5 Months!

Dearest Athiboy, 

I think I have finally started feeling that time is flying, because you seem to be growing quite fast, becoming all the more cute and irresistible every passing day.

Yayyyy! This month is a Double Dhamkka, as you've achieved two milestones. Firstly, you have FOUND YOUR VOICE. You have realised that you've a voice and keep showing that to us by constantly shrieking with excitement. Generally, 3pm-4pm is your shriek hour. You're at your best at this time, constantly shrieking with joy, kicking your legs and laughing.

Secondly, after what felt like ages for us, but actually has been only 5 months, you ROLLED OVER. You've been desperately trying to roll over by turning to your sides for the last 1 week and finally, 3 days ago, you pulled it off. And guess what, the first time you did it, nobody saw you. I had fed you and put you in the bed to play, and had gone over to do something outside signalling V to keep an eye on you. He was busy with a work call and once that got over, he turned around to see you banging your face into the bedspread, dripping a mouthful of drool on my phone, and almost started shouting at me for leaving you that way unattended. It took him a couple of moments to realise that you'd indeed rolled over on your own. Well, great job kid! I'm impressed by your determination and how you didn't give up trying  continuously for one whole week before you actually rolled over.  

You sweat a lot. So much sweat that the cloth in which we lay you down always get wet where your back touches it. Given the Chennai summers, these days, you are most often moved into either of the air-conditioned rooms of the house and almost refuse to sleep when you don't have enough air.

As much as you loved thooli last month, you've absolutely ditched it now, main reason being it's in the Hall, and not in one of the air-conditioned bedrooms. You've grown to sleep either in the carseat-cum-rocker and mostly sleep only while listening to songs. This month's new favourite songs being Chellamma Chellamma and Amaidhiyaana Nadhiyinile. If you're half asleep and there's a change of song, you immediately open your eyes and kick your legs to listen on what's going to be played next. And once you realise it's just another of your usual songs, you slowly drift off to sleep.

Your nap times range from anywhere between 20 minutes to 40 minutes at the most, except for one big nap, either late afternoon / early evening. Its one nap I totally enjoy (for my own selfish reasons), because I lay you over me, and hug you around and both of us enjoy a good sleep for 1-2 hours. Sometimes, I try to put you down thinking you are in deep sleep, but the moment your body touches the bed, you start stretching, twisting and turning & wake up in 10-15 minutes.

You have been introduced to the world's magic potion called "water". Though the first week was more of making weird faces and spitting, you have slowly started to like it. You happily gulp down a couple of millilitres, after a heavy shrieking session. 

You're mostly a happy-go-lucky kid, and your cries for food or attention has always been subtle. One of the reasons being, there are always people around you who jump in to pacify on your slightest whim. However, this month we put our first surprise visit to the Paed one evening, because you cried non-stop for 20 minutes scaring your Thatha so much so that he literally dragged us to take you to the doc right away. But by the time we stepped out of the house you stopped crying and acted all chamathu in front of the doctor, making us wonder why did we take you there. Turns out you had colic, which could've caused a stomach ache, making you cry in pain. You occasionally throw in that high decibel-closed eyes cries when waking up from sleep, but with people lifting, patting and talking to you, you slowly open your eyes. Once the eyes open and scan the surroundings, the cry changes to smile almost instantaneously. 

If there's one good thing about the COVID lockdown, it has be the Work-from-home option for V. He's lucky enough to see you grow, and spend a good amount of time with you. He's your terrace partner. Almost 3-4 days a week, he takes you out to the terrace in the evenings. Walking around with you over his shoulders, occasionally stopping by near the Murungamaram and watching you get all excited as the leaves sway with the wind. You love playing with your sleeping dad in the mornings. Every morning, the routine goes like, I wake up, you wake up; I feed you, you half sleep, I put you down next your dad asking him to keep an eye on you. And guess what he does? He doesn't even open his eyes (of course, he wants extra sleep) but instead gives a finger of his in your hands. You hold that tight, play around with it, try to put it in your mouth (but mostly fail to), laugh and talk to it, while your dad conveniently stays in sleep all the while (if you ask him, he might deny this saying he wasn't sleeping, but just keeping his eyes closed).

In these 5 months, I have seen myself change so much. My love for you has definitely grown over this time. From the initial days when neither of us understood what the other person wants, I've grown to understand you slowly. Its sometimes a guessing game, where occasionally I do fail, but most times, I succeed in guessing what exactly bothers you, be it sleep or hunger or just some human touch. 

As much as I love my job and have been desperate to get back ever since the start of my maternity leave, I've started feeling a little concerned that we'll not be able to spend so much time like this together anymore. I think the separation anxiety has kicked in for me. But no matter what, I will always love you Bul. Hope you do too! 

Love,

Amma