Journeys...

This was our first family vacation. I've traveled alone, with MMW, with Aanya, but the first for all three of us as family. And we traveled abroad from abroad! (I think the mole on Aanya's ankle has something to do with this!) After a lot of internet surfing and consultation with friends, it was decided that Genting Highlands and Kuala Lumpur would be good as a first. We had our itinerary fixed for 3N/4D including travel time.


I was as organised as a bee and ready to leave the house 15 minutes before time. Imagine that! Barring the slight faux pas in the bus which was resolved soon, it was an extremely comfortable journey. Aanya slept through most of it, MMW read through all of it and i enjoyed the scenes from my window. We moved from concrete jungle to luscious green. The housing structures really excited me. Row houses with gabled roofs. But that was only in the town area. High rises, condos and city scrapers were back as we moved further in. 


The shocking part was now. When we had to check in to the hotel at Genting. The hotel is listed in the Guiness book of world records for it has 6114 rooms. There was a queue for the token for the check in counter. We checked in an hour and half later. Freshened up. Spent the entire evening in the indoor amusement area. Aanya slept through our venture at Ripley's Believe it or not, screamed and cried her head out at the Haunted adventure, loved the horsie on the carousel, and the wouldn't stop ringing the bell on the toy train! 

Waiting for our turn to check-in

The next day we left for KL. Easy check in. Lovely room. Rested for a bit and went out shopping. I wasn't very impressed with the city though. We were warned by everyone to be careful of thieves and robbers. There was beggary and bad roads and disobeying traffic. Maybe if i had gone from India, it wouldn't have struck me much, but since Singapore is a better maintained country, i felt the difference. Yet again, all the tourist attractions were very well maintained. No scribbling on the walls or littering or any other nonsense for that matter. 


The next two days were good fun. We took a guided city tour, tried street food and local beer and had our share of relaxation in the hotel too. Whenever Aanya was bored, she would somehow huddle up in her stroller and say 'tah-tah'. One time she even brought us our shoes one by one and said 'tah-tah'!!! Apart from troubling with her meals once in a while, she was an angel. It may sound gross to some, but she always did potty in the room. Never once during travel! (all mums will understand my apprehension about potty.)


Which brings me to the one incident i've been meaning to write about for a long time. A few months back, we were three women travelling with one baby from Amritsar to Delhi. On the seat behind us was an Indian gentleman with two young girls. A toddler and another about 4-5 year old. He had come all the way from Germany with his daughters while his German wife was back home. He was on vacation. Doing everything for the girls. Feeding, changing diapers, putting them to sleep, entertaining them throughout the journey. Patiently. And his journey would not ending in Delhi. He would travel back to Germany the same way. Hats off man!!!


I was extremely apprehensive about travelling from Delhi to Singapore alone with Aanya. She was not even a year old then. Good luck prevailed and she slept through the entire journey. (The  gentleman sitting beside me even complimented me for having such a well behaved baby, little did he know!!!) And this time again, even though MMW was around and we took turns to entertain her on our way back from KL, it was quite a task. I sang all the nursery rhymes i know, showed her the various cars and buses and trees and clouds, played with tom numerous times, gave her body part lessons, animal sound lessons and what not, and even then the seven hours seemed like ages. 

That guys courage will always set an example. Especially during journeys...

My daily dose of entertainment...

... and it doesn't come from the television. It's my little girl, my entertainment channel. In rapt attention she picks up dance moves from the umpteen nursery rhymes she watches and soon we're witness to her cute baby moves. 


It all started with 'chikni chameli'. You know how all babies have a favourite song to which they're attracted, to the extent that they forget anything and everything else. Well, for aanya, 'chikni chameli' was that magical number. She could barely sit back then when the song released, but she had her moves right. She would shake her baby hands up and down and believe me, all in tune! Till today, she can be distracted with the song. It's just that now she's come up with some better moves. She sways her body, does a little twirl, moves up and down and claps while at it!!! 


The funniest was, MMW and i were following the comedy-mystery series called 'psych' on the laptop. And it has a very catchy credits tune. So one of those days, after aanya had slept off, we were doing the same. It had been more than 40 mins since she was fast asleep and as soon as the credits started rolling, we saw to our bewildered amusement, madam was shaking her bums up and down in tune!!! What a sight! We were in splits till we were holding our stomachs. 


I've been showing her the 'gigglebellies' nursery rhymes during her meals. And now she's addicted to them. So much so, that when i bring her bowl out, she points out to the laptop demanding the hear 'her' rhymes. There's one called 'Raindrops and gum drops'. 


If all the little raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops
Oh what a rain it would be
I would stand outside with my mouth open wide
Ah-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-Aaaah
And so on... 


The 'Ah-a-a' part is what caught aanya's fancy. Yesterday, while i was busy with something, i suddenly heard her sing 'Ah-a-a' while following the rhyme and prancing around. My little baby sure is growing up. 


The tech savvy baby that she is, aanya loves to talk to Tom. Now tom is 'tom cat' or 'talking tom' as many people know him. She brings me my phone and says 'Hie Taa' which corresponds to 'Hi Tom'. And of course, i have to show her tom or else there'll be mayhem.     She brings the remote to me when she wants to watch 'baby tv' and knows exactly when to say hi when someone calls on skype. 


Funny as it may sound, aanya can say 'mumma', 'tah-tah', 'hie-ta', but not 'papa' and her papa has literally been after her from the time she was born to call him that. She has her own version of 'tah-tah' which refers to her father. And whether he likes it or not, he HAS TO respond to her when she calls out to him. 


Tishi taught her to show her tongue, Girija (aunty) taught her 'high five', tah-tah showed her her nose, she was caught on camera giving her first flying kissie to mash, all her stuffed toys have been named and the party trick is to ask her to show us 'huggie bear' or 'minnie mouse'.  As soon as she wakes up in the morning she says hi to 'nighty' her sleeping buddy. She's learnt 'namaste' and 'jai hind', 'clap your hands, stamp your feet and jump up high'; she brings the 'big red ball' when asked for and can throw the ball. She makes a moo sound when asked what the cow says, and she always nods her head vigorously when asked "who's the goo girl in the house". 'Tagbak-tagbak' means rocking her favourite wooden horse and "tuki"(bengali version of peekaboo) is her all time favourite game. 

She knows exactly where her shoosies are kept and shoosies means going out. And nothing else brings her more happiness (already). The excitement on her face to see her shoosies is boundless. To be able to sit on the cycle or in the stroller wearing shoosies is ultimate happiness!


I know most children cross these milestones by her age, but i guess being a proud mother means being able to recognise and appreciate each and every little act of your child. And this doesn't mean she's the best, most well behaved child you've seen. She can be quite difficult and stubborn. But the vices i leave for another post.