December with Rohan

This week's installment is being written by guest author Nana Gage.
The last two weeks have sped by too quickly, and I fear the last week will be as brief.
Rohan has been on this earth such a short time but already has enriched our lives immeasurably. He provides smiles, squeals, and laughter endlessly. His most recent goal involves turning from a supine to prone position. He exerts a tremendous amount of energy and concentration in his attempts. I fear he will become very frustrated when he accomplishes his goal, only to discover that he has inflicted "tummy time" on himself.
He greets each day with a smile, knowing he is loved and cherished by those who surround him. Every day brings the promise of experiencing a new and wonderous adventure.
He has mastered grasping the rings on his activity mat, has licked them (see picture), and found them much to his liking.
On last Saturday, Chandreyee's friend Kay visited, and we all trekked to downtown Boston. Rohan enjoyed strolling through Boston Commons, where we were treated to beautifully decorated trees, and ice skaters enjoying the outdoor rink. From there we ventured to Chinatown where we enjoyed a delicious dinner. Rohan sat placidly in his stroller entertaining us, fellow diners, and wait staff alike.
We have had such fun during these short days, but I know there will be much more to come......

An open-air market of Moons

Over the river and through the woods we drove last weekend, to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, where Rohan met his cousins Madeline and Olivia for the first time. Though attacked by Madeline's zealous displays of affection (see video at end) and baby Olivia's pokes of curiosity, Rohan parried only with smiles and squeals.

Rohan's Dadan (my father) described this picture as "jeno chander hat boshechhe." Literally, "as if there's an open-air market of Moons."

In Bengali, children, as pure as moonlight, are often referred to as "chand" (Moons). Certainly, Rohan's beaming face, Olivia's round eyed stare, and Madeline's impish grins haunt me daily with their moon-like simplicity.

In one short day at Uncle Nathan/Aunt Susan's house, we even managed to go sledding, which Rohan loved, despite having to wear Olivia's dunce-cap snowsuit.


After 9 months of pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn-baby-boot-camp, I hadn't been ready to think about a brother or sister for Rohan baby, but after Thanksgiving with the Wellsboro Gage cousins, I can't imagine a greater gift for our son.

The next two weeks..

...were as good if not better than the first week. I felt more confident and was able to make Rohan happy most of the time. Although I still can't differentiate his cries. Chandreyee claims he has a tired cry, a hungry cry, and an I'm wet or stinky cry. To me they all sound like "Whaaaaah!", but I just go through my checklist: check diapers, stick a bottle in his mouth, carry him around in the baby bjorn until he gets in a better mood. But most of the time he is a real joy: laughing at daddy's funny faces or noises, looking with rapt attention at the latest book from the library, or just licking his fist. That is one developmental area that I was worried about. He never really sucked fingers or his thumb except for a few times after he was first born. What he does for comfort is ball up his fist (usually his right, right-handed?) and then lick it like it was an ice cream cone. I guess he is unique in at least one respect. I also discovered that he absolutely loves Sesame Street. While we were playing on the ground, and after I was done watching our daily 30 minutes of Sports Center which Rohan also likes and decided to switch to PBS. His eyes were glued to the set as Elmo and Robert De Niro were talking about imagination. He was kicking his legs furiously and waving his arms as he laughed and giggled. He slept through today's episode, so he'll have to wait until next week to see another one. Next week is my last week alone with him and I will miss our time together. But I am happy that his nana will be up here after Thanksgiving weekend to take care of him until Christmas break.

Thanks for listening...

Mike

Dad's first week home alone with Rohan

I was a bit nervous, truth be told, to have the responsibility of watching Rohan by myself. I think he either knew this or wanted to make sure that I had a good 1st week. He treated me with smiles, laughs, and coos even if I really didn't do anything to deserve them. He only cried when he needed something and slept for several hours each day so I could do some little projects around the house. He even laughed as I was cooking. Not an entirely unexpected reaction, but I would have thought that for someone on such a limited diet as his, he would have been more forgiving.

I think that I am slowing improving in my ability to read aloud to him, especially the hard books like Dr. Seuss. I never really appreciated as a child, how hard it is to read with expression while holding the book so someone else can look at the pictures. Fortunately, he seems to have a good attention span while we are reading books and we get through the long ones and he is still thirsty for more, as long as he isn't thirsty for milk. I guess at this point though, he really has no choice and can't go anywhere, but he is smiling and cooing and focuses on the weird pictures of elephant-cats and the other denizens of Dr. Seuss' imagination.

I can only hope that all of his days are so happy. I'll keep doing my best to make him happy while I'm home. I hope the weather for this next week is a bit better so we can go outside. The window guys are finishing up this week and they have done an excellent job. Sometimes Rohan likes to watch them work, but when he is sleeping, Rohan doesn't like all the hammering and sawing.

My only regret this weekend was that I didn't watch the Penn State game with my good luck charm. He was sleeping and so couldn't help them beat Iowa.

I'll update you on my progress learning how to be a good parent at the end of next week. I had a short, but good week this week as the changer of diapers, feeder of bottles, and reader of stories.

Halloween in Arlington, MA

I was inspired by the $3.99/lb live lobsters in our grocery store, one of the occasional things that strike me as being major perks of living in New England. A few pieces of felt, packaging scraps, and a Goodwill store later, Rohan the Lobster was born.

Mike took the (beautiful, warm) day off, so we joined troops of Arlington babies, toddlers and parents in a "parade" down Massachusetts avenue. Rohan got almost as many comments as did Mike, who wore his outrageous pirate captain's costume. Though rather different comments than the ones he used to get on Castro Street in San Francisco.

Back at home, we removed a much spat-upon (spit-upped on?) lobster outfit, and a rather unthreatening pirate and I passed out candy to Arlington's youth. Highlights of the evening included:

1. Two little Roman centurions. Mike identified them, upon which their mother remarked, "Wow, there are a lot of educated people around here!"
2. The Spanish Inquisition. "No one EVER expects the Spanish Inquisition."
3. A little boy who said to Mike, "I know you're a pirate because of your ripped pants and your bare feet. And your eye patch, which you Aren't Wearing." Noted.
4. Speed Racer. "Do they still show it on TV?" I asked. "There's a movie," said young Speed Racer, who looked about 8 or 9. "You can see it on Comcast On-Demand or FiOS On-Demand."
4. The sweet politeness of children in general. One pair of boys asked, "How many are we allowed to take?" "As many as you want," we said. "I love these houses!" (grabbing fistfuls.) "Thanks for letting us load up!"

I like our town. Next year I'm bringing my harmonica to the parade.

Smiles we can believe in.

The countdown to election day has begun (the same day as my last day of maternity leave, which do I dread more?). If you still haven't decided who should be our next commander-in-chief, you should write in a vote for Rohan The Baby.

Here a couple shots of our third-party dark HORSE candidate, stumping on the campaign trail.

His platform promises billions in smile bailouts (sorry, rescues), and lowering the giggle tax for those making less than 200,000 laughs per year. After all, we should "spread the love around."

Rohan ("The Other One") has been visiting potential day cares, hosting a baby shower for a new friend arriving in December, and visiting his mother's old colleagues at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. All this to secure the crucial baby vote and scientist vote, both known to be key battlegrounds for the presidency.

Join him today!

Happy Durga Puja!

Durga Puja
Rohan helped us celebrate Durga Puja in our home this weekend. Our friends Shoumita and Jason and their two kids Sonali and Nalini came over to visit and celebrate the holiday. Chandreyee's sister, Jayatri, and her husband Steve were also in town for a fun weekend. Rohan's Kurta was a bit too big for him, like a lot of his clothes. But he is still growing and is learning new tricks. This past week, he smiled for the first time for mommy and has quickly learned when he should as Uncle Steve put it "Roll out the cute." After a long and sleepless night, he smiled and giggled and almost made Chandreyee forget the long night she had. We had a wonderful visit and even though Jayatri couldn't get a good still shot of Rohan smiling, she was able to take the short video of him happy and smiling in his vibrating chair. We can't wait for the holiday season to visit more with all of the relatives.


Penn State
Rohan has helped daddy cheer on the Penn State Nittany Lions this season and often sleeps next to or on daddy during the games. With a cute fan like this, Penn State may not lose a game this season. Here Rohan is watching Penn State beat the Wisconsin Badgers 48-7.