Some are on the blog because Anjali is simply beautiful in them.
These are some of the pictures in which she is simply beautiful.
Later that evening, daddy saw Anjali and said that she looks like something out of Gone with the wind in this dress.
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Gosh Anjali, did you know that you are performing miracles with your body?
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Mummy took pictures
Granpa went to sleep
But the Bukit Batok library is small. And they are quite strict with quietness there. So when Anjali started to walk through the library and make dada dada noises, the straight faced librarian marched up to her and said "Sushh", staring down at her. Well, Anjali stared right back for a few seconds and then sauntered to me.
Then, she went to the shelves and started pulling the books off, whereupon, we decided to take her to the children's section, where they were a (precious) little more relaxed about quietness.
To give her credit, it was fine, and we spent a goood half an hour there, picking books, walking around, charming the other children and parents, until Anjali wanted to walk.
Right out of the children's section
Right across the corridor
And right out of the library
There were unborrowed books to be borrowed and we couldnt very well walk out with her. So we picked her up.
And what did she do? You have three choices.
Well, that wasnt very difficult was it? What would a self respecting eleven and a half month old who wants to walk do when she is picked up against her will to go in the opposite direction to the one she wants to go?
"waaaa" "waaa"
That was when the straight faced librarian marched up to us and said "if you cant stop the baby from crying you will have to leave the library." And he breathed down our necks until we picked our bags and ran out of the library.
Well, that was exaggerating it a bit. husband and Anjali ran out of the library, while I stayed back to borrow the books, but it all boils down to the same thing.
Honestly, who ever heard of "stopping the baby from crying?", as if such a thing exists?
Incidentally, the kids at IEP found it very amusing when I told them this story. Jegan kept asking, "Really?"
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She wakes up once at 9pm for a quick drink of milk, arches her back and goes back to sleep, often with her hed on the bed and the rest of her body on my lap, until someone (namely husband) picks her off my plap and puts her on bed, from which she doesnt stir till almost 7.30 in the morning.
So we were glad for the three day break, and chose to spend it quietly, with a trip to the pool on friday, lots of forays into the playground, a shor ttrip to the mall, and a trip to the center for IEP.
So what are the new tricks that Anjali came up with.
1. She wants to walk. All over the place. On Friday, she walked from home to the swimming pool, that was about 1 kilometer. And she refused to be picked up, throwing tantrums when we attempted it. It took husband and me about 45 mintues to reach the pool, but no matter. On saturday, husband reported that they walked all the way from home to granma's house. It took them one hour. of course, the fact that she wants to kick all the leaves, step on all the puddled, turn around and step on them again, peep into the drainage holes, jump across the ditches as opposed to walking on the pavement etc, contribtues to the long walking time.
2. She is very fond of water. At the pool, Anjali is a fish. It has been a while since we took her to the swimming pool. Almost a month. We had gone to the camp, then she was ill and the weather was bad. But it was asif we had never braked. And now Anjali can swim with husband just holding her wrist. The thing is that she is not scared and that is what makes all the difference.
3. She can stand up. That trick made me cry. I felt very sad when Anjali started to walk. It was as if my baby was growing all independent and stretching her wings (and hers are very big), but then I consoled myself saying that, well, if she fell down, she has to crawl to me to get up and walk again. Well, now she falls and picks herself up, smooth as ever. Last Monday, she scooted down from stand to pick a toy, picked herself up again and then walked back to give us the toy. When we got excited and hugged her, she put on a very puzzled look in her face, the wasnt even aware that she had stood by herself and what an important milestone it was.
4. All sorts of buttons. The activity center was for 12 months and above, and i told husband so. But husband insisted that at 6 months old, anjali can have fun with it. (Well, he insisted that she could have fun with it at 3 months), well, we bought the toy when Anjali was about 7 months, and she would just flip the book on top a couple of times, turn the whole thing upseide down, bang a couple of times on the belly of the toy and go on her way. Now she has gotten an obsession with the buttons. The first time she pressed a button and it said "star", she had a very self satisfied smile on her face. Now she likes to press the button to on the "tv", to press the button to make the bird chirp, and of course the button to say "star". and all the other buttons too.
(To be fair to husband, one of Anjali's favorite and most used toys is the piano, and that is for 3 years and above)
5. "Anjali, Where is the meow meow cat?" Anjali is sitting on the floor with a bunch of flash cards around her. Immediately she starts to search through the cards. Suddenly she pauses, looks at me and grins with six teeth. And sure enough, there is the cat. "Give me the cat", I say. And she gingerly picks up the cat and hands it over.
6. "Anjali, in the cycle", i begin. "bruuuuu", she finishes. Anjali goes bruuu in the cycle.
7. Yesterday at IEP Anjali began to blow bubbles. All the kids took one look at the baby saliva dripping from the bubbles and said "eeeee". The adults laughed at the cuteness. And then Ashwin piped up "I can do that also!" and he began to blow bubbles too. i think a couple of other kids wanted to start as well before I nipped the idea in the bud.
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"She waves her hand before", he told me triumphantly, depositing soggy shorts into the washing basket. "She did that when she was in the playground"
If Anjali waved her hands before each time, we would have ten litres of liquid from our walk to granma's every morning.
"Last time she peed", I said, "she stood absolutely still"
"Then again, that is the physical requirement", I added, "So it cant be technically taken as a sign".
What do you think of a girl whose parents put "Staying Still" as a sign for needing something?
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You have three choices.
Didnt need that one did you?
The bag of tricks featured prominently in his talk (taking up almost 25 % of the time allocated to him), as opposed to his wife, who was allocated one sentence (or rather, one word to boot) and who irons his clothes and cooks his meals? A bag of tricks?? Granted the stew that he had yesterday was rather tasteless, but it was a blip. There was no need to take revenge by cutting my airtime.
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And I can tell long stories of how husband buries his nose in a book and refuses to do anything else until the chapter is finished (whole mahabharata wars have been fought over the subject but that is another story...)
So we began with 365 fairy stories, 366 nursery rhymes, stories for children from the bible and such stuff. A little story a day, we told ourself, just before bed time. But it wasnt unheard of for me to sit on the floor plop Anjali in front of me and read from a book to her while she played and blabbed. And most of the time, bed time for Anjali has a "roll on" prefix to the key word. So most of husband's bed time readings were when Anjali was either playing full steam, or when she was cuddled up and almost asleep. I suppose that the neuronal circuits are still active when she sleeps, and knowledge does get transferred, but still, it wasnt how we had imagined it, with baby in the lap, turning the pages as we read to her. (i guess 11 months is too early though.)
Well, all this changed a few weeks ago when granpa returned from India bringing back a rhhymes book. Granma taught Anjali Hickory Dickory dock and Baa Baa Black Sheep and Mary had a lamb. i taught her humpty dumpty, and hey diddle and jack and Jill. And now the rhymes book has become one of Anjali's favorite toys (and has sustained numerous wear and tear, sellotaped to such a great extent by granma). Once in a while, Anjali would toddle over to the rhymes book, open a page, point and say "oom". And we would have to sing a song to her. not just any song, but the rhyme that she pointed to. Try to sing a different song, and she would point again and say "OOOOOM". Her favorite is baa baa black sheep, with hickory dickory coming a close second.
On one of our forays to the library, husband and I discovered Dr Seuss. it has now become a household favorite. husband and I like to say
Walk Walk
We Like to Walk
Talk Talk
We Like to Talk
Hop Pop
We like to hop
we like to hop
on top of pop
Stop you must not hop on pop
and burst into laughter.
And then we would go
thing thing
what is that thing
thing sing
that thing can sing
Song long
a long long song
goodbye thing you sing too long.
And another peal of laughter would follow.
The discovery of Dr Seuss has had us more excited than other, apparently more important things. interesting how parenthood realligns your priorities.
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She picks the water and then tries to catch it.
Husband wanted to put flower petals in the water, but I drew a line there. I drew a much thinner line with the playing of water in the first place, especially as I had just wiped and changed Anjali, but thin lines are often ignored in the house (especially if it concerns prohibiting Anjali from doing something.)
Transcript of Daddy's comments, for those without earphones
"You know, it is not funny. I have seen her pull out whole shelves of books at a time!"
Baystreet is our favorite restaurant at IMM, whenever it is time for Anjali's solid, husband and I make a beeline for baystreet. Good food, nice atmosphere, and a nice highchair for Anjali to eat it, and play in.
After she finished eating, she walking all around the restaurants, bumping into furniture, and testing again to see if she can repeat the bump
In all the baby books there are descriptions of how coarse and fine motor skills are developed in babies. I have seen, and been bought over by several toys that say that they develope hand-eye coordination, gross and fine motor coordination and blah blah blah,
But one of the more successful toys that really does help in these stuff is this bead runner that used to belong to Pranav and Pradeepta
Motor skills aside, I think this is one of the few videos where the bag of tricks actually stays put for the duration of 3 minutes when the video is taken, so the toy should be celebrated.
Anjali, who was very blase and sitting in my hip studying the pavement and cars on the road sensed excitement in my voice and looked
In the arong direction.
"Not there baby, up, at the sky!"
She looked, saw the herons, pointed at them, and a slow smile spread over her face.
"adha"
Yes, birds, on the sky
"ada?"
Where have they gone? For the herons had disappeared behind the trees.
"ta ta ta"
Other birds! More birds, small black ones streaking across the sky, much lower than the herons.
"prrrr"
pigeons, on the ground, outside the temple
"tha tha"
ok, bye pigeons, I am going to granma's house.
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So this morning, I hitched her on to the bike and rode to granma's. Anjali was excited. Got through a round of granma petting and then turned around and saw me eating strawberries. Now, anjali is very fond of eating food - from other people's plates. Yesterday evening Granma had a bowl of yogurt rice and another bowl of vegetables. Did Anjali eat it? Of course not. Instead, she made a beeline for my uppuma (spicy and cooked with condiments) ate a mouthful and kept coming back for more. She kept coming back for mouthfuls until I finished my plate, and then she put on such a morose expression that I had to laugh and get another plate of food - yogurt aval this time. At which point, no matter how much we tried to convince Anjali what i had in my plate was simply a differnet version of what granma had for her (just that hers was mashed and pureed), she refused to eat from granma's plate and wanted to eat my aval.
And this morning, Anjali saw me eating strawberries and made a straight beeline for my plate.
"mum mum mum"...
"Ok", I said, holding one end of the strawberry.
Anjali opened her mouth and bit through half the strawberry (she has six teeth now, so she can bite pretty well). The half strawberry went down pretty fast and she was back.
"Just hold the strawberry in your hand and dont give her. Let's see what she does", said granpa. Granpa always likes to do such tests with Anjali. Likes to see her asking for stuff and pointing at Om Namo Bagavate Vasudevaya (the Krishna picture), Mother's symbol (outside granma's door) and the exit sign before the elevator lobby.
So I just held the strawberry in my hand. Anjali toddled towards me and started jumping "mmmmm ummmm"
So we laughed and I held one end of the rest of the strawberry. But somehow, she managed to pull the whole other end of the strawberry into her mouth.
Granpa got stressed. "She will eat the stem"
"Let her" said granma and I. by now, Granma and I are used to Anjali's eating skills and are not too bothered by what she puts in her mouth. We know that for the most part, she will either swallow, or if it is too difficult, spit out the fibre after eating the juice. We tried to tell granpa. But nothing doing.
"Take it out!" And when granpa is stressed, his teeth get ground into pulp. So granma put her finger in Anjali's mouth and took out a mass off red pulp, with no sign of the stem whatsoever. The imp had chewn and swallowed it.
Then we wa upset because we had taken the strawberry out of her mouth before she was done with it, and so granpa went in and brought another strawberry, with the stem cut off this time.
That strawberry went down pretty fast too, in two great bites. And the next time granpa told me to not give her the strawberry but to watch what Anjali did, she didnt even bother with the umum ums. She came straight up to me, opened her mouth and said "aaa". I could not, but put the berry in her mouth.
Then it was time for me to go to work. Anjali went with granpa to the lift, but when she saw me, handbag up on the shoulder, lunchbag in arm, she realized that I was going off and did the koala bear act, which goes something like this:
One hand clutching my sleeve and the other hand clutching my collar and chain, both legs wrapped round my waist. Everyone else is ignored, and the clutch get tighter if someone tries to take her away. Yesteray granma and I tried a trick. I would turn her around and crarry her like husband does and then hand her over to granma, say bye and slip off without much fuss. It worked.
But today the imp cottoned on. She refused to be turned around and kept holding fast to my sleeve. For about five minutes, till she got distracted by something on the street and let go. Wonder what will happen tomorrow.
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So , when it was decided that Anjali was going to walk in Bukit Timah, Granma kept on reminding mummy and daddy to put a lot of anti mosquito lotion on Anjali before bringing her there. As Anjali was alseep, the said lotion was packed in her haversack and packed in our arms along with the little girl.
Alighting at the bus station a few minutes later I decided to put the lotion on her. The imp, sitting in her father's arms looked very politely curious at the light blue bottle with its clear liquid, patiently smiling and waiting for me to finish putting the lotion on her arms and legs.
"A tantrum is going to come" I said to husband, as I finished putting the lotion, cloed the bottle, put it in the haversack and closed the zip.
And come it did, the minute the zip was closed and Anjali realized that she would not be given a chance to play with the blue bottle.
Now the question to ask is this: I let Anjali play with all her lotion abd cream bottles after using them on her, and closing them. I would have let her play with this one too, had it not been for the mosquito repellent in it. So it was natural of her to expect the bottle, and to cry a bit when she realized that it did not come to her. i felt guilty about not giving it to her.
So where should you draw the line? At the truly dangerous stuff like mosquito repellents, or at all lotions, so that she would not even expect the bottle after it has been used? I would think it would be better for her to throw a tantrum at not having a dangerous thing, than to not know about the class of items in general. But the cry is heartbreaking all the same.
At the brunch on Sunday, we were visited by a short tropical downpour, which left all the tables in Rajah uncle's garden with puddles of water. Anjali went straight to the table and splashed with the water, in short, having a ball of a time. A friend, who was watching, remarked, "You are having a good time, arent you? Would mummy let you do this at home?"
Mummy was suddenly overcome with guilt. As she remembered the time when she let daddy take Anjali downstairs and the two of them came back sopping wet from the rainfall (on purpose, as they had gone down to enjoy the rain). Instinctively I kow that it is the right thing to do, to let Anjali experience the world, play with water (all montessori schools are supposed to have several activities involving kids playing with water), but traditionally it is not correct.
So, besides your instinct, what is correct and what is not? What is socially acceptable, as opposed to what makes your child happy? When do we draw lines, other than what our insticts tell us, and how right are our instincts?
husband's now reading a lot of books on bringing up babies, activities for teens and such. Myself,I want to raise the questions and introspect with them.
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Well, we took her to the forest yesterday and she got very excited. The wrinkle nose smile camwe on again, after being absent for a very long time. I think Anjali puts on the wrinkle nose smile whhen she is very excited. When she was about six months old, she had it on permanently. That was because she was just starting to interact with the world and everything was new and surprising. So the wrinkle nose smile was there perpetually all the time. Not, she is more all less used to all the things in the city - the cars, trains, alphabet books, water fountains etc make her smile and explore, but nothing has excited her much, since she is so used to everything.
Until she saw the monkeys in the forest. Initially she started to chase after the monkeys. Later, husband and I waled with Anjali behind everyone else (as we took it much slower and let Anjali walk on the forest floor), everytime she saw a monkey, she would point, and (if she was on someone's arms) jump, or else chase, with the wrinkle nose smile on for the whole duration of the monkey sighting.
And then she kept pointing and umming at all the leaves and wanted to touch them. At the brunch, she was quite intrigues by Rajah uncle's garden, with its swings and balls on the lawn. What struck her the most was, however, the fish tank. The wrinkle nose smile came on again and she kept following the fish with her fingers.
Husband now wants to eventually get a fish tank. i guess it is a good idea, since fish are relatively easier to maintain than dogs (husband wants to get dogs also. says that we look after the kids and the kids look after the dogs :P) . But I am still scared of fish dying, cant forget what happened last time granma kept fish, and we had to compose eulogies once in a while.
As Rajah uncle's son - in law put it, his kids went for a fishing party, and came back with a bag of fish. They had to get a fish tank, but by that time, the original group of fish were dead and gone, and a new group of fish had to be bought to go in the tank.
Well, let's give Anjali more time.
Anjali also discovered the joy of eating rice crispies (Lakshmi had them, and Anjali took one too) - organic baby finger food. However, i must say I was surprised at how fast the biscuit went in. Ofcourse, we are talking about the girl who chipes away sportively at my cookies (the rock hard ones) for minutes at a stretch and uses them (only when she is bored) to try to break one of her toys. Yesterday she dropped it on the ground and husband actually went and checked if the ground had a crack.
Two days ago, we put on a very pretty frock on Anjali, a green one that is a mite too long. That made her look less like a baby and more like a lady, and Adi and I were very scared out by how fast she was growiing. She looked so ladylike when she stood up/
But then she threw water all over the front of the dress and we had to change her into one of her usual t-shirts and all was well again.
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