Our "Little Munchkin"

"Little Munchkin". That's what they call the 14-18 month old in her day care center (Your Kids 'R' Our Kids). Starting this Monday, Anshu and I bravely embraced one of the harshest truths of 21st Century parenting - The Day Care Center. A concept, which conveniently fits into your scheme of things, your job, your career and  your baby is taken care of just the way you would like.
Shahana started her long and arduous journey of institutionalization - with excited little baby steps. And she fit right in, among the other kids at the center. But ofcourse on day one, it was us parents who were loaded with a lot of guilt pangs. I for one, never expected this to be such a tough thing to do. And I realized it in good measure on the first day while leaving her alone. Although they take exceptionally good care of the child, catering to all her needs, but somehow, the parent in you never comes around to *completely* entrust the childs care to them. I guess we both grew a little more as parents, that day.
But then in today's scenario of working parents and next to nil support and the disintegration of the joint family (a good thing in my case), this is the next best option available. In fact, when I saw the number of parents dropping off their kids and going off to work, It was quite re-assuring to say the least.
As for Misthi, she has reached the stage, where she had begun craving for companionship. And we believe this is the right time to put her into a situation like this, where she will rapidly develop here social and interactive skills. We were actually very relieved to see her so happily engrossed with other kids her age. And then, I believe it is a matter of time when she will completely get used to this new arrangement.

So will we.

Mishti's Pictures

Its been a while since we got a chance to update little Shahana's activities. Oh she has certainly kept us very busy and "on our toes". Now very soon, she is going to go to a playschool!
Here are some pictures of her in her varying moods :)

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/talk2anand/MishtiBaby#

Little Baby Steps

The past week has been quite significant in the life of little Shahana. She has now learnt to stand up by herself and walk freely. Of course, her steps are wobbly and she still goes down in a big plonk, after a short distance, but she now enjoys walking. And her mom got her a pair of those noisy squeaky shoes, which just adds to the fun. Here's a little visual of our little baby enjoying her baby steps!!

She Sure is going to become quite a handful, when she figures out this running thing! Once that happens then she is going to become a free 'in-house' slimming course for us parents. ha ha.

Ethnic Chic Mishti

Some Pictures of little mishti in traditional Tamil dress.

Little naughty Shahana in her element!

Shahana's first birthday!

Our little mishti celebrated her first birthday on the 27th of september 2008. Quite an occassion in our lives by all standards. Quite an eventful one too. Because Right after that weekend, I embraced a big career change. I joined my new employment and the the interesting fact about this new assignment is that, in about 3 weeks time, Anshu will also be joining me at the same place. But then one can read all about it at http://anandspeak.blogspot.com. Here, we will talk about Shahana's party.
This was one roller-coaster ride, right from the word go! We had some vague idea in mind about how we want this event to be. And we started off, with just that threadbare thought in our minds. The first step as usual was 'where'? Delhi was an obvious choice but due to the recent developments in our career fronts, it was summarily rejected. It became very apparent that we will be celebrating in Bangalore. Once that was decided, another thing stared right at our faces was that most of our families may not be able to make it here because we are the only branches of our respective family trees, swaying in Bangalore! Nevertheless, we decided to make the most of what we did have. And thanks to the current state of technology, I was sure that I could share those magical moments right here on Misthi's blog, for everyone to relive that momentuous occassion.
The banquet hall was finalized and we got to experience the power of outsourcing first hand. I, for one, was quite amazed at the availability of dedicated professionals willing to take care of end-to-end solutions, such as decorations, event management etc. All that we had to do was to choose the theme that we wanted and tell them the date......Voila! Taken care of. All that we needed to do was show up on the said date, all dressed up and all and everything was arranged and in-place. How very convinient!
Of course, as an afterthought, I feel that the romance of preparing for a birthday party, at home, doing all the decorations yourselves, getting hassled over not finding the right colored baloons, etc. is taken away. But then these are changing times. We are all the more time starved than the previous generation and if we have an opportunity to pay our way out of stress, we usually do so, without the guilt. And one has to agree that no matter how much effort one puts, it may probably never matchup to the professional results which an agency is willing to give you, for a consideration. All said and done, at the end of the day, it was a very happy evening and a memorable one too. And that is all that matters.

Click on the link below for the pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/talk2anand/ShahanaS1stBday#

Shahana is going to be one year old, come September!

The countdown has officially begun. Although we have been anticipating the day eagerly, the 'official start' happened yesterday, when we paid a token advance to book a banquet hall. Little Shahana is on the threshold of entering into her second year.....And just about ready to have her first real birthday.

Wow, time does fly. The memory of my little baby, being handed over in a pink and red bundle, by the nurse, is still fresh in my mind. She was so small and frail. Over the last year, we have seen her grow and evolve from a tiny little infant to a cute & mischeivious baby. No matter what she does around the house, one smile and all is forgiven! Other than marvelling at our little darling and here feats, it has also been a moment of truth for us as parents. Parenting, truly is tough. Especially so on the mother. At times it becomes physically stressful. Kudos to Anshu for sailing through it all with elan.

So now we look forward to the celebrations (ofcourse, pictures to follow) and take a moment to thank the almighty to grant us the privilege of being parents of such an lovely angel.

Time flies......and how!

It seems like yesterday when Anshu and I were eagerly counting the days leading to the big event when we will be blessed with our very own bundle of joy.

Little Shahana came into our lives and weaved her magic. And suddenly she is now 10+ months old , looking forward to have her very first birthday! Man...that was fast! When she was born, she was such a quiet little baby who has transformed into a little lovable devil. There is nothing, that I can think of, in the house, that has not been a victim of her raging curiosity. One of the recent casualties was our Television Stand. We never knew that the decorative wood panel was detachable, until our darling Mishti yanked it right off :-).

Her latest milestone is that she tries really hard to stand and walk all by herself. And she does manage to stand for about 10-15 seconds, before plonking herself down.

The other little thing is that she was visited by the tooth fairy! Her two little lower teeth show when she flashes her 10000 watt smile. It only adds to her already high mischeif quotient!

It certainly gets more and more exciting being a parent – a feeling which both Anshu and I are enjoying to the fullest (although we do have our 'driven up a wall' moments sometimes...but what the heck?).

CLICK HERE for the pictures.. or copy paste the below link on your browser's address window.

http://picasaweb.google.com/talk2anand/NaughtyMishti2