MERRY CHRISTMAS

We would like to wish every one of you a Merry Christmas !!!

First Family Meal

Today Aidan has a taste of his first Family Meal. We sat together and ate the same food. This happened this afternoon at Kenny Roger's in Subang Parade. And did he enjoy his roasted chicken! He had roasted chicken , baked beans, macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. Actually it was our order but he enjoyed sharing it with us. Now it is easier for us, as we don't have to prepare special food for his. Going out now with him will be a joy.

Standing Up

Standing up is a one of the things parents are proud to see happen.....and also dread. We are proud because this would be the First Step ( no pun intended ) towards walking. We dread because now he gets to hold on to anything and pull himself up.

Yes Aidan is like that too. However he does not realize some objects like boxes or container are not heavy enough to support him and it therefore slides from under his hands. He also has a tendency to stand...laugh and cry. Not because he is sad but because he doesn't know how to get back down. He has fallen a few times in his crib. Thank god for soft landing. Though at times, it looks like he is doing a falling stunt for Hollywood. He falls with style.

The other day, I woke up finding him staring at me over the top of his crib. Of course when daddy wakes up he breaks up into his happy laugh. If you notice that slight damp patch in the picture below, that is his sliver. He just likes sucking on things. Well, thank god for immunizations. If not, I don't know how he survives with all that germs all over our house.

Pet Names and Namecalling

Pet names and Namecalling has been the topic of discussion in our home lately. Let's face it no matter how hard you try to control it or prevent it, because babies are so adorable they somehow get called a number of names which have more to do with their cuteness than anything else. A pet name is usually a nickname a person grows up with... it's not usually entirely bad sounding, sometimes sounds quite nice. But there are the not so nice ones too, oh you know, the kind of pet names, often embarrasing ones, some folks get stuck with simply because their elders were having a laugh or thought it sounds oh soooo... cute and somewhat apropriate for the lil one. However, what is apropriate and how far should anyone be allowed to refer to your child by a name other than his/her own name before it becomes classified as inapropreiate namecalling.

As an Indian I can only speak for and honestly say that I know this happens in a number of Indian families where their children often get stuck with inapropriate names from birth right through to adulthood. There are many, but, I'm only going to mention the ones I thought were the worst of the lot... and they're as follows:

1. 'kunju' - sounds like the person is being referred to by his/her *ahem* privates

2. 'boy' or 'bo-boy' - this sounds really cute when you're a kid but when you're 30 and people
still call you that coz they think by some cruel fate it's your actual name, the
cuteness of the name dies a natural death.

3. 'somberi' - this means lazy and no matter how lovingly you say it, personally I find it negative
and demoralizing for a childs' mental and emotional development.

4. gundu papa - 'gundu = fat' and 'papa = little girl'... once the meaning of that name truly hits
her, oh around about the time she's 12+ she's gon'na be starving herself and
exercising in an effort to shake off that name as fast as possible... and I assure
you she wants it gone yesterday! (be grateful this poor girl doesn't become
aneroxic)

Well, those were the prize winners I've personally come across so far... I may come across more in the next decade or so but, I find that it's not a very popular practice among the people in my generation, thank God for that.

I hope that in due time such practices in our Indian homes will stop altogether. I mean always ask yourself how you'd like it if you were stuck with a name that wasn't yours and on top of everything else sounds embarrasing.

TTFN...

Child Learning

When Anita was pregnant, we used to read a lot of books on child development. We were amazed by what a child is capable of learning. Some of the results were amazing. Being a melancholy, I was wondering whether it was all true. I know some of the techniques worked due to extensive research. So we decided to take an active role in developing our boy.

We started reading to him. We showed flash cards to him. We sang to him. We allowed him to explore his physical surrounding. The results of 7 months of work is showing now. Anita called be in the office a couple of days back excitedly telling me Aidan is crawling on his knees. He used to jump forward or crawl on his toe with butt sticking up. Now he is doing it properly. Then, during one of the story reading session, Anita casually asked him where was an object, he surprised her by touching the picture. Wow! Amazing was a child's mind is capable off.

Now that he is mobile, he is standing up holding what ever he can, including my pants. When I call him, he crawls to me and raises his arms to be carried. He knows what milk is. When we ask him whether he wants milk he stops crying and smiles.

On weekends whenever I ask him whether he wants to read a book, he crawls and pops his head on my shoulder and waits for the story. I think he is beginning to like books. He is always excited when I bring him into my study. Lucky him, he has lots of books to inherit.

The other day, we went shopping and return with a bunch of books. Aidan mumbled something that sounded like ' I like books'. Coincidence I know, But it gave us a shock and a good laugh after that. His baby talk sometimes corresponse to real words. Perhaps he is trying.

Early Bird

Lately Aidan has been waking up very early. He is practically up an hour before his daddy.

Most of the time, we are not aware of it. One reason is we are fast asleep, another is that he hardly makes any noise. He will be quietly playing with his toys.

Today however he was so cute. When I opened my eyes he was in his crawling position and looking straight into my eyes. His mummy had put him on our bed sometime in the night. Next thing I know we was laughing and rolling. Now, this could be due to the funny way I must have looked at that time. Then again, he is a happy kid. Then he rolled and placed his head on my body and just lay still for a couple of minutes. Then of again he jumped into his mothers ups or was it her armpit.

Anyway, this expression really makes one's day. What a way to start the day yeah!!!!

Aidan Holds His Own Bottle

Aidan has began holding his own bottle when he drinks. At times, he pushes our(parents) hands away. Getting a bit independant isn't he. Well, here is a picture of him we took this morning. One handed grip on the bottle. Cute bugger !!!

FIRST BORN 2

FIRST BORN

Exercise Is Good For Health

A page of any fitness books. Before Aidan does his crawling he does his pushups. Looks like someone waiting to get into the army....crew cut hair, back straight , shoulders back and a mean looking expression.

By the way, he can at least stand for 30 seconds or so....

Wei, you can or not?????

Handsignals

The joy of being a father is indescribable. There is so much happiness that the kid brings. Every morning, whenever I wish my son " Good Morning", he breaks out a big smile and laugh so happily. That makes you regret that you need to go to work :).

We have been teaching him hand signals. The other day, when he wanted his milk he was waining, he cleanched his fist twice, a signal for milk. Where we suprised? When we asked him, whether he wanted milk, he just stopped making noise and waited for his mother to finished mixing his milk. Amazing isn't it.

We found out babies at 6 onwards, can communicate with handsignals even before they can learn to speak.

Anyway, I cannot wait to go back home and carry him and cuddle with him before his bedtime.

Aidan Learns how To Crawl

The last 2 days, Aidan has finally succeeded in moving forward an inch or so on his hands and knees... he's been trying so hard for about 3 weeks now. He'll get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth... looks like he's revving up and getting ready to put one knee in front of the other, then he plonks down onto his belly and grins from ear to ear kinda' like saying, "mommy did u see that? I almost had u thinking I was gon'na crawl didn't I". Then there came a time when he'd back up against the edge of his playpen get up on all fours and with his feet against the edge he'll launch his body forward and look at us and laugh, "see I moved forward... no crawling involved".

I think crawling looks like one of the hardest things a baby needs to learn how to master... I didn't understand why it was so difficult until I read a book which said crawling is the first task a baby learns which requires the left and right brain to work together so that when a baby puts his left knee forward his right brain tells the left brain to put the right arm forward for balance and vice versa preventing the lil one from losing balance and falling face first.


The rate and manner in which a little human being learns and develops mentally not just physically is truly amazing.

Pregnancy, Childbirth and Early Parenthood

Ahhh... pregnancy! Rough the first 4 months, had a blast the following 4 and felt like a huge sack of potatoes walking around in month 9. I remember telling my unborn child at the time to hurry it up and come out already.

I was one of those moms-to-be who needed to know what was going to happen and how it was going to happen before it actually happened. I had it all worked out, Mohan and I wrote a 'Birth Plan' and submitted it to our doctor and the maternity staff ahead of time... basically I would go into labor, we'd head to the hospital all calm and collected, and I'd have a wonderful natural delivery where the doctor hands me my beautiful baby boy the instant he's out and I'd be an instant mommy without ever being apart from my baby boy... PERFECT! Too perfect.

Well, a couple of false alarms later we found ourselves once again in an all too familiar labor room with staff who seemed like they'd known us forever ("ahh.... these amatuers again. It's their first baby probably another false alarm", they must've thought initially). Everything was going according to plan, labor was progressing nicely, the doctor 'broke the bag' to speed up labor... and then it happened not 30 seconds later a state of emergency... my lil' baby needed to come out straight away... "don't worry", they said, "we'll look after you and the baby"... I was whisked off to the OT where an emergency C-section was performed.

After I came to and the anesthetic bagan to ware off... I was finally reunited with my baby... he was already out but i still felt and looked like a sack of potatoes. Yes, we were finally parents... you don't really instantly feel like a mommy or a daddy. It even feels weird at first referring to yourself as a parent. It's been 6 months now and I finally feel like a 'mommy'... he can't speak yet but he does express his diaproval of his gran's efforts at consoling him when he's sleepy by crying and calling out 'ma'. Oh, I love that boy to bits, he sure knows who his momma is... so proud I am of him.

Well, the moral of the story is have a plan, always have a plan but know that when the time comes there's always a 5% chance things may not go quite as planned and that's okay... the experience for me was still just as fantastic as if I'd had a natural birth.

First Deepavali

It is the morning of Deepavali and I have been receiving SMS wishing my family Happy Deepavali. Me and my wife decided that for the first Deepvali, Aidan will spend it with a quiet breakfast with his parents. Although quiet doesn't seem to be in his vocabulary.

It just occured to be that this has a significance to it. Not just because it is his first one but because of his name. Aidan means Little Fire, Kamal means Lamp. Little Fire on the lamp....??? And isn't Lord Krishna who saves the day from evil? Irony....Perhaps....we didn't plan it anyway.

Aidan's First 30-Day

At 30 days since he was born, it is indian culture to do some blessing in a temple. What was significant about this was, we did his blessing in a temple that was build by his great grandfather. I wonder what my late grandad would say, if he knew his legacy actually continues. Would he have ever thought that the temple he build would have been a setting for the blessing of his newborn great-grandson. What a thought that would have been....

New Born

Many people seem to warn us that parenthood will take our lives away from us. No more movies, dating and invitations to parties. However, We seem to transit into parenthood very smoothly. This is probably due to the fact that nowadays we have access to information. We termed ourselves the new age parents. We define it as Parents who take Proactive action to seek out information and arm themselves with it to make the right decision. This helps when there are influences from relatives who mean well but are sometimes misinformed.

The first 3 months of pregnancy was difficult. We wondered why they call it 'morning sickness' when it doesn't even happen in the morning. It should be called, 'all day sickness'. But after the 3 months, if was a breeze....especially for me(the husband). One thing Anita did right was to take a lot of nutrition and have a lot of exercise. If anyone says, pregnant woman need to rest...please lah! The body needs to exercise and get strong to support the additional weight.

Anyway, fast forward to the due date. We were watching Spider-man 3 one week before due, courtesy of my dear younger brother. The baby must have enjoyed it, since it was very quiet in the womb. Couple of days later, labor set it and after some false alarm and a tiring night for my wife, my son was born healthy. Ooooo...what a joy. We had named him Aidan Kamal Krishnan. What was interesting was the reaction to the name:

1. Why did you give him a Malay name?



2. Is the a christian name?



3. Why like the western three name??

Answers:

1. Kamal is a Sanskrit name, meaning lamp



2. Aidan is a Celtic name, the roots are common to Sanskrit, and it means Little Fire ( Man, We didn't know how right we were )



3. Well, we expect our son to be successful, so we gave him a global name that can be used internationally. Globalization my friend.



4. And Krishnan, well, that's my surname. So....he carries it too.

Any question, do not hesitate to ask ya!!