I spent an afternoon with a good friend. We were meeting after a long time and after about an hour with Akshara and her activity, she asked, " How do you manage ? She is such a RIOT!!!"  I could not have thought of a better word to describe Akshara.

---------------------------***********--------------------------*************---------------------------****************----------------------------***************------------

A good friend, who is also Akshara's teacher at the play school, has a 2 year old son. The child is well behaved, more times that not, at least I have never seen him throw a tantrum or anything. My friend narrated that on a rare occasion that her son threw a tantrum, she (my friend) was exasperated and complained to her neighbour how difficult he was.

Her neighbour simply said, " You find him difficult? Try keeping Akshara with you for a day, you'll know the difference!!"

Mind you guys, I am not trying to tarnish my daughter's image here!!! I get a kick out of how some of my friends get tired just looking at her move at the pace that she does!

---------------------------*********************---------------------------------------------------*****************************----------------------------------------

One evening, a very cold evening - when it was time to retire for the day, Akshara was busy watching Baloo and Mougli sing "bare necessities......" in Jungle Book- I got into bed and snuggled against her. She snuggled up, put her tiny palm on my cheek and said "Amma, now I am Happy".

I asked her "Who taught you that?"....she says..."you amma". Well, I did not...but whoever did............Thanks!

During one such meal time,I called out for her and said "Aksha, please come and take a mouth-full and then you can go". The moment she heard the word "full" she froze, saying "amma, no mouth-full amma".

I said "Ok, take a mouth-half then" and she said "Ok, gimme mouth-half". She happily ate the same spoonful of mouth-ful rice!!

I have not given her the remote control yet!!!

I have not given her the remote control yet!!!

Now she wants to watch the Dynamic Duo all the time. I have to admit I was very happy with the 15 odd minutes I get for myself (that is before she misses me) while she is busy chukling away at their antics!

The trouble is I have not watched TV or listened to the FM in days now....and needless to say, I am not too happy about it. One day I sang her that song from one of Amithabh's movie that goes..."One O'clock in my house, there was a cat, there was a mouse....." don't worry, I am not about to write the lyrics here now....

She loved it! The next evening she swapped her last  half hour just-before-going-to-bed dose of T and J with what she calls the "Fred Quimby" (producer of Tom and Jerry) story!!!

I wonder how she thought of that????!

She has learnt a lot of things/words from watching Tom and Jerry, like "Red Indians", "Canary", "Ugly Duckling", "Ice Box" , "Steak" and stuff. She has also learnt to tell a "secret". She cups her palms puts them near my ear, but NEVER talks into it!!

So far the only "secret" she knows is "I love you Amma"!

She is sooooooooo  glad to see me come home from work, because I am the only one who can operate the DVD player. Akshara's loyalties have shifted and I am not too happy about it.

But I must admit, that it is a lot of fun to watch it with her. I love it when she guffaws at all that silly stuff that they do. I am proud of one thing though.....ask her "who is the producer of Tom and Jerry?" and she'll go "Fred Quimby"!!!

She now knows the sequence of the clippings and this is how she titles them..."amma now birdie tom and jerry will come.....now granny tom and jerry will come.....now big doggie tom and jerry will come..." .

Very soon I plan to bring home all the others and at the top of the list is Simba..........

 In June, I took a week off from work and planned a trip to Hyderabad. I was all excited about it as I was going there after a long time. Axe was looking forward to the journey, did not really matter where we were going!!

 We reached Hyderabad on a Saturday, chilled out the whole day. We chose Sunday to go visit a few people. After logging attendance at some 5 houses we reached the appointed place, a cousin’s house, for dinner. It was well after Axe’s dinner time, so I decided to feed her. I went to the bathroom to freshen up, slipped, fell and broke my right arm. It happened in a flash. It just snapped into two, period.

 By the time we were done with getting me admitted to Emergency, got the first aid, x-rays, checked into a room for the long stay, it was well beyond 11 pm. Akshara was such a darling…for three hours, she stayed with a total stranger, no dinner, (I heard later that she attempted drinking Frooti, but did not like it) and no Amma! When they got her into the room to say Bye to me, she did not like what she saw. I was lying down; hand is a cast, tied to the IV stand to restrict movement. She refused to come close to me…..my heart broke!

 I suffered from separation anxiety, more so when my cousin would call and say, “You don’t worry about her, she is fine. She is NOT asking for you!” I went back home after the surgery to find a changed Akshara. The first thing she asked me was “Amma , this hand broke? You slipped in the bathroom? I will “pitti” (beat) the bathroom amma.” She had missed me, thankfully, because every now and then she would ask, “Carry me amma” pause “not with the broke hand, with this hand” (pointing to my left hand).

 I am recovering, undergoing physiotherapy, which I think is the most painful part of the whole recovery process. Axe gives me a KISS on the arm every time I complain of pain and says this each time “If I give you a kissi (no spelling mistake here), your pain will go no amma?”

 Very true Akshara……….

My neighbour's son Aadi also is there for the whole day, only during summer holidays, as his mom works full time too. There are about 20 other kids in the section where Akshara and Aadi are.I was quite happy that she adjusted well and was proud of her, little realising that Akshara was enjoying herself because Aadi was there. She did not miss me! Two days later the teacher tells me that she eats, sits, sleeps and hovers around Aadi all through the day. And Aadi, the angel that he is probably puts up with her.

I also noticed she does not "share" me with anybody. If any child so much as comes half a meter close to me she will say "hey this is my amma". If that child were to be Aadi, no reaction! Aadi is allowed to do anything he wants with "her amma".

Aadi is away at Kerala for the next few days, God help me!

My neighbour's son Aadi also is there for the whole day, only during summer holidays, as his mom works full time too. There are about 20 other kids in the section where Akshara and Aadi are.I was quite happy that she adjusted well and was proud of her, little realising that Akshara was enjoying herself because Aadi was there. She did not miss me! Two days later the teacher tells me that she eats, sits, sleeps and hovers around Aadi all through the day. And Aadi, the angel that he is probably puts up with her.

I also noticed she does not "share" me with anybody. If any child so much as comes half a meter close to me she will say "hey this is my amma". If that child were to be Aadi, no reaction! Aadi is allowed to do anything he wants with "her amma".

Aadi is away at Kerala for the next few days, God help me!