Aditi turned one last month.
Her date-of-birth came before her star-birthday. We tied some balloons and cut a cake. And, played some games. i devised a game where i would leave Aditi in the bedroom and run to join Santosh and Nidhi seated on the ground in the living room. All three of us would then call out to Aditi, urging her to come to us. The one she ran to would win. Three times Aditi ran to Santosh. Then Nidh and i cried major foul and asked him to leave Aditi in the bedroom. No use, she still ran to him. Hell, we even excluded Santosh from the game and asked him to remain in the bedroom urging Aditi outside. She turned in the opposite direction and ran back to the bedroom to her father. At this point Nidhi and i gave up and stopped the game. Needless to say, Appa was grinning as if his b'day had come early!
Star-b'day fell on a Friday. We performed a simple ganapathi-homam and aayush-homam at the local temple. Aditi was not willing to sit still and at last i gave her a bottle and made her lie down in my lap. Scenes from Nidhi's first b'day kept replaying in my mind - how she was clinging to me, got irritated with the garland and how the vaadhyar rang the 'mani'(bell) to distract her when she started crying. Incidently, Aditi and Nidhi have the same pavadai for their first b'day. The pavadai we bought for nidhi had extra cloth and my mom had saved it in chennai all these years - we quickly got it stitched for aditi. she also wore a 'juttu'/'peeli-kondai'(banana-plant-on-the-head hairstyle) with flowers. She even got the very first mehendi of her life done.
one of my cousins who lives here explained to me kindly 'one thing u have to understand, nothing happens on weekdays'. so when none of the people here could attend the celebrations we went ahead with just the four of us rather postpone the puja to the weekend. and we did have a jolly good time. her first wish was from her grandparents - the festivities started when my parents called up on Thur night(Friday morning for them) and wished Aditi. She loves to listen to the b'day song and watches in delight when santosh, nidhi and i sing it for her. Which we have been doing every month since she was born. :-)
For a long time i haven't written abt Aditi, the reason being i couldn't find words to write abt the magic she brings to our home. Be it waving 'haai'(bye) to her Appa and Nidhikka in the morning when they leave for office/school, following me arnd the whole day like a little kitten saying not meow, meow, but amma, amma, listening to music and trying to dance - each and everything she does brings a smile on our face. she has this style of walking when she knows u r looking - she will bend fwd slightly, raise her head, make sure we r looking at us and walk a few steps before crumbling in laughter - she thinks she is doing a catwalk for us. And, when she wants to impress us she does tiny push ups and gives us a smile and a look which says 'see what i can do'. After Nidhi's back from school and had her lunch, she spends some time playing with her sister. an hour or so. the best game is hide and seek. i think santosh started it and nidhi continued it, it's become Aditi's fav game. she would run arnd seeking her Akka and giving high-pitched cries in her excitement. she caught on fast and when Nidhi hides behind a door she spots her in the gap between the hinges. another fav game is when nidhi vanishes into a blanket and aditi has to find her out. nidhi sits on the ground and aditi climbs all over her trying to find some part of her akka. both r screaming with laughter and having such a lot of fun.
aditi has learned to point out her teeth, tongue and nose. when i tell her 'chudum'(hot), she blows with her mouth and makes hissing noises. also, 'brush ur teeth' brings abt an energetic rubbing of the front teeth with her fingers. the appearance of the first tooth was soon followed by us buying a toothbrush for her, when she takes her bath she chews on it and before i finish her bath i help her brush her teeth properly.
aditi loves to go out and the minute someone opens the shoe-closet she starts following them saying 'haai', 'haai', meaning 'bye, let's go out'. when we take her to the park, she runs arnd, plays in the swing and follows other children looking at what they r upto. initially nidhi would slide down with her sister in her lap. then we found small slides where santosh or i would place her on top and help her slide down. now she has learned to slide herself. we have to just make her sit on the top, she pushes herself fwd and slides down in joy.
serving as a reminder to us that she is looking at us and learning, she catches hold of a comb and immediately proceeds to comb her hair. similarly when she manages to get a mobile she holds it to her ear and listens with great attention and then walks arnd mumbling words in her own language.
we discovered the amazing Public Library here - 50 books for three weeks and renewals for another 3 weeks. Free, Free, Free. so after dinner everyday you will find santosh. nidhi and me in three corners of the living room each of us lost in the world inside our book. aditi runs from person to person trying to snatch the books, play with us, lie in our laps, etc. luckily we had bought her a picture-book just the week before we joined the library. so we take turns in showing her the pictures and reading aloud the words. santosh even abandons his book and plays running arnd after aditi(nidhi and i r too much of bookworms to do that much). Past two days Aditi has come to the conclusion that as a family, where books r concerned, we r a gone-case. so she has taken to sitting down with her book and flipping the pages and looking at the pictures herself. atta-girl!
