Our shopping escapades

MMW is away on work for two months. I cannot, for the life of me, stay home bound the entire time. So, i decided to include Aanya in my escapades. 

We started with basic grocery shopping. There have been times in the past when i have completely regretted taking her to the supermarket, but now i have no option. And, to be honest, it's not so bad anymore. She likes to sit in the trolley, not in the child seat, but IN the trolley, and play stacking games with the groceries. She has her own demands for fruits and veggies which somehow i have to forbid her from eating before billing!

After the ordeal, i like to treat her. On most days its the Mc Donalds happy meal. One evening we even ventured to the local food court or 'kopitiam' as its called. I had a cup of coffee while the little lady had french toast and milk... 

Those are our general outings. 

Last weekend, i thought it was time for some serious fun. And our wardrobes also needed revamping! So after a scrumptious and highly calorific lunch at IKEA, we went to the mall. 

Here, I must describe the scene. Stroller with aanya's bag hanging on it, on one shoulder. My handbag on the other shoulder, holding aanya with one hand, we climbed up and down a few stairs to reach the mall. There was a money operated car staring at us as soon as we entered. After a bawling session and major tantrums, i let her ride it. Within two minutes she was bored. And here i was sincerely hoping she would sleep off so that i could try out some clothes! After half an hour of aimless walking around, my wish was granted. 


Another day, another mall, this one especially good for kids, coz it has an open play area. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a muffin in the other, i was chasing an energetic two year old running in every possible direction. I was hopeful when i thought she would take a breather in her stroller after almost an hour of playing. Then again, i was being very hopeful. She walked all the way to the train, ran around the handrails and finally said the most awaited words, "mumma, i want to sleep"!

One particular day, there was no sign of her sleeping off, and i really had to try on a pair of trousers. So with her in her stroller (don't ask me how she sat through...) i was contemplating the look when suddenly my lil one went, "Wow mumma, you look beautiful". Of course, the pants came home!


Shopping WITH Aanya is a big challenge. But shopping FOR Aanya is therapeutic. Within the frustration and anger, we find our moments of joy. We bond. Hopefully this joy will last a lifetime and the bond grow stronger. 

The side-effects will only show on MMW's pocket!

The first battle of sorts...

I came home huffing, my face a crimson red. How could those kids be so insensitive and their parents oblivious of their childs behaviour. It was one of those incidents where my maternal love overpowered basic human reaction. Now when i think back, may be it wasn't as big a deal as i made it out to be. But i was hurt, on my daughters behalf. And i know, it's just the beginning of life and battles. Some will be won...

Aanya's been craving for company. So the other day at the park she tried very hard to 'fit in' with a group of older (maybe by one year) kids. She showed off the tiger on her t-shirt, ran after them, tried to make conversation and all they did was shun her completely. When all else failed, she started saying "sorry". That's when i held her hand and took her away. It wasn't her fault that they were not playing with her but she's too little to understand anything beyond. I distracted her, took her to another play area and all was forgotten. By her. 

I was not able to get over the incident. Agreed i was being oversensitive. 

The next day, she went back to the same kids. They behaved in the exact same manner. And i marveled at my daughters pure heart. She gave her gummy bear chewy to the girl who didn't want to play with her. Of course, the kid gulped it and ran away. Aanya didn't fret. She carried on. She didn't give up. She ran behind the same kids. And i decided to watch from a distance. 

"Maybe it's time for me to grow up. Not shield my daughter all the time. At least not in the park. She's doing pretty well for herself. Maybe she doesn't need me to interfere all the time..." while all these bizarre thoughts crossed my mind, i looked on to find Aanya telling another girl... "See my racing car t-shirt... and that is my mumma", introducing me for the first time ever!

Speechless, i gave her a tight hug. 

She doesn't need 'a' friend. She's happy to play with all the kids in the park. I'm definitely being overprotective of my extremely friendly and expressive 28-month old!

Our chatterpurkayastha!

Nothing can prepare you for the non stop banter of your little one. Its adorable and eye opening and all that cute stuff, but its also very tiring. On most days, i wake up to "mumma book" or "mumma dollhouse" or "mumma blocks", on other days, i'm woken up by tiny fingers trying to open my eyes or pull my cheeks. When i'm lucky, she's huddled up into me trying to recite her rhymes! And thus the day begins...

As most mothers are for their kids, i'm the Aanya to English dictionary. I would always wonder how it is that only the mother can understand what her kid is expressing (at this stage), now i know, its a gift! And yet there are days when she repeats a word endlessly, and i just don't get it. 

Her first complete sentence was "mumma, please putting TV" (so you know where we are headed!); she jumps on the bed and says "aanu jumping bed!", when she says "minnie mouse house", i'm supposed to sing the mickey mouse clubhouse song, she sees anyone on the phone, she says "uncle/aunty talking phone", she can name most of the animals in her book and also imitate the sounds they make, the latest being "frog says tibit tibit!!!

According to her dad, when aanu stops wanting, the world will come to a standstill! 'Coz "aanu wants" everything, all day. 
"aanu want water", 
"aanu want more water", 
"aanu want bitit" (biscuit), 
"aanu want" while nodding her head means "yes" and 
"aanu no want" definitely means "no"! 

"Aanu no water!!!"

If you ask her where has papa gone, "ossie" comes the reply, "and what has he worn to office aanu?", "thokka thuji", she says, corresponding to "socks and shoosies"! Her pronunciation for her fathers name and umbrella is the same "unvava" and ask her what her name is "aanuputhayas", she says. 

This is what happened when i was trying to teach her colours-
"Aanu whats the colour of the sky: Lello"
"whats the colour of the heart: boo"
"whats the colours of the trees: pik"
And when i was almost giving up i asked, 
"whats the colour of the sun: lello" (correct answer by fluke and i was jumping with joy)

On most nights we have a night time routine. Once the lights are out, she holds my elbow and i tell her a story and It has to be 'Goldilocks and the three bears' and it always starts with 'Once upon a time...'. One night i decided to let her tell me her version. So she started "Tiiimeee... papa ber, bebi ber, poidge.... foist.... chair boke, stoi finish"... so i filled in the blanks myself and aweed at the little marvel of a baby that i have!

I read somewhere that at this stage, kids pick up 10-15 new words a day. I see it happening. The copycat that she is, aanya likes to repeat every new word she hears. Even with the constant drilling of 'positive' words, she managed to catch the one bad word we accidentally mentioned (shit), and repeated it a couple of times (without context, of course!) and thankfully forgot about it... such innocence i tell you! 

Girls will be girls

Not that i would trade that for anything in the world but, girls will be girls. And mine is a typical one at that. Huggable, kissable, spreading their affection with a smile-kind of girl.

She pretend plays with her dolls in the dollhouse, she makes and serves tea in her lil kitchen set, she screeches when she's excited and fake cries (with tears) at the drop of a hat! She craves attention and would do anything to have it her way. She's talkative. Very talkative. And she's all of 19 months old. I shudder to imagine what's in store! 


She's most fascinated with new clothes and shoes. And very happy to go out of the house. Give her a few more years and she'll enjoy shopping also as much as i do! Tsk Tsk!


The 'I'm being shy' phase has also begun (though i think that's more of a toddler trait which doesn't last for more than five minutes). Once she's warmed up, she'd even like to go home with strangers. There are times when lil missy suddenly decides to be shy with her grandparents and aunts over skype. And she sees them almost everyday. What goes on in the tiny head of hers only she knows! 

When it comes to cuteness, no one and nothing can beat 'her'. She woke me up with a kiss the other day. And of course my day went well. It's a different thing that it didn't happen again, but i would like to think its because i wake up before her on most days! She does a little dance for her father when he gets back from work. Maybe that's her way of saying 'I missed you'. 

During one of her pretend play sessions, she wanted to fake feed her father. But of course one can't eat without a bib on, so the father, with a drink in one hand, was forced to wear her pink bib. And he had to say 'yummy' after each bite or else she was offended! 

In another father-daughter bonding session, the father decided to take football lessons (in the house!). And believe me what a racket it was. Not because there was a ball being kicked around the drawing room, but because the young lady decided to use lung power more than foot power. When the father kicked it, she screeched and ran behind the ball, picked it up and scurried away. What a sight! 

The father-daughter affection was highlighted the day she brought huggie bear to her dad and got herself tiny huggie bear. So papa had to hug big huggie bear and baby had tiny huggie bear... and they lived happily every after... whilst mumma cleaned the dishes!

I say again, girls will be girls... most attached to their fathers. Very soon they'll be a team, plotting against mumma! I don't mind. At the end of the day, they'll both be on my side! 

Naming Aanya

Throughout my pregnancy i thought i was having a boy. Not as a bias of any sort, just a gut feeling. And you know how people judge by your tummy and hips and eating habits whether you'll have a son or daughter, my usual reviews were that of a boy. MMW and i had decided to look up baby names once the second trimester was over, basically after the seventh month customary 'godh bharai' or 'shaadh' as we call it in bangla. 

I only looked up boy names. MMW had one condition, just one in the entire baby naming process, the name had to start with A. So that narrowed it down immensely. And most of the names were so common that i didn't even bother listing them. My primary resource was the internet and a book by Menaka Gandhi on baby names borrowed from a friend. 

One sleepless night (as are most nights during the last phase of huge tummy days), in my ninth month, i suddenly woke up MMW, "what if it's a girl? we haven't thought of any girl baby names? she'll feel so bad!" And thus began the hunt for a beautiful baby girl name. In a couple of days i chalked out an entire list of names and their meanings. Between the two of us, we'd picked and finalised a boy and girl name. In my enthusiasm i checked out the numerology implications of the spellings et all (my pregnancy website had a tool for the same!)

That moment on the 21st of april 2011 is etched in my memory forever. In the OT, in my blindfold i heard the baby cry for the first time. The doctors were busy stitching me up and i was itching with curiosity. The anesthetist very hesitantly asked me, "what did u want?" and believe me at that moment i only wanted to know that i'd had a healthy baby. "Here's your baby girl", he said, opening my blindfold for a second. My wet cheeks touched her soft face and she was taken away. 

A very drowsy and heavily drugged me was wheeled in to the room post operation. The baby was put in a cradle next to me. MMW couldn't stop smiling. Between all the congratulatory calls, visits and the sudden added responsibility, he whispered in my ear "So, shall i register her as Aanya?". I smiled, and nodded and that's how we named our Aanya. 

It means inexhaustible in sanskrit and gracious in hebrew. Before we named her, we'd hardly heard of any Aanyas. Now, everyone i know knows another Aanya. Yet, there's only one Aanya Purkayastha- our most awaited, most petted, most pampered- our first one!

Her canvas

Her tiny fingers dabbled with paint for the first time today. Aanya finally discovered the joy of messing around with paints. 

I laid out newspapers on a tiled surface and kept a chart paper (read her canvas) in the center. In a plate i put some green, red and yellow paint and showed her once what needed to be done. Very soon, the plate looked brown, thanks to the heartless fusion of the three. 

What followed was a little confused yet fun and messy exploration of texture. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking with a promise that it's definitely not the last time she felt colours.

I don't know why i made the silly mistake of bathing her before the experiment. Anyway, lesson learnt. Oh, and i've kept her canvas and bloomer as souvenirs. 

  

Space matters

It's the free space and exposure to the company of many others that's turning her in to more of a social being. First thing in the morning she wants to explore the outside, play ball, say hi to the birdies and run around. Finally i think hunger drives her back in.  

My theory is, at home there's only so much she can do and is then constrained by space. Here she's found boundary less space. Hence, more to explore and even more to engage her naughty mind in. She's not threatened by unfamiliar territory. It takes her just a few minutes to warm up to the new place. 



And i'm talking out of experience. In the last month she's visited her thammu's place in Delhi, family friends' places also in Delhi, her ammu-dadu's house, the golf course, my dad's colleagues place in Amritsar, my aunt's place, cousins house, friends place and uncles' house in Mumbai. She's never clung on to me for too long. She's definitely a social baby. As long as she gets her food, sleep and diaper change on time. 

After the sweet taste of space and the meaning it brought to her existence, i introduced her to the train. Paradoxical situation leading to one of the most horrendous experiences of my life with aanya. Train compartment=no freedom of space=feeling of being chained! Umpteen end to end walks of the compartment were taken (I could hear almost all the passengers empathising with mumma and me), songs and rhymes were repeated, so much so that the co-passengers also learnt them by heart, books were read aloud, extensive doodling on the slate was observed and the the toys animated their story till she was bored. There was nothing we didn't try. 

Moral of the story. If you have a child like Aanya, travel by train before she can start walking or after she is old enough to use the loo herself! Preferably travel with spouse; never alone.