Breaking news

Naina's progressed from commando crawling to a more graceful but not quite refined semi commando semi normal crawl. The commando crawling commenced about a week and a half ago. I wish I recorded the date of the first crawl. She's also progressed fairly quickly to trying to lift herself up onto things, such as the futon we have in the lounge room and nearby pillows.

My fears of Naina growing up a toothless wonder are over as her first tooth appeared yesterday, after feeling a bit scratchy in the mouth for a few days. The winner was the left lower central incisor. She was fine throughout, we wouldn't have even noticed otherwise.

You might remember this photo (still love it):

And on to the socialising

So after the visit to the apartment, the rest of the weekend involved hanging around at Sven and Jackie's house and visiting Swarup and Bonny and meeting up with TGA people at Delissio.

Cassie (Sven's daughter) spent a lot of time with N, making a great baby sitter. I met up with Sven at the TGA and he's been great company ever since. I regularly accuse him of taking my only copy of Bone Machine, and only forgive him for it because he's such a great bloke (slides of two Hawaii trips included).

Cassie and N meet for the first time (March 2008) -
Rosstown Hotel

Cassie and N meet for the second time
(December 2008)

Swarup, N, (new teddy bear, still wrapped) and Sanjukta (Bonny)

Swarup and I met up at the TGA, where we started the same day, in the same section. We've got similar cultural backgrounds - he's born in NZ but grew up in WA, son of Bengali migrants. And of course we both married girls from India. We both have a deep despisal of Matthew Hayden. And a love of South Indian food.

I swear the Matthew Hayden thing is true.

7/1 Port Jackson Circuit

First stop was the apartment. I bought the apartment in 2004 December and sold it in 2008 December. Noice symmetry there.

I remember first spending time in Philip in 2004 and then when looking to buy, thinking no way am I going to buy in Philip. I did buy and it was a pretty good move at the time and in hindsight.

Deepti commented how much I must have loved living in the quiet of Canberra, no one to disturb me, the computer and the TV. Quite true. I distinctly recall where I kept the computer, the TV and my electric heater when I lived there.

It felt really strange walking in though, bearing the above in mind. When I left the place in March 2006 to go work with the evil Swiss pharma company in Melbourne, I'd been talking to Deepti for a few months by email, as a friend, with no real plans to meet her and certainly no idea of what things were ahead.

So to come back 2 years and 8 months later married to Deepti, in a totally new career with a slightly less evil American pharma company (hello Mr Begley if you are reading) and of course, with a lovely little daughter named N had me feeling spun out, washed out and dazed. I'd never counted on the next time I walked back in to that apartment, being with my wife and little girl.

I suppose that's the time capsule effect - what were you doing when you were at this physical location in your life. I've rarely been in that situation, my memories of living in Nedlands are vague at best now and all other places I've lived since have been rented properties, without too many distinct memories apart from Darling Rd, where we are now. Don't get me wrong, I have good memories of West Melbourne apartment and Glen Iris and Richmond, but none as imprinted as Port Jackson Circuit and Canberra.

Photos were obligatory to remind me of the spin out! Even more so with the apartment bereft of furniture;

New found commando crawling skills

Pig tails just keep on getting bigger

Looking glum, baby reclining, probably adds to nostalgia

Canberra

Part of the reason for the complete disorganisation is that we went to Canberra (Our Nations Capital, The Bush Capital) last weekend.

The aim was to visit the recently sold apartment one last time. That was done within two hours and then on to catching up with good friends.

I actually felt quite nostalgic for the place, the city and my time there. I have some great friends there, (Sven and Jackie and now Cassie, Swarup and his wife Bonny, Kevin, Frank and Tahli), who make me feel very much like the people in Perth do. And now Deepti and Naina are with me, make Deepti and N feel at home as well.

When I lived in Canberra, everytime someone visited, we'd go to Parliament House, Old Parliament House and the National Gallery of Australia. It was the done thing. So driving past all these places (time shortage) sent waves of good memories flooding in.

It was of course, frickin' freezing on the Saturday night, which also reminded me of how cold that place can be!

Xmas

Christmas is on us, and I've organised the following: presents for N, no, Xmas lights - yes, this evening, tree - no, cards - no.

Deepti chastised me for not putting up the christmas lights and buying gifts for Miss N. I suggested wrapping a box in christmas paper and letting her play with it. I say, get the most mileage out of a present whilst you can.

Plans for the blog during down time

I am still pondering what to do with the blog whilst N and Deepti are away. I was thinking of putting it in hibernation and starting the Coco Mambo blog with all the stories I have saved - with assistance from Green in tracking down the "lost episodes".

Either that or starting a blog about the loves and lives of six daleks who live on the upper east side in Manhattan. I'm going to call it "Daleks in Manhattan". One of the Daleks will be called Joey.

Movements

We're off to Canberra next weekend (20-21 December); I finally sold my flat up there and Deepti, N and I are going to do one final look over and catch up with Canberra friends.

After Xmas and New Year, we're over to Perth on 09 January for Green and Catherine's wedding. Deepti and N will stay back with my parents for a week and return to Melbourne on 19 January.

Then on 01February 2008, Deepti N and I are off to India. We're staying in Delhi a night and then off to Ranchi and Bokaro to visit my grandmother with her first great grand-daughter.

We're still working out if my Nani, grandmother, is Naina's per-Nani (great grandmother on N's dad's mother's side) or per-Dadi (great grandmother on dad's side). I'm not sure where the relationship is defined - my relationship to Naina or my relationship to my grandmother. See I think we had this discussion before about how confusing it is in Indian culture having special terms for each relationship depending on how the relationship is formed.

My dad's sisters are my bua's and their husbands are phupha's.
My dad's brother's are my chaacha's and their wives are chaachi's
My mum's sister's are my mausi's and their husband's are my mausa's
My mum's brother's are my mama's and their wives are my mami's
And my grandparents on dad's side are dada/dadi
And my grandparents on mum's side are nana/nani

Don't ask me what happens if a relation on my dad's side marries a relation on my mum's side, or what I am expected to call my brother's wives or my sister's husband's.

So after Ranchi it is Patna where Deepti and N will stay for about two months. I'll be back by Feb 15, unless I wangle my boss into letting me stay in Singapore for a week to audit the Singapore office and attend a conference and eat lots of nasi goreng and Indonesian food.

Food handling skills

Naina's become more adept at handling food by herself (she struggles with steamed broccoli though). We seem to have a lot of documentary evidence of her food gripping skills.

Including a scintillating, 8 minute in total video entitled "Baby eating mango" (with sound).

Baby with watermelon

Baby with novelty oversized pigtails and oversized novelty banana

Baby reclining with peach

Newly released stills from "Baby eating mango" (director's cut)

Seriously, the biggest frickin banana I've ever seen (courtesy of Shri Shiva Vishnu Mandir in Carrum Downs) - scale provided by Deepti's forearm:

Visit to the beach

Early November, we managed to find a weekend in Melbourne where the weather was good.

This might raise gufffaws from the Perth crowd who believe that Melbourne never has good weather, and then quote various Crowded House songs. Melbourne has had approximately eight months of winter this year including the first 12 days of December, with the occasional warm sunny outbreak. I just checked BOM - this month's weather has sucked.

But I digress. Anyway we went down to Elwood Beach. Melbourne beaches aren't quite Perth beaches or for that matter Goan beaches. They're Melbourne beaches. A lot of strutting goes on. You can get a skinny latte at the beach in Melbourne.

We just sort of hung around on the sand, trying to coax N to explore the surrounds and relaxing. Great way to spend an afternoon.


Note - beach wasn't actually deserted, it just looks like everyone is indoors sipping lattes and talking about how good the coffee is here.

Random cute pics

Just waiting for the pics to load... dodododododod... I've become a early riser. This is because at about 6 am, Miss N starts kicking me in the head. Oh here we go.

Back in melbourne in the new high chair.

Nice pic of mum and dad at Anveeta's 40th

Damn paparazzo, why can't they leave me alone to eat off a silver spoon in peace

A classic. Check out the teeth (enlarge photo)

We have no idea why she makes this face - it isn't a smile or a laugh, but a facial expression only.
N only makes it when she's happy; Deepti advises that I taught N to make this expression from a young age (like one month or so) but I'm not sure if it is the same expression

Gina Ford is nuts

I'm probably, oh, about six months behind in my baby reading, but Gina Ford, contented baby, she's nuts. Truly a megalomaniac.

Deepti handed me a copy of "Contented Baby". I read some bits and thought, hmm, interesting. Certainly less violent than the previous book I read. "A Criminal History of Mankind". (Recommended reading, especially the Roman Empire). And less soporific than the book before that "The Diamond Cutter - How Buddha can help your business".

Anyway, megalomaniac. She's a shocker. Does this woman come out of the matron age or what? I read her acknowledgement very carefully; no thanks to any baby at all there. That just tells me one thing, one important thing, for all her good things that may exist in her book, she's got no sense of proportion or gratitude or sense of generosity at all to any baby that has passed through her life.

Definitely, one for the bonfire.

Coming home to Melbourne

Wow, I've fallen a month behind on blogging. Old news.

Anyway, we came home with heaps of stuff. Mum and Dad threw two parties for Naina, which meant a luggage weight of 62 kg. We ended up sending three boxes back to Melbourne by Australia Post, plus leaving some mammoth toys and stuff in Perth and still were just overweight at the airport.

I have a new respect for Qantas. They have bassinets on long haul domestic flights. This meant that on the way back, Deepti did not have to pouch N for three hours and had about only 30 minutes of carrying. N spent the rest of the time on our laps or asleep in the bassinet. We're going to Perth in Jan for Green and Catherine's wedding, we'll be flying Qantas again.

Deepti had shocking luck with any take away food during the trip back. The morning of the flight, the sandwich from the airport was foul, possibly rotten (don't eat food from the Qantas terminal cafe in the middle of the departure lounge, a huge cockroach was also loose in the shop), then from Spicey Dragon, a samosa that was also out of date.

Anyway, getting back to the car in Melbourne after nearly two weeks in Perth and three weeks alone in Melbourne was rewarding in itself. The luggage getting into the car proved a trickier exercise.

Sulo bin and witches hat not included in luggage allowance.
Baby considered carry on.

Correction

Barber was Prani S not Deepti.

Anaprashna and cutting of hair (Mundan)

First food ceremony. Naina turned six months old when we were in Perth and despite the absence of dental appliances, she got to munch her way through some proper food. It was also time for first proper hair cut.

She had been eating things like oranges, rice cereal and of course milk, but nothing of a more... err substantive nature.

So on the 26th October morning, we gave N her first proper meal and her first haircut.

It started with applying a teekka by her aunties:

Then came arati (very important in all Hindu ceremonies)

A bit of a snip (barber = Deepti S)

First bit of real food (kheer, rice custard) accompanied
by usual facial expression of what the hell is that~

Hey this Indian food aint bad

And finally, ceremony over, let's party!

The baby mundan that we did for N was only a little one. Most hindu babies get it all shaved off and the hair thrown in the Ganges; as an offering to god. Accordingly, it is usually done by a pandit or priest who can whip off the whole head of hair in a minute or two. By chopping a few bits off, Mum had something to take to India and give to the priest. The "ceremony" had been done. However, Deepti and I have talked about doing the proper job, so to speak, early next year, after Green and Catherine's wedding but before India trip.

Now, not that I have anything against babies with funny shaped heads, but hair makes babies look good. There are lots of babies out there with funny shaped heads, and it makes them cute and adorable and reminds us of how traumatic the birthing process must have been. But hair gives babies an edge. Just expression and wackiness and all those things that N's crazy hair remind me of. The idea of N getting all her hair shaved off fills me with dread.

I can't actually watch it happen. Accordingly, we'll be going to the Hari Krishna temple (I think) and making a donation and one of the devotees will do the job. But I'm not sure I'll be able to watch.

Big 4-oh

One of the main reasons for Deepti and N's ludicrously long trip to Perth was my sister's 40th birthday. It was sensibly fancy. Fancibly sensy. Anyway it meant hiring a black tie suit, which I hadn't done since James' wedding (thanks for catching the bill on that one Jim).

The party was held at Aqua Viva in Nedlands, opposite the old Steve's Hotel. Acqua viva is a floating restaurant and a nice venue - water on three sides and a jetty connecting it to the mainland. The party was a lot of Anveeta's friends from junior school to her most recent Deloitte colleagues. So there was probably about 20 people I knew from years in Perth, Deepti had met a few in the relative short time she'd been in Australia, so all up a good evening was had.

Mum wanted me to take Deepti dancing. This was a little too progressive for my liking. Sure, Deepti and I are married, we have had a child and argued over the quantity of luggage we're carrying, but dancing in public with my wife sounded a little extreme. I resisted succesfully. Especially with the music being the 80's classics rather than BHANGRA!!!!!! that went down at our wedding (no Let's go party tonite....etc, Catherine, I've been informed that was your favourite).

See if you can spot the member of the family who wasn't invited.

N was at home with a baby sitter. It was the first baby sit we'd ever done. Realistically, I was more afraid about what the baby would do to the baby sitter rather than baby do to herself. We left N and baby sitter at around 730 and then spent most of Anveeta's party checking the phone, fretting, checking the phone again, phoning the baby sitter, the baby sitter telling us everything is fine, fretting, checking the phone again, phoning the baby sitter, being told off by the baby sitter for waking the baby and then finally trying to relax when we were told N was sleeping peacefully. This was all by 830.

When we got home N was asleep - i've never seen her sleep without feeding to sleep or pouching to sleep so were suitably amazed and embarrassed and inadequatelized. Damn experienced parenters.

Perth

I haven't really said it in the below logs, but it was a really good trip, for all of us. We were both getting so worn down by life here.

Don't get me wrong. I think Melbourne is a great city and we love where we live and what we do. I love tram rides and busy cities. Deepti loves being near lots of shops (Spotlight, Woolworths and Anaconda have just opened 50 metres from our front door). And I'm sure Naina will love story and play time at the Carnegie library from tomorrow.

But there is time when we just want family and close friends. We caught up with Dale and Ray, Robyn, Alex, James Bron and Hamish (who seems to have found a soul mate in N), Green and Catherine, Shelley and on the earlier trip, Benita and Dan and Anna. And of course, Mum and Dad and Prani and Anveeta as well. It was just great to see everyone and helped us normalise a lot!

Still not sure when that time will come, when we will move back.

Random cute pics

Bath time photos again. Hold on for dear life.

Sitting and feeding. On changing mat. Crazy. That's like three life milestones.

Playing with the windchimes

Dadi (grandmother) doesn't like babies watching too much TV. Naina's obviously a fan of Supernatural. Or Fox.

Insert joke about "What did she eat?!!" or
"I'll give you the two cushions and I'll throw in a set of steak knives for free!"

Jula

Jula means swing in Hindi. Mum and Dad were in India for about four years from 1999 and bought back a lot of furniture, including a colossal swing. Most of us find it a bit difficult to eat our dinner on a swing without feeling sympathy for those on the Titanic.

Naina seems to find it hilarious. She slept on it, ate on it, and had a good time on it. I can't put all these photos up to contextualise the size of it, but here's an example of it.

The leg room here's as good as the plane...

Dad actually penned (? performs?) a song of his own writing for Naina about a swing. Whenever she hears it - even over the phone apparently, she starts jumping up and down.

More photos

Naina's at ease sitting up now. She eats in a high chair, plays sitting up and enjoys standing (aided) whenever someone is kind enough to pick her up.





I haven't countered the number of facial expressions she has. But it is at least five (these four plus the very deep long distance stare). I'd call the deep long stare her brooding phase. Actually, N and I went for a morning constitutional on Saturday and when we turned around to come home, N was in a brood. I could not get her to break her brood. I worry. Will she need black nail polish soon?

Unexpected dip

So after sun-bed and bath, we all went back to Mum and Dad's house for a swim, being a warm sunny Perth October day.

It ended up quite disturbing. The pool surface was painted over winter and no one had thought to check the surface quality after the painting.

At first Dad was quite in control. However, as soon as he stepped down on to the main surface of the pool he lost his balance and he and Naina went under. The cameras kept recording and the photos kept being taken as we all sort of had a stunned nervous laugh on our faces. Dad tried to hold Naina up but he only slipped further and took Naina down with him again. It all happened so quickly that we all stood there gob smacked. The third time he went down with Naina again, Deepti urged me to jump in, which I did, fully clothed.

Grabbing Naina, I pulled her up out of the water and into Deepti's arm.

Dad was fine although scared and Naina, I expected her to be coughing and splutterring and crying and screaming. Perhaps it had all happened so quickly, that she didn't even realise it was somehow different to a normal bath. It might be an urban myth that babies know how to protect themselves under water, for a few seconds at least, but it meant that N was ok.

She started crying a few seconds after she was out of the pool. But I think that was in reaction to all of us nervously coming close and seeing if she was okay. Which she was.

I don't think I've been more scared in my life when I thought about what happened. Seriously. I definitely appreciate how tenuous our hold on life can be.

First bath

Naina's a contented baby. That I think is a credit to Deepti. Certainly not my abjectlly (Bob, word check) woeful parenting (still can't put baby to sleep properly, grrr...).

Anyway, whilst in Perth, Naina spent some time in the sun. This is an exceptionally unusual occurrence, being a Melbourne winter baby. She spent the best part of an hour on the sun-bed (I'm sure that's what they're called Bron) without much parental interference, amusement etc required.

Apparently Ricketts have reappeared in Western countries in Nth Europe where Muslim women who wear the hijab and burka aren't getting as much sun as the traditional Muslim countries. I actually think this is probably bollocks created by a right wing columnist in the Herald Sun to promote intolerance and incredulity. But I stand to be corrected. Anyway, if it is true, I reckon Melbourne would be the most likely place for a baby to develop it in Australia.

So Naina likes the sun. This is good. Apart from occasionally coming close to banging head on wood (again, neglectful parent, initials, A.S.), she had a great time.

Still requires training on theory of gravity - but also, check out that morning hair!

Naina also had a bath with me. She found it particularly amusing. We seem to take a lot of photos at bath time and I seem to spend a lot of time trying to play with her hair.

Perth part two

I've sort of let the blogging thing go a bit. Not sure why. Perhaps I was using it as an anxiety release before we all went to Perth and I'm all easy and toasty at the moment with Naina, so less inclined to blog. Web-blog. We-blog. See, chilled.

I won't hagiographicalise (Bob, is that a word yet?) but here's some cool photos of the Perth trip.

Morning stroll to Melvista Gardens was a bit too much

Evening pouch ride was a bit too tiring

Dad tried to find the button on the universal remote that switched N off

Big shout out to all the ladies out there (with Dale)

Unreasonable contortion abilities (baby yoga)

Harriet Zara Scott

It seems a long time ago now, but before I went back to Perth, about the 10th of October, I caught up with the newest addition to the Scott family of Melbourne.

Harriet Zara (being held by her dad)