Riddley Turtles, end of Winter, Maithilee's bibs, and that of brotherly love

We have now uploaded two videos taken during hatching of Riddley Turtles eggs on Goan beaches. Dozens of young activists had given protection to them before and during hatching process, which happens in the night time. Man-made lights and construction plays havoc with these and many other natural processes, reason why turtles are not able to reproduce in large numbers any more.




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The Winter in Netherlands is over, officially. The snow has gone for good, and it was bright and sunny today, with temperatures in higher (but single) digits above zero. We had a nice walk and shopping done without our fingers freezing. We can barely wait for Spring to take over, within a week temperatures will rise above +10 C , for the first time since October :O I keep reminding myself of time spent in Winnipeg (-40 C!!), but it still feels good to see sunny and warm weather.

Maithilee's saliva glands are now working. She needs bibs (this is one week old story), and for the past two days she has learnt to put her thumb in her mouth and suck, then her bib in her mouth, and almost any bed-sheet/ cover. She also pushes with her legs and turns in her bed, moves quite a bit. So, the next stage of development has come already.

Also, so many months of Winter we spent time together much like a brother and sister. Pregnancy is tough and how!! Well, no more brotherly love, no more... ;-)

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About parenthood

Dear friends (a couple) from Goa wrote to us thus [added italics are mine]:

How is maithilee? Yes, we saw her pictures in the blog as well as the write ups. It's really a challenging job. And usually talked about so much, one tries to think of it casually (Importance of motherhood and fatherhood, how they struggled to bring you up etc., you hear it all through your adulthood) . But when we have our own then we realise what it all meant!. It's not the heavy work of shifting a big pile of wood from one place to another, but a sleepless night 'cause of the child's fever, or the angst of a giving an injection, or getting hurt while jumping on the sofa, a non-stop cry which at times is difficult to interpret. And, the relief you feel when they stop crying and fall asleep.

Indeed, how true. Our strength will be measured in not carrying her around, but to watch her learning to walk wobbly-wobble, let her fall even when we know she would, wait for her to fall and cry, then let her learn to walk. This same story will repeat with cycling, swimming, diving, driving, being a teenager with angst, and, finally making boy friends and being on her own. All this we have to go through and love it all (only then it would be worth having her in the first place.)

So wish you both happy times ahead and let there be always a shiny mushkann on mithilees face.

Thank you, once again. Being parents of 3 kids, my friends are at a vantage position to lend us a better view of parenthood to come.

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