Happy Birthday to me!

I celebrated my birthday a couple weekends ago and turned young again. The kids were sick, we were sick but I did get to have dinner with my wonderful family, including my parents, and my in-laws.  It was a great night.

 

My girls and me. Best Birthday present ever!

Hugs all around.

 

Sisters :)

She's thirsty, I know.

Family picture.

Mommy, you want cake?

My entire family!

It's the end of the road...

My time has come to an end. Nursing that is. I am done nursing Jiana and its been a bittersweet, though more bitter in this case. She is almost 10 months old and I was able to keep going pretty strong until about month 6. That's when we had to start substituting formula, this was the same case for Suhana. I even took my pump to Chicago for a girls weekend in the beginning of August, because I didn't want that to be the end. I wasn't ready to be done with breastfeeding. But all good things must come to an end, right? I think as a working mom, you face different challenges in the nursing world. Many different things can affect your supply; stress, nutrition, frequency or lack of feedings.

Since, Jiana is my last baby, this is the last time I will feed a baby and that realization is sitting heavy on me. I really enjoyed the time I had with her one on one, the time when no one was around and she and I were able to just enjoy the moment. It warms my heart to see the look of satisfaction on her face after a good feeding.  Who wouldn't be happy?

I used to think about this with Suhana too, that my milk, was the only thing that sustained her for the first 6 months of her life!! That is incredible! They grow so much and to think that my body provided all those nutrients. I am grateful for the ability to nurse for as long as I did.  I will miss it, but I will have new experiences to share with them.

Jiana - 9 Months

Again, soooo delayed! But better late than never, right? So Jiana is 9 months old and she is up to so many new things. Foremost, she has gotten really good at picking herself up by holding onto an object and remain standing. I am not sure how she keeps herself up, with those adorable chubby feet but she does! She scoots around the house now by walking alongside the couch or holding onto toys. But now we have to be super careful since she is walking and falling! Most of the time she falls on her bum, which is somewhat padded.

She is a lot more vocal... her sounds of 'kakakaka" or "gagagaga" are heard more often. She definitely knows how to get attention, by either squealing or coming up to you and grabbing your pants to pull herself up.

And Jiana waves!! She waves hello and bye, with her hand open and palm up. It's pretty darn cute, and its exactly the same way Suhana used to wave. 

Her personality is starting to develop more as well, especially when her and Suhana are together. Suhana is in the toddler stage of "That's Mine!" We hear it constantly and we are constantly trying to explain that she needs to share. I think that concept will take some time to cement. But there is absolutely nothing cuter than Jiana watching Suhana play. Jia will just sit there and watch Suhana be a busybody playing with all her toys, with the BIGGEST smile on her face. I have to say, she loves her sister. Suhana who is pretty much in her own world most of the time, will stop and ask where Jiana is, if she hasn't seen her for a little while. Jiana on the other hand, follows Suhana around, will climb on her, and watch her with such curiosity. I know she is thinking, wait till I walk!

But don't get me wrong, I can see my future when these two will be fighting! Oh help us! When I get to that stage, I will be remembering how easy this was.

Mommy dressed me like a doll!

There goes the paper.

Daddy got in for a pic :)

Jiana - 8 months

This post is so very delayed, but I really want to document the month by month happenings of Jiana.

So, this month, she perfected sitting up. She doesn't fall back anymore and has a great posture. She has started to produce more sounds, mostly repeats of the same two letters, like this "ja ja ja ja ja" or "da da da da da". Yup, she sometimes says Dada. :) I haven't really her heard her say "mama" but Avikar told me she did one night, when she was calling for me.

She also started crawling around a little. She rocks back and forth on her knees and then pushes forward. AND her big thing is grabbing onto anything, legs, sofas and toys and standing up! All she wants to do is stand up on her own. Her little feet are still too small (I think) but she balances pretty well on them. A lot of the times, she does fall down on her bum.

The falling and hitting her head on things phase had also come upon us. I remember how much I did not like this part of them becoming mobile. Its so hard to catch her always, but even harder to watch her fall and cry. I hope the noggin is pretty hard so she recovers quickly but its really not fun.

And she is still the happiest of babies, always smiling and only fussy when she is hungry, sleepy or wants you to play with her. Which is another change...She doesn't like to be left alone anymore, someone needs to play with her! Of course I love to, but it also makes it a little hard to do any chores. She is so observant when she plays with each toy, she analyses it, turns it around in her tiny hands, and when she realizes someone is watching her, she breaks into a humongous smile. 

Here are some pics of the 8 month old!

Yup, I'm crawling!

Put that paper down Jiji!

:)

Picture Time!

I have a moment! YAY! So, I am going to share some photos. Here are the last few weeks.




CAN NOT get over this mischevious smile!

Poser :)

Mama Leapord and Baby Leapord

Kisses. She loves them!

How cute is that? Check out Suhana's arm under her sisters head!

The girls.

The drama queens..(I was referring to the girls)

A rare smile for the photo

Love this look.

And Fathers Day was a great day that we got to spend together. Family time is happy times.




Take 1.

Take 2. Perfect!

Horsing around with Dad.

Really listening

I have to update this blog with so much, but I came across this quote on a website and I needed to share.

Too many times, when the kids are trying to get our attention and incessantly screaming "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom...!" its easy to ignore them, but, this rings true. It's mostly a reminder to myself ;)

Listen earnestly to anything your child wants to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big. Because to them all of it has always been big stuff.

Catherine M. Wallace

Thankful

Lately, I have been feeling very sentimental about my girls growing up. I have been thinking about the things I used to do for Suhana but now don’t have to since she is more independent, how she hated washing her hair, but now doesn’t cry and even asks for it, how I don’t have to feed her dinner anymore because she eats by herself, how I used to pick her outfit and now she has opinions on what to wear, or actually what not to wear! I know I get to go through all this again with Jiana, but I think what’s causing this emotional episode is that my baby, my first-born is turning 3 in less than 3 months! And frankly, I’m not ready! How can she be 3? That’s practically on its way to 5 and then 8 and then 13!!!! STOP TIME just stop!

She is becoming the funniest, no-fear, smart kid I know. She says things like “is that cool, mommy?” after we have a conversation and the “Why?” questions have started. She now waves me off with “Give me a big hug, mommy” and a “ and give me a kiss” when I drop her off to school now. (No more tears!)

I still look at her and can’t believe, Avikar and I were blessed to have this child. She and her sister are the apples of our eyes. I promise to be thankful for their health, happiness and love everyday.