Rida celebrates her third birthday

14 September 2006
Rida is now three years old. Exactly three. Wow, how time flies!!!
We held a small party to celebrate Rida's birthday. Two of my cousins were present with their family, along with our two immediate neighbours. We made this a low key event just because we want to celebrate Rayan's first birthday in a big way on 28th. Here are a few snaps from the occasion:

Rida's ears have been pierced

Rida and Muskaan (Farheen's sister's daughter, who is 6 months younger to Rida) had to have their ears pierced, something we had been holding off for a long a time now. We are in Nellore at the moment (to attend a cousin's wedding) and we took both the girls to a jewellery shop yesterday evening. A boy took a sharp gold needle and pierced the ears...ouch!!!
Did the girls cry? Of course they did. But, it was OK. They cried for, may be, two minutes but were fine after that. Now, they see each other's ears and are proud of the studs that adorn them. So are we :-)

Latest Updates, including Rayan's first tooth on the upper jaw

After a virus did the rounds in our house (in the entire city, in fact), both the kids are doing fine now. Rida had to skip her school for almost three weeks because of the fever, but she has been going well since Monday last week. And boy, does she love it!!! To make her eat her breakfast in the morning, even to wake her up at 7 AM all we have to do is shout "Alright! No school today. We won't go to EuroKids" and we have a relatively obedient girl before us. She still doesn't finish her snacks during the break in school, but that is not a big deal because we ensure she has a good breakfast before she goes to school, and a decent lunch when she returns.

Rayan is getting smarter and (by default) naughtier by the day. He even has a new tooth on the upper jaw :-) . We first noticed it last Thursday (27 July 2006). He loves to play with his sister and, often, trouble her as well. He pulls her hair, hits her on the face, snatches things from her hand etc. resulting in a big 'waaaaaa' from her. While she is crying, try telling her that Rayan is a bad boy. She invariably will shout "No...Rayan is a good boy. He is my brother", while still crying. So chweet!!!

And lately, in the past week or so, we have been observing the first serious attempts from Rayan to speak. He shouts "didi" in quick succession on the very first sight of Rida. He can repeat "Mama", "Dada" and (sometimes) "Papa". Today, both Farheen and I could swear that he said "Please" after hearing it from Rida. Nevertheless, his babble is taking a form of language wherein you can see some emotions and clear attempts at verbal communication. Of course, Rida was a very early talker, but a late walker. Rayan is slower than her sis on the talking part (though he is gaining now), but he is physically much more adept and strong. I won't be surprised if he walks perfectly by his first birthday. Rida, on the other hand, mastered the skill only in her 15th month (just like her papa).

The flip side of this all? A very tired mother. Rayan makes sure that he keeps Farheen busy 24/7. Rida adds her bit too. Of course, Pa is his useful self as usual but mothers are the ultimate busy bodies. We just hope that Rayan grows up being a lesser fussy and choosy eater than his sister.

All in all...I love this life. My children make sure I do.

Rayan is making good progress

My my. Isn't my little son growing!!!
Early last week, we saw him master the intricacies of crawling. And on Thursday, 15 June 2006, we saw him learn to sit from lying on his stomach- on his own. The very next day, 16 June 2006, we were pleasantly surprised to watch him grab her mother's robe and pull himself up to a standing position. He can now stand holding onto his baby cot for a few seconds. His physical developments are about a month earlier than Rida, but Rida was already (almost) talking at this age. When we were in Ilford, Essex, she would point out of our window and cry "bus" or "car", depending on what went by. She had also started to say "dada", "mama" and "papa" around this time. Rayan, however, is progressing by giving us new sounds and words every day.

He now crawls to his sister when she is playing with some toy and demands it. He shouts, tries to snatch it from her and when she shouts back, he gets only more determined. Guess we should brace ourselves for quarrels in the near future- "I want that" "No that is mine" "Nooo I won't give it" "I will take it" "Papaaaaa" "Mamaaaa" "Waaaaa" "Waaaaaaaaa"

Rida goes to school again

Yesterday (14 June 2006) was Rida's first day at her new school- EuroKids Banjara Hills. She is in Nursery. I went there a little early, around 8:40 AM (the school starts at 9:30) to spend time with Rida at the new premises before she is left alone. I am not sure how well it worked because she started to cry when I was leaving her classroom. It is a good thing that the prudent staff have decided that the kids will spend only one hour (9:30 to 10:30) at the school for two weeks, so as to manage their separation anxiety and crying. When I went to pick her up she was still crying. Noticing her in the spare clothes Farheen packs for her, it was clear that she had vomited. Just like she did during her initial days at Playschool a few months ago. She didn't stop crying till we reached home.

Today, her second day, was slightly better- but only slightly. Rida resisted going to school by starting to cry even before we left home. Then, no sooner than I took her into the premises, she vomited. The aaya took my little crying baby into the toilet to clean her up (she hadn't spoilt her clothes, though) and I left the school with a heavy heart. At 10:30, Farheen also came with me to pick her up. She came out of the classroom with a sad face and burst out crying on the first sight of us. Once in her mum's arms, she eased a little bit. Her teacher said she was absolutely fine in the class- didn't cry.

God! I hope she settles down soon. Real soon. Amen.

Baby's day out- to the zooooooooo

11 June 2006
It was Farheen's idea. We called up Shuja bhaiya, Nadeem bhaiya and Sattu. Shuja bhaiya was busy but the rest agreed to join us, minus Rinki (Sattu's wife) who had a class to attend. We started from home around noon and after a quick lunch at Shaadab Restaurant, Madina center, Charminar, we set off for our destination- the famous Nehru Zoological Park.
It was a fun day for all of us, but I guess Rayan enjoyed the most. Whenever we sat down to rest on a lawn, he would shout out aloud, kick his legs and wave his hands on seeing moving leaves and tree branches. It is kinda sad if you think how much our city kids miss day-to-day.
A few pics from our yesterday's trip:













From left: Bholu, Rida, Nabeeha and Nameera













Rayan had a whale of a time at the zoo













Rida and some peacocks

See! I was there too :-)

Farheen was there too. See!

Rayan is crawling (almost)

June 2 2006
Yes. Rayan, who got up on his fours sometime in the mid week of May, has now learnt to move forwards. The first time we observed him do this repeatedly was on the evening of 2 June 2006. Trying to get to one of his toys, he raised his body on his hands and legs and lept forward- face down. He was on his bed, so the face-first fall didn't hurt him. He repeated this till he reached the toy. Till now, he used to push himself backwards and sometimes move by rolling about. From today, he is on his self-help crawling classes, Level1 :-)

Two more of Rayan

Some recent pictures

Aren't they cute?