ROLE REVERSAL

Last weekend, Joy and I were going through some picture albums to replace old photos on the fridge magnets and we were in for a reality shock…..4 years already! Still can’t believe it was just that day when we saw her new born head full of hair and utterly annoyed expression at the cameras shuttering around….the expression still is somewhat around though accompanied by endless chatter and questions and cute lil gibberish terms….

My Adya has now undergone rapid metamorphosis into a ‘Grown Up’ overnight… that little bunny who was crawling under the tables sometime back has just ran her first obstacle race at her school sports day and done us proud by winning her first medal!

So, few weeks back when I underwent a double wisdom tooth extraction surgery and looked like I had swallowed a balloon…it was madam Adya soothing my aches, patting me to bed with endless kissies for my boo boos and keeping her promises to daddy of not troubling me while eating her dinner or getting ready for school!

This year seems to be marked as my health show down special; next came adulthood Chicken Pox with a vengeance $%@£&%!

 I wish my mom would have let me have a chat with my neighbour’s son in my childhood when he had them, so that I wouldn’t have to undergo this atrocious syndrome of erupting volcanoes all over me without any mercy…but one look at my darling daughter kissing my forehead stating: ‘Its OK Mommy…it will go away don’t worry….shhaat shhaat’ ….and that worked faster than any calamine lotion in the universe!

With her latest boy crop, she looks so much ‘Mini Me’- Flashback 25 years…  I mean she definitely has inherited some DNA molecules from my side…

She keeps tally of all her personal belongings and ensures bringing back every single misplaced hairclip or accessory that tend to disappear in her nursery… My weekend helper assists in all household chores in return of Hello Kitty ice lollies!

Loves her fashion and doesn’t like to repeat clothes before approx 45 days (Kindly supported by the Autumn/ Winter/ Fall collection: Courtesy Daddy’s China Return Wardrobe makeover J

Loves to paint/ sketch/draw on anything that appears to be remotely as a canvas awaiting her master strokes including my work papers… An art and craft pro in making, Madam Adya has tried her hand at everything right from the Olympic torch to Pottery delights of her hand made piggy bank and not to forget her slightly burnt but delicious cupcakes.

Home decoration traits are omnipresent Fairy stickers display in every nook and corner of house, even daddy’s laptop haven’t been spared. Last time I had to peel off Snow White from my Iphone to prevent the lady next to me on the Underground Train from smirking!

And of course the X Factor: Verbal Flood with no control barriers leading to awkward public dilemma situations of Mommy, how old are you? Or why has she got red hair like Ariel the mermaid princess?  She nearly had Joy fall off the couch that day when she said, ‘Oh my HUSBAND gave me that hairband’!!!

But all said and done, daddy’s genes are getting predominant too… Adya checks whats inside the sandwich before even having a tiny nibble and wouldn’t have bfast or lunch or dinner without some meat involvement in any format….and goes ‘Mmmmm mommy…that smells delicious whatya cooking for dinner’ as soon as she sets foot inside the house!

This year for my 30^th birthday, hubby planned a nice surprise at 12 o clock with chocolates and cake **blush blush** but I had to wait till she woke up and set up all candles before cutting it for me as per her strict instructions the day before…

Turning 4 is a big milestone…all birthday gifts have moved up a notch…no more teddy bears or crying dollies but Ben and Holly have captured the market space this year! This fever was widespread including duvet covers and invites and table covers and napkins and of course the two tier birthday cake (Amazon Zindabad!)

 Adya ensured ticking off and approving every item on my list while planning her bday bash in our garden. Who said summersaults of 25 children in the bouncy castle as well as handling guest appearances by Minnie Mouse was easy!

She’s shooting up faster than the pine tree in our garden and mummy needs to go shopping for new trousers and shoes every fortnight … not that I am complaining ;-) as it gives me a chance of Retail Therapy and Adya enjoys accompanying me to this sprees quite often. I had her height marked on her bedroom wall - date and time stamped for her to see how little she used to be when she grows up…which is fast approaching!

This cheeky monkey now has little girls looking upto her as their IDOL who want to be just like her and caused many a little girl’s parents delight who have finally started sleeping in their own bedrooms like Adya!

But, shes still such a baby and falls asleep with a few pats and a really long story…and you have one look at her ‘ I AM RECHARGING: DO NOT DISTURB’ mode and you wanna gobble up those cheeks!

Vacations with mamma are now a delight! Since mom and dad now plan their break only in destinations with at least 3 or more attractions for kids within 1 mile….so be it Lake District or Blackpool Beach, we seem to enjoy Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit and Pleasure Beach children’s rides much more than scenic beauty or fish and chips!

We are honestly living our childhood once more with Adya and every parent of a toddler would vouch for this feeling as the most rewarding part putting aside all the rest of the mania and mayhem involved…

She is conducting constant good girls vs bad boy contests in her mind….barring few handful privileged gentlemen who are in her good books such as Akash, Vinay and off course Diego- Dora’s cousin brother! Her rapid growth spurts are also marked with adorable acts such as being smitten by Bollywood dancing and aping all advertisements on Nickelodeon…

 Adya has mastered almost all the words that Dora teaches in Spanish and very comfortably declared at school that we speak Spanish at home and her Daddy is a Subject Matter Expert which caused her class teacher to greet Joy with a HOLA AMIGO every morning and him rushing out of the classroom with a red face and hiccups!

Her latest fetish is exploring all possible apps on the iPhone including unlocking the code in a jiffy, texting her daddy every 3 minutes, downloading and playing games and clicking her zillionth snap reversing the camera towards herself!

She is currently enacting the Big sister and lil bro role play in repeat shuffle mode… asking Mommy when would you have a baby in your tummy and Don’t worry, I will look after it and take baby to Giggles with me…

Which is really a worrisome thought with project audit report deadlines and the schedule of exhibitions dotted across the globe  for Adya’s mommy and daddy…given the fact that God  listens to lil children’s innocent prayers! But, honestly, I think it might be a business development ploy by the nursery…

But, two weeks back when Adya walked into her Big school in her new smart uniform, smoking up the competition, looking lusciously adorable and stating ‘Go home now…Don’t worry…Im a BIG girl now’.… Joy and I looked into each other’s eyes realised time is just zooming past….that little pink bundle now rules over our hearts and lives and the roles are truly reversed with a couple of lessons learnt by us from her instead of the other way around!

Welcome to Toddlerdom!

Mother’s Day has just gone by and as I look around our home I can see displays of my little crawling and gurgling baby brat maturing into a creative and very very talkative toddler…this year I was spoilt rotten with breakfast in bed and lots of goodies handcrafted by Adya including a photoframe with made out of pasta shells and tie and dye patterns (revealing my inner secrets of bribery) – ‘I like mummy coz she buys me icecream!’

No cooking for the day, endless chitchats with my daughter about what all her other friends made for their mums and wrapping up with an accupressure mat to deal with my aching back…I am one lucky mum!

Last few months have been quite hectic work for me ( which explains the delayed blog posting) and so I decided to take a mini break for some ME time finally….so whilst I am really enjoying Il bel far niente: The beauty of doing nothing – and the pleasures of crawling back inside the duvet at odd hours of the day, starting and finishing a novel on the same day, some sketches here and there and gardening till I drop dead; I have also tried to observe and note down the rapid growth spurts I am witnessing in my lil lady which may disappear faster than I can blink my eyes…

Adya now demonstrates a technicolour imagination; tell tales are a daily affair- ‘Mummy, today the dinosaur nearly swallowed me after school but my best buddy saved me; Oh Daddy, there is a crocodile under my bed- can I sleep in yours tonite?’ And off course informing all her Nursery carers that Mummy has a baby in her tummy leading to the embarrassment of hiding the fact that its actually just excess weight and love handles!

Now would you believe that this under 4 is already asking if she can have a sleepover this weekend with her friends?? She does give her Daddy mini heart attacks when her sentences end with ‘That’s Wicked!’ and ‘I reckon’ and ‘Don’t disturb me now, I am busy thinking’ or ‘Excuse me pls, Stop taking my video’ or ‘ I need space, don’t squash me’...

Her vocabulary is definitely getting colourful but its amazing to watch how refine their skills can get at such a tender age already….Its so funny to watch how they are all victims of Mass Wee- Wee Syndrome- if one kids wants to go, its ‘Follow the Leader’ time, the same applies to food habits- the way they will chomp on a new recipe or drink up a new flavoured juice drink at a friends place and say ‘Yuck’ when you buy the same thing at the supermarket the very next day! It is fantastic to observe the stark contrast in your toddler’s behavior- one day she is ‘Spiderwoman’ daredevil enough to hold a Tarantula Spider in her bare hands on a Tropical Zoo Visit and next day she screams her lungs out when someone uses the electric hand dryer in the ladies washroom! Toddlers and rainbows- now we see it and the next moment it’s gone!

She has inherited 95% of my non stop chatter chromosomes- with questions popping out like rapid fire round of a quiz contest- ‘Mommy, who’s that on the phone? Is it a girl or a boy? Does she like pink like me? Aaw my goodness me- does her mommy tell her off? …Ooof, I think I need a Cuppa Tea…Daddy, that’s not the way to say it! These are boots not shoes, silly! Arrrr I am a Pirate, me Hearty’…

It hurts her little toddler ego already if we tell her, ‘Mamma when you were little, you said ‘Gascalator’ instead of escalator or ‘Hutabu’ instead of Mr. Tumble’ and she promptly states ‘It’s not funny’!

And God save you if you say ‘I don’t know Adya’ and she will pester you ‘Please can you know, plsssssssss’!

Adya has already mastered the art of using our laptop like a champ and practices motor skill exercises by attaining high scores every weekend on http://www.educationcity.com/ and www.gruffalo.com.

This budding science fan knows that Japanese girls wear Kimono, Chinese eat with chopsticks and can point out all the continents in the world map including the fact that she lives in London upon river Thames which is in England and Granny lives in India – all thanks to endless sessions with Daddy with the World Mini Atlas Book in the car back seat waiting for school gates to open or World Map from the book fair put up on her bedroom wall!

She enjoys her visits to the local library post swimming lessons every Saturday and can give you a mini lecture on how to issue your book by beeping the code under the scanner!

She can now solve 64 piece puzzles in a jiffy and knows her numbers till 30 (Well, she calls it twenty ten LOL!) She is almost there in her left handed operation in mastering to hold the pen to trace alphabets and enjoys colouring Disney Princess characters. Yes, she has finally promoted from Peppa Pig to Ben and Holly and Minnie Mouse and other cartoon characters- However, when its SOS time, the pig still rules the ring!

My little bunny has also done very well at her school this term- I just attended my first Parents Meeting and returned home with a puffed up chest filled with immense pride after witnessing how Adya has evolved with other children in class participating in all activities both study and play…Parents have to leave a message for the child to say how much they appreciate their efforts which I think is fantastic for a toddler’s morale boost. The best bit was watching her photos around the classroom dressed up as Red Riding Hood as her favourite book character for World Book Day!

My lil cupcake is one style diva- I just love the way she walks around with her hands tucked into her pockets with attitude, showing off her pink sunglasses the moment it’s a bit warm, her confidence at her first Dentist trip to check and count her 20 teeth, the way she checks the time every ten minutes in her Peppa wristwatch which was a gift from Santa this year,  the way she combs her hair with her Hello Kitty hairbrush after a salon haircut with instructions to keep it smart and neat and looking into her mirror the way she goes ‘I am so pretty and intelligent Daddy’ and we all know by now how Daddy melts into pudding with these words and actions….

Now, after reading my Blog many would think I am one of the SMOGs- Smug Mothers Of Girls which is the tongue- in- cheek nickname for mums who think that girls rock and gone are the days of desperation of having a boy child (Ooops sorry mommies of big boys)…but I am super confident that 90% of my classmates and colleagues and best buddies who have lil girls would give me a high five to agree that having a girl is the best gift on earth! I am a proud mommy of my awesomest daughter and totally love showing her off as my prize trophy and boy am I glad that Adya’s mine!