The last month has been a roller coaster ride for all of us. My husband’s office moved to city outskirts and because of that he transformed into a weekend Dad. Ninad used to really miss him. Come evening and Ninu would look for his dad everywhere. That is when we decided to move closer to the workplace. Luckily, we found an apartment right next to his office and that triggered off a host of events.
Now that our new house is just minutes away from the office, even I started thinking about resuming work. Having been working for 4-5 years, it is really hard to sit at home. I wasn’t idle, I had knitting and reading going on all the time, but the adrenaline rush of deadlines, the stress of delivering something on time is something else and I love it. Fortunately, I found a very good maid who can take care of Ninad in my absence. I know her since sometime and she comes highly recommended from her previous employers. She has been with us since a week now and Ninad is already paly-paly with her. I will be joining work in another month and by that time, I am very confident Ninad will settle in well with her.
That was my story. What was Ninad upto the last month? When we moved to our new house, he went through a phase of high stimulation. Every corner, every object in the house was new and his exploration would go on the whole day. He stopped taking naps altogether and he would even wake up at nights (3 am) and explore his new place. Thankfully, this happened only for a few days and now he is back to his original sleeping schedule. He has developed quite a few new expressions. He has a question mark on his face whenever he wants to know ‘where is Dad’ or ‘what is that new thing’ or ‘what are you feeding me’. He has a reserved naughty expression whenever he is upto some mischief. There is also a fake crying expression when he wants to have his way which turns into a naughty smile when I say ‘dramebaaz’.
He can stand very well without support. He tries to take a step, loses balance and sits down. Another 15 days, he will be walking for sure. His latest object of interest is the switch. He loves the action-response — switch on and the lights are on, the fan rotates. He plays with switches endlessly. Next on list is his stroller. No, he doesn’t like to sit in it, but uses it as a pushcart. He pushes the stroller all over the house – sometimes on his knees, sometimes walking.
Ninu has four pearly white teeth now and all of them appeared one behind the other in a span of few days. I was eagerly waiting for him to sprout his first tooth and here he already has four of them!
He loves the play area in our new apartment. There are many babies his age and he interacts with them a lot. He shows his love by pulling their hair or their nose and naturally, those babies don’t take it in the right stride and they start crying. I have to come to their rescue and take Ninad away, which makes him pull their hair even harder. It is a sight to watch!
Ninu reached the nine months mark a few days back. The past month saw a lot of changes in him. He pulls himself up and stands with support wherever possible. What that means is he can stand holding my dress, his dad’s trousers, my mom’s saree – anything. He is no longer satisfied with just standing, he climbs on things and that is scary. He is trying to stand without support, hope he masters this skill in the coming month.
Behavior wise, there has been a sea of change. Ninu can understand every single word I speak. He follows Marathi, but since I speak to him Kannada, that is what he is going to pick up first. He understands and points at all these things – fan (his favorite object), crow (very helpful at mealtime), flower (the one on the bedcover), Papa (hubby is one proud daddy now), cooker (Ninu is really scared of this), Didi (his cousin’s photo). If he sees something new, he wants to know what it is. He stretches his hand Amitabh Bachchan style and asks ‘Eeee?’ meaning he wants to know what that thing is. When I answer his question, he has a very thoughtful look on his face as if he really understood what I told him!
He has become a picky eater now. If I try to feed him something which he doesn’t care much for, he starts shaking his head to indicate No. The shaking continues for a full minute even after I abandon my attempts of feeding him. He can drink fluids from a glass now, as long as it’s not milk. Water, juice, buttermilk are fine in a glass, but milk has to be in a bottle. Something tells me weaning him off the bottle is going to be tough.
The greatest news is of course about teething. Ladies and gentlemen, Ninu is finally getting a tooth. I can see his upper tooth peeking through the gums. My guess is he will get atleast 4 teeth by the end of this month.
That is what my cousin said when she saw Baby N’s photos: ‘Mischief Personified’. She hasn’t seen the baby in person, mind you, this was her reaction after looking at photos. I wonder what she would say when she finally meets him! And her words are true to the last vowel and consonant. My son at 8 months is so mischievous, I feel sad and happy at the same time.
He now understands single word commands. If I say ‘No’ in a serious tone, he knows that he has to stop whatever he was attempting to do. Like trying to stand holding the water filter, trying to get under the bed, putting that piece of dirt in his mouth and so on, the list is endless. But the moment I say ‘No’, he stops in his tracks. My son can shake hands now. If I offer him an open hand and say ‘Shake hand’. he promptly offers his right hand (and always the right hand) for me to shake it. You can see I am beaming with pride.
Diet wise, he eats anything and everything, except for fried items. Roti, rice, vegetables, fruits, popcorn, biscuits, toast, bread – everything. He wants to taste everything he sees – edible or not doesn’t seem to matter. I was holding a lemon the other day and he wanted to taste it. I let him lick and the expression was priceless. I wish my husband was at home to take a picture – that would have been one photo to treasure.
He doesn’t like it if I take away something he is holding. He fake-cries for a second and the next moment he is distracted by something else and he forgets. He was eating a biscuit the other day and I took it away to give him something else to eat and boy, did he scream! He gave me a threatening look ‘Give my biscuit back or else…’ and I promptly gave it back to him. I haven’t attempted anything like this again. Man, is he assertive. Wonder how things will be when he becomes a toddler. Can’t wait for that day!
Helpless – that’s what I was the whole of last month. My little baby had bouts of stomach infections one after the other and all I could do was stand back and watch helplessly. As soon as he turned 6 months, he had a very bad stomach infection which lasted for 2 weeks. The infection itself was quite okay. He didn’t have any stomach pain, just pooping every few minutes. The most troubling part of it was the post-poop operation – rashes. He would cry out in pain and I couldn’t do anything. The medicine that the doctor prescribed seemed to trouble him even more and my heart cried every time I applied the medicine. Just when he was recovering and things were looking bright, he had another infection. This whole saga continued for 3 whole weeks.
Everybody, including myself, attributed this to teething. His gums hurt, so he puts everything in his mouth, hence the infection – seemed logical to me. What followed was an investigation as to what exactly was causing the infection. Looking at the kind of things he puts in his mouth, it is impossible to clean everything. Toys, books, phone, his hands, his toes, his knee (not making it up), chair wheels, stroller wheels (ewwww, I know), diaper – you get the idea, right? (Did you notice teether is not on the list? Yeah, he puts everything into his mouth, except the teether. Hey, I know one thing which is not giving him this infection.) We kept a close watch on him. Whatever he put in his mouth was cleaned thoroughly (atleast we tried). We restricted his movements, we changed his feeding bottles, we gave him all kind of medicines – we did everything we could but the infection recurred again and again. One fine day, it occurred to me that all this started just when we introduced a new formula into his diet. When he turned 6 months, we are supposed to switch to the next level and that’s what we did. Little did we know that this will give us endless misery. Thank my stars and the Almighty that the tubelight in my head lit! Once we stopped that formula, my baby is back to normal. He has his once-a-day poops now which is so relieving. (Pun is unintentional).
The little fellow has lost a lot of weight and looks really thin now. That doesn’t mean he is any less active. He can sit without support now, he learnt that really fast. He is very efficient in moving himself to that one place where he can cause the most damage. You leave him in the hall and walk into the kitchen only to see him right behind you. He is going places! He stands up with support and this is making me jittery. That day is not too far when he will learn walking and running and I will be running behind him. Atleast I will lose some post pregnancy weight!
BTW, do you know what is the most often repeated sentence in our house right now? “Don’t eat that”!
My friend was impressed with the Feather and Fan blanket I gave her and asked for a newborn sweater. We knitters are just waiting to knit something, so I readily agreed. I love the delicate, lacy sweaters which look so cute on girl babies and I always wanted to knit one of those. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any girl babies to knit for. Sanskriti came along and has opened a lot of doors for me. Time was a restriction, so I made this simple, yet pretty sweater for the pretty Sanskriti. There is something wrong with this photograph, the edges are jagged. Because of the black background? The sweater in reality is much better. Really.
I am impressed by the construction of this sweater. You start knitting from the neck edge, knit the yoke, divide for body and sleeves, knit the first sleeve (flat, not round), then close the sleeve seam back up so that you are back at the underarm join, knit the body across, knit the sleeve, back at the underarm join and then finish off the sweater. Umm, did it make sense? Never mind. It means you don’t have to break yarn and rejoin yarn for sleeves and body. You have only one loose end to weave in apart from the cast on end. You need a bit of crochet skills for closing the sleeve seam. Hey, does this count as my first crochet project? I guess not.
On other knitting stuff, remember that kimono and Twinkle sweater I made? The kimono doesn’t fit yet and the Twinkle is not all that practical. I had to sew on press buttons for the sweater to make it useful. It doesn’t really help in keeping my baby warm, but it does look cute. Sweaters that Rima and Sanhita gave are big and won’t fit yet (intentionally so) so what this means is my little fellow needs a sweater. I search for patterns on Ravelry and the only ones I like are all girlish. I want to knit something that looks like a sweater meant for a boy. Any suggestions?
I started working on this blanket when my friend told me she was expecting. I was into a few rows when my baby made an appearance and the blanket had to be kept aside. I picked it up again a few weeks back when I realized my friend is due in the third week of June. I would have finished it on time, if not for the early appearance of the baby. My friend’s immediate family had not yet arrived in Bangalore and the baby decided to give a surprise to everybody. This cutie pie is the reason I could not meet Rima this time. Since my friend didn’t really have any help, I had to be with her in the hospital all day long. Sorry once again Rima, I hope you understand! This is Sanskriti when she was 8 hours old. Don’t miss those pink cheeks!
Now about the blanket. This is the classic feather and fan pattern adapted for a baby blanket. I changed the original pattern to make the purl ridges appear every 8th row instead of every 4th row. This makes the feathers sparser and I like this effect. I used Vardhaman 4-ply acrylic yarn and held it double to speeden up the knitting. Six feather and fan for a row and fifteen repeats of the 8-row pattern. I was not sure of the gender of the baby, so I used red. Now that I know it is a girl, I am making a sweater for her in pink. Hope it fits.
It feels like it was just yesterday that we brought our baby home and our little fellow is already 6 months old. The past 6 months were like a roller coaster ride – highs of baby grins, cuddles, sloppy kisses and lows of feeding issues, sleepless nights and mood swings. Whatever it may be, the journey sure was interesting.
Ninu is an expert crawler now. He has found a technique which is somewhere in between crawling and all-fours and he is very fast at that. He covers the entire hall in a matter of seconds. He loves going under the armchair and hiding there. He waits until one of us spots him and then he grins widely as if to say “See where I am!”
His grasp is better too. He is slowly learning the princer grasp, he will get there one day. He sits really well with support and can manage for a few seconds without a support. He is more eager to stand rather than sit. His sleep schedule has gone haywire. He sleeps whenever he wants and I am not trying to change it. He wears dangling earrings now and looks just like a girl. I so want to dress him up like a girl. He is teething badly and has a stomach upset every now and then. I know it is normal, but I wish those darn teeth make an appearance soon and put and end to his miseries. We are making progress on the path of solids. He tried mashed carrot and loved it. Palak soup is his favorite now. He has learnt to say ‘Amma’, though he doesn’t know what it means. I love it whenever he utters that word.
When my baby was a few days old, I wanted him to grow up so that he could respond to me. I wanted his face to light up whenever he saw me – and indication that he knows his mother from the rest of the world. I badly wanted to see a smile and see myself in his eyes. When I saw his first smile, I wanted him to coo. That happened and I wanted him to hold me tight. Then I wanted him to crawl around. Then I wanted him to sit. Now I am badly waiting for that day when he starts talking. While I am waiting for the next big thing, I am forgetting to enjoy what I already have. Why am I in such a big rush? Why can’t I enjoy the drooling smiles and toothless grins that I have now rather than eagerly wait for something which will eventually come? Am I the only one or all mothers are like this?
I voluntarily picked up this tag from this blog. You list something significant in your life across the number, starting from 1 to 10. See below, if this confuses you.
1: Number of kids I have
2: Number of companies I have worked for. Also, the number of schools I have attended.
3: Times I have changed my house since marriage
4: Number of years of marriage
5: Age of my son, in months
6: Blogs I own
7: Knitting friends on Ravelry who I have met in real life
8: My son’s weight, in kilos
9: The number of books I have read so far in 2009
10: The number of items I have knitted for my son (Couldn’t come up with anything else)
For the first time, I am tagging someone. Rambling Roses, Anu, Cindy, Amrita and anyone else who is reading this.
I wanted a good summer hat for my baby, one whose brim would stay stiff and actually be useful in protecting the eyes from the harsh sun. After looking through the patterns available, I decided to come up with my own. The result is Baby’s Day Out Hat. After uploading the project on Ravelry, I had many requests for the pattern, so I decided to write it down and make it available online.
Click on either the link or the PDF icon to download the pattern. Hope you enjoy knitting this hat and hope it is useful for your baby.
Yes, my son is all of five months old, err, young. Last month saw a lot of changes in him.
The Good
1. He is visibly rounder. I got many compliments from other mothers that my son is looking rounder and his cheeks certainly chubbier. Needless to say, I am gloating.
2. He loves to eat. I tried banana, mango and musk melon and he loooooved all of them. He wants fruits all the time. I tried Ragi for the first time and he likes it so much that he doesn’t want his rice anymore. Sigh, the joys of motherhood!
3. He mastered crawling and he is learning to walk on all fours (ummm, what’s that called?). I am pretty sure he will learn this new art in a week or so.
4. My son got promoted. He became a big brother when my sister-in-law delivered a baby boy. Wow!
The Bad
1. He has learnt the power of crying, so he fakes it whenever he wants our attention. He even fakes coughing which looks so cute, you want to cuddle him then and there.
2. He knows when I dress him up, it’s time to go out. He gets so excited that his arms and legs won’t stop until we actually step out of the house. He cries non-stop in the evening if I don’t take him out.
3. Now that he has tasted better food, he doesn’t like his bottle milk so much. I have to try all my tricks to get him drink the milk. Soon, I will run out of tricks.
The Ugly
1. He had an ear infection which he is still recovering from. He had pain for three days. I just couldn’t see him like that. Thank God the painful days are over.
Cross posted from my other blog. Previous updates are here and here.
