Dressing up.

Learning the art of dressing alone...

Settling down - again.

Aisha settled down quickly than I thought, getting close to her Dad, Aunt and Uncle. I have always anticipated this situation, where everyone is a stranger to her. But Alhamdulillah, she acted promptly and wisely. The only problem is, she doesn’t like it when hubby S touches, sits or sleeps near me. She is so possessive of her Mom! Whenever S comes and lie down near me, she pushes him apart and gets between us.

Another change in Aisha is she has started eating well, Alhmadulillah. She has also put on a little weight, Masha Allah.

The climate is a bit harsh here, and so Aisha has got to stay indoors all day. She loves going to the park, but that too is a luxury that comes only once in a while. I take her out for some 10 to 15 minutes every day at dusk. She waits by the door when it is time to go out.

At park.

The best place to go during the summer is the shopping malls, where she can run along and enjoy herself. So we take her to the malls every weekend, for shopping and window-shopping. 

Back to Dubai.

This was Aisha’s third long distance journey in the past year, and we were going back to Dubai. We booked our tickets on the RAK airways, to Ras-Al-Khaimah, an Emirate in UAE. The flight was scheduled at 3:45 am (Indian time), and so we started from our home at 10 p.m., reached at my home at 11 pm, and then started off again at 11:30 pm. Aisha slept almost throughout the journey, waking up only to say goodbye to my parents, brothers, niece and nephew and SIL. The check-in service providers at the airport helped me with the check-in, doing all the scanning, fill-ups and luggage check-in. Thanks a lot to them. Aisha was with my Father-in-Law, sleeping soundly. After saying good-bye to him, I took Aisha and we proceeded towards the immigration and security check. I was longing to take some rest and put the sleeping Aisha on the bed in the lounge, when Aisha woke up! No more rest. I was wondering how did she come to know that I was going to put her down.

At the airport.

Munching the biscuits.

It was around 2 am and Aisha was all fresh and fervent. She ate the rice pancakes and biscuits I had packed for her. With her stomach full, she started running through the aisles. I had a difficult time, as I was sleep deprived and had a slight headache. Aisha, however, enjoyed the time, watching the fishes in the aquarium, waving at the people who passed by her (did I tell you she was scared of strangers? Well, not now) and window-shopping. The flight was delayed by one hour because of the bad weather conditions in UAE, and it was 4:40 when we finally took off. By the time Aisha also got tired and bored with the long stay at the airport, and slept even before the plane took off. She slept through out the journey.

It was around 7 am (UAE time) when we reached UAE. No wonder the flight got delayed; the airport was situated at the center of a desert and even a slight breeze would make the place dusty making it difficult to see. I almost slept the entire journey, waking up only for the breakfast. I kept aside the croissant they provided, for Aisha, but then I slept and when they took off the food, they took the croissant with it. When I woke up, it was gone. Aisha woke up before the landing, and she was hungry. I gave her the few pieces of biscuits I have packed, but she wanted more. She started whimpering. I called hubby and asked him to buy some biscuits for her.

The airport was a small one, compared to the Dubai airport where we had to walk miles to reach the exit. We quickly got out of the airport and into hubby’s car. My Brother-in-law, co-sister and niece in law, Z, were there to welcome us back. Aisha ate the almond-honey flakes brought for Z. After breakfast at my SIL’s home, we reached our home at around 10 am. I bathed Aisha and put her to sleep. Well, Aisha was all surprised and confused when she found Dad sleeping with us as it was only Aisha and Mom for the past six months.

Dubai - Walk with daddy.

Updates

Motor developments:

Aisha can walk, run, climb stairs, jump, climb on chairs and get down all by herself and do almost all activities an adult does. Aisha has got six teeth, 3 up and 3 down.

Social Developments:

She knows her immediate family, i.e, grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins. Knows all of them by their names although she calls them with a single name, either Mummy or Mamma. She is still scared of strangers, especially the ones who try to play with her. She doesn’t act scared if the strangers don’t give her any attention.

Linguistic Developments:

Aisha can speak some words now, both in English and Malayalam.

The English words are – sit, stand, come, cup, daddy, mummy and baby.

The Malayalam words are  - kakka (crow), kozhi (hen), chappathi (pan cake), meow (cat), bow-bow (dog) and poovu (flower).

Aisha can also sing the first two lines of the Malayalam nursery rhyme, 'Kakke kakke koodevide '(crow, crow, where is your nest?).

Sari Sensation

Sari is an unstitched strip of cloth draped round the body. The cloth is usually 5 meters long. There are many different styles of wearing a Sari, the most common being Nivi style, where one end of the Sari is tucked into the underskirt worn beneath it, wrapped around the lower body once and then gathered into pleats which is tucked in the waistband of the underskirt. The cloth is then wrapped once again around the body, over the blouse and then draped over the shoulder, with or without pleats. It is a lovely dress worn mainly by the ladies of Indian subcontinent, although I’ve seen similar wrappings of long cloths on some African ladies too. It is very difficult to wear the Sari beautifully and gracefully. But once you wrap it neatly on your body, you will look like a princess – with your curves displayed perfectly and the petal like pleats.

The Sari has another factor too – you will want to wear one only until you are able to wear it. At least, that was the case with me. I longed to wear a Sari since teenage, but never got any chance wear it. Usually it is married women who wear a Sari. I waited patiently till my wedding day on which I wore a Sari for the first time. A silk Sari. My hubby bought me some four to five Saris, which I wore for some parties. By then I was no longer interested in Saris. The problem is the difficulty to wear it gracefully.

My MIL always wears Sari, and Aisha often tries to imitate her, using my shawl as a makeshift Sari. She wraps it around her body, walks two steps, slips and falls. Well, as of now, she too longs to wear a Sari. So one day I dressed her up in a Sari, with my shawl.

There was no underskirt or blouse, as you can see. Just the Sari, tucked in her panties.  She loved it a lot, especially at the thought of being granny, my MIL.

Puddling.

With the rain pouring down, it is easy to get wet and puddled. But I never thought Aisha would like to get dirty and dabbled with mud. Usually, she never likes anything wet, pasty or sticky on her body. She will ask me to clean it immediately. It does happen a lot of times during her outdoor playtime. She will dig in the mud, get her hands muddy and then come to me to clean it. Once I clean it, she will go out to play, dig in mud and get disgusted again with the mud. The process repeats for four or five times until I lose my patience and drag a yelling Aisha indoor. 

Today Aisha surprised me by playing in a puddle, though she never touched the mud with her hands. I think she loved the play with her cousins, who also joined her in the puddle.

They were marched straight to the outdoor bath-area after the play.

Rain rain go away

The mango showers (the name comes as the rain helps in ripening of the mangoes, also known as the pre-monsoon showers, April showers and Summer Showers) has hit Kerala with its full fury. As usual, the prediction has gone wrong and the state is in a huge chaos. The monsoon comes in June, and so people, mostly housewives, start preparing for the monsoon in the summer. They sundry almost all spices, rice and wheat to grind it and store it for the monsoon. The also dry coconut to extract oil from it and mangoes are dried to make pickles. So when the forecasters predict the rain for next week, everyone starts the last-minute preparations - buy spices, rice and wheat, pluck unripe mangoes and cut the coconuts. The very next day, the rain starts!!!
As for Aisha, its like she is seeing the rain for the first time. It seems very strange, it hasn't rained since we came here. Kerala is a place blessed with rains - at least one rain per month. But it has been almost five months since we landed here, and no rain till now. Whoever says that there is no climate change is just being economical with the truth.
Coming back to Aisha, although she was thrilled to see water dropping all around her, she was depressed at the thought of staying inside all day. The hens stayed in their coop, the squirrels took the shelter of their drey, the birds went to their nests. No cats came along. Aisha got really bored and I had to take her out to watch and feel the rain.

I was worried if she would get sick, but Alhamdulillah, I was wrong.

By the river side.

I have always loved to go to the river and I was waiting eagerly for Aisha to grow up to take her to the river. We live near to River Thootha originating from the Thootha hills, which joins the second largest river in Kerala, the Bharathappuzha or Nila, and flows to the Arabian sea. My niece and nephew who arrived a week ago from US joined us on our venture. I was a little bit worried about our (my SIL and me) ability to take care of the three - my nephew who is 5 years old, niece who is 2 1/2 and Aisha.
Aisha has not been near such a huge amount of water before (she has gone to the beach once, but never got near the water), she was scared and surprised at the same time. She wanted to touch the water, but she was terrified if something would harm her. It was only after repeated re-assurance did she touch the waters. After all, it wasn't the water that attracted her, but the pebbles and the sand. She loved to bite the pebbles and I had trouble in throwing away each pebble she grabbed. But with thousands of pebbles for her to mouth, I had to run behind her to stop her from mouthing it.

The Timid Toddler.

When the race was over, and the anxiety gone, she stepped into the water - but made sure not to leave her grip on my fingers.

Aisha watched the fish and the tadpoles swimming, the cranes and kingfishers who fed on them and the construction of a new bridge across the river.

The return trip (You can see my nephew and niece in the background).

Sorry.

...and we are back!!!
I'm soooo sorry for disappearing from the blog world for such a long time. I know I've done wrong. I was a bit busy, a bit lazy and something kept me away from writing anything. I think the writing instinct in me went down for a few months. The work-laziness directly proportional theory also played its part - the more work, the more lazy I became. The transition again from India to Dubai is making me go insane! It takes a lot of time to prepare for the journey, and then you have the post-journey getting-settled-down syndrome (??!!). It took some days for Aisha to understand that she cannot always run out, see the hens and be pampered by grandparents. Here it is only two of us.
Now that I'm back, let me first complete the updates -strike off some of the assignments in our bucket list updates.
NB: I've dated my posts according to the time of the events.

Fever

First of all, thanks to Jellybeans for her comment and her post, I'm very happy and honored to know that this blog was a inspiration to you!
Wondering where I was for the past one month? Well, I have got some bad news. My Father-in-law bought some woods for our wood burning stove and we had to pile it neatly in our garage. It was a tiresome work, in the hot sun. Of course, Aisha joined in for help. I stopped the work half way, because Aisha was 'working' with us in the sun and I was afraid if she would become ill.

My Mom-in-law, who was there to complete the job, fell ill the same evening. Within a day, like I anticipated, Aisha was also bedridden. And on the fourth day I too became sick. Almost everyone in the house was whining, groaning, coughing, sneezing and blowing their nose. Although the fever gone, no-one has completely recovered from the illness. Aisha is getting sick after two months.
Aisha's favorite pastime now is to eat the tender mangoes that falls from the mango tree. The summer has its benefits too- summer is the time for sweet mangoes. But now, its unripe and sour. Aisha loves it though.
Well, there is another matter - I am going to visit my parents next week. My elder brother and his family will be joining us and they are going to meet Aisha for the first time! Moreover, my younger sister-in-law is expecting her baby in April. So, its busy time with a family gathering, baby shower etc. I don't know when I'll be able to come back to my blogging world, but until then, hope you will all wait for me and the stories about li'l Aisha.
Have a happy April! Get in touch with families and friends and let God shower His blessings on all of you.
PS - My Sister-in-law's baby is also having the same problem that occurred for both of my little kids and took the life of my son- cord around the neck. Please pray for her and the baby.