Magpie G

This blog is/was to be a mommyblog, and I seem to be writing more about myself. What's new with the baby? The baby is a toddler - 19 months old! No longer the baby, who would take 3 naps in the day!!! It takes all my skill and patience to get her to take a single nap in the day, time which I put to use by prioritizing between doing cleaning, cooking, or one of my trivial pursuits.

Every night G's dad and me talk about what new stuff she is upto - she said this, a new antic, a new tantrum, a small milestone achieved - and our little bundle of joy is lying between us, sleeping the sleep of innocents, mouth slightly open, oh, so cute (even if i say so)! Maybe this is my singular achievement of my life, is all I can say right now.

I often think back to the brand new baby i got back from the hospital. We had finalised on her name, but it was difficult for me to use that at first and i used to call her baby!! F already had many endearments for her - puttu, puttama, nanamma! My mom had wanted to call her Gungun and so evolved a few more nicknames from that - gunni, gunnu.....I noticed she sleeps with her lips puckered up into a perfect O and i called her guppy, and soon that was distorted to gubby and gabbu and gabbu ben, .... G of course answers to them all.

G was a very restless baby, colicky, a very very light sleeper. For the first six months, she would sleep in an upright position on my chest. Those were some crazy days............on-demand feeding, cleaning poop after every feeding, getting back to normal energy levels, trying to function on interrupted sleep schedules, and managing to beat depression in the depressing weather of Belgium. Add to this, to give her her bitter zantac for her GERD, that used to be so difficult for me, but G actually started liking it, she would get very upset if her medicine was delayed.

A little less than 1 month old G was diagnosed to have acid reflux. She would spit up all the time, after every feed. She was never comfortable sleeping on her back, her favorite sleeping position, if not on my chest, was on her stomach, with her little tush up in the air. What with so much on SID, I would look in every 10 mins or so on her to see if she was breathing.

2 months old and G would smile. Her face would look even fairer in her baby white sweater, one of her baby outfits I am so sentimental about and plan to keep for ever. She would keep looking at daddy's corner where he would be busy working on his laptop. 3 months old and G's nani left for India and ajji arrived. I don't think she really registered that, or maybe a changed pair of hands doing malish and giving her her bath, she must have.

5 months old G could turn like a pro, blow bubbles, kick her legs, and giggle and scream..........She would be awake in her cradle and talk to the teddy bears and deer and clown hanging on top. Paper of any kind was grist to her mill and she would also keep some hidden in her cheeks like the bonnet macaques. She had gone on a few day trips in Belgium and a 2 day trip to Paris.

I started introducing her to solids when she was 6 months old and. Cerelac, fruit puree, she liked it. She started crawling on her stomach. 7 month old G was alone with mom and dad. Ajji returned to India. G was too busy crawling on her knees and exploring.

8 months old, crawling long accomplished, G would clutch at things and stand. G was 9 months old when she went on her second trip - Rome. She behaved like a well-seasoned traveller, the trip was a dream. That was the time she got well acquainted with pigeons, and back home, watches out for them from the balcony.

We celebrated her 1st birthday quietly. She still remembers balloons put up for her all over the room and the ceiling and always points up when she sees a balloon. G looked like a boy till she was at least 1 year old, after which I got her ears pierced and her hair grew long enough. All shoes were wasted on her as she would just not allow me to put on her shoes. But the India trip cured that, my dad taught her to walk in shoes and she got used to it. She used to say two words by then, 'this' and 'this is'. She became famous for these words.

G had her namkaran ceremony at 13 months. Dressed in a chania-choli, she looked like a little princess. She enjoyed all the attention and let us sit for the pooja - homa, whilst she was whisked away by one or the other doting relatives. She learnt to do a proper namaskar to God's in the puja room. I did not want to get her back to the very quiet and secluded life we lead here. But the day she was 15 months old, we were back in Belgium.

Ok, so who am I kidding? I am a very bad chronicler of my baby's life and activities. Over the last 3, no make it 4 months, she does so many things. She shakes her head once - no- for food. If you don't catch that gesture, she will spit food out of her mouth. She loves to play hide and seek and keeps running to hide behind the fridge. She seems shy of speaking, and does not say much beyond da-da, ma-ma, ta-ta. Maybe its a result of exposure to 3 languages at home. She is my little helper - will empty the washing machine for me, help tuck the bedsheets whilst making the bed, empty my shopping bag for me.............. What she can't say with words, she can make you understand with animated gestures and signs and manage to get her message across very well.

When she sleeps, at last, time stands rather still. All I know is that it is thanks to G that my life is so much more fuller and happier these days. She's like Mary's little lamb who follows you all through the day!