7th heaven

Can’t believe my youngest child is already 7 months old and more…almost enough to make me long for another baby! He’s come on in the most amazing way, too. Perhaps it’s a result of how blasé the parents get with a growing brood. With the first child, everything is an event. Each time the baby cries, you question your credentials as parent, you question your paediatrician’s degree and you’re pretty much happy promising him anything to stop crying. I thought we’d be a bit more blasé the second time around and of course, by the third time, pretty much ask to be woken only when someone saw blood. Well, guess what. It’s as thrilling each time, because each baby is so different, despite the same two sets of genes blending and a similar upbringing.

Bojjandi’s growing up and has a definite personality now and it’s a thrill to uncover a little more of that with every day and each interaction. He seems to have a lovely nature, his smiles are so completely guileless and open. Touch wood, like my other two babies, this one too is usually commented on as, “What a happy baby!” He loves greeting us with a beaming smile right from the time he wakes up in the morning, and throughout the day, it seems like he just wants to catch our eye so he can let loose one of those beams of pure joy.

He’s turning out to be a pretty good communicator – or maybe the other two trained us well. He rarely cries but when he does, we can usually tell what’s causing it – gas versus code brown, boredom versus hunger…And he’s already multilingual – he can not only make French-like cooing sounds but also Germanic guttural sounds though we haven’t yet figured out what language the grunts are.

An active baby, he now hates lying down because he can’t see what’s going on around him. He starts yelling loudly until he’s propped up on someone’s lap. He even hates being in his bouncer because it’s too constricting. Like his siblings, he seems to prefer making his own amusements rather than play with toys. He can be endlessly amused by me turning my fingers round and round over his head. He also spends hours making his plump hands turn in circles and sucking at those fat fists. He’s just learned to clap and finds considerable amusement in trying to make one palm strike the other. He also seems quite amused by the mayhem caused by the rest of us and looks on with a goodnatured grin on his face.

He’s taken pretty well to changes so far. I recently had to travel on work and was out of town for 6 days. The poor baby went cold turkey on everything from breastfeeding to hugs from mommy but seems to have not troubled his dad at all. He’s enjoying his solid meals tremendously and as soon as he spots his meal on his little silver thali, starts yelling as if to tell us to hurry up and feed him. He loves a banana for breakfast and now not only finishes a full banana but usually winds up the meal by howling for more. He’s also transitioned quite smoothly from the steel Aladdin’s lamp feeder to sippy cups for milk, and moved from his cloth sling to Puddi’s old cot with ease.

All in all, he’s made third-time parenthood seem like a complete breeze and lots of fun. It’s hard to believe that this time last year he was the size of a zygote and that we ever even had a second thought about not welcoming this blessing into our lives and hearts. If ever there was an indulgence baby made for the pure purpose of enjoying every step of the way, that’s Bojjandi. I’m not so serious about my role as parent anymore – I’ve learnt that a light touch is better than a heavy one. It’s better to enjoy every moment of it – the scoldings, the banter, the tantrums and the topsy-turvy house, because it all goes onto the next phase all too soon and while each phase has its moments, there’s nothing that fills a home and a heart as much as really young children and their perfect imperfections. And I’m savouring each and every moment of Bojjandi’s each phase, drawing it out and hoping the growing up slows down a bit.

Having Bojjandi’s like having a really calorie-packed, chocolatey, sinful dessert after having a great meal. You’re not sure you need it or indeed can manage to have it but you just want to indulge yourself and when you do, it feels so good…7th heaven!