Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Acorns

I got asked this question by Raj recently - "Ever seen a squirrel when it finds an acorn?".
"It holds the precious acorn up in both paws. Gets it close to its snout. Then it smells and tastes the acorn, nibs at it as it holds it up in both paws close to its mouth". 

He didn't need to explain why we were suddenly talking about squirrels. I knew instantly when I turned to look at little Bobby boy. 

Here we have our very own squirrel, holding up both his fists in front of his mouth, like they were something very precious and not to be shared. He tastes and nibbles at these acorn hands of his. Luckily he's toothless so the acorns are safe. For now! :) 

Pull up Bar to Touchdown

As a newborn baby little Bobby has liked to keep his hands in a tight fist, both fists close to each cheek and tightly held. For first several weeks I couldn't even get to the inside of his elbows at bath time, cause the arms are tightly held in position. It's like an invisible pull up bar exists in front of him, and he's holding on tight. In fact, the sure sign of deep sleep would be when the fists start opening up and the arms fall down or sideways. 

After a few months of a rigorous pull up routine, little Bobby boy had now moved to umpire football games, and has been recently spotted sleeping in the touchdown position - both arms straight up! 

This is me reporting live for Sports Illustrated. For further updates, stay tuned!

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Roly Poly

Typically little Bobby boy wakes up from the night's sleep between 430 and 530am. Has his fill of milk and most days goes back to sleep. Then, he wakes up again between 7 and 830. This time, he has his milk and now, is wide awake. It's time to play! He's looking for faces to smile at, laugh with, giggle and cycle together. 

Yesterday, after a good session of play time together, I was putting the boy in his crib for tummy time while I go and brush. It's no secret. He does not like his tummy time, he tries to get himself out of it and swing back on his back, but he can't on his own, most of the time he ends up frustrated (some other times he gives up and goes to sleep!). This day, though, he was somehow able to swing from his tummy to his back! I clapped and cheered and hooted when I saw what he did. He stared back at me wondering what all the fuss was about! 

Later on the day, he did it again. This time little miss Haana saw it too and we both made some noise together! My boy has turned into a roly poly!!!

In another roly poly news, little miss Haana has decided to keep a roly poly as a pet. Her name is Rola. Miss Haana created a habitat for Rola, and there she lives. I've been trying to convince her to release Rola to the "wild", but that's still work in progress!

Here's to all the roly polys of the world! :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Boppy Pillow

For those who don't know, a boppy pillow is a semi circular shaped (moon shaped) pillow used for nursing. I've had one since little miss Haana was born. It has a flowery pink pillow case. Now, it's little Bobby boy's turn to lay on it. However, the pillow has not always been this popular. 

Little miss Haana refused to nurse quite early on, and so the pillow was rarely used by her. Now that the big sister sees the boy lay on the pillow quite a bit, a new found love for the pillow has been discovered. Quite often, when the boy is fixing to turn in for the night, he lays there on the pink boppy pillow and starts falling asleep on my lap. Along comes little miss Haana, and lays down next to us on the bed with her head on the boppy. 

Boppy, who's spent much of its last 8 and a half years lying in some corner ignored or suffocating in the closet, has never felt so popular, amidst not one but both the babies.

Both Boppy and I couldn't be happier! :)

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Food

Food is a necessity of life. Most literally for babies. American Association of Pediatrics recommend babies be given only the mother's milk or formula for the first 6 months of life. 

I've been lucky to be able to breastfeed the boy. Last time with little miss Haana, breastfeeding had some bumps along the road. And because of that I had to exclusively pump. Expressing milk is a lot of time and effort (tons of bottle washing multiple times a day, sanitizing the bottle and breast pump parts, spending beaucoup time expressing milk, saving milk, warming milk, freezing milk, carrying breast pump everywhere; the list goes on). Expressing milk also needs a lot of help.. the baby still needs to be fed and taken care of, watched and talked to, while I am expressing milk for the next feeding. Luckily there was a lot of help when miss Haana was little. She had a nanny and we had grand parents visiting. All of this pumping had plenty of up side too. Little miss Haana was able to get breast milk for her entire first year. And that's certainly worth all of that effort.

This time though, armed with experience, and much to be thankful for, things have been much smoother.. 🤞

New Cool Thing

In little Miss Haana's violin class, her teacher asked me today about miss Haana's little brother,   "So, what's the cool new thing he's been doing?". 
I thought there are quite a few things he's been doing lately... holding on to things tightly now, sleeping for longer in the night - a good 6-8 hours most days, moving hands and legs about etc. But I didn't say any of that. Because the coolest thing by far, that's so off the charts that it doesn't even compare is.. he laughs!

And that's not all. He likes people talking to him. So much so that sometimes if he's by himself, he cries out. And as soon as sometime comes along to check on him, and makes eye contact with him, he breaks into a smile! It's the sweetest smile! And then he coos and giggles and gurgles too. Enough to send us to the moon! 

The little boy making eye contact, 'talking' in earnest and giggling when he fancies, is the best thing ever!

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Rag Doll

For the most part little Bobby boy is treated like a precious porcelain doll, with utmost affection and handled with caution and care. There are a few exceptions. 

The little boy likes to play! No longer satisfied with just feeding and sleeping (and pooping!); when he's awake and fed, he wants to talk and interact. He wants people respond to his gurgling conversation, he wants fun and games, he wants to cycle his legs along while listening to animated stories. And when other people would call out his name or respond to him, he'll break into the sweetest melt-your-heart smile!

Most people would look at that smile and laugh out loud with joy! But not little miss Haana. Unable to quite contain the happiness bursting out of her, she gives her little brother big sloppy kisses smack on his cotton candy cheeks, and locks him in a bear hug! Then she buries her big (in comparison) face into his head and gives him more kisses and hugs. I lean in, jealous. I want to be part of this aggressive kissing circle too! 

Occasionally little miss Haana lets me in, and we both target 1 boy cheek each. But most of the times, I watch; laugh and complain how she treats the boy like a ragdoll, and roughs him up. She laughs and continues. Little Bobby boy doesn't mind at all. In fact, he's out there laughing, enveloped in hugs and cycling the whole time. Not quite a porcelain doll after all!


Thursday, June 4, 2020

I am Upset

This happened twice yesterday: little miss Haana got upset and she claimed that little Bobby boy was mad at her. 

Yesterday morning, little miss Haana and I were playing and cooing with Bobby boy. The boy was on his changing pad. Suddenly little miss Haana's hand flicked the strap of the changing pad and the buckle hit the boy on his face. It didn't really hit him that much, but it caught him by a surprise. A surprise that he didn't like. He started crying, looking very unhappy. I proceeded to pick him up to comfort him, but for little miss Haana the damage was done. She felt really upset and left immediately. I finally found her a little while later moping in her room. 

Later that evening, little miss Haana and I were playing and talking to little Bobby boy and he smiled his patented melt-your-heart most wonderful smile! Of course it melted our hearts and both little miss Haana and I laughed. Haana then let out a high pitched yelp full of excitement and love. Only the little boy was caught by surprise and immediately the smile turned upside down into a frown. He cried. Little miss Haana went from feeling elated to feeling like a disappointment. And she slunked away. 

I found her in her room moping under a blanket. She claimed the little boy is mad at her, he doesn't even like her. Aww, i thought, how does she come up with such crazy ideas! I reminded her how he loves her talking to him, how he listens intently to her playing the violin - even when he may have been upset, how he listens to her reading to him. He must love all those things she does for him. And then I reminded her, he's just a baby yet. He doesn't know how to be mad at someone just yet. He just got surprised at something happening to him suddenly, that's all! And he doesn't know of any other way to communicate than to cry. 

It took sometime, but she eventually came around, and all is well in my world again!


Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Sweet Dreams

Sweet little Bobby baby asleep in my lap is my favorite place in the whole wide world. Little miss Haana likes to come and lie down with her head on the boppy pillow next to bobby too. 

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Grunter

Isn't it amazing that babies, even newborns - born with no experience of the world - already have their own set of likes and dislikes, preferences and opinions. Even though they are tiny and can't hold their head straight or walk or talk or do much, a baby is still its very own person!

With the second child, one has the luxury or the menace of comparison. As little Bobby boy grows we discover more and more of him, there are some things apparent right away. 

Little miss Haana could sleep inside a ringing alarm clock. Even though, like most kids, she did resist falling asleep. But once she was ready to sleep, not much could change her mind from it. This became apparent when she was 11 days old. We had taken her for her first visit to the temple. We happened to be there at the time of evening service: aarti. The bells were ringing, people were singing, music was playing, lights were on, there were several people around; all of that was going on. And this little baby decided its time to sleep, and nothing else really mattered, she slept righy through it all.

Little Bobby boy, though, is much different. He needs just the right environment for finally succumbing to sleep. Lights dimmed, blinds closed,  lullabies singing, the baby in a bouncer or arms swinging, blanket warm and cozy. And even then, Bobby boy would keep opening his eyes to see if he's missing out on anything. I've resorted to an old tactic I used with little miss Haana. I cover the naughty baby eyes with my hand. This is my way of manually closing the baby eyes, much like the dolls with eyelids that get stuck and need to be purposefully closed! Miss Haana used to fight it when I would put my hand over eyes, little Bobby boy seemingly accepts his fate but in fact tries to check if the hand is gone repeatedly by opening his eyes now and again. 

Little Bobby boy is also quite a noisy camper. He grunts and stretches, then grunts and turns. He grunts and closes his eyes, and grunts and cycles his feet. He's a grunter! This is actually not bad for the most part. Little miss Haana in comparison, was and is, a very quiet sleeper. In fact, when she was a baby, i used to go over and put my hand on her to make sure she's still breathing. No such testing is required for the boy. For sometime it appeared that perhaps little Bobby boy is uncomfortable. We didn't know how to make him more comfortable. I even recorded his grunting to check with his pediatrician. But with time we have concluded, Bobby boy is a grunter! And indeed the cutest grunter too!