A fresh start!

 After 13 years, I decided to restart the blog today. I used to enjoy writing so much that I simply cannot fathom why I stopped and why for so long! 

At 16 and 6'2", my son is now in the 11th grade. At 13 and 5'7" (2 inches more than me 😅), my daughter is now in her 8th grade. With personalities as different as chalk and cheese, we are now past the pooping and peeing milestones, to board exams, cricket league, drama classes, piano progressions and more. 

Each day is made more beautiful with changes that come with growth, peer pressure, OTT influence, personal choices, hormones, and just for kicks behavior. 

After decade+ of parenting and the testing pandemic times, it still is an intuition based skill, that should be married with lots of patience, loads of listening, and some logic. And the magic potion is still love 💓.

I will post some throw back to make up for the lost time; so there can be back and forth in the timeline for the next few months 😀.

Turning over!

Today was a big milestone day for Ovya. She turned from back to tummy. And then seemed to be in a hurry to crawl, sit up, walk, run etc!! She has been doing it all day now, and is very non-chalant about it, even as we are so excited. She has been turning from tummy to back for ages since I put her to sleep on her tummy. So we were waiting for this day anxiously.

Yesterday I took her to the doctor for a cold. She weighed in at 6.6 kgs at the end of 5 mos and 5 days. Good going, girl! She has been doing great with Cerelac that I started last Monday, and I am thinking of upping it to 2 feeds/day.

Been a while since I blogged, but life has begun just too busy like I never thot possible. Running after two kids and slotting time between them means that blogging seems like luxury living that I just can't afford now.

I have even put Kav in day care from 1-5pm, so that he is not bored at home, and I don't have to stress out about keeping him entertained. He dosen't seem too fond of the place yet, but it has been under a week since he started. So keeping my finger crossed that he settles down before I re-join work in April.

3rd month stats

Ovya had her doc appt on Saturday and she weighed in at a healthy 4.75 kgs with a head circumference of 38 cms. She had put on exactly a kilo from the last month, and that is a little more that I had guessed. Which is just excellent :)

Her shots gave her a light temperature that lasted a whole day; but she cheery and talkative as usual. I am just having so much fun listening to her. The great thing is that she does not demand your presence in the room. If you are around, she will talk to you. Else she will look around, observe things or just talk to the fan! Such a cutie...

A study of contrasts

We have always wondered whether we would be in awe of the milestones reached by Ovya after celebrating them with Kavin. But each kid is different and there is so much to observe and enjoy. For instance, Ovya's head was fairly stable at the end of 2 mos and is completely stable now, almost at the end of 3 mos. She has been talking for the last month and is so much more louder and vocal now. I cannot remember Kav being so expressive in so short a time. But where Kav was very physical and constantly in motion, Ovya is less so. But she has already started turning from tummy to back (first time on 17th Dec), which Kav did in prolly his 5th month.

Ovya is exactly 3 mos old today and weighed in at 3.75 kgs at the end of 2 mos during her last appointment exactly a month back. She has her shots this evening and I am very curious how much weight she would have put on. About 800 gms would be my guess. She has also become a good sleeper since getting her to sleep on her tummy. That is the best advice I have ever received on child rearing :).

We had the monthly parents meet at Kav's school today. The same feedback; naughty but sweet, more interested in playing than rhymes. He has his Sports day scheduled next month and will be in the cricket team apart from running. He also has his Annual Day in March and will be put into an event after gauging his interest.


We had an interesting talk with the principal on the local schools for his LKG admission, and that is an exercise that we have to start in earnest soon. The conflicting reports that we are getting on schools like Sankara, Vana Vani and Vidya Mandir is making the selection process very difficult. One thing we are clear is not to get him into the so-called elite schools like Sishya or the International schools. Heard good things about the Abacus school in Perungudi but admission might be tough so late. Need to dig about the Pon Vidyashram and a couple of other schools still.


(Left: Kiddos dressed for Karthigai)

First smile!

Ovya gave me her first smile today when I was playing with her! It was funny since she was squinting at me hard and then broke into a beaming, 'pokka vaayee' smile. I can't wait for Rajesh to see it and get his heart broken as well :). She has been trying to focus onto faces and objects for over a week now. She looks extremely serious when she does it, prompting a friend to call her an 'indigo baby'...

I had my ob-gyn appt last week on the 23rd and Ovya weighed in at 3.14 kgs that day. My doc was concerned and asked me to supplement with formula till she gains some weight. But we have decided not to and wait for another 15 days till her next vaccination and see how it goes, esp since Ovya's ped has not recommended this as yet. I have increased the feed duration and see a slight improvement already.

Her sleep is slightly better. Her naps in the morning are good, so long as there are no big noises and her food is well digested. We make sure we hold her upright for 1/2 hour after a feed to help with it. At night, she sleeps anywhere between midnight and 1am and wakes up only around 6.30am. The uninterrupted time really helps me recoup. Also I have moved her from the crib to the bassinet to reduce the reflux.

Some pics taken on Diwali:

Mixed bag

Parenting is all about unpredictability, I guess! Ovya has started to sleep through the night this week. All by herself, she has regulated to sleep from about 10pm to about 7am, waking up once early morning for a feed. We are just amazed that this has happened so quickly. I think for Kav, this happened after the 3rd month. So that's the good part...

To the down side. She is just not sleeping during the day. I mean, a baby is supposed to sleep close to 20 hours, right? She dozes off and on for some 20 mins through the day, prolly totalling 3-4 hours. She seems to be suffering from reflux and maybe that's what is waking her up from her naps. Her not sleeping during the day means me, not sleeping during the day, plus holding and craddling her a lot leaves me real tired at the end of the day. Today I have made her nap in her bassinet rather than the crib with her head well elevated to see if that helps.

Yesterday, Rajesh called out her name and she moved her head to the other side in the direction of the sound! He repeated it a couple more times with the same result. She does that when Kav talks to her as well. It is so funny that her eyes still can't focus right but she moves around as if to look anyways :)

Kav's school has re-started after the break today. He was excited to go and even had his breakfast with no fuss!

First doc visit

Ovya's first visit to the paediatrician was on Oct 1st. At 12 days, she weighed in at 2.65 kgs. She was losing her water weight. Dr Sharada gave her the all clear for jaundice and also gave her the BCG shot.

I enquired about Kav's long pending Hep A shots as well. She was ready to administer it and so was Kav! He kept asking for injection :). When she gave him the shot, it was an unbelievable moment for us. Kav did not even bat an eyelid! Even the doc was stunned. My son has such a high tolerance and he just went back to playing after it. He has grown up so much, and seems like a different boy since Ovya came along. He is just not bothering me, asking me for my time or attention, or being jealous of the new entrant to the family. Rajesh and I were so worried about his reaction esp since he has 2 weeks off for Navratri, but he has been so generous and mature about it. He is just playing with his cars or grandparents, and has been happy with whenever I can spend some time with him. Thanks a lot, my baby...