Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh month letters...

Dearest  Adu,
Very close to that one year mark, you are eleven months today! Lets see what all has happened in these three months.

Month 9: We travelled to India this month. The flight journey, time lag, change in weather- you took everything in your stride and decided to have fun, loads of it! For the first time, you had a companion, close to your age (oh well, almost six and a half years older to you) and you loved him the very instant you met him. It's a different story that we had a very difficult  time trying to capture Arjun and you in a single frame because you both wouldn't remain still for a single moment. We were in Bhopal on your ninth month birthday. Everyday, you would get up early and spend some time with Aji in the verandah while I caught up on my sleep. Sitting there in the comfort of Aji's lap and in the luxury of a verandah on the first floor, you had a very good view of kids playing in the ground, vegetable vendors going on shouting and doing their business and cows and dogs and sometimes cats and squirrels too, wandering. You wondered at the newness of it all and soon that verandah became your favourite place in the house. That was the place where you mastered crawling on tiles and then followed Aji everywhere from the living room to dining room to kitchen into the bedrooms. Yes, the first time you tried crawling on tiled surface was in Bangalore but, there you kept slipping. But, thankfully you had Arjun there to keep a watch over you and save you from banging your head against the floor or a wall.

Month 10: We then went to Hyderabad for your kaka's wedding. Well, we did hours of shopping, met scores of new people everyday and attended lots of parties. You totally surprised us by sleeping during one of the noisiest parties, being patient during our various shopping sprees and being generally comfortable around people.Well sweetie, the wedding was the highlight this month and we both felt that you were neglected while we were busy in the preparations. But, you are a sport and a champ at it! At any given function, you were surrounded by at least half a dozen kids, trying to grab your attention and entertaining you generally. We worried that you would feel lonely in Canberra after being used to all this social interaction. But, again you proved us wrong. We started with our daily walks which you enjoyed. And now with your advanced crawling skills, you had much to discover around the house to keep you occupied. Finally, we installed the baby gate to contain you in your play room without your entering the dining-kitchen-pantry area. That kept you away from danger while we baby-proofed the house. You stood comfortably holding on to things (well, you started it last month itself) and tried to walk too.

Month 11: Oh, we saw a lot of change this month. You started your child-care. In the first week, you considered it just another place to play with new toys and some new people. I sat in with you in the nursery for a couple of days chatting with the carers while you explored the whole place. The carers were impressed, I was relieved. But, as the orientation came to an end, you realised that we 'drop' you there and go 'away'. So, the next few weeks were difficult (to put it mildly). I had just started work and was already thinking of leaving it. It was heart-breaking to see you cry out so loud. We started with a couple of hours everyday. Ritesh took a few days off, waited outside for those two hours while the carers had clear instructions to inform him about your slightest distress. You started trusting the carers, slowly settling in and eventually we increased the hours to three, four and so on. I started working three days a week. The settling in process is still going on but, it is better with each passing day. Your communication has increased. You do understand simple words. The first word you comprehended was 'ball'. This happened at the beginning of this month. Its so much fun to play with you now that we can make our own little games- 'throw the ball in the tub' or 'wear the ring in your hand' or 'try to grab the block from my head' or 'putting you in the toy box'. There are times when Ritesh & I kiss in front of you, and you start crawling 'very fast' towards us to join in the cuddle, to kiss and be kissed. Adu, for us, those moments are worth living for. Yes, you balance out all your meal-time tantrums with such sweet gestures. You smart, smart girl! More about it later.

Happy Growing...

Love,
Mumma

PS: I started writing this on 7th Feb, but posting it today,