After you have a child...

1. you find out that your baby does not behave like in the guide book.
2. you realize that you can sleep less and work harder.
3. when rock your child to sleep, baby's stomach makes sounds like a half-filled bottle.
4. you realize you play with the baby as much as she plays with you.
5. there is every reason to laugh while just wiggling your own toe.
   
6. you find your own baby the cutest, and others agree with you, completely.
7. your tea can go cold 3 times, while you run around the house.
8. you get to know the baby as much as she finds out about you.
9. you wonder if you got the correct one home.
10. your phone, computer, wallet carry the same pic, and it is not Madhuri Dixit.

First some old news on a new channel








Huston, we have a clown among us







Come Summer, we have two navel-displaying 'Bintaakars' here...

मैथिली, आजी आणि आजोबा !

मैथिली आणि तिची मैत्रीण



पाचवा महिना आणि पहिला घास


आजी भरवते आहे



मैथिली आणि आजोबा






आजोबा, हसा हो !!




आणि मी खुश !!




मैथिली आणि विनोद काकांचे पक्षी




भाऊमामा-आजोबा बघा हो !!




मैथिलीबाई एकट्याच !!

Konningendag: Queen's Day !

Konningendag is that rare day of the year that is also a tax holiday, when all Dutch go crazy and start selling their attic junk on the footpath, and that day the taxman takes break (for shopping for her/himself, presumably). Formally, it is Princess Beatrix's birthday, and celebrated as such. Note: most Dutch don't care two hoots who the queen is, even if that's a man. They are happy with the tax-break on that day and all the fun. That compares well with Ganapati festival in Maharashtra, for example.

For us, it was a good opportunity to walk, show aai-baba some Dutch people in their own setting, get Maithilee out in the open, and finally buy some silly stuff for our apartment. Here are some pics from that day:


1) Newspaper announcement:






2) Reason for this drama on lower left, other two are urging people to show up and enjoy.






3) Program of festivities, includes concerts, open-air music, dramas, sex-shows... well, i made up the last one there.





4) Program stages and artists put on a daily calendar and a map. Each star indicates activity area. This is ONLY for Groningen, each town, village has its own set of events.




5) Here are crowds:


listening to band music (patriotic and otherwise)



selling silly things, dolls, magazines, music, children's stuff,














young boys trying their hand at selling their musical talent








even meeting friends and having coffee in the middle of the din:




selling wood, furniture, tools...




and even used underwear !!!

The fact that the spring is here

jumps out in the form of this flower-laden tree...







camera is lousy, but captures the essence well. This is on my biking path to ASTRON, I am back to my health routine...

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Growing Maithilee: learning to sing

Maithilee is growing and is now more than 2 ft long and 5.5 kilos. It is hard to hold her and play while I am standing. Gosh, even my age is apparent to me now :-(

Here are the latest pics (March/ April). The usually good girl...






Oh My My ! I am having a bad hair day!!!





Hey, don't disturb... I am reading (aloud)





See I am teething, so I chew on my toy!




once again, closer look at my bangles, my new, new bangles...






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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.




and




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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Maithilee's smiles and tears

Howdy!

No update for a long time, but not without reason. Maithilee kept us quite busy, with a short bout of fever and cold. What made it all so good, though, is that she has started to smile, and give us (two of her dedicated servants) some due recognition for our hardwork. That came about 2 weeks ago, 7th/8th Jan.

She is quite a devil now, wants us to pick her up, give her hugs/ kisses, tell her stories and of course sing songs. She gets quite bored with our faces, we think, for, when there are visitors, she perks up instantly. Deepa, for example spoke to her in Telugu, and Maithilee in "Maithi". They "understood" each other perfectly well.

When visitors leave, she is back to tears, YES, she can shed tears (also started around 5th Jan.) I have tested them for salt content, to make sure. And does Mithu know about how to screw up her face, throw her legs/ hands around, and give us a piece (peace?) of her mind.

When we oil her before her bath, she is all happy, curling her toes. Now, who can curl toes like shown below, Mithu can bowl 'leg-spin' using her toes !




Theresa arrived to Holland in the middle of its heaviest snow fall of 13 years. We could not meet, I did not have car then (and what now?) and she posted Maithilee's gifts from Jayanne. Maithilee got two lovely Canadian cats (Stella on her dresses and Alex as her bath pal) all around her now. You have to see her in her after-bath towel !




When we sing for her, she joins the party, like this!




When Maha entertains Mithu ("Hum honge kaamyab! Ek din! "), she looks with studied appreciation !


!


Now, with all this effort of photo-shoot, Maithilee is taking a loong break !





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Dutch WTF

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Name of a boat parked in a canal nearby : Royal Raand ! (I guess many rode the boat royally all through the Summer.)


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Lessons for my child

Now that Maithilee is here, I would revisit a few postings from my other blog :


Lessons for my child: Curiosity

Lessons for my child: Discovery and Spirit of Observation

Lessons for my child: Logic and Rationality

I have one more post to go in this series, perhaps over next week it will be written down...

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Putting Maithilee to sleep

To put Maithilee to sleep, I need to sing songs, do dance, rock her on my lap. I steal kisses, which she resists. If I'd give her one Euro for one kiss, she would soon be a millionaire!! I call her names (मिठू , ढूमकू, भीमसेन), tell her stories of her parents' greatness... and how it could easily have been much worse :p

If all this fails, I tell her that story from Sholay. Here is the result ! (btw, this photo was clicked at the first-month celebration party, Pandeys came over!)