Poll Time

Ok people - please provide me your honest opinions on this childcare issue that has been a lot on my mind lately. For a 2 yr 9 month old toddler who is not too fond of leaving mommy all day long and is generally a shy personality in public (a naughty brat at home or amongst close friends though), what would you personally prefer as a childcare arrangement while mommy is away at work:

• Daycare?
• Maid at Home?
• Combination of Both?
• Not Sure

Please use the poll I have created on the right navigation bar here and send me your detailed thought process behind your vote in the comments section if possible. I have had lot of issues finding the right maid for my little girl and have gone through atleast 6 of them in the last 6 months. Each had their pros and cons and I have even tried daycare which has its pros and cons too. But am unable to make up my mind on what I prefer more - her comfort of being in her own home with a maid I may or may not trust or her discomfort of being outside of her familiar surroundings at a day care but with caregivers I may grow to trust. Get the picture? I think most of you working moms go through this and figure out what works for your family the best. I am trying to work it out at present with a lot of different options that I have either tried already or want to try without upsetting her too much. Sigh...the dilemma!

A little bit of this and that...

Do any of you have issues with the blogroll on your blogs not updating with the latest articles? If you notice carefully, the blogroll that I have on the right, that is supposed to be showing all the blogs I frequent often with titles of the most recent articles, has stopped updating all of a sudden. It used to be that earlier I would just go to my blog and see which of you have written new posts and gladly catch up right away. But now I have to actually go into each blog and see if there are any new posts or not. Annoying behavior by blogger.com I must say. Anybody else out there noticing this bug? Any ideas on how to fix this?

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On a different note, got an award from newmumontheblock a few days ago. And thank god you posted it in my comments to come and collect it, coz with my blogroll acting the way I just described, I would never have known that you have it posted out there for me to collect :-)

Thanks a lot newmum! I write so little compared to other moms out there in the blogosphere so to get noticed and praised by some of you readers makes each such award so much more precious to me!

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Read this article a few days ago on TOI and was so inspired by it coz it says almost what I have always wanted to do for so long. I am now very tempted to go invest in a sewing machine and do some itsy bitsy tailoring myself by reusing some very good dupattas and stuff I have stashed away. I remember making dresses for my doll when I was a kiddo and do so much more in the arts and crafts area - thanks to my wonderful mom who got me interested in it. I want to pass on the same gene to my daughter as well so one of these days will definitely restart in that area if possible :-) Do give this article a read and let me know what other ideas come to your mind. I for one have a bag for my tailor ready to cut short some long kurtas I have from salwar suits stiched over 5 years ago. Times change so quickly na - then it used to be all about wearing long kurtas and now it is back to short kurtis and tights (Mumtaz style all over again). I never used to care for all these fashion changing cycles until I was in the US coz I was all about jeans and trousers then. But now, being in India, and especially working in India makes me want to not stand out in the crowd you know what I mean? I'll stick like a sore thumb if I wear all those age old long salwar suits to work now :-) Not that I am comfortable wearing salwar suits to work anyway coz have never done that in the last 11 years of my work life...was always wearing trousers or skirts or something non-Indian. But I do need to do something with all those suits sitting in my wardrobe you know! So dear readers, do give that article a read and send more ideas my way. Would love to hear abt your creative sides. Or you can also tell me where to shop for corporate wear here in Bangalore. I am still wearing clothes I owned from the US but sooner or later will need to buy Indian na :-)

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Just read this post by Preeti and can soooo empathize with her (having gone through similar maid related nightmares myself as of late). Just thinking of it makes me exhausted, forget about typing all of it. All I can say is - nothing is permanent and especially NOT in the childcare department! The poor child has to go through so many changes in such an early age, thankfully they are so adaptable or else we, our lives, our happiness, careers, everything would go for such a toss! We are on to our third maid in the last 5 months (for babysitting) and that too after giving daycare an honest try. Sigh! Does this ever settle down?

My First Tag!

Yup - have had my first blogging award and now my first tag ever from NewMumOntheBlock! Now I feel like I truly belong to the blogging world...yay! So here I go telling the world about 7 random things about myself...those interested in listening do read on...others - sorry to subject you to such random nonsense about me :-)

First, the rules:

1. You have to tag seven people

2. You have to link their pages in your tag post

3. You have to leave a comment in their comments section telling them they've been tagged.

4. You have to say who tagged you.

1. I am not fond of chocolates or ice-creams. And every single time I mention that to anyone, I hear a huge gasp and it never fails to amuse me. But that's the truth...somehow I always wonder what is it about chocolate that makes the world melt. I do like cold drinks (mostly non healthy sodas like Thumbsup) and desserts such as gulab jamuns and besan laddus though.


2. I have always longed for a perfect hair cut for myself. I sigh when I see others walking with such perfect looking haircuts and I go with pictures to each recommended salon/stylist explaining what I want. But yet I end up with something not even close to what I imagined and always end up wondering if there is anything that can be done with boring straight hair.


3. Having a child has not only changed everything in my life but also changed me as a person. It just has made me look at the world with a new pair of eyes, think with an entirely new perspective and has made me develop a new found respect for so many types of people and situations now that it is unimaginable.


4. I feel like I am a mix of an extrovert as well as an introvert as a person. I am generally wary of walking into a room full of strangers and striking captivating conversations but on the other hand, am absolutely comfortable in reaching out to strangers one on one if needed and connecting to them. Wierd right?


5. I like the idea of being creative :-) I mean I think I am a little creative in life (thanks to my mom who taught me tonnes of things such as fabric painting, nib painting, embroidery, knitting etc. and who inculcated all this interest in me) but given our day to day lives, I hardly find time or the drive to keep it alive. Hence my statement - I like the 'idea' of being creative. I have a whole storage shelf full of 'arts and crafts' stuff to inspire me but when I really sit down to doing it, I run out of ideas :( I still try...and there are good phases now and then in the hobby area but very few and far between (especially after having a child).


6. I love Shahrukh Khan. Loved him since his good old days of TV shows like Fauji, Circus and then when he came to movies like Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and especially his bestest of the best - DDLJ. I remember going to the theater three times to watch DDLJ in my college days. That itself is a huuuuuge deal for me since I am not much of a movie person and haven't been to the theater for over 2 years now.


7. I love rain (and rainy weather). Most people find days when it is cloudy, windy or rainy depressing. But I just love that climate - has a very romantic appeal to me. This morning was one such really romantic weather type day. I came to office with a smile on my face full of energy and ideas. While some people preferred to stay in their blankets and cuddle up in the coziness just a little longer, I was buzzing with energy and happiness.

There you go! I am probably so horribly late at doing this tag but better late than never right? My next task is to tag 7 other bloggers with this tag but my problem is I don't even know if I know 7 bloggers that well. Anyways guys - if you haven't done this tag already, pls feel free to take it up - Mindful Meanderer, Priyanka, Preeti, Nithya, Jyoti, HVP, Chitra.

My baby is growing up

Since I have become so random in recording N's milestones after she turned 2, I thought I should atleast capture some of the really cute things going on in her world these days:

1). Baby Language

She has been singing nursery rhymes since she was almost 2 years of age. Those were the times when she had some really cute 'baby' pronunciations when she sang. For example:

'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' was sung as

'Chinkau Chinkau Little Chtar'

Now that she is 2yrs 7 months, I can see so much of that baby language fading away. Part of me feels good that she is growing but a bigger part of me really feels sad that my little baby is growing into a big girl now. She will no longer be only mommy's little baby anymore :( Infact, now a days when I sing Chinkau Chinkau, she corrects me to say 'No mamma - Tinkual Tinkual Little Star'! Feel so good that she is still not there yet and still has such cute ways to pronounce certain words. Like when she was a little younger, crocodile was pronounced as cocokiiiile. But now when I say cocokile, she corrects me to say 'No No - cocodile'. Also when she had just learnt her colors (which I don't honestly remember was how long ago), when asked which color a certain object was, she used to say 'blue colors' pronouncing 'colors' as 'colorchh'. Every color ended with 'colors'. Now no more :( When asked which color is this, all she says is 'blue', or 'red' or whatever color. Lost the cute chubby way of saying 'colorchh'.

2). Artist in the Growing?

The little girl has developed a sudden love towards drawing. Give her a pen and a paper or even better - a DoodlePro and she is seen all settled happily on the floor for a long time drawing away either narrating stories while drawing or constantly trying to perfect something she is learning to draw. So far she had been doodling away mostly drawing circles of different sizes and scribbling in general. But the other day, I actually saw her attempting to draw what looked like a fish. So me and hubby got interested and encouraged her, even drew one up to show her how to draw it and immediately she copied our strokes and managed drawing her first fish! We got sooooo excited that she is now trying to intentionally imitate strokes and actually draw something by either copying our strokes or using her imagination! I even got up and clicked a few pics from my phone to record the moment. Since then she has gone on to learn drawing what she calls 'Dora's eyes' (which is really a pair of eyes), a smiley face and today when she drew up a smiley face on the DoodlePro and I asked her where is smiley's hair, she actually drew up his hair on the head!!! She does know how to translate her visuals into sketches now coz later I saw her draw a dot on the smiley's forehead and say 'this is his kumkum ok?' (she refers to bindi as kumkum).

3). Picking up a new language

Hindi. So far even though we spoke Hindi, English and Konkani at home, she had picked up only English and used only that language in all her communication with everyone. Lately though, thanks to our new maid who spends most of her day with N and talks to her in Hindi, N has started conversing in Hindi pretty well. I had been singing Hindi and English rhymes to her but she had not really picked up the Hindi ones as much. But now she sings 'Machhli Jal ki Rani Hai' to perfection and with actions!

4). Clothes and accessories

The saga about being determined to pick her own clothes continues as I had already talked about previously here. And not just once or twice, there are days when she wants to change what she is wearing almost 4 times a day. Oh and she has her favorites that she can live in day after day after day. One of them (her orange shirt and orange chhota (i.e. half) pant) is so battered that I actually hid it away and the poor thing has been asking for it every single day. I have tried different ways of convincing her that I gave it away to a small baby or a pigeon took it away but my heart breaks when she says 'I am very sad...I want my orange shirt and orange chhota pant' :( I am still trying to convince her that remember mommy gave it away to the baby? We will ask your nani to bring a new orange shirt and orange pant for you. Jeez! And the demand for bangles and shoes is also never ending. The thing that she should be into, but is not, is doing up her hair. She refuses anything in her hair - no clips or rubber-bands or hair bands or any hair accessories for her.

5). Office ka kaam (Meaning: Office Work)

She is finally getting used to seeing mommy going to office now or doing 'office ka kaam' from home. So when I don't work on my laptop at the home office and am doing it from the couch at times, she comes and asks me why I am not doing it from the office ka table. Or why am I not talking on the phone using the headset! She even pretends at times to work away on my laptop and says 'shh..don't disturb me. I am in a meeting' or 'I am doing office ka kaam like mamma'.

6). Sudden love for her soft toys and Dora - the doll

As long as her tummy is full, she is not really longing for or clinging to mamma these days. If she is not doodling or drawing on her DoodlePro, I see her spending a long time doing pretend play with her soft toys and Dora the doll. She talks to them just as I talk to her, puts them to sleep, does oil massage to them, takes them to the park and what not. Infact tonight was the first night ever that she actually took her Krishna soft toy to bed! Now you have to remember that she has never been into any kind of a lovey toy and prefers sucking her thumb or holding my hair while going to sleep. But today she actually hugged her friend Krishna tightly and even took my hand away from her waist. After a while she probably felt bad for me and said 'Are you falling down? Come' and hugged me with one hand and Krishna with the other and just fell asleep like that. My sweet sweet little angel - knock on wood! Oh and prior to all this, she had put her Dora doll to sleep by asking her 'Are you feeling cold? Come I will give you a blanket' and she nicely wrapped up the little doll in one of her blankets and put her to sleep on the living room floor. Oh and please note - she has played with her doll so much lately that the legs have been seperated and now it is just the upper part of her body that she carries around town these days :-) She carries Dora the doll to the park in the evenings so that when a friend of hers asks her whether she can share the swing, our smart little N has an answer ready - that she is already sharing the swing with Dora!!!

7). Blocks and her imagination

She has suddenly started taking interest in blocks and builds things based on what she sees around her or what she imagines. Making a tower or a house is become a pretty common sight but today she actually used a white, red and blue block, covered it with another blue block, topped it with a red block for the light and called it her ambulance! She somehow recollects (god knows from where) that an ambulance has only red, white and blue colors and a red light on top. Interesting stuff ain't it? :-)

Graduation Day at School

I can't believe that I haven't had time to write about little N's first stage performance and the proud mamma moment when my little one "graduated" from her pre-nursery class (her first playschool that is). March 13, 2010 was an emotional day for us as we watched our little one perform on stage (to the "bits of paper" nursery rhyme) for the first time in her life and then actually doing the convocation walk to accept her degree certificate for her first year of school.

In my mind it was just a playschool that she went to all this while and I had enrolled her there mostly for her to socialize and interact with kids her age and have a good time. But when they actually graduate like this, our hearts well up with joy and pride reliving how much she and we have gone through to get her this far. I remember those early unsure days when I just admitted her there - she was just 1 year 9 months when she started and I used to attend with her for the entire 3 hours each day to get her to adjust and like the place. This went on for almost 3 weeks until we finally cut the chord and let her be by herself. Ofcourse she cried, ofcourse she wanted mamma but she settled down eventually and realized that the teachers there are not going to bite her nor are the other kids :-) Infact after a few months, she actually looked forward to go to her 'Meera auntie' and 'Mohini auntie' and 'Smita auntie' and happily used to recite every nursery rhyme or song or prayer they sang at school. The fact that I could completely trust these ladies who ran this place almost like a second home for kids was a huge step in my life as a mom too. I could finally trust my child with someone other than family and look forward to having 3 hours to my disposal doing 'non child' stuff :-) Not to mention the wonderful changes we saw in our little one after settling down there. She being a shy kinds suddenly opened up beautifully and her vocabulary improved amazingly as she picked up English quite fast! Now suddenly all she knew was English (instead of Hindi or Konkani that we speak at home).

In any case, I think re-living the last year and going through all the stuff me and little N have gone through just brought out tears in my eyes when I saw her graduating from this foundational year in her life. I am sure we will thank Meera and Mohini auntie for years to come for making the first year of N's school life such a wonderful experience! As they say in their school - "God bless mummy, god bless daddy, god bless teacher, god bless me!!!"