Kaurage

Dear Baby Singh,

Today is Mother’s Day, which means that I, your mother has been bestowed upon this honor by the corporate world of Hallmark and the likes. And its not just me, but millions of mothers worldwide celebrate this day to honor themselves, and kids like to shower their love and express their gratitude for how much their mothers did to raise them and how much they sacrificed along the way. Every daughter and son is paying homage to their mother by putting their Mom’s picture on Facebook for one day!

Now I completely understand that you are still quite little and don’t really understand the ways of this world, so in the meantime, your dear father has kindly taken it upon himself to treat your mother on this day, with flowers and brunch, you know the usual stuff. So while I am waiting for you to grow up and take it upon yourself to pamper me on Mother’s Day in more creative ways than your father can think of. I will take this opportunity to write down the reasons you should be expressing your gratitude in case you forget, and decide to let this day pass by in future without any celebration of sorts. Just putting my picture on your FB account will not be enough!

Now in case you grow up to be very witty and a lawyer type, you might argue that all mothers do it, and it was my responsibility to raise you, and you are right. But you, my dear son, are no easy child to raise. So I think I deserve an extra pat in the back for happily and thanklessly fulfilling my duty for 364 days of the year. So today my love, bear with me, as I decide to not be selfless for just one day and expound upon the feats of motherhood because no one else will do it better than a mother herself!  (And I am sure a lot of mothers will agree with me!)

1. I carried you in my belly for 9 months. Need I say more? While I couldn’t see you, but I could definitely feel all the crazy symptoms and kicks that came along with you camping inside me.

2. I did not drink coffee, didn’t eat sushi and a whole list of items, hell, did not even sleep on my back for what felt like ages just so that you could have a luxury first class stay in my womb.

3. You decided to keep me in labor for 36 hours – that’s one and half days of pain and sleeplessness. Do you have any idea what that feels like?!

4. Talking about sleep- I can now officially be declared chronically sleep deprived, because it has been almost 2 years since I got a full night of sleep thanks to you!

5. You decided that breast is best and refused to drink milk or formula from all the bottles in the world. And refused to go to sleep until you got your “mother dairy” supply, and would wake up whenever in the middle of the night to help yourself again. Now I can practically tuck these milk bags into my belt.

6. When you are teething, you think that biting down hard on mommy and seeing her writhe in pain is a fun game! Yeah!

7. You want your mommy as soon as she walks in from work, which is so cute, but I can really use 5 minutes of sitting on the couch or even going to the bathroom, before obeying your commands.

8. You think that the hair on your mother’s head are a convenient handle, which you can pull in whichever direction you want to navigate her. Well I have already lost half of them and I am not sure I am gonna get them back again.

9. Getting food into your tiny body is a marathon in itself. Actually more like a wrestling match between Chyna and 1-2-3 Kid.

10. Last but not the least, driving anywhere with you is like road rage in the baby car seat. Either I think of hundred ways per minute to keep you entertained or feel guilty about letting you watch cartoons on youtube.

So there you have it. 10 ways you made my motherhood journey all the more adventurous, way more fun and filled with unbridled love! I am not only a mother because of you, you have made me a better human being and I thank you for that. I love you son!

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Stay Kaurageous

DJ

When I was pregnant, I spent so much time researching, reading reviews for things to buy for my baby, that I could have done a graduate course with that time. Of course we all want the best for our babies and it sure seemed reasonable to be spending a ton of money on the baby. But for those people who are scared and think babies are an expensive proposition, you know actually the babies themselves don’t need a lot of stuff, majority of the stuff is for our own convenience! And I am all for convenience in the difficult first year as a parent.

I have rounded up this list of the things that I put in my baby registry and were definitely useful in the first year. Hope this can give you some ideas!

Tip – Try to put things in different price ranges so that everybody could find something affordable to gift. I targeted items in $25-$35 and $50ish range which is the usual gift giving range in my circle.

1. Nose Frida – This snot sucker has been a life saver. We never think about it, but the fact is that babies can’t blow their own nose. So we have to literally suck it out of their tiny nosies. Grossed out? Better get over it, because you will be doing much grosser things as a parent!
2. Baby Essential Nail Kit – This has all the essentials for grooming your superstar baby! It has a brush, comb, nail filers and nail cutter – things that I am still using!
3. Baby Wrap – Putting a fussy baby to sleep is a back breaking job, so save your back and put the baby in the wrap and have your hands free to do all the facebooking or shopping! I prefer the Ergo baby carrier, while my husband likes the Boba Wrap.
4. Baby Bottles – I really liked this whole set of Dr. Brown bottles in different sizes, thought these are great bottles but in hindsight I shouldn’t have committed to just one brand. Baby Singh had reflux, so we ended up trying a couple more bottles from which I really liked Joovy.
5. Born Free Bottle Warmer- Cooler – Though you can totally get away with warming a cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes and putting the bottle in the cup to make it nice and warm for the baby, but if your husband doesn’t like running downstairs to the kitchen in the middle of the night to make a bottle, get him this. This warmer has a mini cooler, where you can keep the bottle overnight in your room, and then warm it up in less than a minute!
6. Dr brown bottle sterilizer – this big fat machine fits a lot of bottles and random stuff, and its electric which I think is better than microwaving! But the bottles comes out wet so you will have to give it some air time to dry.
7. Bottle drying mat – Talking about drying, this mat worked out really well for drying bottles and pacifiers.
8. Boon Changing station – This is so good looking that I used to keep this in the living room where I would spend most of my time! Whenever the baby needed a diaper change, I used to pull it out, change the baby, and push it back under the coffee table! Talk about convenience 😉 (P.S I also had the changing pad fixed to a dresser in the bedroom for those middle of the night diaper changes.wipe warmer
9. Skip Hop Activity Gym – for the baby to lie down and be amused so you can sneak in an episode of House of Cards!
10. Badger Diaper rash cream – Its natural and works like magic on a rash.
11. Swaddling blankets – 10 points for convenience, but your baby will outgrow it soon, so try the lose muslin cloth swaddling blankets from Aden and Anais too. You can use these as a nursing cover, scarf, snot wiper, cleaning rag, basically anything!
12. Maxi Cosi Infant Car Seat – If you know that someone in your family is going to be spending big bucks for your shower, or if couple of your friends can pool together and gift you a big ticket item then feel free to put your favorite infant carseat to your registry. We used Maxi Cosi Mico AP which was among the lightest in its category. (Baby singh always cried in his carseat,but we are sure it wasn’t the fault of the product, but our own product ;))
13. 4moms Mamaroo bouncer – though baby singh never really fell asleep on the swing, but he sure hung out on it a lot.
14. 4moms Bathtub – I have already talked about this bathtub in a previous post!
15. Jenny Lind Crib – If you are not planning to co-sleep with your baby, then don’t listen to your mom and put them in a crib from day one! Read about my co sleeping struggles here! This is a beautiful unisex crib which looks good in any room!
16. Diapers and Wipes – Be not afraid to ask for diapers and wipes coz you are going to need a shit load of them! I still love Honest wipes, but currently loving Bambo diapers after trying a few other brands.

I wouldn’t recommend putting clothes in the registry, as you are anyways going to get a lot as gifts. But if you want to have less expensive options then onesies sets are a good idea! (10 points for convenience!)