Baby is Baptised ..

Baby was baptised on 6th December 2008. It was a simple ceremony and the only important person missing was Anoop achachen, my brother. Unlike his brother Tarun, who cried from the moment of entry into church, Abhinav never cried. Even when his lower body was immersed in the baptism tub, he never cried.(My dad the told me that the water they used was warmed slightly :)) His bawling started only when the priest poured the water on his head. All went on fine, baby fell asleep after a feed and all the guests had dinner.

Tagged !!

I was tagged a long time back by Abraham. I never had the time... finally i did it..
Most of the questions i guess would be best suited for unmarried people :) Any way here is mine..

Abraham says that its customary to write two lines about the person who has tagged you.. so Abe here it is ...

A cool guy with a good sense of humor
Good writing skills

The other rules are :
RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any
question that they dislike with a new question formulated by them.
RULE #2 Tag someone else to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you what would your reaction be?
Thank you very much for letting me know in advance about you....

2. What’s it that you see in an ideal partner?
A sense of humor, a level head and fun to be with.. (Well George fits the bill i guess)

3. What, according to you, is the perfect date?
Spending time at the beach (Now, with two small fellows to take care of... that's a distant dream :))

4. Would you like to have children soon enough? Or would you wait till your mid-thirties for the first child?
I have 2 - Tarun ages 3 yrs and 5 months and Abhinav aged 5 months

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
George was not my best friend...

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Works well both ways :)

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
The wait got over July 14, 2003

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Give him my good wishes ???

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Prevent child abuse.. It hits me bad even to read about such things

10. Do you lie?
Well i guess when i was a kid, not any more..

11. Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Both kids in school and a lot of time for myself :)

12. What’s your fear?
Sounds silly, but my biggest fear is that my children could be kidnapped and be abused or they could get lost in someplace.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
A cool guy with a good sense of humor.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Married and Rich

15. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
George :)

16. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
A Very very difficult thing to do

17. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Happy in a relationship.

18. What is your all time favorite film?
Difficult to single out, but i like The Patriot, Life is Beautiful..


People.. you are tagged

Roopa
Julia
Theresa
Hari
Preethi

A song for Abhinav..

My brother Anoop and me have an age gap of six years, and I was in the first standard when he was born. The post delivery room, where my mom was admitted was located in the ground floor of the hospital. I used to speak to my mother from outside, through the window, refusing to even look at my baby brother, due to the ‘Jealousy’ factor. I started liking him, only after he started smiling and reciprocating .

My friends keep asking if Tarun likes Abhinav. Actually I really don’t know. Tarun sometimes tells me, Babiya kupayil kalla (Throw the baby into the dustbin), Babiya ishtam alla (I don’t like baby). He pulls baby’s hair and sometimes hugs and kisses so hard, and releases only when he starts to cry. He’s most excited when I am burping Abhinav. He comes running from wherever he is, saying that he would do it . (I guess when burping, the hitting is justified :) ) .

I really don’t know as to how to manage. We are very careful.. and none of us show any love or attention towards Abhinav when Tarun is around. I guess.. as time passes, everything would be fine…..

One day..Tarun was singing for Abhinav..

Onam

This Onam, we celebrated at my moms place. This is because my father is retiring, and this is the last Onam, in the house where they lived for the past 29 years. This April he would retire and my parents would go back to Kerala. My cousins who are studying in Chennai, also joined us. Mummy made a lovely Sadhya that included, rice, paruppu, papadam, pachadi, inji kari, achar, aviyal, sambar, moru kari, pradhaman , banana chips and sharkaraparati. Tarun baby thoroughly enjoyed himself eating the traditional way, from the banana leaf. We too had a good time.

28th Day - Irivathiyettu Kettu

For us Malayalees, the 28 day after the baby is born, there is a custom called irivathiyettu kettu, where a black cord / thread is first tied around the waist of the baby, followed by a gold chain called the arinjanam.

Abhinav’s irivathiyettu kettu happened in a very simple way. For Tarun, we had invited friends and family and the function was followed by lunch. For Abhinav – I guess, him being the second – there was nothing much. My parents, and inlaws were present. George had gone to Hyderabad, so it was just the five of us.My father tied the black thread around the baby’s waist and my father-in-law, the arinjanam. This was followed, by lunch cooked by my mom. A simple function indeed :)

Baby has a name - Finally !!!

After a lot of head breaking, we have finally decided a name for baby.
My first choice was Nikhil and George's was Rohan. We also liked Ashish and Rohit. George did'nt want Nikhil, as it was his boss's name, and he said, when he heard the name, only his boss’s face came to mind and not the baby’s ; and i didnt like Rohan.
Then came Abhinav Bindra, who won India’s only at the Olympics. We thought, OK lets name him Abhinav, after Bhindra, who won the gold the year baby was born. When we checked out the meaning of the name, coincidentally both Tarun and Abhinav mean young. So, finally baby has a name, Abhinav Angayil George.

A New Addition To Our Family

Baby was born on the 2nd of August. We haven't yet decided on the name. He weighed 2.8 Kgs at birth and is one teeny weeny fellow. He keeps me totally occupied with no time to check mails, or do anything :) Would be so i guess for atlest 2 months. As of now, he resembles my brother Anoop. On seeing the pictures, Anoop got so excited that Baby looks like him. We are still looking out for names...

Baby turns 3

16th of this month, tarun turned 3. So fast...

I remember, 3 yrs back.. he was one small baby, 3.6 kilos, wrapped up in the hospital's green baby cloth..

Time goes so fast and hes going to playschool. Hes becoming an independant little fellow, making his own choices - food he wants, clothes that he will wear and so on :)

Tarun Goes To School

Tarun on June 6th started going to play school. The first week was for half an hour and the second one hour. The first and second day passed on uneventfully, with our man enjoying it, because i was there. The next day on the crying started. A total of 31 kids in 4 baches. All of them crying.Now school starts at 9.30 and closes by 12.00 - and Tarun gets up in the morning saying '' Enikku schoolil pokenda, school ishtam alla, enikku ammachi veetil poya mathi'' (I dont want to go to school, i dont like it, i want to go to grandmoms house). When we go to drop him, even before we reached the gate, he starts crying. I am almost heart broken to see him cry this way.The school is actually a nice one. Its called ' The Bluebells ' and is run by an old gentleman. There are three teachers and 5 lady helpers. I just hope baby settles down fast.

The Speed breakers of Defence Colony

Defence Colony, Chennai was a place where peace and tranquility reigned supreme, even though located in the city. All this changed with the start of construction of the cloverleaf grade separator at Guindy. There used to just a roundabout (called rountanna in TamilNadu) there, and to cope up with the ever increasing flow of traffic, the government decided to build a grade separator. You know like any road construction, further congestion of traffic happened. Then the commuters started taking shortcuts through Defence Colony. Lorry traffic is not permitted, but the other vehicles, just because the road is empty, would go at super duper speeds. Then the residents came up with an idea. They put up speed breakers. Such huge, unscientifically sized ones, that low base cars like Zens and old cars, Kinetic Hondas and other scooterettes whose shock absorbers were a little old, had their base scraped each time it went over a speed breaker. The road stretches to only a kilometer, but there are 6 speed breakers on it. Vodafone sponsored some roadsigns and the colony eagerly took it up. They have put up a lot of roadsigns, and someone with a permanent marker, wrote on all the “speed breaker “ roadsigns. Do check out the pics :)