The first two weeks in May had Mowgli and Cocoa in Kerala.
The original plan was two weeks at both sides, but as always we propose and
Mowgli disposes. Tears, tantrums etc etc cut short the trip to one week at both
his grandparent’s. Though he did settle down after a week, we missed him a lot
and brought him back.
How was it? Q.U.I.E.T.
The BH was on tour for a whole week. Maid was absconding. It was just me and
Bambi. After Bambi, I’d really forgotten how it is to just have one child. Half
the work, less running around, less shouting. And SO easy!!! Normally it’s a
mad rush of activities with everything overlapping and chaos, but with just her
it was as if I had all the time in the world (I know it was not like this with
just Mowgli! It was chaos. Maybe this is the learning and calm from having two
babies!)
Bambi enjoyed this break the most. She has always tagged
along behind Mowgli, going wherever he wants to go, doing whatever he wants to
do. The bane of every second born. For her having us entirely to herself was a
big deal. She loved it. It was as if she came into her own suddenly! Sole focus
of our attention, being made a fuss of, taken wherever she pointed to, her wish
was our command. She had a gala time playing with all of her chachan’s cars and
toys though that did wear off after some days. Then she started missing him
looking for him throughout the house
calling out ‘Atho, Atho’.
Cant really understand how we can have two kids
that are so different. Mowgli is the tender hearted one, quick to cry, quick to
make up, lavish with his kisses and hugs, scared of the unknown( it could be
the dark, experiences that he has not had before) while Bambi is the stubborn
one, does not waste her time crying but instead figures out how to get what she
wants ,extremely stingy with showing affection and not scared of anything. I have
stopped comparing milestones coz they are so different. Mowgli would love to
sit with me while I read to him whereas she wants to tear the book apart. In a
couple of years I’m sure that she will be the one looking after him in spite of
being the younger one.
Funny how things turn out. When Mowgli was small, around
Bambi’s age, every time the BH used to go on a
tour he would wake up crying in the middle of the night. I would walk
him through the entire house and finally he would go back to sleep around 5/6
am. Bambi never had this problem and it used to hurt her father that she was
not missing him. But the two weeks that Mowgli was not here, she woke up every
single night crying! And it was the same pattern.. walk in the bedroom.. walk
in the drawing room… swing for some time… walk walk walk and finally around 5 am she would drink milk and
go off to sleep leaving me hopelessly tired and cursing the BH and Mowgli and
the Universe.
And when Mowgli came back, I thought that he would be all
over me. But no sir, he first ran to Bambi hugged her, pulled her, kissed her
and general goofiness and then remembered to kiss me!
It was such a blessing having a clean house for those two weeks.There was
just one small basket of Bambi’s toys that were taken out every day and put
back every evening. I don’t know who makes the mess- is it Cocoa or Mowgli. It
was so soothing to the eyes to see the living room cushions in their proper
places, rugs straight and all dusted and nice. There is something about a clean room and fresh plants that make me happy. As I write this, the cushions
are scattered all over the room with not even one on the diwans where they
should be, the swing is full of cars and there are books and random stuff
everywhere. Mowgli is squeezing Bambi and she is retaliating by running off with his precious cars when he is not looking. Decibel levels are really high with mine topping the charts. An outsider if he comes in right now might just run away fearing for his life. Aah well, it’s a nice kind of mess though…
