Ashu is one!

My boy is getting older and wiser. He turned one year old last month. Some of the developmental milestones he has reached are:

He has started taking a few steps.
He has started calling Rahul papa.
Around the 11th month, he started waving goodbye.
He can say ma ma ma or mummy. Sometimes it feels like he is trying to call me, but when Rahul asks him call mumma, he stays quiet. Whereas, if I ask him call Papa, he will say Pa pa Pa Pa (पै पै पै पै).
He loves playing games with us: आटे बाटे दही चटाखे बीच की चंदिया हप. एक खूंटा गाए का, एक खूंटा पापा का, एक खूंटा मम्मा का, एक खूंटा भैया का, एक खूंटा अशविन का. और बछिया कहाँ गयी? खो गयी पा गयी, खो गयी पा गयी, पा गयी पा गयी पा गयी! Peek-a-boo is still fun, he wants to growl like a bear, he loves to wake up Sameer. He screams with joy when I take him to Sameer's room to wake up his big brother and tries to jump right away from my arms onto Sameer's bed. He will pull on his hair and scream some more to wake him up. Sameer enjoys it too most of the time. In fact Ashwin wants to play with Sameer and do everything that Sameer is doing. He wants what Sameer is eating, in the same plate, play with Sameer's toys, read Sameer's books.

Ashwin is getting really interested in drawing (discovering using pencil colors and crayons) since Sameer loves to draw. So a couple weeks ago Ashwin started demanding crayons as usual when Sameer was drawing. I finally let him take one and this time, instead of putting it in his mouth, he actually used it to make some scribbles. He enjoyed it so much, he kept doing it for almost 4-5 minutes!

He enjoys his stacking rings, playing with a ball, taking things out of drawers and cabinets and putting them elsewhere, including the trash can. We are missing two fridge magnets that I let him play with and one soft red ball. We have looked everywhere, and I have a feeling they have ended up in the trash. He loves to scream. Maybe when I manage to record a video of the screaming matches that take place in our house, I will post it here. Ashwin starts them and Sameer takes on from there!
He babbles quiet a bit and he will point at things and rattle off a string of sentences in his own language. Sometimes I am able to understand them, but when I am not, he gets frustrated very quickly. Then, he will scream (the crying one), he will scratch at me and anything else he can find, throw things and just act like a mad baby -- why can't you understand what I am trying to say! Sameer finds this behavior and anything else  Ashwin does is funny for him. Sameer actually loves babies! I did not know that until now. He has sung to our neighbor's baby and cuddled another baby he met at a party.
Ashwin enjoys people's company for the most part. He loves it when people play with him, as long as he in our lap or sitting with us and he loves being coddled.

Ashwinat 10 months - Sameer at 4 and 1/2

Ashwin started clapping two days ago, loves to play peek-a-boo on his own with his feeding apron, loves to bite :-(, enjoys eating green beans on his own, but also likes being fed grated kashifal with सौंफ, उपमा or चावल. he loves cheerios, loves to pull on Sameer's hair and enjoys drumming with his hands, everywhere, including our faces and head :-)

Ashwin at 8 months

Hallu ram is what we call him these days. He wants to throw a baby tantrum every time he is denied getting a look at something he wants. Sometimes we don't even realize that he was busy looking at something when it got interrupted. He loves coming into the study in our house and once I took him back after a short conversation with Rahul. He started throwing his head back and screaming before I realized that he wanted to stay back in the study. He will grab onto all the wrong things -- wires, plastic bags and such and get really upset if take those things away from him :-)

Sameer is also not too happy with the way Ashwin keeps getting into his stuff, breaking his lego creations, crushing his drawings. Sadly, Sameer will still leave his stuff lying around. But the moment Sameer sees Ashwin crawling toward the formal living area, which has become mostly Sameer's play area, or the bookshelves in the family room,  Sameer will leave anything he is doing midway and start shouting at us to stop Ashwin. Since he is easily standing up now and also taking a few steps while holding onto things, he has a much better reach as compared to before. So far so good. I wonder how I am supposed to deal with the two in a year's time when Ashwin would be a lot more demanding and a lot more capable of having his way.

Ashwin is crawling

Ashwin started crawling before he completed 6 months. He had been trying to move around and would swivel himself on his stomach for a 360 degree view. Around the time he turned 5 and a half month old, he had slowly started crawling. Now he has become faster and is able to quickly reach anything he is interested in. He loves slippers, I think I need to get him a pair that he can use just for chewing. I guess it's soft and chewy and light enough to grab on to. Sameer also had a big fascination for slippers as a baby. With him, eventually we had to stop wearing slippers in the house- just socks- for the longest time.

These days, Ashwin is really interested in trying to stand up. While he can easily stand on his knees, he has been able to stand on his feet at the bottom of stairs, holding onto steps, as well as the loveseat, while holding the handle. He loves getting everyone's attention, including strangers, always ready to reward people with a smile. Sameer did not have much stranger anxiety either, but neither do I remember him being as 'social'.

Ashwin's first tooth

Ashwin is five months and a half now and he is already getting his first tooth. Sameer's first tooth came out around the same age. I used to wonder if Ashwin will follow in Sameer's footsteps or will it be different for him. Already he is starting to enjoy his food. It's only a few spoons right now. So far we have tried bananas, avocados and carrot puree. Up until two days ago, he lost interest after three bites. But he is getting more interested in food and eating. It takes time as he will usually grab the spoon from me and then try to put it in his mouth: not to feed himself but just as a natural reaction of putting everything in the mouth. But if there is any food in the spoon and he succeeds in getting it in by chance, he seems to get a little surprised as he then looks at me in wonder.

Sameer loves to play with him. One game they both really enjoy is when Sameer will lift Ashwin's feet in the air, hide his face (whatever he can cover including the eyes) behind Ashwin's feet and then say Boo! by separating his feet in a V-shape. It's supposed to be a good exercise for babies anyways.

Ashwin at 4 months and other things

Ashwin has started rolling both ways ever since he completed four months and a half. He had been trying since the time he turned three months, but somehow he wasn't able to do either. And then one day Sameer shouted to us that Ashwin has rolled on his own from his tummy to his back. The next day he again rolled from his tummy to his back. Guess what, his 'maalish' and diaper changes have already become a bit hard, as he wants to do a 'palti' from his back to his tummy all the time. Some other things he really enjoys is being held up on his feet. He loves to climb on me or splash water in his bath tub while I hold him up, or just stand in one place to look around. He really enjoys watching TV! It doesn't matter if it's ads or a game or a movie. He'll watch it so intently.

He has very good neck control already. He has always enjoyed lying on his tummy and that might have helped. He loves to talk to me and Rahul and wants to touch us, our faces and Sameer's as well. With Sameer, he loves to watch what Sameer is doing. Sameer also loves to watch Ashwin in action, letting Ashwin pull his hair at times. Today Ashwin pulled off his hat and started sucking on it and Sameer found it really funny and then Ashwin started smiling on seeing Sameer laugh so hard.

Although I did catch Sameer twisting Ashwin's ear one day (yes!). I wonder what will happen once Ashwin starts crawling.

Aha, that reminds me, today he managed to scoot backward a little, just a little, but it was still exciting to see that. He is able to lift himself on his arms really well and will try to lift himself on his legs. I know there is still some time before he'll really be able to do that, but it's so much fun to see him try.

He is not as seedha (सीधा) as he used to be. He hates being left alone for more than a few minutes. Earlier he would be content playing with a rattle and some other small toys that we gave him, but not anymore. This evening I had to have Sameer sing to him all kinds of songs that Sameer could remember while I was in the kitchen. In the mornings, I'll take him out in our backyard and front yard for a little bit, before putting him down for his morning nap.

I can't believe it's almost time to start his solid feeds. Somehow he seems so small for it. We are planning to start him on solids once he turns five months. Sameer was a wonderful eater, very adventurous. I have a feeling that Ashwin will be the same way, maybe even better, in that he will start feeding himself earlier than Sameer.

Some things I wanted to note about Sameer are: he plays bowling on Wii really well! Somehow his hand action is wonderful. He usually gets a strike. I don't know if it's luck or skill. We need to take him to a real bowling alley soon. He has been learning to add on his own for a few months now and he loves it. He loves to read, and he is beginningto learn to read on his own. He has moved on from fiction to non-fiction now. He really enjoys books about places, he is big time into space and planets. His favorite book these days is Touchdown Mars! It's actually a very nice book about flying to mars and coming back. Each page highlights a word with a letter. So the first page has A for astronaut, third page has C for countdown etc. He found it himself in the library and we have been renewing it since then. He has been trying to use logic and rational thought, although all logic is lost when he is in a bad mood. But otherwise it's fun to carry a conversation with him. I have to remember to note down some incidents, otherwise I forget them.

Will add other things as and when I remember them.

Another badmashilal

Ashwin was born on January 28th, 2011 in the morning. He came in the middle of snow and icy rain :-) It was a tough one for Rahul. He had to take care of Sameer, me and the house, all by himself as mummy-papa were still at the Delhi airport, getting ready to catch their flight.

But all's well that ends well. Sameer has been wonderfully supportive. He does get a bit moody and I know he would like to see more of me, but so far there have been enough people around to help him when I am not available. Most importantly, he has been very understanding of the fact that I will not be available as much as I was before.

I thank god that Ashwin has the love and blessings of so many people -- immediate family members, cousins, friends, everyone we know was thrilled to see him.

He turned one month old yesterday and some of the memorable things I want to record about him are:

his crying, it's such a sweet, pleading cry. he'll also make this sound gai, gai (गै, गै) while crying.

the way he'll shape his mouth into an 'o' and look around at us, at things around him and make these fast breathing noises.

his stares, without batting an eyelid when he is trying to concentrate on something or someone. They actually remind me of mom, his nani. She used to have that look on her face when she was in deep thought.

He loves to lie down on his tummy -- at his sponge time and any other time he is awake.