Sunita's Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Baked these cookies for my son - he loved them
Used jaggery instead of sugar, raisins instead of chocochips and lots of cardamom in the recipe and they almost tasted like my favourite 'athirasam'
Original recipe here

Thrilled

Seeing Atri's fascination for anything in wheels, we decided to buy him a cycle - It was my uncle and aunt's wish that they get him one, when they saw him running after the neighbourhood kids' cycles ;)

This is the one we got him. He refused to get out from this, let alone leave the shop - Now i keep it hidden in some corner of the house as he wants to ride it every waking minute :)

Stepping into the world

May 3rd, 2010 - A day to remember
My baby's first day in a playgroup - first day away from familiar environs
He didn't turn around to look for me
Found joy in riding the wheely horses
In two hours, felt tired and sleepy - started getting worried looking for Mama - when the attendants called for me :)
Still, a brave two hours for him and me :0

The perch

Atri liked to perch his little bum on the small ledge outside the floor window in my parents' house - only I would worry if he sat with too much force and ended up going out of the glass :) Luckily we were spared of any such drama!

Sunny sonny

My little one getting his dose of vitamin D by the bedroom window!

Swami Atrinanda

Nothing but Atri cooling off in Mama's tee shirt that is like a flowy robe for him - the yellow colour is what inspired the title :)

AfterBath

I am having a breather from giving Atri a bath here as my mom has taken over that chore - S would take over the duty off and on at home. It's not the bathing that's difficult but the drying up and getting him ready...This is a sample of Atri's after bath expression!

Family gathering

The theme this week is turning out to be 'Family' - since I'm here till end of the month, I'll quickly have to find some new themes / subjects :)

Atri with his aunts

A sigh of relief

It was the first time that Atri and me were traveling by ourselves - so far S and me would alternate Atri-handling duties on the flight taking time to relax in between - I was all stressed out as to how I'd manage him by myself.

In the end all my worrying happened to be in vain, as I had the best flight ever with baby! After all the running around he'd done for an hour in the lounge, he was ready to sleep as soon as he had some milk on board - I managed to catch up on some reading with some freshly brewed ginger tea..bliss...

Just looking

The whole of 7th went by in packing up for the long trip to Bombay, so I just did not get a chance to even get my hands on the camera - so I'm posting a pic from the 8th where Atri was at his animated best in the airport lounge - the large bay windows overlooking the hangar held his attention for a little over a few seconds, which is a lot for me :)

Cuddles

Lots of them...before leaving him with the baby sitter for a Sunday evening out with the hubby and the visiting bro in law :)

[Self photograph, inspired by Sig]

The search is on...

...for a place where Atri can meet kids of his age to play with!
The things our parents did not have to do...
No kids of Atri's age in the vicinity :(

Learning physics in the kitchen

This pic is not to show how old the kitchen cabinets in this house are or how shiny my steel utensils are- but to share how babies don't have to be 'taught' laws of physics.
He was thoroughly enjoying himself by spinning one of the lids like a top while creating all kinds of (disturbing) sounds with the other utensils, as I prepared my morning cuppa tea. As long as he gave me enough time to prepare my tea, I wasn't complaining!

Ruci & Idoni

Atri and me went to check out this new supermarket in the locality - called Ruci & Idoni (don't ask me what that means or what language it is) - superbly laid out, smartly dressed courteous attendants, parking attendants plus all imported food items along with the regular Indian veggies, groceries and snacks make it a great shopping place for a foodie. It also has a fromagerie, bakery and a cold cuts section. What it didn't have was any interesting stuff in the baking ingredients section, only ready Betty Crocker boxes, not even choco-chips.

After a while Atri was ready to jump out of the trolley - there's only so much shopping a boy can endure :) even if it's with his favourite person!

My pet cat...

...stealing the milk in the morning

Non-paying guests...

...in a corner of Atri's room

Baby socks

The toy basket

A top view of Atri's toy basket - just felt nice looking at the riot of colours

Fresh

The satisfaction of doing small things by myself, sometimes....