Aanya at play

Her favorites toys right now are -

- Vtech laptop which she opens and closes shut. Then she will press buttons just enough to play music and shuffle her bottom and raise her hands with two fingers pointed up.

- Rings which she uses as bangles. Dadi’s actual gold bangles which she wears

- Activity table – leapfrog. Loves putting her popup toys parts in the space and open and close it

- Bath squirts and bath

- Books – started with good puppy, now it’s owl on the prowl

Feeding mummy

Today I was giving Aanya blueberries and cherry tomatoes for her snack. She wants everything in her hand first so I gave her a tomato to hold. She always tries feeding me when she has something in her hand (even if she's picked it from her body... disgusting). In similar vein she mimicked feeding me the tomato. I actually held her hand and ate the tomato and she started crying and tried to pick the tomato out of my mouth. I recovered a piece of it for her and gave it in her hand. She wasn't pleased.

Sleep training

We've been sleep training Aanya for a week now. It's been tough with Aanya getting really upset and us getting frustrated. But the results are outstanding. She's suddenly become a much better sleeper

Just as I'm returning to work...

Aanya has become the cutest ever; and just as 'm going to return to work. She shuffles her butt to music and moves her arms with two fingers in the air (bhangra style). And if she wants to see something on my phone she leans over in the cutest way to see what I'm doing. The other day she started playing peek-a-boo with me in the mirror in front.

Yesterday I was out of the house from 5 hours and I missed her terribly. Sometimes when she takes a long nap during the day I start missing her. How am I every going to spend an entire work day away from her!?!

Tech baby

Aanya is a really high tech baby, as I'm sure most of the babies are these days. She snatches at Papa's blackberry, mummy's iphone and any laptop. The amazing thing is that she holds and operates each device just as it should be used. She hold the blackberry with both hands and presses the buttons with both thumbs; with the iphone she uses one finger on the screen and on the laptop she places both hands on the keyboards and presses the buttons with all keys. It's so amazing to watch her do that.

First family vacation of 3A's

The first family vacation of just the three of us was in Portugal. We stayed at a beautiful resort in south of Portugal. The weather was amazing.

Aanya loved the pool. First day she went in her float but after that she just wanted to splash about. Funnily, she kept trying to drink the water. She didn't enjoy the beach at all. I guess she needs to be older for that

Our first long haul flight alone

I was dreading the flight from India back to London. I was planning a dozen scenarios in my head including re routing of flight, unscheduled stoppover, a plane crash - the worst possible outcomes. In reality it wasn't so bad. During security I asked someone for help (the staff wasn't as helful as a whle man who take care of my buggy). I actually spent most of the time watching her sleep. Can't believe I hadn't done that more oftne. It's such an amazing feeling. Or it was the combination of relief and gratitude at her being asleep!?!

I disapprove

Aanya has become very vocal. If there is anything that she even remotely doesn't like she makes sure we know that she disapproves with a loud 'hmmph'. On the flip side if she's happy with something she has a new sound for that too -- a loud screech. She always makes that sound when she sees her nani... or a stranger.

This behavior really perplexes me -- she's always all smiles for strangers as long as they don't touch her! But if it's someone from her family who she hasn't met before she doesn't smile for them... how does she know the difference!?!

Shopping with Aanya

Usually Aanya becomes extremely irritable whenever we go shopping. Today she let me spend time at the spa and go shopping at Delhi Haat. What's amazing is that she fell asleep in my arms while we were walking through the stalls. She looked so beautiful asleep in my arms in the market. It was an amazing experience. Hopefully we'll get many more of such sleeps out of her!

Aanya in her walker

We bought the Chicco DJ walker for Aanya about a month ago. Initially she didn't spend too much time in it. After a week or so she starting spending time in it but she would only go backwards. She didn't control where she was going. Since a day or two she's starting walking forwards, backwards, and controlling where she went.

So cute to see her walk towards a goal. If someone is eating something or drinking tea she gets there quickly and starts asking for it. She doesn't like her food anymore and wants what we are eating.

She walks quickly for her favorite toys as well including a ball which she learned to throw and catch.

Today she kept toggling between her nani who was feeding her and me as I was eating and she wanted to check out whether what I was eating was more interesting than her own food.

Can't wait for her to start walking on her own!

What's going on over there!?!

Aanya is such a curious baby. She has to investigate every little noise or movement. She'll be drinking milk and she would suddenly stop to see who's entered the room or who's talking.

It's not as if she can do anything if something was wrong. It's like when she was a tiny baby and she would hold on to my shoulder when I put her down. Again, not like she had the strength to hold on even if I did drop her! She still does that -- holds on to the buggy when I'm rocking her in it or to the car seat handles in the car.

Another cute little thing she does since she was born was suddenly put both her hands above her head when alarmed. And she did get alarmed at every little noise. She's getting better at it. She has to in India where there's constant noise. If only she'll stop crying when the pressure cooker release steam. She is an Indian baby after all!

Feeding Aanya

There are days when it's easy to feed Aanya and others when it's a challenge.

A few things I've learnt -
She likes things that are prepared fresh
She likes it at the right temperature (read warm)
She likes new tastes - if you give her the same ingredient more than twice she refused to eat it (be it be cheese, daal or potato -- maybe not potato!)

She loves dahi... absolutely loves it. I can just say dahi and she'll start opening her mouth. But she's too smart for her own good. She knows that I have dahi in the front and food behind it so she only opens her mouth a little bit to just take the dahi.

She has an answer to every tactic I employ! If I make her laugh to stuff a spoonful in her mouth she starts smiling with her mouth closed. Her final weapon is to start crying.

Is this a 7 month old we're talking about? Hard to believe.

New antics

When I returned from the gym today, Aanya came in my lap, turned my head and started looking for my earrings. Apparently she had been playing with my mom's earrings and wanted to do the same with me.

Not finding any earrings she decided to play with my glasses's stem. She knows now that pulling my glasses is a no no but she was trying her luck with the side... maybe that's allowed. Took a few no's to tell her that that wasn't allowed either.

She would reach out and just stop short of my glasses. You could tell that she really wants my glasses. Tried crying a bit too.. didn't work. She finally decided to spend her time only something more fruitful -- the mobile phone.

Shopping in model town

When I woke up in the morning, I felt like going out. That's the thing with being on maternity -- mornings can sometimes be depressing. Especially when you've been used to going to work every day. So I decided to go to the market and buy some toys for Aanya. It was my mom's bday and we (okay I, me, myself) were in a shopping mood and Aanya was clearly bored of her old toys.

We ordered a taxi and landed at a toy store. Aanya was so funny at the shop. She grabbed everything I gave her (and a few things I didn't to the disconcert of the shopping assistants). Everything obviously went straight to her mouth. So I had to stop giving her things.

The shopping assistants kept telling me that she would fall down. I somehow am not that good at hold her in my lap for long. She doesn't fit on my hip (or my hip bone has too much fat on it).

We found quite a few things we liked (okay I liked). We over shopped. But it was fun. Aanya likes most of the things we got. The favorite one being her Fisher price blocks.

Aanya's first fall

Today we were going to CP to meet a college friend of mine. I was busy getting ready and put Aanya on the bed. Before I knew it she tumbled down from the bed. She had recently started rolling over from side to side and I didn't realize exactly how mobile she was.

She started crying immediately (a good sign according to my dad). She wouldn't stop crying till I finally played her favorite video (alphabet sounds by barbara milne) -- it's magic!

Then she fell asleep in my lap -- another first btw. I was worried and felt really guilty. These feelign disappeared once we met my friend and her 3 year old daughter. Aanya had so much fun there with nana/nani spoiling her rotten. She had ice cream and bought a ball which she loves.

I guess it was inevitable!

Aanya sitting up

Aanya sat herself up today while on skype with her dad. She recently became comfortable with being on her tummy and tumbling side to side. We were on skype when she started trying to sit up. She cried while doing it as she figured out how to sit up. Daddy (as always) wanted me to pick her up. I decided not to and let her finish. She finally ended up sitting... yay for Aanya.

A few days later when I went it to pick Aanya up from bed, I found her sitting up in bed. It was a bit of a shock. She suddenly seemed so grown up sitting there. I also worried about how she could have tumbled down the bed if I had come in a few seconds later.

Have to be really careful going forward!

Teaching Aanya 'No'

Spent all day yesterday teaching Aanya not to pull my glasses. She's broken two already and has hurt herself with them. Just tried a simple process of saying no while prying her fingers away from my glasses.

She really seems to understand. The first time I said no she pulled again and again at least 4-5 times. Then she brought her hand close but didn't touch it waiting for me to say no. She also tried being cute by winking her eyes and smiling. When that didn't work she looked away and pulled on my glasses (not looking at me means she doesn't know that I'm telling her not to do it?).

It was the cutest thing to watch. And I smiled. Big mistake... that meant that I wasn't upset anymore and she started pulling on my glasses again. Back to square one!

First play date

Aanya had her first play date with Anoushka. Our friend's daughter who is 3 weeks older than Aanya. We put them both on Aanya's playmat with her toys. Aanya was sitting and Anoushka was on her tummy - a lot more mobile than Aanya.

It was so funny to watch them together. Anoushka being more mobile grabbed the toy which was making noises (one of Aanya's favourites). Aanya had this silly grin on her face the whole time. She was partly shy but curious as well. She was busy pulling Anoushka's socks and hair (whatever she could get her hands without moving). Anoushka very cutely pointed the toy towards her mom, possibly asking she could take the toy home :)

They both had a great time... we need to do this more often.