No Name, No Date

The little pumpkin has completed one month, and still goes without a name! That may sound weird but naming one's own child is the most difficult job. one day you decide something and next day you just don't like it😥. Naming others' kids , on the other hand is as simple as suggesting all the fancy names you can think of, and they'll choose whatever they like. I am saying so with the experience of someone who has suggested names to a baby girl born two days later after pumpkin . From a multitude of lovely and fashionable names, the parents chose one and pumpkin's baby cousin has a name 😚 .

Oh, and also, however this little pie sleeping in my arms is one month old, his due date is still 10 odd days away! You see, he was supposed to be born in first week of September. Both the kids, Coco as well as the little pumpkin are born at 34 weeks, due to different complications each time. So whenever I come across mothers who have given birth on expected due date or even later( God bless you, wonder woman.. you exist!!), I secretly admire them for this sheer superpower of not having complications before term. I, on the other hand, seem to have another skill. Bringing preterm babies ( and raising them well, as per records till now, fingers crossed) is my thing 😊

The above picture? Just a click of a paper giraffe, a few kids were making with me last year, nothing actually to do with Coco or pumpkin. It is there because it is cute🤗

Two Pumpkins

When the lazy woman was a new bride, she was really lazy and one glorious late morning, after the elaborate breakfast at her marital home was over, she bolted the door of her room which is conveniently constructed on a different floor than where the most of the household stays. She then snoozed away to dreamland as the late October noon's Sun shone on her window, keeping her cozily asleep.

During that nap, she had one of the most vivid dreams of her life, the memories of which still thrill her in a pleasant way.

In her dream, she heard a knock on the door of this same room and when she opened it, two huge yellow pumpkins were there, tumbling and shaking as if they have some form of animated life. 'Hi there, we're here!', as if they were trying to say, very happily moving to finally have found the right address. The lazy women knew instinctively that they were named Veeru and Badal, the pumpkins were! 

I woke up, my hair raised at ends. It may sound most unreasonable to you, but I thought I had seen my two kids. And when Coco was born a few years later, half of the dream came true too. On the surface, I was not sure about the second half, but it stayed with me in my heart of hearts. 

It still feels like a surreal dream to the lazy woman, but yes, the other half has actually come true. As I write this post, the little pumpkin is dreaming dreams in his little bed, making faces and little sounds. So, Yeah! Coco is a big brother now to a little boy. Together these two pumpkins are keeping my heart warm while the rain is pouring outside, cooling down the surroundings by many degrees.

Little Miss Pinky!

The lazy woman has got rather active hands which do not like to stay still even during her laziest lounging-in-the-sun sessions. She is also constantly on the lookout for interesting new projects. Knitting for fashionable little girls figures very high in her list of interesting projects. So, when she heard a very good news of the long awaited arrival of a baby girl in one of her husbands' senior colleague's home, she shed a few tears of joy right there in her bean bag and then it was all cheer and laughter at the prospect of yarn shopping for a new project in Coco-land.

All the internet was rinsed thoroughly for the cutest available pattern and I settled for this pair of booties. Then the hunt for a matching hat began and was met with success a short while later. A pattern for sweater was also searched for, but after a lot of search generated not much, I decided to make a simple front open sweater knitted from neck downwards, and make it a little wider at the base to make it look fashionable and not boxy. 

I am not happy with the yarn that we get in Indian markets, whether for babies or in general. I do not find the colors or the texture attractive but have to make do with whatever is available. I went to the market and with great difficulty and little inputs from Coco's dad (which rather confused me) chose baby pink and purple in Vardhman's Baby Soft. 

The booties were ready quickly and so was the hat. The sweater stayed rather neglected and was knitted in many installments as a result of lazy woman's busy social calendar in December. It was lying in my closet for at least two weeks under piles of sarees from the Putti Parade that I mentioned in the previous post. Finally, when I realized that winter will be over and the baby will grow big before the sweater is finished and delivered, I hurried up and finished making it and decorating it with little crocheted flowers, after a lot of brainwaves about buttons and ribbons and what-nots. 

After everything was ready, it was duly taken out to the lawn for a photo shoot and at least a hundred pictures were clicked before pack up. Meanwhile I stared at the lovely set and drooled at all the cuteness a lot. I promised myself to keep making such sweet little things every once in a while to keep in touch with my love for cute little things. With a lot of love and care, I packed the entire set in the same plastic clear jar in which the yarn came, and mailed it the next day.

How Could I Miss This?

I mean, just how? True, I have been busy and everything, but this is too sweet to be left out. We celebrated our birthdays, Coco and I. Yes, Coco is now a big boy of two years, and I am older too :| . It felt great to celebrate our birthdays next to each other's as it was an extended two day affair of birthdays. Coco watched wide eyed as we sang 'Happy Birthday' for him and duly remembered to sing 'Haapi Haapi' a few hours later for me. Ooh! It made my heart sing with joy.

He is growing wiser and smarter with each passing day. Sometimes it is really surprising to see him doing or saying something that we never thought he knew! His words are fast becoming phrases and further sentences. He is good at remembering names of people. Earlier it was difficult for him to say two words in a go, so he would call his dear aunties by their names. Now he is addressing them as he should. He had taken to calling his dad's 'sahayak' and the maid by their names, as he heard us calling them. After a little emphasising, he is now calling them uncle and auntie too. He also calls me by my name, as he hears from his dad. This usually happens when he is trying to find me or is irritated. I always respond very happily to this. My name sounds sweetest to my ears, when he says it. 

In the above picture, Coco is perched happily on a chair which is a birthday gift from one of my friends. It is so cute, I squealed with surprise! Oh, and the chair has a whistle, so it squeals too when Coco sits on it. So, he jumps up and down on the chair just for that funny sound.

We are trying our best to capture his moments on video. Time seems to have wings and Coco is growing in and out of his clothes and habits so fast, we are missing some things already. It is as if something is slipping out of our hands and we can do nothing about it but be happy as we watch it going by. As I watch him grow, I feel I am growing too. And why not? I am a two year old mommy now!

For That Sweet Smile!

I spent a few years of my initial life in a village in eastern UP, with hand pumps for water, no toilets and no electricity, only plenty of fun with a lot of village kids who would play hide and seek with me in and around cattle sheds and farm equipment.

One of the many vivid memories is how my mother tried to keep me well groomed and how I always ruined her efforts by playing with tractor grease.

I clearly remember how she took time off from her busy schedule, made me sit on a peedha (low wooden seat) near the hand pump and brushed my teeth with a simple kids' toothbrush and Colgate tooth powder. That made relatives make faces at us, mommy and me, for spoiling me silly. They would smirk and taunt 'There's one more of this kind, in my brother's house, a spoilt little brat whose mother brushes her teeth like this. Huh, so much Seva (service) for a Beti (Daughter).' (My mother did a lot for me, but I remember her brushing my teeth from my early childhood because of such comments from visiting relatives.)

Why am I saying all this? Because Coco has got his first toothbrush and toothpaste that look more like toys than toiletries. First of all we did not know that babies' toothpaste is different from adults'.Also, never before had my husband and I imagined that a toothpaste tube could have a cap that looks like a rooster! Welcome to the joys of parenthood, y'all! 

All that, and we keep them in the kitchen because Coco uses RO water, since he does not know how to spit and gulps down all the water that goes into his mouth to rinse it and we are worried  that the bathroom tap water might just not be right for him. 

Every time I make him sit on the kitchen slab near sink and brush his teeth, I cannot stop smiling...not only do I love doing it, I also remember the above story and my mom. Son or daughter, every child requires mommy's help. Coco, mommy at your service...happily always! 

Baby Alert!

                                         

Sometimes, immersed in my thoughts and daydreams, I go back to my old self and almost forget that a baby now rules my life. But then some or the other mark left by Coco appears before my eyes which brings me to today's reality.

'Hello madam, you should know a baby is around when you see.... 

 1 ...your precious bedroom wall has a new artwork, created during last five minutes when you took a loo break.

2 ...your sitting room is now a parking lot and a dumping ground of sorts.

3 ...unusually small stuff appears on your balcony.

4 ...a newly acquired book is found in above condition. :'(

5 ...an uncommon addition to your knick-knacks collection.

6 ...a birthday cake of this nature. ( Birthday cake at a party where Coco was invited as the youngest party-goer!)

7 ...people less interested in the tourist spot (Rock Garden, Chandigarh) and more in finding companions of their own age.

8 ...a heterogenous mix of all sorts of stuff in vivid colours used for entertainment purpose cluttering your side tables, bed and all such surfaces .

9 ...these guys appearing in your laundry. Regularly.

10.  And the best one... You know you have a little tyrant at home when...

...otherwise talkative you and your spouse keep hushing and shushing each other and everyone else and resort to sign language when the little one is sleeping.'

'Yes, thank you, my dear little sir, to bring me back from my childhood to yours.' 

:) 

What I Did Last Winter!

Ours is a large family and the numbers of relatives runs into at least high 3 digits. So there is an abundance of occassions especially weddings and arrival of new babies. Every time a little one is born in a relative's home, my in-laws visit them with gifts for the newborn and the new mother. These gifts include clothes. And if it is winter, there have to be warm clothes for the baby.

She is an avid gift-giver, my Ma-in-Law. Her gifts have to be unique and useful. She knows that I am a knitter and thus I am commissioned to accomplish the task of knitting cute baby sweater sets. Please note that red is her preferred colour for baby sweaters.

This past winter, though Coco was quite a handful, I was required to work my needles again. It was a welcome change in my somewhat still routine and warmed me in drab Delhi winter. So, here is the main sweater, semi-ready after much brainstorming over yarn and colour and pattern and such. The wide yellow stripe is not really flattering, or is it? We will see. 

                                                                                 Here we go with some little red things to do this...

                                                           Of course that yellow stripe was a road, on which these red cars were to whizz by! What did you think, the roads could not be yellow with black footpaths in Babyland? The car pattern was thankfully taken from this blog.        

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                 

The little sweater now looks happily cuddling itself. It is time to move on and prepare matching accessories... 

So much tangled confusion of yarn isn't it? And we are calling it an accessory?

Well, of course, its a teeny-tiny bootie for cosying up those little feet. The Zebra Crossing of yellow Babyland roads ;)

Of course, a sweater set is not complete without a hat. And a sweater with cars has to have a hat with a car.      

After the set was ready, it was time to pack and give away, but not before my customary photo shoot of the above items to my heart's content. I laid them out onto my quilt, and clicked away.

Clicking and taking an eyeful in, touching and smiling, making mental notes here and there about what I should change or improve the next time I take up such a project.

Loving the way the laces are jumping up looking cheerful.

The last picture, taken hastily and blurred slightly, but generally able to look like what I had in mind at the outset. Oh, knitting for babies is the best. They have so much scope for bright colors and cute patterns, and they are ready in no time, the small sizes. I do not know whether babies wear them or not, however I would love to see them wearing it, but I sure do know, handmade gifts of this nature are a rarity nowadays and make good keepsakes.

The Balance Sheet

So, little Coco has celebrated his first birthday last month and is now a big boy. His mummy too, celebrated her own birthday and a year of her 'Mummyhood'. It has been a great year for me, a year of great learnings, shocking new discoveries(!), life changing (and nappy changing) experiences. A year full of Irritation and tiredness so heavy, I would find it hard to get up in the mornings, and happiness that would make me feel lighter than air, a calm so sweet that would make me sleep like a baby, though the baby himself never slept like one! 

Coco, who began his life with somewhat difficulty and spent his entire first week in the neonatal ICU, has now become a little brat who is loved for his charming smile and feared for his tantrums with equal fervour. As soon as he fully recovered from all the issues related to his premature birth and started to look like an infant, rather than a foetus, our lives changed. Anyone, including doctors, who looked at him would say 'Ooh' rather than the earlier 'Tch, Oh!'. His blue eyes and sweet smile would attract family as well as strangers alike. I never knew people could be so friendly before I had Coco. Randomly, anyone would come and request to take a picture of him, to which, I could never muster up courage enough to say 'No'. So, right now, hundreds of his pictures are being seen across India, a few in the cellphones of Delhi Policewomen, some with the little girl who was at Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain, a couple of pictures with the saleswomen at a shop in Gorakhpur, you get the drift! 'Send him on TV, he looks like J&J/Pampers baby' are the common words I keep hearing. 

 As I see him growing taller, I see myself growing wiser too! Of late, I am happy mostly about reduced use of breast-milk (from main course to snacks), a diminishing belly and vanishing stretch marks. Looking at him, even my concerns turn into something radiant, my worries become my treasures, in which I swim like Uncle Scrooge McDuck does in his wealth!

Three Little Monkeys!

 

Oh! Look Veeru Mama.......

 

No need to say thanks Mamaji, just eat!

 

Pay attention.

 

Eat well.

 

Want more? Come tomorrow.

        

Bad habit.. eating off the floor!

  

Hey wait! I have your picture....

 

On my T-shirt right here!

(Wondering about where are three monkeys? Well one is Veeru, the Monkey, second is Cheeky Little Monkey on Coco's T-shirt and third one.... Coco, my little monkey! :) )

We've Got Courier!

Coco's first birthday is approaching (So soon??), along with Coco's mummy's nth birthday! Gifts have started flying in. That's how 'Happy' and 'Birthday' go together! So, mummy tore open the first package to arrive while Coco was sleeping and everyone else was away! Shh...

And out spills a rainbow... red and yellow, pink and blue!

Coco's Mausi has sent some T-shirts and a football for him. No T-shirts for mummy. Not even a ping-pong ball. :( 

'Ohh, I totally forgot, your birthday is next day, otherwise I would have sent something for you too' is her explanation. Sigh!!

Though, this lady has significantly improved her capabilities of buying baby clothes and toys. After a rap on the knuckles from her mother when she first bought clothes for Coco, she became wiser and now knows that the age mentioned on baby clothes should not be taken seriously because babies of the same age may have various sizes. Not only that, she has kept comfort above fashion (wide sleeves, stretchy necks/snap openings, no collars, hoods or unnecessary parts, ). I am surprised. It is coming from someone who is a big fan of Babli from the movie 'Bunty Aur Babli' who says to her son:

'Thand ko mar goli, fashion karna seekh!' (To hell with the cold weather, learn to be fashionable.)

By the way, her gifts are fashionable too.

Great going, mausi!

A Child's Play

A lot of time and effort goes into choosing the right toys for Coco. I try to find out toys with zero possibility of hurting him. No hard parts, lightweight, washable and all that jazz. After all, I am a modern mom, who gives him best care(?) and also writes a blog about him (Well at least the name says so!).

But what does Mr. Little Coco Nut like to play with? Remotes, cell phones, keys, keyboard, mouse, kitchen jars, steel tumblers, clothespins, paperweights, sweet boxes, shopping bags, shoes, newspapers, eyeglasses and everything else that I cannot imagine would catch his fancy and hence do not remove from his view.

Latest 'toy' to catch his fancy are empty corncobs! He inserts his tiny fingers into the little spaces made by removing the corn and would keep doing that till the cob is snatched away. He has also learnt to register a strong protest by giving out a deafening shriek.

Oh wait, did I tell anything about the mole on my neck being a subject of his admiration (and scratching by paper thin nails) nowadays?

Whoever said babies are bundles of joy............ was absolutely right though!