Who does your baby take after?

I'd had a c-sec for kutti's delivery and was in an anaesthetic fog when I first saw her. To be honest, I was in for a shock. She looked like her appa, to be more precise - like her thatha (appa's appa). Right down to the bald head! None of the rush of motherly love or tears of happiness. I felt miserable as a mother. For some reason, the connect didn't happen the way we see in movies or read in books.
The next day when I saw her properly, I started appreciating how beautiful she was. At 3.7 kgs, she was a nice fat baby, hardly like a frail newborn. Her little feet, and her littler hands - I loved them. Also, I found that she had my nose and ears:) I was ecstatic. Yes, my baby did have something that looked like me.
As she grows bigger, I like to think that she's looking more like me - atleast she looks more like me when I was a baby than my husband.

Dancing

My baby girl loves dancing to dhin chak songs! The latest on her list is pokkiri pongal from pokkiri. Yikes...I know:(
But she's got a nice grace to some of her moves and me and my husband think that she'll end up a great dancer along with Olympic champion and company CEO and social worker.

Where is my appa?

Yesterday my husband (appa) decided to shave off his mustache. Kutti who's always seen him with a mustache - now refused to recognise him. She would cling to me and cry whenever he came near. Now and then she would remember and point to below her nose and say 'Appa...appa'...so I told her that if she called it, it would come. So she's been doing 'va va va...' all day!!! Today after a lot of cajoling, she's going to appa again. And, yes - she's learnt another word - meesai (mustache in Tamil):)

Where do grandmom's get energy when a grandchild is born

My mom was 59 years old when kutti was born. Not too old, but for some one who's had 5 major surgeries - tough.
She's always been energetic - finishing up her work in a jiffy and multitasking even before the computer world thought about it. Cooking food that normally takes 1 hour for me, (and 2 hours for my MIL;-) would be done in 25 mins.
And in Tamil Nadu, where kutti was born, people have the most funny and impractical customs. They will visit by hordes to see the baby soon after the delivery. We have to provide them with tea or coffee or buttermilk or juice with or without sugar or milk - they will NEVER say don't bother! They know that the family would have been up all night with a colicky baby and would love to get any rest that they can during day time, but will come and gossip for hours together. And of course, they will have to customarily push a dirty 100 rupees note in the baby's hand which naturally curls and holds the note and exclaim that the baby is already holding on to money!
Where my mom got the patience and energy to handle all these people, and take care of me any my baby - I will never know. But here's a big salute to her and her wonderful spirit - I wish my baby girl turns out like her.

The dog and the baby

I was staying with my parents for my baby's (kutti (little one in Tamil)) delivery and was with them till kutti was 3 months old. We have a lovely Pom - S who was the darling of the family till kutti was born. In a sense, she was the baby. No photo was taken without S in it!.
But after we brought kutti home, S became the outcast. She was tied outside all the time and we were irritated with her whinings. With a new baby in the house, every little thing seemed to bring in germs and infections and S was now looked at as one big germ carrier. Poor doggie. But one should have seen the way she came running in when kutti was crying - like it was her own baby!

My first post

As cliched as the title sounds, well here goes - my first post!
After months of reading blogs and thinking of starting one myself, I finally took the plunge - another member of the blogging community.