chhuk chhuk chhuk chhuk chhuk chhuk chhukk!!

For the uninitiated thats the sound of a moving train! :)

And pray why am i telling everyone this brilliant piece of information?!

Well Kabir just got back from his first return train trip... unscathed and verrry happy! Yiippeee!! (touchwood!) Actually the yippeeee is more for the parents coming back thrilled and very proud too! :)

The whole story started when my cousin's wedding got fixed when my folks were with us. They said "aa jao, sabse milna ho jaayega!". WE thought: why not? Only fix was that it involved train trip since the wedding was in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. We could have taken flight, but it was too expensive and wasn't direct either. But the train trip was around 18hrs long and we were obviously worried how comfortable it would be with our 9 month old brat.........

As the D Day arrived, even a terribly disorganised person that I am, i started making a list of things (my first!;) we needed to take for Kabir. The list just kept on getting longer and the thought of carrying so much luggage for a 2 day stay seemed crazy. But the motto was better safe than sorry, so in went everything and total count was 4 bags (3 Kabir + 1 us)!

D day arrived and we entered our 3rdAC compartment hoping our neighbours would be understanding and nice! Well, we had a lady who was 6 months preggie and her hubby! :) Kabir was looking at everything with wide eyed wonder and his excitement was completely infectious! After settling down with your luggage put in place, we got around to making friends with people around and with Kabir smiling away in our arms thats such a cakewalk!

Kabir kept moving from one sleeper to another till it soon was his dinnertime. He ate comfily and after playing some more was soon sleepy. Now this was the worrying part. I slept next to him in whatever space he deemed logical I should have and within few mins he was fast asleep. Just when I was dozing off saying what a sweet and adjusting child he is, I heard sobbing and crying. Kabir who is used to having big space to himself wasnt excatly comfy sharing the space with his mommy!

I sat on the opposite side with my legs barricading and slept half sitting half sleeping next few hours. I woke daddy dearest and said it's your turn now! :D

Morning again started with his sunshine smile! By the time we got some breakfast and fed Kabir idli (which he LOVES) and it was time to get off. (We got off Belgaum and took a cab from there to Kolhapur which saved us close to 4hrs!).

Return train trip was equally uncomplicated. This time there were other kids and we had a lot of fun! :) He had his lunch which we carried from home and for dinner had Heinz baby food which was chicken with red pepper and risoto. His parents suffered Veg. Pulav of the train! :(

The sleeping procedure stayed the same on return too! He was little bored and upset by the time we got next day morning, but was happy as soon as we got home.

The best part of the trip was to see his unbridled joy and thrill at discovering everything new. Be it the running trees outside the window or sitting at height on one of the sleepers! Be it meeting new people or feeling the wind in his hair as he stood at the door with daddy-o!

It made us relive the simple things that can make us happy and by the time we got home, i had a feeling that these are going to be one of our most special memories.

One of his most specials "Firsts".

Thank you my sweetheart for making this trip so painless and simply put wonderful!!!

Rather it was a journey where destination didn't really matter! :)

More about the actual shaadi attended at Kolhapur and Kabir ki Kahaniyan in next post!! :D

love ya so so much! :D

am looking forward to our next trip somehwere already! Dontcha Change!

:)

dil dosti etc! :)

"Friends" is one word that would always bring a smile on our face! It reminds me of masti, trust, conversations over coffee... a heart to heart chat or a laughter session! Friends make me count my blessings and i feel lucky to have them as an integral part of my life.

This one is for my best pals since last 10 years! These people have been there with me through all the highs and lows of my life and survived! :) So, heres to you girls, M and S for always making me feel special!

All three of us have given birth to our babies within this year! :)

M and me shared our pregnancy times and Atho was born 2 months after Kabir! M lives in Australia and both of us havent had a chance to see each other's babies except sharing photos and videos. Its so much fun seeing Atho through all the stages Kabir did and I do love giving gyaan to poor M who never complains!

Of course I admire M terribly. She has been taking care of Atharva all by herself from month 2 including maalish and bath and no maid! Hats off to you girl!! Am so so proud of you!! I cant imagine surviving it the way you did! Atharva also seems to be ebcoming quite a brat and is looking cuter by the day! God Bless Him! :)

S delivered a baby girl on 18th this month! Congrats girl!! :) That poor girl has suffered even more advice from this new mom! It's the first baby girl I have heard in a long time amonst all our friend and S is terribly lucky! Touchwood! :) S now lives in Mumbai and I havent had a chance to see her baby, Momo (till actual name is decided), but my parents managed to visit her at the hospital and i got a first hand account! Mom said Momo looks a lot like S and is quite tall with nice eyes! (I still cant make out who Kabir looks like!).

S just enjoy this time! Even when the going gets tough things do get better and in sometime all your l'il troubles will melt away with Momo's charming smile! God Bless Her! :)

As happy as I am for all three of us, somewhere I keep wishing we were in the same city and just MAYBE Atharva, Kabir and Momo would have been best friends too! :) It would have been SO much fun for us new mommies to catch up often, have picnics, go shopping, take turns at baby sitting and generally have fun!

Yet life can come up with most unexpected surprises! Maybe someday we WOULD be together and even if we dont our kids might just end up being good friends anywayz??

Another person who was a part of this group is now my hubby dearest! Thanx for being my best friend AND soul mate and for making a wonderful father to Kabir! What would I do without you??!! :)

So M and S, love you girls lots and heres wishing you amazing times ahead with your bundles of joy!! And keep being the buddies you always have been!

and yes, I'll be there for you!! (to be sung like Friends song!;)

Hugs!! :)

18 months up! nine andar, nine bahar!

Kabir completed nine months yesterday and it seems like eons ago that I was pregnant and had a l'il baby! The l'il baby who hardly kept awake except for feeding, who couldnt even move an inch on his own, who couldn't recognize mommy-daddy!

Now we find you in EVERY corner of the house! Feeding time is when you want to creep all over the place and the brilliant smile of recognition reserved for parents, rajamma and mahadevamma! You seem to be changing little more everyday! :)

So on happy completion of 9 months heres 9 things I LOVE about you!

I love your bright and big eyes! They show every emotion... they shine when you are being naughty, when you are happy, when you know you are performing to the gallery! They fill up with tears when we go out of your sight or when you are hungry and sleepy! I can see indignation in them when you are scolded and very few times a hint of fear too.

i ADORE that sunshine smile of yours. It could steal and melt anyone's heart! I love seeing it at 715am every morning and when i get back home braving work and traffic! And my heart still skips a beat everytime i see that killer cute smile of yours!

I love you when you play that game papa and you play. Daddy- o runs behind you with some kinda war cry and you creep super fast in circles till you reach me and butt your head in my lap and try to hide there! and the look you give your papa knowing fully well that its just a game! :)

I love your curly hair! those ringlets that Rajamma insists on combing straight and i destroy it as soon as we are out of her sight! :D

I love the way you think my cell phone is everything from an edible thing to a ball that can be thrown inspite of telling you NOT to do it infinite times!

I love the way you enjoy food... especially from our plate. Be it little pieces of roti with dal or sevai upma that i have made for breakfast or idli at our weekend breakfast at darshini near our place! you even liked Gerber and Heinz baby food that i thought was Yucky! :D

i love how you play with everything except your toys! You love boxes (lactogen and cerelac), empty plastic bottles, newspaper, cell phones, steel plate and katori! :)

I love the way you have started half standing up on your knees against our legs, bean bag, gol takiya or anything that would give you support to do that. You just look so cute doing it! :) And you dont even cry much when you fall!

I love the way you understand l'il games now. The fake cough that comes after our fake one! The screaming fests when you match your AAs to our AAs. This is always followed by that wicked smile of yours making it even more fun! :)

I could go on and on, but have to save some for the next time! :)

you are really our bundle of joy in every sense of the term!

keep being the joy you are!

god bless ya!! and belated Happy Birthdate! :D

love you!!

mmuuuaaaahhh!!

from the horse's mouth! ;)

kid's keep doing new things and surprising us all the time! These days my conversation with hubby centres around other mommy blogs I read during the day and what are all the l'il devils in angels' disguise up to!

These days Kabir has learned a new thing. He has this habit of moving up and down as if he is riding on a horse when you take him in godi. So kabir is facing you with his legs on both sides, holding your clothes as reins and jumps up and down! :)

So i said one to him one day, "who is doing tugduck tugduck (dont ask me about the sound) like a horse?" From that day on he picked it up! So now everytime we saw tugduck tugduck he starts jumping up and down as if he is horse riding and its so so cute! :) And then after every few moves he waits and as soon as he hears me say "shhh! break", he starts off again! weird l'il guy! :)

love ya my l'il jockey!! mmmuuaaaaah!

Mommy loves being your horse as long as she doesnt have to get on her fours! (that would kill her back!) :D

hair raising story!

kabir is pretty much a "i need 8hrs of beauty sleep"baby! he sleeps by 11pm and is up and smiling by 7am. we generally end up sleeping later than him and obviously want to sleep till later too. i mean he sleeps another few hours during the day where as we get to hit the bed only at night! yawn!

when he wakes up usually i open my eyes and turn towards the sound with goodmorning and get greeted by the sweetest smile ever! till i don't do that, all is well and ok. but if i make the mistake of opening my eyes and then trying to go back to sleep, that's that!

first i get gentle pats on my back. if i ignore them for about 30secs my hair gets pulled in one swift and hard jerk. i find it almost impossible to believe that his tiny l'il cute and soft hands can inflict so much pain! aaaarrgghhhh!!

i holler at him saying "Kabir! no pulling mommy's hair!" which is rewarded with another tug till i roll over and pick him up and put him on my tummy! this patting to tugging phase happens even sooner if his daddy and me attempt some morning cuddles! :p

i just wish i could pull his hair and show him how much it hurts! but then once on my tummy, he tries to jump down immediately with that sunshine smile of his. after which he would play by himself for some time! but our sleep long gone by then. sigh!

i swear Cubby, i am gonna pull your hair too next time around! try me!!

aakhir mein bhi tumhaari Maa hoon! ;)

love ya lots!

summer fashion for Kabir! :D

its been horridly hot past coupla weeks! my l'il (??) bundle of joy like his dad feels the heat in all its glory and wrath! he just cannot bear it! evertime i get off the car, i have a huge wet patch on my shoulder where his head has been resting (can't call him hot headed tho)! :p

past few days we have been sleeping with fan whirring at full speed on our heads just for chhote nawab! his father and me wake up with sniffles every morning which is of course better than waking up with bleary sleep deficient eyes. yup! he will keep waking up and bawling because he is feeling hot! :( poor baby!

we also noticed that he is happy when naked! :D lesser the clothes, happier cubby is! even when it was relatively cold in bangalore, kabir refused to wear sweater or have his ears covered. we would go out and get such dirty looks from aunties. the more seasoned ones would look at us condescendingly (you aaj kal ke first time parents kinda look) and say "sweater aur topi penaneka naa amma?" now who will tell them that my son is one hot dude and is extremely uncomfortable in anny additional layers of cloth?!

so off we went looking for summer clothes for Kabir. Picked up some really cute sleevless tees (more like colourful vests) from a shop in jayanagar. then went to one of our fav shops at Shringar Complex on M G Road and picked up some more (and better) stuff from there along with some adorable looking shorts!

this brand for baby clothes called Zero is the best. they make the brightest, softest and comfiest clothes for babies! and all this comes at a very reasonable price without ompromising on the quality. the vests i bought cost me just 35 bucks each. apart from that whatever clothes i have bought till date of Zero have not cost me over 100bucks and always got Cubby compliments! :)

it works perfectly 'coz kids grow out of their clothes so fast and its just not funny how much money you end up spending for something they wear 10times tops! :D

all in all Cubby is looking ADORABLE in his new summer wardrobe and not feeling the heat as much too! :)

love ya my l'il... whom do i say... salman khan? naah!! lets just stick to John Abraham in vests! :p

mmmmuuuaaaahh!

so it wasnt a fluke!! :D

went to watch another movie yesterday with Kabir of course! this time it was a more serious movie called Shaurya starring Rahul Bose (drool) and Kay Kay Menon (no drool, but admiration) at the multiplex close by thats become a haunt for our last minute movie plans! :D

As usual we missed first 5mins of the movie, which didn't really have much in any case. the hall hardly being full, we took comfy aisle seats and settled in with Kabir. he wasnt sleeping too well on his daddy o's lap, so was promptly transfered to mine. hubby insists it's something to do with comfort of boobs or lack of them! :p

kabir was asleep within 30mins of the movie! (hope its not just a twice lucky thing!:) the movie was engrossing enough to keep us hooked from the start. there were few other babies in the hall as well, but only one was slightly troublesome, yet not to the point of distraction.

come interval, somehow both of us were hungry inspite of having come post dinner. so hubby went and got some caramel and salted popcorn. the movie was on again, and we were watching and munching. suddenly i felt a movement on my lap! kabir jain had smelt AND heard food and was wide awake looking at us questioningly or rather demanding "where is my share?" it was the cutest sight ever! suddenly awake and aware and trying to fathom where is the food coming from and how do i get it it?!

he soon figured out the addition of cardborad box in his fathers hand which wasnt there previously as the source and started making earnest attempts at grabbing it! :p i fed him chhotta chotta pieces and he happily went back to sleep only to wake up this morning at 7am! :D

but i still cant help laughing remembering his l'il hands trying to grab popcorn even after having just woken up from a deep slumber! :D he is such a bhukkad!! just like his parents! hehe!!

we love going out with you my sweetheart! i hope you keep being the nice boy you are, so that we can keep having these last minute and planned outings as often as we can!

it does break my heart to see your confused sad face everyday i leave for work these days! but i know you will grow out of it soon and we will be back to smiling good byes! :)

so its a pleasure to take you out whenever we are going out rather than miss out on some more precious time with you! :)

love ya mostest! errr... along with your dad! :)

mmmuuuuaaaaahhhhhhh!

people management!!

i have always firmly believed that kids are anything but innocent. they dont know all the ways of the world, but they know how to get what they want. and once they know what they want, they start manipulating you like nobody's business! :p

Kabir has now become verry naughty and shaana! you can see it in his eyes that he understand thing so much better now. i think i actually see two stubs of horns starting to grow on the l'il devil's head! :)

but its so much more fun also, now that he reacts so much to everything. its the ultimate stress buster to see him come run to you with a big smile when you get back from work! the way he comes and waddles at our feet asking us to pick him and trying to jump off the very next minute. he reacts to his toys which make sound and move together. he tries to find out what exactly is the point of that toy! hehe!

touchwood! kabir LOVES people. there now are stray incidents of him crying looking at strange people (only men!), but more often than not he makes friends easily and quickly. he loves being surrounded by lots of people playing with him and fawning over him. even now he likes kids more and responds to them way better than he does to adults! ofcos grown ups with child like qualities are ADORED! :)

just this weekend one of our younger cousins came to stay with us and what a riot both of them were. i could see and hear constant masti and laughter. He hardly cried and played in every moment he was awake which is quite some these days! :) god bless, Mansi!

it's good to see him have so much fun with fairly new people and have them hooked on to him for good! :D

love ya my friendly and playful l'il boy (you already moving outta baby phase!:)

mmmuuuaaaahhh!