The trip is almost over!

Can you believe it, we are almost about to return home? Tomorrow will mark 3 weeks and then Sunday night/early Monday morning we are on our way back home!

Sorry, it has been a week since writing. I have been thinking I should get on and write, but mostly I have just been a little lazy. We have also been busy visiting some relatives and shopping. Abhi is having a lot of fun running around the house. Just about every evening he is visiting with the neighbors across the hall - two different houses. They come calling for him to come over and he happily goes to his friends across the hall. It is like free babysitting for a bit and in many cases desperately needed. He can only run around this house for so long then he gets bored and needs something new. He is a such a good boy though (despite all his mischievous ways) and really never cries about much. He has been able to handle pretty much everything here without a problem. He is starting to throw little temper tantrums but only with us (parents). Around everyone else, he is very well behaved. Sometimes he gets a little over tired when we are out for a long time and gets very restless but never acts up much. He still finds joy in everything.

I already talked about him enjoying all the buses here but he is doing so many new things. He is really talking a lot now. Lots of recognizable words like pretty, yucky, "get down," dirty - but also a lot of constant babble that sounds like it has a lot of meaning but we aren't sure what he is talking about. It is really cute. He also now gives hugs and blows kisses. He also knows when going to the God's room to put your hands together in prayer. Paatti and Taatta have taught him that and he knows when they are telling him to do it in Tamil. He has also become very used to having Keshav around and is definitely preferring Appa (daddy) now. He is constantly talking about and wanting Appa to hold him. That should be interesting when we go home and K goes back to work and hardly sees Abhi that much during the week.

Today is the Ganesha festival and we have been busy with that for part of the morning and then in the evening we have more events. I will post about our exciting day celebrating Ganesha's birthday next time.

Half way through the trip!

I am relieved to report that we are getting sleep now. Everyone here was saying it would take a week for Abhi to adjust and they were just about correct. Friday night Abhi finally slept from midnight to 8am...then it just kept getting better from there and he is now sleeping about 10 hours a night...just like home. He is getting his 2 naps as well during the day when we are not busy going out. We have consciously stayed in a few days to help him establish this pattern. He gets very distracted when we are out and about to take a nap. It is very difficult to use a stroller in India, for various reasons. Hell, you can hardly walk down the street looking at things because you have to watch where you walk. Between the uneven sidewalk and the cars, motorbikes etc...passing close by you have to be careful. Crossing the street...a whole other ball game.

We did go out yesterday afternoon to visit an aunt and uncles house and then from there we shopped. It was Krishna's (one of the Indian Gods) bday yesterday so we went to their house to do arathi (making and offering to the Gods and wishing happy bday to Lord Krishna). They had the Gods room (every Indian household has a room dedicated to the Gods with idols, flowers etc...their sacred space - it resembles the size of a closet) and yesterday Keshav's aunt had it decorated very nicely with lots of burning lamps, lights, fruits and flowers. During all this, Abhi did not get his afternoon nap, so we had to cut shopping short later on because he gets very restless almost maniac when he is short of sleep. I just wanted to get him home to bathe and sleep. India is very stimulating as you can imagine, so when we are out he is busy looking everywhere and having fun in the car (without a car seat -please don't dis on me, they don't have car seats here - you see families of 4 on motorbikes!)

Other than that we haven't done too much. The bad news is Abhi did catch a bit of a cold and had a runny nose and a cough. I only got a touch of a stuffy head but Ks mom and him got a cough as well. K went to the doc today and got medicine for his. So, hopefully we will all get back on track just resting at home. This is becoming a much different kind of trip than our past trips to India without Abhi. This trip is all about him so it is hard to get out and just go and go with him because it is not very convenient. We did take him last week in the auto rickshaw and went around for the day shopping but there is so much pollution that when you are in the road in an uncovered vehicle it is not good. So, I was a little worried about him going that way for too long. I seems to take forever to get around here too, the traffic is crazy and there are absolutely NO rules, so you are sitting and basically breathing fumes! There is no emissions testing here. So, we had lots of big plans but we are figuring it is better to just focus on letting Abhi visit with his grandparents and visit with family.

There are so many buses here! Abhi has learned the word for bus and when he sees one he says "bu" not quite getting the "s" on the end. But he knows what a bus is and is very excited to see them. He is repeating words like crazy now, even Tamil words his grandparents are saying to him. I just can't wait to see what he says one day when he can actually express his thoughts. He finally figured out how to climb on the couch and proceed to jump. After 2-3 days of us telling him to "get down" he now happily gets up there and starts jumping saying "get down" the whole time. This is very hard to control. Someone either has to be sitting on the couch at all times or constantly pulling him off. And his grandparents just want him to enjoy and let us discipline him when he goes home. Let's see what everyone says when he goes flying off! You know what happens when they go to grandparents! Well, guess what happens when they go to grandparents for 3 and half weeks!!!! It won't be very much fun to go home!

Anyway, that is the update half way through. We are just doing some shopping this week and not much. What we are doing is a LOT of eating, and the Indian diet is not lo cal!! Plus, we are trying to enjoy ALL the goodies! We are eating like 3 grand meals a day plus. I keep thinking about that spinning class I signed back up to teach starting right when I return...should be interesting. We are getting very lucky and are getting the tail end of the mangoes - we thought we would miss mango season totally. They are SOOOOO good. The mangoes we get in the US are not anywhere near as good as these!! They melt in your mouth like butter and they are very juicy and not stringy at all. I must try in life if possible.

Picture of Appa and Abhi in the auto rickshaw


I also got mehendhi (henna) on my hands, you may have noticed the bday photos. There are these guys sitting on stools down on the street you just have do it. The guy did all this in about 20 minutes and it cost 200 rupees or about 5 dollars. Sorry they are a bit blurry...


Someone was saying the pictures are too small. You can click on them for a bigger view!!!

Off for now....more adventures to come.

Happy Birthday Abhi...again!

Last Thursday, Ks parents organized a function to celebrate Abhi's first b'day. It was a grand celebration with lots of relatives.

We got up at 6am to get ready, which was a little hard since we have all not been sleeping well. Indian coffee really helps in this situation. The hall is located next door to the the building so we did not have far to go. We arrived about 830. K and I need to be there a bit early so I could have help putting on my sari and K could get his veshti (same Indian garb talked about in previous post) on. I was supposed to wear a 9 yard sari for this occasion but I wanted to be grand and wear one of my wedding saris which is only 6 yards (the regular length). One of Ks moms cousins, Vasanthi auntie, helped me put my sari on...there is a way you can wear a 6 yard sari in the style of wearing a 9 yard and she knows how to do it well. A 9 yard sari is only worn for special occasions and it is worn in a different style than a 6 yard. Abhi also had Indian dress for the occasion. He also wore a veshti (ready made for a baby) and a kurta as a top (long sleeve Indian top). He looked so cute and everyone was so impressed.

The event is called "Ayusha Homam" - basically a prayer event to ensure that good things happen, and is done at some specific times in a person's life - 1st b'day, 60th b'day, etc. Specifically in this case, it involved prayers to the Gods to bless Abhi with good health and a long life filled with happiness and all things good and successful. There were 3 priests there and things got under way (a fourth joined later). We started with a puja (prayers), the main event which lasted about 2 hours. There was a fire (controlled, and very significant in Hindu prayers) which K had to feed with sticks and ghee (clarified butter) to keep it going - it is a integral part of most Hindu events.





While K was busy saying the prayers, Abhi and I were also asked to come along and sit with K as he was saying those prayers on a few occasions (but not for more than 10 minutes in all). Other than that, Abhi had to do a few things; his involvement in the whole function was as follows:
1) Of course, he had to not only look cute, but also had to behave in a cute manner and impress everyone - which he did very handily, running around the entire place and making his usual cute sounds! He was also busy stealing the fruit from the prayer area which entertained everyone. There were cameras going off all the time trying to take Abhi's pictures - almost made it seem like the paparazzi were chasing the celebrity (Abhi)!!
2) K had to place a garland made of jasmine flowers around Abhi's neck, and Abhi did not like it at all - I think we kept it on just for a minute or two, and then were forced to take it off.
3) K and I had to feed Abhi a few bites of cooked rice mixed with ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. We were circumspect that Abhi would not like it, but to our surprise he liked it and ate more than a few bites. According to tradition, the 1st birthday (and this event) is when the child eats rice for the very first time - while not the case for Abhi and most kids these days, the significance was not lost on us, and it was nice to see Abhi eat it without any problems/hassles.
4) Abhi also had to bow with K and I to get blessings of the elders and the Gods - we did this a few times during the course of the entire prayer sessions. While Abhi does not know how to do this, K held him and got him to do this. The folks enjoyed it immensely, and Abhi doing something new also got a kick out of it.
5) Last but not the least, at the end of the ceremony, all the guests came one by one to give gifts to Abhi (and of course, all of them wanted Abhi to be the one receiving it) while he sat on my lap. Luckily for us, most of these were just envelopes (with cash, which is typical in the Indian setting), and there was one large toy. Abhi very graciously opened his right hand and grasped the envelopes and made it seem like he had done this many times before. This again thrilled K's relatives/other guests and impressed them very much as to how "smart" Abhi was. K let him hold these envelopes for a couple of seconds, before taking charge and piling them behind us. Here are some pix...Abhi stealing fruit, eating rice and accepting gifts...



The women were all there in there beautiful, colorful saris... (Ks mom is 3rd from left in first pic and Ks sister first in 2nd pic)


An Indian function/celebration would not be complete without food. Breakfast (catered out) was served early in the day as the event started. K, his parents, his sister and her family and I all ate quickly before the ceremonies commenced, while the guests ate as they arrived. Breakfast consisted of upma (kind of like cream of wheat made with veggies and spices) carrot halwa (sweet) and coffee. Then again, once the prayers were said, it was time to move on to lunch. Lunch (again catered) was served around 12:30 pm, and we ate off of plantain leaves with our hands - which again is typical of Hindu ceremonies. It was a delightful spread and all of us ate heartily and were stuffed at the end of the meal. For lunch there were just too many items to name here -plus I don't know all of them. It is interesting to eat rice and runny items with your hands on a leaf. If it gets to watery, you have to keep it from running of the leaf. Here are a couple pictures from lunch, the spread and me eating...

Sleeping, eating and bathing...oh my!

I have been meaning to write a lot more, but I just haven't gotten to it. Firstly, we are majorly sleep deprived at this time! Even after one week, our sleep schedules have not adjusted. Abhi has not slept longer than a 6 hour stretch since we arrived and usually it is much less. He wakes up a lot during the night and since we are all sleeping in the same room he has become used to us being right there and does not easily go back to sleep. Plus, he is going through some teething as well which is only adding to the problem. I have also been struggling to sleep because once I wake up with him, I can not go back to sleep. I have been surviving some days on about 3 hours sleep. I need my sleep generally so that is very hard for me. K has also been doing a lot of night duty so he is also lacking sleep. He is keeping up a little better than me. This does not slow Abhi down during the day though. He is on the move like never before. He just has big black circles under his eyes which reminds me he needs to sleep!!!! He, however, is not interested. This past week has been very reminiscent of having a new born baby, not days were were hoping to see again this soon. We just hope the next week things look up.

Secondly, we have been very busy this week spending time with K's sister and family and having Abhi's first bday celebration on Thursday (I will post about that this weekend). We have also been doing a bit of searching and shopping for baby food and formula. Baby food is not an easy thing to find in India. Cereal is ok, but finding baby food in jars has not been easy. We have found it in a couple of stores (specialty baby shops) that we had to go a little ways to find but I was happy to find it somewhere. Then, we also decided to put him back on formula because the milk is a little different and we just haven't been able to find one he is adjusting to well. So, finding formula that you find in the US is also hard. We did find some today, not exactly what he was on before but I think it should work. The worst thing is everything is double the price. If you know the price of formula in the US (I think of it pretty much as powdered gold), you will understand that double the price is a big hit. At this point, I am just happy to find the stuff and don't care. Although, I was very happy to be done with the formula days so it is a bit of a bummer to go back to it.

We also bought him a high chair. Feeding him on the go was just not working. You know how busy Abhi is, he needs structured eating time! He needs to be able to focus on his task of eating. When he is running wild, he is not interested in food. We thought about following him around for 3 weeks with a spoon saying "bite" while he could care less would drive us all mad! So, he is doing well eating again. Teething has been a bit of an interruption lately with that but he is doing much better in the chair.

One thing Abhi is really enjoying here is taking baths. Ks parents don't have a bath, just a shower, so Abhi gets to have his bath in a bucket. I heat the watter and fill up one bucket, put him in the empty bucket and then I use a small cup to pour the water over him. He loves it! It is just like going to the water park and or something similar where the water splashes him. Here is a little glimpse of bathtime...


So, that is all for today. I will post some of the fun things we have done this week over the next few days. Hope all of you are well!

First weekend in Bangalore

The weekend was a typical Indian weekend - couple of festivals, tons of home-cooked "festival" (a.k.a. large spread, not recommended by your physician) food, along with friends and family (and neighbors) visiting.
Saturday was ஆவணி அவிட்டம் (Tamil - reads "Aavani Avittam"), the day men change their பூணல் (Tamil - "poonal", a.k.a. sacred thread) every year. So K's dad and K did their prayers and changed their poonal in the morning, and then had more prayers to follow in the evening. Tradition calls for the men who change their poonals to eat rice (the Indian staple) just once that day - so the men ate a typical Indian meal (with rice) at lunch, but had to settle for idlis (steam-cooked rice cakes) for dinner. K changed into a typical Indian outfit to say his prayers - reminds me of a skirt, except full-length (to the ankles), and in white. He had to go "topless" and bare his under-built pecs!
Saturday was also the day to celebrate the brother-sister relationship. The official name is रक्षा बंधन (Hindi - "Raksha Bandhan") - literally means "band/tie of protection". On this day, the sisters tie a "Rakhi" (simple, or very fancy - many different designs/twists to these Rakhis these days) on their brothers' wrist, thanking their brothers for the security/protection they offer. In turn, the brothers profess their commitment to protect their sisters from any harm, and tell their sisters to rest assured. While this security/protection might not be very relevant in this day and age, this was the basis of how this festival started back in time, and the tradition continues. So K's sister, Lakshmi tied rakhis for K, and his cousins (Govi and Suddu), while Nithya (Abhi's cousin) acted as sister and tied a rakhi on Abhi's wrist. Of course, Abhi immediately removed his and wanted the string off! Here is the big event...


Sunday was Part 2 of the poonal changing ceremony - while the poonals were changed on Sat, the prayers continued on Sunday. The men had to recite the "Gayatri Mantra", a renowned and revered prayer in Hindu circles. They had to say it 1,008 times. While K's dad got done with this early in the day, K was late to start and slow to finish.

Also, here are more pix. I wanted to post these with yesterdays posting but I did not have them loaded yet. Abhi busy playing with cousins Nithya and Nikil...


Abhi with Appa...