Like as if its not enough that she resembles her dad, Ruchi seems to be very keen on inheriting her daddy’s habits. For the past few days, I’ve been trying to make Ruchi quit her habit of sucking her thumb, by hold her hand while she sleeps. A few days ago I was shocked to see that she was rubbing the nail of my little finger while trying to fall asleep. Ever since I have noticed her doing that every time I hold her finger. If you are wondering why would I be shocked to see her do that, well its because Praveen had told me that he used to do that with his mom’s little finger when he was a kid.

Today Mohan Rao Uncle and Aunty paid us a visit. They brought Charvi along. Charvi was in a very happy mood and was shouting happily, while playing with Ruchi’s toys. Ruchi on the other hand, sat silently watching Charu play. Like her dad, Ruchi is very active when no one is around, but the moment she sees new people, she becomes very calm and silent.

All of a sudden the temperatures have dropped. It is quite chilly outside. At around five in the evening, Ruchi was a little cranky, since it was bright and sunny outside, I decided to take her for a quick walk. I did not realize that it was cold outside so I did not dress Ruchi up warmly. Thankfully I carried her fleece blanket. So I wrapped her in the blanket and we went for a walk around the complex. By the time we got to the tot lot, I noticed that it wasn’t too cold, so I took Ruchi out and put her in a swing. She enjoyed the swing for a few minutes. Other little girls in the park, were so excited to see Ruchi playing in the park. They came over and started touching and kissing her. Later on in the news I heard that temperatures will be worse tomorrow.

Today Aparna and Neeraj, came over in the evening to say Hi. It seems Hari was out of town and Neeraj wanted to go out. It was good having them over. They played for some time, but had to leave soon, because Esha and Aunty were alone at home.

Ever since our doctor recommended, we have been planning on trying to make Ruchi sleep in her crib. We have been postponing it for a while, but decided that it was about time. Tonight I put her in the crib and tried to put her to sleep. I read to her, turned on the music in her mobile, gave her a toy to play with, but after a few minutes she would realize what was happening and start wailing. I even tried rocking her to sleep and then placing her in the crib, but she woke up in less than a minute and started wailing. Then Praveen tried to put her to sleep, by carrying her. After struggling for over an hour, we gave up and she ended up sleeping with us.

Today Ruchi surprised everyone, when Rajesh Anna playfully set her on their mantelpiece, by balancing herself and standing on her own for quite some time with the sole support of the wall behind her. She actually stood there till Praveen took some photo shots of her. Though we wanted to stay longer, we had to head back home after lunch.

Rajesh Anna & Saila Akka’s new house is very beautiful. Ruchi had a great time crawling on the floor and playing with everyone. In the afternoon, after lunch we all relaxed in the basement watching the movie ‘Jalsa’ on their big screen TV. The only unfortunate event of the day was that Ruchi, fell off the bed again. I can’t believe it happened two days in a row. We have to be extremely careful. From now on even if we have to divert our eyes away from her for a couple of seconds, we are placing her on the floor. Now that she can rollover, it is hardly taking her a second to get to the edge of the bed. I hope this is the last time she falls off the bed.

Ruchi Alavilli slept on a bed,
Ruchi Alavilli had a great fall,
All the sweet words and sorries mommy said,
Could not calm Ruchi at all.

The thing we feared most happened today. In the afternoon, after Ruchi emptied her bowels, I cleaned her up, placed her on the bed, propped pillows on both sides, and then went to clean the potty. I had hardly been there for a few seconds when I heard big thud. I turned back and to my horror saw Ruchi on the floor with her face down. She started crying. I ran and picked her up, and tried to soothe her. It took her a few minutes to calm down. I felt so terrible. She had rolled over to the foot of the bed, where there was no pillow and had fallen down. I took me a couple of hours to recover from the shock. Thank goodness she was not hurt.

Today I decided to let Ruchi practice crawling on the floor. So I cleaned our floor on the main level and set her down. She loved crawling but she could only move backwards, which was frustrating for her because, every time she moved, she got further away from her toys. Later in the evening we decided to go to Rajesh anna’s house for the weekend to see Peddhamma. It was quite late by the time we reached, but they were all up waiting for us. It was great to see them all and Rajesh anna’s new house is very big and beautiful, but we are all very tired to enjoy it.

Ruchi has always been fascinated by books from the beginning. But she only loved to look at the pictures. She wasn’t too keen on waiting till I finished reading the page. But now she enjoys, when we read to her. There are times during the day when she prefers her books to her toys. We hope her interest in books continues.

In other news, at last we found the courage to invest in a deck for our house. We are very excited about it. The contractor came by today to finalize the design and material for the deck. Work will start as soon as we get a county and HOA approval. Part of the HOA paperwork involves getting signatures of our neighbors, stating that they have no objection. While collecting these signatures we found out that one of our neighbors was also from Andhra Pradesh. With our deck plans finally materializing, looks like we will be having a wonderful summer this year.

At last, Praveen’s got some serious competition. Up until today, he thought, he will never have to share his biscuits with anyone. Looking at the way Ruchi was relishing her vegetables, he thought she will not be interested in sweets for a long time or better yet, she might take after mom and not like sweets at all. Oh poor Praveen, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Of lately we’ve been taking Ruchi to the tot lot to see if she will like playing in the swing. When I took her, I used to swing her gently. She liked it and would check out everyone in the park while sitting in her swing. But ever since her dad joined in, he started swinging her swiftly, and she really loves it. I did not think that she would be ready for it. But she really loves it and now instead of checking out the people around her, she laughs heartily the entire time she is in her swing.

In other news, at last I was able to get a picture of Ruchi in front of one of the cherry blossom trees in our complex. Though it is not as impressive as the full bloom trees, it is still better than nothing.

It was such a beautiful day today. At last summer is officially here. In the afternoon, Ruchi and I went for a walk. It was a little warm but with the cool breeze blowing, it ended up being a very pleasant walk. Later in the evening Shruthi called to tell me that she is going to the tot lot with Nidhi. So I joined her. I am so glad I brought Ruchi to the tot lot. She really loved looking at all the kids and most importantly she loved sitting in the swing. While we were playing Praveen saw us from his car. So he stopped and joined us. Ruchi had a great time in the park. I will definitely make it a habit to take her there everyday.