Little Minion

Every few weeks, I re-realize the obvious - Avyaan is growing up, and fast! When you are a new parent, you get tired of hearing the same cliche from the veteran parents, "Cherish these days, they don't last as long as you think!". But as you continue your parenting journey, you have to admit that cliches are cliches for a reason. It feels like yesterday when we brought this tiny human home, who comfortably fit in my forearm, and now, containing him in my lap is a challenge.

You can literally spend the entire day watching him play with his toys, throwing stuff around, identifying objects in his books. There isn't a dull moment in the house when he is awake. It is the silence that gets you because there are only two kinds now. The first is when he is sleeping and you suddenly have an hour or so of simultaneously having nothing to do, and getting as much pending stuff done as you can. The other silence is the deadlier one, the kind when the little hurricane is out of sight and not making a noise. That is your cue that something major is about to happen, and you better brace yourself for whatever mess will greet you when you go looking for him!

Now that his vocabulary is exploding, he is picking up new words daily, and having him around is akin to accidentally turning your on-screen narrator on the computer - a tiny voice that will name every single thing in its line of sight. Since he is still figuring some of the more difficult sounds, it is super cute to watch him try to name things and extract a smile out of us.

He has gotten taller, so now we're running out of places to hide things. He can even reach the kitchen counter, so we have to be extra careful when working with knives and other kitchen implements. He once toppled the pooja ka lota in the temple at home, and he can now reach the oil, diya, etc., so now we have to keep the inside room locked if we can't actively supervise him.

He now understands us a lot better but follows instructions only when he feels like it. He has also gotten much better at communicating what he needs, but that also means he has gotten better at distracting us with demands for random things when we're making him do things he has no interest in, such as eating. So there are only two effective ways left to get him to do stuff - Bribe, and Blackmail! And since neither of those is a great parenting practice, I find myself conflicted on whether to choose the ends or the means. Any parents out there who can get their kids to eat, brush, nap, etc. without resorting to bribes or blackmails, please teach me!

One great thing about all this, and that brings me to the title of this post, is that the little minion has started becoming useful in some of the chores, only when the task is of interest to him. So, we have to convert everything into a game. With the right motivation, he now helps with the toy clean-up, putting away groceries, folding the laundry, fetching sundry items around the house, etc.

As Prajakta summed up the other day when I commented, with mixed feelings, that he is growing up - "The good thing is that he is growing up, but that is also the sad thing!"

Gaya!

As he gets closer to being a year and a half, Avyaan is adding new words to his vocabulary, some that we recognize, some we don't. So, a 'Truck' is 'ka', 'Pants' is 'Ta', 'T-Shirt' is 'Dadada', 'Tikka' is 'Kakka' and so on. But his favorite, by a long distance, is 'Gaya', which is the Hindi word for 'Gone', or 'Went'.

'Gaya' is something he instinctively picked up a few months ago when we would point at vehicles driving by, and telling him - 'Truck gaya', ' Car gayi' etc. Now, every time some walks by, or a vehicle drives by, it's 'Gaya'. Every time you ask him to show you something in his books, and he can't figure out what it is, or he doesn't want to turn the page, it's 'Gaya'. Every time you ask him to bring you something and he can't find it, it's 'Gaya'. If he's in the middle of a crying fit, and you ask him, 'Truck kidhar hai?', he'll stop for a few seconds, compose himself, shout 'Gaya', and resume crying.

You don't even have to be talking to him. He may be in another room and Prajakta and I may be talking about something or searching something Avyaan may have hidden in one of his many stowaway places, and we'll ask where the said thing may be. 'GAYA!!!' comes the response from the other room!

An Angry Toddler

Avyaan loves remotes, doesn't matter what kind, Roku, TV, Sound Bar, XBox, he loves them all equally. In trying to discourage playing with them, I took it from him. Immediately, he started crying, something he has perfected when he doesn't get his way. So, a few seconds later, I returned it to him, which brought back the smile.

Now, I don't want him to learn that you can get your way by shouting through a disagreement, so I took it back a few moments later and when he resumed the shouting, instead of giving it to him again, I tried reasoning, whatever little of it you can do with a toddler. Of course, that didn't work and I eventually had to hand him the remote.

But something new happened today. He was looking at me angrily. Anger, genuine anger is something I hadn't seen in him before, so just to test, I called him towards me. Usually, he would jump at me, but he just hugged Prajakta tighter. So, I switched tactics and went to him instead. This time he actively pushed me away! I had my confirmation, yes, he was truly angry with me!

Now I need to figure out a way to teach him to take a no for an answer without him shouting his way to a win and without hating me. Wish me luck!

Stand Up!

Today was a great day!

First of all, after yesterday's frustrating visit to the ER (nothing serious, Avyaan hurt his gum a bit while playing and we had to go to the ER because everything else is closed on a Sunday, everything is fine), a regular day would have felt wonderful, but today was more than that.

First, we decided to visit the wildflowers in Chino Hills State Park and La Sierra Trail Loop after seeing some posts om Instagram. We couldn't spend much time in the State Park as we reached just 45 mins before closing, so had to contend with just driving around and taking a few photos at the few pull-out points.

Went to the La Sierra Trail Loop after the park and the flowers there were gorgeous! Avyaan had a blast looking at all the colourful flora. It was a nice scenic tail but we were misguided by one of the patrons at the entrance when we asked if it was stroller friendly. Though the trail is only about 2 miles in length and has an elevation gain of 350 ft or so, the elevation gain and drop happens in small parts of the trail, making them extremely steep and therefore tricky to navigate with a stroller. Though exhausted, we came out happy. The few bird species that we saw were a bonus.

After a quick coffee stop, we returned home and had a quick dinner. Post dinner, it was time to try and have Avyaam stand up and walk. He has had the physical capabilities to do both for at least a couple of months now, but he seems to be scared of letting go of support. I'm not sure if it was the euphoria of the dose of Vitamin N, but today he did stand up for a few seconds and then made a game out of it where he will have me prop him up and let go, he would stand for a few seconds before jumping into my arms, giggling.

I can't wait for him to take his first independent steps. Anyday now, fingers crossed!

Avyaan's First Birthday

Avyaan celebrated his first birthday last week, and while I wanted to write a detailed post about the celebrations, along with some photos, based on my experience from the previous photo-heavy post, Blogspot isn't very well suited to photo layout. So I pulled out Sway, something I have tried in the past, but hadn't used in a while. Here's the end result. Enjoy!

4 Month's Worth Mixed Bag

It has been almost a month since my last post, and close to 4 since a detailed one. So much has happened since then. A few notable days and milestones are: 

• A visit to a pumpkin patch
• Recreating Prajakta's maternity shoot photos with Avyaan
• First दशहरा 
• Prajakta's birthday and First visit to a National Park
• Transferring to a crib
• नाना नानी flying back and First Halloween
• Turning 9 months old
• Finally figuring out crawling
• First दिवाली
• First Thanksgiving and drive to Santa Barbara
• First time visiting a mall and looking at Christmas decorations
• Experiencing GLOW at the South Coast Botanic Garden
• Turning 10 months old
• First Christmas
• Snow (almost) at Grapevine
• New Year's Eve
• Turning 11 months old
• First Lohri

While each of these deserves an elaborate post to do justice, I have now realized that I lack the discipline to do that, so a few lines on each will have to do.

There's an empty plot behind the street where we live. During Thanksgiving time it turns into a Pumpkin Patch, and a Christmas Tree patch post that. We knew we won't be able to do much on actual Halloween Day since Prajakta's parents were flying back to India that afternoon, so we visited the patch and took some photos with Avyaan in his specially ordered Halloween onesie.

Back in January 2020, I had conducted a maternity photoshoot for Prajakta at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes, and ever since then, we wanted to create a before and after, or "8 months in vs 8 months out" set. So, when Avyaan turned 8 months old in October, we returned to the garden, dressed up in the same clothes we had worn during the maternity shoot.

अष्टमी was on October 24th and we had a small पूजा at home where we dressed up Avyaan in traditional Indian attire, ended the week-long fast. On October 25th, दशहरा, we worshipped our tools of trade followed up by a visit to the Hanuman Temple.

October 26th being Prajakta's birthday, we decided to visit Joshua Tree National Park. However, we failed to account for the weather and thus, could only venture out of the car for very few minutes. The only time Avyaan came out of the car was at Skull Rock and there too, he burst into tears within seconds due to the strong winds and the cold. We could only take one photo of him, that too without him looking in the camera. Eventually, we drove home post-sunset, in time to celebrate Prajakta's birthday with a cake cutting and dinner before calling it a day.

The pediatrician had been asking us on every visit to have Avyaan sleep in a crib, so we caved in and brought one home. The idea was to have him get used to the crib before the grandparents go back so that we don't have to hold him the whole time he sleeps. The plan failed miserably as months of sleeping in our arms and laps had made him accustomed to the arrangement and even after several months of training attempts, he does not sleep in the crib for long. If it is daytime, he has to be taken in the lap after 45 minutes or so, and at night, he has to be transferred to our bed after a couple of hours.

Halloween day was also the day the grandparents flew back home after spending almost a year with us. As a farewell gift, I made them a collage of their time with us which now hangs in their living room in India.

The 9th month birthday in November was the first time when it was just the three of us celebrating something, but we did video-call everyone.

Shortly after his 9 month birthday, he finally figured out crawling properly, with his head held up. Unfortunately, we don't have a video of the exact moment when he first crawled properly, but here's a small animation Google created from a video we took when he was enamored by Prajakta's दुपट्टा on करवा चौथ evening. Here you can see him getting the movement almost right, but at this time he was still taking only a couple of steps, getting tired, and then sitting down. And there's one more from a couple of weeks later of him chasing the ball around the house.

Diwali, the big daddy of all Indian festivals, is when it hits hardest to not have your family around. It being Avyaan's first, not being together was extra painful for everyone, but we still had some fun decorating the house, making laddoos, lighting up the lamps, and playing with sparklers.

Thanksgiving weekend this time was nothing like other thanksgiving. First of all, we didn't go into any stores, not that many were open this time. Secondly, we didn't even shop much, whatever little we got, was baby stuff. So we drove to Sepulveda Basin and Balboa Park one day, and Santa Barbara the other day. The Rose Garden opposite the Old Mission Santa Barbara was Avyaan's first time encountering grass and he simply launched himself in a crawling spree, forgetting that he was with us.

The moment Thanksgiving is over, it is of course time for Christmas decorations and we live very close to the Del Amo Mall, one of the biggest malls in the US. We didn't do a Santa photo, but we still wanted to show Avyaan the decorations, especially since he had never been to a mall. So, on a weekday, around closing time, to ensure there won't be many people around, we went to the mall and Avyaan was amazed to look at all the lights and tress and reindeer. We also walked around the Candy Cane lane, a neighborhood in Torrance famous for their outlandish holiday decoration. Sometime around Christmas, we also went to the Grove, another mall famous for its Christmas Tree, but it was super crowded, so we only spent a few minutes there.

South Coast Botanic Garden is one of my favorite places, in case you didn't already know that. So, when they announced their GLOW installation, and a discounted price for members, it was a given that we will be visiting. We went in early December and it was a sight to behold. They had magically transformed the garden into an undersea oasis. The cactus garden was especially dazzling as a coral reef. Avyaan did enjoy for a while but then became cranky as it was getting closer to his bedtime. Even though we could have spent more time, the couple of hours we did spend, were enjoyable.

For the 10 month birthday in December, we tried to do some fancy decoration on the cake since December is a pretty festive month. But Avyaan was sleepy during most of the cake cutting and photo session, resulting in drunk looking photos.

Come Christmas time, Prajakta breaks open the additional Christmas decoration, since the Diwali decorations stay up till the New Year. We also got a Santa Suit for Avyaan and visited the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade on Christmas Day. I have never seen the promenade less crowded!

Los Angeles is not a place one associates with snow, but we have ample high altitude areas within a couple of hours' drive that get plenty of snow. So when it snowed in the mountains, we wanted to visit. Big Bear is usually the first choice for everyone, precisely why we wanted to avoid going there. We had always heard about the Grapevine area on the I5, so decided to visit Frazier Mountain Park. Turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea and by the time we got there, the police had blocked off the area and entry was allowed to local residents only. We drove a few miles further north to Tejon Outlet where we shopped for Avyaan, got some coffee and headed back, stopping at Pyramid Lake and Castaic Lagoon for a few photos.

New Year's Eve was spent at home because by then California was well under lockdown again and all events had been cancelled. So we brought out our party gear from an earlier celebration and listened to the Justin Bieber concert which was free for T-Mobile customers, while Avyaan played drums on the table to his own beat.

The 11 month celebration featured another home made cake decorated with sliced almonds and cashews. By now Avyaan had started understanding that a cake means something special is about to happen.

Lohri being a major Punjabi festival, and this time being Avyaan's first, would have been a huge celebration had we been in India, but there wasn't much of a celebration because:

a) Not many people in the US are aware of Lohri

b) Fire regulations in SoCal wpuldn't allow for an open fire, except with prior permission in designated areas

c) Mom was hospitalized with COVID-19

So, we had a small celebration at home where we used an old cake tin as the enclosure and shredded papers as fuel to have a makeshift bonfire and take some photos while videocalling mom in the hospital and dad at home.

That brings us to today, Prajakta and my 6th wedding anniversary and 3 days before Avyaan's first birthday. With Avyaan's birthday around the corner, the anniversary has taken a backseat and we are getting a feeling that this is going to be a forever thing. I guess that's what being a parent means.

Hopefully my next post won't be 4 months in the making :)