18 Months Update

It’s been ages since I’ve made an update on Jelly. Been very preoccupied with a lot of things. I never seem to be finding the time when at work or back at home to pen down a few lines……….

Coming to updates, Jelly is turning out to be one hell of a naughty toddler. Thanks to her restless behavior her grandpa has just managed to lose that extra weight, which his doctor had been advising him to loose for ages now. You can find my in-laws in a better shape than ever now ;-). On a serious note I think it’s high time I give them a much needed break.

If I were to tell you about her day to day habits I would have to copy every single bit of what Shruthi has written here. She is turning out to be one noisy kid. She is not so keen on playing with toys, but the moment she spots any kid, who is visiting our house moving towards her toys, she manages to reach there before them and starts playing with the toy they wanted to play with. She will see to it that the said kid does not get a single toy in his or her hands for more than a minute. Its not that she does not like playing with other kids, it’s just that she is not ready to hand over her toys to anyone (grrr!!!). We try our best to make her share her toys but no, she would not listen to us one bit. If the kids do not bother about her toys then she has a total blast playing with them. She loves kids who are of her age or slightly bigger than her. Smaller kids are looked upon as though they were mere dolls. And in such cases I would have to keep a close watch, so that she does not land up hurting them.

At last my little kiddo is turning out to be a little girl!! She has started loving her soft toys. Initially soft toys were meant to be chewed upon or used as a mop to clean the floors. The poor souls are getting a better treatment now; she hugs and kisses them when in a good mood. But when she gets a good round of scolding from me for her naughty behavior, she takes a pen or spoon or a stick and waves it threateningly at them and says “Addi- as in I’m going to hit you” after that would come a whole lot of verbal assault which only she would understand.

After dinner when she is ready to hit the bed, we sit with her toys and books for some time. She makes me read her alphabet or fruits & vegetables book to her. On one such day I thought of making it a bit more interesting for her and placed her Teddy in my lap and used the hands of the teddy to point out to the objects I was reading for her. She looked at the teddy in awe and from then on whenever she wanted me to read a book to her she would take the teddy, place it in my lap and tell “Teddy…book ….book”. Now it is graduated on to Winnie book ………

You would know if Jelly is at home from the moment you step into our house. The front room would be all strewn with her toys, oh yes this needs a special mention. As I said earlier she is not crazy about playing with toys, I will tell you what her interest are later in the blog. We have put all her toys in a couple of bags and placed it in a corner of the room, the moment she enters the rooms, she marches up to the bags takes it , carries it to the center of the room and places it there. Once it is placed there she would hold the bottom corner of the bag and empty its contents in a flash. Once this is done she would either use her hands or legs and see it to that the toys would reach every nook and corner of the room. With this also accomplished, she would happily march out of this room to the next room to create a havoc out there (sigh!!!!). No amount of pleading or scolding or threatening seem to stop her from doing this….. Can anyone tell me how to tame this wild little girl????????

Now about how she passes her time in the other rooms, well nothing different, its just that in the dining area it would be spoons or tiny plates and in the kitchen it would be onions or garlic or potatoes who face the same fate as the toys. At any time of the day our house looks like it’s just had a date with a hurricane or tornado.

She is the new found parrot of our house. We just cannot speak anything; the moment we speak she picks up words and repeats them in a flash. Not that she just repeats it; she also knows what we mean when we tell something. I and SM at times have to use code languages to make sure she does not follow what we are talking. She calls her granny (my mom) by her name and when mom makes a straight face you should see what this little imp does. She goes to mom, sits on her lap, keeps her face close to moms face, gives her sweetest smile and calls her “Ammumma” (granny). And as soon as she sees that mom has fallen for her bait, she gives a wide grin and calls her by her name again!!!!!!!

In a couple of days time Jelly is going to be 18 months old that is a year and a half!!!!!! Now I need some help from you experienced moms out there. Jelly still needs her night feeds and I’m just going crazy with it. She wails her life out if I do not feed her. She sleeps with a full tummy of Cerlac but in a matter of about 2-3 hours she is hungry and manages emptying a whole bottle!!! It’s been so long since I have got a full night’s sleep. Please do tell me what worked out for you………..I’m eagerly waiting out here for some true help.

Taking up the Verb-y Tag

Feeling a little low today, so just thought of taking up this tag from Shruthi just to give my idle mind a good and much needed exercise.......

I am: a fun loving person.
I think: I’m a little crazy.
I know: that the earth is round.
I want: to visit all the continents.
I have: very curly hair.
I wish: to get back to my pre-pregnancy day shape(sigh!!!!).
I hate: curds.
I miss: my college days.
I fear: being alone.
I feel: recharged just looking at Jelly.
I hear: Jelly’s cute laughter even when I’m at work.
I smell: the stale smell from my office AC.
I crave: to be with SM( he is off on a week long trip).
I search: for my old friends on Orkut almost everyday.
I wonder: why there is so much of hatred all around us.
I regret: not becoming SM’s friend earlier in life.
I love: anything that is chocolate flavored (edible of course) :D.
I ache: at the thought of not being able to spend quality time with my old friends.
I care: for people close to my heart.
I am not: an alien.
I believe: in God.
I dance: when I’m all alone.
I sing: when I’m happy.
I cry : when I’m frustrated.
I don’t always : give my best.
I fight : only when I know for sure that I’m right(and that too only to SM).
I write: because my memory is bad.
I win: almost all the Solitaire games I play.
I lose: my patience very soon.
I never: drink and drive ;-).
I always: keep chatting when at work.
I confuse: SM with some crazy logics.
I listen: to music when I drive.
I can usually be found: doing multiple jobs(online chatting, speaking on the phone and doing my work).
I am scared: of Jelly becoming a spoilt brat.
I need: food and oxygen to survive.
I am happy about: the number of friends I’ve made in the blog world.

Hey this was fun, it kind of recharged me for the day. Here I tag Aryan's mom , Mira's mom and anybody ready to take it up.

Travel Diary - Part 2

By the first half of the first year of our marriage we wanted to take a break from the normal routine and go on a vacation. Both of us enjoy visiting new places and preferably new countries. As we looked at travel options our eyes traveled on the eastern part of the globe. We would not have to travel for long and yet it would be a land we have always wanted to travel to. Air tickets booked, hotels confirmed we were all set to explore 2 beautiful countries at a time……….. Singapore & Malaysia here we come.

We took a flight out of Bangalore to Singapore. We were misled by some folks in Blr that there were frequent train connections from Sin to Kul (Kualalumpur) and the travel time would be about 2-3 hours. On landing into the beautiful Changi Airport we took a metro to the nearest station for continuing our journey to Kul. We reached the station and got to know that the train would be leaving in less than 5 minutes; we quickly purchased the tickets and literally ran towards the train. We reached there just in time and managed to jump into the train which was about to move. We were in for a shock when we came to know that the train journey would take us about 7 hours!!!!!!!! We had the major part of the day wasted in the journey. Not that the journey was bad, but we were disappointed that we would get so much less time in Kul. We could see the landscape changing from the hi-tech city of Sin to the lush green country side of Kul.

We always make it a point when we travel outside India to travel by the mass transport system. Traveling by local busses or trains just helps us to blend with the locals and have a peek into a normal day in their lives. It’s very rare that we take up a taxi ride. On arrival into KL Sentral Station we walked over to the mono-rail station which was a few minutes walk away. We purchased out tickets and took the first elevated train ride of our lives. As we smoothly sailed through the ride we got to see the city. A beautiful city, growing closer by the minute to modernity but still firmly attached to their roots. The city was all decked up, all around we could see offices and shops all beautifully decorated. It was Chinese New Year time!!

By the time we reached the hotel it was nearly 4 pm in the evening. We quickly checked in, rushed to our room and freshened up. Our room was on the 13th floor and from our room we could see the Petrona Towers. Our stomach was growling loudly……did I tell you….. through the whole train journey we could not get anything to eat as there were no stations and we could not find a pantry area in the train. We hit the hotel restaurant for a very late lunch or should I say a heavy snack round :D. Once our tummy’s growling reduced we saw it was too late to go anywhere far. So we went to the travel desk and arranged for our city tour the next morning and went out to explore the near by places on foot.

View of Petrona Towers from our Hotel room.

I was a little disappointed to find the walkways a little dirty with bits of garbage and a huge amount of rotten oranges strewn around. We got to see most of the shops decorated and another thing that we got to see was next to most of the displays there were a couple of oranges arranged. It’s later that we found out that they were auspicious for the Chinese and this being the new year time they had placed it like an offering to the God. After a relishing meal we wound up to our room. With the lights of the room switched off we admired the brilliantly lit up Petrona Towers and the sky line of Kul. Down below we could see the Monorail zooming by silently.

The next morning we were off on our city tour. The tour was on a seat-in-coach basis, so we had a group ranging from kids to people so old that we were in awe on how they manage taking out vacations on their own at this age………….The tour started of at Jalan Tugu - The War Memorial of Malaysia. The main attraction being a huge Bronze statue comprising of 7 men which is dedicated to the men who lost their life for the sake of the country’s freedom. It was a beautiful place, with a very peaceful surrounding. Just the right atmosphere for a War Memorial.


The War Memorial

The next place we were shown was the Menara tower on the way to Merdeka Square. Here we got to see the Sultan Abdul Samad building that houses the present day Court of Law. It’s a beautiful architectural monument constructed during the British rule. Opposite to the building proudly stood a 100 meter flag pole, the one on which the Malaysian flag was hoisted when the country got their freedom from British rule.


Merdeka Square

From there we moved on to see the Royal Palace. Not really cause visitors are not allowed beyond the main entrance, so we could only get a distant view of the palace. We got to click a couple of pictures of the guards, who by the way looked really stately and grand in those uniforms.

Our next stop was at the famous Batik factory. Here we were given a tour of the factory; we got to see how beautifully the prints were made in no time. The creative hands worked wonders on the simple cotton and synthetic materials. We visited the showroom that displayed the different clothing made at the factory. From here our next stop was at the Royal Selangor Pewter factory. On the way we were shown the famous Batu Caves(famous Murugan temple), but unfortunately they did not stop there so we could only view the place from outside. Once at the Pewter factory we were given a full tour of the factory and also the whole process of turning that ordinary looking metal into beautiful show pieces. We were totally new to this metal, but for sure we fell head over heels in love with it. How quickly it set into the shape required from a watery form. As good as it looks; it was a very pricy metal too. The Souvenirs were very inviting but the price tag burnt our tender eyes :D.


Pewter Factory

Our last stop for the day was the main attraction or rather the landmark of Kul- The Petrona Twin Towers. What looked like a beautiful landmark from the cozy comforts of our room was an overpowering building. As we walked closer to it we were in awe. Both of us hurt our neck by trying to look at the tower from its base. The group was given an option of either returning to the hotel in the same coach or we could break journey out there. SM and I decided to break journey and do a little bit of window shopping and of course put some fuel into our empty stomach.


The Petrona - Twin Towers

Chinese Musicians playing some lovely music within the Mall for the Chinese New Year Celebration (It was truly Heavenly.........)


This was our first time in a full fledged mall (this was prior to the Mall boom in Bangalore), we had a good time doing some window shopping. Then we hit the food court, where we got to see stalls with cuisines from all around the world. We were in no mood for experimentation, so landed up eating some delicious Indian food.After a tiring day we returned to out hotel room. We got freshened up and got ready to catch up with some relatives who were settled out in Kul for many decades. They wanted us over for dinner, so we were picked up from our hotel by them and taken to their home which was on the other end of the city.

A very warm family, whom we had never met before made us feel total at home. They wanted to treat us to some local cuisine, so off we went to a local Malay restaurant. The ambience was good, with more than 90% of the crowd being young guys and girls. There were tables where some birthday celebrations were going on; some folks just chilling out and the rest of the crowd were families out for a relaxing dinner. We had a good time minus the fact that the food was not one bit our kind of choice. But the lovely people that they were, we had a perfect ending to a perfect day.

The next day we bid farewell to this beautiful land, a little sad that we should have planned it a little better and stayed on for longer duration. But with a promise that we would come back here on a well planned and longer holiday for sure…………..