What’s “NEW” this time?

Gianna turned two and a half years this month. Time is flying and she is gaining a little more of everything –

A little more inquisitive now (mumma, where is the big spider gone?)
A little more responsible (helps mumma with laundry)
A little more talkative (mumma, did u see the big aaannt?)
A little more independent (tries to wear her sandals on her own)
A little more naughty (biting every unwanted thing)
A little more playful (initially swings, now slides),
A LITTLE MORE. . .

God has shown me his love through Gianna. Some good and some not-so-good activities that is worthy to be noted -

1. Wearing a pair of socks as gloves in her hands.

2. Befooling mumma quite often by pretending.

3. Biting everything that she gets her hands onto, nails are her favorite of all. Even biting the velcro of her sandals to soothe teething.

4. Shouting for fun every now and then.

5. Love to raise her piggy balance. Gianna doesn’t leave a single chance to fill her piggy bank with money from my wallet. I don’t even get an idea of when she does all this mischief and after every few days my wallet is empty.

6. Wearing mumma’s jewellery.

7. Playing with papa’s ipod.
8. Jumping on sofas and coffee table.

9. Tearing off toilet tissue roll into bits and pieces.
10. Demanding for her favorite songs to be played on the music player in the car.

May “may” brings some sunny weather –

It’s been more than six months of snow, chilly breeze, and now rains. We are longing to see some consecutive sunny days. Summers have begun but these non-stop rains made it difficult for us to go out and play.

Gianna is learning to cycle these days but more of her efforts go in just looking around than paddling! Moreover, the bad weather is not letting her to practice more.
Despite of unwanted weather, we had some good days to count on.



This month started with a get together of cousins. Gianna met two of her uncles (Vikas and Mohit), aunt (Hemi) and her cousin (Vaishnavi). In not much time, Gianna mixed up well with her Mohit Mama and enjoyed reading book with him the most.





We all spent a weekend at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, where she was amazed to see the underwater world. Out of all sea creatures she fondly remembers the Lobster (“Logster” as per Gianna) the most. She asks us to put the aquarium pictures and asks us, “Did you see that big Logster??”





We celebrated our anniversary (22-May) at Johnson’s Park in Edison where Gianna enjoyed the kiddy rides and animals in the petting zoo.





The month ended with a trip to Atlantic City, where Gianna loved jumping in the water from Atlantic ocean.

A New Recipe...

My innocent girl!

With each day, Gianna’s curiosity about everything is growing! Her question on every character in her books and her story telling to us pleases me. She has started speaking full sentences now and I feel this is the best time because her innocent acts with some little knowledge about things adds to the flavor. Here are few things that caught my attention-

1. Gianna thinks that every toy has a life in it and it holds some understanding. She often talks to her toys and sings her favorite lullaby “rock-a-bye-baby” to make them sleep.



2. Gianna has always been too choosy about food, so it becomes really difficult to bring some new ideas every time to entertain her while she eats. Most of the time she watches rhymes and stories on youtube but when I have to make her eat chappati, I tell her to go and show each bite to “Radha-ji”. According to Gianna eating every morsel is an accomplishment and she feels glad to show this to one of her favorite deity. She says “Radha-ji dekh lo Gianna ne roti kha li”.

3. Santa Claus is every child’s favorite figure. Gianna is also fond of him. It happened at the Indian grocery store. Gianna was sitting in the shopping cart while we were busy buying groceries. After some time she muttered “Santa”. I was wondering as how come she has seen Santa in the month of April? But I was actually wrong! For Gianna, any man with a red turban, a long white beard, and a paunch would make the person “Santa”. She had mistaken Sardar-ji with Santa.:-)



4. Imagination sees no boundary! Gianna shows a liking for the pop king Michael Jackson and his song “don’t stop till you get enough”. Wherever she sees a dark skin along with some curly hair, she feels that her pop divo has come to see her.

5. We say “bless you Gianna” whenever she sneezes. Now the little girl has started saying bless you to herself whenever she sneezes.



6. Gianna knows that her nani loves to knit sweaters. She has some woolen inner wears gifted by her dear grandma. It happens that Gianna never forgets saying “Thankyou Nani” every time she wears those woolens.

7. “Nani teri morni ko mor le gaye” is a song loved by all three of us. Gianna is smart enough to replace the word “nani” with dadi, nana, mausi, depending on whom she is singing the song for.

8. We have a plant in our home and I love to water it. This is the very first plant that I am taking care of. Gianna adores it and embraces it with a good morning kiss.

9. Gianna has a unique way to express her longingness to be in her mama’s arms. She says “mu-ma go-di lelega” and I could not stop myself from hugging her.



10. Gianna has started reading books while sitting on a potty seat. I really wonder from where do these kids get such ideas?

“Newer” me -

As per a Hindu ritual and a belief, babies get their head shaved for better hair growth: A ritual called “Mundan”. We had planned Gianna’s mundan before our trip to India. We both were worried about how Gianna would react to a blade on her head and seeing hair falling down on her shoulders. To prepare her, I took her to a saloon with me to show how I was going to have my haircut done and told her that she too would soon have her haircut.



On the D day I was tensed but to everyone’s surprise Giannu was supportive throughout the process and did not trouble at all. Also, I got her a new set of Barbie doll to keep her engaged. I purposely showed her mirror soon after, to make her aware about her new look. At first she was a little puzzled but then on my telling her that “wow Gianna you got a new haircut and you are looking very nice”, there was an immediate smile on her face and a relief in my heart for a completion of a big mission.

India Trip – Chapter 2:

Happiness Magnified!

I have fond memories of my beloved Naniji’s and Nanaji’s home and the fun that we had as kids while at their place, it’s surely a different feeling and experience with grannies. I am sure that Gianna will also cherish the time she spent with her Naniji and Nanaji.





I was filled with joy to reach my home town because Gianna was meeting two of her first cousins and her eldest mausi for the very first time. I was waiting to see the action and reaction from all of them. As expected, everyone was more excited to meet Gianna than me! Gianna took few days to get accustomed to the new place.



Now, the situation is such that she knows each and every corner of the house. I have to constantly keep track of her movements to ensure that she is playing safely. There is a bright green color swing for her and a tri-cycle that keeps her engaged all day. Nani-Nana never stop smiling and talking to her. She is the apple of their eyes. She is so precious to them that every time I get all the scolding even if it is her mistake. Aah! I think it is a normal affair in every house where there are children… I believe that grandparents are more caring to their grandchildren! I knew this time that it will be a great learning experience for me too about the family bonding and better managing a kid.





Gianna knows how to cajole her Nanaji. She calls him as “nana”, and if he doesn’t respond to her at first then she calls him “papa”. This trick worked well with both her grandpas. Now the dear ‘nanaji’ has nothing more important to do but to give his attention to her innocent talkings. There is also an interesting way how they interact with each other. He whistles to her to bid goodnight and Gianna also whistles back to him in her own way. Isn’t it amusing? Since, its winter time in India, her nanaji keeps her fists in his hands to give them warmth. Whenever Gianna wants this to be done she calls her nana and says “dono”(which means close my fists under your fists). Gianna also likes to play harmonium with him. Nanaji loves her laughter so much that every day he fakes laughter to hear her laughs. Every night she asks him “nana pair dabaoo”…



“Nani teri morni ko mor le gaya, baki jo bacha tha kale chor le gaye…” this is how Gianna woo her nani. She sings this song for her quite a number of times in a day. I have seen such warm and childish expressions on my mother’s face after a very long time. Nani and Gianna eat mumphalis (peanuts) together. Gianna loves to play with bindis. One day she was looking at a video of her nani in nanaji’s mobile. Naniji did not have a bindi in that video so she asked naniji “nani bindi dedo”. She took the bindi from nani’s forhead and stuck it to her picture in the mobile. Giannu you deserve a big hug from all of us for this thoughtful act of yours!



Mausis are shooo qute(cute)- Ritu mausi and Richa mausi love her so much that they keep cuddling her whenever they get a chance to hold her. They love listening to Gianna saying “shooo cute” from her because her facial expressions also speak in it. Being the youngest grandchild of the family, she gets special attention by all.





Guddu-didi Cheena-didi wow, Sai-didi, Soham-bhaiya wow - this is how Gianna calls her didis and bhaiya. They all make best of their attempts and efforts to entice her to play with them. She is dearly pampered by each one of her elder cousins. Gianna sees videos with her didis and bhaiya plays bay-blade with her. These elder ones take chances to take her one by one.
Aarti didi, Pooja didi, Shubham bhaiya, aajaooo - These three adorable kids play with her every day. She spends hours playing with them in the living rooms, lobby area, and in the garden during evenings.













This time, I am much more contended with my stay at my hometown than ever, because Gianna and my parents had spent some beautiful time together and for me it was a treat to watch them. I thank God for giving Gianna and me this opportunity to stay with them for a good period of time. I wish that we get such chances often! Amen!

India Trip – Chapter 1

“Grandparents are people who have silver in their hair and gold in their heart”

Our trip to India is dedicated to Gianna’s Grand Parents


What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.
We reached India and Gianna’s Dada, Dadi, Nana and Nani were waiting to welcome us, especially Gianna.



To my surprise, on reaching at our home in India, Gianna passed a warm smile to her dadi-dada and nani-nana with whom she was meeting after more than a year…she did not forget them AT ALL. She happily interacted with them and loved showing her toys to them. The grandparents were super excited too and embraced her with all their love and affection.




“Dadi-Dada Sab”

That’s how she addresses her dadi-dada whenever she tells me that she wants to go to her dadi-dada. Gianna likes to call her dadi as “dadi-ma” and dada as “papa” (this is probably because we all call him papa). Gianna is very much attached to her dadaji and loves to be with him as long as she could. She does not want to stay away from him for long. Dadaji teaches her bhajans. Gianna loves standing near him when he recites hanuman chalisa every morning. One of her favorite interests is to drink the jal ‘holi water’ from the small glass that belongs to the pooja area...apparently, its now her water glass.




One of the cutest things that I noticed recently is that she loves to show her new toys to our pet dogs (Sunny and Sherry). Wondering how innocent these kids are. Also, surprising is to see both our dogs showing their acceptance for Gianna in the house, they don’t bite her.



Gianna loves her dadi’s dressing table. This act of her reminds me of my childhood when I used to stand up on the chair in front of my naniji’s dressing room’s mirror and would love to explore all her cosmetics. She has shuffled every drawer and every corner of the table that I am sure that it will take some days to re-arrange the things back in their proper place.






We are noticing quite some changes in her:

1. Gianna is behaving quite independently here.

2. She has started speaking three words sentences. The very first sentence that she spoke early morning at 5pm was “mumma pani dedo”.

3. She does not stick with me every time. Her attention mostly remains diverted to the two dogs, swing in the lawn, dressing table, new plush toys, etc. What more could she ask for?



4. She has not shown any anxiety to the new place. It looks as if she is aware of each and every corner of this house.

5. She now tries to eat snacks on her own with a spoon.

6. Her eating habits are still not very good. She is eating one or two meals less than what she used to have in the US. So that’s a worrying point to me till date…Wishing that her eating habits get better soon.

7. She has started eating while sitting on a small chair instead of a high chair. I would call this as an achievement.

8. The strange part is that she has not remembered any of her books which she never used to leave reading a single day.

9. She has become very talkative and extremely naughty. Guess that’s how kids should be.

10. Gianna is not taking much of a time to be friends with our cousins and other relatives.



Overall, an independent Gianna is what we got in this India trip.
I'm now looking forward to an equally enriching and rewarding trip to her Nani and Nana's place.