my daughter isn't very good for my ego...

One happy evening, when Sharanya was a lot younger and couldn't say much, except the occasional mumma and a very adamant NO, we'd just made it through an evening bath without either of us being injured. I was putting on her diaper and she looks at the cover of the Pampers diaper cover and points to the HIPPO on the cover and squeals - Mumma!!!

Another happy evening, a few weeks back Sharanya was spending some quality time with her parents - fooling around and generally having a good time. She suddenly points at her father and calls him mumma and then points at her mother (me) and says pappa and then stops to think and tells her father - you can't be mumma, mumma has dots on her face. Her father all but jumped with glee... he's still paying for it!

Kite flying... Another Memory Documented

... 15-Aug 11, kite flying with sharanya and she took to it like a fish to water.

The tiny speck is the kite the girls were flying...

Baani and Sharanya worked at it like they'd been flying kites for years...
We were colour/attire coordinated... right up to the beads around our necks...

And months later, she flew a kite at Penambur beach like a pro ... with shen keeping an eye on her.

grumble grumble... sharanya...grumble grumble

So last Saturday, Sharanya had a birthday party to go to, so I asked her to drink up her milk so i could get her ready. She said to me - You drink the milk..., it obviously didn't go down well with me so i said - you don't drink your milk, then I'm sorry Sharanya, you cannot go to the birthday party. So she turns to her father and says - Papa, mumma ne mujhe sorry bola. Deepak and I, both tried to explain that i wasn't aplogising, but she, chose to ignore that.

Deepak told me that earlier that day when he told her that if she played in the sand, she would get dirty and would have to bathe again. So she told him - pappa main small hun, mujhe bushsha (bath in Sharanya language) karne main kitna time lagega.

Again... grumble grumble...sharanya... grumble grumble

My little baby is a young Lady... Already

There comes a time in a parent's life when they have to let their children go… let them be independent and discover the world on their own. My daughter took to flying the nest a little too early - at 2 years, 2 years 4 months to be precise.
The thing is she started school, play school really. I was so worried about how she would take to it, my little baby away from me for an hour. Would she cling to me, cry and ask me not to leave her. I stayed up nights thinking about how I'd handle her, sobbed a couple of time myself, gave deepak a lot of grief... Anyhoo, when the time came and it was her first day, she walked off without even a backward glance! Not even a bbye mumma... NOTHING!!!

That was the first of the many pangs of painful separation anxiety i was to suffer -

• A day in the play ground, sharanya looks at me and says "mumma aap jao, jab mera ho jayega main aapko bula doongi" (mum, you go, I'll call you when I'm done - i'm being uber cool and translating this)
• Spends a week without me in Naukuchiatal/Bhimtal with her grandparents and aunt and uncle...
• Asks me to drop her at her friends house
• Asks me to pick her up only after it's "dark"
  

VERY VERY PAINFUL SEPARATION ANXIETY!!!

PS. I read somewhere - A parent's success can be judged by how well their children fly after they have left the nest...

So my birthday...

So why can't it be ignored...
... because i'm so popular...