My daughter - 22 months old

Now, my little one is already 22 months old. I can't imagine how fast she has grown up - from the first day I'd seen her as a few millimeters in my stomach to about 90 cms tall little beauty. It's really marvellous to look at her. She's pure joy.

Well, what I wanted to write about her is- her talks. Yes, she's calling me by my name and treats me as her friend, something like, "oh! my sweety, come here, let's play" etc. It's really makes me so emotional to see someone getting too touched to me (next to my husband).

In our mother tongure, "Tamil", we've about 1330 thirukurals, i.e. two lines or about 7 words proses. She has learnt one, althoug now she can recite a lot, but it's wonderful to hear her telling me the thirukural.

My mother-in-law, who's away in chennai used to tell me that one of her friend's grand daughter used to tell lot of thirukurals whenever she comes to her grandma's place. My mother in law was so proud of her and also wants her grand daughter to recite a few thirukurals. She might be very happy when we take our little one back to my mother-in-law's place sometime next month.
OK, what's her first thirukural:



For someone to know what's thirukural is all about:
Thirukkural (Tamil: திருக்குறள் also known as the Kural) is a classic of couplets or Kurals (1330 rhyming Tamil couplets) or aphorisms [1] celebrated by Tamils.[2] It was authored by Thiruvalluvar, and is considered to be the first work to focus on ethics, in Dravidian Literature.
The work begins with a salutation to the Almighty. The author was hence certainly a believer in God . His work is however, completely universal in approach. It is hence called ulga podhu marai (the world's common scripture). It does not advocate any specific religion then prevalent in India, namely Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism Thirukkural expounds various aspects of life and is one of the most important works in Tamil.
Source: Wikipedia

Early Learning - Flash Cards

My little princess is now 22 months old. I work full time and my little princess is being taken care by my mother. So I've very little time to understand her and her emotions and all. I must say, flash cards are a good way to gauge her. I started as early as 8 months, bought some abcd books -just letters with one picture, it should not be too messy, otherwise they may get distracted.

And after seeing her interest, I bought more and now she has a good collection of her own books. I taught her both abcs, numbers,tamil letters, rhymes, countries, flags, animals, flowers etc. And have also read about Glenn Doman method, it's such a good use.

Now I can see a very good progress, she can recite almost 10 to 15 rhymes, can tell alphabets, do some basic addition, counting upto 30, 30 to 40 countries, flags, flowers etc.

So the point I'm emphasizing here is, use the time she has with you, since once she grows up, she'll be lot influenced by many other factors and trying to make her listen to you may be a tough job.
Besides, early years are very important for learning.

At 34 weeks

And since my little one was sitting head up all along, yep she was in breach position, no matter I tried stair climbing, lying on four legs - meaning, put a soft towel on the floor and bend your knees and put your head on the towel and breathe in and out for a while, all these tricks doesn't work on her and we waited till the 34th week for her to do a jump. And after that, the gynae advised me to go for an elective ceasarian. She said it's best to do the c-section atleast 2 weeks before so there won't be any contractions and advised us to do it in between 14th Oct to 21st Oct as my due date was 1st week of Nov.

We were consulting a lot of astrologers for an auspicious date, since we believe the birth time is more important to know about her future and a lot others like marriage, etc.

We found the dates 16th, 17th, 19th and 21st were best to do. But if she is delivered on 17th, then she may have the same astro sign and star as that of her father, so we avoided it. Then 19th, which happens to be a Sunday, so we skipped it and 21st is a good one, but my husband's sister is against it, so we skipped it and the only available date we had was 16th Oct 2008.

And at 34 weeks, we decided to do an elective c-section on 16th October 2008.

Gender of my baby

Well,I was very much intrigued about the gender of my baby. Maybe because I was wondering, what kind of dreams I can have, meaning treating a boy and a girl will be different right. So I was ondering whether i'm going to buy my kid a pant, shirt or a beautiful skirt with all those fluffy things. And I''m not very sure whether I need a girl or a boy. So all the while I was thinking as long as she is healthy and possess good brains, then am fine.

My husband was telling me that we can wait till the delivery to know about the gender. But during my 5th month scan, the doctor told me, that I'm carrying a GIRL. I was not prepared and I was at complete loss on how to take this. Should I feel happy for carrying a girl or if it's a boy, will it be different? Very confusing, but learnt to take it very calm and composed. And I know she is our darling angel.

Long Long Time

After a long long time, I've come back to see how my blog is doing... yep, gotten in the whirlwind of pregnancy and other complications, I finally have get to see my cute cute little one and she's more worth than the pain I've gone through.

In short, all these days what happened to me was:
I was having spotting for a while and it was very much worrying, but the doctor assured me nothing was wrong with me or the baby and it's common. Since it's my first pregnancy, I was very tensed. And sicne I'd a full time job, I've to manage both the job and the pregnancy.

When I get worried about the development of my baby, I've asked the doc to do a Ultrasound every visit to get assured everything was normal.

Finally after being through all these stages, I've delivered my cute little one on 16th October 2008 and you know what she is the most beautiful baby, I've ever seen. :-)

My Little one's journey at 12 weeks

Well, now we've crossed the 12 weeks milestone.In the websites, it has been stated that once once we cross the 12 weeks, the chances for miscarriage is greatly reduced which is a good news.
Last week, I'd the first trimester detail screening in which they checked for down syndrome and many other anomalies and we've been grouped under the low risk group. The little one inside me is doing good and the doc said, she can see the baby move. I tried to see him, but all I could see is a teeny tiny hand and a bone and when the doc moved the probe over my stomach, I felt him move from one side to the other. Am I imagining or really sensing it? not sure, but I like the feeling.
She has also measured the baby's length and found to be 57.5mm and the scan showed the little one's age as 12 weeks and 3 days, but as per our calculations, it's 11 weeks and 6 days. So he's growing a bit faster.I like it...(want him to be a F1 racer, so he has to have that speed right from the womb.. hahaha).
And one more thing I wanted to share, when I looked at him in the scan, he looked more like my husband, with all the big head and what not... I am very happy since I wanted him to be exactly like my sweet hubby. You know what, I love him so much...
So my little one's is travelling at good speed and we are counting the weeks and days, to see this bundle of joy...

Guruji - Art of Living

Last week, I've attended a public talk session by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the Suntec Convention Centre. My
friend happened to be a member of the art of living foundation and she has been insisting me for quite some time to attend
the courses. Either lethargy or not in the mood attitude had been stopping me these days. But this time as I'm pregnant and
my little one is already listening to the outside world, i want him/her to hear Guruji speak.
The talk is supposed to start around 7.30 pm, so I left the office around 6.30 pm since it's just 1 stop from Raffles palce
to City Hall. But the challenge is I couldn't locate the convention centre though I've been there a few times and everytime I
ended up searching the maps and directions. This time is no different, but to add, my legs are giving out and I couldn't walk
anymore. I decided to return home and was coming back to the mrt, and there you go, I was standing right infront of the
convention centre. And recently I was getting scared of the height and escalators and as the talk was at level 6, I've to
take 2 to 3 escalators to reach the hall and it was quite steep, and I felt like am about to collapse.
So after conquering my lethargy, I was seated in the hall. There were a few hundred people and luckily I got a seat from
where I can get a full view of the stage. Lately, I've developed an ear for the carnatic music, devotional songs esp. those on Lord Krishna.
And in the stage, there were a group of people singing and chanting on Lord Krishna. I was quite caught up in those songs and
was having hand on my belly so he could hear or feel it.(I've read that vibrations or the stimulations are the ways to help
the child's brain develop in the early stages - Learning in the womb). After a few minutes Guruji appeared on the stage and
you've to agree that the power or the vibrations from those great people are really strong and you unconsciously are on your
feet and i was trying to take in everything at one breath.
There are a lot more to tell abt the talk by Guruji,but I'm just mentioning a few answers given by Guruji for the questions
asked.
1. Is life a struggle or struggle, a part of life? And Guruji answered for one, who knows how to swim and is trying to reach
the shore, struggle is part of life and for those who is already nose down in the ocean, life is struggle.
2. I don't remember the question being asked, but Guruji's explanation is great.one should treat Past as destiny , live in the present and the future is free will.
At the end of the question and answer session, we did meditate and all the while, I've thought meditation is concentration
and whenever i try to medidate, I'm usually flooded with thoughts and I ended up not trying it anymore. But Guruji said,
meditation is the reverse of concentration and if you are flooded with thoughts, it's natural. Oh wow, now I should try to
medidate.And i really thank my friend for insisting me to attend this talk. It was quite a good experience.