Being Mamma Bear

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Someone got the Monday blues, and clearly, despite not sleeping well the previous night, it wasn’t me because I was looking forward to 3.5-4 baby-free hours every day for the next five days. Monday had just gotten a whole lot better for me. I know, what a horrible mother I am!

But Laddoo, somehow didn’t seem to be in the mood. For one, she had to be woken up. Otherwise she usually wakes up on her own between 6:15 and 6:30 AM. She didn’t seem to be her usual cheerful self. But all that changed as soon as she spotted one of her (as I like to call it) “Happy Books.”

With a plate of Tiger Biscuits in one hand and “The Jungle Radio” in another, she decided it was a good idea to take off to the balcony and enjoy the beginning of the week. My husband joined her and that seemed to get her in a good mood.

Once she was happier, we got her dressed and here came the tricky part – she didn’t want to wear the school shirt. Somehow, I distracted her and made sure that she didn’t leave the house sad and she happily went off to with her Dad.

I, on the other hand, started my laptop and work at 7:30 AM. Wow, that was a first for me.

The maid was still there and once she and my husband (who came back after dropping her off) left, I bathed and got dressed. I put on fresh kajal and a Jazz Classics playlist on Spotify (after I found out the previous day that there were genre-wise pre-made playlists) and discovered how soothing and conducive to working and thinking Jazz is. Miles Davis is awesome.

While I listened to music, I did some writing, replied to DMs, did some social media planning, watched one episode of SATC while I had breakfast, prepped for lunch, and bam! It was time to go pick up Laddoo.

I noticed that in the bus, she was sitting with another girl. I had to knock on the window and call out her name. Since it was only the third day of school, the staff was still getting used to kids’ names and drop off locations. When I called her name, the aayah on the bus proceeded to lead her from her seat and towards the door.

Once Laddoo saw me, her face lit up and while still inside the bus, she pointed to me and said to the aayah and the girl, “Look! That’s my amma.”

She got off the bus a happy little girl and held my hand all the way home. And the first words out of her mouth were, “Aaj maine sky dekha, clouds dekha, trees dekha, car dekha, aur ghar dekha.” I saw the sky, clouds, trees, a car, and my house.

I thought she must have seen some picture book at school but I later found out that she saw ALL of these things in the morning, with her dad on her way to the bus stop. And once again, I had no idea what she’d done in school.

Once we reached home and I checked her bag for notes from the school, I wasn’t disappointed. I found a book and inside, on one page, she appeared to have done some sticking. I asked her if she did this and she said ‘aunty’ did it. I’m assuming that’s her teacher.

We quickly had lunch and gave her a quick sponge and read The Gruffalo, Gruffalo’s Child AND The Paper Dolls (all available in this set*) before she decided she didn’t want to sleep. It was easier to not argue with her, so we came out. But I had a headache, again, so I napped while she played and with the TV on in the background. When I opened my eyes I saw she had got her 60-piece Peppa puzzle* out and had done 20-25% of it on her own. I went back to sleep, but that’s no sleep because she thinks of me as a human trampoline. With all the poking and jumping and the constant ‘I want ___,’ I barely got 15 minutes straight of shut-eye.

She also brought out her wooden shape sorters, turned the base upside down and said it was a table. Then she tried tossing the puzzle pieces into the box. She also helped herself to the 6 in 1 Peppa puzzle and arranged them neatly on the floor, one below the other.

Later, she found these paints that came with the Einstein Box (that I’d hidden, if I may add) – little buckets of paint joined together – so we painted and she had a fun time using such thick paints as opposed to watercolours.

We had an early dinner again and after her bath, I decided to switch things up and got some new books to read: The Snail and the Whale, How to Catch a Star, and Room on the Broom, It did not go down well. She picked Room on the Broom and for some reason I decided to read to her LIVE on Instagram and my God! What a task that was.

It took me over 5 minutes to read ONE FREAKING PAGE because she looked for opportunities and excuses to get off the bed and go out of the room instead of listening to the story. For instance, after I mentioned the witch’s hat, she wanted to get a hat first for her teddy and then for herself. Mind you, she doesn’t have a hat. What subbed as hats were the lids of a pot and a pan that came with her kitchen set. Next, when I mentioned ‘broom’ she wanted to go get our actual broom. And while I playfully participated in the hat-charade, I had to put my foot down when it came to the broom and end the Live video. A little bit scolding, and a tiny bit of yelling later, she was finally asleep at 7:15 PM and I went on to clear the mess that she had made.

Once that was out of the way and there was room on the floor for me to step on, I wrote something quickly and posted on Instagram. That night we saw a few pictures from my sister’s wedding and had a good laugh at how Laddoo was Miss Grumpy-Face in many pictures.

And just like that, another day went by.

June 17, 2019
Day 12 of 100. 89 days to go.