The Big "One" !!!!

January 28th....The day is finally here !!!!! Happy birthday sweetie pie.. muaaahhhhh love you lots !!!!! One year ago our house was as quiet as a library and now its as noisy and messy as a market... all because you brought so much joy and happiness in our lives,

I would give myself a pat on my back on making through this amazing, exhausting first year of Anvesha's life.Changing 10-12 diapers a day, waking every few hours for feeding, worrying over that one single sneeze. Those days are long gone and the fun has just begun.... as she transitions from an infant to being a toddler- which means walking, talking, tantrums and greater independence.

In only twelve years from now Anvesha will become a rebellious teenager who will not like given hugs & kisses. Until then let me hug her to my hearts content and wish her a very happy first birthday :)

While we are preparing for her birthday party, Anvesha is coping up with the jetlag. Iam pretty sure she will have no idea as what is happening around her.... but thats okay as first birthdays are meant to be understood and enjoyed only in the hindsight in the form of pictures and videos.


Happy Birthday to this cute little bundle of joy who is apparently the most powerful person in the house right now as the whole house revolves around her !!!! Love you lots Aanu... Muaahhhhh

First Steps

" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"..... Lao Tzu

 Probably no milestone is as exciting and thrilling as baby's first steps.There has been lots of exercise for me ever since Anvesha started crawling. She can walk while holding onto furniture now and loves her walker (thanks Pavan & Ramya for this lovely gift :). Now that she can stand confidently, she is beginning to take few steps.  These magical first steps towards independence mean lots of more exercise for me :) These days all of Anvesha's energy is focused on taking these first unsupported steps. With an intent of motivating her to walk, I usually hold a toy at a distance. She lets go of whatever she is holding onto because she is so captivated by the toy and forgets she might fall.

So far she can take four or five steps forward. Never thought walking would be so hard but I guess it is... for a baby :) Just imagine, balancing on a tightrope which requires enormous complexity of balance and coordination.

Wanted to share this video of Anvesha's first steps.

The sequence from standing to cruising to walking is indeed magical. With walking comes independence- independence to make choices about where she wants to go and whole lot of challenges for both me and her. I guess its time now to revisit the childproofing so as to have a healthy and a safe environment for Anvesha.

While the rest of US is getting ready for the holidays, we are getting ready for Anvesha's first India trip. Iam super excited about it as this is one good time when she will meet her grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins who are eagerly waiting to see her. While I might not be regular in my posts, I will try my best to stay in sync with many exciting stories throughout our India trip :)

Till then Happy Holidays and a Very Happy New  Year 2014 :)

Sweet Nothings

When I Imagined my baby's first sound, it was always Mama, of course which mother wouldn't like to hear that ?

A couple of days ago me and Anvesha had a good 5 minute, back and forth conversation with each other.

Anvesha: Ba Ba
Me: Ba Ba
Anvesha : Ba Ba Ba Ba
Me: Ba Ba Ba Ba

This was such an emotional moment to hear the first sound of my angel and it came right when she hit the 10 month timeline. I would love to call these baffles as "sweet nothings" :) This milestone has delighted both me and Prateek. I guess she might be even beginning to understand simple phrases and the tone of our voice. So it becomes even more important to keep talking to her to enhance her conversational skills; and with this I mean real words and not baby talk. Baby talk indeed sounds cute, but Iam trying hard to avoid this tendency no matter how much ever cute or fun it may sound. No particular reason, but I just feel that the use of right words would be good for her development, though Prateek is still hung on the baby talk :)

Here's a video from today afternoon

Though it may sometime feel silly, especially if Iam in a park or grocery shopping, but I keep the conversation going with this cute little chatter box and what does she really talk? Well they are just "sweet nothings" :)

Learning to Self Feed

Its been almost 4 months now that we started with solid foods for Anvesha. So far she had been eating pureed fruits and veggies.Over the time I gradually thickened up the consistency of her baby food giving it more of a chunkier look.

Usually the babies let us know they are ready for finger foods by grabbing the spoon they are being fed with and/ or snatching food from your plate. These days Anvesha does exactly that. So, we are slowly introducing her to finger foods. Any food that a baby can pick up qualifies for a finger food. Not only is it fun for babies to eat finger food, it is also a first step towards independence. I know it does get messy and my carpet is full of stains of her baby food, but I let her enjoy this "hands on experience" :)

At first Anvesha would simply play around with the food, hold it with both her hands and try to bring it to her mouth.Slowly she is getting to a point what is called as the pincer grasp ( using thumb and forefinger to pick up food).  As for me, Iam learning to get more patient by letting her get messy with the food. But I can't bring  myself to let her have the spoon and waste the food that I have taken so much effort to prepare :( All I can do is LAUGH as she looks pretty cute with all that baby food attached to her chin and it makes for great blackmail photos when she turns 16 !!!! 

So let me get public with these great photo memories of her meal time fun :)

Happy Children's Day !!!!

January 28th 2013, 10.19 PM- a life defining moment.  Can't believe it's been close to 10 months now. It seems like it was just yesterday when I took Anvesha in my arms for the first time. As she cuddled close to me, I thought to myself, it was worth the pain and worth the wait !!!

 There have been countless sweet memories that I would hold onto for life..... dancing around the house with Anvesha in my arms-I would call it  a rather innovative way to rock her to sleep :)..... the time when she passed that first social smile, my heart still melts to see that smile..... getting her ears pierced when she was still 4 month's old.... running around the house, coming up with funny ideas to make meal time fun for her.... play times at Wiggle Works, Kids' Cove and Gymboree play n learn....making silly poems and singing them out loud ( "Mamma mai to kitna pyara baby hu, kiska pyara baby hu... apka pyara baby hu".... I know this doesn't make sense at all :P ) or  the moment when she would crawl next to me to get my attention while I was busy in the kitchen.  I still dread the regular vaccinations- I rather have me go through all the pain than have her suffer.

Iam sorry for all the times Aanu when you wanted me to hold you, or play with you but I rather have few tasks done before I could give you the undivided attention. I know you are too small to understand all this right now, but over the years when you grow up and if you ever read my blog, I want to let you know that I'll always be right here for you. You are the most adorable daughter in the whole world and I can never thank God enough for this wonderful and cute little bundle of joy that He has given me.

A Very Happy Children's Day to you Aanu... This one's for you.

Happy Diwali

Diwali- the most awaited festival among the Hindus; a time for sweets, crackers, lights, good food and family reunion. This is one day  I feel really lonely in United States and miss home a lot. Three years in a row and we haven't celebrated Diwali with family. Well, this year we had all the plans but as luck ( or rather bad luck) would have it , Anvesha's PIO card did not reach on time. Funny, she needs an official document to travel to her home country.  Ya ya, I know she is American by birth, perhaps that's why it is called a PIO ( Person of Indian Origin).

Not being with family for Diwali was indeed a heart breaker, but we have to deal with what life gives us. We tried our best to get a feel of Diwali here. Here is my Diwali checklist :

• Diyas
• Mithai
• Crackers
• Candles
• Lights

Right on the day of Diwali, Anvesha stood up on her own without support !!!!!! Well, it was just for half a minute though.I guess this was her Diwali gift to us :) Here's her pic standing unassisted

I was curious to see her reaction to the crackers and to my surprise, she wasn't scared at all, in fact she wanted to catch the sparks of the fooljhadi and got really upset when we tried to stop her :) Here's our family pic

I know this wasn't the best Diwali, but this was certainly the best we could do to make it a little India :) 

Wishing everybody a very happy and a joyous Diwali!!!

Click Click Click

Babyhood seems to pass by so quickly and there are countless sweet times that we want to remember forever, not just in scrapbooks, but in the album of our minds. The first year is full of so many "firsts"-first stroller ride, first visit to the doctor, first vacation, first summer, first tooth, first steps, so on and so forth. We wish  to capture all of them and  I consider myself  lucky to witness them all first hand :)  In order to create these wonderful memories, we need to be immersed in the here and now. Well, this seems so much easier than done.

Clicking Anvesha's pictures was so much easier when she was a new born. But now it goes much beyond "say cheese",or the right amount of lighting, no wonder they have professional photographers for babies !!There goes in a lot of effort behind the scene in getting that picture perfect....whether its mimicking a particular sound, making funny faces or waving the hands madly to get her attention, we've done it all.

Its that time of the year... there are red, orange, yellow leaves everywhere.... Oh!!!  I love the fall season so much, something to look forward to before the long, dark and depressing winters. Like I said earlier, first year is full of so many firsts and this was Anvesha's first autumn, so this week was full of outdoor expeditions, in an endeavor to get some good pictures. Sharing few good ones here.... and in case you haven't noticed, I am flaunting the new photo editing software that I downloaded ;) Lol.

Oh, and I do want to share my version of  the step by step procedure of clicking baby pictures:

Step 1: Get her dressed in that super cute, super adorable, yet comfortable outfit
Step 2: Make sure the baby is well rested and well fed. Remember a happy baby = a good picture
Step 3: Get ready to make silly faces, act like a clown to get her attention and eventually that killer smile :)
Step 4:  Don't get disheartened if you don't make it. Remember patience and perseverance is the key
Step 5: Click click click...... you will at least get one good picture after all that hard work you put in. Lol

Happy Fall !!!!!