with such an awesome idea - convert the blanket to a poncho, she said!

Now, if you know me, I am a shirker of most house work. Needles, threads, stitching - all are really not my cup of tea. I am one of those lazy people, who stare at a trouser or shirt that needs a button, and wonder if it would be easier to just throw it away. (This is ofcourse in the lazy land - America - ouch, I am kidding, but no, seriously. Back home in India, I would just deposit anything and everything to a tailor to be put together for reasonable price.)

Okay, you get the picture. So, while the idea did enthuse me and sounded fairly simple even for my limited (read no) skills, I was a little iffy, till last night. I finally picked myself up and got down to doing it. At the worst, only an outgrown blanket was at stake.

But, I was pleasantly surprised. This one's a no-brainer! It is extremely easy - the end product very useful and cute! You know all those car rides when you can't get the baby with the tough jackets buckled up - and all you do is throw a blanket over only to have it keep sliding down - or when you'd wish the baby could hold her own blanket as you took her out on a chilly, windy afternoon in a stroller. Or for those irritable mall trips, when with all the pulling out and pushing off of sweaters - you'd wish the sleeves weren't there to make your life simple - well here's the easy peasy DIY poncho!

Step 1: Depending on your child's height, choose a blanket, which when folded into half diagonally, would reach barely below her knees. Mine measured 28in x 34in.

Step 2: Fold the blanket diagonally such that the front part is slightly shorter (about 2 inches), than the back part.

Step 3: Mark the center of the fold with a pen. It is around this that you will have to cut the circle for the neck.

Step 4: Keep the blanket folded, and around the marked point cut a half (when you open the fold, it will be a full circle). Remember to cut a very small half and then try it on your little one and then see if you need to expand it a little more.

Step 5: Hem in the blanket around the cut circumference (to ensure threads don't keep coming out). If you are the adventurous kinds, you can get creative with neck designs too. I just kept it simple! Gave it a ruffled look by folding in the reverse of the blanket.

And you are done! The poncho's good to wear. I already tried it on M and she loves it! (okay, to be honest, she doesn't really care, but I love it :P)