Dear Neil,
You turned one. A short simple statement, yet I feel a lump in my throat when I think that. You took your first steps independently 4 days ago. And I suddenly realized what a big boy you were getting to be. It feels to me that you have changed incredibly in the last month. You are much more independent and interactive. We are in India now with your grandparents. I feel they are spoiling you, but I guess it is their privilege. My dad thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread and talks about you to everyone. He is one proud grandpa. We celebrated your birthday by having a brief time of prayer, a message from the Bible and lots and lots of food and cake. You enjoyed the time and attention and was totally in your element. This month you got to travel in a plane, bus, autorickshaw, boat, got to see lions up close and personal, and had a ton of fun new experiences. I know you are not going to remember any of that, but it gives me great pleasure to do all these stuff with you. You have already logged about 10,000 airline miles and you just turned one. :)Since you started to walk, you had a couple of tumbles, but you bore it manfully. I am sure I would have yelled more. You don't cry when you wake up from your nap and although it is a good thing, it was so difficult here as you would wake up and just crawl away and fall off the bed (if I let you). Now we sleep on the floor and that works out great. TV doesn't captivate you so far, toys don't entice you, all you want to do is explore everywhere.
You are very adjusting and I thank my Lord every time for that. There are no cranky fits unless you are hungry or sleepy or sick. I am getting better at understanding you and I can figure out what is going on much better now. Now that you have a better understanding, I get to play a lot of games with you and that is so much fun. Your Daddy could not be with us the day you turned one as he is still in US, but we are having another party with friends when we get back home.
I love you so much and I consider it a huge blessing from God that he gave us you to raise. Being your momma has changed me a lot and I am so thankful for that. I am not a perfect mom, I lose my patience easily, and it is daily hard work, but there is nothing else I'd rather do. You are our NATHANIEL, gift from God, prayed for, and really longed for.
My hands and heart are full today. I pray that God will give you long life, good health, and all of the heavenly blessings and in turn make you a blessing to many. While I know I cannot protect you from the harshness of this world, you can be assured that my prayers will follow you all the days of your life.
Love,
Mama
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
11 months
Dear Neil,
You are 11 months old now. I refuse to believe you are almost a year old. It is just not possible. I have to speak with whoever is in charge of the calendar. There must be some mistake.
What are you up to now?
1. Well, for starters, everything. You are into absolutely everything. You want to pull this, push that, jump off, crawl away. There is just no stopping you. I put you down, and next thing I see is a flash of leg and you are off. You put absolutely everything into your mouth and you pick up the tiniest particles on the ground. One day, we had to retrieve paper, and another day some leaves from your mouth and you were hopping mad about that.
2. You had two ear infections this month, one single and another double. It upsets me that you get sick so often but unfortunately you seem to follow the same pattern as your mommy.
3. You visited Washington DC and NY this month and it was fun to take you there. You are a good traveler and we hope you continue to be one.
4. You have 6 teeth now and you eat mildly spicy Indian food, stuff I make and it makes me so glad that you are a good eater. You chew well too and you are having all kinds of fun stuff now.
5. You hold your own bottle and drink and that is helpful as I can give you the bottle to drink in the morning as I prepare your breakfast.
6. You cruise around a lot and one day you stood with no support for about 10 seconds before falling flat on your bottom. Cruising is with one hand in style, it is just hilarious to see.
7. You are 22 lbs now and close to 50th percentile for weight. You have lost some weight due to all the crawling and cruising. You were quite chubby for a while there, but you were never meant to be plump, you come from lean parents.
8. Swimming is not going swimmingly well. You are still quite upset when the instructor takes you. You only come with me and I don't know swimming myself, so it is not working very well. After meeting a lot of people in India, I am hoping that your stranger anxiety might reduce a little bit and things will improve.
8. Daddy has a game he plays with you and I am not sure who enjoys it more, you or Daddy.You laugh loudly , shriek, jump on the bed and just get hyper. You are so fun now we could play with you all day long. You are happiest when we both play with you and give you attention.
9. You give hugs now and that is just about the best part of my day.
Daddy and I love you a lot. Some days are rough when you get a little cranky and won't nap and then get crankier. Even with that, I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.
Love,
Mama
You are 11 months old now. I refuse to believe you are almost a year old. It is just not possible. I have to speak with whoever is in charge of the calendar. There must be some mistake.
What are you up to now?
1. Well, for starters, everything. You are into absolutely everything. You want to pull this, push that, jump off, crawl away. There is just no stopping you. I put you down, and next thing I see is a flash of leg and you are off. You put absolutely everything into your mouth and you pick up the tiniest particles on the ground. One day, we had to retrieve paper, and another day some leaves from your mouth and you were hopping mad about that.
2. You had two ear infections this month, one single and another double. It upsets me that you get sick so often but unfortunately you seem to follow the same pattern as your mommy.
3. You visited Washington DC and NY this month and it was fun to take you there. You are a good traveler and we hope you continue to be one.
4. You have 6 teeth now and you eat mildly spicy Indian food, stuff I make and it makes me so glad that you are a good eater. You chew well too and you are having all kinds of fun stuff now.
5. You hold your own bottle and drink and that is helpful as I can give you the bottle to drink in the morning as I prepare your breakfast.
6. You cruise around a lot and one day you stood with no support for about 10 seconds before falling flat on your bottom. Cruising is with one hand in style, it is just hilarious to see.
7. You are 22 lbs now and close to 50th percentile for weight. You have lost some weight due to all the crawling and cruising. You were quite chubby for a while there, but you were never meant to be plump, you come from lean parents.
8. Swimming is not going swimmingly well. You are still quite upset when the instructor takes you. You only come with me and I don't know swimming myself, so it is not working very well. After meeting a lot of people in India, I am hoping that your stranger anxiety might reduce a little bit and things will improve.
8. Daddy has a game he plays with you and I am not sure who enjoys it more, you or Daddy.You laugh loudly , shriek, jump on the bed and just get hyper. You are so fun now we could play with you all day long. You are happiest when we both play with you and give you attention.
9. You give hugs now and that is just about the best part of my day.
Daddy and I love you a lot. Some days are rough when you get a little cranky and won't nap and then get crankier. Even with that, I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.
Love,
Mama
Update
It has been a while. To update my three readers, I am in Mumbai, India on a two month vacation. I traveled Business Class on my way here and that helped with the fact that I was on a 24 hour trip with a 11 month old by myself. That and the fact that so many of you prayed for me. Y'all are the best. It was great service and although I had to hold him on my lap the entire time, it was not as exhausting as it might have been. I had a connection to NJ and then it was a straight flight to India. On my first flight, there was an old lady sitting next to me and she was quite displeased to see that she got a seat next to a mom and baby. As soon as Neil and I were seated, she requested for a seat re-assignment. She had to sit next to me though, and I prayed that he would go to sleep. He did, the entire flight and it was such a relief. Ms Grouchy was pretty much scowling every time Neil made the slightest sound. He never cried, he was just making happy sounds. I have to say she has issues if she scowls when a baby makes happy albeit a little loud sounds. The second half was better thankfully.
Here is one thing I find curious and I thought I would put it out to the readers. Here in India, babies are just such a part of life that it is never really bothersome to anyone. Nobody makes a huge deal out of them either. (There are plenty to go around anyway!) When I was single and then later married, it never bothered me that a mom and baby was sitting next to me on a flight or train. My brow never creased the way peoples do here when they are seated next to a family. Of course, if the baby is crying incessantly from takeoff to landing for the entire duration of the flight, that is a different matter. What I am saying is, I do not automatically associate negativity to that situation. Here I have noticed people do. They may be nice to you to the face, but I can see it nevertheless. My opinion is that (and this may offend some of you), the society here is so darn individualistic that even the perception of inconvenience irritates people. And children are the victims, because they are inconvenient. Even the best behaved baby (and my child is not very bratty) will cry when hungry, wet, or dirty. I have to say Neil did great on the 15 hour (straight) flight except a little bit of crying when he threw up and had to be changed and later held by the air hostess while I changed. That was no more than 10 minutes at the most.
Here is my question to you. If you were on a flight (or any public place) with your small baby, have you felt the irritation of others? Or if you do not have children, do you cringe when seated next to a family?
I would love to hear your response.
PS: I have not had a chance to visit any blogs yet, as the internet is a little flaky, but I hope to, soon.
Here is one thing I find curious and I thought I would put it out to the readers. Here in India, babies are just such a part of life that it is never really bothersome to anyone. Nobody makes a huge deal out of them either. (There are plenty to go around anyway!) When I was single and then later married, it never bothered me that a mom and baby was sitting next to me on a flight or train. My brow never creased the way peoples do here when they are seated next to a family. Of course, if the baby is crying incessantly from takeoff to landing for the entire duration of the flight, that is a different matter. What I am saying is, I do not automatically associate negativity to that situation. Here I have noticed people do. They may be nice to you to the face, but I can see it nevertheless. My opinion is that (and this may offend some of you), the society here is so darn individualistic that even the perception of inconvenience irritates people. And children are the victims, because they are inconvenient. Even the best behaved baby (and my child is not very bratty) will cry when hungry, wet, or dirty. I have to say Neil did great on the 15 hour (straight) flight except a little bit of crying when he threw up and had to be changed and later held by the air hostess while I changed. That was no more than 10 minutes at the most.
Here is my question to you. If you were on a flight (or any public place) with your small baby, have you felt the irritation of others? Or if you do not have children, do you cringe when seated next to a family?
I would love to hear your response.
PS: I have not had a chance to visit any blogs yet, as the internet is a little flaky, but I hope to, soon.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
The weekend Recap
R was gone on a 4 day long unexpected work tour last week to Detroit. He came back on Friday and so it was a nice long weekend to anticipate. It was the first time Neil and I were by myself. I was nervous, but Neil did great and it was really nice. We went to Gymboree, played at home, went for hour long walks in the evening, went shopping and had a good time. I pretty much cooked one day and closed kitchen after that and subsisted on leftovers. I was surprised at the amount of time it freed up to do other things. I caught up on a lot of financial housekeeping tasks and attacked a pile of paperwork. So many things that were on my to do list got done one day when Neil took two good naps. These days such naps are a rare thing. He compensated for that the next day by taking hardly one nap. So there are good and not so good days. :) He played in his prison for a good long time and I took some videos couple of days back.
A funny thing happened while R was away. His office called and asked for our home address. Hubby mentioned that they might send him something for willing to be gone for a trip at such short notice. Wednesday, this arrived. I thought it was nice of the company to send him flowers.
Also I thought it was so strange that they would write "I love you" on the message card. Turns out, it was actually from hubby for me addressed to himself though(Just a mistake on his part). He told the story at work and everybody had a laugh at my expense. It was nice to have him back on Friday and we had a relaxed evening. Neil was so excited to see him but then was confused for a little bit. Most of Saturday morning, we played with him. Isn't that a fun expression? Wonder what he is thinking?
Then we played up and down. He loves that.
After that we gave him a haircut. This is the after:
We went to the church for an Independence Day picnic and then came home and relaxed. Today, we went to church, did some shopping and relaxed at home. We had been planning a laundry room makeover for a while and I wanted to do it before I left for India. So I hied myself to Lowes and got a tension rod and then a curtain from Walmart. At 9 pm, I decided that I needed to paint one side. And I did just that. I did two coats and it is not a great job, but I am glad I did it. It is a deep burgundy and tomorrow I plan to do another coat to make it look better. I have another area in the room to paint white and a couple of other things to do and it should be about 75% done. We are planning to put tile on the floor as well, but that won't be until September. The room was really bad looking and this is the way that we come in everyday as it is the connection room to the garage and the kitchen. And since I spend half of my life doing laundry, I thought it should be a cheery place. It is my very first attempt painting and I thought this was a low risk place to try :) Hope you all had a great weekend too and Happy Independence Day to all my American readers.
A funny thing happened while R was away. His office called and asked for our home address. Hubby mentioned that they might send him something for willing to be gone for a trip at such short notice. Wednesday, this arrived. I thought it was nice of the company to send him flowers.
Also I thought it was so strange that they would write "I love you" on the message card. Turns out, it was actually from hubby for me addressed to himself though(Just a mistake on his part). He told the story at work and everybody had a laugh at my expense. It was nice to have him back on Friday and we had a relaxed evening. Neil was so excited to see him but then was confused for a little bit. Most of Saturday morning, we played with him. Isn't that a fun expression? Wonder what he is thinking?
Then we played up and down. He loves that.
After that we gave him a haircut. This is the after:
We went to the church for an Independence Day picnic and then came home and relaxed. Today, we went to church, did some shopping and relaxed at home. We had been planning a laundry room makeover for a while and I wanted to do it before I left for India. So I hied myself to Lowes and got a tension rod and then a curtain from Walmart. At 9 pm, I decided that I needed to paint one side. And I did just that. I did two coats and it is not a great job, but I am glad I did it. It is a deep burgundy and tomorrow I plan to do another coat to make it look better. I have another area in the room to paint white and a couple of other things to do and it should be about 75% done. We are planning to put tile on the floor as well, but that won't be until September. The room was really bad looking and this is the way that we come in everyday as it is the connection room to the garage and the kitchen. And since I spend half of my life doing laundry, I thought it should be a cheery place. It is my very first attempt painting and I thought this was a low risk place to try :) Hope you all had a great weekend too and Happy Independence Day to all my American readers.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Ten Months
Dear Neil,
You are 10 months today. Actually, that is not true. You are 10 months and 5 days today. We were traveling and I did not have computer access, so I am just posting it late. Right now you are playing inside your "prison" fence. You are doing good today. Usually you just cry for me to take you when you are there. Today I am surprised that you are sitting and playing. You are quite a big boy now! What is going on with you?
1. You have four big teeth and I think I can see two more coming. You drool incessantly which tells me that I might be right in my estimation. So far, by God's grace you never had any teething associated problems.
2. You don't like playing with your toys much. You prefer paper, plastic bottles, and stuff like that. What you like best doing when I put you in the fence is to stand there and bite the fence instead of playing with your truck or laptop or anything else. In a way it makes me feel glad we never bought you any toys. It would have just been a waste.
3. You are the funniest baby in the world! Two weeks before we were at Chilis and the music started playing and you started headbanging. It was the funniest thing ever and we took a video also. Also while we were at a bowling alley you started headbanging as well. We all had such a good laugh.
4. You are quite strong and this month you had a fall out of your crib. It made me feel like a horrible mama, but by God's grace you didn't even have a scrape. You go for Gymboree classes and the instructor said you have good upper body strength. I am really happy you are healthy, but that also means you are able to get out of everywhere and I have to watch you like a hawk all the time. There really are not a lot of safe places I can keep you.
5. When you are well rested in the mornings, you wake up and stand in your crib and smile and wave. It is the sweetest sight in the world. You have also returned to your snuggly self and wants to hug when you sleep.
6. You have also started expressing your personality and needs a little bit of disciplining. You understand NO very well and also are quite aware of things you should not be doing but do anyway.
7. You are learning swimming now and it is not going great. You do well in the water. The problem is that you are super attached to me and you will not go to the instructor. And since I don't know swimming, it is a problem and I am hoping that you will get used to sweet Miss Jill soon.
8. You traveled to NYC and DC this month. You are quite the traveler now. You did not do great on the flight there mainly because you were sick. All the travel made you worse and you developed an ear infection. You are doing much better now. I did not enjoy the trip to NY much since you were sick, but we had a blast with your aunt, uncle and cousins. They love you more than any baby should be loved and you were lapping up all the attention. Your cousins had bargaining every day on who gets to sit next to the car seat when we go out and you are a very blessed little boy!
9. Your grandparents also were there for a few days this month and you warmed up fast to them. You loved picking your granddad's glasses, and pulling his whiskers and nibbling his ear. He calls you his second son, the first being your dad.
10. It is a challenge changing your diaper and we are working on it. You and I are going on a very long flight in less than a month and it wouldn't do to have you trying to leap off the changing table and hanging upside down with me holding on to your leg when we are 32,000 feet in the air.
11. Your Appacha and Ammachy and uncle are waiting eagerly to see you. I can't wait to take you there as well. I just hope you don't get sick there. But I know that God is watching over you and takes better care of you than this mama ever could.
12. Mommy is planning your first birthday party. I should have you know that I have not one creative bone in my body, so it should be challenging. I just want to have fun doing it because I want to celebrate you.
Were you not always there with us? I can't imagine a time without you. Now since you are so interactive, it is just boatloads of fun having you around. You are just getting ridiculously cuter everyday. I have no idea how you manage to do that. Your Dada is going to miss you bad while we are in India.
Love,
Mamma
You are 10 months today. Actually, that is not true. You are 10 months and 5 days today. We were traveling and I did not have computer access, so I am just posting it late. Right now you are playing inside your "prison" fence. You are doing good today. Usually you just cry for me to take you when you are there. Today I am surprised that you are sitting and playing. You are quite a big boy now! What is going on with you?
1. You have four big teeth and I think I can see two more coming. You drool incessantly which tells me that I might be right in my estimation. So far, by God's grace you never had any teething associated problems.
2. You don't like playing with your toys much. You prefer paper, plastic bottles, and stuff like that. What you like best doing when I put you in the fence is to stand there and bite the fence instead of playing with your truck or laptop or anything else. In a way it makes me feel glad we never bought you any toys. It would have just been a waste.
3. You are the funniest baby in the world! Two weeks before we were at Chilis and the music started playing and you started headbanging. It was the funniest thing ever and we took a video also. Also while we were at a bowling alley you started headbanging as well. We all had such a good laugh.
4. You are quite strong and this month you had a fall out of your crib. It made me feel like a horrible mama, but by God's grace you didn't even have a scrape. You go for Gymboree classes and the instructor said you have good upper body strength. I am really happy you are healthy, but that also means you are able to get out of everywhere and I have to watch you like a hawk all the time. There really are not a lot of safe places I can keep you.
5. When you are well rested in the mornings, you wake up and stand in your crib and smile and wave. It is the sweetest sight in the world. You have also returned to your snuggly self and wants to hug when you sleep.
6. You have also started expressing your personality and needs a little bit of disciplining. You understand NO very well and also are quite aware of things you should not be doing but do anyway.
7. You are learning swimming now and it is not going great. You do well in the water. The problem is that you are super attached to me and you will not go to the instructor. And since I don't know swimming, it is a problem and I am hoping that you will get used to sweet Miss Jill soon.
8. You traveled to NYC and DC this month. You are quite the traveler now. You did not do great on the flight there mainly because you were sick. All the travel made you worse and you developed an ear infection. You are doing much better now. I did not enjoy the trip to NY much since you were sick, but we had a blast with your aunt, uncle and cousins. They love you more than any baby should be loved and you were lapping up all the attention. Your cousins had bargaining every day on who gets to sit next to the car seat when we go out and you are a very blessed little boy!
9. Your grandparents also were there for a few days this month and you warmed up fast to them. You loved picking your granddad's glasses, and pulling his whiskers and nibbling his ear. He calls you his second son, the first being your dad.
10. It is a challenge changing your diaper and we are working on it. You and I are going on a very long flight in less than a month and it wouldn't do to have you trying to leap off the changing table and hanging upside down with me holding on to your leg when we are 32,000 feet in the air.
11. Your Appacha and Ammachy and uncle are waiting eagerly to see you. I can't wait to take you there as well. I just hope you don't get sick there. But I know that God is watching over you and takes better care of you than this mama ever could.
12. Mommy is planning your first birthday party. I should have you know that I have not one creative bone in my body, so it should be challenging. I just want to have fun doing it because I want to celebrate you.
Were you not always there with us? I can't imagine a time without you. Now since you are so interactive, it is just boatloads of fun having you around. You are just getting ridiculously cuter everyday. I have no idea how you manage to do that. Your Dada is going to miss you bad while we are in India.
Love,
Mamma
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Humbled
I was working on my laptop and my baby was on the floor. Then he saw me and started crawling towards me with lightning speed. I thought "Oh my darling sweet wittle itty bitty darling baby pumpkin ball is coming to mama because he loves me so much and wants to be close to me"
And then he went straight for the laptop wire.
Humbled.
And then he went straight for the laptop wire.
Humbled.
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