Proud Mom

I cant help gushing around the antics of my little one. She will complete 16 months in the next few days and here is a small update on her
1. She is able to repeat the words i say like - Mamma, baby, akki, anna, chapathi etc. She is not able to clearly pronounce the words but make full attempt to speak clearly.
2. She is fond of travelling - i mean to say she like to go out of the house and roam around. As soon as I reach home, I have to take her out to the park for a walk and this has become a routine for quite sometime. She brings her slippers to me and sighs me to put it on and points out her finger at the door.After we step out, she knows to call the lift and press 0 inside the lift to go down. She smiles at me in a unique way trying to show that she has accomplished a big task. If i try to ignore her, she will scream loudly, cry and start rolling on the ground. She surely knows how to get things done from me.
3. She has a unique capability to get things done her way. At this age if she is able to do it then I must commend her. She knows how to behave with me, my dad, my mom and my spouse. She does everything my mom says to her and never troubles her. With my dad, she expects him to show her train (pronounced as taaain), show her animals, even big ants.
4. She is fond of animals and recognises these animals - dog, cow, buffalo, hen/cock, crow, butterfly and birds.
5. She starts dancing as soon as she hears good music. She twists her hands, shakes her leg and even sways her body. I think I should encourage her to learn dancing.
6. She knows how to hold a phone and pretends to talk over the phone. she pauses inbetween with a laugh, or a sigh, keeps looking at the phone in between just like us. If someone happens to observe her mobile manners from far, it would be hard tpo believe that she is just pretending.
7. She likes to watch TV and hands over the remote to me if she doesnt like the channel. She is fond of some ads and starts smiling and cheering even before we realise what ad is going to come.

Let me pause here for a while and continue later..

Little Big Girl

I don’t know whether it is necessary to use an oxymoron to describe my little one, but her behavior over last few days have really made me realize how fast my 14 month old baby is able to learn things and quite mature for her age.
Here are a few instances.
- After having a cup of tea or a glass of water, if I tell her to put the used glass in the sink, she promptly grabs the cup and carefully walks all the way till the kitchen and carefully puts the glass or cup into the sink and comes back cheerfully.
- She clearly understands what I tell her and promptly obeys my words like – switch off lights or fan (and yes! she can make out the difference between the two)
- She will bring in any stuff that I ask for – book, remote, toys, newspaper, towel and some clothes. If I ask her where are her clothes or diaper – she points out a finger in that direction and waits for my approval to bring it to me.
- She knows different animals too. Cow(as ambaa),dog(as bow bow)and hen(as ko ko)
- She folds her hands in bhakti whenever she sees a picture of God. My hubby was spell bound when he saw her folding hands and bowing her head as we were passing by a temple.
I could add a few more points, but got to get back to work now. I will soon find more time in add in more things.

Training on TIPS

Recently I happened to attend training on Team Building and Interpersonal Skills. I had attended a couple of similar trainings earlier also and this was one of them. The trainer was our HR director and we were about 20 members in all. The training consisted of different team building exercises and development of interpersonal skills through active listening, questioning, constructive argument, providing feedback, appreciation and summarizing. I was able to brush up some of my existing skills, develop new skills and develop rapport with some people with whom I was hardly interacting.
Some of the team building games we played were – Flying Eggs, Building of bridge, Win as many as you can and making a model for transportation of eggs. At the end we all got a certificate of participation,
The after effect of the training is that some people have started wishing me every morning and evening who otherwise would hardly notice my existence.

Milestone

My daughter recently achieved two milestones after turning one!!
One - She started walking independently. I wanted to see how long she can walk independently and started moving backwards, so that she can slowly walk and catch me.To my utter surprise, she walked almost 10 steps and seemed to be quite amused. She then surprised my mom by sprinting towards her. My parents said that her walking style was like her father. He too walks fast - as if in a hurry ( dunno whether to call this as Mumbai effect). She walked on 23rd July 2010.
Another milestone achieved after 2 days was she recognised my voice on phone and responded as if I was there in front of her and talking. My parents said, her face changed after listening to me and she heard me with great concentration and responded intelligently.

First Birthday

The little one turned one!!! Time flies so fast.. It was just a year ago, when I held my little angel in my hands and wondered how innocent she looked. She was a little baby and slowly started turning, crawling and now walks. She is a keen oberver and learns things pretty fast. She screams loudly and can get anyone's attention with her loud voise. She has started talking a little and sometimes surprises us by saying auntie. Her favourite words are baa( for come), taaku (thank you), daayi (for mama and papa), aakum, edda , ethho. I am thoroughly enjoying her company and feel blessed to have such a wonderful daughter and supportive parents.

The birthday party was a family affair. we celebrated it in house in Bangalore and had Tom and Jerry Cake. There were about 60 guests and I made most of them write a birthday message for my little one. I am planning to make a nice book and put in all messages in there with the guest's photos, so that my little one can read them all when she is a big girl.

My spouse was a proud father and couldnt help gushing around the antics of his little princess with everyone around. A had so much fun with V, that she would happiliy clap her hands to see V after a long gap. Next year, I will plan to have a theme party with some games, so that my little one can enjoy.

Smart Thinking, Self Belief and Good Team Member

What are the key skills required to be a good carom board player? It requires focus, good judging capacity and ability to shoot the pawns at the right speed… right? Well, our company organized a carrom board competition as a part of the recreation activity for all employees based here in Bangalore. Though not a good player, I was keen on playing after a long gap of 10-12 years.

When I realized who was teamed up with me, I was not sure how would we play as a team, as my interaction was limited to just once or twice in the last 3-4 months. Ours was the third match and our opponents were exceptionally strong. Three strokes and 75% coins were covered, while both of us were struggling to pocket the pawns. It was a new board and we had no practice at all. First game was a cake walk for our opponents and we lost badly. The second game was better – we were able to pocket some coins and by that time we had analyzed our opponent’s weak points and made sure took it to our advantage and starting clearing the coins. This game wasn’t as bad as the previous game. When everyone thought the game was going to end soon – we being out of the game, there was a sudden twist in the game and we won! This called for another board, where the same strategy worked and we won again! It was unbelievable for the audience who watched the game as our opponents were supposed to be the best team and had full potential to become champions.

A lot of people told us we were just lucky and it was by fluke that we were selected for the next round. I was happy to be playing again. This time again we were to play against a strong team. We had practiced a little for this round, as it was quarter finals and the same stuff repeated – we lost first game, won the second and third game… Again the audience was aghast! We couldn’t be lucky again! Our strategy worked for semi finals as well – we couldn’t believe that we were one of the finalists.

The final match – we on the first round and the second round would also be in our favour if I hadn’t made the mistake of moving the red colour pawn in favour of the strong player. We lost the finals, but managed to get cups engraved with the letters “ Runners – Innovations Cup 2010” . Both of us were thrilled and felt bad as we could won the finals if not for the small mistakes we did while playing and also lost focus in a few places.

Some things I learnt while playing this game

- Have Self Confidence and Self belief however bad player you are. Its a motivating factor!

- It’s important to work as a team. Have good co-ordination and faith in your team member(s) so that each one is aware of what the other person is going to do. Stay focussed.

- There are smart ways to do things even if you are not technically sound. It’s a necessary skill required to be successful. Dont be over smart

- Be prepared for sudden twists and turns in life.

- Always have a back-up plan in mind if something happens in the worst case. This gives confidence to bounce back quickly rather than lamenting on why and how this happened.

Dont lose your mind, Lose your weight

I recently read this book written by Rujuta Diwekar, the lady behind Kareena Kapoor’s enviable size zero look! What I liked about the book is the simple language used by the author and I could relate many instances with my own life. She has also written about the common mistakes people do while trying to lose weight and how badly our body gets affected by this.
I have recently started on a weight loss regime and thought this book would be useful for me.I am duly following the 4 basic principles that she emphasizes
1. Never wake-up to tea or coffee
2. Have breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up…I have before 2 hrs.
3. Have small meals more frequently. I have started eating 6 small meals a day.
4. Finish dinner 2 hrs before going to bed. Actually after eating small frequent meals, sometimes I feel like skipping dinner.
The result – I have actually lost weight and am excited about it. I don’t know what’s helping me more – the gym or the diet, but I’m getting the results. Hope I will be able to maintain this for long time.