Once again, within days of learning to maneuver myself into sitting all by myself, today I managed to pull myself up into a standing position, pulling on Mummy for support, without any assistance from her. Boy, am I growing fast!

Parents are handy - they cheerfully lug you around, put you down to sleep and sit you up for feeding and playing. But comes a time in a man's life, he has to stand up on his own two feet. Well, I'm not exactly standing up on my own, but today for the first time I maneuvered myself into a seated position from lying down, all by myself.

Not that the standing up part is being, pardon the pun, stood up. I've begun to take support from furniture and Papa-Mummy to stand up. Pretty soon I should be cruising.

I've been perfectly content creeping to get places, and these days I can cover pretty much the whole house slithering along on my tummy. Mummy-Papa say they're amazed at the pace that I can muster doing it. But lately I've begun to take my first few crawling steps.



Usually I give up after a few steps, because I don't quite see the point. I'm so much faster on my stomach!

Longtime fans of this blog will know that I have had an ear for music for quite some time. But now, especially when Mummy sings them out to me, I sometimes throw my hand and legs around and dance a bit to songs. And my dance takes a leaf straight out of Dharam paaji's book!

Seeing my enthusiasm at my first ever visit to the beach, Papa took me to the Santa Cruz beach & boardwalk. I've officially found a new toy - sand! I mean, I really dig it, man! Papa-Mummy didn't like the part where I dove headlong into the sand and got rewarded with an instant facial, but I had a grand time with it all, digging and scooping and crawling in it.



I also enjoyed reaching out and touching the waves.

My friend Krish made his own entry on the 4th of July, while I was away in New Jersey. No time's too soon to get a baby initiated into the pestering-the-parents game, so I went over today to pay him a visit. Papa-Mummy tagged along to gawk at the baby.



After the east coast trip where I was the baby, it was good to meet someone I was elder to. Krish is a darling. Seemed like he didn't need much of a training on the sleeping and crying part.

With the bathtub conquered, it was on to newer and bigger horizons. Papa took me to the swimming pool for the first time today. It was scary at first, but once I found out splashing was just as fun as in the tub, I was cool, in more ways than one.



The tub holds no candle to the swimming pool. In the tub I only have the duckies. In the pool I have Papa - and with his paunch and his antics in the pool, he has no idea he's way more amusing than the ducky. I giggled heartily when he shook the water off his hair onto my belly.

Papa swears he heard me say "Pa-pa" when I looked at him first thing in the morning. All his efforts to get me to say it again failed, but still he was overjoyed at this birthday present.

We lunched at Udupi Palace to celebrate.

Pah/Bah/Tah!
Mumm.
A whole lotta blowing (pfffffffffffft!).

I'm back after a week-long and eventful journey to the East Coast, and it often seemed intent on playing a tug-of-war with Murphy's law. It all started on the day we flew out. We were late getting to the airport, and had a movie moment, with our names blaring from the loudspeakers and the plane being stalled at boarding just for us, as we dashed in.

Anyway, we did catch the flight, and I had a good time, making quite a few new fans among the hostesses and the passengers. I also discovered the tray serves as a good seat for passengers my age.



We were picked up by Bhardu uncle at La Guardia, and driven down to Vishal uncle's place. Papa got busy with his old friends, and I made some new ones - Rohit bhaiya and Adya didi. This here is the whole gang.



A beach bash had been planned for the next day, and it was late noon by the time we ambled over to Point Pleasant Beach. The only hitch was, it seemed like half of New Jersey had the same idea, and the beach was crawling with revelers. After the meticulous expenditure of another couple of hours seeking parking space, we finally made it waterside. I had my first ever view of the ocean, and Papa got me to wet my toes. The waves were really thrilling; the sand down my diaper a little less so.



For the record, I do not know that guy.

Come night, we were joined by Rajju chacha and set off once more for Quakertown, to Ambalika bua's place. I met even more people of my generation - Rhea didi and Yuvraj bhaiya.

The plan was to leave for Washington D.C. the next day, but Yuvraj bhaiya catching a fever put paid to that. As it was the 4th of July, car rental shops were closed. After a day spent lounging at home, we set out for D.C. at night after Ambalika didi loaned Papa their car.

After a few missteps along the way, we got there and slept at 4 in the morning.

D.C. was hot and humid like I'd never seen (no hyperbole there - I'm only a baby, you know). We braved the heat to trot to the Capitol Hill, and see the buildings, the museums and the monuments. I took time off to pose before the Capitol Building.



We could only check out one museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I saw a ginormous replica of one of my favorite toys, but Papa wouldn't let me play with it.



We rushed through there to avoid a parking ticket, only to find that the cops beat us to it. To rub in the message, the fine was a hefty benjamin.

Murphy was just settling in. The skies suddenly turned ominous and rain poured down amid thunderclouds, washing away our plans to visit the Lincoln Memorial and White House. It also caused the occasional waterlogging and a mudslide, and slowed down traffic to a crawl. We left D.C. for good and set out for Quakertown. On the way, we lost the route a handful of times, took an exit for gas that took us deep into the nearby town and cost us further time getting back, and had to contend with nonworking restrooms at 3-4 rest areas in succession before finding a usable one when we needed to make a pit-stop. We finally got home at 4 AM again.

It was good to get home though, to Rajju chacha's hotel room, and Rhea didi/Yuvraj bhaiya were overjoyed at seeing me again.



The next day came around, and so did good old Murphy. While lifting me, Papa sprained his back severely, and Mummy developed a tummy ache. Not letting these annoyances deter us from our plan, we set out by midday to pay New York City a visit. We made a beeline for Empire State Building first.



There's the city skyline in the background. The view was amazing, but the lines were long, it was cold inside the building, and by the time we came down, it was pouring again. I had had enough for the day and picked up a fuss. Papa-Mummy trundled back to the station, but by this time I was bawling my heart out and they spent a clueless hour trying to calm me, and themselves, down, before catching the train back.

The day was not over yet. It turned out that not all the doors to the train car opened at our station. As we scrambled for the doors, the train set off. We had to disembark at the next stop and hail a taxi. Then, it turned out Papa had forgotten to cancel a reservation he had made at Rajju chacha's hotel while making an inquiry, and we had to spend the night paying corporate housing rates for what was an inn room.

My fussines continued until late into the night, and I kept everyone awake. It would turn out later I was catching me a good old-fashioned cold and fever.



Well, the next day dawned quite pleasant, I seemed cheerful enough, and we braved the City again. First up was Ground Zero, which saddened me to bit(e)s.



But the sight of all those skyscrapers was a lot more uplifting.



I was tired by this time and surrendered to a nap,



while we took a bus ride through the seemingly endless Manhattan downtown to Central Park. It's amazing how such a big city disappears within steps of the park. As an added bonus we witnessed a limo dinging a cab, and the ensuing fistfight.



Smooth sailing so far. Next we made our way to Times Square.



Lights! Is there anything better?



Yup, food is. We were ravenous by now, and I grabbed the menu first chance. When it turned out I was getting milk again, I went back to my sulking best.

Satisfied at a day well spent, we picked up the car Papa had rented and headed back home.

Next morning, the weather was over(cast), and I was under the weather (okay, okay, the puns are getting a bit labored now, but it's hard to be creative when you're running a fever). On the way to the airport, Papa showed Mummy and me his college and his home at Kearny, but the heavy rains put paid to any chances of snapping photos. True to our now established tradition, we missed the exit for the airport and had to take a long way back.

It's a relief to be back at home, sweet home, but I'm in the grips of a bonafide cold by now. It's been a truly memorable journey.

Some more photos here

and here.


Just when you thought there couldn't be any more to the saga, Murphy finds a way to sneak in - again. Today, about a month after the trip, Papa received another traffic ticket in the mail - turns out the car had been photographed by a roadside camera for speeding in a slow zone.