Bad hair day(s)

There are two things that most people comment on when they meet Kabu for the first time. The first is his eyes and the second, his hair. People are usually polite, so most people only say - "and look, he's got so much hair!". But I've also got other comments like "nice hairstyle. Crew cut?" and "tapori (funky) hairstyle!". And its true. He does have a rather funky hair style. Though I don't think it was as crazy when he was born. As I was delivering him, the very first thing the doctor had said to describe him was "oh look, so much hair!"

Born with a lot of hairHowever, he lost quite a bit of his hair in the first few months when he developed a cradle cap.Left with little hair at ~2.5 months (and that's malai on his face)Once this phase got over, his hair bounced right back (quite literally)
And it started growing in multiple directions

so much that it started getting into his eyes

Here are some of his stylish poses

That's his "back combing" style

And this must have been a "shampoo day"

He has expressive eyes, and expressive hair :-)

Didn't I say expressive hair? That's the "I'm the King" expression

Thats his "good boy" lookAnd here's a better look from the back!

With his hair growing by leaps and bounds (in selective areas), the thought of trimming it a little has certainly crossed our minds. However, it turns out that our family practice is to not give the first born his first hair cut before he's five years old. That's right. Not even a hair trim. Picture him in five years without any hair cut :-) So yes, I'm not sure if I'm such a big follower to actually wait that long. What do you think? I'd love to get some opinions - please let me know what you think using the poll on the side panel.

Tabla 101

I suppose its in his genes :)

Time to vent

Life has suddenly become very busy and hectic. My work load had been steadily increasing at work since I re-joined after my maternity leave more than four months ago. It has now reached a level where I'm finding it truly challenging to maintain a balance between home and work. I feel like I'm being stretched in many directions. Fortunately, my work has become far more interesting than before, so I am actually enjoying the hours that I'm putting in. However, its difficult to sustain this with a little baby at home.
On the home front, little Kabir is now getting 3 new teeth (all upper teeth this time), and he seems to be in a lot of discomfort. He finds it difficult to sleep well at night. Which means very little sleep for me too.
I know this too is a part of being a mom, and I am trying to take it my stride the best I can. I do tend to get quite irritable at times - and the people closest to me (read: my husband & my parents) have to bear the brunt of it. But hopefully this phase won't last too long. The good news is that my parents are going to arrive from India this Friday. And I'm sure that will make all my troubles go away. Afterall isn't that what parents always do?! :-)

Sweet nothings

Kabu talking himself to sleep...

Destination: Angel's Rest

Last Saturday, we finally had the opportunity to go for our first hike with Kabir. We chose to go to Angel's Rest in the Columbia river gorge. I hadn't hiked in more than a year, and had been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I had hiked up to Angel's Rest before, and remembered it to be a beautiful and easy hike, gaining about 1500 ft in elevation over 2.4 miles (4.8 miles round trip) with breathtaking views of the gorge from the top. The summit is like a balcony on top of the Columbia river offering 270 degree view of the gorge. In my experience, the view from the summit is unlike any other in the gorge.

This time though, our goal was not to reach the top. It was to have a good time with Kabir and make sure we only go as far as he would be comfortable with. We recruited our dear friend and hiking buddy nicknamed Chandu Chacha, who was a great companion as well as a patient photographer through out the hike!

We started from home around noon, and first got to NW Portland to pick up Chandu Chacha. Took a short break there since K had got fussy in the car and needed to be fed. We were all back in the car at about 1:30pm for a short (~40 mins) drive to the Angel's Rest trail head. Things weren't looking very good at this time as K seemed to be quite unhappy already. To add to it, it was a hot hot day with the temperature around 100 F. Yes, I know it sounds stupid to be doing this on such a hot day. But we have no air conditioning, and our home gets so uncomfortable that this seemed like a great idea in comparison.

We hit the trail around 2:30pm with Saurabh holding K comfortably in our baby carrier. The trail starts with a steady climb and (did I say this already?) offers beautiful views of the Columbia river from the very beginning. K seemed to be engrossed in the scenery around him and kept looking around inquisitively.

About 10 minutes into the hike

Passing Coopey Falls We took a short break on the way up. Since it was so hot, I wanted to keep K hydrated and took the time to feed him and sponged him with some cool water.

Mama-beta both in smiles after the break

After this break, which was at about a third on our way to the top, Saurabh decided to try holding K on his back instead of holding him on the front. This turned out to be more comfortable for both of them, and within a few minutes we found K to be soundly asleep!

K enjoying the ride on papa's back

The last 0.5 miles or so has patches of tree cover and there are some areas with barren rock. When we got to that point, we wondered if it would be wise to continue going up with the sun beating down on us. We decided to ask for advice from some hikers coming down the trail. They encouraged us by suggesting that we should keep going. And we were glad that we did so! We reached the summit around 4:15pm and found a spot with some shade to rest, eat our sandwiches and pose for pictures.

some well deserved rest

K snacking on sweet potato

Time for posing

"are koi meri photo bhi to lo"- Chandu chacha

After spending about half an hour on the top, we headed back down. K promptly went back to sleep in his carrier and so the way down was mostly uneventful. Except that we decided to stop at Coopey falls. We woke K up so he could experience this as well. He saw the falls with wonder in his eyes, but wasn't very happy when I tried to make him touch the water.

We were back to our car around 5:30pm, thrilled with the experience. Full points to Kabir for being such a good sport and making this such a memorable trip!

I don't blame him..

..I hated spinach myself as a child. And today was his first time trying it. He disliked it so much, I had to mix a little sweet potato with it and keep him distracted by letting him play with my sandwich wrap. He did better than I had expected! Ofcourse I had a lot of cleaning up to do after he was finished.

Busy Mom Busier Son

I decided not to take the day off today so I've been trying to work as well as look after Kabir. A few minutes ago, when I looked up from my computer, I found him to be very busy too. He had rolled away from his play area to do some reading himself.

almost done...I'll be ready for a test soon!