Irony!

I’ve been humming this song for the past 2 days..

‘A little cock sparrow sat on a tree..
looking as happy as happy could be..
..
..’
(Too much influence of Sid’s rhymes)

Sid has been humming this song for the past 2 days..

‘Rum bum bum arambam bum bum bum perinbam’
(where the perinbam sounds like peyinbam..)

(Too much influence of FIL)

Irony, isnt it?

 

It’s been some time!

I know its been some time since I wrote. Its been a busy month. To start with I had a couple of busy weeks at work, lined up with a release and then I was supposed to get some peaceful time in coimbatore for diwali. Hubby and I took a week’s vacation, and its really rare for us to plan impeccably in this manner. The vacation started out well, but then Sid fell very sick, with a bad fever and cough that lasted for a week. It scared us a lot and loads of tests for swine flu and dengue and other diseases were taken, and thankfully results turned negative. But still Sid was in a bad shape and lost a lot of visible weight since he refused to consume food for a few days. It really took a toll on me, juggling work and seeing him so sick and being helpless about it. This is the kid who doesnt sit for a moment and drives me mad with all his mischiefs, and here he was lying in a corner with drooping eyes. Really turned me into a paranoid mom for a week. And also it was painful to see him running away from me, since I was the official medicine administrator. As stealthily that I would try to give him his syrups, he would spy on me and watch for what I was carrying in my hands on a subconscious level and had his ways of knowing when the terror was around. Anyway, it is glad to have things back normal.

Its amazing to see how with each passing month his perception of the things happening around him changes so much, and also how well he is able to communicate what he wants ingeniously. His vocabulary has piled up a lot more words, as he can identify many objects around him with ease now, and also tries to guess what their color is. He has also started singing bits and pieces of songs, and counts till 20 in English and till 10 in Tamil. Whenever he see any objects in multiples, he would just start counting ..like …1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. thalani.. (counting pillows as he goes to sleep)
We also have our end of day conversations..
Amma: Chidhu, inniakku enna pannine nee?
Sid: Cow.
Amma: evlo cow pathe?
Sid: ‘dhendu cow’ - 2 cows
Amma: Vera enna pathe?
Sid: naay (dog), bear (surely imaginative I hope!)
Amma: Patti enna thandha unakku?
Sid: bichi (biscuit), kai (as in the vegetable), mei mummum (ghee rice)
Amma: thatha?
Sid: coquette (chocolate)
(And that’s how I found he has been feed chocolates so beware people, he can now tell on you! )

And this is my favorite – he calls out to me, like I am in the kitchen and he wants something..and he goes “ammmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. That, I tell you, is a sheer moment of BLISS!

 

Chamathu Sid

God! I’m jetlagged! But still going to write this post, so cannot vouch for the sanity of content that may prevail in the following lines. Sid has been duly dropped off in coimbatore with his grandparents and aunt and I’m here in London. All my moments of worrying whether he would be able to cope up there were a waste apparently. As soon as we stepped into the house, he just recognized everyone and was all cuddly with my mom. We’ve a huge house there in Coimbatore, so he had fun just walking around the house and exploring every nook and corner. As opposed to the previous time when he would start crying the moment I stepped a few yards away from him, Sid, the adventurer, was born this time. I took him out for some shopping and when we were back, he even called my mom – patti. And he said that several times making his patti so happy. So, you know, when you bring up a baby, you have these really wonderful moments and equally terrible ones, and luckily for me, this fell into the former category. Called home today from here to check how he was doing only to know that he has been hardly searching for me at all, blissful in his own world.
It seemed like it was the adults who worried more about this whole trial, anyway thank God for this, otherwise I’d have had no peace here. I now tell my mom that the initial 1 year she invested with him has paid her off so well, since I think he is able to adjust there only because he had spent a lot of time with her during those days. When I left home on Friday, my heart just welled up in a way that it hasnt for so many years, but I ensured I didnt make a scene and also left when Sid was engrossed with his rhymes. That moment of turbulence in my heart is so indescribable.
Anyway, All izz well that ends well

 

Weekend getaway

Sid and I had a weekend getaway from our regular schedule. Well, not together though!

My mom is here and so I was on a ‘shop till you are dead mode’ this weekend. I keep the shopping urge suppressed for so long that one day when I unleash it out, it gets uncontrollable. And when my sister is also with me, the girly shopping begins and oh! I love it. How muchever nice and patient hubby can be with shopping, I cannot run amok from one shop to another and just get in and do tryouts just for the sake of it, you know. I’d get complicated questions like, ‘why do you want to get into the shop if you’re not planning on buying anything’. Ah, men dont understand certain things!! There is a unique bliss to buying trinkets off the road, walking around till your legs cannnot take just one more step, and then randomly getting into a coffee day and having that awesome strawberry shake that makes you go – ‘this is why I was born’.

We also watched Shrek 4, in 3D. The move was nice, still cannot compare to the experience of watching the first one, where you are introduced to the idea of an ogre being the hero of the movie. But it was nice, only that I wish I had watched it in 2D. The glasses were quite painful and so dirty that the screen appeared like it was behind a soapy film layer.

While amma was running wild on the Bangalore streets, Sid had a calm weekend with his grandma. He is seeing my mom after a couple of months and I wasnt sure if he would recognize her, although she literally raised him the first 12 months of his life. But the very second she saw her, he was all smiles, and had no adjustment problems whatsoever. He was happy to eat when she fed him and to sleep when she put him to bed. I was so thrilled that I got gutsy enough to leave him with her and venture out with my shopping on the very first day my mom came in. In my defense, I had only one weekend to release my pent-up madness  :)

Honestly, I was very moved by Sid’s behavior this weekend. It made me think what a sweet cutie pie he has been, adjusting to the fact that his mom is going to work and would not be available during the day. He has been perfectly ok to play and stay with anyone after the initial couple of days of validation that they belong ‘in the circle’. Even at night, I think he doesn’t mind if I dont put him to sleep, and if mom or MIL does, although I have not tried this out much, since that’s my special time with Sid. I feel a bit wierdly sad at times, that I’m his mom and he is not even looking for me when I’m gone. But, mostly, I’m happy for it, happy that I can be at peace at work or whatever I want to do, because he is not a cry baby and can stay with his extended family. Love you, chidhu.

 

Family anthems

You know how people come up with various cutie words to call their kids? Hardly people call their kids by their actual names. I remember when my cousin took her kid for the school interview, she was asked ‘How do you correct your child when she is doing something wrong?’ She replied, I usually call her ‘cutie name’ but when I’m angry I call her ‘real name’. So true!!! So, we have a family of really creative people, who use lot of weird sounding terms to call Siddharth. I guarantee the rest of the post will not make much sense to you, but I’m writing it anyways, so maybe when Sid grows up he can read this and have a hearty laugh (or scorn at the kind of family he got!)

So my FIL calls Sid ‘kogudu thimmu’ ..apparently that’s some kind of dada (mini-dawood maybe) in Karnataka and he was referring to Sid being a rowdy like that and then the name just stuck.

My dad on the other extreme calls him ‘Krishna’, maybe he thinks Sid is some kind of avatar.

My mom used to call him ‘naikkutty’ for a long time, but now she and the rest of us have stuck to ‘Sidhu’ or ‘chidhu’.

As for me, I call him gummi, gumli, pattani (stole from hubby), amlu, …hmm…cant remember the rest now…but the list is long, trust me!

 We’re also a family of lyricists and music directors. So, we have come up with family songs to sing to Sid. I think if our family ever gets split like it happens in the double role hero movies, we could really put one of these songs to good use!

 Here goes one by my FIL.. ‘ingu kuchiniya, nee thathava adchiniya’  (roughly translated as you drank all the milk and beat up thatha)

There are remix versions of the above as well.. so the above lines would adapt to the tune of one of the popular movie songs, depending on whatever is the craze at that time. 

Hubby came up with this one whenever he wants to let a clinging Sid down on the floor..he used to sing this so many times that my mom threatened she would not play the babysitter if he sings this even one more time!

‘podungada siddhuva dhoppu, podungada siddhuva dhoppu, dhoppu, dhoppu’ (meaning, lets put Sid down in crude language! )

 Inspired by me calling Sid as gummi, hubby came up with this one..

‘nakki gummiya nee, thuppi gummiya … illave ille..nee gumikka gummi’ (And for God’s sake I cant translate this one, since it really makes no sense whatsoever, but is my favorite)

 If you are thinking we ‘re one bunch of lunatics, you may be very well right, but Sid has to make do with this bunch If you come home sometime, we can actually sing one of these family anthems for you

 

whats with the thathas and paatis?

I guess every kid does this. what really so special about the thathas and pattis, I wonder..

I wonder how Sid recognizes them immediately and gives them that special smile. Whatever I do to impress him, whenever he sees any of them, he just hops onto them any time of the day! When he hears my FIL’s voice at the door, he just starts looking around to see him and doesnt settle down until he actually sees him. I guess he is programmed that way by God to remind me to be really nice to my in-laws.. he he. 

And its both ways I guess, even the grandparents behave in a unique way once they have their peran or pethi. I’m sure that it must be some kind of a sudden burst of hormones, otherwise how do you explain the sudden changes in their behaviour. My FIL does a lot of komali seshtai (buffoonery) whenever he is around Sid that makes my son go gaga, I’ve never seen him laugh that loud with me anytime whatever I do, sigh My MIL comes back from office around 6pm and hurries to see him. My dad who has visited me only 3 times in the past 4 yrs  since my wedding has already visited my son twice in the past 3 months. And my mom, whom I’ve never seen konjifying anyone in her life including me and my sister, has suddenly taken a new avatar. I’ve never seen her lose her inhibitions and go ‘ajjooooo and bujjoooooo’ in front of everyone I guess somehow grandparents find a lighter side in them when they have a grandchild. Or its maybe the characteristic of that generation when people were so busily absorbed in their daily chores trying hard to survive and make money that did not let them enjoy their kids’ growth. On the contrary, we in this generation have enough time to sit and BLOG about it