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.