One year home with Anjali!

January 16th will mark one year home with Anjali. What an amazing journey the last twelve months have been! I feel so proud of Anjali for all that she has achieved in just one short year. Every time she falls down, she just picks herself up and keeps going forward with a smile. She is a true survivor and angel.

For all the families waiting to bring their children home, I know the wait is long and seems endless, but hang in there. I am not going to downplay how hard the transition is on every member of the family. But to experience the transforming power of love is life changing. I am grateful for every moment we have spent with her, even the the hard ones, for they have all led us to where we are today. I wrote what I am going to call 'My blessing' for Anju. Here goes:

Anju, Anju, Anjali, our angel of joy.
You dance and sing and laugh and play.
Knowing not what you have done to me.
You have me in a spell,one so deep and profound,
I cannot tell you the bliss I feel,
For the most beautiful part of me I have found.
In a little girl born with eyes so sparkly and brown
with soft,sweet cheeks so chubby and round.
My baby with a heart so giving and pure,
with an appetite matched only by a dinosaur!
Your spirit is so strong and carefree,
Just fly, fly, fly away with me.
Let us dream up a world for you
Of fairies and lilies and candy galore.
Where your every wish comes true
and you live happily forevermore.


It has been over a month since I updated my blog but a lot has happened. I am going to do my best to provide my monthly Anjulily update.

• Anju saw snow for the first time! She was thrilled. She claimed it was 'pouring nnow outside' (we are still working on the 's' sound at speech therapy). So far I have not been able to find gloves her size as she needs the ones with individual finger panels(?) and not the baby ones. Anyway, she threw away her baby gloves and just handled the cold soft snow like a pro. 

• Food: Anju still can't seem to have enough of it. Yoghurt rice and potato curry are her favorites. She has been helping herself to Oreos as well since apparently two-year-olds can do whatever they want. She has added a few extra meals to the day but hey, I am not complaining! If this helps her chub up, I am thrilled. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that she also feeds herself and I think she is enjoying the independence. 
• Brother love: Anju is feeling it now. I see more cuddles and fun than fights. I am really counting our blessings. Dhruv is truly getting through to Anju and is a very proud big brother. They play 'escaping from the lion,' 'hiding under blankets' and 'scream and run from random enemies till mom loses her hearing and patience.' Anjali and Dhruv met their cousin Aarohan who visited in December and Anjali had her first 'Hey, that is MY brother' moment. They had a lot of cousin fun and affection which was super cute to watch. I can promise that she hugs her brother a little tighter after the visit and Dhruv is definitely not complaining. 
• Co-sleeping with Anju has officially ended! Dhruv and Anjali have been sharing the guest bed for the last two weeks and even though I wake up a hundred times to put Dhruv back to sleep, it has been great!!!!! Anjali sleeps really well with Dhruv and they cuddle a lot in their sleep. Unfortunately, for me co-sleeping did not do anything as far as bonding with Anju goes. She slept on the other end of the bed between her dad and her crib. She did not sleep between us and for the most part I slept in the guest room with Dhruv as he does not like sleeping alone. So, while it worked great for her to bond with her dad and gave her comfort for the first almost twelve months, we thought it was time to move the kids to their own space for sleeping. I am really praying that this lasts and that Dhruv slowly learns to sleep through the night. Meanwhile, I am operating in zombie mode. 
• Mischief update: My gosh! There is never a dull moment if you are Anju. She has mastered opening doors as she can reach the handle if she stands on her tippy-toes. I hope the door opening-closing phase ends soon. Keeping things out of her reach is quite a challenge too as smarty pants moves chairs and stools around to get to things. She is still a people person and not a toy person. Getting her to sit still and play with a toy is hard. I think her touching everything in sight phase will wane only when she gets more excited about her play things. Overall, she is making progress though in tiny steps. Her confidence has given her a lot of independence and she is by nature fearless and curious. I guess, independence + fearlessness + curiosity + two year old kid = mischief !!
• Anju and me: I think lilypot's dad has some competition here! Anju is slowly becoming a mommy's girl and misses me a lot when I am out. I have started taking a little time for myself these days. I think being at home with her has allowed me to be the disciplining and calming force. There has been a shift and I can feel it too. I feel like I had to become the mom Anju needed me to be last year (strong, consistent, constant, disciplinarian). The one introducing her to structure and routine. I feel like the layers are all off now. She calls my bluff here and there. She knows there are times when I am exhausted and just need a hug. She knows that mothers can be eaten by lions too and that we get hurt. She knows that I treasure the moments when I stroke her cute cheeks and just gaze at her. She usually has places to be but she gives me these moments. She has a stool permanently in the kitchen and watches me cook and wash dishes every day. She never seems to tire of it. She joins me in singing songs as I work around the home. We are a team!! 

Before I go, I realized that I forgot to put up pictures from Halloween. I thought Anju looked adorable as a duckie! She even said 'kack-kack' (her version of quack quack) to add to the cuteness factor!