17 January 2013 - Crossed Your First Milestone!

               Yesterday you had your your 4th month vaccination and doctor said you are growing well. You did not cry much after the shots, I can see that you are becoming a big girl! But today you had mild fever of 100.6 degrees and in the evening in spite of that we went to Rishabh's birthday party. You were not fussy in the bigining, but after you slept there for sometime and woke up realizing that it is not your house. That's when you started your loud cry and I had to eat my dinner in 3 minutes and we came home. I could understand my poor baby and I liked you so much for the reason that you were trying to smile at the party in spite of the fever. As soon as we reached home, you slept happily within minutes and Dhaval uncle brought home an entire box of pizza for me saying that I had not eaten much!

                Now let me tell you what you have been doing in the past two months. On November 24th I noticed that you have started gripping objects. On November 26th, you grabbed you blanket and pulled it up on your face and you got scared. I was terrified when I heard your sudden cry and later I smiled when I got to know the reason. If you are wearing a frock, it never stays in its place, you keep pulling it up above your head! You pull out the pacifier from your mouth and cry that it has gone. You give me that angry look as though I removed your pacifier!

               You bring both your hands together and keep rubbing your feet too. According to babycenter.com, it is because you have just discovered your own hands. You bring your hands close to your face and keep looking at them! Earlier you used to put two of your fingers in the mouth and now a days you try to put both your hands in your mouth at a time. You even chew your fingers. You started turning to one side on December 3rd. That is when I realized that the day of your first milestone is coming closer.

               On December 4th your granny went back to India and you missed her for the next few days. And you still remember her voice and you smile at her during the video chat. You are becoming very talkative these days and I love that language you talk. It is fun to watch your eyes when we are travelling under flyovers. You feel the sudden darkness and open your eyes as wide as possible! You are so adorably innocent and watching you under the flyovers has become my favourite thing to do.

               On December 17th, in the afternoon you were lying down on the bed and I was talking to you and that's when you suddenly turned over. You did it! It was not just turning over from back to tummy, but also after some time you turned from tummy to back too! I was too glad to see your first milestone achieved and called your dad to tell him what you did. We brought "guLi kaavali" from Sunitha aunty's house and celebrated it with "sauthe kayi appa" that day. But now a days, I get to see the naughty side of it. You turn over when I change your diaper, you turn over during the play time, you turn over when I give you a bath and you turn over at midnight!

               We bought you a new set of pacifiers and you didn't like the style. So we had to buy another set of pacifiers. According to babycenter.com, you can see everything in 3D now. So now you know how fat your mommy is! (I'm 52kg now). You have learnt to laugh, gurgle, blow bubbles and you squeal all the time. And the bad part is, you do the most of it at 4 in the morning! The credit of waking us up every single day goes you. You have learnt to hug your mom and dad. We reach cloud 9 every time you do that. You can shake your rattles now. You have learnt to smile at your own self in the mirror. Showing you the 'mirror baby' even stops your cry! You love the sound of photo click and you smile for the photo because of that reason. You have been turning over from back to tummy regularly. But from tummy to back, you have hardly turned over a few times.

               Your voice gets louder and louder at night, the sound of your sleepy cry is very different than the regular one and I worry about waking up the entire America! You know where to look if you are hungry and you have even bitten it from outside several times if there was a delay in giving your meal! Blanket is your enemy, you kick it off everytime I cover you with one. Even in your deep sleep, the blanket does not stay on you. So I make you sleep with full sleeved top and pants. On January 2nd, you were continuously biting your lower lips and I wondered if you are already teething. But that stopped after few days.

               On December 20th you liked your kangaroo bag and stayed in it for a long time. You like bath time and the sound of water. Bathroom is a happy place for you and you sit in your tub every day for a long time. After bath, you have a long dressing up process. If you have to let me wipe you, you need to be held in front of the mirror. You smile and stare at the 'baby' in the mirror. After this, I apply powder on you - behind your ears, under the neck, under the arms and legs, wherever I see chubby folds. Once that is done, I apply moisturizing lotion on you. I give you vitamin D syrup. Put black bottu on your forehead. Apply diaper rash cream and put diaper holding you with one hand so that you don't turn over. Now comes the time to cry as I use bulb syringe to suck mucous from your nose. It helps to avoid cold. But you cry your lungs out, good for your throat! Also exhausted baby sleeps faster. I put your clothes on, feed you and rock you to sleep. Since the heater makes the weather very dry, we have bought a humidifier for you.

               Few days ago one night, you put your head under my blanket and I moved a little far. After some time you pulled yourself closer to me and again inserted your head under my blanket. I kept taking off the blanket from your head and you kept repeating it several times. Finally when I realized what was happening, I just couldn't stop laughing. You had become an Ostrich because you felt cold and that was your way of expressing it. I covered you with a thicker baby blanket and gave you a good hug and my poor baby slept very well after that. Your dad has a funny way of rubbing his eyes and I was surprised to see you rubbing your eyes just the same way. When did your dad teach you this without my knowledge??

               You have learnt to raise your eyebrows and I'm very happy to say that you need to hold my fingers to go to sleep along with my songs. But the strangest thing is that you cry with tears rolling off whenever I sing "sa pa sa" and for one particular tune in your toy. I have checked it at least some 15 times and even when you were in a good mood, you have cried with tears for these two tunes! You must have got some connection from previous birth associated with it! You have started drooling and you keep both your hands in mouth all the time. You smile back at us when we smile at you. You pull my hair if I come close to you and pulling my nose and squealing with smile has become your new hobby. Words can't express the joy I feel when you hold my face and smile looking into my eyes. Why don't I get disgusted and still find it adorable when those soft wet hands dipped in drooling saliva touch my cheeks!? I still wonder...!