6 months and literally kicking!

My baby girl completed her first six months on terra firma today. I cannot believe it that she is half year old...It still seems like yesterday

• that I got the call informing me my wife had been admitted
• that we waited outside the delivery room
• that I stood outside the nursery trying to figure out how distinguish my child from others!!!
• that I carried her on her 2nd day from the nursery to the room
• that I saw her smiling crookedly at me for the first time
• that I rocked her to sleep for the first time
• that I decorated her room
• that I carried her on my shoulders for the first time
• that I got a kiss from her (or whatever you want to call it!)
• that I comforted her after what seemed like a nightmare

I know I keep saying 'for the first time' over and over again, but what do else can one expect when one speaks about the first six months. I can only say I am looking forward to the next half year and a lot of further half years with my daughter. She has enriched our lives...she is making us happier every day...she made us realise how blessed we are...we love our daughter...

Mystics are always right, aren't they?

India - Land of the mystics...ask any foreigner...or read Asterix or Tintin...India is the land of mysticism and mystery to almost all of them. Ok, I agree that it is a stereotype, but it is still a pretty strong image. I mean, whom would people believe; me from a small village in Kerala or a high profile reporter on National Geographic who shows India as being the land of fakirs and gurus???

Having said this much, it is but natural that even I would give a certain amount of credibility to what people say, especially when they seem to have the 'wisdom of age' to back them up. So if someone who is older to me looks my wife straight into her eyes and tells her, "It will be a boy", who am I to argue? And during my wife's nine months of pregnancy, this seemed to be the unwavering prediction of quite a lot of people whom we met. Somehow, my wife was exhibiting 'the signs'; she had 'the look'; she had the 'size' (wife, please forgive me for this!), etc...etc...

So, even though it did not matter to us what the gender of the baby would be, we somehow got mentally convinced that we would be blessed with a son. Among all the possible names we thought of, I would say majority were male names, and just a couple of female ones, just to seem fair to both genders.

And guess what happened? I had to ask the nurse twice on the day of my child's birth what the gender was, 'coz I was sure I heard her wrong when she told me, "It's a girl!" Thus, on October 31st, my baby girl, Jennifer, was born. And since then, life has change drastically....every day has been an experience...every moment has been a pleasure...the future is met with a pleasant sensation of anticipation (and dread, thank you very much media!)...I guess that's what parenting is all about.

This blog is about our life with Jennifer. It may not be a day-to-day account of what is happening. It may not be chronologically accurate either. But I hope I can share and express my experiences in such a manner that my child can one day read about how bringing her up has enriched the lives of her parents.