Potty Training

Chhavi has never had night time / sleep time incidents ever since she was 5 months old. She does not wet her bed when she's asleep. But as soon as she wakes up, thats the first thing she does. So she has always had good night's sleep and she has given us the same too.

She has only woken up at nights only when she was hungry / sick. Otherwise she has been a very tight sleeper. Whenever she wakes up, I take her immediately to the bathroom and she goes quietly :) I prefer to put on a diaper though, since its not always possible for us to wake up as soon as she does.

As of now, we are trying to potty train her. Any ideas / suggestions will be greatly appreciated. No problems with her pees though. She mentions just when she's just about to go. But for pooping, its kinda late by the time we take her to the bathroom. Few days past, she has been pooping on the way to her play school and she gets extremely fussy and uncomfortable in the car, since we cannot clean it immediately and she cannot stay with the dirty diaper.

Today, I gave her a glass of warm milk when she woke up. Took her to the loo when she said she felt like pooping. She sat in the loo for a while and then she pooped alright :) Lets see how it goes from tomorrow.

Rhymes - 3

Chhavi knows a lot more rhymes than I thought she knew.

10 days back or so, she suddenly goes... Mamma, mamma, Aanki doodoo pony maadi...
It took me a while to even comprehend - I know she was referring to some rhyme... but I had to scourge thru my database to understand what she actually meant... Then it suddenly hit me...

It was Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony... what next ? I myself dunno the 3rd line of the rhymes... but Chhavi says it. Since I dont know the line, I cant understand what she's saying...

The last line is - and called it macaroni... I still dunno the third line.... need to look it up.

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Few days back, Chhavi started saying 'days of the week'.

She says - Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday - announcing the end of it. LOL. No matter how many times we teach her the rest of them, she doesnt remember those ones... so cute.

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My co-sister tried to teach her 'months of the year' and she was teaching them one by one and Chhavi was repeating them. When she reached April, instead of repeating April, Chhavi says 'May'. So I am guessing they are teaching her the months also at school.

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Conversations with Chhavi - 2

The other day Chhavi was being very mischievous in the car.

So I tell her... Chhavi - policeman appaitha (ill call the policeman). Vatta ve tu policeman vottu ? (Will you go with him ?)

Chhavi: O K
Me (shouting): Ok, policeman, come here ...
Chhavi (suddenly not wanting to go with him): Mamma, kitki kaadi (open the window). Haav policeman-ge hogu heLtini (Ill tell the policeman to go away)

Complete conversation - half in kannada and half in konkani...

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Rhymes - 2

Chhavi is 1 yr and 10 months now and can sing about 15 - 20 rhymes now.. maybe more. Some of the rhymes she says:

A B C D E F G
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Old McDonald Had A Farm
The Wheels On The Bus
Humpty Dumpty
I Hear Thunder
Hickory Dickory Dock
Bits Of Paper
One Two Buckle My Shoe
Johny Johny Yes Papa
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Daddy Finger Daddy Finger
Goosy Goosy Gander
Mary Had A Little Lamb
Hot Cross Buns
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Ding Dong Bell
Ring Around The Rosies
Rain Rain Go Away
.... and a few more - cant think of them immediately.

She loves watching rhymes on the phone. I try to restrict it as much as possible and when I take the phone from her after her session... she starts crying and screaming loudly.

With a crying voice itself, she goes on reciting her fav rhyme of the moment -
Johny Johny,
Yes Papa,
Eating sugar,
No Papa,
Telling lies,
No Papa,
Open your mouth,
Ha Ha Ha.... beku / haaki (= want / put) and still crying her heart out....

I feel so sad and end up giving the phone to her for a few more minutes and the situation repeats again after about 5 mins.... In the end, its already 12 in the midnight, when I pull the phone from her with a cold stone heart and refuse to give it back to her and then she cries n cries until she finally falls asleep in like 2 mins flat. So technically, she was sleepy all this time, but did not want to because she was watching the video...

Conversations with Chhavi - 1

Chhavi: 'Chucchi' mamma... (meaning to say something is pricking her)
Me: Kasan chucchi deva ? (Whats pricking you dear?)
Chhavi: Mamma, nail cut maaDi (Mamma, cut your nails)

My daughter has grown so big as to advice me to cut my nails - sigh **

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The other day Chhavi is looking at her play school CD cover which has a few animal pictures on it.

Chhavi: What is this? (pointing to a penguin)
Me: Penguin, babba (=baby)
Chhavi: What is this? (pointing to a bird looking like a sparrow)
Me: Bird
Chhavi: What is this ? (pointing to the penguin again)
Me: Penguin
Chhavi: Nooooooo mamma, bird.......

LOL....

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Me: Chhavi yaarige beku ?? (Who wants Chhavi? in Kannada)
Chhavi: Pappage beku (Dad wants Chhavi in Kannada)
Me: Repeat the question.
Chhavi: Mammage beku (Mom wants Chhavi)
Me: Chhavi koNa jaayi ?? (Who wants Chhavi ? in Konkani)
Chhavi: Ajjaka jaayi (surprisingly) (She calls her maternal grandpa - ajja)

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The last few moments before we sleep at night daily.
Me: Goodnight babba, I love you.
Chhavi: Pappa, pappa, I love you pappa (to her dad)

She is totally n completely her daddy's girl. She forgets to tell me Goodnight / I love you... and I have to demand after which she reluctantly goes: Loooov u mamma with a pout in her lip....hahahahaha

Chhavi Talks 1

Is your little girl talking yet ? A very common question when people meet me after a long time.
My answer : Oh my - don't ask...

Yes, Chhavi has become super super talkative. And she manages to repeat any sentence thrown at her. She quips the same line back at us at an unnatural speed. Yes, be it any language. Not saying she knows to talk all languages, but just that she attempts to say the same thing - although not completely correct. All this when she's just 1 yr and 8 months old.

She also recites around 10 rhymes now. Again, not the complete thing, and she knows what to say when. She teases us, she hides stuff and pretends she doesnt know about them, she does something mischievous and watches our reactions from the corner of her eye etc., etc., All in all, she's a joy to be with and time well spent when I am with her.

Baby Carrier Wrap

Materials needed - a 6 ft long cloth by 3-4 ft width - folded lengthwise twice - so it makes 4 layers of clothing.

 

Fold the cloth lengthwise once - cloth now measures 6 ft by 1.5-2 ft width. Stitch along the sides or all over in stripes. Stitching is not mandatory.

 

Fold the cloth again lengthwise - cloth now measures 6 ft by .75 - 1 ft wide. DO NOT STITCH the cloth. Find the center of the length and hold it around your waist - the center part on your stomach - with the open fold above - hence forming a pouch. That is where you put your baby's butt.

 

Take the two lengths of the cloth and criss cross it on your back and bring the ends on your shoulders and towards the front - as shown in the pic. The open folds towards your neck inwards.

 

Pick your baby, Put his / her butt in the open fold at your waist. Cover his / her butt upto the knees in the pouch kind of thing formed at your waist. Put both the baby legs towards your sides until he / she is comfortably sitting in the pouch.

Hold the baby there with one hand and pull and tighten both ends of the fabric until he / she is snug in the pouch. Take one end of the cloth (say on your right side) and put it across baby's back and butt. Take the cloth under the baby's opposite leg (on your left side) and around your waist to the back. Hold the cloth there tightly. At this point, you can let go of baby and hold the cloth at your back with one hand.

With the other hand, take the other end of the cloth and do the same on the other side (left side of cloth across baby's back and butt and under right leg of baby towards your back). Pull it as snug as you want. In the process, you can leave baby's hands in or out as shown in pics.





Tie both ends at the back or if you have a lot of cloth left - cross them behind your back and bring them to the front and tie the ends on your stomach or on the sides - entirely left to you.

There - you are ready to explore the world with both hands :) Also, dont forget to do a safety check on the baby in this position. Listen for baby's breathing, and dont tie the wrap too tight to suffocate either you or the baby.

Dont worry, it might be tough the first few times, but you will get it soon.

Baby Carrier Issues

From the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to find a better option for a baby sling / baby carrier. The one that I had was store bought and served the purpose well up until few months back.

Chhavi turned 1 yr and the sling which was initially just enough for her, started becoming smaller and since Chhavi grew taller and heavier, it was proving to be quite difficult to carry her in that one. As it is, it was a strain on my shoulders and neck, and now it was even worse. It was a cross-belt on my back. So the cross-belt was pinching on my neck everytime, bcoz of Chhavi's weight.

I decided to do some alterations on the sling and when I went to Mangalore to my parents house, I got my mom to attach some cloth to the sides and remove the cross belt and make it into a H shaped belt in the back. It served well for a short while and when Chhavi got bigger, the side seams seem to be strained too much and the H belt again started moving upper. Also now since the sling was bigger, Chhavi was able to move more in the space and she started jumping - which distracted me from riding my bike.

From the past few days, I was researching online on how to tie a baby wrap and found a lot of options or ways to do it. I was actually surprised that I dint do it earlier. I always thought that using a home made wrap would be tedious and not very safe and what not... the usual thoughts that a mom gets regd the safety of her baby. However, I decided to try it out once to see how it would feel and how tough it would be.

I was super surprised with the results. It almost took none of my time (2 mins or so). Was very comfortable on my neck and shoulders, gave Chhavi ample amount of moving space - yet kept her confined. And best of all, it was super super easy to do. Also, the best part is that you can carry a newborn to even as big a baby as 3 yrs. The most important development from this is that baby can sit in an ergonomic position, not putting any strain on his / her pelvic joints (as opposed to how a baby is carried in a store bought sling). Essentially baby sits in a frog like position.

Instructions to come soon - in next post - with photos.
 

Milestones...

Chhavi gave a real kiss today to both me and DD, what with sound and all :)

Rhymes 1

Chhavi recognizes a few rhymes ...

Twinkle twinkle little star - she knows this one since she was a small baby. The first rhyme that she heard and danced to.

Clap your hands, clap your hands - she actually performs to this rhyme by clapping her hands and stamping her feet. She learnt most of this from her day care. Am I glad I send her there....

Johny johny yes papa - she nods to this one.

Chhavi's first words

First Konkani word - Jaai (jaayi) meaning 'I want'
First real English word - Shoe, shes crazy about footwear !!
First Kannada word - Baa, means 'come'

Few other words that she says:

Ta-ta (neutral) = 'bye bye'. She also used to say 'by by' for this, but stopped it.
Taata (kannada) = 'grandpa'. Her paternal grandfather goes ecstatic when she calls him.
Ji (kannada - ajji) = 'grandma'. Her granny is still sad that she doesnt call her :D
Te (kannada - atte) = 'dad's sister'. Her atte makes her say it again n again.
Anna (kannada) = elder bro. She loves them both to bits.
Pa = dad.  Supposed to be pappa
Mamama (konkani) = 'maternal grandma'. She says it only on the phone when talking to my parents.
Baw (English 'ball'). Technically this was her first English word, but she couldnt say the whole word... so lets go with shoe.
Bloon - meaning to say balloon.
Bot - bottle.

Her maternal grandpa is still waiting for his word - ajja to drop from her lips :) He asks her each time to say 'ja' atleast, but somehow she refuses, even though she knows to utter the phonetic 'ja'.

Nowadays, she talks a lot, but its all Chinese and Japanese to us, when she goes:
toi achi goti ba ta ta ata pa (not literally - but something to that effect).

Chhavi dances...

Chhavi loves to dance. She dances to almost any music.

Initially she used to dance by shaking her butt while crawling, front and back and side to side.
Her next improvement on that was to shake her torso while sitting.
She used to dance even when she stood for even a second. Even though she dint know to stand, dint have any balance, she still used to dance, and fall, stand up again and dance and fall again.

She dances to any tune or any music or any rhythm. Few things she dances to:

1. She picks the landline and presses the speaker button. She dances to the dial tone for 2 secs.
2. The phone then gives out an engage tone - a long beep - and she dances to that for 2 secs.
3. Our landline gives out an ambulance alarm if its kept out of the cradle for a long time. She absolutely waits and loves that tone. She dances vigorously to it !!!
4. On FM radio, there is a guy that goes 'Saare dudes and chicks, this is 3 ka disco mix'. She dances to that sentence every time that guy is on air and says that.
5. Any rhymes that we sing.

Basically, she dances to anything and everything since she loves to dance.

She turns one !!

A big day was looming ahead of us on account of Chhavi's first birthday.

DD had already booked a convention hall and everything the next day Chhavi was born, since he was so excited about having a girl baby. The booking was the easiest part of all. The rest of the arrangements were causing a hassle. The cake, decor, caterers, event managers blah blah. It just took all of our days to even arrange meetings with each of these guys. Wish there was someone having a we-do-it-all package.

The cake was the last thing to be ordered / decided upon. We had lots of fights regd the design and the ingredients - the look everything. Anyways, we finally decided on a Minnie Mouse theme, but failed to get a Minnie Mouse doll for the cake. So we went with a princess theme instead. The stage was set and everything was in blue (contrary to popular choice of pink for a girl). I wanted to go for a fondue cake but the family was against it. So we settled for a fresh cream one instead.

The invites went out to 700 people and we expected 800 at the least, but I think the turnout was somewhere around - infinity !!! Just kidding, i think it must have been 1000+.

There was a magic show organized mainly to keep the kids busy and the elders entertained. It was fun. There were snack counters, giving out chaats, popcorn, cotton candy. There was a chocolate fountain, which was encircled by only kids. I doubt the adults got any of it.

Then came the cake cutting. It all got over in a jiffy and someone started distributing cake and all of a sudden, we were greeting people on stage and there was a long line of people waiting to greet chhavi.
We were up on stage for what seemed like an eternity, when chhavi started getting cranky. We could not even move from our stations. Chhavi was only becoming crankier, but the line seemed endless. Each time, we turned and saw the line - the line was always 10 people long. I dunno how people magically got generated in the line. It was never stopping :( Finally, at 11 in the night, we had the luxury of a break - the people started going home and the line finally ended.

Ah !! Now we could rest in peace. Ahem - I mean rest our legs a bit. Chhavi was now super hungry. Her last food intake was 5 hrs away, when we had left from our house. Poor thing, its a wonder she was sane until now. I would go crazy if I was hungry. Shes a boon that way. She never screams even when shes hungry. In fact the only time she is angry / frustrated is when shes super sleepy or someone takes something away from her. Otherwise, shes the coolest kid around and shes always playing on her own.

There were a lot of fights on the D-day regd the giveaway presents for the kids - the return gifts.
Most of the near and dear ones did not get any return gifts. There were probably around 300+ children and you know how kids are.... some of them just came to the stage, bullied the guy distributing the gifts and took away 2-3 each. 'Survival of the fittest' ke heights !! The silent and cool and nice kids did not get a single gift for themselves. Its our mistake also, that we did not preserve a few of them to give away to close friends and family. Maybe we should think about it the next time we distribute gifts to someone.

Finally it was time for dinner. We were so tired and hungry, but I couldnt eat a single morsel of food because all I wanted to do was go home and rest my feet. They were hurting like hell. I just pushed something into my mouth and left the hall early, because of well, myself and chhavi. We just went home and dropped dead on the bed.

Food was apparently amazing, but like they say, its difficult to enjoy the meal when you pay for it. I mean to say that when you organize a function, its so tough to sit peacefully and enjoy a meal properly.

All's well that ends well. I know that Chhavi wont remember any of this, but I just hope she reads this post and is able to imagine, how much she means to her DD. All the joy in the world showed up on his face that day. One can only imagine how happy he was.