Crossroads

Life continues to be exciting. Yesterday, two days after Dada-Dadi left, our nanny decided to quit. Turns out she needs to divorce her husband whom she found to be cheating on her. She gave me an explanation for why that means she needs to quit.

Anyway, I firmly believe that every cloud has a silver lining. Yesterday, for the first time ever, I spent the whole day with Kabir. I gave him his massage, his bath, rocked him when he needed to sleep, fed him his lunch, invented many new games to make him laugh and ofcourse, washed his one thousand diapers. I think I learnt more about him in one day than I did in the last six months. Today again, I'm home taking care of him. I already feel much more in control and some of the fear I had yesterday is already gone. I understand his routine now, and his signals. He's enjoying being with me. And me with him.

Now what about my job? Ive taken the day off from work today, but what about tomorrow? I don't know the answer yet. I definitely need time to think through this, but I can tell you that I'm done with nannies. My problem is that I get too invested in relationships, even if its one with our nanny. And I don't want myself or Kabir to invest again in another nanny only to find ourselves in the same situation again. The overwhelming emotion I feel right now is that I don't want to depend on anyone else to take care of my son anymore. He is by far, my highest priority and I am convinced that no one can take care of him the way I can. Simply no one.

So where does that leave me? I certainly can't think of quitting my job. I love my work - I just want to be able to put it on hold for some time. Or somehow make it more flexible than it already is. I will need to discuss my options with my employer. My decision won't be rash, but it will certainly be an emotional one. Let's wait and see what destiny has in store.

Six month birthday celebration

Last weekend also marked LittleTiger's six month birthday. It was the day that we had been looking forward to for a long time since we had decided that this would be the day when we would feed him solids for the first time. We were especially looking forward to it because we had assumed that he would start sleeping though the night from that point on (which ofcourse still hasn't happened..but more on that later).

As I noted in an earlier post, we couldn't wait till the six month mark and decided to have his Annaprashan about 2 weeks ago. Since then we had been feeding him some rice & oat cereal mixed with breastmilk. So this weekend, we decided to take it a step further and feed him veggies & fruit for the first time. I made some sweet potato and some applesauce for his first "real" food. The first spoonful was fed by Dadiji.

Though he seemed a little unsure at first, it turned out that he really liked it.

check out his outfit - the yellow dhoti-kurta. This one says "Makhan Chor" on the front!

I'm glad that he has been so open to trying new foods so far. Nothing is more satisfying than to see your baby eat well. Touch wood!

Lonely three

Dadaji & Dadiji said their goodbyes and left this weekend. After almost eight months of having parents stay with us, its a lonely lonely feeling. LittleTiger has got used to getting spoilt by his grandparents, first by Nana-Nani and then by Dada-Dadi. And now he's just got us.

Yesterday was a difficult day, with all three of us trying to make sense of the silence & the vacuum left behind. Today, we are back to our work routine and busy lives with very little time to think of anything else. But my heart goes out to LittleTiger. He may forget the presence of his grandparents around him soon, but he will certainly miss the love & affection that was showered so generously on him.

I hope that LittleTiger can be with his grandparents soon and more often. And I pray that he will be fortunate enough to experience their presence and their love & wisdom for a long long time.

Bottoms up

As you may have noticed in some recent pictures, LittleTiger is now learning to sit upright. He's still a little wobbly, especially when he takes his hands away and tries to balance only on his bottom. But he's been spending a lot of time sitting up now, and unfortunately, falling down too!

Rosy Baby

Last Sunday, we took LittleTiger to Portland's Rose Garden & Japanese Garden. These pictures show his excitement better than any way I could describe.

Saturday evening in the park

Now that LittleTiger can sit up with some support, we can take him to the playground in our local park. This past Saturday was his first time on the swings & slides in the park. He wasn't scared one bit and enjoyed himself thoroughly.







We got to climb into parts of the play-structure ourselves and enjoyed being kids again! We're sure to have many more visits to the park this summer & fall.

Pradosh Puja

Two days ago, Dadaji kept a special vrat and puja for LittleTiger.


This was the perfect opporutnity for LittleTiger to model in his dhoti-kurta that Dadi brought for him

He enjoyed the puja, and wanted to be as much "help" as possible (saying the mantra, offering fruit, water etc..as you can see for yourself)!