Right on the heels of the first conceptual word (Aaoottide/Outside), comes the concept of closed – or “bund” as Anika puts it in Hindi. At first we thought that she was referring to a door, but soon we figured out that “bund” was uttered even when we closed the refrigerator, a box, or window blinds.

The version of Outside exactly how Anika puts it, as rephrased by Ananth and Surabhi. The word itself is not that critical a milestone, as Ms. Pandey was speaking profusely about topics ranging from nose, teeth, the moon and stars. It was the concept of inside versus outside that blew us away. When asked, “Where…

Within the first few days of comfortably and confidently walking around Dad’s listening room, Ms. Pandey made a direct play for Dad’s Triangle Celius speakers, and got a strong No! in response. The attempt was made a few more times, and was met with the same response. Since then, never has any attempt been made…

Futility reigned supreme when Rachna wanted to teach Ms. Pandey that the busybodies swimming around the Monterey Bay Aquarium tanks were “Fishes”. Ms. Pandey only referred to them as Nemo. Today, while reading her favorite, A Fish out of Water, Ms. Pandey pointed to Otto and purred Foosh!

Happy First Birthday, Anika! To celebrate this milestone, the three of us decided to brave the wintry Pacific winds and head down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since Anika had been really curious about haathi (elephants), bow-bow (dogs) and such, we had thought about visiting the zoo. But the incessant Northern California rains dashed any…

A lot was learned and forgotten during the trip to India. When I caught up with Ms. Pandey, she had forgotten how to say Hi or Bye. On the other hand, she was cruising comfortably along pieces of furniture, and even being so bold as to venture a few steps unaided between furniture.

A long 2 month vacation for Anika – a month each in Calcutta and Bhopal, India.

Through the sweat and blood of Rachna’s tireless efforts, Ms. Pandey has finally learned Hi and Bye. In fact, it has become addictive, and everyone who greets her, gets the appropriate response multiple times, till long after they have moved on. By the time Anika had to leave for India, she didn’t even need prompting…

Where is Anika? And Anika pats her chest proudly with her small pudgy hands and gives the interviewer a big wide smile. Word association has gone personal.

The next set – a pair on the top – are now barely visible.

Anika had been cruising alongside furniture all this while. Tonight, she moved her first few feet, unassisted. Though it looks like someone hurtling forward, almost falling but correcting herself at every step, it still was pure unassisted walking. A display for Dad, who will miss her mischievousness for one whole month when she is in…

Where is home? – and a turn of the head towards the front door. Where is Ma Ma? – and a turn towards Mom. Where is Daddy? – and she glances at me. There is now a definite sense of word association.

Learning the basic sounds, Anika has just mastered oo and ee together. Naturally, the first sound that she utters whenever something exciting happens is “Boo-eey“. If there are birds in the vicinity its boo-eey, boo-eey; if there are bright lights, its boo-eey, boo-eey. But there is one occasion when boo-eey is dreaded like the plague….

Thats what she has become. Ever since the San Diego trip (and maybe because of the prolonged proximity with Dad), politeness has all but disappeared from Ms. Pandey’s vocabulary. She howls whenever we leave the room, if we simply move away from her, if she doesn’t get the item of choice to play with –…

Ms. Pandey committed the worst crime possible in the family charter yesterday. She took out Dad’s prized CD #1 (Harmonium, Shaker Loops) from the John Adams Earbox collection, got excited after seeing her face reflected off the CD surface and started banging it with another CD. The Adams is now fully scratched, but may be…

With mobility comes the ability to go where your parents don’t want you to go. Ms. Pandey is now happily moving between exciting destinations, some of which are prone to destruction. Today morning, Ms. Pandey was sifting through Daddy’s DVD collection, picking each one out of the rack, examining them and then discarding them on…

Having gone through a break-in period, the new transporter is now fully active. It moves with relative ease, though it uses the same outdated mechanism – sit, bend forward and slide. Within a few seconds, the transporter is able to cross a room and move towards its point of interest.

Ever wondered whether a baby enjoys classical music over techno? We had read and heard from a large number of sources that a baby should be given a healthy dose of classical music right from day 1 – helps in growing their intelligence. Hence Anika was fed daily dosages of Bach, Beethoven and Bartok, and…

Anika has finally learned how to transport herself, oh so slowly, to her destination of choice. We plop her down in a completely deserted area, and rush to get something done. If someone looks at her continuously, they will not notice any movement at all. But disregard her for a while, and then look back…

I thought my little princess would never go against her parents’ wishes. Well, I was at least naively hoping it would be so, at least until that leather-jacket-wearing motorbike-driving death metal fan walks into her life. Or maybe its the bling-rim-spinning alarm-clock-wearing ghetto-wannabe Desi dude. In any case, the denials have started, and vigorously. It…

Anika has been walking around the house (supported via her fingers) for almost over a month now, but it has largely been a pleasure cruise where the passengers don’t really have a say as to where the ship is headed. All they know is that its headed towards some pleasurable destination. Since yesterday, the pleasure…

I know three languages: English, Hindi and a smattering of Bengali. But more significantly, I know what is used for Dad and Mom in these languages and a few more. I had never stopped to think as to why these particular words were used to signify parents. Now I do. The first few sounds that…

An off-white thin line delineated from the pink gums.

The sharp knife-like millimeter-sized edge of her first milk tooth. Bottom-center-right in layman terms, #25 in dental terms.

Suffering from a cold for almost 8 days now, Rachna took Anika to see the pediatrician. Apart from the usual about the cold not being so bad, and the fact that it takes almost 2 weeks for the cold to completely disappear, the doctor had a surprise for us: Anika was teething, and would probably…

Right from the start! When Anika spots a boy (baby, just to clarify), she starts cooing, gurgling, flapping her hands wildly, and almost starts shouting – as if to draw his attention. This continues till the boy finally notices her highness and acknowledges her calls. Once the goal has been achieved, the worth of the…

The day both of us had been waiting for, finally arrived today. Anika was able to match certain words to certain objects (non-living, mostly) for about 2-3 months now. She could recognize airplane (we are right along the San Jose airport landing trajectory), chimes, and home. A week ago she started recognizing more objects, such…