-
Toyna n Yog
I might be the biological mother for Yog, but honestly, better than me, he has two more mothers in our house. One, without doubt, is his grandmother whom he spends a lot of his waking time with. The other, quite unexpectedly is 9 year old Toyna. When Yog was born, I hadn’t expected Toyna to be able to connect much. After all, there is a significant age gap between the two. On top of that, she hardly has any time after her school, homework and friends to spare with Yog. But as the two are growing, the connection is so deep, it seems it has always been there. When Pavan…
-
THE PERFECT PARENT
Most first time parents have this fairy tale vision about parenting. They have seen enough spoilt brats in their circle of friends and family to create their own rule book of what not to do with their own children. I, of course, was no different. When I was expecting my first child, I vowed to feed him the healthiest of foods any child had ever eaten. I vowed to have him sleep on his own, through the night. I vowed that my child would never throw a tantrum in public. I was dead sure I would be the perfect parent and my child would be THE PERFECT child. I started…
-
The Mystery of the Dysfunctional Machines
Since the last few days, I have been struggling to uncover the mystery behind the strange behavior of electronic machines in our house. Some examples here to show how frustrating life is: I switch on the washing machine when I leave home, expecting it to be done by the time I am back for lunch. At lunch time, 4 hours later, I am surprised to see it stuck mid way. The inverter always refuses to switch on automatically when the electricity goes. The grinder automatically starts on when we switch on the plug, many a times leading to a huge spill. The lights, I keep on at night, mysteriously switch off on their own,…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
Where are your Hands?
Never thought that teaching Yog about his body parts could be so gratifying. We were talking about hands yesterday, and I pointed with my one hand to another and said, “This is Mama’s hand. Where is Yog’s hand? ” He looked baffled from one corner of the room to another trying to find his hands. I brought him near me, caught his hands in mine and turned his palms upwards to face him. “Yog’s hands!!!” He looked at his palms as if he was seeing them for the first time. He laughed out loud and was so excited to discover his hands that he couldn’t sit in one place anymore.…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
The Code Word
ummm, hmmmmm, mmmmm…. How do I tell about something like this? Should I even be writing about it? I don’t know. But since this is so important to me, I think I should go ahead and write about it. To all readers, here is my note of caution: This post may contain details considered dirty and smelly by some. We started potty training Yog about 2 months back. As the term suggests, we used to take him to the bathroom and beg him to please do poo poo in the bathroom. To help him understand that this is the place where such gifts are given, we used to make sounds like mmmhhh, mhhhhh…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
The Foodie
Yog loves everything that is even in the remotest ways connected to food. Most of his waking time, he spends in the kitchen sitting beside his grandmother or me, watching us cook. When we remove him from the cooking scene for fear of he getting hurt, he busies himself with the pots, pans, grinder jars, ladles, boxes, anything that makes sounds and is associated with food. Our best time together, during the day, is when I sit down for my meal. Usually he has already finished his food, but his curiosity on whats on my plate, always pull him to me. I sit on the chair, and he sits on…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
Potty Training Woes
Have you ever dressed up for going out, lined your eyes with mascara, put on your favorite perfume, double checked yourself in the mirror, only to…………. become the toilet seat for the next bio break of your child. Phew! What a waste! ! This has happened to me two days in succession now. Either I should stop trying to dress up, or I should stop trying to potty train Yog n switch back to diapers.
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
Time Out Time
Having been through terrible twos once already on my own, and having listened to numerous tales of terrible twos, one would expect that I would be completely prepared to handle Yog as he approaches that stage. Alas! I admit I am not at all prepared. Somehow, when I held in my arms for so many months, kissed him good night, twirled his little fingers in mine, I always considered him to be an angel sent straight from heaven to save me. Deep down inside my heart, I always belived Yog would be different. He would not throw tantrums over food, not break things apart, not jump from chairs and above…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
Learning about the World
Morning walks with Yog have now transformed from “Learning to Walk” exercise, to “Learning about his World” exercise. We walk less, but stoop more to pick up things from the road. He feels almost every fallen item on the road to explore its colour and texture. If there is something very interesting (usually a stone or a shiny wrapper), he decides to sit down on the road or on the mud alongside the road to give the item its full attention. In the initial days, I used to worry about hygiene and infections, but I figured the amount of learning involved for him in this whole exercise is much more than…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
-
Walking and Falling
After a month of holding hands with Yog and religiously walking around, Yog finally started walking on his own. Watching him grow towards taking his first few steps on his own has been a significant journey for all of us. In the early days of trying to walk, he lost his balance once and fell hard. Ever since that day, he became skeptical of walking. Somewhere in his mind, he associated walking with falling and getting hurt. In the last month, we all knew he was capable of walking on his own, but he wouldn’t let go of our hand. For him, the fear of falling was way stronger than…
You May Also Like
Red Wet Shoes
Twitter
GooglePlus
LinkedIn
Facebook