Vedika - Day 650

Over course of time, these posts will change their tones. Dear Vidhi, sometimes I write these in your tone, since this is supposedly your journal. Sometimes, I write as your father. Today I am writing as later.

Of course sacrifices of mothers are all well known and need no elaboration. But they must still be acknowledged. Your mom Radhika Gupta has done a lot for you in last 21 months you have been with us. There is no example in far and wide, neither among friends and relatives, nor among colleagues and neighbours, for a working mother who is able to take care of young infant along with house, husband and job.

Yes, she had help. Her job is, so far, amenable to work from home, a privilege denied to many. She has an 8 hour helper maid, which you may or may not recall/remember with fondness. Yet she also has a job which requires time and commitment like any other jobs. She also has series of maids which need to be supervised and chaperoned and trained. She also has to cook. And, of course, she has you.

You, who is not easily accustomed to new touch. You, who still cannot live or sleep with your papa or chacha. You, who yet cannot entertain by yourself. You, who needs constant attention and supervision. You, who still requires hours to feed. And you, who still cannot sleep uninterrupted at night. This is not litany of complaints about you. After all, you are you. And you are a baby.

But what this has meant is that there is a not a moment of time for your mom, for herself. Her nightly sleeps are interrupted in your unconsolable nonchalant cries for hours. Her mornings are disturbed by a late or absent maid, and who must abandon her office work to feed, bath and entertain you. Her day is spent trying to work yet keep you company. Her evenings stretch coping up with work which could not be completed in day time, and who must also attend to you after maid has left. Her business calls are filled with screams of baby Vedika trying to claim her mom back. And who must often take phone calls with you on her lap, or run software programs with you on her back. Not a moment can be wasted on personal items and TV and entertainment are at sole mercy of your Highness.

She did so and she will do so. But you must remember this, for what she is doing, hasn't been done by too many.

----

A nice poem I found on internet...

Slow down mummy, there is no need to rush,

Slow down mummy, what is all the fuss?

Slow down mummy, make yourself a cup tea.

Slow down mummy, come and spend some time with me.

Slow down mummy, let's put our boots on and go out for a walk,

Let's kick at piles of leaves, and smile and laugh and talk.

Slow down mummy, you look ever so tired,

Come sit and snuggle under the duvet and rest with me a while.

Slow down mummy, those dirty dishes can wait,

Slow down mummy, let's have some fun, let's bake a cake!

Slow down mummy I know you work a lot,

But sometimes mummy, its nice when you just stop.

Sit with us a minute, and listen to our day,

Spend a cherished moment, because our childhood is not here to stay!

Vedika - Day 649

These days Vedika is absolutely adorable. Unless she is crying. And she still does, waking up suddenly in night, reciting unknowable phrases, and indicating perhaps, though one cannot be sure, signs of nightmares.

Her vocabulary is expanding at rapid rate. Her knowledge has moved from nouns to colours and shapes. She understands equivalence of Hindi and English words referring to same object and action. We had feared her lack of understanding colours which is quickly disappearing. She has gotten decent grasp on vegetables and fruits. And while she still cannot, naturally, carry out conversation in any specific domain, her word repertoire is enough to carry out regular conversation to all extent of daily life.

Her imagination is seeing signs of ripening for she can discern patterns of animals in shadows and dirt marks. She can mimic her mom's cooking with grass, stone and dirt as ingredients. She can recite counting from one to fifteen, alphabets from A to Z, and all seven days of week. Often times she does this subconsciously for when asked, she falters. She has great memories of all the rhymes which we played to her over the years. She can sing along fully to Johny Johny, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCD song, and few others. She has developed preference for Teletubbies too and while it's not sure if she understands anything other than Twinky-winky, Dipsee, Lala, Pooh she does recite and delights in these names.

She has matured a little to be managed by her papa and chacha for hours as long as she is paid full attention to. She plays, demands action (swings on legs, or horse-riding), and teases. Her shoulders half hunched, eyes sparkling, hands raised, ready to dhappi is often her favourite way of sneaking at our back or reaching out to us. She still doesn't understand concept of hide-and-seek and while she can find someone who is hidden, when asked to hide, remains obviously visible and near the seeker.

She has developed a new style of hand twisting, sign of her early dance moves, which she repeats when excited. On recent birthday of her Chacha, she was the one who blew candles. Four times. She seem to love this!

Vedika was fond of brushing her teeth from day one. She still is. We've got her an small toothbrush. She demands toothpaste too, though dentist recommended fluoride free toothpaste for kids, we cannot find any, and we give her a sliver of regular one. She must participate in any tooth brushing session, morning or evening. Currently, she just eats her toothpaste but still does all the regular motions. As touchy as she is in any other matter, you can freely take her toothbrush and brush her teeth yourself, and she'll let you do it. She tries to spit but cannot and having drunk toothpaste and water, just spits out her spit.

She has become absolutely choosy about clothes she wants to wear. There isn't any pattern though, and it appears primarily to be driven by her desire to not wear anything. She runs about when robing or disrobing her. And if her mind is set of not wearing a baniyaan or frock then God have mercy. Her tiny naked frame running around avoiding clothing is a sight to see.

Vedika - Day 602

I've become lax in updating this journal. I could blame that I didn't receive response that I (foolishly) had hoped for. Let alone contributing, no one is even reading this thought. But I am trying to keep it up, until I cannot. For you. My dear daughter you: Vedika.

You have gone to your Mama's place in Hyderabad after Diwali. You met your Nana-Nani and Nitya didi. I hear your mom tell you that you are enjoying playing with her. I am glad you found a playmate. I hear your mom also tell that you are as fuzzy about going to your near and dear ones as you ever were. We hope that one day you will not be so. Family is important. People who love you are most important. And they won't love you always unconditionally. You are kid now, so they do, enjoy while it lasts. Expectations can be tough.

Your one act brings hilarity to mind often. On day of Diwali, after Puja, everyone was touching feet of everyone else. At some point, you decided that's the thing to do. So you bent and touched feet of your mother. I didn't notice, for when you came for me, I started walking away. When I did, I saw you crawling floor on your hands and knees following me to touch my feet. It was funny and sad. Sorry beta. I love you too.

I heard your voice on first time, since you started speaking, on phone now. You are loud. And clear. And only because of your vocabulary and because I know, I can say it's you. Else you cannot be known to be infant. And you shout a lot, even when you are not crying.

It was your second Diwali. I don't think anything remarkable happened. We thought you'd love firecrackers. You didn't show signs of either love or hate. But you didn't like to watch too, for when you have been watching and hearing lights and sounds for half-an-hour, you asked, calmly and not demanding, to go home. You tilted your head on side and said 'ok' and 'done'. Absolutely cute.

You mimic things. A lot. Everything. Laughing, yawning, popping food, bubble wrap, head massage, everything. We have to be careful. You want things done just the right way. Head massage has to happen when sitting on ground when mom is on bed, not on lap, not you on bed. You have to have your ducks near you when you poop. Simple demands of simple life.

I am missing you. I love you.

Vedika - Day 582

"Aa gaya" and "chala gaya" define recurring themes of words Vidhi uses these days. Every person and object gets its presence announced by "aa gaya" and absence by "chala gaya", be it papa, chacha, mummy, aunty, ant, cow, or airplane. She would randomly call out things like cow or airplane, and when asked where, will simply say "chala gaya".

Aeroplanes are her favourite in-thing these days. Even a sound of passing plane will have her running to nearest member shouting 'aeroplan' and demanding to be taken to balcony to see it. Even when she is sleeping or drowsy, mention of very word in communication will have her alert and ready to run. She understand "aeroplane wings" as additional component, thanks to her Mom, and will actively point them out to us.

Vidhi is showing signs of becoming the grown up person she will be, at least till puberty hits her. She understands the context and meaning of 'shh' and talking in whispers. When she is made to sleep at night, she is at her playful best, with peek-a-boo within the sheets and talking in whisper lest mom hears her. Radhika is annoyed by my such attempts as this distracts from environment of absolute silence that must be created for Vidhi to fall asleep but it feels like such a fun time between father and daughter against mother.

Today she tried to do an absolute adorable thing. I had laid out photocopy of my PAN card on A4 paper and she tried to pick PAN card only, obviously to fail, repeatedly, not realizing that it's an image over larger white paper and not an separate object.

Vidhi visited Mysore Dassera prior weekend - the one where I lost my iPhone 4s - and enjoyed parts of morning in the zoo. Possibly not as much as I had hoped because enclosure of zoo kept most animals quite far from her and vision was short. She fell asleep in the middle of rounds.

Vedika - Day 578

Vidhi's vocabulary as of today...

A apple aeroplane ant anklet aunty auto

B banana balloon baby butterfly biscuit bird ball bat bag bear bangles bottle bell baby book back bye-bye bend

C car cat close clock chin chocolate cow cockroach chair cheeks curtain clean colour cap circle comb crocodile catch clap

D donkey dog duck doll drum dustbin door done

E elephant eyes ears earrings

F fish forehead flower fan finger finish fly

G goat good-day good-night gym giraffe

H horse house head hair hen hot hippo hands

I

J jump

K kite kangaroo kitty

L lion lips legs leapord light

M monkey moon mouth mango milk

N no nose nest nails neck

O open office owl orange onion on off

P pant pigeon pencil pen peacock potty put-in pink phone

Q

R rabbit rice

S sun spoon star sky shoes stick-it stone stana spider see-saw socks

T teeth tummy toes tea teapot tounge tub tata throw tree TV

U umbrella uncle up

V

W watch

X

Y

Z zebra

Vedika - Day 556

Vidhi got her 18th month vaccination of DPT this Saturday. For the first time, unfortunately, she suffered from her fever that lasted about 48 hours. During that period her body was very hot, her crying incessant and loud, and her body rigid and legs stiff. She recovered fully on Monday, though she still had difficult standing on her own. It was her first ailment and our first ordeal into infantile pain.

Oh, and on Tuesday night she cried non-stop for three hours from 2am-5am for no reason whatsoever. First bout from 2-4am was for no known reason. Second bout was because she didn't want to, yet still wanted to, watch videos on mobile.

Vedika - Day 549

Happy one-and-an-half year birthday Vedika!

(this is time where her Mum realizes that may be she doesn't like name Vidhi and wants to go by Vedika, because apparently, there was a girl named Vidhi in her life, who was her friend, who wasn't that good girl)

Below are key pictures from her last six months...

Vedika - Day 514

Today she came with broom and dirt hopper in full pretence of cleaning.

When I tried to blow her inflatable plastic hammer, instead of using it to "bumm" our heads, she mimicked (tried?) blowing up toy herself. So cute.

She now mimics God's Puja by moving her arms around and chiming bell in her hand chanting something which sounds like "om bhoor bua swaha."

Vedika - Day 500

Vidhi can now kiss you back without you forcing her lips to your cheeks. She understands instructions and makes the right sound of kissing. She even kissed her mother without being asked to. She shows more affection to her Teddy Bear than she does to people around her.

"Happy ... To You" is her version of famous birthday song.

Vedika - Day 479

Many notes...

We've arrived at Vidhi's "Nani House" (as her mom puts it to her) yesterday. They have stairways running between ground and first floor. Vidhi's must-be-close-to-mummy-at-any-cost nature almost had her falling down the all twelve steps, but for last second hand holding by her papa. Heart leaped to throat and prayers rushed to lips. Someone once said, "I thought I loved my wife a lot, but for my baby, I will willing throw her under the bus without even flinching," on Quora. I don't think I am there yet (should I even be?) but I am on the way, and incidents like yesterday's just highlight the delicate nature of this relationship.

Incremental words in Vidhi's vocabulary include more animals (hen, cow, crow, ant, fish, zebra, horse, butterfly), non-noun terms (open, close, hot, lift, yellow), relationship terms (chacha, nana, nani, kaka, kaki, dada, dadi, aunty, uncle), body parts (eyes, nose, tummy), and more household items (clock, spoon). She understands and can point to but cannot pronounce almost all major body parts (head, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, chin, tummy, hand, leg, fingers, toes). She refers her head as "bumm" as in head is bummed when her's hits something which is not unusual. She can promounce but doesn't understand few numbers like one, two, three, four, seven, nine.

Vidhi is walking like a pro now and likes to walk and run in large open spaces like garden, corridors, shopping mall, showrooms. She falls often, of course, but gets up quickly and without fuss. Things are more within her reach at home. She can be seen sneaking into kitchen, opening the snacks cupboard and munching whatever her hands could lay on. And she is junk food junkie! She is still very fussy eater of food and prefers limited diet of ragi, suzi, cerelac. Everything else must be often pureed in mixer and must be fed between running story and her favourite toons. She wouldn't eat even slightly spicy sabzi but will eagerly chew on indoori namkeen and kurkure. Her favourite vegetable is apparently lady-finger.

Vidhi got supply of new cartoons from her Mami. Brainy-Baby video of animals are her favourites. Words "dog" and "cat" always accompany "bow bow" and " meaw". She likes and asks for Vodafone's "zozo" ads.

Her mom and I have decided that if she (1) eats all regular food without fuss from anyone's hands, (2) goes to anyone and has fun without being clingy to her mom, then she will becomes the best-baby-in-the-world. She is smart (hows to throw stuff in dustbin, wipe after being wet, can fetch small objects, learns words super fast, observes and mimics) and just need to be sociable. Oh, she is grossly underweight but given everything else we'll let it slide.

Vidhi has ability to quickly impress people in first and short meetings. Given her mom is nearby, she doesn't cry much, is very active, speaks a lot, and generally comes across as nice kid. Her being youngest in her peer group helps that her infractions are excused. True colour is revealed at long exposure to Vidhi's tantrums. She cried her brains out when her mom went to toilet for total of one minute in train. This puts her mom under undue stress as she only needs to carry her (underweight but 8.5kg still), feed her, make her sleep, take her to toilet, bathe and change her, etc. And in some instances, Vidhi gets a mouthful, which she understands and either silences or erupts into sob.

Vedika - Day 453

Vidhi is making rapid progresses on vocabulary and ambulatory front. Today marks the first day when she is able to stand up on her own without external support as this gives further and final push to her efforts of walking as primary means of movement rather than crawling. Today also saw first inkling that our walls will no longer be clean any more as Vidhi rushed to colour them after defiling floor already. My baby is growing up!

Vedika - Day 426

Vidhi's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds! Words that she seem to shout these days - all picked up in last few weeks - include "achchhee" (sneezing sound, copying her mother), "flower", "button", "pigeon", "chinti" (ant), "khana", "shoes","dog","cat","meaow","hen","teeth","tree","hello","open","done".

She also understands "nose" and "eyes" though she cannot pronounce them yet.

Vedika - Day 424

No words will do justice ...

Vedika - Day 413

So Vidhi has picked up a new word, which sounds something between baayaa or baalaa. Our initial interpretation was "bhaayaa" which we understood to be South Indian pronunciation (via Mariamma) of "bhaiyaa". It was funny and strange to hear such out of context word from her. Bit of sleuthing from her Mummy reveals that she may be saying "baalaa" which refers to her playing balls. She might as well be saying "ball la". Time will tell.

Would it not be wonderful if kid can explain what they are talking when they grow up? They seem to have complex and detailed thoughts. Only if we are privy to those...

Vedika - Day 405

Vidhi gets her first Gold jewellery - earrings for recently pierced ears!

(Also see her making mess of food)

Vedika - Day 401

Vidhi baby has a new craze these days. She is becoming attuned to animals around her — not counting her family.

She has developed uncanny ability to notice and call out to animals: when she is travelling in car, playing in park, standing in balcony, or even when she is inside house but hears a barking, tweeting, or mooing. Her favourites are pigeons, dog, and cows in that order. Influence of Mariaama has ensured that she associates Kannada word "ba" with "come to me" and starts stretching her arms and calling out series of "ba". She is absolutely adorable when she does this. And her eyes are sharp in picking out a lone flying pigeon far away on fourth floor even when you are left wondering how can she notice that. It's mild amusement and pity to see her face when her calls are unheeded and dog and pigeon don't come near her. Sometimes she would "ba" to an ant, housefly or a piece of lint too! Her imitation of animal sound is limited to "maa..." for all kinds of animals.

Vedika - Day 400

Today Vidhi got her ears pierced.

We had been dawdling this for a long time by now. We inquired on means and methods of getting ears pierced and found primarily two options: a local jewelry shop guy who would pinch her ears with a golden wire, or new method of gunshot where a stud is forced into ears through a spring loaded metallic gun. Former costs about fifty while later hundreds or even thousands.

About a month ago we found a neighborhood jeweler who would do this. We also found a nearby clinic who would do this too. About 25x times cost differences kept us wondering when today Radhika decided that enough and enough and lets get to it. We were not sure if gunshot would pain her less but we decided to go for it because after all it's a once in a lifetime thing for the baby and all care must be taken to alleviate any pain. It was a bit sentimental — foolish, in retrospect — moment when we were leaving the house to go to the hospital. Poor Vidhi darling's smiley face and twinkle filled eyes had no idea what awaited her mere minutes later. Her Chachu worried a lot.

Actual incident however wasn't too bad. First ear was easy, of course. She was stunned the instant stud hit her, cried for about 30 seconds and immediately was distracted. Second ear was difficult, not so, I imagine from the pain, but from her insistence of not allowing us to hold her still. She bowled a lot, before, during and after the process, for about 15 minutes. Then she fell asleep in car on the way back to home.

She has been well since then with no signs of pain or discomfort.

Also: weight: 7.8kg, height: 72cm. According to this chart, she is supposed to be 9.2kg and 75cm tall. She seems to be tracking okay to milestone though - using tata, "pila" (water), drinking from glass, lifting, standing.

Vedika - Day 395

The moment has come!

Vidhi has learnt to kiss back!

After being at receiving end of barrage of kisses from family members from time immemorial, visibly annoyed Vidhi having endured useless smacking of moist lips, has finally been converted. She has learnt - when placed at appropriate angle to receiver's cheeks - to create appropriate puckering of her lips and make that sound which has come to be known as hallmark of love. Vidhi can now kiss you back!

Vedika - Day 376

Today Vidhi took her first involuntary steps! She was made to stand upright and was left unsupported, then she immediately took 2-3 unsteady steps with her arms stretched to reach nearby adult, which was her Papa.

In days to come from today, she would have increased number of steps. And next milestone will mark her first voluntary steps.

Vedika - Day 375

Vidhi's first vacation!

Baby darling visited Andaman islands along with her family for a week long trip - and came back tired and tanned! But to her credit, she had fun on beaches and let us have fun by not crying too much.

Vedika - Day 369

Pictures of 11th and 12th month of Vidhi...

(it's easy to post pictures than actual content - also, another trend, as the baby grows up number of pictures per month decrease, not a good sign, we are becoming lazy)

Did you notice that she can stand unsupported for few seconds?

Vedika - Day 365

Happy Birthday Vidhi / Vidhu / Vedika / Golu / Goli / Rani....

Today marks the first year of your presence in our life.

We had small cake-cutting ceremony at our home sans guests. We went to an orphanage in the evening where we shared some snacks. This was followed by visit to temple and dinner out.

Vedika - Day 345

Today was second day of Pulse Polio drive for Vidhi.

(Yeah, it's a boring news but when you have decided to follow her life, you need to follow these little milestones too.)

Vedika - Day 336

As almost an year old baby, Vidhi still wakes up frequently at nights. Her mom narrates her experience in dealing with Vidhi at baby center :

I can so relate to you, as i have also started working when my LO (Vedika) was 4 months old and she was/is bad one at sleep. Sleep depreviation is too overwhelming  for Mom-dad and its bad for Kiddo too.
Few things that i can advice you from my experience are
- Follow a schedule, which is driven by Baby themselves instead of ideal schedules you want them to follow.e.g. if everyday morning they go for a Nap at 10, give him all the environment to fall asleep that time.
- Nap time schedules should be maintained so that Kids will not get cranky because of lack of sleep. I observed if my Kiddo gets full and as per schedule sleep she wakes up to be a Happy and energytic one e.g. Vedika takes a Nap of approx  45 mins around 7 PM after coming from Play area.
- For night time sleep, you need to get started 2-3 hours before the Night time schedule of your kid to give his night time feed.
- My Kid sleeps at 11:30 PM daily, i know its on late side but this turnout to be her natural time to fall asleep. She becames so tired till that time that she can fall asleep in 10 mins and some times on her own.
- Earlier i used to make her fall asleep at 10 pm but that was in vain, she used to sleep at 10 then wakes up at 11 then used to take BF for like 30 mins to fall asleep again then again she used to wake up at 01:30 ish which was very frustating for me.
- Regarding Night time feed, i am giving her a heavy meal like rice, Khichdi around 7 PM after she comes from Play area, post which she falls asleep for a Nap.
- Then i give her heavy meal of Ceralac or Suji at 10 PM.
- Then milk at 11 pm.
- Turn off/dim baby's room light after milk,change her clothes or give message/bath, take her for Su-Su.
-Then i lay down on our Bed, giving her signal that play time is over and now its time to sleep. She rides all over me for 15 mins or so, then she gets cranky for 10 mins as she wants to sleep and missing the soothing touch of BF to fall asleep. But after 10 mins she sleeps on her own.
I pray to God all Kids get good night time sleep, it makes Parenting so much fun as Mom has all her energy to play and do activities with the Kid.

Vedika - Day 323

At infantile age of ten and an half month, baby Vedika becomes youngest member of Gupta khaandaan to fly in the aircraft and person with youngest age when first flown.

Spice Jet flight on 10:30am today from Bangalore to Hyderabad had privilege of flying dear Vedika on aircraft when she decided to pay her Mama-Mami as visit. She will return on the 10th Feb by air.