Per i parenti lontani

Per tutti coloro che non ci vedono da troppo tempo, un po' di Rajiv "live"!

A few videos: the first one has little one in the playpen, that was in a way the protagonist of my previous post.

Nel primo video il piccolino chiacchiera con noi appoggiato alla parete del box.



I like to call next video "Living Dangerously"...

Il prossimo video potrebbe essere intitolato "Vivere pericolosamente"...



Last, little one busy exploring his play area and chasing his mom.

Per finire, il piccolino nella sua zona giochi all'inseguimento della mamma (o forse solo della macchina fotografica...).

Daily wonder

NOTA: La versione italiana e' in preparazione. Un po' di pazienza: stiamo lavorando per voi...

Warning: in this post I rave shamelessly about my child.

Just because I haven't been diligent in reporting little one's progress it doesn't mean that he has been quiet, on the contrary! In the last month and a half we have witnessed truly amazing changes - you have to be there day after day with a baby to appreciate how incredible it all is.

I wanted to post this for the seven month birthday, but I am late as usual. Still, you can sort of consider this as a seven month update.

• Rajiv started crawling around his six month birthday and in a few days he was already moving quite fast, especially towards sharp corners, hard obstacles and such. After about two weeks he was able to get off the bed on his own (I remind you once more that we are taking about a height of the order of ten centimeters here, but also consider that he is not much taller than that when he crawls...). He attracted lots of comments at the office for his early skills - good moments of motherly and fatherly pride! ;)
  
  
• But of course his real dream is standing and walking, we have an ambitious kid! He pulled up to stand once in his early crawling days, but he only started doing it consistently after we came to India. Now when he is in the playpen he spends most of the time standing against the walls and looking mischievously at us - and biting the edges of the playpen, of course.
  
  When we put him on the floor he practices pulling himself up using every piece of furniture he can find or the walls. He used to be quite unstable at first, but now he doesn't fall down very much - although it is painful when he does, so we follow him closely.
  
  If you take his hands he immediately stands up and enjoys being walk around.
  
  
• The next step in baby development should be "cruising", i.e. walking sideways holding on to something like a bed or a table. He attempted a couple of steps this way only once with some success. Sometimes he looks like he is trying to do it, but when he releases one hand he falls backwards. Fortunately he attempts this only when he is in the playpen, so his falls are well cushioned...
  
  
• I mentioned in my six month report that he seemed to be taking his time with "speaking". Well, about a week after I wrote that he started babbling, saying "BABABA" and even "BLABLABLA"! (Kelly interpreted it as a bored reaction to her chatter...) His favourite sound is still "G" though and you can tell he is happy if he says "GHIIIIII!".
  
  
• He definitely distinguishes between different songs now. If I sing something he hasn't heard before usually he will look puzzled, but if I sing one of his favorites almost invariably he smiles. We also have different songs for different purposes: "La gatta" to relax at feeding time, a counting elephants song for sleep, "Volare" for playtime and, for some reason, an over the top version of "La paloma" seems to have become the toilet song...
  
  
• I kept for last what is to me the most amazing fact.
  
  In the playpen there is a music box that has a plastic fish hanging from each side. If you pull one of the fish, two similar fish start swimming in a circle inside the box (you can see them through the transparent plastic screen) with a funny music accompanied by laughing sounds (the fish are having fun and so they laugh).
  
  Anyway, the point is that I thought this toy was way too advanced for a child his age, but instead about a month ago I saw that he was trying to pull the fish himself. At the beginning it was frustrating for him, because he knew what he wanted to do but it was hard for him to reach the fish and he wasn't very precise with his movements yet. Soon enough though he got it and even in the middle of the night if I put it in the playpen to take a break he would "jump" towards the fish and pull them to start the "fish dance" inside the box.
  
  In short, this is called understanding cause and effect. Now isn't it amazing?
  

A retro look

I have wanted to post these pictures for some time, but I was trying to write something to go with them and I never got to do that.
Anyway, the pictures are from the same time when I took the "King of Stripes" one. These ones are a little more subdued, but still a bit too energetic for that time of the night morning...



Queste sono ancora foto del Canada. Sono della stessa mattina di quella a quattro zampe di un po' di tempo fa, come testimonia la maglietta a righe...




And to conclude, my favorite big eyes:

E per finire, i miei occhioni preferiti:

Another birthday already

We have now officially overcome jet-lag! I am very much behind we all the things I wanted to post about, but I hope to catch up with at least a few now that we are all in better shape.

For the moment, here are our first picture of little one (and mom) in Chennai, from our walk at the beach early morning a few days ago.



Le prime foto del piccolino (e la sua mamma) a Chennai. Queste sono state scattare qualche giorno fa di mattina presto durante una passeggiata vicino alla spiaggia.



E tra l'altro... Buon complimese piccolino!

Blogging pause

We apologize for the interruption due to a severe case of baby jet lag. We are working to solve the problem. Blogging will resume as soon as humanly possible.

A gonfie vele con il piano B!

Abbiamo finalmente comprato i biglietti: saremo in Italia dal 13 al 27 marzo. S. arrivera' dall'India e io e Rajiv dal Canada; ci incontreremo a Milano e proseguiremo per Torino con il mitico "volo" Alitalia Mapensa-Torino.

E per non fare preferenze...

A casa al caldo

Little one is feeling a bit better. The blocked nose still bothers him and he has thrown up a few times, but we are keeping him warm at home and hopefully he will be in good shape for our upcoming trip.

Il piccolino sta un pochino meglio. Il naso chiuso continua a dargli fastidio e vomita di tanto in tanto, ma speriamo che tenendolo a casa al caldo questo malanno possa essere sconfitto in tempo per il nostro viaggio di dopodomani.

Sick Appu

Little one has a bad cold, so today we stayed indoors. Last night was quite bad because he has trouble breathing when he lies down and he also has trouble sucking, whether for food or for comfort. He is asleep now, but he slept much later than usual because he was uncomfortable and he is breathing heavily even now. He is also trowing up more than usual and waking up screaming towards morning, but some of this was happening even earlier, so it's not clear if it is because of the cold or something else.

He has been having stomach troubles for some time, which is one of the reasons why after the carrot experiment for his six month birthday we didn't insist in introducing solid food yet. Now I think we will delay it a bit more, maybe until we are settled in Chennai.

Il piccolino non sta bene. Ha un brutto raffreddore che non lo lascia dormire (e nemmeno noi, tra l'altro) e a volte fa anche fatica a mangiare perche' non riesce a respirare con il naso. Povero... Ha anche vomitato piu' del solito e a volte si sveglia urlando, ma quello forse e' dovuto ai denti che ci stanno mettendo una vita a spuntare. Oggi siamo stati in casa, anche perche' fuori imperversava la tormenta. Speriamo che tenedolo al caldo il piccolo Appu riesca a rimettersi in forma prima del viaggio.

La cameretta prende forma

Abbiamo deciso che e' giunta l'ora che Rajiv utilizzi la sua cameretta almeno ogni tanto per giocare, visto che sembra essere la stanza meno pericolosa. Niente cavi, cose pesanti da trascinare giu' dai mobili, ecc. Cosi' abbiamo svuotato gli ultimi scatoloni che tenevamo in quella stanza provvisoriamente da vari mesi e abbiamo riordinato e pulito la stanza. Quello che vedete e' uno scorcio della cameretta dal punto di vista di un bimbo a quattro zampe. Il lettino e' utilizzato solo come parco giochi per ora, ma prima o poi chissa', forse sara' utilizzato anche come letto. Il quadro di stoffa appeso al muro era stato fatto a mano (!!!) da zia Roberta (o mi sbaglio?) ed e' stato appeso nella camera mia e di zia Francesca per molti anni.


This is a baby-centered view of the room that contains most of Rajiv's stuff. He doesn't sleep in his crib yet, but he plays in it every now and then. We finally got around cleaning the room to create some baby-safe space for Rajiv to play, without tempting wires to pull, heavy objects to drag down and so on. As I am typing he is still exploring the floor of the living room, but slowly we will try to take the habit to spend more time in his room with him. By the way, the cloth picture on the wall is from my own childhood. It was handmade by a relative from my mother's side and now it is passed on to the new generation!