Japan Autumn -Trip to Hibiya park

It is Autumn time in Japan. Richie is 10 months old now and this is his first experience of autumn. The weather is pretty cool, but he seems to enjoy himself.
Richie loves nature and the moment he steps out of the door in his stroller, he gives a broad smile with a "yeehh, yehh" meaning we are going out "grrrrooom, grooooom".


We thought of making a trip to Hibiya park to enjoy fall. The trees change their dress from green to beautiful orange, red, yellow color. On our way to the park we across the Imperial palace moat (called so as it surrounds the Imperial palace). His Majesty (The Emperor of Japan) lives in the Imperial Palace. There was a beautiful swan swimming in the waters and we were lucky to find it so close to us.

There were many people in the park. Some were sitting on the benches and reading books, some were doing photography, kids were playing and babies were enjoying a ride in the stroller.There was this wedding in a nearby hall and the Japanese bride was posing near the fountain. We could get a slight glimpse of her from far.


Another thing I loved was a man who was sitting near the fountain and playing his guitar. I liked the amalgamation of music with nature. It was soothing to the ears. Richie was enjoying the cool breeze near the big fountain. He loves the fountain. He got into a deep slumber in the cool breeze and got up right in time for a photo session.

Why are you boiling the white balls?

Here's the thing about the white balls. Riya placed a couple of them in the vessel, poured in some water and kept them to boil. I was carrying Richie, who was intently watching what mama was doing. Seeing the white balls in the water and the vessel on the flame, he immediately expressed his surprise. "Huh!?, Huh!?", he said, and "Huh!?" again.

Richie has recently become very curious. Rather, he always was, but recently he has begun to express his curiosity verbally. With a big question mark on his face, he'd go, "Huh!?,... Huh!?", interchanging looks with the thing he's curious about and the person who he expects an answer from - that would be Riya or me.

So what could it be that he was curious about this time? Now if you paid careful attention to my previous post, you'd realize that there was no white ball in the set of balls we recently brought for Richie. So his curiosity was well justified. Did he just want to know what it is that we were doing with white balls? Or where the white balls appeared from?

Kids and their questions! I could clearly see that the time had come. I look forward to some interesting years ahead, answering all those crazy questions that are going to pop up every now and then. So off I went, trying to address one of Richie's first questions - or at least what we could make sense of from his curious "Huh!?,... Huh!?". "Why are you boiling the white balls?". "Well, son, these are called eggs...".

Richie attempts three-ball juggling at ten months of age

A couple of weeks ago, Riya brought Richie some colored balls - blue, orange, yellow, pink and green, which instantly became his favorites. He'd hold one in each hand, and we'd have fun seeing him trying in vain to grab yet another one though his two hands were already fully occupied. He was almost obsessed with the balls and, for the first few days, would just not want to let go off of them. He'd even crawl, or rather commando on his arms/elbows, still holding on to a ball in each of his little hands.

Well, we ourselves liked the balls and, just for fun, even tried doing some juggling with the other three balls while Richie was focused on the two that he could handle. We would have probably tried it only for a few minutes, and didn't realize that we were actually being watched. As soon as we gave up juggling and kept the balls down, Richie immediately took control of them and, guess what, started banging the balls together desperately trying to juggle the balls himself.

I must say that he is a fast learner, and I sure am proud that he started juggling - or at least trying to do so - at an age as young as just ten months :-)

Fatherhood – Diary of a dad

Thank you, Riya!

Well, hello everyone! As you can see from the URL, little did my wife know when she started this blog that I would also contribute to it someday. She was pleasantly surprised when I said to her the other day that I would also like to write some posts, from the perspective of a dad.

The truth is that I have been wanting to take the time out to write, ever since Richie was conceived one and a half years ago. Lots of sweet memories and loads of stuff to share, but time just flew by so fast. I plan to make some back-dated posts to make justice to those memories, especially for Richie to read about them. So, better late than never, I'm here to write about it all - from a dad about his son, from a dad to his son.

Consequently, I hope to be able to convince Richie's mom to change the title of this blog to include "fatherhood" as well, but that would not be fair until my contributions come anywhere close to the loads of stuff that Riya has already brought about.

As I am joining the good stuff that Riya has been carrying on with such dedication all this while, I look forward to us making this a complete experience - from a mom as well as from a dad, from the proud parents of our lovely baby boy, Richie.

A warm welcome to Richie's Dada

The other day Richie's dada told me that he too would like to pen down sweet memories of our baby. I was thrilled to hear that. I have invited him to contribute to this blog. I am looking forward to his contributions of the journey of our lives together as parents. I am sure Richie will enjoy reading dada's posts when he grows up. And I hope you guys too.

A loud round of applause by small hands

I am very fond of singing and dancing. I often put on music and dance my heart out. It helps me to exercise and also keeps Richie entertained. He usually smiles and bounces while sitting.
The other day he did something different. As soon as my dance was over, he started clapping. O wow, my heart skipped a beat. Happily, I phoned my hubby and told,"You know what,I actually got a loud round of applause from small hands for my dance today".

Baby is 10 months old today - Milestones

Richie is 10 months old today. He has been doing a lot of things. And bringing a lot of joy to our lives.
Some of his things he loves to do are:

• Saying mama, dada, baba, haba, nene, mammam(when hungry),huuhun(for questions and asking about new stuff),roaring sounds.
• Crawling well on his 4s.
• Pull up to a standing position from sitting, holding onto support.
• Walking a little holding onto furniture.
• Dancing on his feet.
• Trying the pincer grasp.
• Responds to his own name(started from the 4th or 5th month).
• Imitate others, specially people in videos.
• Shows/touches his head, mouth, tongue, hands and legs when asked.
• Playing the keyboard
• Singing using his toy as microphone.
• Indicates choice for music and songs by making sounds meaning yes and no.
• Clapping hands when he likes something and is happy.
• Waving Hi and Goodbye.
• Respond to command without gestures like "No","Get the ball","Open/close the book","Sit Down/Stand Up","Wait for 2 mins, mama is coming","Give the ball" etc.
• Signs/make sounds meaning "come", "milk", "want love", "made poop", "hungry/thirsty"
• Distinguish emotions by the tone of our voice like happy, angry, sad.
• Puts toys or objects into a container.
• Play ball by throwing to us and catching it.
• Looks at objects when we say the names i.e ball, clock, alphabets, piano, pooh, dog, cat etc.
• Pull off socks and also remove tshirt when it is around his neck.
• Eating cooked rice without pureeing.
• Biting apples,bananas,pears and eating.
• Loves to look at picture books by turning the pages.
• Plays peekaboo and finds toys hidden under bedsheets, pillows etc.
• Loves to use the remote.

Baby ate egg and flounder meal

Richie is close to completing 10 months. He started eating solid foods after completing 6.5 months. We tried leafy vegetables,carrots, corn, beans, lentils, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, wheat etc. with a mix-and-match combination for the past 3-4 months. And also fruits like banana, apples, pears etc. I used to usually puree or mash the food before feeding him. He has kind of got used to the food now. He is ready for new tastes and textures. Pureed food doesn't suit him much. And he gives me the questioning look "Just vegetables and fruits everyday Mama?"

Keeping his new tastes in mind, we thought of trying new foods. We were not sure what new baby foods to give and what is the best way to prepare them. A friend of ours told that there are nice baby foods containing fish, chicken, egg etc. in the super store. She has tried for her 10 month old and he just loves them. Off I went and purchased a few for trial.

Richie had his first meal of egg and flounder today. He has this habit of feeling the taste of new foods for sometime before taking the next spoon. He was happy to have something new. But more than him, I was the happiest seeing my baby liking the new stuff.

Nogeyama Zoo - Trip to the land of animals and birds

Richie watches a lot of videos featuring animals. He has started liking them a lot. His favourite one is the animal sound video, "The dog says bow-bow, the sheep says baa-baa" and also "Mom is taking us to the zoo tomorrow". He gets happy and claps when the videos are played.


Now that Richie has started liking animals, we decided to take him to the Nogeyama zoo.We make half-day trips so that he doesn't get too tired. Richie was very excited as it was his first trip to the zoo. After entering the zoo, the first thing that attracts you is the red Panda. Children scream in delight to see the little one trotting around in his little forest. The Panda is always seen thinking and moving around as if there is some huge responsibility on his shoulder and he needs to find a solution to it.

Then we went to see Richie's favourite Monkeys. I have seen many children loving monkeys. I wonder why..is it because they have a close resemblance to us?

Next was a visit to the gracious Tiger and Lion. This beautiful and ferocious animals were a treat to the eyes... and maybe they thought the same about us too ;)It was Richie's first encounter with the Tiger and the Lion face-to-face. No worries, of course they were in the cage. Their loud sounds didn't scare Richie, as Richie thinks he is a tiger himself, always making roaring sounds and trying to scare us at home.


Then we went to see the gigantic Giraffes. They come so close to you,that you feel you can almost touch them. By the time we finished clicking photos, Richie got tired and fell asleep. Nevertheless, we kept going.

After sometime we reached a pond having lots of Ducks and a Swan. The ducks were in a merry mood and quacking loudly. Richie might have heard it because he woke up and started smiling. It might have sounded familiar. He kept staring at them and enjoyed watching them waddle in the pond.

Last was penguin time. We missed the domestic animals as we reached the spot a little late. They close it 20 minutes before the actual closing time of the zoo.

Richie came home happy, having seen the animals live, rather than just pictures,videos. But before leaving the zoo, we didn't forget to buy souvenirs for him to remember in the years to come, the Red Panda and the Tiger.

How to get to Nogeyama Zoo:
1)From Yokohama Station, take the JR Negishi Line to Sakuragicho Station and then walk for about 15 minutes.
2)A 10 min. walk from Hinodecho Station by the Keikyu line.

Address:63-10 Oimatsu-cho, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi,Japan 220-0032
Phone: 045 231 1307
Fax: 045 231 3842

Baby has started standing - 9.5 months old

I am wonder-struck at how babies starting from nothing reach such great milestones. I will surely attribute it to their constant practice and determination. They observe, study and do it themselves. Wish, we as adults also could learn something from them. When we reach a certain age, we tend to stop learning. We feel we know everything or if we do not know, sometimes we tell ourselves, "it is too late to learn now".. and the mind does what we think. It does not know whether it is right or wrong. It stops being receptive and shuts itself,closing all doors to new information.
But kids till a certain age (0-12)years try to learn as much as possible. They make their knowledge bank richer and richer day-by day. We should support and guide them towards a bright future.
Having said that I am happy to say Richie is making steady progress and achieving new mobility skills. Richie has started standing, holding the railings of the bed. He first tried kneeling down and trying to put pressure on one leg and stand. After some practice, he could stand easily from a sitting position holding to something. Now he even holds our fingers and stand. He can pick objects with one hand while standing holding onto support. And what more.. He dances to his favourite music on his feet now. You should see the happiness on his face when dancing. He loves this "hello kitty" tune and the song.

Playing the keyboard

Richie has got a fancy for his keyboard (meant for children)these days. He has his own unique style of playing the keyboard. He uses his legs more than his hands to play the keyboard. He is our Mr.DJ. Sometimes he will put on auto song mode and go to play with other toys. If the song gets over he will come over from wherever he is and play another one.
As I said earlier, he has a great liking for music. He is thrilled to have an instrument of his own. He likes to create a fusion.Along with the keyboard, he also plays the drums and the rattles creating a band of his own.