Dearest Bul,
I'm going to use the most clichéd sentence every mom ever does - "Can't believe it's been" 6 months since your birth already. Though the first few months moved in snail's pace, the last couple of months have gone by in a jiffy.
From a teeny tiny goeey flowing body, with Karasev type hands and legs, you've grown to become a bubbly ball and the thought of gobbling you up is irresistible. (I know, I sound like a cannibal, but the cuteness is too much to handle) It's a joy seeing you grow. How even the minutest and the lamest of the things excite you. Like, the sound of calling bell, the slow movement of ribbons / curtains because of the blowing fan, stainless steel cups & plates, the revolving fan, the neighbor's digital clock, the sound you make with the Thandai when we lay down on floor or try to make you sit in a chair.
True to the fact that you're growing, one biggest find of this month is to constantly wave your hands or bang the things that you get hold of. You've managed to do the "First official breakage". Banged one poor rattle so badly that it broke into pieces spilling it's tiny pellets that made sounds when you shake it.
You absolutely love the neon colors, especially the neon orange and green. There are days when you cry your lungs out for no reason (probably, a reason not known to us) but, the moment we show the neon orange rattle you stop crying almost instantaneously. V wonders why you fancy it so much because in his opinion it's one very poorly designed rattle. But you don't give a damn, and love playing it, banging it around to the extent that anybody wanting to come near and play with you think twice before doing it, for the fear of getting hit with it.
One of the things you've picked up recently is, storing a good quantity of saliva in your throat and laughing with it. This makes a grrrrr sound which you totally admire and keep doing when you're really happy and excited. Oh, you also fake cough a lot. Whenever someone near you coughs you instantly cough up too.
You're learning the art of grabbing stuff. Anything within the range of your open hands is meant for you to grab. You look at it a good few seconds and then jitter your body a little, and slowly bring your hands up from both the sides and grab the thing. And once done, the first thing you do with it is, taste it. Yes, everything you pick up or touch need to be stamped with your saliva before further exploration.
If there's one thing that V and I have got to learn to live with, atleast for the next couple of years, is to sleep in parts, throughout the night. Sleeping undisturbed for an entire stretch of 6-8hours is a thing of the past for us. It's not that you wake up in the middle of the night and start playing, but slightly different. You start twisting and turning around in your sleep, with eyes shut out completely. That's when either of us have to wake up to ascertain what's up with you. Most often, once we lift you up and rock you, you stop your twistings and hug around and start sleeping. After an hour or so of this peaceful sleep, I lay you back down on the bed. But some days are tough, and you refuse to sleep even with the rocking. On such days, I leave you down on the bed, you open your eyes, keep twisting around for a good 20 minutes, and realise there's nobody there to see or play with you, and drift off to sleep on your own.
Ever since you started rolling over, you just can't stay upright. These days, the moment we lay you down on a flat surface, you roll over on your stomach in a jiffy. If you aren't sleeping in thooli, you sleep only in rolled over position. You literally refuse to sleep upright. Even when we deliberately lay you upright on the bed, you turn your sides, and slowly roll over and sleep with your face down, with the nose almost always, completely squeezed.
Bathing is still one of your favorite activities albeit the fact that you no longer stay put. You constantly try to get up from my legs or roll over onto the bathroom floor. You have started to be bathed by both your dad and paati. But you don't really seem to care who's bathing you as long as there's water being poured on you.
You have been desperately trying to pull yourself up into sitting position by lifting your upper body. (Similar to the way we do crunches) You lift about 3-4 inches off the ground, and then fall back off. I think it'll be another couple of months before you can learn the art of lifting yourself up from the ground and sit.
The constant kicking of the legs have slowly turned to constant lifting of the legs. You have started to lift the legs up till your stomach and hold it with your hands. I'm really excited to see the day you put your toes into the mouth. That's something I really wish you'd do.
Next is, FOOD. You've moved from Water to Kanji to juice to Koozh. I still remember the first day we gave you Kanji in the bottle. You drank it up as if you'd drunk this all your life. No tantrums, no spitting (of course, there were some spillage from the sides of your mouth when you sipped it up way too fast, but that's fine). I was shocked, with both happiness and a tinge of sadness. Sad because I will no longer be your sole food provider. From struggling and wanting to quickly get done with all the constant breastfeeding in the initial months, I have come a long way to truly appreciate and enjoy our feeding times. The smile that you'd flash everytime you look at me while feeding is priceless and melts my heart, every single time.
Juices aren't quite your thing till now. Making you drink them is a struggle in itself. But ther are some days you surprise us by drinking it fully and asking for more. There was one day when we had just one old carrot, and made very little juice out of it, assuming that you'd anyway spit it out. But guess what you did? Drank the whole thing up and as if to appreciate it was tasty, kept clicking your tongue and licking your lips. Your paati was like, "Fresh carrot la juice potu kudutha thoo nu moonjilaye thuppara, pazhaya carrot la potu kudutha super ah iruku nu chappamkottra. Enna da ipdi panra?!"
When you're tired of playing too much and starting to feel sleepy, you let out one big dramatic crying scene with tears flowing down your cheeks. Your dad or me should instantly come to pacify you at this time, else, you don't stop at all. Also, when you're starting to feel sleepy, you demand to be around known faces (which right now is just V, me, Paati and Thatha). If by chance, anybody else tries to lift you and play with you, avlodan pochu! Bang comes the dramatic cry. You did to this my dad when he came over to see you once. Gosh! He was completely shocked. Took us another 15 minutes to calm you down and put you to sleep. But once you got up, you started playing with him as if the kid who cried earlier wasn't you at all. Mahanadigan dawww!!
Your daily terrace outings had made you familiar with most people in the apartment. You don't hesitate to be held by any of them. You have a thing for tall people, (comes from being around V a lot, I suppose) and are almost always ready to go over to any of them. You got to attend your first ever birthday party. It was one of the neighbors kid's birthday and they'd had a small party at their house. Though you were tired because of the lack of proper sleep since the morning that day, you did manage to enjoyed by staring at all the ceiling lights and the numerous lighted balloons flying around. You still continue to be the Social Bird that you were!
Sleep still happens only with songs playing in the background. Newly added song for this month is Vaa Rayil Vida Polama. (Note: Song suggestions with minimal instrumental intervention are most welcome. Language ain't a barrier at all)
I've resumed back work from last week. Thankfully, it's working from home. But even then it's difficult not being able to play with you or bathe you or just stare at you while you're asleep. You're mostly with your Thatha or Paati these days, exception for a couple of times when I come over and say quick "Hi" to you or have to feed you. Even at those times, I can see you get excited when you look at me. Pah! Those moments are moments that I shall forever cherish. If I were to go to office to resume back work at this time, I'm sure I'd had separation anxiety and had tears rolling down.
Here's to another couple of months of staying at home and enjoying the times with you.
Love,
Amma
