Krithika at 5 months...

is the absolute darling I have always longed for! She turned over a month back and now the moment you place her on the bed, she's done a 180 degree and busily kicking her legs. I put her in the crip beside me when I work and till she is hungry, she keeps up a non stop flow of conversation...mostly 'goo ingu' from her part and a lot of chatter from mine.
She loves having her brothers near her, infact, she refuses to drink if either of them or their dad is close by. She keeps turning her head to look at them, and forgets that she was consuming her meal! Why, if I look down on her when she is drinking, her mouth curls into a charming smile and all thoughts of milk vanishes! So, at times, I resort to covering her up with my dupatta even at home and missing the sight of her chubby face busily absorbed in doing what it knows best!
She cries when hungry, wet or sleepy (and ofcourse, when she has had her hands/legs pulled by her brothers). Period. Rest of the time, she is happy looking around and clutching at whatever is in her tiny hands reach. Lately, she has started cribbing when someone new picks her up. aha...my sweet tempered baby is growing up all too soon.
But truly, compared to the ruckus the twins are creating now (Terrible twos ... this word found its way into our dictionary a few weeks back and refuses to budge out of it), she is heaven. Infact, both Karthik and I endorse that fact that when your first child is in his terrible twos, it is better to have an infant at home, firstly because the infant reminds you that the monster you are seeing was not always like this, and secondly, the tiny innocence relieves you of all the headache, backache and handache that you are suffering from! (more on the twin disasters coming up in the next post, but, really, I have wanted to run out of this house many a times over the last one week!).
In short, our sunshine, our oasis, our baby Krithika (thats how the brothers call her), has filled our life with so much joy, we now understand the meaning of 'bundle of joy' (with the twins, it was always worry, worry that they have to put on weight, worry that they will fall sick and so on). Cuddling up to her at anytime in the day wipes clean all the dust that has accumulated in the mind and rubs a soothing balm over all the hurt. Her smile finds a mirror in mine and karthiks and we now find ourselves laughing and smiling almost the entire day (it is with her help that we even manage to keep our marbles intact inspite of the wild run her brothers give us). We love the twins to bits, even when they are at their stubborn worst, but Krithika right now fills a special part of us, a part that responds to the innocence in her.
If you ask me, I would say, the more the kids, the more joy in the house, but well, you might just want to stop at three ...we certainly do!

The resignation story

This is about a mom, with three kids, trying her best to retain a very interesting job as well as take good care of her kids. Solution after solution was tried, but nothing could please her. She wanted to be at home for them, at the same time, was loath to leave this highly interesting job. Working from home, like what she was used to seemed the best solution, only, the company that aquired her previous company has no work from home policy.
So, she put a deal with the company that for one month she be allowed to do 4 hours from home and another 4 hours from office. This worked out fine, but after one month, she still was not ready to get back to working full time from office. One, she was still breastfeeding her baby and did not want to stop that, next, her boys were also still quite young and leaving all the three with the maid did not seem a good idea. So, what was the other option? Resign.
So, the next day after the one month trial ended, she spoke to her manager about how difficult it is at home, and how she wants to quit if work from home is not possible. He then took some time, and asked her to meet the next higher up who then told her that with her good performance records, he is recommending to the HR that she be given this part time from home and part time from office work mode for an entire year.
Now, she had nothing to say, except thanks and nothing more to do than show a deeper commitment to her work!
So, thats how she is sitting here at home, typing away these lines to share her news with all of you!