Finally ... my first birthday

After what seemed like an eternity, my parents finally celebrated my first birthday with a big party .. about a month after my actual birthday (if this is indicative of how tardy my parents are, I wonder how delayed their taxes are (Editor's note: 4 months)).

Anyhoo, the day I was waiting for finally arrived. We had a nice big party at home with lots of kids and parents and grandparents. I mostly had a bewildered look but took in the colorful scenery and the buzz of activity. Unlike my older sister, I neither pooped nor threw up (see my sister's blog here that commemorated the special occasion.)

My dad ran around in a flurry of activity to keep the kids entertained (although the kids looked mostly entertained when he was not around them), ensure the parents were having a good time (again, the parents looked like they were enjoying themselves when he was elsewhere)and that everyone was was eating the food my parents over-ordered /over-prepared.

My uncle Murali did a great job with the new Cisco Flip 120-minute Flip camcorder (I hope those key words about the camcorder trigger some Google Ad traffic to my blog. I want to start paying down my diaper debt). My dad then stitched the videos clips together and posted it to YouTube. I can no longer tease my dad about not knowing how to post videos to YouTube. Speaking of which, the budding philosopher in me wonders .. "if a video is not on YouTube, does it really exist? " ... BTW, the video is now on YT here and the photos are here

My mom got me a Tigger - Pooh cake, thereby sucking me into the multi-billion dollar world of corporate merchandising. I did not eat much of the cake as I am still allergic to eggs. I asked my parents to save me a piece of cake so I can eat it when I am 5 years old and have gotten over my allergies (after reading about this practice among the British royals) but I am not sure I pressed my case strongly enough ....

I seem to be hitting most of the other developmental milestones like clockwork - I can now scream at an annoyingly loud level to get attention. I got my fingers squished in drawers. I broke a few toys already. I have 5 tiny teeth now and I use them on my dad's shoulder to remind him... and on a more innocuous note, I can finally walk about 20-30 steps and mumble about five or six words (almost) coherently . That's all for now. .....

Almost 11 months ....

If you were patiently waiting for my baby videos to pop up on youTube, there is good news .. my grandpa beat my dad to the youTube punch and uploaded a couple of videos to YT with his new Flip Camcorder before my dad figured how to do it with his old camcorder...i mean... camclunker. And also finally, if you searched for my name in YouTube, you no longer get results for some supposedly sultry and seductive Telugu actress (I will reserve my judgement on the S&S part) called Anushka. Instead you are now presented with wholesome baby videos that you can watch without installing the "Boss panic button".

Things are well otherwise. I now have a nanny called Madhavi and I enjoy being around with her. I am still a super fussy eater keeping in line with my sister's tradition. I finally mastered the task of standing up in a stable manner without wavering this way or that way... next task is to get those baby steps.

I am enjoying the crisp California spring weather with walks to the park and around the neighborhood... Life is good and getting better

At 10+ months

I am more than 10 months old now and I am lot more bubbly and naughty now. I am still way behind the weight percentile curve now (giving endless concern to my parents). My parents have now switched to a high-fat, high-calorie (high-yuckiness in my perspective) diet for me and they are adding butter to everything to help me put on more weight. My mom was like "You will not be able to eat such foods later in life.. so enjoy now, you little bubble". I hope to enjoy my new diet soon and I am still working on getting past the yuckiness quotient of all foods.

My grandpa and grandma left for Dallas (part of soon to be seceded country of Texas) and then on to England and back to India. I think I miss them but my parents are distracting me and keeping me occupied with a dizzying array of toys and YouTube videos. My other grandma and a new nanny Madhavi are taking care of me. The pampering continues....

At 8 months

I am 8 months old and it is time for an another blupdate (Editor’s note - blog update?). Things are generally swell with the little exception of this cold and wet spell in the Bay Area which is limiting my fun outings. I heard my dad complain about how the high cost of living in the Bay Area should entail  guaranteed great weather all year around, and then my mom reminded him of the great stock market crash and he immediately moved into this comfort zone of fretting about the economy instead of the weather.

I am now on the verge of standing up with support from some toys and my parents’ legs. I think I will skip the crawling phase and jump right to walking … (crawling is over rated, anyway). I am also developing a stranger’s anxiety and am refusing to let others hold me for any period of time (Actually, I extend my arms in a welcoming gesture and when they actually pick me up, I let loose a strong cry totally freaking them out and making them feel confused and inadequate – my dad said that was good practice for being a nice girlfriend when I grow up).


I have also expanded the range of solid foods that I am eating now (I hope my parents are paying close attention to that Salmonella scare out there) and I am beginning to develop a good taste for various foods. I kind of like the fruits and veggies (I hope they are not really healthy as I am looking forward to eating what they call “junk” food that my sister seems to eat all the time). Grandma and mommy are doing a great job feeding me patiently while daddy and my sister make goofy faces to hold my attention. I wish my parents would camcord themselves instead of me – I can guarantee that those recordings will be more memorable and “YouTube-able” than mine.

Oh I almost forgot, I finally started mumbling – I can now say “Mamamamamamama’ and “Thathathathatha” and am working on a few others. I gave my parents a few anxious weeks as I was behind the curve in starting to mumble. I was holding out to say a word like “antidisestablishmentarianism” but decided to give in after seeing my mom get all flustered. I hope to expand my mumbling vocabulary rapidly in the next few months and I will keep the readers posted of my progress.

OK then … I have now hit a blogger’s block and will return with more the next time. Ciao