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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!