Glimpses...

...of the times gone by.
I am thankful, to myself.
Ever since Cuckoo and Baba were born, I would always have some form of camera in my hand.

I am so happy, I did.
With this pandemic encroaching on our lives, I am glad I got a chance to revisit all those memories.

I so wish, I clicked more of Amma.
The ones that I have, shows how spontaneous and funny Amma was.
I love the bits I have captured of Amma.  

Words...

And you ALWAYS had the cutest ones, ever since you could talk. Even when you couldn't talk, you still had the cutest things to say.

At almost 1 year - Your favorite word was "gig gi". You would say gig-gi gig-gi for almost everything. You wanted water, you would say gig-gi. You were hungry, you would say gig-gi. You were happy, you would say gig-gi. When you were sad, ohhhhh when you were sad and weepy, you would look so cute.

At almost 2 years - You didn't know how to say or pronounce "r". Reliance was Leliance, ThRee was ThLee. FouR was FoooouuuuLLLL. SuRaj was ThuLaj. FRidge was FLidge. CaR was CaaaL. StoRy was StoLy. Bedroom was BedLoom.
Once when you were 2, cuckoo had gone down to play. You kept asking "Mumma, cuckoo no coming home?". I said, "Baba, Cuckoo went down to play. You call cuckoo from the balcony and ask her to come soon."
You hopped to the balcony, and is always as the case - with 1 hand waving right outside the grill, one leg dangling right outside the grill, you called so loudly. You called "AaaaaaassssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIII, AaaaashuuuuLLLLLLLLLiiiiiii, come home now. Mumma will aadi(give you phatka) you."
That melted my heart.

At almost 3 years - You would say "I bubloo you, Mumma"

At almost 4 years - You said "This is Filllee lescuing Lobot", which meant "This is Fire Rescuing Robot"

and as time passed by your sweet words turned into golden sentences

At almost 5 years - You would ask amma "Amma, you want water". You would listen to everything that Amma would ask of you.
Amma - "Baba, bring plate mumma"
Baba - "Yes Amma"

Amma - "Baba, bring pocha mumma"
Baba - "Which pocha Amma?"

Amma - "Come here, give muchie to amma"
BAba, would run to amma, give a flying muchie in the air. You would know, Amma would laugh and call out to you "A wadaare baba, give nice muchie to amma. Otherwise, Amma give you nice adi(phatka)".

Amma would say, Baba talks so much that even when he is not at home, I can hear his voice ringing in my ears.

And now, at almost 9.5 years -
If you have to call cuckoo, you say cuccccckkkkkkkaaaaaddddddooooo cuck. or if you have to call mmmmmaaaaaammmmmmmmaaaaaaaaa(in that singing ringing tone of yours).
Your cutest are "Aaaaaaaaaaaaa kuch bhi".
OR "Aaaa Jhoote Daddy".


But my favorites are the way you call "Aaaaammmmmmmmaaaaaaaaa" and the way you call "Mmmmmmmuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

My cutest baba,
Luv Mumma

You wouldn't Stop...

Staring.

Somewhere in Jul or Aug 2008, when we decided to travel to UK, you - Cuckoo were just 10 months old. This was going to be your a very many FIRSTS.

First International trip.
First Air trip.
First trip to an European country.
First trip to a cold cold weather.

Coming back to our Air trip. I was excited, when things did work out well. For instance, Amma too got her visa. As per our plan, we ALL could travel together, you, me, Amma and Daddy. I was worried, you would find the travel difficult. But as always is the case, you proved me wrong. You slept well for the first leg of the journey, without a fuss. Even while take off, when I thought your ears would hurt(as is always the case with me, my ears hurt), and you would cry.
You happily sucked at your dudu bottle and smiled and gurgled.

All through the flight, there was just once that you probably didn't like it. This is when you had to sit on my lap and when we had to put the belt across your round tummy. You complained and screamed for few mins but only till the time you didn't see your dudu bottle. The minute you saw it, you were happy and post that once the flight took off and you were free, you slept off in the bassinet. You had grown so much. Your legs were hanging off the bassinet. But, you happily slept. Just like me, you hardly ate much. Not that there was much to offer. Just like me, as is always the case, we both slept and slept. You were full and you had a nice sleep.

So, in the last leg of our journey, you were wide awake. Grabbing attention. You were an adorable baby. Easy to handle, sweetest smile, absolutely stunning and for some strange reason besides your extremely adorable look, people would assume that you were a boy. Strange!!

People walking up and down the aisle, the air hostess, some elderly people, some young kids said hello to you and smiled and talked for a brief moment. You were seated on my lap, and we had the first seat, right at the front-end. I was holding you tight and had dozed off. Because we were on the aisle seat, you were moving your hand back and forth, blocking people who were walking. Or pulling their clothes, or anything that you could grab. This made them stop and say hello to you or shake your hand. After sometime, you started this game of peek-a-boo.

Across the other end, there was a tall, fair, fat gentleman who was waiting his turn to go to the loo. You stared and stared and stared and almost fell off my arms. You stared till he didn't smile at you.
Once he smiled, you didn't stop, you started playing peek-a-boo with him. He entertained for a couple of mins and after that he disappeared in the loo. But you still kept falling off my arms, to see if he was still there. Sadly, he wasn't.

But after about 10 mins, whilst I was still dozing off, I heard you gurgling and someone talking to you softly.
I opened my eyes, and saw the same gentlemen, Kneeling near our seat and making small talks with you.
I think he said "you cute lil thing, you just wouldn't stop smiling and playing, would you? I had to come and say hello to you"

He went away after sometime. Soon, it was time for us to get off, whilst Daddy and me were busy grabbing our bags, the air hostess offered to hold you for sometime.
She took you in her arms, put her maroon colored hat on your head(I think, it was emirates airlines). And you looked so cute. Amma was saying, take your picture. But, stupid me. Whilst we were busy taking all our bags, you happily were in the air hostess arms and waving bye to the other passengers. Everyone kept saying...you looked so cute.

You, certainly did!!

Stories

They both love stories!
Cuckoo and Baba, they both do!

I love telling them one, and love reading one with them, and when they were little, loved reading for them.
Cuckoo picked up reading, thanks to our random story-reading and story-telling sessions. Every night it would be a small book. And then slowly, before I knew she could read. I hope she reads more and more and keeps it up, forever.

Baba on the other hand, started to read quite late. He reads, the way a small kid would.
He is 9, but I still find him small. I still see, the lil baby that the nurse put on my chest soon after his birth.

Baba, is the inquisitive one, the creative one, blends his story and drawing together and creates magic.
Cuckoo, is the quieter one, and keeps the stories to herself.

But they both love stories, especially their birthday stories.
I reserve the story-telling of their birth, for their birthdays.

It is precious to me, so has to be narrated on a special day.
This year, with the lock down and me being stuck here in UK, I missed telling Baba his birthday story.

Before these precious stories fade away, I want to put them down in black n white so that you both know what a journey it was.

Luv,
Mumma

Happy to you

I sing: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mummu, Happy Birthday to you "

Mummu sings: "Happy to you, Happy to you, Happy to you, Happy to you"

I say: Happy Birthday my Mummu

She says: Happy to you (with loads of smiles)

1 Year old boy

To my dear Sunny boy,

It still feels like a 'dream' that you are here. Not only you are here, you are a year old. Well, it sounds too filmy, but its true. Everything about you is adorable. For a mum, every child of hers is adorable. I think n feel the same way about Chiku didi, I feel the adorableness for you too. How could I differentiate? Well that explaination goes in another blog/letter. This one is especially for you. You are ONE now. A big boy, soon you will be on your own, fighting and playing with everyone around you, and I would so miss having you as a lil baby.

I love everything about you. The way your hair has grown, a bit scanty but so adorably curly at the bottom. Pair of most beautiful, lovely eyes. I love your lips too, they sometimes look like heart shaped and no wonder I keep kissing you. Your cheeks remind me of chikoos, so lovely to give you 'thuki'.

Thuki is something that you so adorably do. Both you and chiku are so affectionate(Amen!!! don't know how long that would last. I just hope you guys grow up to be Best of friends). Though affectionate, you are not so liberal or lavish with your thuki's. Now let me tell you what thuki is or rather how you do thuki?

1. You would look at me(or Chiku or daddy or amma)



2. give a smile, stretch out your tongue out of your mouth



3. Smile with your tongue sticking out. The Naughty smile!!! you would gurgle.



4. Then bring yourself close to whoevers cheeks and lick away to glory



5. And if the other person lets out a loud laugh, you would do it again and again

Thuki is not the only adorable thing that you do. Looking at you sharing your food, makes me wish and hope that you stay this young forever. When Amma gives you grapes and says "baba, give to amma" you so promptly pluck the grapes off, and shove it in ammas mouth. Well thats not it, you would just continue to feed Amma, till she shuts her mouth tightly. And amma generally would burst out laughing.


When you don't want something, you would just throw it off. If you are standing in your crib, one of your ritualistic game is to throw all your toys off your crib. If you are standing infront of an open refrigerator or cupboard, all the contents has to be thrown out. It doesn't matter if the contents are heavy or light. We have realised, that though you look so tini tiny(you justweigh 8.5 kgs and I am waiting for you to put on royally, now and not later) you have all the power in the world. You can push half a bucket water, you can lift few of the toys bag, you can push the dinning chair and certainly pull chiku didis hair with so much force that she would cry.


At the same time, I cannot deny that you adore your chiku didi. You have to follow her wherever she goes. There is no place else you rather be than besides your didi. Its such a blessing to watch both of you play. Chiku would call you and you would go running to her and hug her and give her thuki. Pure Affection!!!


Chiku didi equally loves you. She keeps saying "our baba is so cute na mumma" especially when you are fast asleep :). She is the one who sorts of scolds and coaxs you to sometimes not do certain things and sometimes to do certain things. Together, you guys can totally mess up amma's house (like the way you did it yday, the entire content of the sofa was on the floor and the colors and crayons on the floor and tiles).


I want to just put you in clay and make a mould out of you, Your lovely face, your cute feet, your small palms n fingers. The way you curl your fingers to call the pigeon (come come come) anyone would fall in love with you.


You are 'YOU', though now there is such a stark resemblance between you and chiku. But still you are YOU. And sometimes you remind me of Appaji, especially when you wouldn't eat anything sour ( the list of your 'don;t likes' is huge, bananas, oranges, grapes, soggy biscuits). You and Chiku didi still love Chappatis. And I hope you continue to love it and I hope someday I do learn to make chappatis just like amma does.


The first word and the only word that you say is 'Amma'. Its so cute when you go around calling amma and sometimes when she is in the bathroom, you stand outside the bathroom door, keep banging and calling out "Amma amma". Poor amma, doesn't get time to even peacefully go to bathroom without this nagging thought at the back of her mind that you would be standing at the door. We all are waiting when you would start saying mumma and daddy.


While bathing, You have this fun thing about putting your head under the running water and doing ho ho ho. Sometimes you try and put your head in bucket which is half filled with water. Putting your hand in commode is like the most fun thing that you want to do. The 2 places that you would want to be is 1. in the bathroom and 2. in the balcony.


THe only thing that annoys me to the core, it used to when you were born and continues to even now. Your crying, well actually it is more of wailing than crying. You would cry in your sleep. Thats the most scariest, cos when you would wake up, you would cry non-stop for a good 15 mins. We have come around to your crying thing, trying to feed you more seems to be the answer to all the problems.


The day of your birthday was very very precious. Though we didn't have a grand celebration, we still managed a family celebration, with amma, mama, Chiku didi, u me n daddy. I made pizzas and fruit salad. Daddy brought dutch truffle cake, the only thing pending is your gift. Instead you gave us a precious gift, you chose that day to walk all over the house. Right from the time you got up to the time you slept, you were happily walking n walking n walking.


And on the occassion of your birthday, I want to say 'Happy birthday my darling baby'. I hope and pray that you grow up to a stud of a man, and have both humility and handsomeness in you. I hope that you grow up to be a man of honor and of your words. I hope that you have many friends, and each of them would look upto you as his/her best friend. ButI hope your bestest friend be me. I hope that you grow up and give me a ride to the market or to shop and never ever frown. I hope that you have your faith, where faith should be and love that would guide you and make you strong. I hope that never ever would I find it difficult to figure you out. I hope that you forever have good health and be a cheerful person.


And I hope one day when you read this, you would be happy, happier, happiest.


Luv


Mumma






You decided to pull your antics on your birthday.

Teary Eyed

...somethings well actually very few things...these days make me really teary!!! This is one of them!!

Yesterday, I reached home late (traffic jams at shil phata are horrendous!!). As I walked in I was greeted by a pair of hands (Champ!!) who wanted to be picked up and another pair of hands and eyes which were concentrating on completing their studies (Cuckoo, playing teacher teacher!!!).

I hugged and kissed and moved on to do my daily chores. As I sat down with warm food to feed the lil brats, there was a down pour of stories to be foretold ( I love listening to the constant rambling!!). So the brat was busy explaining what all his lovely drawings meant which included an Alien Generator(machine that builds/creates Alien), Cuckoo on the other hand insisted she wanted to continue with her teacher-teacher game with baba. That's strange!! as Cuckoo is the one with a large number of stories, ending with WHY-a-certain-person-does-something? eg., Why do big people fight? Why are you sad? Why can't we do this? why can't we do that?

Amma had her share of story to tell. Apparently, this morning - amma left some utensils unwashed in the sink and headed to the bathroom. In the meantime, Cuckoo saw that amma was struggling to do her chores. So cuckoo with her baby hands finished washing the utensils the way a baby could, left them for drying on the kitchen platform. She then headed to do another task. Whilst Amma sat down to rest for few mins, Cuckoo served her breakfast of rotis and bhaajis and water.
Amma was choked!

So was I, when I heard what cuckoo had to say "Mumma you do so much work, I thought I would help you."

My dearest Cuckoo,
Although, I am proud of what you did today - I would rather, you lead a carefree way of going about your life - like a child does. Only hoping to play, to eat chocolates, to have fun with friends etc.
I would want you to be a child first - a small baby butterfly.
Happy Birthday in advance baby!!!
Have a great year ahead!!!

God Bless!!
Luv,
Mumma

I am

gucha (gussa)!!!!

Says my lil baba!! And when the 6.5 years old lil man is gussa you better ask him "why?"

Here we are, so happily heading for shopping and after a longggggggggggg time look forward to the happy times ahead!!!

And here is baba who started off on a crib session!!
You cann't ignore when he talks like that!! Makes a sullen face, hands crossed across his chest and tears welling in his eyes, looking down and talking and again repeats "I am gucha" (I go awwwwwwww so cute at the same time I can't encourage crib sessions all the time !!)

So I kiss him and hug him and ask him lovingly"Why baba?? why are you gucha baba?"

He replies : "because because when I was in senior Kg and cuckoo was in 4th std, she gave me lot of work and called me a waiter. No, I was in Junior Kg and Cuckoo was in 3rd std she gave me lot of work and called me a waiter."

Before I could burst out laughing, with a very controlled tone I had to tell Baba :" but you are NOT a waiter na baba. So why get upset?"

I kiss baba on his forehead and remind him that we will be playing UNO once we go back home and also having dinner at Indigo - we will order for Chicken lollypop and ice cream. Then he forgets all about the incident.

However, I can't help and laugh out loud about the incident.

Cutie baba!!!

Luv Mum