Terrible Twos

As soon as Adya crossed the 1st birthday bench mark, we started realising that they don’t call it ‘Terrible Twos’ just like that!!!

This year was a mixed bag of excitement, learning new parenting tricks and dealing with separation anxiety....I still cant forget those tiny fingers grasping my hand tightly on her first day to the Nursery since I started work already…couldn’t stop myself from crying when she cried out for me as I rushed to office…this is the toughest test till date…but she soon got very familiar and misses her Giggles Nursery now on weekends..I can guess her lunch menu from her clothes and hair....

Jokes apart, I am very grateful to them for helping me to make my career survive. She has learnt so much there including her first success with potty training and made grown up already into a mature lady…love you guys for being my lighthouse at sea!

She has started talking non stop in a language I am yet to decipher…her first word was ‘Dadda’…no prizes for guessing that...she can blabber all the nursery rhymes possible even at 10 pm at night and at times I am terrified that we may get arrested for high decibel noise pollution complaints from neighbours!

Adya has a very cute idol..her name is Upsy Daisy..she is tiny, sings and dances all day, kisses all the things in a magical place called Night Garden..has loads of friends and has a bed that follows her everywhere…in short : My bribe to her for finishing her lunch without making mommy insane!

Miss Posh Spice has started realising the girly features within her by gazing at herself in the elevator mirror every time she ventures out…she likes wearing Bindi from her Thamma…She just loves fashionable clothes and matching sunglasses and hats and other accessories which her mommy has no complaints about…

She is a complete Gemini like her mommy and has already started showing traits of being flamboyant, popular and pompous amongst her nursery friends…

Adya loves to read and has already managed to conjure up a mini library at home..she loved to listen to stories read by Dadu about Murphy horse trips to Windsor…

She is my little mathematician and puzzle cracker…taps away at her laptop gifted by dad …I sometimes I wonder if she may grow up to be a nuclear physicist one day..

But she is equally inclined towards art....loves to sketch wherever possible and everything including the walls and flooring becomes her blackboard…

She is my lil poetess and stares out at the sky and trees since her pram days and hums away lovely tunes..

She loves music since my tummy days and loves to play her piano and xylophone…A budding rock star, maybe??

My little water baby is very fond of bubble bath ever since Nani used to oil massage and bathe her…she is a champ swimmer in her batch and has already earned her second Duckling Certificate…

My lil angel loves to get into pray mode and joins me at the evening puja at home…she gobbles up the Prasad as a gift to ring the temple bell…I simply love to watch her close her eyes and join her palms to get my kiss after lighting up the house…

Every moment with Adya till now has been extra special and she has captured every square foot of our life and every thought process: Her 1^st kiss on my cheeks moments after her birth, her wonderful deep hazel brown eyes gazing at me with zillion questions, her Bhangra dance movements on seeing Joy back from work, her 1^st birthday ear piercing, her copying my cough and aping granny’s snoring, her love for Pooh, watching me dress up and trying to taste my lipstick, jumping for her water bottle …

I will miss you so much my baby when you will grow up and one day move out to seek your future and leave your mom with just your fond memories….You will always be my Bhuntimama…

From Nappies to Skirts

I can write a zillion lines on her every cheeky move, but here are just a few ones on her year 1….

Miss Adya Bhattacharya is the 1^st girl child to be born after 65 years in our family which definitely called for Super Duper celebrations…Her arrival announcement appeared in Times Of India at her birth. She is a complete clone of Joy…complete Daddy’s girl…with Mummy’s Blood Group as the only gene factor contribution to her creation!

Having a lil girl is really a gift…you just fall in love with the Pink Section of Mother care…so many options…so little time...hair bands, skirts, shoes, leggings, tops, halter necks and Yes…every accessory needs to match up!

My starry eyed Queen Victoria posed for her 1^st passport

photograph on Day 5 followed by constant chase by the Paparazzi (Read: Mommy with her camera: 24 x 7) since Daddy left for London and demanded to know what was the dress, hairstyle and food of the day every few hours!!!

I still remember the 1^st vaccination rounds…wanted to kill the Nurse for piercing your tender thighs with that massive injection syringe…my brave girl hardly shed a tear wile mommy wept like crazy…

My sweety turned for the 1^st time when she was 3 months old…but she is a real lazy bum…could hardly support herself and held her neck high after ages…once she sat up…would take an eternity to crawl and went in the reverse gear in backward direction first…she stood up for the 1^st time on my birthday in her cot and don’t ask about her first steps her own…she still walks like at Penguin at 2!

We moved to London when she was just 3 months..in fact the 10 hour flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow was her 1^st outing in her pram. She was so awed with the many lights and people around her that she stuck her right arm up all the way as if saying: ‘Hail England, here comes Queen Victoria!’  

Thus, began my battle of survival in this cold land filled with strangers and no support system except a confused yet adorable and globe trotting yet comforting husband who tried his best to calm post partum depressions along with smelly nappies and midnight wails!

Post Its and Disposable bibs and Microwaveable meals are just like Genies for super busy moms juggling 1000 household chores, job hunting and managing to put a smile on the two most important souls on earth…so even after emptying the never ending laundry wash basket for the 10^th time in a week and sterilizing the zillionth water bottle..u still needed to look good and wear your makeup right and be ever ready for a quick snuggle up session while the baby is asleep even though all u want is plain vanilla SLEEEEEEEEP!

It is a Balancing Act indeed!!

Yes, its unfortunate but true…kids don’t come with instruction manuals nor with remote controls to press that Mute button at midnite…New moms will quickly realise that you gotta develop some long forgotten skills very quickly:

·       ‘Patience is a virtue’ needs to become the motto in your life!

·       No energy or vitamin supplementary capsule can provide you the level of activity that a 5 month old is capable of..so no point trying to get them tired out!

·       Your brain can never actually switch off for the next 5 years and need to become multi tasker of your 5 sensory organs

·       You need to get immune to nappy stinks and cleaning up the throw ups that defy Newton’s Law of Gravity largely. As a positive side to this, you may end up getting a part time job in the Fire Dept or Bomb Squad for your sharp smelling sense! 

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  You will do things you never ever dreamed you would-   lick chocolate or any food off the kiddo’s fingers capable of making another Surf Excel advertisement, pick up toys tossed inside the potty and clean it for its next turn, carry non-Prada unfashionable and boring bags but spacious enough to carry your baby world with you wherever you go, search for the Baby Change sign in every shopping mall before the Sale sign!

You must be thinking it cant get worse at this point…you are still naïve…When you have to deal with Ego and Tantrums from a 6 Month old…you will think again…

Adya was downright and No-Nonsense girl right from the start…her pet hates are long boring dresses, old music numbers and the sun on her face or brushing her long hair…

Her teething issues nearly drove us insane…her moodswings had us startled…fever, soreness, temper and my jolly lil baby turned into a grumpy granny!

She had her 1^st solid food ceremony:

Annoprashan at 7 months with first bite offered by her Mamu. She has been a fussy eater always and still bugs me to the core to finish off her dinner..she has inherited her carnivore non-veg genes so very aptly that she wont touch anything green unless accompanied by Tuna, Turkey or Chicken slices…the only veggie factor she loves is Cheese and French Fries…and off course that latest Hindi Item numbers playing on TV!

At this phase, we had to go into total ‘Baby Proofing’ mode for the house, removed all sharp ended furniture and edible/non edible stuff (buttons, shoes, pens, batteries, newspaper, coins…she has tried chewing up everything!)

Adya has a fascination for water as if she was a camel in the Nevada desert in her last birth…simply cant resist water and can spot her water bottle hidden behind anything!

Our new home slowly turned into a miniature Hamleys store with toys of all shapes and sizes…some of her favourites are her Car stroller, Penguin and Doggy and of course the greatest Winnie the Pooh in multiple sizes and appearances in bottles, plates, sippers, clothes…and also landed on her birthday cake!

 And finally came the Milestone we have been waiting for: Her 1^st birthday was celebrated with great joy and fun…all her grandparents gathered to bless her and total mayhem with wailing kiddos who had no interest in the birthday cake but to burst all the balloons and then cry for more; Lucky girl got her 1^st diamond studs as a gift from her Mom and dad…girls do start quite early nowadays, don’t they?