Neil, Zach, and Alyah

Yo got to meet three new comrades past week.

Cousin Neil just turned 1, and is the son of Susan's cousin Neha and hubby Rohan. This happy chap just started walking, and it's so cute to see him wander around exploring every little thing.

Zach was born Dec 12, and is the adorable son of Susan's childhood friend Mallika and her hubby Ollie. He was just 10 days old when we got to see the cute little fella.

Alyah is the beautiful daughter of Vijay and Tanya - childhood and church youth group friends of ours. She is about a month older than Yohan, and they recently came down to Madras as well for a holiday. Alyah is all dolled-up here for her christening.

Yo's First Christmas

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And we're quite happy we're not stuck in all the snow in Portland this year!

(pic courtesy Kartik Gopal)

Our hometown Madras

After a wonderful time in Bangalore, we are now spending our next phase of the vacation with Yo's maternal granparents in Madras - the city where his mamma and dada grew up. His cousins Zeph and Josh are here too, and even in the couple days we've been here there has been much bonding.

On the flight here our man decided he wanted his own seat.

Persistence

Over the last few days Yo has been getting the hang of finger-foods. First he would grab the food and make a fist, and then try to shove his whole fist in his mouth. That didn't work so well, but he kept at it. He even used his other hand to guide the food-holding hand to his mouth for increased accuracy.

Within a few days he was picking up and putting food in his mouth quite easily. Practice does help.

Today Susan gave him a whole Marie biscuit, and you couldn't pry it away from the little foodie after that. He kept gnawing at it bit by bit, and in a while he had finished the whole biscuit.

So far we could control the mess made during meal-times since we were in charge of the feeding. Now I need to go and prepare myself for the inevitable.

It is our solemn prayer...

... that this little boy not acquire his dear mother's sports genes.

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Club Cabana

A couple days ago the family went for an outing to a resort 45 minutes away from home, called Club Cabana. This was a great place - a huge area, beautifully done up, with a lot of activities. There were only a couple other folks there besides us, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves - our very own private getaway! We had a grand time, and Yo got his first introduction to large bodies of water.

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Day out with Ajit mama and Tanya chitti

We spent the day with Ajit and Tanya yesterday, and had a great time. Started off with a fantastic lunch at Fame - I think I can say I had the best pepper steak ever! And it was $4. While Ajit and the ladies were out shopping (I was enjoying a head massage and haircut), a policeman stopped by to pay his regards to Yo - pinched his cheeks a couple times and then kissed his hand after swallowing his paan. Needless to say, wipes were quickly put into action after the encounter.

He's quite taking to be in the driver's seat. This afternoon he was pretty sleepy, but happily stood in my lap holding the steering wheel looking at all the action on the street outside while we waited for the ladies to finish shopping.

Aj and Tanya have a little yes-no-maybe act that gets him going always:

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Settling in

Took us about a week, but it looks like we might be done with jet-lag. Hooray - Susan can get a good night's sleep now! Yo slept through the night last night, and is back into some sort of a schedule now. He's still battling a pretty bad cold, though.

The boy is also getting used to all the sights and sounds here, and there's quite a few of those. He's just wide-eyed when we take him out in the car with no car seat - can't believe his luck in not needing to be strapped down, and wants to stand up and stare out the window at the neat, orderly traffic and the calm, un-harried drivers.

He's also getting over the stranger anxiety that he had in Portland - not that he has much choice here. He enjoys his grandparents and uncle/aunt doting over him, and can't stop smiling when our maids at home play with him. Random waitresses at restaurants pick him up with a "You enjoy your dinner madam, I'll take care of him", and he happily goes off with them forgetting about his anxious parents wondering where he's going to be whisked off to next.

And in the between-Yo moments the Sivaram men have been brushing up on their Wii skills.

We made it!

We're finally here, after about 23 hours of travel time - 34 hours door-to-door. Whew. We almost missed our flight from San Francisco since our flight out of Portland was delayed by 90 mins. We were the last to check-in, and the last to board - and that was a first for the Narjala family, next only to actually missing a flight :)

We met up with Pia, Zeph, Josh and Sujan at SFO, and they very patiently waited for us while we checked in (hurriedly). The sisters must have had a telepathic moment while selecting their travel attire - they were identically decked-out, all the way down to the exact same pair of shoes!

The kids actually did quite well on the flights, all things considered. Yo didn't sleep very much, and was bouncing around in our arms the rest of the time. Every now and then we'd visit Pia and kids (who were seated a section away from us on one of the flights), and the kids would have a blast.

Once we got to Hong Kong all of us started to fade. We were quite ready to be done with traveling, especially the little munchkins. We were met in Bangalore by dad, mom, appa, Aj & Tanya. Unfortunately this wasn't the end of the road for Pia and the kids - they still had one more short leg to Chennai. Thankfully Zeph and Josh pulled through one more time.

Next step - recover from jet lag!

A new adventure in the making

We're on our way to India with the little guy, along with Susan's sister and her kids. Right now in Hong Kong, and it's been quite the adventure getting thus far already! With 3 kids in tow, I wouldn't have expected any less. Pictures and news of The Great Expedition shall be forthcoming.

The cousins are having a ball of a time playing with each other - the last time they were together Yo was just a couple months old and wasn't up to a whole lot. They've really taken to each other now, and it's great to see them having fun together.

Our last flight out from HK to Bangalore leaves in an hour, and we're more than ready to sleep lying down as opposed to valiantly trying to (but miserably failing) to get comfortable in positions a contortioinist would be proud of.

Eight month stats

Since we will have to miss his regular 9-month appt, we preponed it by a month.

Weight: 16 lbs

Height: 26 1/4 "

In addition to the regular vaccinations he also had the second dose of his flu shots.

If you're happy and you know it

Susan was entertaining Yo during dinner tonight, and she hit upon something that caused the little guy to break out in guffaws.

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Funn-er Toys, Please

His stash of regular baby toys doesn't cut it. But when one has TVs, home theater systems, and dishwashers lying around, they will suffice quite well, thank you. Sears, Best Buy... are you reading this blog? We'll be happy to test any new home electronics products for baby-proofing.

He's got a new 'pursed-lips' expression, which he sports in both pics below.

I've also been amazed at the little light bulbs going off in his head as he starts to put things together...

• When I leave for work, he knows I'm heading out. He'll start to crawl to the door, and when I scoot out Susan says he isn't too happy for a while.
• He totally knows the sound of the dishwasher opening. Regardless of where he is in the vicinity, once he hears that sound he drops everything and scoots right over.
• When he wakes up in his room, he'll sit up in the crib and keep looking at the door for someone to come in and pick him up (we can see him with our video baby monitor).
• He has this really comical (to us) quizzical expression on his face now when he encounters something new.
  

Little Yo is a lotta fun :)

Standing up... With a little help from my friends

Yo's started to pull himself up and stand on slightly less wobbly legs now. This evening he stood and played for quite a while with his Laugh & Learn toy - his favorite.

He's also fascinated by a small radio-controlled car we have. Before he could crawl he would just sit and fix his eyes on the car as it went round and round, and would grab for it when it came within reach. Now that he's mobile, he scoots after the car as fast as he can. And when he gets it, he doesn't let go too easily.

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Intro to Indian Cuisine

We tried to start the little guy on some good 'ol South Indian sapad today, but it didn't go down too well. Susan made some dhal + rice + ghee and mashed it all up in a blender. It actually tasted pretty good to me (way better than his rice cereal!), but he was having none of it. We even tried mixing in some of his regular Gerber stuff, but he completely saw through our feeble attempts at food disguise.

We finally had to go back to tried-and-trusted rice cereal and Gerber Sweet Potato for his dinner. Dhal-rice will be tried again next week.



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From mini-car...

... to mini-van!


Susan's car is in the shop for a week for some minor repairs, and we got a somewhat larger rental replacement... She was a little nervous taking this out for a spin considering she's never driven anything larger than a Golf, but thanks to power seats and seat cushions she did great.

She's now officially a bonafide mini(-van) mom!

Fun times with Mamma

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Play yard == kitchen

The little explorer has discovered the kitchen now, and loves to go around trying to pull stuff out. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to open cabinets as yet. Whenever one of us is in the kitchen, he'll crawl over and want to be in the thick of things. This mobility is giving him a whole new level of freedom.

He's also just started pulling himself up into a standing position now. Doesn't last very long, and he quickly lands on his amply padded behind. And tries again. We've had to lower his crib this week so he stays in.

Off we go!

The little munchkin started crawling (forward) Oct 30. Even within a day he was doing short little spurts when the object of interest was crawl-worthy. Electronic objects are #1 in the list of items to go after, with power cords coming a close second. He also seems to like the laminate floors in the kitchen - quite fascinated that that's a different material than carpet.

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Dada's Li'l Punkin

Susan went all creative with our little fella yesterday. She had a little pumpkin hat, but needed the rest of the ensemble to complete a Halloween costume for Yohan. I was dispatched to procure a pumpkin, and then while I was at work she created a little studio set for her "Yo's First Halloween" photo shoot. Backdrops were spread, pumpkins were painted, leaves were gathered from neighboring trees, and the little boy was dressed in his orange best. And it all came out superb!



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Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the production process.

Sorta crawling.... backwards

Over the last couple days he's been getting quite mobile. He's able to roll over and get into a crawling position quite easily now. He then tries to get to Interesting Object A in front of him, but to his dismay finds himself moving backwards. Eventually that puts him butt-and-legs first under the couch, from whence mom needs to go rescue him.

This morning he was rolling all over the floor in our bedroom, and found himself face to face with a wall, and didn't know what to do next. Thought it was pretty funny - maybe he found his own timeout location for the future? :)

I also saw him sit up by himself his morning - quite cool. Need to baby-proof the house this weekend - he's getting dangerously close to being a very mobile explorer.

Time to baby-proof the house

He isn't crawling yet, but looks like he'll be ready soon. Right now he tries to launch himself from a sitting position. Doesn't get too far, but he does make some slow-but-steady progress in the forward direction.

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Assorted Yo pics

Sleeping through the night!

Up until a couple days ago, Yo would wake up 2-4 times a night.  Susan would feed him, and then rock him back to sleep.  Lately he had been waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at around 3am, and wanted to play.  Nights could get rather tiring (for her, mostly).

We recently decided to see if we could 'help' our son sleep through the night, without waking up for food and games.  With great trepidation we approached our first trial night, as we had been thoroughly warned about lots of crying and wailing that we had to, by and large, ignore.

It's been three nights now, and by God's grace, it went pretty well!  Yo didn't cry all that much at all, and last night there was hardly any crying.  He went to bed between 7:30 and 8pm, and stirrred once at around 4am - tossed and turned for a bit, then went back to sleep.  It's 7:30am now, and he's still sleeping! Fantastic!

Susan still has to deal with his naps during the day, but this is a great milestone to get to!  Hopefully it will last.

Superboy

Yo has this lock of hair that's grown long in front, and that forms a natural Superman curl.

Six Months

Six Month stats:
Height: 25"
Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz

A collection of pics from the last couple months...

He likes his veggies!

Well it might be a tad too early to make such a sweeping proclamation, but we at least know that he likes his carrots (mashed beyond recognition, of course). We moved beyond rice cereal and oatmeal after his 6 month milestone, and we're trying veggies this week.

I have also come to learn that rice cereal and other such baby food must be cleaned up from the general area of feeding asap. The eating process, as can be noted from the video below, is a somewhat messy affair; these baby foods tend to be rather sticky, and the sooner a moist towel is applied to the area in question, the better for all concerned. Just one of these things one learns on the job.

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To cry or to laugh...

... that is the question.

Jumper

This guy loves to jump around. His new toy helps him do just that, and saves his parent's arms in the process.

Toronto

Yo went on his first international trip a couple weeks ago, for our cousin Prashanth's wedding to Naomi (congrats again, guys!). He did really well on the 5 hour flights, thank God! Slept through most of it, and thankfully the take-offs and landings didn't bother him too much. On the way back we missed our first flight out of Buffalo, and got re-routed all around the country as a result. He was quite the trooper that day as well. All in all, it was a great time with family.

Sivaram family visit - Part 1

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Of laughter and fashion

Smiles are slowly morphing into full-fledged laughter...

Susan does an amazing job taking care of Yo. Part of that is just keeping track of and organizing the little man's wardrobe. Thanks to aunts and friends, we have a whole bunch of clothes that have been passed down to us, in addition to all the gifts we've received. Susan has sorted all of these into neat, age-appropriate bundles. And in the current age selection they are further sorted into onesies, going-out clothes, pajamas, etc etc. (And people say I'm organized!) I'm quite content just picking something random for the boy to wear, but she loves to pick just the right set for the occasion. And as a result, we have quite the well-dressed young man on our hands.