10 February, 2012

The Prickly Part of Growing Up

I was tempted to name this post as 'Growing Pains' but that would be tres cliched and I wasn't sure if I'd already named MLM's vaccination as a growing pain in the past ergo..

He turned 2 1/2 yesterday and was due for his last vaccination as a preschooler. So off we went to the hospital this evening. The pediatric wing has a play area that looks something like this-

Needless to say, courtesy that play area he gets suckered into going to the doctor each time it's required. Of course as long as needles aren't involved he quite likes the visits as well. The doctor's desk has all sorts of paraphernalia that likes to get his hands on and as it is, I always have more to yak up with his docs that they have to with him. They barely spend 5 minutes with him and more time fielding my questions. Blame it on being a yakkety-almost-paranoid-mother.

Anyhow, today was the day of two vaccines and the people in the vaccination department decided to prick him at the same time in each thigh. Needless to say it did not go down well with him. One thing I've noticed about my child from the time he was about a day old- he has a loud set of pipes!
These ouchies however made him very angry and also hurt his feelings into the bargain. By the time we left the hospital he was majorly angry and it took a goodish time to calm him down. It took cajoling, coaxing, admonishment and a trip to the KFC drive-through :)
(I should mention that MLM, while a slightly fussy eater, has no problems eating the popcorn chicken from KFC and can devour a large packet all by his lonesome!)

While leaving the hospital we took Red's car while mine (again Red's) was still in parking. Once the offspring was sufficiently calmed down we drove back and transferred him along with a few morsels of the chicken into my car and strapped him into the car seat. And we were homeward bound. All was going well until...you guessed it, he ran out of the chicken. And then, the anger, the disappointment and frustration arose doubly and he was howling my ear off all the way till our apartment. The worst thing was the amount of time I was stuck in traffic while his shrieks grew louder and louder from the backseat. I was tempted to lean on the horn to get the guys in front to move although I knew they wouldn't be able to budge an inch!

The moment we pulled into the parking, he was reunited with his father, his chicken (or as he calls it- chinkan) and the tantrums abated just as suddenly as they had started. My ears were still ringing and I was mentally making a note to tell the KFC guys to have a bucket-version of the same item just for lil weirdos like my kid!

Now all's calm on the western front. They chinkan's been eaten. Oswald's on the telly and he's glued to the sofa like his life depends on it.
And THAT ladies and gentlemen is how this post came to be :)

G'nite

09 February, 2012

First Family Vacation

What should have been an entirely yippee-yippee moment was so in bursts.
Red and I hadn't taken a vacation in over 2.5 years. Yes, MLM is also 2.5. Do the math.

Plenty of parents we know have traveled with their tots while they were mere mites but we were always pretty damn cautious. We needed (read wanted) the ideal ambiance, support, accessories before we took MLM anywhere. It made it easier for us to cater to him and I guess somewhere we felt we were doing the right thing by him.

But being a SAHM has its cons as well. Mainly the one your kid plays on you but there are days when you can remember the pre-kid days so vividly that you know your brain's telling you to take a break else it'll explode and you'll be responsible for cleaning up the mess.

And so we did. Not clean the mess but took a vacation. All of us. With no child minders around. And that in a nutshell is what we needed. I think what most parents need is some time either by themselves or with each other with no offspring in sight. It helps tremendously in regaining some equilibrium within yourself and with each other. You've become a parent. Nothing is going to change that. What you need to be able to revert to from time to time is being just another person or a spouse or a friend within having nap times, feeding schedules et al on your radar. Essentially, having your guard down and being carefree.

The resort we went to was pretty decent by beach huts' standard. I would have enjoyed it more had I gone there on that long-awaited holiday with my sister, Red, folks or even by myself. But add a child to the mix which includes keeping them off the grass. Making sure they're out of the wicked waves during high tide. That they aren't guzzling down sea water like it's Voss and most importantly hurting themselves on the flotsam-jetsam that accumulates on the beach aka beer caps, cigarette butts, broken shells etc.
And my son usually tries to encompass all these things; if not in one go then gradually and with increasing frequency.

Was the holiday everything I wanted it to be? Kind of when you consider that I just factored in sun, sand, surf and beer. Ok that broke the alliteration but atleast it's honest!
I wanted to go as far as I could in the sea without fear of a great big wave taking me down to Atlantis for all eternity, Red wanted a new experience- he kayaked till his arms hurt. I wanted to take pictures of the surroundings- I did. And I wanted my kid to shriek with joy and delight- he did. Over and over and over again. Till the damn gulls cold shouldered us for the rest of our stay there.


We rode around on a bike and MLM learnt the Indian way of signalling a turn (never mind that it was usually a wrong one), Red lost his specs in the sea and ended up making an emergency trip to Madgaon and buying contacts and shades and making 'Enna Rascala' poses!


Anyhoo, the upshot was that, it was a fantastic trip with plenty of bumps that made us consider the location, facilities available for our next trip. Which I dearly hope will be before another 2 years.

Some Goan snapshots-