Journeys

When you grow up in small town Canada, long car journeys are part of the experience. The first family car I can remember is a brown, Pontiac Catalina (I think). In typical North American fashion, it was huge with official seat space for six but probably enough room to fit in 10 fairly comfortably.

Sunil and Neena, my brother and sister, would sit in the back and I, the baby of the family, would be sandwiched between my mum and dad in the front. For a little kid, it was a good place to be especially when I felt sleepy. I would lie down, put my head on my dad's lap while he was driving and head off to a dreamy paradise.

Kirin seems to like the car, too. He usually falls asleep pretty quickly or amuses himself with his dog (the green thing in his hand). But as he grows older and increasingly curious, you get the sense he is keen to face forwards both to see what we are doing and to check out the world the right way round. Having been on a train facing the wrong way, I have to say that I can't blame him.

Ambitious

It is pretty safe to say that most people tend to think the dirtiest part of parenthood is the nappy/diaper issue. But one revelation is that, in fact, it's what happens at the other end that really makes things messy.

Kirin has been eating solid food for a couple of months, and the older he gets the trickier it becomes. First, he is more easily distracted these days which means getting the food into his mouth can be difficult. You end up playing games with him and when he opens his mouth to put a toy in, you quickly stick in a spoon of porridge or yoghurt. Second, it gets all over the place. If I get home from work after the evening meal, the immediate area around the high-chair looks a bit like a college bar after closing time.

Yesterday, Johanna took care of Sandro and Kirin for a few hours and, incredibly, decided to feed both of them at the same time. Even more impressive, it all went rather smoothly.

To soothe or not to soothe?

An early dilemma for new parents is whether or not to use a soother. It may be a UK debate, but there seem to be two schools of thought: a soother can become a dependency that eventually causes teeth to deform and, when you child gets older, is hard to break; using a soother helps your baby sleep.

For us, the decision was a pretty easy one to make because Kirin has never taken the soother. Instead, he usually prefers sucking on his right forearm when nodding off to sleep.

In the past couple of days, however, he seems to have found a sort of middle ground in the great debate. He has decided that a soother is a fun toy - easy to hold and fun to chew on. This pic was taken this morning.

BTW, if you are wondering why he looks a little teary-eyed and his nose looks a bit messy, it's the cold he's been fighting for the past couple of days.

Finding your feet

It's been a while since I updated the blog for a few reasons. First, we have been really busy between work and play of late. Second, Kirin has had a cold for the past couple of days which means the opportunities to show him in all his cute-ness have been rather few and far between.

So, how about another video? This was taken at Easter in Italy, a little clip of Kirin and his buddy Sandro. Just to remind you, Sandro is two months younger and is kind of bobbing because his mum is a dancer and he's got rhythm. It's a bit long - I haven't quite figured out how to edit - but personally, I can look at my son all day.

*******

Finally, I had an article in the FT yesterday about a new genre of film rooted in south Asian Diasporas. Most bizarre, a talk radio host on WABC in the US read it and now wants to interview me. How weird is that? I will let you know if anything materialises and when the show might be on.

Mama's boy

If you want to see how Kirin reacts when his mother is in the room, smiling and laughing at him, take a look at these pics from the weekend.