Words

Ebedibi - elephant
Obb - owl and O
Shenwhen - snail and the whale book
Gudagoo - gruffalo
Wandawadaaa - unknown meaning but gotta round in circles
Ek - X
Ku - Q
Double v - W
Hat-a-cat - the cat in the hat book
Poon - Spoon

First Steps on Nov 8th

Nethra took her first steps on tgis dqy and how far she walked!!

Nana, nanama and thatha were there to witness it!!

Genius daughter

Nethra's been growing quickly and had become really smart and is learning quite a lot.

When asked, she can point out to her eyes, nose and teeth. When you ask her where her eyes are, she will blink and show you. It is really cute!

If she is asked to sing a song, then she happily obliges and she can carry on for quite some time!

Apart from horse and snake, she now imitates elephant and monkey. For an elephant, she raises her arm but will occasionally hiss like a snake and finds it funny!

She waves her hand and says bye bye and will gives her version  of the flying kiss which is putting her hand to her mouth (which is open and she licks it! Gross!)and then throwing the kiss out to you. :*

I've tried taking things out of her hand and she gets annoyed and complains. You have to be nice and ask for it and then she hands out over without a fuss.

More updates on my smart baby soon!

On the 29th

Nethra turned one and her day was busy!

We woke up by about 9 a.m. and started getting ready. Nethra wore the pavadai that nanama brought. She looked radiant and the colour really suited her. I lit the lap and did a small prayer for Nethra. Nethra wore the bracelet that sushma atha gave and chain that Shalini atha gave. Nanama also brought out and gifted Nethra a beautiful chain and pendant with the letter "N"

All her cousins came to wish her and they played with her for a bit before we left for the temple. Nethra was very alert throughout the time at the temple and she kept looking observing everything!

We left the temple at 1 p.m. and went to eat lunch at Ahaa... Dosa.
Nethra ate idli for lunch and she enjoyed it.

We then went to twickenham to pick up a cake from patesserie valerie. Nethra was in scooter mode the entire time!

Once we got home we had a quick chat with Ajja and Ammama and Nethra went for a nap. In the meanwhile, amma and nana blew up loads of balloons and amma finished frosting the cake.

We left to decorate the area on cinnamon lounge and then nana came back home to pick up the guest of honour! The party started from 7 p.m. onwards. We cut the cakes and had a lot of fun. By about 9.30 p.m., Nethra was too tired. She had dinner of roti and dal. Mama drove Nethra and me home and I put and exhausted but happy baby to bed!

One year old!

My darling baby turned one today.

I can't believe it has been a year since Nethra I held her for the first time! She has become a little person with a beautiful personality!

I love you Nethra. So does Nana and everyone else who has met you our yet to meet you but seen you!

Bunk bed experience

Nethra was lifted up to the top of the bunk bed which was Rushi anna's bed. She loved being up so high and spent her time crawling around and exploring the bed. She used her finger to point out all the footballs printed in the cover. Amma and Nana were standing around the bed to keep an eye on her.

Nethra realised she could play a game by looking through the gap in the sides of the bed.

One week to go

Nethra will be One on tuesday next week! Time had flown so quickly.

Place has been booked for a small party. Decorations have been ordered. Birthday girl's dress has been bought. Invitation cards to be delivered today. Cake is something amma will be making over the weekend.

Amma and Nana are excited about Nethra becoming a year old... She is a big girl now!

Grain of rice

A grain of rice changed the life of Sudaama, Lord Krishna's friend.

Wonder how this will change lives. Nethra was searching for a grain of rice that fell down her vest! Such a cute picture

Car car

Nethra has started saying car car which sounds like ' Ka Ka'.

She's now also saying ' Turn'  which sounds like ' tun'. This thanks to her thatha who was standing with her art the window and telling her to turn the handle at the window!

Completed month 11

And now towards an entire year of being part of my life, her nana's life and everyone who loves her.

Nethra, last year along this time was my last day at work before I started my maternity leave. You were happy and rumbling and tumbling away in my tummy.. I couldn't wait to see if you would be a boy or a girl.

Let the countdown begin! xxx

First tube ride

Today Nethra rode the tube for the first time today. We took the Piccadilly line from Osterley to Piccadilly circus to meet up with the Aussie side of our family.

It was a fun ride with couple of interesting incidents.

Few stops into the ride, a lady with a tall Boxer dog climbed into our compartment. The dog did its initial check and found the surroundings satisfactory. Then it laid eyes on Nethra and about the same time Nethra also noticed dog and thus began the staring competition! Both didn't back down and the audience between Nethra and the dog found it most amusing.. One lady even asked me if the dig was staring at the baby and I said," it looks so!" Nethra kept playing with her pram attachment and nana who was standing opposite me told me to get Nethra to stop staring. As if that were possible! Both parties thankfully eventually lost interest!

Nethra now has grown taller so her feet stick out of the pram. She figured out how to put her foot through the gap in the partition between the seats and the standing area and was initially resting her foot on an unsuspecting co-passenger! Luckily I realised and moved it away but she kept stretching her foot and stuffed it through the gap.

Apart from that she was an angel on this outing!

Pictures taken on the way back

Climbing Stairs

On saturday and sunday, Nethra had been learning how to climb steps. Amma took her to the stairwell and she practiced on the two steps. She was first quite scared and whined but after being encouraged by amma, Nethra lifted her right foot and partially stood on the first step. She then lifted her left foot and put it on the top step. She then pushed herself up and tried and sitting on the top step.

Amma and Nethra sat in the stairwell starting out for a while. Nethra then stood at the glass and named on it for a while and rested her head against it.

On sunday, she needed a bit more motivation. Amma kept her phone and flip flops on the top step. That got her going!

More practice whenever amma can take Nethra out.

Unwell baby

My sweetheart is unwell again :(  I feel terrible because not only is she unwell, she might have caught the cold from me. She had a fever today, though it has come down now after the medicine. She has already woken up thrice since I put her to bed two hours ago because of her blocked nose.

I hope she feels better soon and gets back to her normal, chirpy self.

Pic is of Nethra watching tv with interest while eating dinner. She was so tired and her eyes were red and yet she still insisted on sitting like that to watch a bit of tv.

Fearless!

Today was the first week that I was back to work full time. I struggled with not only being away from my baby for the whole week but also with a cold. It seems like I may have passed it on to Nethra....

This week was filled with so many discoveries. Nethra now crawls at lightning speed! She loves crawling from room to room. She'll crawl till the door of the living room and wait. If no one stops her, she'll crawl to the bathroom door and stop outside. She'll either continue in to the first bedroom or will crawl straight for the mirror and try and open the cupboard door. She loves to sit in front of the mirror and look at herself.

Nethra continues to be fearless as she now pulls herself up and holds onto the sofa. She then walks along the sofa. She's been doing the same with the step stool but instead she pushes it along the floor and tries to walk. When she feels confident enough (which is most of the time) she lets go of one hand and then the other and stands without support swaying for a bit till she falls on her butt. She then stands up and does it all over again.

10 months

My baby is ten months today!

In this one month outre so, she has learnt how to drag herself on the floor, to attempting to crawl, to holding on to the sofa or people and pulling herself up, to rolling over, to using her elbow to sit up, to eating chapati and bread and rice & daal.

I love you so much Nethra.

Your favourite person (currently)
Amma

Clean up time!

Nethra has learnt how to put her toys back in to the basket. It is very cute as she puts all the toys in her mouth before dropping it into the basket! Nana taught her this special trick.

Rough day

Nethra struggled a bit today. It wasn't one of her better days.

She was trying to stand up using nanama's chair as support and lost balance. Her chin hit the metal rod at the bottom of the chair. Poor baby cried so much. Nanama had tried to get to her in time but just missed stopping Nethra from getting hurt.

Nethra then took nearly 90 mins to eat lunch and didn't quite finish that too. she kept making her crying sounds while eating.

I gave her a bath and changed her and left her with nanama to put her to sleep. Suddenly we heard her call us and when we went running, end found that Nethra was crying a she was throwing up. Poor child kept clinging on to nana and me while she continued and we were washing her up. I then took her to the room and changed her clothes. Nanama said that Nethra was very uneasy and distracted and had ended crawling on to nanama and sleeping on her before she started feeling sick.

Once changed and given water, nethra started to close her eyes and sleep so I took her to the room. As I was putting her back to sleep, she threw up again. Nana and I cleaned her up, and this time Nethra finally slept.

My poor baby woke up and was in good spirits especially after dinner that she fussed about to eat. She played for so long  that it was past 9 pm before she slept.

Next steps - crawling

Nethra had been attempting to crawl for a while. She started moving in reverse. Then slowly attempted to sit up. Simultaneously, she tried to drag herself on her tummy to move and then on reaching her goal, she would sit up.

Today Nethra crawled and can move quite a bit forward. She did try to move yesterday but they were few and probably not as well done as today (wednesday, august 7th)

She goes for things like her nappy bag, paper, plastic. Not for toys or anything worthwhile! I'm so proud of my little champion who tried so hard and never gave up, despite tiring herself out our falling and hitting her head.

Love you my mouse.

Bbq no.1

July 26th

On a lovely friday afternoon, Nethra and I set off from isleworth to Orpington for a barbecue at my boss David's house.

Nethra was reasonably quiet on the way to clapham and had a staring contest with a big african american woman! She was fine too on the way to london victoria. In the train to Orpington, I took her out of the pram and propped her up the seat near the window. She was so excited that she stated yelling at the top of her voice! A good pair of lungs in such a small person. She finally fell asleep on the walk to his house.

Oliver helped us up the stairs and I let Nethra sleep in the pram a little while longer as I went around and said hello to the people I knew. She woke up and was very quiet as it was a new place and there were so many people. She didn't have much of her afternoon milk as she was more interested in Oli making funny faces. Soon she started going to whoever was willing to carry her. Nethra was extremely will behaved and played with her toys on the picnic blanket I took. During a game of trivial pursuits when everyone cheered Nethra was startled and started crying but she calmed down quickly.

After two and half hours we said goodbye and headed home along with Abhi. Nethra again was loud on the train and kept making faces at Abhi!

She had the remaining milk from afternoon and became a bit cranky as we reached clapham and was crying as we got to platform 6 from were we needed to take the train. I promised her that I would pick her up in the train which I did.

We stood for a bit after which she  sat down with me. She however kept takling to a man who was making faces at her. She sat on her ownon the seat and enjoys scratching at the seat fabric.

When we finally reached isleworth there was no one to help us so I started trying to bring the pram down on my own when a very nice Nepali man helped us out.

Once we got home we had a quick bath dinner and off to bath. She was adorable throughout the long day we had. <3

Top two

I noticed yesterday and nana confirmed today that Nethra's top two teeth were making an appearance.

In the afternoon when trying to get her to sleep, I heard her gnash her teeth! It wa amazing how much sound a tooth just coming out of the gum can make with two other tiny teeth!