My Baby,
My beautiful, naughty, adorable, gorgeous little baby. Will you ever know how much I love you? Maybe only when you have a little one of your own. But it doesn’t matter that you might never realise how my heart almost bursts from loving you, that I love you more every day, that I think you are the smartest, cutest and most gorgeous baby ever! Just keep on being as naughty and adorable as ever and I am happy.
You are such a chatterbox. You start off as soon as you are up for the day and keep talking till I firmly thrust the bottle’s nipple into your mouth while putting you to sleep at night. Even after your bottle is finished, you manage to get in a few words before you fall asleep. You are talking in full sentences and everyone is amazed at how much and how well you talk. You almost always talk sense and the days of babbling are long gone. We sometimes get a bit overwhelmed by the running commentary and long for some peace and quiet, only to start missing the chatter as soon as you fall asleep. A few examples of your non-stop chatter – 1) As soon as you get up : Papa bathroom jayega. Papa bathroom se aake dudhu pilayega Anna ko. You repeat this non-stop till Papa doesn’t come out of the bathroom and take you out for your bottle. 2) While massaging you for your bath : Yeh ganda hai (pointing to your night-suit), Manori Aunty saaf karegi. Yeh saaf hai (pointing to your fresh clothes), Anna pahnegi, Anna frock pehnegi, yada yada yada. 3) In the evening on the way to the park – Digging karegi Anna, octupus banaegi Anna etc etc etc. You talk non-stop and we are amazed at how accurate your grammar is. You correctly use the male of female pronouns and verbs, you now know so many words that it is pointless counting them. In fact you have progressed far beyond mere words to actual language now. You know counting up to ten and I have heard a thirteen, fourteen too occasionally. Only you know how many nursery rhymes you know and constantly surprise me by reciting a new one. You can recite most of the ABC song correctly. You recognize shapes like square, triangle, star, heart, circle, cross and also colours like red, blue, green, yellow, purple, pink, orange, white. You have long conversations with your friends on the phone. You sing Happy Birthday to you multiple times a day.
You demand food which you like. You love poha, upma and cheese toast for breakfast. You like chicken but are still iffy about eggs. Chocolates are your favourite though your cruel parents don’t let you have much. You are very specific about which biscuit you want to eat and won’t accept any other. You still love juice and milk but are very reluctant about fruits. You are mostly good about eating, though you don’t eat much and I am just grateful that you eat your roti-subzi and chawal-daal without a fuss. You are getting more and more independent and want to eat ‘aape aape’. You are good at eating dry stuff with your hands but the spoon-work needs loads of practice still. You want to drink water from a normal cup and one of your favourite games is to pour a few drops from your sipper into a cup and then drink it. This can keep you occupied for up to half an hour.
You are showing an interest in clothes and immediately come running when I bring your clothes to change you. You refuse to let me make you wear your shoes (the ones you wear to daycare) and always insist that I take out the sandals (the ones you wear to the park).
You love music and love to dance. The other day we had switched on the TV and the song ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ was playing. You immediately started singing ‘Jump Maaro Jump’ and started jumping. You sadly are extremely fond of item songs and pick them up in just one go. ‘Chikni Chameli’ is the latest and your taste in music mortifies me to no end. Thankfully you are also fond of nursery rhymes and children’s classics like ‘Lakdi ki kathi’ and ‘Nani teri morni’.
You love going out for ‘ghummi’ and meeting your Mausas and Mausis and Mama and Mami. You recognize all of them and keep asking about them all the time. You have learnt how to pick the weakest link and charm him/her into giving you what you want.
The past month hasn’t been good in terms of your health. You had a bad bout of viral and were sick for around 10 days. You were a real trouper in taking your medicines – no matter how bad the taste, you would screw up your little face and accept sip after sip without complaint and without spitting it out. You somehow knew that taking the medicine is important, and though you wouldn’t eat even a bite of food, you’d take your medicines each time. We are so proud of you for that. After the viral, you again got fever and we were at our wit’s end. Thankfully it was only for a day and you’re fine now though you do have a cough and cold.
Potty training is at a complete stand-still. You love sitting on your potty seat and reading your potty book (Once upon a potty), but it’s just a game for you. You have peed in your potty only twice. If I try to take you to the potty when you’re pooping you refuse and start crying. Only to demand to be taken there once you’re done. We’ve decided to let it go for a few weeks and try again later. It does worry me a bit, but I’m trying not to.
Twenty months gone by. Four more till your second birthday. It seems just like yesterday that I was all excited about your first birthday. I still think of you as one and a few months old, but before I know it you’ll be two. You’ll be getting two new cousins this year, one in March (my cousin S’s baby) and one in July (my brother and his wife are expecting a baby – yeahhhhh). You’ll be a big sister. My itty-bitty baby, a big sister. Sniff sniff.
Love you to bits. Mumma
Wearing Mumma’s top
Reading the ‘new’paper
Digging!
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