My daughter taught me today

learning what no book taught me #newbie mom

[aikoandi]

Habits of highly effective/productive people

I've been reading up on books that talk about the above topic. What is it that makes them who they are ? How are they not tired etc etc. And then I look at my daughter. She seems to have, intrinsic to her, so many qualities that define a "successful"? person. So, she's taught me:

1. Practice. Repeat: this I've written about in my earlier posts. Almost two years later, this is one habit she's not let go of. Anything new, wants to do it a 'tens and hundreds" of time. Till she's satisfied. If it is a new story or song, she makes us read/sing so many times till she has learnt the tune.

2. Always ready to try something new: The excitement when she sees anything for the first time is remarkable. And she spends her time observing it and then taking baby steps exploring it. Again, another habit she's not lost from when she was a baby. The only thing she has stopped doing, thankfully, is put the said item into her mouth ;)

3. Always wake up early: Like an alarm clock she's up at 5 am every day. (well... I try putting her back to sleep but not very successful) irrespective of when she sleeps at night, 5 am is when she wakes up.

4. Start getting to work as soon as you're up. No feeling lazy in bed, no wondering if she can take the day off. Gets up with "let's play!". Sometimes, she wakes up discussing her dream and wants to continue the activities that she was dreaming. So we get up and are suddenly dinosaurs or buses, or making *mud pizzas". (helps us get out of our cozy beds too. Especially helpful on Monday mornings. )

5. Eats till she's less than 100% full. This may sound weird. But, eating till you're about 80% full actually helps you stay more active and fit instead of eating till you're 100% full and exhausted. I've observed Aiko never stuff her mouth with food and stops when she's just satisfied.

This is what is on the top of my head. So, successful people retain the child in them, perhaps. What do you think?

[aikoandi]

The barn swallow has a lot of water in its mouth. That is why it is called barn swallow.

[aikoandi]

Mom's DO have superpowers!

I think it is fairly common, that when babies/kids have a little injury, they run to their mom's for a kiss on the injury spot for instant healing. (confession, I do that too). But I (used to) think that was all in jest, just to humour the child. The child thinks mommy can heal anything! But then, this time, I felt the healing powers! Both Aiko and I caught a bug around the same time. I started a fever, cold, insessant cough, etc in the AM and Aiko, the same night. Since her falling sick was not anticipated I loaded myself with meds that would knock me( and the bug bugging me) out the park, in the safe havens of my parents' house (where Aiko's dad has a village of support in case she decided to act up) Only to be awoken by a howling baby. She was having trouble breathing, thanks to her blocked nose. Everyone tried consoling her and putting her back to sleep. I was struggling to stay up thanks to all the medication. But somehow, got the strength in me to pick her up, calm her down, feed her and put her to sleep. She kept getting up every other hour and I was up with her, calming her, comforting her. Did this for 3 straight nights. The mornings after I was pretty much a dead duck. (like how Tony Stark comes back battered sometimes after being Iron Man) but she also didn't need me much. Charged and all set to play all day. I could literally feel my body recovering at lightening speed, energy being pumped, all set to give the daughter the care she needed. While running a temperature of 101.5F, in the middle of the night ! No wonder when she's most vulnerable, like the little bout of cough she just had in her sleep, she finds my face and then hugs me tight. I do have superpowers. I don't know how to invoke them. Maybe she knows! Happy Mother's Day y'all mom's!

[aikoandi]

How far can you go

Second Teacher's Day with my favourite teacher. And student, perhaps? Now that she is a toddler, every day is an exciting, new day for Aiko. And she loves to have us, her parents, in all her explorations and concerts. So before you know it we are almost all the time on our toes, either playing with her, cleaning after her (ofcourse with her help) or catching up on work. There have been days when it has been so hectic that all we want to do is sleep as soon as it is bed time. Those days Aiko decides to "party all night". With us. She would want to build cities and trains with her blocks. "Mommy do"is her favourite phrase. So with one eye trying to get some sleep and the other working, I keep playing with her, and also negotiating with the sleep God to sprinkle some sleep dust on her eyes. She somehow knows better than me, what is the permissible limit to drive mommy up the wall before all hell breaks loose. And this is about 2-3 hours beyond what I think I'm capable of. It does give an adrenaline high that after the point I think is the peak of exhaustion I still have the energy to play with her! She eventually falls asleep after all the partying and I follow. She taught me to push myself beyond what I think I'm humanly capable of. Supermom checking in ;)

[aikoandi]

Family that stays together, sings together!

Aiko’s vocabulary has advanced by leaps and bounds now and she’s all about singing songs. Our house now sounds like a musical production studio with all of us singing all the time. Why? < Because when she sings, she insists that we all sing along. Sunday morning, it’s baa baa black sheep all morning long !

[aikoandi]

We turned 1! These past few weeks have been all about celebrations. Looking back, I find it so hard to comprehend a life without my Aiko. She's made her dad and me better people, patient people and also, surprisingly, very determined people in terms of the kind of life we want to live. She's made us start living by example, stop staring at screens (as much as we can control) while she's around, And get super creative! I am all set for all the adventures we have ahead of us!

[aikoandi]

Food training... For parents!

One of our dear friends told us about this new diet paradigm: “you can eat whatever you want. But you have to make it from scratch”. The person who created this, clearly had a child that gave her/him the death stare when they ate something “ sinful”.

Aiko’s dad and I, before she came along (and also after, when she hadnt started on solids) were big fans of pizzas, burger King burgers and donuts ( keeping the list small :D) and would frequently order in without an iota of guilt. Ever since Aiko has realized what she eats and has gotten curious about what we eat, well, things have gotten different.

We’ve been (trying to ) wean her, her way and this means, she eats what we eat. But the stuff we order in, are too sinful for her and hence we don’t want to give her. First couple of times we tried diverting her attention but, come on! She is smarter than us.

So now, have consciously decided to not order in anything that we think is not good for her to eat.

And our pizza craving: Again thanks to the friend mentioned above. The better half of that relationship gave us a recipe that takes lesser time to make than the delivery boy would take to bring a pizza home.

Aiko’s doing what our parents and us too, struggled all this while to do. Eat right.

Man she’s changing our lives. If only she got us to sleep through the night now. Hehehehe

[aikoandi]

No filter, no problem!

We live in one of those typical apartments where neighbours care nothing about their neighbours. So all these years it is mostly half smile in the elevator, an almost nod when we meet midway, etc. Some of us too conscious about saying Hi and some not interested. When we take Aiko for her walks etc and we do meet our neighbours, she first signals a "Hi!" Wave. Persists till she gets a response. If we are in the elevator, she pats random companions, tugs at their hair, purse etc while I scramble and apologize and tell her what is "the right thing" to do. But almost every time, these random strangers love her gestures and start talking to her. And the next time we see them they're all chatty. So easy. And we have, from random obscure couple that freely distributes compost, became parents of a building celebrity. Wondering if I should try waving Hi or tugging at random people's hair to start a conversation. Hehehe

[aikoandi]

Go get it!

Aim: her dad's slippers Strategy 1: go after it while her dad is wearing it. Result: Target failed Strategy 2: go after it when it is not being used, but right in front of parents. Result: Target failed. Strategy 3: throw tantrum. Result: diversion therapy. Target failed. Strategy 4: Ooh, dad forgot his slippers under the table. No adult eye seems to have found it yet. She starts crawling the fastest I've seen her, towards a toy. That is what I see. Within a minute, bright blue slipper in her mouth :/ Oh what joy in her eyes! This was after so many days of trying. And I keep singing incy wincy spider to her, when she's learnt that there are a million ways to achieve her target :)

[aikoandi]

Don't slouch!

How many times have we heard this from parents, teachers, friends! And we still slouch. Ever since Aiko started sitting (which was about 2 months ago) I've been inspired by the fact that she can sit for hours with a straight back. When we play, I automatically straighten my back now.

[aikoandi]

Too much stuff!

Aiko is now 6 months old and is now somewhere between a playful puppy and a curious cat. Her senses are working in overdrive and she wants to take in as much as possible. She has also changed her sleep schedule(bye bye sleeping through the night, hello hello daytime naps) and process of falling asleep. Sleep protocol now includes her rhymes playlist and someone walking or rocking her to sleep. And while this is happening she will scan every single item in the room, process it and only when she's satisfied that everything is known and has been explored, will she fall asleep. I thought we were leading a minimalist lifestyle. But if she takes 15 min to see everything in the room, it hit me that we have too much stuff! Now onto some early winter cleaning

[aikoandi]

That it has been quite a while since I checked out baby books or my go to websites. Looks like the 6 month mommy probation is done. And the mother's instinct is on. Full power!

[aikoandi]

Stress test your gear!

So I think she is weaning herself from the mouthing phase. Although she still loves to put everything, from her grandpa's shirt collar to the washing machine, into her mouth, she's been showing some interesting traits. Couple of days ago she went to her cousin's first birthday party. As a return gift she got a wind up toy. An elephant that we named Dumbo ( yes. Self confessed Disney fan). Her dad and I were wondering if it was safe to give her as there were small parts etc. So we decided to try and pull it apart ourselves. But before we could get to it, she sees it, grabs it and starts banging it on the floor. Not just that, she even tried to hold it differently and kept banging. Not a piece chipped! It is safe for play :) She has extended the stress test to our hands before she chews on our fingers. Ouch!

[aikoandi]

Technology inspirations

Round robin is a well known scheduling algorithm. I got a live demo of it from my Aiko today. (no, as much as I would dream for my daughter to be a computer geek I have not started “force feeding” her).

Continuing her fascination with hands and fingers, one of her favorite pastimes is grabbing my hand and chewing fingers one after the other. Now I don’t know if she is counting or what, but she knows which finger she’s just chewed and picks up the next finger that hasn’t been chewed. She also knows that when all 5 fingers are through, she can pull my other hand to continue this process. Only after she’s gone over all 10 fingers, does she get back to previously chewed ones. I wanted to validate this before posting, but this has been happening for over a week! Is she counting already? Did my miniscule, fading knowledge of algorithms get transmitted in-utero? :D

Hands free headphones technology has been a savior for all of us. And my daughter seems to have realized it really early. So when she’s playing with one of her usual favourite toys and decides she wants to explore more, she holds the toy in her mouth, so her hands are now free for investigation and exploration!

[aikoandi]

Upside down views

Looking at the world upside down is so much more fascinating. I decided to lie next to my daughter on her play mat and view her world from her eyes. Mostly she would strain her neck to see what we are up to in the kitchen. It was fun to see heads floating above the cool white ceiling. Completely different perspective from the chaos that was dinner prep time. So much fun!

[aikoandi]

[aikoandi]

The last mile problem

Aiko has now started moving around. Either using her tummy to bounce across or using her hands and feet to try and creep. So we have been having some games where we spread all her toys around her, not too near but also not too far. This way she can get her workout and feel good that she accomplished something. She first scans the toys, chooses which one she will go after. Then starts her journey towards it. As soon as she's reached near it, and all she has to do is reach out her hand to grab it, she gets stuck. Doesn't know how to proceed further. It is frustrating and finally we have to intervene. Human nature too, is similar. We make grand plans and brilliantly execute them. Not 100% but just about 99%. And keep struggling to complete the last mile. It is "inborn" after all!