'Tis the season to be a monkey

Thanksgiving began 2009's holiday season (as it does every year) and as always, it was spent getting together with family, shopping and EATING. This was Ranijt's second Thanksgiving, but the first Thanksgiving where he was conscious most of the time and ready to party. We all went to his Prakash Azoba mama's house like last year, but instead of crying and dozing off before the festivities began like he did the year before, Ranjit ran from room to room pointing out all the "a fan"s, climbed up and down the stairs with the determination of Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Everest, and entertained his aunties and Rajit uncle with a riveting dance performance to "Sailor's Hornpipe, Oh Susannah and Turkey in the Straw".

This song, believe it or not is THE song according to my silly son. He insists on dancing to it at least 10 times a day, climbing onto our bed and wildly gesturing to the computer (where the song is always played on YouTube.com) and saying "a DAH aDAH" until we finally give in and play the song. Right before the song begins there is a moment where Ranjit recognizes that his wish has been granted and his face lights up with a grin reserved only for the most exciting of occasions before he proceeds to bounce up and down on his knees on the bed with such great gusto that his grandmas fear that an injury may occur from simply bouncing too much on his knees!
Here is a video taken by Ranjit's mona moushi:

The rest of the weekend was spent with his Dadi, Dada and Booah in Skokie, where Ranjit showed off his new ability to imitate and learn new words. Things that Ranjit spent his time perfecting: 1) Ripping off toilet paper from the bathroom and pretending to blow his nose- loudly. 2) Putting on shoes- his Dadiji's shoes, to be exact 3) Learning and repeating new words like Animal ("Ahmul"), Paper and Dog ("woof woof")

Finally it was time to come back home on Sunday, but the excitement didn't end there- today Ranjit went out in the snow for the first time! It snowed about 3 inches this morning, covering the city of Chicago with a thin white blanket, enough for Ranjit to notice that something was different when he looked out his bedroom window this morning. When we walked out the door, Ranjit pointed at the snow falling down from the sky and cried "bubble!" After agreeing that the snow does look like bubbles, I took Ranjit to the dog park in front of our apartment and set him loose, expecting him to go wild and kick and run in the snow like I saw other kids do in past winters. Instead Ranjit cautiously shuffled up and down the sidewalk, creating little piles of snow with the tips of blue winterboots and looked around him like he was a little lost. Finally he indicated that he wanted me to pick him up and said "o ho" (which I have decided recently means "go home") and let me carry him back into the warmth and safety of our building. I think that he was probably a little confused about how different everything looked, but I think after a couple more snows he'll be more comfortable and be ready to actually "play" in the snow. It is, after all his first encounter with a Winter Wonderland!

Back by Popular Demand

So what if I haven't posted anything for 9 months? I've been raising a toddler for goodness sake! But let's try this again shall we? Ranjit is 18 months old (as of yesterday) and my goodness he's doing so much it would be a shame not to record it! As it is, he has changed a great deal since my last entry in February, so here is a quick update.

SLEEP:
This is probably the least important to any of you, but the absolute most important to me...He is (practically) sleeping through the night on a nightly basis. At least 7-8 hours goes by before he asks for milk early in the morning so that he can sleep for another couple of hours. My body is still recovering from the last year and a half of broken sleep but I see the light and any day now I will begin to feel normal, hooray!

EATING AND GROWING...
I hate saying this out loud because every time I do, Ranjit gets skinnier, but Ranjit has definitely gotten some meat on his little bones. During his last doctor's visit he jumped from the 3rd percentile in weight to the 6th percentile... that's double, not too shabby right? He's pretty tall although don't ask me how tall he is (he never stands still enough for me to correctly measure him) - I think at some point in the last month he had a growth spurt because one day all of his 18 month pajamas stopped fitting him. Believe it or not, he has a little friend who's a month older but shorter and skinnier than him, a little Indian munchkin named Ram. Everytime I see them together it gives my heart relief that he is not the smallest person in the room!

What are a few of his favorite things? Berries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries... he likes them together with bananas and cheerios. He also LOVES fruity sweet yogurt and will eat it practically any time of day. He calls it "ego" and pries opens the fridge, takes it out and hands it to me when he wants to eat it. He likes pizza (no surprise there considering his parents are pizza fiends) and also eats kichadi pretty often. His other love is veggie burgers, specifically Subway - style veggie patties (although he has been known to scarf down a pizza burger every once in a while). His number 1 food? Good ol' fashioned milk. His Aaji taught him to say "Doo doo" too which has made it even easier for him to get his hands on it.

MONKEY IS AS MONKEY DOES
To summarize Ranjit, I must say he is a monkey. He runs around like a monkey, jumps around like a monkey, says "ooh eeh ooh ooh" like a monkey and screams like a monkey when he doesn't get his way. His favorite activity is bouncing up and down on our bed while listening to a Canadian fiddler's rendition of "Sailor's Hornpipe, O Susannah and Turkey in the Straw." He does this 10 times a day, at least. I believe only a monkey would do this. My son is a monkey.

TOP TEN WORDS I THINK MY MONKEY SON IS SAYING
I think I mentioned 10 and 9:

10. "Doo doo" (milk)
9."Ego" (yogurt)
8."A phoh" (phone)
7. "A phoo" ( shoe)
6."A cah" (car)
5."Agay!" (again)
4."Ah dun" (All done)
3. "Toh-too-teeee!" (one, two, THREE!)
2. "No! Thasee!" (No, that's silly)
1. "Eeya poopoo" (I'm about to go poo)

SINGING MONKEY
Yes, my monkey has been singing since he was 15 months old. And I'm not a crazy mother who has lost touch with reality, he really sings, I have many witnesses!

His first song: Twinkle Twinkle ("Ticko ticko leeto tah!")
2nd: This Old Man
3rd: Happy Birthday To You
4: "Pio Pio Pio"
5. The clock song
6. Old Mc Donald Had a Farm (Sung while changing diapers)
7. Beethoven's 9th symphony (don't ask)
8. "Ring around the roses" (Mostly the "Ashes ashes" part)

And that's my updated for you fine people. He's entertaining, don't you think?
This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend, I'm sure that there will be plenty of monkeying-around to report soon... happy Turkey day everybody!

Shriek, Rattle and Roll

Well Ranjit began to feel much better this past week, thank you very much... he had a little trouble sleeping in his crib again but now he's back to normal and is working on exploring the world around him. He seems to have put crawling on hold (he bonked his head a couple times while trying to get into crawling position from sitting position) and is back to creeping and rolling to get where he wants to go. He's more interested in standing anyway- he can stand while holding on to furniture now and he's pretty stable; so maybe he'll be a cruiser instead of a crawler, who knows.

He's also working on his vocal stylings some more, shrieking and grinning at random times with no apparent reason. I think he does it just to be cute. :)

Finally, on the food front, Ranjit has fallen in love with Cheerios. He insists on having them with every meal, taking a bite of a cheerio between 4-5 spoons of the gruel that I feed him every day. He also enjoys teething on apple slices, digging little ditches in the mealy part of the fruit with his solitary tooth.

Sorry this one was a little late! Better late than never!

A sad little nose :(

Poor baby has a cold. He's been in reasonably good spirits most of the time but at night he's miserable. At the beginning of the week his nose was totally stuffed and he had to breath through his mouth when he was sleeping (there's nothing cuter or more pathetic than watching him sleep with his little mouth open in the shape of an "o") so we gave him steam baths to clean it up. He thought it was hilarious, check out this video! (Click Here) To top it all off, the past few days his nose has been in a constant state of purging, and it ain't pretty since he can't blow his nose. But I think he'll be better soon, hopefully.

Due to his sorry state, neither he nor I left the building for 4 days last week. 4 straight days! What did we do to occupy ourselves? Well first I taught Ranjit how to read so that took up a good portion of one day...








Then Ranjit learned how to get from sitting position onto his tummy while chasing after his brand new Gymboree beach ball!









And finally he learned how to swing himself to sleep in his jhoola so that mommy could watch t.v instead of helping him nap. :)

All in all we had a good time... he's just a happy baby with a sad nose!

The Tooth Has Set me Free

After 4 months of repeating the words "He's teething" over and over to friends, family, and strangers while Ranjit gnawed on every object within reach, grimaced as he chewed on his fingers and drooled all over kingdom-come, it has finally happen- his teeth have FINALLY broken through his gums and are THERE, clear as day! Well, kind of, I can see them peeking out anyways. No picture possible yet, but in the next couple of weeks we will get one posted for you all to see, I promise! You don't understand how relieved I am (not to mention how relieved he is, the poor guy has been uncomfortable for so long!) - I was starting to think that I was crazy, he really wasn't teething, that he'd never get any teeth and I'd have to get him some baby dentures.

But not so, they're there and they are SHARP. He makes sure that I know how sharp they are by grabbing my finger and inserting it in his mouth and biting down, hard. Thanks Ranjit.

Ranjit is getting more mobile as well- he is going to be crawling real soon, I know it! He's getting into crawling position more often and getting more strong-willed in going after things. Until now he's mostly been rolling to get to where he needs to go but now he is totally creeping, pulling himself to his object on his belly. I think his time spent at Gymboree is in part responsible for his new passion for mobility- pretty much all the babies in his class are crawling or about to crawl (save 1 or 2) and he has been enviously watching them, studying their every move.

Finally, Ranjit has become a pro at Peek-a-boo. Not only does he love it when we play it with him, HE actually plays with us! He grabs anything- blanket, book, towel, toy- covers his face and starts cracking up and waits for us to uncover his face- and when we do he has this huge, proud smile from ear to ear! Sometimes he just likes to put things on his head, seriously. He puts something (blanket, whatever)on his head and just smiles with his hands and feet levitating in the air. Cute, but a little strange (he gets that from Ajit).

Well, that's 3 postings in a row all within a week of each other, I'm doing good! Next week will have a video, I think... till then, have a great week!

Operation "Fatten Ranjit Up" Continues!

I might be seeing things, but I believe that Ranjit is gaining an extra chin and an extra roll in his thighs, hooray! AND I think I might be beginning to see signs of a proper Buddha-belly. So our work is paying off - no empty calories for this baby! Every meal that we give him contains protein and fat in the form of formula or daal, luckily he happens to love everything I give him (even though everything looks like gruel to me)! We also found a food that he DOESN't like, potatoes. The picture here is of Ranjit trying to eat sweet potatoes (which he LOVES) by himself, by the way. He grabbed the bowl and tried to slurp the food down himself. As you can see he only got some of it on his belly.

Other than that, we started going to Gymboree this past week; every Friday Ranjit and I get together with about 6 other babies and their moms/nannies and are taken through a 45 minute gym routine for 6-9 month olds. It's pretty hilarious, Ranjit has been mystified these past two times we've gone there. He stares wide-eyed at all the babies around him and when the "instructor" begins her little song and dance (involving puppets, lots of puppets) he leans forward and looks up at her like she's the most amazing thing he's ever seen. There's actual gym equipment too! The best part is when we put all the babies in the middle of the floor and bring out a huge rainbow-colored parachute and float it over them, first up, then down. Last week Ranjit was sitting under it and got knocked over by the wind created by the parachute (he was ok, the place is covered by thick mats), but instead of crying he started squealing with joy instead as he watched the parachute descend upon him, waving his arms and legs in the air. This past Friday I just kept him lying down during ParachuteTime, but one of the other babies who was sitting up toppled over from the wind (later I learned that every week pretty much someone's baby topples over under the parachute).

So Ranjit has a new trick, pulling up to standing by holding someone's (usually Ajit's) fingers. He can't get enough of it! If you're close to him, without fail he'll purposefully grab your fingers and say "MMMM! MMMM!" and start pushing up onto his feet. Once he's standing he happily cries "Ah-DAH! Ah-DAH!AAHH!!" If you don't let him hold on to his fingers and let him stand then he frowns and moans "MMMBa, MMBa", pouting until you sigh and help him stand up again.
So yes, things are progressing, definitely for the better- To top it off, Ranjit is sleeping better (for now) and I'm sleeping better and all is good with the world. Stay tuned for another update next weekend!

Slacker mommy's new year's resolution is to blog more!!

I've been SO bad about blogging, my most sincere apologies to Ranjit Singh's fans out there. :) As Google as my witness, I promise to update Ranjit's blog at least once a week from now on!!

Here is a quick update on what you've missed for the last month and a half...Ranjit is now 7 and a half months old, can you believe it!

Ranjit's Amazing Human Tricks Update
In the last month and a half, Ranjit has become a pro at sitting up, and complains when he is laid down. He is SO cute when he's sitting, his little legs splayed out before him, slightly bent, his whole upper body lunging forward as he reaches for his toys with his perfect little hands. :) When encountering a new face, he slightly leans forward and stares up curiously, his eyes wide with wonder - I've never looking at someone's profile more! Now he's added clapping to his repetoire, sitting up proudly and clapping (or at least trying to).

Ranjit has also made strides in the communication front. He babbles constantly now (his favorite sound being "Bababababa") and smiles and squeals like you're the funniest thing ever. Instead of crying when he's hungry, he looks at me urgently and says "mmmmm MMMM", alerting me to the fact that he wants something. He also says "MMMMMM" when we take a toy away or if we're not feeding him fast enough or if he wants more food (which he happens to LOVE). Last, but certainly not least, I THINK he's beginning to recognize his name finally! Months of everyone having their own nickname for him had taken it's toll, but now about 75% of the time he turns around if someone says "Ranjit. Ranjit? Ranjit! Ranjeeeeeeet.... RANJIT (he turns and shows his toothless grin)!" He's getting there. :)

Ranjit is also becoming an expert at picking things up and has taken to raking the carpet of his bedroom floor with his little fingers to pick up the goodies that lay in between the carpet fibers and attempt to make them his very own gastronomic delights (I have been able to thwart these attempts so far, hopefully!). He's on his way to developing his pincer grasp which will be even more scary.

Speaking of scary (but exciting!), I believe my little prince is getting ready to crawl as well! He's started slightly creeping (he's not very good at getting to the object of his desire yet, but he's moving) and he has been doing baby push ups on a daily basis, which I think means he's strengthening his little arms so that he can start moving around more efficiently- let the babyproofing festivities BEGIN.

Ranjit's Ever Changing Sleeping Patterns
No sleep for mommy lately... eating lots of cookies and drinking gallons of tea in the morning so as to not keel over from exhaustion. Unable to explain Ranjit's EXTREMELY frequent waking, sometimes 5-6 times/ night,yeccch.

His naps are pretty good ( two that are about 1-2 hours each), during which I try to catch up on my sleep but nights are a little tough. :) Still trying to decide where to go from here on this one.

Ranjit LOVES his food!

Pears, Bananas, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Oatmeal, Rice Cereal, Daal... the list of Ranjit's favorite foods is growing and growing! Unfortunately he MAY have a sensitivity to dairy. We gave him some yogurt last week and after gobbling it up he threw up all over the place... poor kid! I believe he will join me and all his Moushis in the Krishna club one day, but for the time being we will be laying off the yogurt! Hopefully he'll continue to love his food! He's a little skinnier than we like, only 14.8 pounds, so I have begun Operation Fatten Ranjit Up. I have also bought a new digital scale so that I can feed my obsession with his weight by weighing him every day. :)

Other than that, Ranjit has been meeting new friends and hanging out with his Aaji, Dadi, Dada, Dadu, many aunties and uncles....starting next week I'll start writing more details but trust me, he's been having lotsa fun... more later, toodles!!