Vishnu Starts Solids

Vishnu hit a lot of milestones on Friday. He turned four months, started solids, and uttered his first two-syllable word. Here's a picture of him tasting his first spoonful of rice cereal.




He was cautiously-accepting at first, but soon realized he was on to something good. He grabbed the spoon from grandma and thrust it in his mouth. Unfortunately, camerawoman mommy wasn't fast enough to get a shot!

And ofcourse, he was sitting in his car seat. It's almost like he's determined to prove daddy right. Bad strategy, but he's too young to know any better.:) Long story short, a couple of months before Vishnu was born, Muru and I argued endlessly about which car seat to buy. You see, Muru had these weird notions about car seat ergonomics. So in addition to safety features, Muru was checking the angle of incline of every single car seat we looked at. I was huge and uncomfortable, and all he could think of was the angle of incline! We eventually found one that lived up to his standards; at almost twice the price of regular car seats. But now he feels vindicated because Vishnu loves it. He likes it better than his bassinet, cradle swing, bed, mat, etc. And grandma made it even better with soft,cushy blankets.

So everytime we do something horrible, like feed him rice cereal, he gets to lie in his car seat for a little while.

Vishnu is very talkative. The fact that his repertoire only consists of oohs, aahs and inguus doesn't stop him at all. Friday morning, he was lying on his diaper station and was especially talkative. His gummy smiles were a dime a dozen that morning. He suddenly turns sideways and blurts out ai-ya (dad in tamil) and then quickly turns to me and follows it up with mum-mee. Smart kid.

Becoming Parents

It was a cold wintry night, with a slight drizzle. We were driving home from the hospital with our brand new bundle of joy. I’m sitting in the backseat by the baby. I glance at him and smile. He was resting in his car seat, looking cute as a button. I look at my husband. He’s acting as if he’d never driven our car before. He’s looking straight ahead with a wary expression. I peer ahead, and don’t see anything alarming. The traffic isn’t bad. Just your occasional car here and there. But Muru (my husband) looks like he’s taking his driver’s license test in Lincoln tunnel during the morning rush hour!

Then something struck me. We went to the hospital a happy couple. We’re coming back a family. Somewhere between those two car rides, our lives had, completely and irrevocably, changed.

The carefree couple, who’d shopped during early labor until
the first contraction hit hard, were now careful, concerned
parents. That night, my husband came to a textbook-style stop at the Stop sign. Waited for two tiny dots in the distance to materialize into a car, and let it clear the intersection completely before he took a left turn.

Yes, we were definitely parents!