My last Post

This is sadly the last post for my blog. Why!! well lack of time is one of the reasons... but more importantly... most of Rishabs developmental milestones as a toddler are done.. I had initially thought I would end this blog on his second birthday.. but alas !! I realise today its no more exciting to write .. the passion and energy to write has disappeared .. not because rishab is not developing..or he is not doing new things daily.. every day is still new.. and infact so new that its difficult to put it in words anymore.. it is still exciting but I guess I feel more like experiencing it than writing it.. Every moment is to be captured.. but I guess I cant do it any longer on this blog... I can only experience it.. love it or hate it.. but cant pen it down anymore.. One more reason is now as a mother all of Rishabs shouting crying and everything seems normal.. nothing tenses me anymore.. and as I wrote this last post... somewhere all along I feel I writing this blog has increased my confidence as a mother and made me feel all things Rishab does are normal today.

Today when I see a crying child or a fussy child or a child throwing tantrums.. I donot criticize the mother or judge the father .. I simply smile.. not because my son is better or because the scene looks funny.. I smile because I know the efforts the parents are taking and I appreciate this fact .. at the same time I also understand that all children go through some phase of tantrums and we as parents are trying our best and thats what matters in the end... With a child patience is the key and unconditional love the path to make him learn.

As a mother I still get tensed when he fusses to have food, I also use the laptop once a day to make him eat foods which he doesnt like.. I still get frustrated at times when Rishab does not listen.. but I have realised all this is normal. Some small wording from my heart:

I child will make you laugh,
I child will make you cry,
He will make you feel the best person at times,
And at times a total failure,
At times he will make you boost with confidence
At other times feel as timid and fearful as a rabbit
At times you will want to hug him
and at othertimes just get angry with him
You will enjoy with him on many days
And on somedays just want a break from him
You might need to do the same thing 100 time for him to learn
But when he learns it on the 101st time your pleasure will be uncontrollable
At times you will pray for him to grow up soon
And when he grows up you will miss his childhood
You will get tensed when he falls ill
And surprised when he shows his resistence like he is a super man
when you look back you will count the mistakes you made
laugh on the stupidities you did and the tension you took
This is because.....
Its not only your child who is growing up and learning new things..
He is also helping you learn to become a parent...
A child IS this difficult but pleasurable journey for your life
which will make you patient and calm and value small things in life.

Ofcourse my blog cant end without Rishabs updates... Last month was pretty bad for Rishab.. he was down with cough and cold for one week and  the second week with flu.. But now he is more independent.. "bites his food". ust few more things to achieve .. get him to leave the bottle.. which i will do when he is around 3 years.. maybe after may and remove his night diaper. and make him eat  normal adult food.. He is now speaking full sentences "Papa buy me new bus.. bus broke" He has preferences.. he say " mummy make you sleep" "papa make you eat" "papa get monkey book" "excuse me mummy". He is also doing his brush now everyday.. because he has an incentive to gargle and spit out the water.He is eating grapes and puri and chapatti. Thankyou Rishab .. mummy is proud of you.

Lastly to my dear readers..thank you for reading my posts and being with me through this journey.. from the blog statistics i cant see who you are but I know people from across the world are reading my blog (a small number). I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog.. I would be happy if you could post some comments on this last post.. so that someday if and when my son reads it.. he would feel happy.

I have really enjoyed blogging on the memories Rishab has given me but like all good things come to an end.. so does my blog. I just want to end this post by saying "I will always love you son and I will capture all your remaining memories in my heart from now on. Thankyou Rishab for this lovely experience of blogging
'

PS: Readers can put in your comments to idnani.priya@gmail.com too.

Rishab at 19 months

Each month with Rishab seems to be getting more and more easier. This month was quiet good... Risahb has progressed quiet well on the "biting front" He is now eating chappati and other things..  We experimented with omlette and Parathas and chappatis and he seem to like all very much.. So much so that he asked for his chappati on his own and rolls it and dips in curd and eats it.. The vegetable obviously follows.

One hilarilous incident which took place was.. till last month we had been pureeing or mashing fruits before giving Rishab.. This time I asked my maid to get small pieces of papaya. It so happened that knowing rishab she got half plate of pieces and the other half mashed. Rishab loved biting the papaya pices and when it got ove I put the mashed papaya in to his mouth and he looks at me and tells me "Papaya pieces?" I was laughing. told him pieces are over only mashed papaya.. but being a good boy that he is he finished the mashed papaya.
Due to my fracture I am at home so Rishab sees mummy all day but papa only in the evening. So he is all "Papa Papa in the evening" so much so that he will tell his papa "Papa take you down.. pleeease" (He does not say "Papa take me down" .. does not know difference between "me and you" :))If his papa comes late when me or my maid are making him eat he will tell us " Papa make you eat. Mummy please excuse me" and this is hilarious when you hear it.

I completely forgot to mention his tantrums.. If he wants something he will crying like a loudest baby on this planet. Its quiet scary even now at times.

He is also well settled in school now... infacts likes going to school. Its again a big milestone... It took him about 2.5 weeks to get used to it but now he enjoys it. He made a couple of craft items in school.. like a face and a chinese new year card. So yes, he is growing up too soon. We feel sad about it, but at the same time feel proud of him.

He  routine looks more or less looks like this : Get up by seven. Do his potty and his brush. Eats his breakfast then Papa gets him ready by 8.30am for school. Come back by 11.30am and has his egg and then drinks milk and sleeps for one to one and a half hour. He gets up by 1.30 and starts food by 2.00 pm. Currently he take about and hour for his food as he is new to biting food so is a  little slow. After food is play time and then 4.30 fruit time and 5.30 milk time. And yes the 5.30 pm milk is now by cup. From last week, we tried in a small cup souvinier to make him drink milk and after that he always asks for a cup to drink his evening milk. One more achievement.Then he goes down to play. He is back from play by 7.30 for dinner. Night time always has some rice dish as he is too sleepy. He is usually done with dinner by 8.00 - 8.15. Unfortunately we need to show him the laptop to finsh his dinner nowadays. So he has a bath at night before he sleeps.( due to the last few weeks being a little cold in the mornings) . So he is in bed by 9.00 - 9.30pm.

Again proud of your acheievements Rishab!! Keep going!!

Rishab is surprising mummy and daddy!!!

Lets start with Rishab's biting progress, oh my sweetypie has progressed well... very well. Starting with Chapati , to aloo paratha to sweetpotato potato paratha and today methi & sweet potato paratha.. and finger chips in addition to biting his food he is doing great!! the 8 teeth he is getting are releiving me from the 10 month stress I was under (griding food). Today I really feel like thanking God for our teeth!! I might sound stupid but the relief and pride I sense today cannot be explained in words.

His language is growing by leaps and bounds daily.. Sometimes we feel we are talking to an adult. He speaks full saentence now likew "Mommy pick up car" "please excuse me " "Rishab dont want this one " "Rishab go down" "old mac donald has a farm eeya eeya oh" " jingle bells jingle beel jingle all the way ohh wat fun it is to ride.... " Its fun to hear him sing rhymes.

He also replies to questions "what is your name ?" "Rishab Vala" " what is mummys name ? " "Priya" " what is papas name ?" "mrugesh"( not so clear though) "what building number do you stay?" "412" "where does mummy work?" " Where does papa work?" "What does beena chachi do?" "Where does Parry chacha work?"

This week i also saw him zoom his car and it really travelled a long way through.. I was wondering on the wonderful journey of  my chid who at six month never knew which side to place the car to make it moove forward... to learning to place his car on th wheels... to pushing it slowly... and now making it zoom and slide down from the sofa... Seems simple to us... but for a child it is an accomplishment which he can be proud of. Rishab mommy an Papa are also proud of you!!  Love you .

Coming back to the cooking stuff... i am so delighted with the thought of all that i can try!!! Simply too excited!! So many ideas.. Cheese paratha.. omeltte.. bread jam .. bread butter.. carrot paratha.. chicken nuggets.. aloo tikki...i am flooded with ideas on all i can try!! I will definitely write more in my next post.

Now for some photos of our India trip.. long time the post are looking dull now:

Exciting stuff - Rishab is biting his food

Well Well Well I had to record this new milestone and it happened today.. Finally Rishab has started biting his food. He had a whole beetroot paratha and that too on his own. I am so proud of him. Believe me I was sick of grinding and mashing stuff for him and giving him the same food and all the last 10 month all he had was rice ... Today finally he ate chapatti and proved to me that he is now a big boy.. oh what a proud moment for me!!

Going a little back he gave up on the cerelac at around 8 month and finally on the mashed food after 10months... at 18 months... Now I feel my son is normal.. actually cant really blame him.. he has just 8 front teeth .. just noticed 4 other teeth have started showing the tip.. so thats a good sign.. now maybe he feels like biting and chewing... ahh!!! real relief .. I know it might sound normal to most of you but believe me I was tired of grinding food and making him eat rice..You will not believe it but starting egg yolk for rishab at 6 month was a blessing.. but he could never eat the egg white of the half fry... and in the past one year each day he would eat the egg yolk and either me or my hubby or my parents would need to finish the remaining as part of their breakfast.. Literally tues/thur was fixed for me and wed/fri for my hubby remaining days parents would eat the egg white. Today however Rishab ate the whole half fry .. yes even the white of it!! and it was a relief.. atleast we no longer need to have egg as a compulsory breakfast.

Yet another milestone.. yes ofcourse it will be another month before he really matures to biting things well... but atleast you have a start  Rishab!! Mommy and Papa are proud of you!!s

Playschool @ 18 months

We are back to Singapore and two new activities were planned for this month. One was his vaccination at 18 months which went off well except for the fever that he got for a day after the vaccination. The second is an exciting new phase .. Rishab starts with his playschool on 16 Jan 2013. He has a cute yellow and blue uniform and he looks adorable in it.

An unplanned incident also took place this month- I had a bad fall and had to undergo ankle surgery and currently am on bedrest for 6-8 weeks. Its tough but luckily my mom is here to help, so it seems manageable. This incident however has had a big impact on Rishab. Last week I was in hospiytal for 4 days... so he never saw me for all the days.. To add to it his dad was also spending considerably less time with him during the 4 days. Once I was back he was a "chipkoo" to both of us. Now he wants either mom or dad to be there for him each time. This makes things more difficult for me when my hubby is in office. Well my maids is having an even tougher time since my son now refuses to goto her.. as he only want me to do all things for him... A surprising new thing happened because of this... My husband with whom my son never went to sleep is also successful in making him sleep in the nights.. He apparently bores rishab so much by counting 1-10 that Rishab sleeps off.

However I really miss my son... its even more now cause these were things I used to do.. the exclusive mom thing... but now because of the fracture I cant do anything much with Rishab. I am hoping these 6-8 weeks pass off quickly and I go back to normal soon.

Preparations for Rishab to goto school began on Saturday. My usually late riser ... had to be awaken at 7.00am in the morning and have his breakfast... The somehow we had to stretch his nap time to 11.30 am. The finally sleeps by 8.30 -9.00pm. However, this transition was not too tough, he has managed to get into the rhythm.I really missed going to his school to drop him on the first day. This is a real milestone in every parents life when the child will be without the mother and goto an unknown environment for the first time in his life. Today rishab has completed 3 days of school but these 3 days he was accompanied by my mom so he was fine.. However still waiting to see what will happen on Monday when my mom does not enter class with him. I am sure he will cry.. Just want to see how loud his cry would be and how the teacher pacify him.

More on his school .. once he settles down.

Rishab's first trip to India @ 17 months

After mom dad have left, my hubby is working from home. and taking care of Rishab. He is doing fine and we are all excited to attend the engagement of my brother in December. We are all going to India. Its Rishabs First trip. Well the preparation of the trip is going on and on and on... Rishab is loving the activity of removing all clothes from the bags we have already packed and hence the packing seems like never ending.

We left for the airport in the morning and Rishab was very excited. Since our seats in the airplane were close to the business class .. all Rishab did in the 5 hour flight was circle from business class to economy class. He only took a short nap of 45 min toward the end of the flight. The surprising thing was that when we landed in India he never spoke a word he just was observing .. I think he understood this is not his familiar Singapore. The first word he uttered were Gapati Bappa Moriya after seeing a poster of shivji and Ganpati. Well a good note to begin the trip. When we reached my in-laws place he was very reluctant to mix with them but with 30 minutes he became comfortable. He never slept in the afternoon after reaching and we had a reception to attend the very same night. Rishab was damn tired so he slept off in the car. Actually he was a little jet-lagged too. I had to drop him off to his nana nani's house before proceeding for the marriage. Unfortunately he got up in our absence and was crying away to glory since he never saw us around. Short memory Rishab!!. The next morning was really funny . He got up at 6.30am (singapore 9.00am) and saw a crow on the window and he started off "Thirsty crow" "pebble" "water" "pot". In singapore we cant find so many crows as we do in india so it was very exciting for him.

The next couple of days we were at my parents place. He got very bad mosquito bites there..but enjoyed too. When he went down in the morning he was able to sight many cats and he loved chasing them.. I rememeber on  incident when a cat went and hid under the car, he bent down to look at it and then got up and is telling me "Mummy remove cat" .. It was hilarious. I told his i could not and asked him to request cat to com out instead .. so he goes "Cat please come out". Another thing he loved to watch is the birds feeding on grains .. oh wat fun it was for him.. One other thing I did there was to make him sit on top of a car... (something i cant do in singapore)... and he absolutely loved the feeling.. so much so that he started crying when i took him off the car.We also went to the beach with my brother and wat a blast he had there.. the entered the water and wanted to be there forever. he did not even mind the salty water entering his mouth. Surprising!! But nevertheless lovely memories.

We also took a short 5 day trip to Bangalore and how he loved meeting all his cousin sisters and brothers. Few memorable line for his Chirag Mama "Chiri mama you are too slow. Please drive fast". "please music" whenever he sat in my cousin bros car. He enjoyed playing with Pritika and Vedika (my cousin sisters children) and still remembers them. Some real hilarious incidents happened at my cousins place. He got so sleepy on his own he he lied down on the ground and started telling everyone "bye bye.. good night".  Overall a very fulfilling trip to Bangalore.

He also had a nice time with his Grandparent who were seeeing him after a year. He enjoyed playing Pee-ka boo with them and going out with them. So all in all it was a great trip to India after almost 2.5years.

Looking forward to the new year 2013. Happy new tear.

A special post for my dear parents

This is special post dedicated to my parents... who after a year in singapore have finally left back for India on 22 Nov 2012. a very big thankyou to both of you for being there though this one year with us in Singapore.

Rishab has learnt a lot from both of you and has throughly enjoyed with you guys I am sure just like you will miss him , we will miss you too. Well Rishab is now quiet potty trained , he is able to indicate when he need to use the potty.

About Diwali, well it was fun. Rishab saw the sparklers and was happy seeing the celebration and also had some Kaju Katli. We dresssed him up in traditional attire on that day and took him to the temple in the morning. Later that evening we did laxmi pooja and rishab was touching the feet of all the elders in the house. It was a truly amazingwe had some of our friends over to burst crakers. Overall a nice Diwali.

Well it is also the end of my parents stay in Singapore. We has a good time with them. They have really helped us understand some fine secrets of bringing up a child and also given us the confidence to bring up our child.

We will surely miss you!!