A day to mark

At 3 years and 6 months, Ashwin has learnt to FINALLY clear his nose! Hurray!!

It might seem like I am blowing this out of proportion, but I vividly remember the many nights we had to carry him and walk him up and down or put him to sleep on our chest in an upright position because his nose was blocked. The dreaded nose drops and saline decongestant are now a thing of the past. No more use for the nose bulb. Hurray indeed.

Oops! We will relive all of that with Divya... Oh dear, bring them on!!

Falling in love.. once more

During my pregnancy, I never confessed to anyone whose judgement I cared about my one fear about having a second child. But I worried about it almost every day. It was the fear that I could not love another child like I love Ashwin.

My love for Ashwin is total - all the love I am capable of and so I thought I would have none (or at least not enough) left for a second child. The purpose of a second child for me was that Ashwin needs a sibling to grow up with. I did not really think of this as MY CHILD as much as of ASHWIN'S SISTER. There were days when I was consumed by the thought being unfair to the second child who will never get the love Ashwin got from me.

The moment she was born, the first feeling I experienced was relief of not having to push anymore. And then tiredness. I had company for most of the day and since Divya was whisked off to the nursery to stay under the heat most of the time the first day, I had plenty of time to rest. Even during this time, I missed Ashwin and felt inadequate that I wasn't at home to take care of him.

Divya had a feed at about 1am early morning and then the kind nurse offered to take her to the nursery so that I could rest. I accepted.

At 4:30, a nurse wheeled Divya to my room and said she's crying and needs a feed. I thought - Oh my God, there is another being here for whom a basic need can be fulfilled by me and only by me! My heart filled up a little. I scooped her up and placed her in my bed ready to feed her. She looked at me with eyes like that of a playful kitten as if to say, let's spend some time together, the feed can wait. She purred to me in her language and I told her, "I love you", as sincerely as when I tell Ashwin. After the feed, we spent a couple of hours together in bed snuggling with each other and discovering another bond of absolute total love.

I fell in love.. once more..

I can't imagine now what I worried about during all those months!

Introducing co-star DIVYA RAGHURAMAN

Born in Bentley Hospital on the 28th of April, this cutie pie Divya, alias Missy as Ashwin and I love to call her, has come to share the limelight and enrich our lives beyond what we believe to be possible!

From Welcome_Divya

Too bad Icarus didn't think of it...

One of Ashwin's favourite stories is a modified version of the Icarus story. In my story, Icarus wants to fly and touch the Sun against his father's warning. He goes ahead and does it but the wings melt when he is close to the sun and he falls down and gets hurt. He apologises to his father for not heeding his words and his father takes him to the doctor. Ashwin's favourite part of the story is where the doctor gives him an injection and puts cream and sticker and gives him some medicine and gives him a candy and he becomes OK again. Until a few days ago, I was unsure if he understood any other part of the story...

He mused over the story in his bed for a few minutes and then asked:

Why didn't Icarus go to the moon instead? The moon is not hot you know...

In other news, my due date has come and gone and the big bwother in waiting has no baby sister to show for it...

He has a mind of his own

We sold our flat in Singapore (at last...) and Ashwin and I were offering thanks to God for that. As we usually do, I was saying things to Ummachi and he was repeating after me.

Me: Ummachi, we sold our house in Singapore.
Ashwin: Ummachi, we sold our house in Singapore.

Me: Thank you ummachi.
Ashwin: Thank you ummachi.

Me: We should buy a house in Australia soon.
Ashwin: We should buy a house in Australia soon.

(and before I could continue, with his index finger pointing upwards for emphasis)

Ashwin: But, that house should have a swimming pool...

Proof that English is over complicated...

Ashwin wanted to play hide and seek (or rather hide and count as he calls it) one day. Thatha told him to go and count. His response?

But whobody no do hide you know... (translated from Tamil, yaarume hide pannala!)

His favourite pose these days is to stand upside down on the sofa. The other day I told him not to do that when there was noone in the room with him.

My exact words as I was walking into the room were: Don't do that when there's nobody in the room. You'll get hurt.

Ashwin: Now there is yesbody??!

Appa-self

This morning I asked Ashwin to go and brush his teeth with Raghu who was in the bathroom. He said he wanted to go with Jayaraman Thatha.

Jayaraman thatha is doing Jojo, I said.
"Then, Savithri paati", he replied.
Why don't you want to brush your teeth with Appa? Savithri paati is busy, I said.
"Because appa do wash the brush appa-self", came the reply.

Grandparents

My parents are here now and Ashwin is one happy puppy. When they arrived in the middle of the night, he was in bed and SO EXCITED to see them his legs were flying and he was kicking the bed! He stayed up for an hour past midnight and then went back to sleep. Woke up at the first rays of the sun and dashed out of the bedroom to check that they were still there!

Everytime we go to the car, he checks with me that his grandparents are coming along, at least one of them. He asked me once in a very concerned voice when Jairamen Thatha and Saathi Paati are going to their house and I assured him that it was not for a long time. I think they are already his preferred playmates over me, and while that is a lot of relief for me at this stage, I feel a twinge of jealousy too.

A couple of years ago in Singapore, when his grandparents were visiting us, he was happy to see them in the lift but grew skeptic when they followed him out of the lift to our house. He desparately tried to will them away by waving BYE to them as they entered the house, but to his dismay, they kept following.

We've come a long way!

Down

After one too many chocolates yesterday (Thanks to his Madhu chitti), when Ashwin wanted one more, I threatened to throw the chocolate in the bin if he took it. He tried to negotiate his way one step at a time and told me that he would just keep it in the kitchen counter and not eat it immediately. I replied that I would still throw it in the bin.

"Then I keep it down. You can't bend down."

He's just three and already more clever than me...

At 7:30 this morning

"Amma, look, the sun is setting! It's a bootiful, white??!"