Blast from the past!

Poll of the week: who do you think she resembles the most?

A little piece of heaven

From Rhea-Week8

Rhea is 8 weeks old now. She has started becoming more responsive, coos a lot more, smiles often and is more attentive to the sounds and people around her.

Things she likes:

1. mommy (all the) time
2. massages by her grandma
3. tub bath by dad

Things she dislikes:

1. sleeping in her crib
2. being fed with a bottle
3. car halting at red lights

Mom and Dad love getting a slice of heaven :-)

Smart Babies

Talking of precocious babies, here's an interesting link from the New York Times about how babies as young as eight months can understand probabilities. Sounds a bit hokey, says Dr. Mathias. Me thinks - Rhea has a high likelihood of having a "probability gene" in her DNA.

In other news, I have been watching a lot of movies in between her feeds and naps, and the absolutely wonderful "The Incredibles" never gets old.

Social Smiling!

Rhea has started smiling (a real smile as opposed to the facial expression when she passes gas!). The Baby Center newsletter tells me this is a "social smile", and right on target for the 6-week mark. It's fascinating and heartwarming to see her react to us...she seems to reserve her smile for Aai though.

Tiny Turtle's Turn

Rhea's started turning her head and pushing herself already. We give her some quality tummy time after the resident masseuse (aka Aai) gives her a massage with some really delicious body butter. Here she is doing the complete 180 degree turn, with the ecstatic parents encouraging her like a racehorse.

Baby's Day Out - II

Sonali visited us from Seattle to give a lot of "traas" to dear Rhea, and now confident with our excursion to the Common, we decided to go for a day trip to Rockport, a beach town close to Boston. It was a lovely day, and the skies were just right (blue oh so blue, just like L likes them for the lens). This time, we were brave enough to go to a restaurant with Rhea. Fried clams, fried fish, and a seat right next to the ocean. Does a beach town trip get better than that? Oh, and some more lovely pics are up on Flickr.

Baby's Day Out - I

Livia visited us to celebrate Rhea's one month birthday, armed with goodies and lots of baby tips. L was impressed with his little sister dispensing such valuable advice. One of the evenings, we went out to Boston Common, and had a great time. It was Rhea's first trip out of Cambridge. Of course, she slept through it all and protested profusely only when the car stopped at traffic signals.

My Dancing Princess

L comes back from work and asks me if I "stimulated" her. I say not really, but I did play with her. Rhea has been listening to a lot of music since she was about -5 months old, and her favorite so far seems to be Dave Brubeck. But for "stimulation", she listens to Abba. Here she is frolicking, and looking quite stunned as she dances to some groovy music. Oh, and I had to do some major video editing to get my shrill voice out of the video :)

Being a petite little baby (by American standards), we are now used to having Rhea measure up in the 20-25 percentile growth range in terms of her head size, weight and length. Today was her one month wellness visit. Rhea had shot up to the 70th percentile in length in just 15 days! Both the nurse and the doctor were so surprised with her growth spurt, they measured her 2-3 times each! L's now happy and hopeful that she will be (much) taller than I.

1 month birthday slideshow

t'was a month ago...

From Rhea-1month

Rhea came in to our lives. She was born on the 3rd of July and every moment since then has been of pure joy and love. Coincidentally, Livia flew down from Mumbai for a short visit and we celebrated with some chocolate soufflé.

Happy 1 month birthday my dear munchkin!