Long overdue updates

I have been lagging behind in recording all the happenings in Mitthi Mouse and Ninni the Pooh's worlds. Now I have forgotten half of them. I never was the "record-it-all" kind of mother. I rejoice when the milestones are met, mention them to anyone who cares to ask about my two rays of sunshine but almost never remember to head over to my blog and record them. Oh well...

**Randomness alert! The following updates are going to be random - not necessarily in the order they happened. **

M is sitting up unsupported. She has been doing that for quite some time now. And she is pretty good with maintaining her balance. The lazy bum that she is, she still hasn't rolled over :D I guess since we are doing her work for her (in helping her sit up) she is not worried about learning some of the basic skills. Moreover, she still doesn't like tummy time so that might be one reason why she hasn't rolled over yet.

I think I mentioned it in one of my earlier posts that she is also trying her hardest to sit up - but since she hasn't learned to roll over, she just wants to sit up in one go. No "rolling to her side and then slowly propping herself up on her hands" (like S did) for her! This is one dame in a hurry to get things done :P She IS getting strong ab muscles in the process and each day she moves her shoulders a tiny fraction higher than the last time. So I guess she might just sit up one day without any forewarning! I am worried that it might happen in the middle of the night and the only way we will know about it is when we'll hear the "THUD" of her falling off her crib. Yes. Me and my active imagination :D

M is also using her walker like a pro! She has been mobile in it now for quite some time and has gained confidence in maneuvering it in the tightest of spots. It is hilarious to see her follow us around the house. She does this "flapping her hands in the air and pushing with her tummy" to navigate the walker around corners and to turn it around! She learned all this on her own for one reason, and one reason only. She has lazy and cruel parents who just watched and laughed when she got stuck on corners and in tight spaces. We didn't move even a single muscle to go help her out. So she had to learn fast!

With her increased mobility, we have to be on a lookout for potential "slobber alerts". If she sees anything hanging at her eye level, a jacket on the back of a chair for instance, she rushes to it and tries to put it in her mouth WITHOUT USING HER HANDS! I told you she is a lazy bum of a baby. Not an iota of extra effort for anything. Just enough to get things done with the minimum movements of limbs seems to be her goal.

She is also eating 2 meals a day now. She loves the cereal and the carrots and the peas and everything else she can put in her mouth. Green Beans give her gas and make her VERY uncomfortable. So we have decided to re-introduce beans later. I haven't been able to cook much for her though and that thought nags at me. I would love to feed her more home cooked meals. I need to get more organized to do that.

Another thing she has taken up recently is shrieking. If she is tired, or wants something, or if she is just plain bored she'd go "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". Then it is up to us to decipher what exactly is the request here. So a typical scene goes like this-

M: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Grandma: You want me to pick you up? Come here.

M (Now in grandma's arms - clawing at her face): EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Grandma: No? You don't want to be held? Do you want to go on your activity mat then?

M (now laying on the activity mat): EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Grandma: Do you want a toy?

M (with a toy in her hands): EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Grandpa: Maybe she wants a diaper change.

Some one - Grandpa, grandma, mom, dad - checks her diaper after that and changes it if needed. If that was the true reason for the shrieks, M stops. Or sometimes she decides to start shrieking for something else. So we keep on trying different things to stop the d**n shrieking and M keeps upping the volume. Then sometimes J decides enough is enough and grabs her, bundles her up so she can't move her arms or legs and sings her to sleep. Then we realize that she wanted to sleep all along.

Sometimes, instead of shrieking, she grunts. The sound is then "UUUUUUUUUURNNNNNNNNNNNNDTTTTTTTTTTTTT".

Another thing she has just started doing is keeping tabs on everyone and everything that goes on in our house. So no matter what she is doing - drinking her formula, or trying to sleep - she HAS to check out every one that comes into or leaves the room. Last night was J's turn to wake up with her in night and while he was feeding her, she kept turning around to look at the sound-asleep me :) J says that made the task of putting her back to bed extra difficult because she really wanted to make sure that mommy was asleep and not just pretending to sleep! He finally had to do that bundle-her-up-and-don't-let-her-move-an-inch thing again :D All I could hear was a wail getting louder by the minute and daddy's lullabies matching the volume of the wails :P I drifted off to sleep with that "pleasant" sound filling my dreams :D But that did the trick, I am told, and M finally went to sleep.

Diwali happend too and that is when we found out that we have a social animal in the midst of us! M just LOVES company. She had been crying non-stop until we reached a friend's house for our Diwali get-together. We step into their house and all everyone else gets to see is a happy, smiling baby! Not a peep out of her all the time we were there. The moment we left their driveway the crying resumed and didn't stop until I plugged her mouth with a bottle and she went to sleep drinking her formula :D

Now on to the big sister.

S went to her first swim meet this year (not counting the one she went to in April when she participated in just one event) We were excited. J took her to the meet and I followed after completing a few chores. Seems like mommy and daddy were the only people excited about this meet. S spent the whole day with a long face. She was tired, she declared. She really was. Try to picture this - a tired kid doing a 100 m freestyle swim. Watching her do it was like watching one of those slow motion scenes in a Hindi movies where the lead actress is swimming neck to neck with her rival and they are inches away from the finish line. Only, here it was a very tired S and no rival and no neck-to-neck competition happening. I was VERY proud of her when she finished that event - because it is pretty damn difficult to even get going when you are dog-tired, let alone finish. I think it was the fact that she wasn't swimming very fast that was dragging S' spirits down. I tried to explain to her over and over that I DON'T care if she is first or last in an event as long as she is making her best effort and is having fun. Finally I gave up and left her alone. And then I couldn't help wondering if we were unduly pushing our daughter into something she didn't want to do. Agreed she loves swimming and begged us to enroll her in swimming but it was on our insistence that she tried out for the swim team.

So, we somehow got through the meet and then came home. J had already left leaving me with S. On our way back, I talked to S about her behaviour that day. I told her that we didn't want to push her into the swim team if she didn't want it and that she can opt out and go back to regular swimming lessons if she wants. She insisted that she wanted to be on the team and that she enjoyed it. By the time I drove into our driveway I was on the verge of tears and just sat in the car and started crying. I don't know why the tears spilled - it was probably the mad rush that we had been in since morning topped with S' attitude. Seeing my tears S got very upset and tried to console me. I told her that I NEVER wanted to push her into anything EXCEPT in education and matters of health. All I wanted was for her to have fun doing whatever she opted to do. I told her that I didn't mind if she didn't want to stay on the swim team - that she can go back to regular swimming lessons if she finds swim meets very stressful. She assured me that she likes being on the team for the umpteenth time. And she even said "You are a very good mommy. You are not pushing me into anything" or something to that effect. All in all, I and S had a heart-to-heart talk out in our car on the driveway. S promised not to behave that way again in the next swim meet and she kept the promise. In the next swim meet, which was on the weekend before Thanksgiving, she was in a cheerful mood and didn't whine about "having to do it". Another reason for the absence of whining was that I had earlier told S it was her choice - she can easily drop out of the swim team if she doesn't like the early morning swim meets. I guess that made her realize that we are not forcing her into anything and the only way she can continue this is if she wants it. And that no whining on the matter of not being able to sleep in will be tolerated :P

So the first swim meet that S participated in turned out to be very different from what I had always imagined it to be but it still was a good experience.

S has started showing some signs of puberty and I talked to her pediatrician about it. I wanted help on how to discuss puberty with her. I myself entered puberty pretty early (I don't exactly remember but I think I got my first period when I was 10 or 11 years old) and I still remember how scared I was when that happened. It was because my mom had not had a chance to discuss this with me before it happened and even after it did, she just told me the basics very matter-of-factly and the rest I had to figure out by myself. I don't want S to go through that alone. Her pediatrician has recommended that we see a pediatric endocrinologist who can make sure her hormone level is normal and that she doesn't start puberty too early because it would stop her from reaching her full height/growth potential. I didn't know that and I am glad I brought up this issue with the pediatrician. So we are seeing a pediatric endocrinologist on this Friday and I hope she will have some useful information for us.

Academically S is doing wonderful. So says her teacher. We had the first parent-teacher conference on November 1st. For the first time in all these years, S wasn't a nervous wreck before the conference. I hope it is because I have finally been able to get it across that if she fails in a subject, we won't disown her. We will, instead, try to help her understand that subject better. The teacher says S is very good in math (and she said that with a surprise), and her writing skills are very good. That surprised ME because till last year her teachers had been telling us she needs more work in that area. Guess the "more work" has paid off! S got a "C" (for "consistent") or an "O" (for "outstanding") in most skills that she was tested on. Specially in physical fitness, she got mostly "O"s which is good because her teacher told us that the Physical ed teacher didn't hand out many "O"s this year.

We also asked the teacher to help her participate in other activities around the school in order to help her develop a rounded personality and not just become a book worm. The teacher suggested that she can try being on the editorial board. S like the idea too so in January, she will try that out. S has also started going to the Kindergarten classes (another of her teacher's ideas) to read books to the little kids. This is helping her with her reading skills and the little kids love it when an older kid comes to their class to read to them. S enjoys doing that too.

I took M to S' class one day in October after her teacher had sent me many pointed reminders :D S loved being the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON in the classroom (because M had eyes only for her and she even got to hold the baby!) and M loved all the attention. Mommy loved all the compliments she got for the beautiful baby and the beautiful big sister :P

S has continued with violin lessons at school this year and with Piano lessons too. She seems to be enjoying both. She cleared another level in math in KUMON and has been in the ASHR (Advanced Student Honor Roll) for quite some time now. Looks like she will make the "G by 5" milestone in Math too. That is when a student completes level G in KUMON math by (or before) 5th grade. S is on level F right now. Ain't I the proud mama? :D And that is so because S has achieved this without any POP (prodding or pushing) from us. In fact sometimes I wonder if she would have done better with some POP but then I remember that it wouldn't have meant anything then. At least not to me.

S surprised me with one thing a few weeks back. She has been learning dance moves to some Bollywood songs with a few friends and they sometimes present those dances in their school's "All School Meetings" where all kids are welcome to perform anything they are good at. The friend who has been co-ordinating these performances at the school signed up all the girls, including S, for a dance performance in a talent show that S' school was going to hold. S came to me in the evening and said she didn't want to participate in the dance because she wanted to share another talent (Piano) and they were allowed to present only one talent. I was surprised at the clarity and determination with which she put her "case" in front of me. For the first time she came out and told me what she wanted in plain terms, without whining. A big achievement, I am telling you! So I talked to the friend who let S off of the obligation and S did present her Piano piece at the Talent show. She chose her pieces, auditioned and prepared for them all on her own. I am very proud of you, S!!

Edited to add (before I completely forget): M has also been pulling herself up into a sitting position and then into standing up by grabbing our fingers. It has been at least a month since she started doing this. And I swear that we don't help her AT ALL (refer to the paragraph about lazy and cruel parents) so SHE has to do all the grabbing and pulling. As a result she is developing a very strong grasp! And shoulders :P