More Pics Posted

I've posted a few more recent pics of Laykha at Yahoo! Photos:

Laykha at 8 Weeks

Firsts

This week, Laykha turned 8 weeks old. Once again, wow! It is so great seeing her grow, but the downside is that my maternity leave is now 2/3 over. Yikes.

As Laykha turned 8 weeks, we hit a couple of milestones. A couple of nights ago, Laykha slept through the night. She went down at 10 pm and didn't wake again until 5 am. After her feed, she slept for another 2 1/2 hours. It's been a long time since I've gotten so much good sleep in one night.

The other milestone is quite a biggie for us - Laykha started smiling. I mean, really smiling. She's been smiling for a while now - little quick grins. And, of course, she gets those typical I'm-trying-to-fart smiles. But, these are the kind that melt your heart - huge, toothless smiles:

She's still a bit of a fuss-meister, but those precious smiles make it all worth while.

I've noticed that my blog has shifted somewhat from being about expat life in Bangalore to life as new mommy and daddy. Given that we aren't getting out too much at the moment, there isn't much expat life to write about. As Laykha gets older and we get more and more settled, I imagine that will change. Until then, here's a few more pics of the little cutie.

Bath Time

Tummy Time

Roll Out the Barrel

The other day, Laykha was in one of her fussy periods, and I was having a dickens of a time trying to calm her. Although I was following the "Cuddle Cure" steps in our Happiest Baby on the Block book (aside: this is a wonderful book for anyone who deals with babies - love it!), Laykha just wasn't calming.

I wasn't at my wits end just yet and was still thinking pretty clearly. I started thinking when Laykha was still in my belly, between exercising and riding in the rickshaws, she sure did a heckuva lot of bouncing around - not nice, soft swaying, but major shake, rattle and rolling. Since the whole idea behind the holding and swaying is to recreate life in the womb, I decided to kick up my swaying a notch. I turned on a polka and took Laykha for a spin around the room.

Wouldn't you know - that completely did the trick. The song had hardly just begun, and Laykha was pretty much dead to the world. It's amazing the things we find to calm our babies.

Laykha sure does attract a lot of attention out here. Whenever we take her out in public, just about everyone we pass tries to steal a glance at what's in our stroller. Many, mostly ladies, will walk right up to take a peek at Laykha. Some will ask questions - is it a boy or girl, how old is she - but most just look.

While just about everyone in any culture is taken by a new baby, I'm thinking this curiosity might be because they don't see too many babies this young here. The other day, I asked a colleague of mine if it was common here for new parents to bring their baby to the office to introduce him/her to colleagues, something often done in the States. He told me people here don't take their young babies out in public places - they avoid strangers seeing the new baby to "protect it from the evil eye." Guess Laykha will have to wait a bit to make her big debut.

Eyes Wide Open

Posted some new pics of Laykha - finally some shots with her eyes open...

Laykha Photos on Yahoo!

Growing Like Weeds

Yesterday, Laykha and I went to the New Mommies weekly get-together - her first chance to interact with other kids. Although, at only 1 month old, there's really not a lot of interacting going on. The group met at the Eva Mall - a relatively new mall in Bangalore devoted to women and children. They've got a place at the mall, Fun Corner, where tots can come and play. It's a regular paradise for little ones, complete with padded slides, crawl spaces, pools filled with plastic balls and even a pint-sized climbing wall. While Laykha was a bit too small to enjoy all of this, she still had a good time catching a few Z's.

What was really cool to see were all of the children - ranging from 1 month old to 3 years old and thinking about how Laykha is going to go through each of those stages. One of the girls from my pregnancy fitness class came to the group - seems like just yesterday we were working out our growing bellies together. Now, she's got a 5-month old. While some days it seems like the quirks of a newborn - fits of fussiness due to gas, sleepless nights - will never end, I imagine it won't be long before I catch myself thinking "I remember when...".