Chiku - a morning person

As all babies are, Chiku is a morning person.Actually a very early morning person. He is usually quite alert and awake a bit before five in the morning. D is you guessed, not a morning person at all. So we have an issue here. But not really.Chiku's father is a morning person and so they get to hang out together, the boy's time out, for a couple of hours every morning.

The father loves it as it is truly a one on one time with his son and he does not get much of face time when D is around with Chiku. It is also a time when both of them are fresh and great to go. I get up and watch them have fun. Chiku is crawling all over the place. He goes to the shelf which has his toys that D has put back the previous night. He methodically takes them one by one and flings them on the floor. Once that is done, he goes near the sofa and pulls down each and every cushion lying there. That over he stands near the 'kitchen gate' and talks gibberish while his father is also communicating stuff to him about life. Chiku then has his morning milk and is again good to go with fresh energy. He finds some small spek of dirt or string or anything on the floor and tries to put it into his mouth.See I told you he is into taste in a big way, so everything has to go into his mouth. Prevented from succeeding in this, he turns and goes near the shoe rack. Some footwear remains outside the rack and he is making a beeline for it. Father anticipates and catches him well before and lifts him and allows Chiku to climb on to him. Chiku then has a good ride on appa's shoulders and sees the world from a different elevation. Chiku pulls at his appa's hair and generally shampoos it with a lot of saliva. Appa is happy and is singing some songs he has composed about our hero Chiku.

Then there is a break; yes, it is potty time and once that is over, Chiku is ready for his siesta. Appa rocks him gently to sleep.And show is over for today.

A friend of mine once told me, that when we are shortlisting a list of essential criteria in a prospective partner in marriage,there should be a specific question as to whether the other partner is a morning or a night person. She believed that they have a better chance of making it work smoothly if both of them are either morning or both are night persons. When both of them are busy, end of the day is the only time they can have time for themselves. That is when she used to feel so sleepy.And morning she is bright but the partner is snoring away. So there were many days when they could not get time to actually be together.

I saw merit in her theory. But now Chiku is raising a doubt on that assumption. One of the parents being a morning person is a very very critical parameter when you are raising a tiny baby.When Chiku keeps awake D finds it easy to be with him in the early part of the night. when appa cant keep his eyes open. So they juggle and it helps them stay sane.

Anyday sanity scores over bonding time! Especially with a tiny infant.

Chiku chronicle: Everyday is something new

Chiku is a small baby alright, but he is showing new facets of his personality everyday. His busy mind is assimilating all that is happening around him and like a kaleidoscope, is showing new patterns in his  behaviour and response to the external world. It is totally amazing.

Chiku is comfortable with strangers. He does not have 'vethu mugham'.Yes but on one condition. He should be sitting in his mom's lap and the stranger should be atleast at an arm's length. Then he breaks into a huge smile and totally mesmerises the stranger. A very friendly baby, such a beautiful smile, does not take badly to strangers and start screaming like some kids do are some of the kudos that Chiku gets on a regular basis. But then let the stranger come nearer and try to lift him up, then all hell breaks loose and he hollers. A smiling baby turning into a howling one in seconds. So the strangers learn their lesson.

His parents take him on their walks and he smiles at every person passing by, be it the security person or a newspaper boy or a neighbour. He actually gurgles and that totally stuns them and they give a very very broad smile. All is well.

Yesterday Chiku showed a more mature facet of his ever changing personality. Some friends had come calling and he has not seen them before. They wanted to lift him up and he actually allowed them to do that, and to top it all, was happily sitting in their lap when D was hovering in the vicinity. This is totally out of character but D was very very thrilled.

By evening some of her students came calling. They have come regularly and everytime they try to lift him up, he will show his displeasure. This time around, he happily went to them to the utter surprise from his parents for his quite unusual 'repeat' performance, in the same day. The students were very pleased and kept saying how it is so nice that he has labelled them as friends and family.

D had this logic. He is not a baby, he is a big boy now. He has realised that people who come home are friends  and family as they are pre approved! So it is okay to trust them and allow them to lift you up.

It is also a fact that the minute we try to find some pattern in his actions, he turns around and does something totally different.This trusting overture from Chiku is so stunning and charming. Will it continue?

Will he or won't he is the question.

Chiku chronicle - Taste is everything

'Puli pasithalum pullai thingadu'  is a well known proverb in Tamil, meaning a tiger will not eat grass even when it is hungry. Chiku is still a tiny baby, so he will agree to take a few morsels of food when he is hungry. But if it is not having the 'arusuvai'(all six tastes), he will purse his lips tightly and turn his head away and will not have a morsel more of plain paruppu sadam. D asked me to quickly make rasam and when it was mixed in the paruppu sadam, he put his tongue out and tasted it and was able to have the remaining portion quite comfortably enough. So now rasam is a must have dish at home.

He is fascinated with us eating and keeps literally salivating. So D gave him a tiny piece of ragi dosa that she was having. And he tasted it just like an adult, his face broke into happines, he made a clucking sound and was reaching out for the next piece of dosa. And this was after he had his meal. If it is not tasty, he will not eat a morsel more than just satisfying his immediate hunger. But give him something tasty, then even when he his not particularly hungry, he is able to enjoy and ask for more. I gave him my philosophy on food; chiku, listen to me, dont become a slave of taste.I was looking at him and D told me, he is not going to hear you now or later as I see it,, he will at best say, there is some ringing sensation in my ear, but can I have one more ragi dosa!

We were having sandwiches and he was very much interested. Again the same ragi dosa sequence was repeated. Even a plain bread was more fascinating than his nestum and cerelac. It actually has texture and original taste. D was relieved and said it will be really very convenient if he takes to bread, it will make it easier to take him out on travel.

Homemade mixed cereal kanji with buttermilk and salt seems to hold his interest now. D tried plain ragi kanji with buttermilk and salt and it did please him to have a different taste.

Chiku does not drink water. At all. Yes, he says no to even a drop of water. D was trying all tricks to make him drink water, but only after she put in some jaggery in his water and gave it to him in a tumbler, he was able to drink decent quantity! what a boy!

Every food has to be spiked! Even water!!

Chiku chronicle - Standing up phase

A visit to Guwahati to see Chiku was on the cards for a while, and I was quite happy that I could finally make it. It was a whole new experience for me seeing the tinytot after more than three months. There is a world of difference in the 'world' of a five month old and a eight month old baby. It started at the doorstep. D was holding him and opened the door. Chiku saw me and strained his eyebrows just like an adult; I could almost read his thoughts; who is this person, have I seen her somewhere? I laughed and made faces at him and he started laughing too. He laughs most readily when he is perched on his mother's shoulders. In a few minutes he was moving about on the floor playing with cups and spoons(the toys are for elders!). I was quite amazed that he is crawling so fast and is all over the place with his signature, thap, thap, thap sound. I was trying to connect the baby who was just about learning to turn over when I last saw him ,with this 'very very mobile' new person. Vethu mugham was more from my side than his!

D is the centre of his life, his idol. He adores her and the way he looks at her is all worship and 'how great you are' written all over him. He plays with his father and with me comfortably, till D is not in the vicinity. He has his ears totally tuned in to her and when she cleared her throat in the next room(and I barely heard it), he immediately started moving, thap, thap, thap in that direction. For me,it was one of the many sounds that I hear. But for chiku, his ears filters out every other sound and tunes in to his mom's voice; never mind that it was a very soft sound. After that you cannot prevent him from going and getting on to his mom's arms. You can try every temptation in the world, but his mom is holding him close and he is just not interested in anything else. True Fevicol baby!

He started tearing papers like all kids do and soon they hid away all the papers as he started putting the papers in his mouth. So he now has a different tearing session. Washed clothes nicely piled in a corner of the bed are his ready source. He takes them one at a time and tries to pull it apart. He does not get it, so he tries harder.He changes his posture, lays  down and pulls again.He makes great grunting noises to propel him to pull the cloth apart.When he fails, he goes to the next and tries the same action sequence once more. He has an endless supply of clothes as they are all his clothes and they are quite small and perfect to hold them in his hands. He tries to put them into his mouth and tear them apart.He has no teeth as of now and the exercise is leaving the cloth all damp with all his saliva all over the cloth.

His greatest fascination is the kitchen. D has put up a small sliding door to prevent his entry into the prohibited area. He makes a beeline for it anytime he is anywhere in the vicinity. He holds on to the door and stands up and is very eagerly looking in.Some activity or the other is going on there and he stands totally engrossed and interested. He makes all sort of sounds(as yet not decipherable)and his father tells him, 'this is  border area, visa is denied'. He does not sit there and holler. He soon decides to amuse himself elsewhere. There is always the clothes hanger placed near the sliding door. He heads for it and starts doing his standing up practice. He now wants to stand holding only one hand.The other hand has to clutch something else which is on the clothsline.He also wants to have only one leg firmly on the ground, the other leg has to practice being in the air! Now that he is comfortable standing up holding on to  a support, he is trying all these tricks. Like young children do when they learn cycling for the first time.

He has dumped the pram.It is only for tiny tots and he is a big boy now.So D takes him out in her bicycle, strapping him on to her chest. He likes it a lot. You see  he is so close to mummy, he can keep looking at her face all the time, it is outdoors with cool wind blowing and the scenery changing all the time makes him heady. This sight of mommy baby on a bicycle  is something of a novelty in there, as they keep referring to Chiku as the baby who goes about strapped to his mommy in a bicycle.