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!!

Count down to 6 months old!

Can you believe than in 3 days my Ranjit will be 6 months old?! I sure can't, where on earth did the time go??? It hit me today- his Dadi, Mona Moushi and I took him to his 6 month doctor's visit. Not only did he get poked around with needles (he was so good though, he hardly cried!), the doctor gave me the go ahead to start solid foods whenever I want. So tomorrow I'll start with some rice cereal (which I tried a couple weeks ago for kicks and giggles and decided to stop when he seemed to get gassy because of it)and then go from there; organic baby food aisle, here I come! I'm also going to start training him to use a sippy cup; this I think will be met with quite a bit of enthusiasm. I tried to train him to drink from a katori (waati?) the other day and the boy couldn't get enough! He would grab the cup with both hands, throw his head back and gulp down every drop of milk- the boy's an eater, what can I say?? It was a little messy, true, but he is definitely ready to get refreshment from a variety of sources now.

The doctor also confirmed that the two bumps that I had felt on Ranjit's bottom gum WERE in fact teeth bumps, much to my relief and annoyance as well (relief because I felt like I was going crazy, thinking he was teething but not getting any confirmation, annoyance because when I took Ranjit to a nurse for confirmation she said that those bumps were not teeth, they'd already been there).So pretty soon his pearly whites will start to show- any day now, teeth! They sure have been taking their sweet old time!

Ranjit has gained 2 inches in the last 2 months as well! That brings him to 27 inches and 14 pounds, 3 ounces... he's a little skinny (he only gained 1 pound in the last 2 months) but he'll catch up I'm sure. In the meanwhile, he's almost outgrowing his 6-9 month old clothes, which means I'll get to outfit him with a whole new slew of 9-12 month old wardrobe pretty darn soon!

Tomorrow is Ranjit's first Thanksgiving! I need to get him a little Indian (native american, that is) headdress or something for the occasion- I wonder if Jewel has those...

Ranjit's Happenin' Halloween and Diwali

Ahhh, the joys of having a baby... not only do you get to play with them and turn them into your very own toy, you get to dress them up in cute little outfits EVERY DAY (until they're old enough to simply say "No more mommy, stop the violence!"). So, the past couple of weeks have been an absolute joy for me. Not only was I able to dress up my little monkey in a monkey suit for halloween, I also got to put him in the cutest little kurta pyjama outfit EVER when his Dada and Dadi threw him his big Diwali party.What a hit he was! He socialized like he'd never socialized before, blowing kisses (rasberries) and drooling on everybody who dared to hold him. Foregoing the open bar, he attentively sat listening to his Dadu and Vikas uncle sing for him, then politely excused himself so that he could go to bed at 8pm(I tried to convince him to sing his rendition of "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of Music, but he wanted to save that for his next party).
That weekend was also very exciting for him because he got to hang out with his Booah and show her what a cute little monkey he could be. No candy for him this year, he had to be a good little primate and eat his bananas instead!


Finally, he met his Arun Azoba mama who traveled all the way from Oregon to meet him. He pulled his nose, hair and glasses and took him to the Shedd Aquarium and showed him all of his favorite fishies... they became pals!

Ranjit Prepares for his Debut

This coming Sunday, Ranjit will finally enter society at his grandparents' grand Diwali party... in order to show the world that he's not just another pretty face, Ranjit has prepared a composition on his Fisher-Price piano... here is a sneak preview!



Yes, he is quite dedicated to his art, as you can see. He is SO dedicated in fact that the other night, when he was in one of his playful moods at 4 in the morning, I put him in his crib and went to bed, thinking he would play a little and then go back to bed. However, I woke up 40 minutes later to the sound of music coming from somewhere. When I reached Ranjit's room, I found that he had somehow traveled (the boy cannot crawl yet, mind you) from the head of his crib to the foot and was clanging away on the piano at 4:30 in the morning! Carnegie Hall, here he comes!!

Hooray Hooray Hooray

I'm not Christian or anything, but all I have to say is "Hallelujiah!" Ranjit has learned to fall asleep on his own! Finally! I think... perhaps I'm speaking too soon and tonight will be back to his old ways, but last night he fell asleep after 45 minutes on his own, then 6 minutes when he woke up for his 2:30am feeding, then 5 minutes after he woke up for no reason at 5:30am and another 5 minutes for his 9am nap! FINALLY, I'll be able to get a decent amount of sleep instead of spending hours rocking him, bouncing him, shush-ing until I can't shush no more until he finally gets to sleep.

The poor boy had so many tummy and skin problems when he was younger that every evening he would start crying and not stop until we soothed him to sleep... while this was definitely necessary at the time, I think we basically made him forget any self soothing skills that he had to begin with. So Ajit and I would bounce him in his bouncy, which worked really really well at first but then stopped being effective a couple weeks ago. Ajit's dad also built a wonderful gujarati jhoola for Ranjit, which he LOVED and put him into restful sleep almost immediately, so we transported it to our condo this weekend, using it for his naps as well as to get him to sleep at night. However, he would still get up in the middle of the night, WAY more than he had to. I began to panic a couple of nights ago when he would nurse in the middle of the night and STILL would need to be put in the jhoola after he was done eating and burping in order to go back to sleep. That used to be the way that he would sleep! I began thinking, what on earth would happen after the jhoola stopped working? How would I get him to sleep then?!

So I decided to take action yesterday. Earlier in the week, Ranjit and I had met up with my grad school friend Kusuma and her sweetie pie 5 month old baby Sarita this past week; Kusuma showed me the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" by Dr. Weissbluth, one of the nation's leading sleep experts and gave me some excerpts from the book to read.

I was already familiar with his book since he is the head of the pediatric practice that Ranjit goes to and so I had already been following SOME of his advice, (except for the part about letting Ranjit sleep on his own). I read all 10 pages in 10 minutes and felt so empowered that I decided to try his advice! So I went out and bought the book and read it from start to finish in a day (doing most of my reading while I was trying to get him to sleep in his jhoola) and learned that not only was it necessary for my own wellbeing to get him to be able to sleep by himself, it was actually necessary for him to learn this skill now otherwise he would have trouble into his toddler and maybe even teen years! I was so motivated that I decided to try it right away... even if it meant that he would be crying for a couple of hours, which is what the norm is according to what I've heard. And it worked after only 45 minutes! They were the longest 45 minutes of my life (and probably his too, poor baby), but after that he fell asleep SO quickly on his own that I definitely feel every excruciating minute was worth it. I'm still using the jhoola to make sure that Ranjit's naps are long enough (he wakes up after 40 minutes usually, after which I put him in the jhoola to rock him back to sleep so that he gets in at least an hour), but he basically sleeps by himself now!

I know that the next time we go to see Ranjit's doctor I will seek out Dr. Weissbluth and shake his hand, he really knows what he's talking about! Unfortunately his writing skills are a bit shotty (he isn't very good at organizing his thouhts) but my goodness he has wonderful information in his book. I'm going to use his advice for the next 5 years for sure!

So thank you Dr. Weissbluth, thank you Kusuma, thanks to Ajit's dad, you all have helped set me on the path towards being a well-rested non-zombie mother!!