"Happy Friendly Baby"

is what everybody calls her when we go out.

We'd been to a birthday party last night and after dinner (which luckily she didn't give me any trouble for since it was already 8.00pm and she was really really hungry), there was cake cutting. She stood right at the front of the table and sang Happy Birthday loudly, and then would'nt let me give her the cake! She grabbed the bowl from me, sat down in a corner and proceeded to eat it solemnly while other kids were still running around.

And after cake, came dancing. The moves she had !!!

She had so much fun dancing, and we had so much fun watching her. Her dance moves were minimal and not tiring, but so elegant and in perfect sync to the music.
I really need to look for dance classes for her when she turns 3.

The scary part of all this - she is really friendly and will readily talk to anyone who talks to her. When she was little, she'd talk, but freakout if they wanted to hold her. But now, she will go willingly and hug them too !! I can see I have a steep uphill path to teach her to be a little less touchy-feely.

I surprise myself

Company meeting today. Theme - New World Explorers.
I surprised myself at me still remembering all those bits of what everyone thinks useless history knowledge.

The Lion King

Her new favourite movie. She LOVES Simba and Rafiki.

She gets 30 min of TV time during dinner on the nights I'm way too tired from work and asks for Simba or Wiggles everytime.

Guess she likes anything with animals, and then fishes to a lesser degree. She likes the 101 Dalmations too (the old Disney cartoon version). She didn't seem to like Cars though everybody's toddler seems to love it.

Yeah

Her new word and its driving me nuts !!!

Is it working or not?

Its been 3 weeks since we moved her to the crib (in our room).
After bath, we start off with jammies, and then stories with milk/water. Some nights, she will sit calmly on my lap and then ask to go into her crib.
Some nights, she will refuse and make all sorts of excuses once I put her in there. 98% of the times, I will go back in and reassure her until she is calm enough to let me go and sleep on her own. And thats been ok. On the very rare occasion, she's had to be by herself while asking for me because I've had to use the restroom, but still she's fallen asleep by the time I get back.

So ... its apparently working , ... kind of.

I would like EVERY night to start off nice and easy, instead of her running away to get in the crib and then finding excuses to get out. Ideally, I'd like her to be on a toddler/twin bed before December, so that I can use the crib as a sidecar for the baby. But with her wanting to escape from the bed, I cannot pick up all 28lbs of her and put her back in bed about 50 times a night. Daddy is not much help there. He will get her sleep next to him to avoid hearing her scream (crocodile tears, btw. I've seen her grin when we get frustrated and go to pick her up). And on days she takes too long to sleep, he gets frustrated and I cannot get her back to doing something that she knows Daddy will give in to.

Part of me says it will be easier if she sleeps in her own room when the baby comes, because she is such a light sleeper. But a bigger part of me says she is my baby, and she can move out when she wants to. I DO want her to sleep next to me, but she's too much of a kicker (finds my belly every.single.time) for me to be comfortable/safe about it.

Maybe its to do with the time I put her to bed. In the new classroom at school, she doesn't seem to be sleeping as long as she was in the old class (thank God! 12-3pm nap was too late for me to handle at bedtime). But she seems to need the same amount of sleep, so her waking up from naps at 2pm (sometimes before 2) means bedtime at 7.30pm. And somedays, its just too hard to do that when I've to come home and cook dinner. And then there's hardly anytime for us to play or anything, especially that its too hot to go out!
Even a 10 min delay in missing her sleep window causes her to get mad at bedtime.

Tough, eh?

I could go on forever on my ramblings about this.

Things I do when I get crafty

This is an XXL knit longies that I did for Sudha for this coming winter. It is made out of Paton's wool and so she can rough use it at daycare.
I need to get a matching shirt embroidered though. And need to block it, sew in the ends, and make the i-cord for the waist; and a matching cap too.

This is a Crochet baby blanket for a friend. I started this when I found out she was pregnant. She's had her baby girl 2 weeks ago, and I just got it out to complete. It is 50% done, and I'm hoping to get it done in the next 2 weeks.

A Poncho for Sudha - just started - about 10% complete

All things bite

She's obsessed with all bugs and little creatures that seem abundant in our house this hot summer.

Spiders are her favourites (I think). She thinks everything black is a spider, and smaller ones are baby spiders. And she keeps calling out "Fiders bite you!". She pronounces spiders as "fiders".
And that keeps her occupied for hours, especially with the droppings off my eyelash yarn that looks like her baby fiders.

And today it was all about "Its a bumble bee, mama. Look out, its gonna bite you". (there was no bee or anything remotely resembling a flying insect around, but that doesn't seem to matter to an active imagination).

Blowing Raspberries

She loves blowing raspberries on my belly.

Water Baby

A life-jacket + pair of floaties = self swimming Water Baby !!

Scooter Baby "cheese"

Inspired by the skills of a friend's son on the 'scooter', she wanted one (of course, she wants everything she sees).

"I don't see ducks"

It was raining very heavily and left a big puddle of water on our doorstep.
In her mind, where there's water there are ducks. So she says "There is water, but I don't see ducks".
Smart cookie, eh?

I want that ... I want that ... I want that ... mine ... mine ... mine

Are the only things she seems to be saying these days - and driving me nuts, especially when that "want" or "want to" comes out sounding like "wanna" - something grates on my nerves.

We'd been grocery shopping together (at whole foods) for the first time in 5 months, and she kept saying that on seeing every.single.thing in the store.
Amma, I want to eat grapes.
Amma, I want more grapes.
Amma, I want Mac and Cheese.
Amma, I want to get down.
Amma, I want to ...... aaaaaaaaaagh !!!!

"Ondu, Yeradu, Mooru, Naaku, Aidhu"

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - I taught her that in Kannada and she repeats it perfectly !!!
And she can count to 20 (well, with gaps in between), not to mention a hoard of rhymes AND almost all Wiggles songs that she's seen!

"Leave it"

"Leave it", she says, when I'm taking too much time in the kitchen cutting vegetables instead of giving her some attention.
"I said don't do that, Amma", she says, reinforcing that she meant it !!

Fireworks at Lenox

She had great fun at the pre-fireworks party and was dancing all sorts of moves to the music.
But ... once the fireworks started, she got afraid and started saying "No Fireworks, Don't do that. No Boom. Stop it." Poor baby.

"Oh Man"

A cute phrase she's picked up from me and uses it in perfect situations.
(Thank God she hasn't picked up any of Guru's phrases!!)

Moved her back to her crib

I tried long enough with her crib mattress on the floor, and she fought sleep and would run around yelling for Daddy, so I decided to go back to basics and put her crib back up in our room. She doesn't like it one bit, but she can't get out and that makes her more mad. But I am in the room with her and making sure that nothing else is wrong with her.

She finally seems to get the fact that her in the crib means she has to go sleep. And I won't get her out no matter what (though she tried the potty trick the very second day).

Surprisingly, she's in there until 4-5am and when she wakes up, we get her to our bed and she snuggles up to me.

I'm hoping that things get better in the next few weeks. I want her to be able to go to bed by herself and in her crib for the night by the time the baby is here.

Fun at jumping party

We'd been to a friend's birthday party at a jumping place called Pump It Up. And though she was extremely hungry, she had a blast !!

Summer evening fun

Since I can't find my old swimsuit, and I seem to never have the time to go get a new one - here's our next best alternative to the pool on hot humid summer days of Atlanta.

Some of her mis-pronunciations :)

Banama = Banana
Pickey = Mickey (Mouse)
Opolus = Octopus (from Henry the Octopus of the Wiggles)

The search for a new bed!

Thinking ahead of sleeping with a 3yr old and a newborn, and after trying different crazy ideas (like a twin beside our king bed, and the crib on the other side), I think the best option is to move Sudha Parimala to her own bed. In our room though, I don't want her sleeping upstairs while I'm downstairs, especially with Guru traveling. And if I bring her down the days he's out and move her back up when he returns, I don't think that would be consistent with her.

She loves our warmth (even in the the summer heat), and wants to sleep next to us all the time. So moving her a little away from us is going to be a challenge. But I have 6 months to do that.

Now, my opinion is that she needs an incentive to move. Like a new and exciting bed and/or bedding. We haven't been able to find the bedding she is crazy about since she's not much into characters (she likes Elmo, Mickey and The Wiggles, but not strongly enough).

So I have been looking at cute toddler beds. In spite of Guru's opposition to them, here's my favourites so far
A Dream Castle Bed
A Blue Car Bed

I'm still trying to decide which of the two she will like better.

Colour Explosion !

All of a sudden, Sudha Parimala has been perfect in naming her colours, almost all of them!
She even identified the 5 different colours her stripped dress has.

Temporary Single Mom

With Guru traveling all week.
I don't know how Single Moms do it. Morning, work, pickup, cook, bedtime, more work, .... , a little bit of sleep, and no clean-up! Unlike last time, I had a bit of energy this time, but I was still tired out! And ironically, the week Guru is traveling is when I'm bombarded with work.

Sudha Parimala was an angel for most part, and luckily had not napped much at school so we had an easy bedtime, until Thursday when she napped 3 hours and would NOT go to sleep for me at night. I had work to do, so I let her be and she finally drifted off to sleep on the couch at 11.15pm!!

Some energy at last

The past 6 weeks have been miserable.
I haven't been able to eat anything in the morning, and miserable if I don't.
I have had no energy for anything whatsoever.
I'm tired out even lying on the couch.
Guru has been cooking for me, but even that has not been enough to get me enthusiastic.

I've been slowly getting some energy back now. I can actually have a conversation with my toddler without feeling out of breath. I'm still feeling miserable in the mornings, but the afternoons and evenings are getting much better.

But the heat - oh the heat.
It had been wonderful until now, and suddenly, this weekend the temperature decided to soar.

Loving her hair

She loves getting her hair up in ponytails. And her teachers at school love doing the hair of the girls there. I was planning to get her hair taken all off again in summer, once last time, but she seems to really love her hair.