A 'shopping' experience!

Shopping! We men will most likely (and I am speaking in very general terms) never understand what spell it holds over women, why and how it fascinates them so much and what it means to them. We just accept it as another part of our lives; another clause of our vows that we solemnly agreed to follow and uphold. I might as well come on terms with the fact that my daughter may become a shopaholic as well (women, please excuse!). So, in the true spirit of reconciliation, "if I cannot fight it, I'd rather join it". Or in this case, teach my daughter how to shop.

The key for a successful indoctrination is to start early. Nothing molds as easily as a young mind....or so I have read. I have been taking Jennifer for all sorts of shopping ever since she became 3 months' old. We have been grocery shopping, clothes shopping, getting take-outs from restaurants, etc. And even if she is too young to understand what we were doing, she has always been well behaved, anywhere we went.

Now she is 6 months' old. She may not be able to sit upright on her own yet, but that does not mean she won't try to. I figured out her back would be strong enough now to put her into the "baby part" of the shopping cart. What happened after that almost made me stop shopping that day and only focus on what she was doing.

My daughter realised she could finally sit upright without support in the kart. And that she was safe inside. This opened up a whole new world of opportunities. She tried climbing, she tried letting her hands go, she tried leaving forward...who knew I had sired an adrenalin freak! The mundane activities of her parents (i.e. shopping) seemed to bother her least. And who cares! As long as she is comfortable doing what she is doing and not disturbed by what we are doing, all concerned parties are happy.

I came to realise that nothing is 'mundane' or 'ordinary' for a baby. There are things to learn, experiment, try out, explore...and I am saying this well aware that my kid has not started walking yet! I cannot wait to see it all. I cannot dream of missing out on her stages of growth. And if I might sound judgemental without intending to criticise anyone in particular: I really pity parents who choose to or due to circumstances have to leave their children behind with grandparents or the like, and miss out on these instances in their child's life. I can only say, "I wouldn't want to miss anything for the world."

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.