And what will she be having?

I had an awkward experience yesterday that has given "I love you to death" a new meaning for me. I met a neighbor in our same building who invited me to her apartment. Hospitality is big here, and I haven't learned how to graciously decline what is offered. 

It is difficult to avoid being given what you truly do not want to consume here. As soon as I entered her home, the list of possibilities came: water, coffee, chai, juice,...? I tried this slice of truth with sugar on my hostess, "oh, don't trouble yourself, I must leave soon anyway because my baby needs her nap. I'm just happy to meet and visit with you for a short while," to no avail. "We'll, then, what will she be having?!" I told her that Emma only is breastfeeding and having puréed food right now. This spawned an onslaught of information from my hostess about how Emma should be able to eat the peanut-laden honey wafers, apple slices, Hershey's kisses and soda-juice she was offering because she gave her children these things at the same age, "and look how healthy they are?!" I glanced at the adorably fat Eleanor-the-chipette lookalikes in the hallway... Quite overweight for their age, but more importantly for this culture not looking hungry or too thin. In an attempt to make amends for offending her unknowingly, I took a slice of apple in compromise and allowed Emma to teeth it as we talked. 

Emma, at some point in the conversation, chomped through the slice and nearly gulped a large chunk of crude apple. Freaked out, I fished the chunk out of her mouth, saving her from the need to have the thrusting back move I had practiced in infant CPR. I scowled an, I told you she wasn't ready for this, in my heart while hugging Emma. My hostess cocked her head to the side and disapprovingly glared at me like you would look at a woman thrashing her child abusively in a supermarket and said, MADAM! You REALLY should be more careful with your daughter!!! 

Honestly, I lost sleep over this goofy apple incident last night. What if she had choked?! The nerve of that lady for rattling me so much to compromise with her so she could feel generous and then to insult me as a mother for what I knew could happen anyway. The fault really is mine, though. I shouldn't care about easily offended acquaintances, or at least I need to put Emma's safety above my dislike for them being a little perturbed at me. I'm still a bit ticked about this incident. I wish I had just begged off and left when she got pushy. What would y'all have done?

Reflective play

These days, our mirror has to be cleaned daily. Emma, like the scene in MI:3, likes to place her palms on the mirror and scale the wall mirror until she's standing. 

Then she kisses the baby in the mirror and they play with each other's hands.

 It is super cute to watch!

Won't you be my neighbor?

Emma and I had fun today on our morning walk. Now that we have our new Ergo (yay!) walking with Emma is easier. At over 18lbs, she had outgrown the Baby Bjorn carrier and it would put a considerable strain on my back. Today, we ventured out into the unexplored reaches of our neighborhood.

Here are some of our sightings:

There is a lot of construction going on down the road from us. We live in a suburb of the city that is quickly developing. 

Construction workers live in the basement or yard of the building they are constructing in blue tarp-covered lean-to's. 

It is fascinating to see the lady construction workers with their plastic flat-topped caps that have large sandbags on top. They stroll gracefully in colorful sarees to where the sand will be dumped into a mixture to make concrete. Their male cohorts are shoveling sand into bags, mixing concrete, laying bricks, and shimmying up bamboo scaffolding in mini lungies (a wrap-around skirt, that I've been told has boxer shorts underneath). Other men are in light button-up collar shirts and khakis. 

Two ladies approach us, and gesturing with their eyes and cheeks to Emma say, "Naam?" (Name?) I reply, "Uska naam Emma hai." (Her name is Emma) They smile, snap their fingers and make interesting sounds with their tongues and teeth to get Emma's attention. After smiling together and realizing that they don't speak Hindi or Telugu, much, we are interrupted by one of the men asking the ladies to come back to carry another sandbag.

As we continue walking, ladies and gentlemen in suits and name badges walk past us toward the main road to catch rickshaws or the bus to their jobs in HiTech City. I speculate about which are ITs and which are other professionals. 

Closer to our complex as we come back home there is literally a hole-in-the-wall barber. He has a turn-style chair, like those in his profession, and it is in the middle of a concrete slab building that is my height and the width of two port-a-potties. He is too focused on washing the tools of his trade in a bucket to notice our presence. 

A few steps down from the barber is a pan (pAHn) shop where chewing tobacco and mini candy bars is sold from a little carnie booth. It is 10am and this man is setting up his shop.

A block away from the barber is the dumpster. Next to the dumpster is a woman in a dusty saree, re-folding the bottom wrap that goes around her hips. I think it might be her job to sort what is in the trash bags into separate bags, then to load those bags onto the bicycle in front of her and cart them to another location. I ponder to myself about how one man's trash actually could hold another man's treasure here. She may hope to resell some items in those bags. We catch each other's eye and I smile at her. She quizzically looks at my carrier, "Paapa?" (Is that a baby girl?) we give greetings and continue our walk home.

Just wanted to paint a little word picture for you of the opposite side of our neighborhood.

"the zoo park"

Today was Emma's first trip to the zoo park.  The zoo here is very nice.  You can get in for fifty cents!!!  

Also, the cages are open-air and you can be within forty feet of a Bengal tiger or a lion.  

The hyena was only ten feet away!  

Emma loved the peacock most of all (or at least it caught her attention most of all).

Houston, we have teeth!

After a long wait, her first two teeth have arrived! The first came on August 5th and the second on the 13th. They are still not all the way in, yet, so we have some more fussy days (and nights) ahead of us, I'm afraid. They are so sweet, though!

Birthday pie ...on ice?

Hmm... I learned some things when making Matt's birthday pie:

1) read all cooking instructions before beginning

2) sous chef prep is important and should be done prior to throwing all things together... Otherwise you end up wishing you could whisk a boiling pot of stuff, divide and whisk yolks, etc all at the same time

3) tempering cornstarch is important

All of these would have made the coconut CREAM pie, instead of the coconut SOUP pie we discovered.

It is now a coconut icebox pie. It, as prepared, would make fabulous popsicles!

New friends

We went to a new group (for us) yesterday (they've been meeting together since the early 90s). Matt had met a couple that goes there previously and went there last week. The people are really nice and the couple is awesome. They have been working here in a similar capacity for the past nine years, but she is from Venezuela and he is from this city. It was encouraging to get to talk to them about all they've experienced. The husband and Matt will likely partner together, and this is so great because he is like-minded and will make a great partner. Our first real outside partnership! Yay! The wife is really nice and they have two young daughters who like to play with Emma. The group we attended is made up of people from our target group who have crossed-over and are now part of the family--including this new friend/partner! Isn't Father great?!

Happy Half-Birthday, Emma!

Happy 6th Month, Emma!

This month, you started to do so many new things!

You can crawl!  You also can hop forward like a bunny on your knees and feet when crawling.  

It is really funny to watch all the creative ways you move nowadays!

You can stand on your hands and your toes!

You can sit -even tailor style- and get into and out of sitting all by yourself!  You seldom fall.  

Most of the time when you lose your balance reaching for something, you can catch yourself with your hand/arm in mid-fall.

You can push that toy along the floor as you crawl!  Incidentally, this toy plays four songs and lights up.  It is your favorite toy!

Your feet have grown a full inch since the day you were born.  You are going to be a tall girl, so you have to have a firm foundation!  Speaking of growth, you just cannot stop!  

At present, these are your measurements: 

18lbs 11oz and 28 inches tall

Some other random discoveries you made this month: 

You can pull up on low-lying furniture/objects and can stand up!

You can say da-da and ma-ma both!  You can jabber to yourself when playing, or when you don't want to take a nap.

You are TICKLISH!  You love to be tickled!

Family Photo Shoot