Devilry

Mommy D got up bright and early this morning to pack Baby D's lunch of carrot soup and khichdi. He was to to have banana mash for his evening meal, chosen because it requires no cooking. Two items on the menu for Mommy D, who is no chef, meant an hour of prep, so she really couldn't fit in apple sauce as well.

Baby D got up as soon as his lunch had been packed and expressed his readiness for breakfast. After he had disposed off his milk, Mommy D and nani thought they would have their own breakfast of cornflakes and oats respectively. We were minding Baby D so we sat in his room to eat. He rolled up to us, raised himself as far up as he could on his arms and looked an innocent and anxious inquiry -"what is it you are eating, and not sharing?". So we handed him a piece of biscuit hoping that he wouldn't really consume it, only suck at it. Baby D immediately gummed off a largish bit and was evidently in some distress, so we had to hurriedly offer him some water to wash it down.

Mommy D eventually managed to get out the door  to spend some peaceful hours at work.

On her return, Baby D greeted her enthusiastically, grinning, leaping  into her arms and patting her vigorously on the shoulders. Extremely flattered, Mommy D played with him for about half an hour, all the time carrying him in her arms. Then she thought to lay him down, to take a break and to proceed to quieter play. Baby D, however had other ideas! He yelled in indignant protest and asked to be lifted up again. So Mommy D "sat him down" and "walked him around", bounced him on her knees to "Humpty Dumpty" and enacted "Johny Johny". Then she repeated it all again for the next hour.

She was warned in passing that Baby D's babysitter, was threatening to quit her post because Baby D had attacked her dangling earrings and caused her some distress! Mommy D lay Baby D down again to talk to him about his doings. But Baby D yelled angrily until a somewhat annoyed Mommy D picked him up again! This time Baby D was not to be easily appeased.

He kept protesting  irritably until Mommy D switched to jukebox mode. The singing made him smile, but any break would bring on the grumbles again. It made Mommy D shudder and think of Gabbar Singh saying "jab tak tere paair chalenge, tab tak iski saanse chalengi!"

Three diaper changes in three hours, including one poopy diaper,, continuous sing song and vigorous play...the only silver lining was Baby D falling asleep by ten! And now Mommy D is off to have some cerelac...because she feels the need for iron fortified cereal!

Of A Saturday

Baby D let me sleep in....and then he woke me up at 8 am. His methods were simple and effective ...he poked me in the eye and pulled at my face until I gave in. He was up and he wanted to play, time was precious, so the rough and ready methods.

The diaper changes followed, as did air time,  khichdi, apple, milk and so on. Mommy D had brought  Baby D a stacking ring toy which was to be a surprise and meant to be given to Baby D on his sixth month birthday. As is her wont, Mommy D could keep the secret no longer and so out came the toy earlier than planned. This is Baby D's first ever toy that isn't a stuffed animal and doesn't sing or light up. Now Mommy D hadn't expected Baby D to start stacking the rings in their correct sequence right away, but she had in fact thought that he'd love the bright primary colours and maybe eat them. Not so much! Baby D took in the rings at a cursory glance, but continued trying to reach the "goodnight", the water bottles and other relatively un-nice objects in un-primary colours!

Mommy D is still recovering from the shock and can only surmise that he doesn't like his new toy so much because it's being handed to him and is not a forbidden fruit at all! I have said this before and I say this again - to my future daughter-in-law, if you care for Baby D's attention, you need to play hard to get. And yes, he IS one of those men. Sigh!

Baby D's aversion to sitting continues. This weekend he decided sitting down to eat was the incorrect way of going about things..and so all his meals were had standing up. Baby D, with characteristic enthusiasm upended his bowl of khichdi on the bed sheet and the bowl of apple sauce on the floor, creating a right royal mess. Mommy D was loving it and insisted on a number of pictures, while nani was not at all impressed.

The other place where Baby D  has decided to stand is in his bath tub. He bounces up when you are least expecting it and tries to stamp out his squirty toys. Water within is soon "with-out" and octopus and other sea creatures are seen running for cover as are his bathing staff. Baby D has to be wrapped up in his towel and removed quickly to an area where he can no longer wreck wet havoc even as we think of ways to contain flood damage. This new course of events came as a surprise to Mommy D who hadn't been the one bathing him during the week. Up until the last weekend, Baby D had been a mere sitting splasher.

The weekend ended with Mommy D doing puppy imitations, which delighted Baby D so much, he dissolved into giggles. This in turn delighted Mommy D so much she kept up the performance for a quarter of an hour! As the weekend came to an end,  her only concern was her nosey....which had been eaten vehemently by Baby D. She went in to work looking like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!

Another Week Passes By...

...and Mommy D has slipped into the Mommy mode only twice at work. Once was when she wished a colleague brightly with "morning morning" and had to explain hurriedly about the unconventional greeting. The second time was at lunch hour when she held forth at some length about Baby D's bedtime routine and Goodnight Moon.

When Mommy D returns from work, Baby D resolutely ignores her and carries on  as if to say " I have been busy, thank you. I still am". If Mommy D picks him up, he continues batting at his beloved objects and smiling everywhere except at Mommy. It's only after about half an hour has passed that he relents and tries to eat her nosey. At other times, when he's in a more benevolent mood, he comes to get Mommy D at the door and slowly smiles a surprised smile - " oh hello. You're here now, join in the fun".

Once the ice has been broken and cordial relations have again been established, Baby D is his own merry self - eating, talking, destroying, and so forth. Thankfully for Mommy D's stamina, Baby D has settled into a fairly predictable bed time routine. We start with a diaper change, and move on to a bottle of milk and his dose of calcium. We then read "Goodnight Moon" together. The great green room does grow upon you and Mommy D as well as Baby D seem to love it. Baby D smiles at the opening lines - "In the great green room, there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of the cow jumping over he moon." Baby D gives a patient hearing to Baby Rabbit settling himself to sleep and has even been known to open the book at the centre page ( there are three "pages") for Mommy D to read. After that Baby D gives the entire book a  "reading" or two on his own.  A few minutes of walking accompanied by Mommy D singing  "soft kitty" or "Baby don't you cry" and Baby D is fast sleep.

Tonight, Baby D had his usual bottle and read Goodnight Moon. He still looked lively although rubbing both his eyes. So Mommy D thought she would nip out of the room for a couple  of minutes to take care of some things. She wasn't gone above five minutes, but she returned to find baby d fast asleep!

But! he hadn't fussed yet, he hadn't been walked. Mommy D hadn't even  got started with "soft kitty" yet! Mommy D feels somehow guilty and Baby D is growing  up too quickly!

Mayhem

Not yet six months old and Baby D is well aware of the concept of  weekends, all due to momma returning to work. Our week days look slightly crazy. Mommy D sets the alarm for six and gets up by half  past. She then boils water for Baby D's feed and gets his sippy cup ready. She puts his new tiny (though not as tiny as she would have liked) cooker on for his khichdi, which she later blends. Mommy D then pours out a portion into his tiny food storage pot, which is half the motivation for Mommy D going through all of the above.

The next hour is a blur of first feed, air time and getting ready herself as nani returns from her walk and Baby D's baby sitter ( a young lass that he's been charming) comes over. Our good bye is a little emotional, Mommy D giving Baby D a tight little hug and Baby D, a little distracted goes "yeah okay, now get on with it".

In the evenings, Mommy D braves the perils of traffic to ride home at her top speed of 25 kmph so she can have an extra hour before Baby D's bed time. We play and we eat and we exchange the news for the day until it's time to say "nite nite".

Weekends though are a different beast. Expectations change of life as Mommy D has realised.  Leisurely sips of wine are a thing of the distant past. Mommy D now downs it in a gulp or two. After all, what's more important is that it is ingested rather than the manner of being ingested! A lucky break is when Baby D had done a "neat job" that just needed a couple of wipes.  And of course,  the main business of the weekend is to play catch up with Baby D.

Baby D made most of the opportunity by wreaking havoc in the house. He demands to be picked up and "swims" in the direction he'd like to be taken. His main focus points in the house are the switch boards which he can bat at, grinning broadly for hours on end. Then, there's the chimney on the hob, which lights up with a switch...Baby D smiles at it like it's the lights on the Eiffel tower :) Speaking of Eiffel tower, he's managed to break it, the magnet that is - his restraining order near the refrigerator not withstanding.

On the dining table, Baby D finds plenty to destroy - the cutlery stand, the table mats, the casserole that holds the rotis, the fruit bowl, the jugs are all fair game. And Baby D yesterday, "read" his first newspaper. Before Mommy D could gauge his intentions and intercept him, he had eaten the "M" in "Times Of India". It disappeared within a matter of seconds and we could find no traces of the "M" in his mouth. Mommy D only wishes  he had eaten something classier!

Nap times are not as peaceful as they used to be. Baby D remains active even when asleep working his legs up and down ever so often. As his kicks get more vigorous, the days of his cradle are numbered. We need to find a cot before he manages to dislodge the pin that locks the cradle steady in its place!

Baby D's fascination for the mirror is well documented, but what pleases him now is not just the Baby in the mirror, who is old news. No, he destroys and tries to eat whatever stands on the dressing table - the water bottle, the moisturiser jar. Mommy D very much fears he may have had a lick of the honey and almond.

Diaper changes and outfit changes, have been challenging for a while, but now they have turned into outright wrestling matches! Baby D shows no chivalry for the ladies, but rolls over,  pushes himself up and tries his best to scoot away. When recovered and brought back to his changing mat, he wastes no time in rolling away immediately. It's like having spent the first six months of his life on his back, Baby D is not going to stay that way one moment more than he needs to!

Exhausted, Mommy D looks around for things to fix that Baby D destroyed. She wonders what mayhem he'll cause, once he's actually able to move around. Baby D  in a pensive mood, sucks on his thumb - not the one on his hand, his big toe.

The Mirror of Erised And Other Tales

I do wonder what Baby D would see if he stood before the Mirror Of Erised - bottle of milk,  apple sauce, being walked around with no pause, or crawling at top speed. Or perhaps he'd just see himself as he is. Mommy D sure wishes that for Baby D, now and forever.

Sentimental musings aside, Baby D might well be on his way to understanding what our ordinary, reflecting mirrors really are. Since the past few days, when made to stand in front of a mirror, he laughs delightedly and bats at the "baby in the mirror".  Mommy D then thought to draw attention to herself.  As he stood prattling away, she started to recite "Johny Johny". Baby D uses both options,  he either turns around to look at momma or chortles at her in the mirror!

Talking of laughing, Baby D's laugh is rather well defined now. he chuckles and chortles and outright giggles. Mommy D is still experimenting with all situations that bring on the giggles but a few noteworthy ones are  being bounced up and down on momma's knees to "Humpty Dumpty" or going "ghughua manna" on nani's knees or while playing "mamma's nosey, babies' nosey". Mommy D is still trying to figure out why he loves that game so much.  She just makes him touch first her nosey, then his nosey and recites  "mamma's nosey, babies' nosey" and so on to different parts of the face and somehow that amuses him plenty!

Baby D once again said bye to Daddy D who's flown off westwards. Mommy D was quite choked up and fought back tears as Daddy D lifted Baby D in his arms to say bye and to tell him to take care of his momma. Baby D did listen politely, but at the point of the actual bye bye , he seemed rather more interested in the cab and other cars plying around. Sigh! Boys will be boys.

And this morning, Baby D had to be taken to the doctor yet again. The reason was an angry red spot in his eye, the result of poking himself with his razor sharp nails. Well the eye seemed to not bother  him at all and he made the most of the waiting at the doctor's trying to fraternise with other babies his size, reaching out , smiling and saying "oo".

For Mommy D (and Daddy D when he hears about it), this is a proud moment indeed. Both confirmed introverts, (Mommy D still shudders at the agonies endured in her kindergarten days) they are wondering how their offspring is showing signs of becoming a gregarious social butterfly! Perhaps a case of two negatives making a positive..

We Say Bye To The Old Year

It was my first day back at work, and quite a chaotic bye bye to Baby D before leaving home. With five minutes before the target leaving time, I was changing his diaper and trying to throw in some air time too. Baby D was getting increasingly cranky, as it was very near his nap time, so he didn't send his mamma off with a kiss but turned away irritably in nani's arms. I then started my scooter, something I haven't done in the past four years, and drove for fifty minutes to get to work, with the traffic making me extremely nervous.

When I returned home, Baby D resolutely ignored me, pretending to be engrossed in his "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book.  He relented soon enough and tried to eat my dust encrusted nose, which I let him. We had a loud and lively play time with Daddy D joining in too. Baby D made spirited swipes at mamma's wine glass and showed every sign of staying up until midnight to wish us a happy new year. Thankfully for his very exhausted parents, he did settle in to sleep, with only the mildest of fights, by 10:30.

And now I can recount his activities during the past few days. For Baby D the flavour of the week has been definitely about movement. He'd like to be on the go and is finding a variety of ways to do that including lying on his back and twisting and sliding. Baby D now rolls over effortlessly and is beginning to push himself up on his knees. As he hasn't figured out that he needs to push himself up on his arms as well, his crawl is not very effective yet. But he does manage to army crawl and even move a bit if he can find something to push against.

Baby D is getting increasingly assertive too, yelling at us to do his bidding. It does help that he has expanded his vocabulary considerably over the past few weeks. He's known to say a full sentence - "Kill Bill" and words like "heckle". One does wonder where he is going with this. At times he sounds like Joey in F.R.I.E.N.D.S speaking "French" - "blah blah blah blue ble ble ble". It is to be hoped that "blah" isn't a comment on our upbringing! And the sweetest of all - " mum um mum mum". I always respond with a "yes I am your mum" and it begins to look like he does mean it when he says "mum um mum mum".

And to end the year on a high note - Baby D the hater of baths, has now decided he loves it! Where he actively used to cry the moment his feet touched water, he now paddles his legs furiously in the air asking to be put immediately in the tub. Once in, he tries to grab the mug, which is about the same size as him, in order to take his own bath. If that is refused, he's quite content to sit in the water trying to grab at fish and crab and octopus and turtle, all of the wildlife that has made its squirty way into the tub. But water itself is a great plaything. After months of cajoling by mommy to try splashing, Baby D has now conceded mommy was right after all. So he sits there batting and splashing, until we tell him firmly that bath time is up. We are seriously considering getting rain coats for Baby D's bath time if his splashing enthusiasm doesn't wane anytime soon.

There's a lot of exciting milestones to be achieved in the new year and Baby D can't wait to get started.