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…

There is a distinct difference in the way Anika interacts with grown-ups (alas, we fall heavily into that category now), and with kids in her age group. With the grown-ups, its all about tantrums, mood swings, pick-me-ups, desires and opinions. With infants, its all about love, interaction and a weird sense of mutual understanding. A…

All three of us are down with a bad cold, but only one of us doesn’t seem to care. While Rachna and I are complaining and cursing about bad headaches, itchy runny noses and watery eyes, bad appetites and lack of sleep, Anika seems relatively unaffected by the blocked nasal passages, as long as. of…

All three of us are down with a bad cold, but only one of us doesn’t seem to care. While Rachna and I are complaining and cursing about bad headaches, itchy runny noses and watery eyes, bad appetites and lack of sleep, Anika seems relatively unaffected by the blocked nasal passages, as long as, of…

Having only shifted a few centimeters earlier, Anika’s cruise control mechanism was further improved on her table top toy today. At Joshi’s shiny new glass house, Anika was cruising, oh ever so slightly, on their glass center table. Back home, it was time to try her skills on the table-top toy. Within a span of…

Imagine a blissfully sitting, disappearing behind her toys, and listening to music in the music room Anika. Suddenly we would hear a coo and a gurgle which would evolve into strengthened and sustained cooing. Peeping into the room, we could see Anika turning her head almost 100 degrees and staring straight at something in our…

For almost 3-4 months now, Ms. Pandey wakes up and lies still in her crib for a few minutes, expecting her mom to get up and pick her up. After the timer expires, she starts cooing and gurgling to alert us to the event. It is at this moment that we wake up (sharp 9am…

Since last night, Anika has been dealing with her first viral infection – the common kind – cold. Throughout the night she was coughing, and had serious nasal blockage.

Lately, Anika has been very very busy on the kitchen floor. She can spend hours staring at the floor and feeling it with her thumb. Now we also know why she keeps herself so busy. She is not seeing the light reflections or the contours on the tiled floor. Rather she takes her thumb and…

So far, Ms. Pandey has been able to stand from the sitting position by holding our hands. Once standing, she could stay put in one position for almost 15-20 minutes. While playing with her table-top toy, she finally progressed. Now there is this favorite cookie on the toy which delights Ms. Pandey tremendously. She has…

It was exactly a month ago that Rollback Beethoven was performed along the waterfront in Chicago. Now it was time to perform Rollover. We don’t know what it is with the hotel beds that encourages Anika to explore her surroundings. It seems as if her crib mattress is present only for banging her legs and…

Anyone who knows Mama and Daddy even casually, will know that they are insane chocoholics. I could have bet at conception that Anika would also be a chocoholic, and she hasn’t proven us wrong. At 6 months, she was licking away at gallons of chocolate ice cream (the bitter the better), eating chunks of chocolate…

Trip to Chicago, courtesy Nortel and Supercomm. What has that got to do with Anika, you say? Well, before this trip, an Anika on the stomach was not a very happy Anika. What’s worse is that this Anika was also a very helpless Anika, as she had no clue as to what to do in…

Anika was born on the 30th of December, 2004, at 4:40pm in El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. At birth, she was 20 inches tall and weighed 7lb 2oz. Much to the chagrin of her Mom, she missed being a year younger by 2 days, while Dad was happy to get the tax break…