The hahahas of my long pregnancy

This is a post from my other blog (pragatha.blogspot.com). I just had to post it here since it was related.

Everytime I see a pregnant woman i know now, I politely smile. That's it. Earlier, I used to be nice and ask when she was due or what baby she wanted. Now, nothing but a smile. Or an added 'how are you' to sound interested. Been through the pregnancy thing now. It's a wonderful ten months with so many different emotions. Everyone accounts for their milestones, first heartbeat, first ultrasound, first kicks, first cries. I did it too with a lot of excitement! Those little tiny toes and fingers make everyone go awww... But during the pregnant days, many things drive one crazy. One such thing is the free advice one gets from visitors, relatives, passers by etc.

I wanted to account all those advices in one place. The strongest advice I gave myself was 'Listen to your doctor, and your gut. And of course your bump!' I did listen to everything people said, hilarious as few were. Advices poured n from visitors, relatives, neighbours etc... Mine went on to auto drivers, waiters, waitresses, cashiers and the little boy who irons clothes at the end do the road. Yeah.

Here's  a tiny little list of a few hilarious things people had to say...

'Don't have your coffee hot, your going to burn the baby's eye lashes.' - em, ok.

'When you wake up, do not look into the mirror. The first thing you see is the first thing baby sees.' - that being true, what's wrong if the baby saw me?

'Whenever you eat make sure the baby is not kicking. The food may get deposited in difficult places near the baby.' - gulp, what is a difficult place?

'If someone offers you anything to eat, say no. If you take it immediately, your baby will be a glutton.' - excuse me! I'm pregnant. All I want to do is eat and sleep.

'Make sure you sleep with kumkum every night. It's good for the baby.' - how?

'If baby kicks too much one day. Don't eat what you've eaten that day again. It means the baby doesn't like what you've eaten.' - huh. I thought that was morning sickness.

'If you go walking too fast in your final months, your baby will get delivered on the road.' - oh dear. Someone shut her up.

'You have gestational diabetes? The doctor prescribed insulin? Don't take it.' - wat are you suggesting?

'Don't stop with one kid. Have another one. Only two kids make a family complete.' - let me get done with one. I'm not a gum ball machine!

Pregnancy stories that took the cake....

'Once a girl went into labor and couldn't reach the hospital in time and delivered her baby at a railway checkpost. The baby had bandages on hands and legs. Make sure you reach hospital on time.' - thank you, you made me feel so much better.

'Ive heard of a girl who didn't deliver after ten months. So don't worry if you don't go into labor. It's not going to stay there forever.' - yeah, I know. After ten months I'm going to start charging the baby ten bucks for every day more.

'Pragi, walk, do yoga, eat well. I didn't do anything of those and I had to get a c section. My husband was out of town so my dad signed the papers.' - why on earth was ur husband out of town close to your due date?

'One girl actually hid under the labor room sink while n labor to avoid pain.' - how does it help? Sink sinks pain?


When some stories were just for laughs, others were of great help. Some personal encounters were just sharing, some bragging. Now all I do is smile when I meet pregnant women.

Sunny side up

The summer is here in India and it's HOT. Our routine for the day since G was a three month old baby was a must evening walk for some fresh air. We've stuck to our routine so far... And Baby G has made so many friends over the one year. With kids on bikes and tricycles, baby. G loves to watch and play with them.

Yesterday's walk was beautiful. The sun was down and the skies were cloudy enough for a little breeze. We walked around playing with the kids and then I noticed my neighbour's tree. It was fully abloom and looked gorgeous. Maybe what I do is grumble about the summer and not see the beautiful things it's brings us. i pointed out to the tree and said 'look Gnanu'.. and he said 'yeloooowww'! Yellow and blue are the only colours he can pronounce, but i didn't know he knew what yellow was! How overjoyed I was!

 The tree contrary to its beauty is named Cassia Fistula. What a name for such a creation!

From baby talk to baby talking!

Gnanu has been trying several words and expressions over the past few months. Sometimes he goes on talking and then shaking his head and finally clapping. I just clap after him though most of the time I'm just admiring his moving lips, smile and blabber.

He got a few words right over last week... He says 'tee bee' for TV, 'cookery' for cooker and 'bijil' for whistle. He says some other words which I still haven't figured what the meaning for. It's just fun to watch him open one of his books and say 'maa' when he sees a cow and 'baa' when he sees a goat. The funniest thing happened yesterday. I downloaded an app that showed pictures of things with every alphabet. When D for Dinosaur came up... He called me and said 'kaanom'.. Which means 'missing'. In his baby head it means he hasn't seen it yet... But I was so happy when he called me to say he hadn't seen it yet. It was the cutest accusation 'Amma, why haven't you shown me this animal' accusation.

He once walked over to my mother in the kitchen and said something which none of us could figure. It sounded something like 'paaapom'. He was pointing to my pet Remo, a Dalmatian. When we understood, we were all stumped. My Labrador had eaten his meal and after that pushed Remo away and finished his meal too. What Baby G was trying to say was 'paavam' which means 'how sad'. It took us all a solid ten minutes to understand. He then walked over to my lab Chitti and hit him on his back saying 'no no no.' How much My boy learns!


Today being Tamil New Year's Day... I tried to teach him to say 'happy new year'. After minutes, we ened up with an 'appy nuir'. Any which way 'Happy New Year' from baby G and Mommy G.

Baby G first birthday

I'm a huge Pinterest fan. I believe I can garden, I can cook, I can craft and sometimes even design my own stuff when I log in to Pinterest. Well, for Gs birthday, I took in a lot of inspiration from there and put together a very tiny party for family and friends. We had it in our garage and the biggest bummer of all was that we couldn't get a magician. We had a bunch of games for the kids and a loser of a comperor who we hired last minute. It was just a day with loads of wishes and blessings and I was glad.

Baby G was all traditional for his temple visit in the morning and was in a three piece suit for the evening. The evening went well, baby wasn't cranky. And I was happy. That night I made a mandatory comparison of how much we had grown as parents and he as a child..

Hottest trip ever.

The hottest trip ever.

We had to go to Rameshwaram to do the final rites for Padhu's grandpa who left us during Diwali. My father in law conjured the entire family and made it a trip of 36 people in 2 mini vans and 2 cars. The babies had to be in the cars cause handling them would be easy.

Baby G, Padhu and I ended up in the Audi. The car is swell. We glided along those long roads and batted the heat quite well on our way towards Rameshwaram. We reached an hour ahead of the rest of them after 2 baby poop stops and 2 milk refill stops. Babies! We knew we were way ahead of the rest, so we did what Daddy G thought was the unthinkable. We broke the law. We stopped on the Pamban paalam which is the bridge that connects the island of Rameshwaram to the peninsula. We took a bunch of pictures and quickly got back to rush towards the beach.

The heat was too much. Baby G refused to eat anything during the entire trip. He forced himself with so much water. With him just learning to say words, he muttered words like 'thanni', 'boat', and 'pish' (ship).

It was a horribly hot drive back home and it took the entire day with so many stops. We finally reached home to air conditioning and just slept. Hottest trip ever.