The Yay and the Not-so-Yay worthy

The Nice Matters Award from Mummyjaan, Sue and Null Pointer: Yay!

 

Noo’s confidently standing on her own: Yay!

The Not-so-Yay is the first fall. She fell yesterday, slipped and hit the side of her face on the coffee table. I think I cried longer and harder than her.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot protect your children from everything. The best you can do is be right there to hug and kiss away the ouchie, as Noo so eloquently terms it.

Speaking of terming, Noo’s now at 30 words and her ped says that she’s just a brilliant little girl - something I already knew but it’s nice that other folks outside of immediate family think so too.

::edit:: Uh, I just realized that I forgot to pass on the award. So here goes, take it away, Angie, MayG and Mama Paro.

A quick peek into the world of Noo

New milestones that Noo’s crossed

• Turned 13 months old - check
• Learned and abused the use of the word, nahin (no) - check
• Stood patiently while I fumbled with putting a diaper on her - check
• Ripped a diaper to shreds - check
• Shocked self with the sound of own fart - check
• Pooped in tub, post bath - check
• Threw a tantrum in the middle of the mall, screaming, tears and the works - making people look at me as if I was the world’s worst mom - check
• Learned to make the angry-frown-face at everyone - check

The newest puzzling thing is the anti-Naan (previously Naanoo) strike that Noo’s on. You had to have seen the levels of adulation that my mom got from Noo, to understand how distressing this is for her.  Naan was the centre of her universe. Noo would follow Naan with her eyes around the room, and everywhere else in her walker.

And then one fine morning, she wanted nothing to do with her. Only said angry frowns were directed at Naan. She only wanted and still wants Nana. No amount of telling my mom not to take it personally will help - my mom’s devastated.

Her theory is that Noo’s upset that my mom’s the one who takes her away from me in the mornings. Aah, the mornings - a different story all together. The tears and long wails of ammmma, ammaaaa. The longest 10 minutes of my day, everyday. Thank God, this is all going to come to end soon.

Naan’s going to all lengths to get back into Noo’s good books again, with no success so far. My heart hurts for my mom, and boy, am I glad I’m not at the receiving end.

Currently, I’m at the receiving end of sloppy, open-mouthed kisses and spontaneous hugs - the very reason of my existence is validated by these. Here’s hoping on that on Mother’s Day, my mom gets some from Noo, because nothing I could ever give or do for her could ever top that.

A crazy couple of weeks

Wondering about my last post? Here’s the story behind it!

My in-laws (mother, brother and sister) arrived about 10 days ago and it’s been a regular circus at my place since. Noo’s been adamant about maintaining her personal space - she entertains nobody that crosses the boundaries. It took the in-laws a little while to figure that grabbing her from her parents and then trying to distract her doesn’t work with her. Noo’s one stubborn little chica and she’s growing up right before my eyes into a responsive, fun, and intelligent girl.

She loves standing now - it’s a task to convince her to sit for a meal (or anything else!) - she wants to eat standing too. The only time she sits peacefully for longer than 5 minutes is in her front-facing (finally!*) car seat. I’m still trying to figure out the most efficient way to do a diaper change on her while she’s standing!

She loves holding on to furniture and cruising all over the apartment. If I’m sitting close enough she will let go and take two-three confident steps towards me before collapsing into giggles in my arms. She can and will point out birdies, kitties, balls, leaves and flowers anywhere and everywhere. She can demonstrate that a kitty goes meow, a doggie bow-bow and a lion goes roar.

She loves her little push-cart and rocking horse to death and abuses them with much love. She says bathroom when she wants to play with the faucets or water, can indicate when she wants to eat (nummy-nummy) and wants milk (de-de) and when she wants to go out (baahir). She can point out her forehead, feet, socks, shoes, hands, hair, eyes, nose and ears. She says hi and bye to strangers and not surprising, considering her anti-social stance, says bye more frequently than hi.

She had her MMR shots on Thursday and developed a horrendous throat infection right after. Her nose is runny and every time she coughs, she throws up. It’s been a hard couple of days. She’s eating during the course of the entire day what she would for one meal. It’s freaking me out - but I guess her system knows better than me what she needs and what she can keep down.

I took her to see the ped on Sunday, having taken the day off to take care of her. The ped prescribed a list of meds - cough syrups, and nasal sprays and what-not to give her - totalling 5. None of them are antibiotics but it still makes me uncomfortable to give Noo any of these. So far I’ve only been administering the dose of nasal drops regularly to help her breathe easy. I figure I can wait it out, and if it gets worse, I’ll start her on the meds. My mom thinks I’m making the baby suffer unnecessarily but I don’t want to put all these things in her system - I really don’t.

Thoughts? Home remedies? Thanks in advance

* She got to the 1 year mark before she got to the 9 kilo mark. With my metabolism in her system, what did you expect?

Riddle-me-Ree, Who can she be?

Greetings wonderful MTBs!!!

and good work to all of you!

For having solved the riddle before

I give you all this clue.

The letter ” R “

Write it down, add it on…

And let’s move on to the next little song.

“She chatters nonstop

She’s a blogging aunt to top

Living in sunny Cal

Cmon, smoke out this software gal”

Solve it and you get your lead

Misguess, and you lose your speed

Solve it slow but solve it now

And before you go, take a little bow

Go to ‘Comments’ and leave me a clue

Tell me which blog you are off to.

Good luck! Good luck! Be on your way.

You have your work, cut out for the day! 

Having a One Year Old

means…

• The transition to fresh cow’s milk

I started with making her a bottle of cow’s milk on Friday, with a little honey mixed in to sweeten it. She did not take to it. I then tried it plain, and viola! It worked. She has had no real problems digesting it - except for a little constipation - which I understand is normal with this change. Fruit purees have helped a little with this.

 At the pediatrician’s suggestion, I aim to, within this week, have her on fresh cow’s milk twice a day, and formula the other two times.

 Next week, we will transition from formula (Similac Advance) to Pediasure.

•  Shots

It’s almost time for her one-year shots. Yeah, fun stuff. What can I expect from this round, o wise internet?

• Crazy Sleep Habits

Hana’s sleep habits are still off. It’s a month tomorrow since we moved. Granted she’s breaking two teeth at once and it must be painful but this is past the point of ridiculous. She wakes every four or so hours and it’s killing me. I usually call out and she stops whining, but she’s wide-awake and wants to cuddle or play - and neither of those are no-mommy activities. And hence, yours truly is a tired mess.

This sucks all the more because I’ve been through periods of sleepless nights with her, got used to it and life went on. The suddenly she started to sleep through the night and now I’m used to that. Having to do the whole waking a couple times isn’t working for me. My brain’s fuzzy. *yawn*

• New Achievements

But, the past weekend was a pacifier-free weekend! So, *yawn* yay!

Speaking of achievements, Hana’s vocabulary now includes amma (yours truly, when she’s feeling it - as good as never), abba (Z), nana, nanoo, maama, patta (plants/trees/leaves), bidda (button), ball, book, aapke (yours, in answer to, Aap kiske ho?), Hana, hi, chabi (keys) and dabba (box/container). Considering that she almost never says amma, that’s one word for every month of her existence. Forgot nahin (no) and aaya (I’m here - for when she moves from one set of arms to another).

• Personality Changes

One night she went to bed, my calm and happy little baby and woke up the next morning, stubborn, willful and opinionated. Oh, the tantrums.

She’s also started to develop a temper. Of late, when she gets annoyed, she bites. I kid you not. I have marks on my fingers and my stomach (don’t ask!).

• Momma-Love Never Changes

Good thing that no matter what she does, I find so cute.

The Party That Wasn’t

The little party we’d planned for Hana’s first just keeps getting pushed further and further into April.

Initially, it was to be on the big day, the 9th - I’d planned to take the day off- but something came up and I needed to be at work (don’t ask!). So it was pushed to the closest weekend, Friday the 11th.  

Now, Noo’s Nana has to travel on business tonight and will be back only on Sunday morning. My ILs are expected to arrive next week sometime so the hopefully final plan is that we do it April 18th.

The dilemma is the gifts. I can’t possibly wait until next week - I just don’t have that kind of patience! I don’t think Hana can either, she doesn’t appreciate being kept away from the pile - all those lovely, shiny boxes and gift bags!

Things that make a birthday special

• Z waking up this morning to find Hana between us, wishing her and then me
• Areeb texting from KL, wishing he was here to celebrate Hana’s first
• Misha and Sbhai calling mom and dad at midnight, because they knew we’d be asleep, and they HAD to talk to someone who was feeling the same way
• Nana and nani greeting Hana with the birthday song, clapping and all - the expression on her face was priceless!
• Text messages and calls from Cousin T, Bee and T, Shaz and Family, T Aunty and Family, Dunk and Family
• Finding out that Misha’d left behind a card and gifts during her trip here in December
• Package from Khala S that arrived right on the big day
• Watching the pile of gifts, to be opened on the day of the little party, grow and grow
• Jessica, Amel and Meryl remembering and wishing me
• Jessica’s letter to me (I get teary thinking about it!) and the yummalicious tiramisu
• Extra hugs, kisses and cuddles

One Year Later: Still Speechless

On this day, one year ago, I was speechless when I saw Hana the first time.

And so clueless. Clueless as to

…what the year ahead had in store for us

…how hard this parenting thing really was

…how my daughter would teach me more than I would end up teaching her

…how her lessons (on love, selflessness & relationships) in the first year alone would be far more valuable than any I could ever give her

…how far having her in our little world would change us, her parents and our relationships with each other and the really important people in our world, our parents, and siblings

…how committed we would all become to being better people because of and for her

…how much she would come to mean to us in one short year

And today, as Hana - a part of my very core, turns one, I’m still speechless.

I woke at 3 from excitement and couldn’t sleep. I brought Hana to our bed and watched her sleep, my heart full of wonder and love - flitting like two nervous, deliriously happy and oh-so-drunk butterflies in my heart, colliding over and over again and my heart swelling to try and contain them, and failing miserably and finally, my emotions flowed over - into and then out of my eyes.

She doesn’t realize the significance of today, this little girl, who is now old enough to have her age measured in years, instead of months. The little girl who is taking tentative baby steps into toddlerhood, not sure if she still wants me to hold on or let go.

Luckily, I do.

And today, I just want to thank God for thinking me worthy of this little bundle of euphoria. I’ve learned so much the last one year and look forward to many such years of fun learning.

I pray that You will continue to help me (and Z!) be what she needs, bless her with health and happiness in this world and grant her Your Shade eternally.

A two-minute update

I’ve been meaning to update about these for a while and have to do before they trickle from my sieve-like memory into oblivion.

• Noo’s been able to ‘peek-a-boo’ for a while now. A month or so? I have a really cute video that I thought I’d upload alongside this - but, oh well.
• The upper teeth coming in are giving her a hard time and she bit my finger hard enough the other day to draw blood.
• And if I thought she was attached to set of teething keys earlier, she’s taken it to a whole new level. The only time that toy is not in her hands is when she’s asleep.
• The other day, I was in the bedroom and Z in the kitchen and I was yelling out him, going ‘honey, honey, honey’ and Hana suddenly looked at me, and went ‘honey’! I collapsed right there. Now she thinks it’s a great way to amuse me, and she’s right.
• Z and Hana spent the whole day Sunday, together while I was at work. I left a long explicit set of (unnecessary, according to Z) instructions but they were fine and it looked like they even had a good time without me

The end.

I never thought I’d do this*

to Hana, but I can’t help myself.

Look at this, and you’ll know why!

On the hanger itself is Hana’s matching headband. I really wanted to get her a tiara but she kept tearing it off her head and throwing it away

I’m looking for cute shoes, mary-janes in pink, maybe? I don’t know yet. I guess I’ll know the perfect pair when I see them. We might not have a big party, but we’re getting balloons, and themed plates and everything! I’m SO excited.

* organza-tulle-frills-and-lace laden first birthday dresses. The only thing I can say in redemption is that atleast I made sure her’s isn’t itchy and scratchy but soft and comfortable.