I rolled over this past Saturday afternoon - October the 20th.
And I am 4 months old! yaayy..
******
The last two months have been eventful and fun. First my roll over story..
Ever since Auntie Noon wrote about Kutti girl rolling, mommy has been singing this saga, mostly during our massage sessions. hey pyaalu, dunguna botta.. u know.. u know.. kutti girl rolled over.. when will my laddu lole over.. c’mon c’mon lets try. She will put me on my tummy, my bum facing her and call me by my nicks from behind, hoping I will turn to look at her, in the process flip over. I felt like saying Mommy, I will roll when I feel the need and when I am ready. Look at you, you go over telling people every kid is different, they will do such and such when they are ready. Where’s all that when it comes to me? Take it easy!

This past Saturday Ddidi fell sick. She wasn’t feeling well since morning, mommy blamed it on the fun she had at S Auntie’s house the previous night. Mommy had just finished up with Baby Naren’s birthday post and was giving the final touch to her awards speech, when suddenly Ddidi started shivering. She had a 104.5 temperature. All of us[yes me too] panicked. Mommy talked to the doc and in about 30 minutes her temperature reduced to 103, then to a 102. To cheer my family up, just that moment I rolled over! The first one to jump up and down was my sweet sister. I love her.
******
Papa took a short trip to India few weeks back, the first time ever he has been away from me for more than 4 hours. My smart mom invited maasi and maami to fill in. I met my cutie cousin Baby E[maasi's 9 month old] and got a feel of what’s coming my way. Goodness, how she gets strapped onto that booster seat and force fed her cereal. Shudders!! But, don’t you underestimate my cousin. She kept the ladies on their toes, including my sister. I did learn a few tricks from her, to not open the mouth in the first place. If somehow the dancing and singing distracts and one ends up opening the mouth, keep your head hanging down with the mouth wide open as long as it takes for that sticky gui stuff to fall down. Do it few times, oldies will have a strategy meeting and shift you to daal rice, ghee kinda good stuff. I have some more time to go, I think, though my mom’s contemplating to get me started earlier.
******
And the milestone updates: I have started recognizing everybody. I give a different expression with various family members. Ddidi gets the best of all. Then comes my mommy. Papa is not very happy about all this. Why doesn’t he understand that she carries my breakfast, lunch and dinner and I ought to be extra nice to her. I have started to grab things. You should see Mommy’s face turning red when I get a hold of her sparsely spread hair and swing it from one end to another. ok, ok.. I will be nice to her. I have also started to feel objects when placed in my palms. I grab onto it and squeeze it, feels warm. I am starting to get a sense of hand co-ordination. When mommy puts an object in front of me, I can move my hands, reach to it and grab it. And then I squeal with joy of accomplishment. I love licking Ddidi, rather she loves me licking her. Whenever no ones around, she presses her cheek against my mouth. Its our favorite pass time.
And finally I am able to communicate when I want to be lifted. Papa teases me, he will come close enough with the act of lifting me to see me push my chest and tummy upwards and go into a dancing mode. Whatever, you were once as small as me, Papa. Don’t you forget!
******
We also paid the scheduled visit to my ped, a very sweet lady. I have reduced from my previous 60 percentile weight to the 45 th. And my height is on the 40 percentile as well. Mommy, the usual worry-worm kind started jumping all over, Should I start her on solids? Should I increase the feed frequency? Maybe introduce formula? Ped told her that I was doing just fine and she needs to relax a bit. The genes are showing their color. Mommy petite, baby petite. Simple.
******
Finishing up with a little something for Aunties and friends who like to listen me.. click here.

Enjoy!
- Dlittle@4 months.

I am gratified to receive my first blog award bestowed upon me by Trishna, MNamma and Poppin’s mom.
!! T H A N K Y O U !!

They say I have the power of Schmooze. You bet I have !

There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the purpose of this award and if it suits one or the other. Every one is entitled to their opinion, thats why we are here, blogging to get a varied perspective on things.. To me, it doesn’t matter what it’s about. What’s matters is the spirit with which one starts the award chain and uses this as a means to acknowledge others who influence them one way or the other. If I am writing today, its only because of you all. I know my limitations. I don’t have a writing style, I am not good at expressing with the right set of words, phrase, punch lines. Yet I write. Because I am having fun and it has made me a better person today[Says the LH]. It started as a place to vent, but slowly it has become much more than that. It is more than just a platform to exchange ideas and tips on parenting. It feels as though I know most of you’ll personally. Thoughts stay through the day, even when I am not reading or writing…
What did Winkie wear for the kolu? the kurta or the sherwani… Hope Kodi had fun at school today… Wow! Madhu and Nandu went to the circus.. Moppet and family are vacationing.. hmm.. Aadya has started solids.. Squiggles doc advises to wait couple of more months before starting on solids.. Did Boo put Ashu back to school after returning back from India? Hope its going well.. Asha had her son Kevin, hope they are doing fine… Poppin’s monthly update with a new picture, what will it be.. Movie starring dotmom and chip.. Swati busy with her vacation preparation and Aryan’s day care issues.. Funny conversations with Anirudh… Gauri and her wonderful family look so calm, content and happy.. JLT has a new job, hope Sonny boy is doing ok with eating.. What Kiran’s brat is going to do next to make his mum proud.. aargee busy with relocation planning.. Parul’s son aadi hopefully sleeping better, hope she figured some colored noise.. haven’t visited CA’s blog after cantaloupe started day care.. haven’t visited Rash’s blog in a while.. Read COS is going through a bad patch, need to go back and read. Hope she sorts it out soon.. What happened to 4sha, 4 months no news.. left few comments on her blog, no response, hope all is well.. Dame’s son made a heart shape in his food plate… Hope SM’s starting a new blog soon.. Naren had his birthday party today.. I need to take up WIAN’s tag soon.. Popol’s so cute in the latest pics.. Timepass, RV, yaadayaada, Suki leaving sweet comments though they don’t have kids yet..
chula and meija’s latest quirks.. though I talk to their mom every now and then, the narration of utbt adds more fun..
And the newest aquaintances, chintu, nikki and aryan… should read more about them..


If you feel like sleeping, its not your fault. Feel free to skip, but please read the last para before dozing off.


Boo’s is the very first blog I visited. I stumbled upon hers while searching for pregnancy delivery Bangalore. Read her post on Ashu’s birth experience and laughed my guy out. In real life, I know her through her sister. Ashu sounded familiar, but I couldn’t connect the dots. Left with a warm feeling, thinking how one could write so beautifully and effortlessly.


Then, one fine afternoon in February, I was having a phone conversation with a friend. A friend with whom I can talk for 2 hours without an agenda, without a reason, without a topic. That day we talked about D, work and blogs. In the midst of the conversation, she said she read about girls abuse in the blogs she follows. That, how elegantly some of the bloggers wrote about day to day happenings, some used it to vent, some used it as an online diary, some boldly talked about controversial topics. And then we made fun of each other, both of us being creatively challenged[Now you know why I did not link you here.. ]. We both are well connected and pretty successful in the professional world, but when it comes to expressing thoughts in writing, we aren’t there. How we could never blog. !!Never say Never, Ever!!
Just when I put the phone down, the LH asked So now you are going to blog? and laughed. Why not? I thought to myself. I am not writing a book or a journal, lets write whatever comes to mind.. Few days later I registered with no clue on what I was going to write… And here I am today writing comments at 4 in the morning..


Then came Noon, the first to leave a comment on my blog. I still remember, it was late in the night probably mid night when I got the first comment. In couple of days we had exchanged emails, knew each others due dates and kids names. So noon, you can come out of hiding..


Few days later, Poppin’s mom announced Dlittle’s birth in her blog. I was overwhelmed with her act and absolutely loved it. It opened doors to many many fellow bloggers, and I am hooked on ever since.


It’s not that I write for others, I would probably continue to write even if I did not have a single visitor, as this blog is slowly turning into a log about me, my kids and our journey together.
But in all honesty, if not for the comments and regular visitors, I would not have written more than a post a month.


This is the first award I have received and probably the last , so I had to take this opportunity to write all I wanted. If you managed to reach this far, YOU ARE AWARDED! You have the power to schmooze! If you have already been awarded, all the better. Let’s hear about your engagement story Or the mushiest moment ever[courtesy DotMom].

Shobana[Naren]’s blog

The wonderful noon is making this desi mom’s community all mushy by tagging us with “our song” and “our engagement stories”. I have been picking my brain ever since I got tagged. Playing bollywood songs / classical / instrumental / rhymes is like an evening/weekend ritual in our household, the choice of music depends on the mood. We play the songs we like, sometimes fight which one should play first, sometimes 2 different songs play in 2 different laptops. You get the picture.. There are plenty of songs that has brought a smile to our face, lead to secret eye contact and smiles, but none to which I can attach a story. So, decided to ask him…

Four days back:
Me: Hey LH, what’s our song?
LH: What?
Me: are yaar. apna gaana.. Our so-o-ng..
LH: What do you mean our song. Is there anything like that?
Me: Ok, never mind. Look at me. When you look at me, which song comes to your mind?
LH: aane waala pal
Me: Nice song na. But what in that relates to me? I mean is there another song that’s kinda romantic, like “our song”.. Its for my blog. Yikes [biting tongue..What did I say!!]
LH: The mommy blog? Well, what’s wrong with that song? You want a song that will look nice in your blog? This lady is out of control. Did you fix that Order issue where the users could not…

Yesterday evening:
Me: So, what’s our song? [To make it easy on him, I played Chehra Hai ya chaand while asking him. ]
LH: You still sitting on that? What happened to you? Your head hasn’t split yet? [Laughing].
D: What you saying papa?
LH: Your mummy wants a song to put in her be-log-ga.
D: Hey, you know what[courtesy Montessori]. I know song. ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WX Y AND Z NOW I KNOW MY ABC, NEXT TIME WONT YOU SING WITH ME. Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John…. [Pause]. Why you laughing Mumma?

10 minutes back
After finishing up with Dlittle’s morning routine, I sat down to eat lunch. The LH just left for a meeting. Its about 60 miles from here, so he took the train. Anyways, tags pending, award’s speech err acknowledgment, Dlittle’s 4 month update pending. I thought I could write while eating and finish up with the songs tag as there isn’t much to write. The LH calls from the train to get the status on couple of tasks I missed updating in the spreadsheet. I am in the middle of writing this post, naturally after answering his official queries, I ask him again. What’s our song. He said what? You won’t let me in peace? I felt silly and told him I was just joking. He wouldn’t let go and says ‘O mere dil ke chain. Happy now? Suits your blog? Don’t forget to listen to the last para.. ‘

Edited to add: Just listened to the song and feeling all teary right now.. Lyrics of the last para..
Yun To Akela Hi Aksar
Gir Ke Sambhal Sakta Hoon Main
[I have the strength to recover every time I fall]

******

The engagement tag? I was going to write it in KMom’s OR Noon’s comment space, but then UTBT threw me out of the green sulk club. So, I am working on adding romance to the story. Will publish it as soon as I figure out the “how to” part! UTBT, its a pre-engagement story tag in case you are shedding light on the post-engagement. Nah, that’s censored. Few things are better not talked about.

What are these idiots doing in desi mom’s blog? Just visited Swati’s blog and looks like it has been hacked. Someone please tell me I am wrong!!
Edited: As per ~nm, she has a new blog now - http://myamusingmind.blogspot.com/ Thanks nm for sharing the info[Your comment went into spam as it had a link ] Still don’t understand why her old blog has those ads if it wasn’t hacked.

Kids are getting tech savvy at very early age and the average age of electronics usage has declined from 8.1 to 6.7% in the last 2 years.

“Kids are drawn to the latest and greatest digital devices just as their parents are,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “They appear to have no fear of technology and adopt it easily and without fanfare, making these devices a part of their everyday lives.”

Talking about computers in particular, I wonder if it Is because we parents have taken the laptop to the living room. No matter what our underlying profession is, computers and internet have become an integral part of one’s life. Especially in the Western world. Work communicates via emails, word documents, excel spreadsheets, ppts. Friends prefer talking to each others via emails / google talks/ IM’s as they are more flexible and fit into their time pressed schedules. Leave alone friends, grand parents who are 60+ are internet savvy these days. A decent lot knows to email, start their web cam lusting to see their kids/grand kids, download pictures and what not. And the ever growing communities, social networking, blogging sites add spice. Its all not bad. It bridges the physical distance, long distance does not seem to hit as much, as we get to know each others whereabouts every so often. Add to it a visual moving video, the physical distance shrinks, though we might live in opposite ends of the globe. Day to day life has become more productive and efficient. Husband might have an hours time in between 2 customer meetings, asks the wife if he can finish up the weekend grocery. By the time husband reaches the grocery store, wife has made an extensive list and emailed him, which the husband looks up in his blackberry.

That said, there a conflict of interest to me, when I put kids into picture. Traces of which I am starting to see in my own household, my daughter’s[almost 3 years] growing addiction to computers. She is ready to give up her favorite candy for few minutes on the laptop. Her attraction towards laptop is understandable though undesirable at this age. It is similar to the much hated colorful TV, just much more worse and intense as it is interactive and gives them a sense of freedom and control. She is not to be blamed, its the exposure. She grew up seeing both her parents with their laptop or the blackberry almost all the time. Not that the parents are addicted or anything of that sort, its just our work. We have a turn around time of 4 hours to our customers 24 x 7. Agreed, not every other family is in our shoes, where laptop and internet are not gadgets, they are our bread and butter. But I also think I am not too far fetched to assume kids in other households are exposed to a good extent. Also, we are starting to see more and more of us taking work back home OR just working from home OR working late nights if you are involved with offshore development…

What triggered me to write this post is this
My daughter wanted to play Dora adventures. There are a few others she likes, like the barney, fisher price, pbskids.org , Thomas Train, though Dora and this princess thingee are her latest fascination. The entry into the Dora game is by typing your name. She knows to verbally spell her name and can recognise all the alphabets and letters. The surprise element was when she clicked on the input box and typed her name, all by herself. It doesn’t end here. She mixed up 2 letters from her name. I was looking from behind and told her letter x needs to come before y. She hit the delete button without even looking at the keyboard and corrected it !
She can navigate the sites effortlessly. Switching from listening to music, to picking the game she wants to play, going back and choosing another game if she does not like the one she is playing with.

Another incident which left me thinking. I type Dora OR Thomas train in the google search tool bar. The search result page appears and the intended site is the very first result. She has watched me do this a few times now. This past Saturday, she wanted to do online coloring of Thomas train. It was not laptop time [I am pretty strict about this, though husband lets her get away with it once in a while] , we were getting ready for lunch. I told her just that. However, laptop was in the living room center table. Husband was lounging behind her playing with our little 4 month old. She couldn’t resist reaching to the laptop as I was not in the vicinity and husband got curious to see her in action. This is what he notices. She types few alphabets on the google search tool bar, hits enter. It sure takes her to the google search page. She clicks on the first link and it takes her to some web site. She speaks aloud she did wrong-wrong. Hits the browser back button. clicks on the google search tool bar. Deletes the previously entered alphabets, enters a new set of random alphabets, hits Enter again. Gets to the search page again and clicks on the first link. Then claims the laptop is tottooed (broken). Its not working.
She leaves us flabbergasted with the way she uses the laptop’s inbuilt mouse. The hand co-ordination. With one finger on the click button, aother on the touch pad , how comfortably she can drag an object from the left/right panels into the working area. How she knows she has to click on the arrows to get more options OR that there is a tab on the top that will take her to different views.

All this when computers[and TV] are restricted[to her] in my household. She gets about 20 minutes in the morning and about 15 minutes in the evening any given typical day. Though on the weekends she does manage to get few additional minutes.

No, no she is no Einstein, neither are we grooming her to be one. Nor am I claiming I am happy about all this. In fact its my worry that she will lose out on the traditional methods of learning, In addition to health concerns of reduced physical activity, over stimulation and vision issues. She does her paper/pen drawing sketching activities in school and in house too. But the glow and the excitement is not remotely comparable with when she does the same with computers. She loves art, drawing, sketching. But only on the computer. She knows to write few alphabets, A, T , H the ones with straight lines and shows no interest in writing other alphabets, but she can type in anything on the keyboard. Its the exposure. And the attractiveness of today’s sophisticated softwares. The combination of bold colors, big fonts and sound.
At the same time, we don’t want to completely restrict her either. Very soon cyber world will become more of a necessity rather than a conscious choice.
She is only 3 years old, so its not a matter of concern right now, OR is it?. As long as we are able to restrict the time she spends in front of one. But, how long?

Just thoughts and questions, no answers at this point…

Long long ago, Mystic Margarita tagged me to list my quirks.

Here is an attempt. Not sure they all quality as quirks, I consider them more of ocd’s..
No Half baked business.
- I have to completely dress up from head to toe. If I don’t have the time luxury, I would present myself at the party with a jean/top and probably a moisturizer on my face.
- Half an hour into watching a movie, no matter how crappy or illogical the movie gets, I have to watch it till the end. Else I get the head-is-going-to-burst feeling. Anyone who has managed to sit through Lucky and Bombay to Goa till the end knows what I am talking about.

It has to be on sale.
I like expensive clothes, shoes and purses[Expensive by my standards]. But I refuse to pay the list price, even if it is just a dollar. I have been hunting for a day-to-day use hand bag that would be practicable in use[to dump in bare necessities of the kids], yet sophisticated in looks. I liked 2 of them. One was ~50$ and the other was 90$. My budget was 50$ -75$ and I can’t go a penny over it[Another ocd]. Liked both equally. But since the 50$ one was at the list price and the 90$ which was on sale was beyond my budget, I can be found loitering on the streets with my hand purse inside the diaper bag even when kids are not around. Finally, the Loving Husband decides to help me out of it and buys me a gift from India, just 2 days back. A brown and black leather hand bag for 2975 Rs. The List Price.

Fiddle with my hair.
I fiddle with my hair when talking to people as though I have them unmanageably overflowing on my head. In reality I am this close to hunting for a grafting specialist. I do this fiddling thingee only when I am seated. The LH says its a sign of nervousness and I come out as a flirt. Ahh… if only I knew the secret to flirting…

Checking on my pants.
Some of you’ll dream of walking nude in public? I don’t, because I keep an eye on it. Every now and then I pull my pants up, making sure they are still there. Even if I am wearing a shalwar kameez or a sari[peticoat].

Talking relieves head ache.
You must believe this. The LH refused to accept this initially. He is amazed how I could. When Tylenol doesn’t do the trick, all I have to do is to pick up the phone and talk.

Oldest quirks/ocd’s
- No matter how hot and/or humid the weather is, I need to wrap myself up in a blankie. And the blankie has to be wrapped in a certain fashion. One complete round of my body with no openings except one small one on the top to breathe. [If ever one designs a body wrap with openings for the nose, they would have one customer pre-ordering in bulk]. Usually takes about 3 - 4 attempts before I can get it right.
- If I have an exam that day, weirdest of the weirdest ocd’s kick in. Like the bus has to reach the next stop before the minutes hand in my clock reaches x, else the exam will be a disaster. One would find me shaking my legs vigorously because the bus driver is not driving fast enough to reach my goal.

Latest developments.
- If I read[not scan] a blog post, I have to comment. No matter the other end reciprocates or not.
- The impulsive and impatient me cannot spend more than 15-20 minutes to write a post. If I don’t post the minute I finish writing it, it will rot in my draft. The ocd? After it has been published, fellow bloggers have read, some of them commented and when its time to close the comments - I go back to the post, read it, correct it, beautify it.

All Done! And now its time to tag. I think almost everyone I know has done this tag. Oh wait, the new mommy blogger. Shobana.. And anyone reading this post and has not done this tag yet. YOU ARE TAGGED!!

Thank you, Thank you, fellow bloggers to take time off and create poppin’s and Kodi’s b’day card.

For Kodi’s mom: Both the invites were sent in response to the one and only Dog ate my blog post. Just that you got sent only one. And the date confusion, blame it on lilypie and my stagnant mind. Never once occurred that the month has more than 4 weeks. Hence the confusion. In hindsight, it turned out in favor of the surprise element.

For those who haven’t connected the dots, yet: No, the dog did not eat my blog. That post was an invitation to create an online birthday card for poppin and Kodi using the software vyew . Its an online collaboration tool, we used it to create pages of birthday wishes for the little ones

******

On a different note,
Thanks Noon and MNamma to check on me as I hadn’t posted for so long. You made my day, really! To feel loved and cared for is the best

All is well. My sister, her baby E and s-i-l were/are here visiting and the LH is out of country on a business trip. RBDans household was a full and fun house with 6 x chromosomes ruling the household. Me, heavily pampered with LH’s involvement in day-to-day parenting, had to accelerate my 60miles per hour speed to a 100 miles per hour. Hence the silence. The LH is back home tomorrow afternoon. And I am back all energized and ready to blog.

It has only been 2 weeks since hibernation and my google reader shows a count of 672. ok ok, 428 are comments(subscribed only to a handful of comment feeds), still good 150+ posts to read. One’s topping my list are : Kodimeow Kronicles - 13, Swati - 12, Dotmom - 9, Winkiesway - 8, Trishna, Babies Anon, ~nm - 7 ….

Finishing up this post with a double promise of taking up the tags soon and writing updates on D and Dlittle. Keep an eye! For now, hopping on to the post catch up game. See yaa’ll on the other side..