Long time, no blog!!!!
Phew! Just saw my previous post is dated Dec 2011.
Unlike ever before I am on an extended break in India with both kids who are enjoying their time with both sets of grandparents. With two kids it's hardly a vacation. I find myself only doing my everyday parenting duties and then some - heat rashes, some 90 odd minute lunch sessions, meltdowns and tantrums, nursing and pumping, poo-poo and pee-pee calls that come just as I finally sit down to take a bite, a clingy infant, a highly self-willed toddler - managing my kids all by myself sans my spouse is proving more difficult than I initially imagined. I have a lot of help from family members, but kids and their issues mostly get relegated to mom. A few family get-togethers and social gatherings have given me some change and the kids some fun. Managing kids at two different age levels round the clock is extremely challenging. The emphasis is on 'round the clock'.
With great difficulty I put my little one to sleep and in less then fifteen minutes, a loud cry of 'bendekayi, urlikayi, carrot, tomato...' from an enthusiastic vegetable vendor has him sitting upright blinking. It starts with milk in the early morning and then flowers, tender coconuts, corn cobs, vegetables, fruits, greens etc go in a procession almost through mid-day. Then comes the ice cream truck ringing his bell more persistently and moving more slowly in front of houses with little kids like ours. Couriers and sales people selling everything from kashmiri carpets to household cleaning products join in. And the odd alms seeker with a ear splitting gong accompanied by a bull excites my daughter so much, she waits with a coin jumping excitedly while he's still four houses away.
These days every time we visit a relative's house, at a chosen moment DD will come and whisper with hot air into my ears ' I want to change into my paavadai and blouse, and perform a dance now. Come change me'. This happens when she receives a gift of pavadai or is already attired in traditional wear. And this comes when I am in the midst of a diaper change or consoling a wailing DS or some such difficult time. No amount of explaining with words and quick eye movements are of any help. Before I can sigh, she'll run into a bedroom in the host's house. I uneasily explain this sudden entertainment activity to the perplexed folks. The generous hosts are happy to play audience. DD also insists I carry out the duty of announcing aloud ' And now a dance performance by .....' . At this, she comes sashaying out and breaks out into some funky combination of classical dance, indian film dance and some general monkeying around accompanied by gibberish that she sings herself. It's amusing and I sometimes find myself smiling even amidst my acute distress. I turn my head to see DS perched on my waist ready to put a small jasmine flower (that he has somehow plucked when pulling my hair) into his toothless mouth, I react swiftly by wresting it out of his fingers, he launches into an alaap adding music to his sister's performance!
After all this is resolved, as I make some convo with the hostess in their kitchen or when I just emerge out of a bedroom after feeding or changing DS - I turn to see DD reaching for a delicate figurine in their living room/ carelessly handling a glass cup of juice/ reaching for a sofa cushion with fingers stained in chocolate mess!!!!!!!!!! I am subjected to so much stress I need to get my blood pressure checked. Night sleep is punctuated by shrill nightmare cries and waking up for feeds. There's even an owl atop a high rise building close by that hoots at all odd times in the night.
Just like how the japanese keep a shark in their fishing tanks to keep the fish alive and fresh, these everyday challenges drive me to the brink of insanity and bring me back leaving no room for boredom to set in. Without sounding cheesy, I must say - when I see them fast asleep in disorderly positions with hardly any reasonable room for me to lie down, I do feel that time is fleeting and this phase will be over sooner than I'd like it to! The harder I tighten the grip of my fist, the more the golden sands of time slip through the cracks!
Happy mother's day!
Phew! Just saw my previous post is dated Dec 2011.
Unlike ever before I am on an extended break in India with both kids who are enjoying their time with both sets of grandparents. With two kids it's hardly a vacation. I find myself only doing my everyday parenting duties and then some - heat rashes, some 90 odd minute lunch sessions, meltdowns and tantrums, nursing and pumping, poo-poo and pee-pee calls that come just as I finally sit down to take a bite, a clingy infant, a highly self-willed toddler - managing my kids all by myself sans my spouse is proving more difficult than I initially imagined. I have a lot of help from family members, but kids and their issues mostly get relegated to mom. A few family get-togethers and social gatherings have given me some change and the kids some fun. Managing kids at two different age levels round the clock is extremely challenging. The emphasis is on 'round the clock'.
With great difficulty I put my little one to sleep and in less then fifteen minutes, a loud cry of 'bendekayi, urlikayi, carrot, tomato...' from an enthusiastic vegetable vendor has him sitting upright blinking. It starts with milk in the early morning and then flowers, tender coconuts, corn cobs, vegetables, fruits, greens etc go in a procession almost through mid-day. Then comes the ice cream truck ringing his bell more persistently and moving more slowly in front of houses with little kids like ours. Couriers and sales people selling everything from kashmiri carpets to household cleaning products join in. And the odd alms seeker with a ear splitting gong accompanied by a bull excites my daughter so much, she waits with a coin jumping excitedly while he's still four houses away.
These days every time we visit a relative's house, at a chosen moment DD will come and whisper with hot air into my ears ' I want to change into my paavadai and blouse, and perform a dance now. Come change me'. This happens when she receives a gift of pavadai or is already attired in traditional wear. And this comes when I am in the midst of a diaper change or consoling a wailing DS or some such difficult time. No amount of explaining with words and quick eye movements are of any help. Before I can sigh, she'll run into a bedroom in the host's house. I uneasily explain this sudden entertainment activity to the perplexed folks. The generous hosts are happy to play audience. DD also insists I carry out the duty of announcing aloud ' And now a dance performance by .....' . At this, she comes sashaying out and breaks out into some funky combination of classical dance, indian film dance and some general monkeying around accompanied by gibberish that she sings herself. It's amusing and I sometimes find myself smiling even amidst my acute distress. I turn my head to see DS perched on my waist ready to put a small jasmine flower (that he has somehow plucked when pulling my hair) into his toothless mouth, I react swiftly by wresting it out of his fingers, he launches into an alaap adding music to his sister's performance!
After all this is resolved, as I make some convo with the hostess in their kitchen or when I just emerge out of a bedroom after feeding or changing DS - I turn to see DD reaching for a delicate figurine in their living room/ carelessly handling a glass cup of juice/ reaching for a sofa cushion with fingers stained in chocolate mess!!!!!!!!!! I am subjected to so much stress I need to get my blood pressure checked. Night sleep is punctuated by shrill nightmare cries and waking up for feeds. There's even an owl atop a high rise building close by that hoots at all odd times in the night.
Just like how the japanese keep a shark in their fishing tanks to keep the fish alive and fresh, these everyday challenges drive me to the brink of insanity and bring me back leaving no room for boredom to set in. Without sounding cheesy, I must say - when I see them fast asleep in disorderly positions with hardly any reasonable room for me to lie down, I do feel that time is fleeting and this phase will be over sooner than I'd like it to! The harder I tighten the grip of my fist, the more the golden sands of time slip through the cracks!
Happy mother's day!
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