Pre school - Day 1

I was nervous like hell. It was like going for a maths exam (Okey, not maths because I was good at it, but lets say... sanskrit exam or whichever subject you feared the most).

Challenge # 1 - Getting Venky (and ourselves) ready on time. I had to make sure that we get up at 7am to ensure that Venky reaches school by 9 am. That is quite a bit of an effort for one who not seen the 7 am sky for lets say.. a decade? Needless to say, I slept badly because of the tension. And woke up at 6 am. Tossed and turned till 7 am and then finally got up.

While I got ready, Vibhu handled waking up Venky. Venky wanted to sleep more and was terribly upset with Vibhu for forcing him out of the bed. His dada, dadi came to the rescue. By the time I dressed up he was in a good mood ( he was told that he will go to "school" and that excited him - isn't that a blessing!). So brush, shower and breakfast later (which went fairly smoothly and on schedule), the whole family was ready by 8.30 to take him to the school. Yeah, 4 adults (Vibhu, MIL, FIL & me) were to drop him to the school. I remember getting such a grand see off when I first went to the US. From the next time on, I called the cab. Sorry, I am digressing. So, we ALL got ready and left for Venky's school well in time.

Challenge # 2 - Waving goodbye. No matter how much we prepare Venky for our departure to the office, he always does a flip flop at the last moment. Although Venky's grandparents were to accompany him, I was wary about his reaction on seeing us leave. I tried to prep him by talking to him about it on our way to his school.. and lo, we were there! Venky hopped off excited (his 3 pre school visits had made him somewhat comfortable with its enviornment), and headed straight for the "jhoola". Dada, dadi followed him. We called him and waved bye. Yeah, today's child psychology - "inform" the child of your departure. I guess this days parents are the one who are made to follow the rules! I almost thought Venky'll will come back running and crying. But lo and behold, he waved goodbye. Traitor! Girgit! Dal Badloo! "Jaldi aana", he said. Hmmm.. okey, that'll unbreak my heart.

Challenge # 3 - Stay in school for 1.5 hours. Now, we were in office and Venky was in the school along with his grandparents. Grandparents were supposed to stay out of sight as long as possible and the teacher was supposed to handle him. At 9.15 am Vibhu pinged me on IM.

V [9:15 AM]:
my phone is in the car
call papa once

SS [9:15 AM]:
:)
arre rahne do na
itni jaldi kyon call karna hai?

V [9:16 AM]:
to find out if they are watching him on CCTV

SS[9:16 AM]:
we'll call at 10.30

tum toh Venky se jayada pareshan ho

its ok. Let them be
we'll call at 10.30 and then find out

V [9:16 AM]:

:(
ok

Dads these days I tell you! They've started behaving like mothers. And they've confused the moms which way to behave! So, I got back to work and then I got another IM at 10.38 am

V [10:38 AM]:
did you check?

SS [10:38 AM]:
what?

V [10:38 AM]:

on Venky?

I called my FIL now and found out how Venky behaved. Ofcourse I reported it back to Vibhu immideately. I wanted him to concentrate on work and not get fired during this recession. So,

this is how it went...

SS [10:45 AM]:
it went off very well
other kids were crying
he was not

V [10:46 AM]:
good

SS [10:46 AM]:
mostly he was on his own
he asked for his tiffin and ate

V [10:46 AM]:
they did not call papa(my FIL)?

SS [10:46 AM]:
all parents were just around
so they (my parents in law) were sitting in the office
but Venky came to them only once
and then kept himself busy
thoda classroom ke andar
and thoda bahar

V[10:47 AM]:
cool

SS [10:47 AM]:
some kids were just not leaving their parents

V [10:47 AM]:
hmmm

SS [10:48 AM]:
I talked to him (Venky)
he said ki maza aaya
and he is ready to go tomorrow again
so far so good :)

V [10:48 AM]:
awesome

SS [10:49 AM]:
I told you ki my son is a rock star :)

V [10:49 AM]:
hee hee

SS [10:49 AM]:
but you are one worried parent :p

V [10:49 AM]:
ok ok :p
bye

SS[10:49 AM]:
chalo bye obsessed daddy
think about work now :p

Hence proved - Venky is a rock star, Vibhu is an obessed dad and I am a happy mom!

Crawling

Ever since Venky's grandparents have come, he is hitting one milestone after another. He started saying dada, baba, mmmamm, he started sitting, he started on solid diets, perfected his rolling over and circling using his hands to reach his toys.
But what happened today was the least I expected. As usual when I came back from office, my MIL had news for me again. "Venky is crawling!!". Crwaling! CRAWLING!!! I really couldn't believe it. But my MIL demoed it for me immideatly. Venky was crawling indeed. Although the ratio of effot to movement is still quite high. But yes!! he is crawling.
After sometime Venky's dad arrived from office. This time I broke the news - "Venky is crawling". The reaction was pretty much similar to mine. Crawling! CRAWLING!!! :-D

Sitting!

Ever since I put him on his car seat, Venky has preferred sitting to lying. He refused to take his pram ride lying, he even refused our laps. In fact it was easier to put him to sleep rocking his car seat than any other postion.

I always knew Venky is going to sit early. In fact I had thought he was going to sit before he was going to roll over (which happened only 20 days ago).

Since last week, I started encouraging Venky to sit on his own. He would sit for a second and go "dhum". Tonight when we repeated the excercise, I realized that Venky was sitting a second longer than a second... and then another second ... and then another.. By the time Venky fell "dhum" on his side it was good 15 seconds and Vibhu said - " I think you can put it into the journal enty now". :)

The Frist Fall?

Ever since Venky was 2 months old, I made his daytime sleeping/playing arrangements on the floor to avoid any falling accidents. Today when I came back from office Bina reported that Venky had screamed loudly and cried with tears. He had his first fall!! Venky had dirtied his diaper and my MIL went to another room to get a new one. Venky took two somersaults in the mean time and landed on the floor. He screamed and had the whole house assembled around him in the next second :) Yes, my son had fallen down full two inches from the mattress to the floor :D I was not sure that it qualified for a "FALL" but after I heard the decription of the brouhaha he created, I decided that it did!!

Welcome GrandPa

Venky loves shouting. When I say shouting it means literal shouting on the top of his voice. For almost two months his talking constituted of only one form - shouting. Then he graduated to an "AAeeyaa" kind of sound. He would often say "Aayeyaa" with the thumb in his mouth and it would come out transformed as words like "kachche" much to my delight.

Venky's grandparents arrived on 11th Oct. They showered him with all attention and found meaning in all his efforts. As with any doting grandparents (and to my amusement), they felt he was a very advanced baby.

I had a long stint with office on 12th Oct after a long time thanks to the peace of mind I had about leaving the baby at home under safe supervision of grandparents. As soon as I arrived home, my MIL told me that Venky has been saying "dada". I was amused again and had no doubts that she had heard what she wanted to hear :) But Venky cleared my doubts immideately and went on to say "da-da-da". A very apt welcome to his grandad :)

The first Roll

The doc has been asking us since the last two visits ..
Does Venkatesh roll over?
Noooo... not yet.
Does he try to?
Nooo....

And so have been all our relatives and friends.
Venky must be rolling over now?
Nooo....

With Venky not showing any signs of trying to roll over, I was convinced that he is going to sit before he rolls over.

Finally I joined office part time on 1st September. This way I could take a break from all the diaper changing and still not miss my baby's development. Husband dear has offered to babysit during the time Iam in office

So, I got a phone call today from Vibhu. With Venky crying in the background, I thought he probably wants to know where to find diapers/changing clothes etc. But Lo! He says,
Our son has taken his first roll today. I put him back straight and he got upset :D

I was sooo.. happy (and relieved, we won't have to say those Nooo..s anymore). And sooo.. jealous. I get away for just 4 hours and he takes his first roll. I missed it :(

Once I got home, Venky treated me with another couple of rolls. My god! my baby mastered the technique in a day!!! :D

The Arrival

Born at 5.40 am after 4 hrs of labor.

I suddenly heard someone else's screms admist mine. And then, I realized that I didn't need to scream anymore. The baby was out. I heaved a sigh of relief and said
"I can't believe I've finally delivered."
The doc laughed and started stiching me up. Suddenly I realized that I should find out the gender of my baby. Altough who cared, what the gender was. I asked the doc and she said
"It's a boy."
"Okey" I thought.
Then someone suddenly brought a tiny and extermely red face in front of me.
"This is your boy."
I noticed he was wrapped in a pink towel.

Welcome to next generation... Baby boys in pink :)