My Family 1 : My Siddhu Piddhu is twelve years old!

It's my boys birthday today and in a years time he will be a teen. I get nostalgic as I recall the day I found out about his existence as a tiny cell growing day by day inside me. I remember waiting for 'C' to come home as I had a heightened sense of smell and was feeling super nauseous. While 'C' had gone out saying he would be home in a couple of hours, he had taken a really long time and had come back sporting a new tattoo -  a Ganesha on his arm. The following morning we were thrilled to see the two red lines indicating a positive on the home pregnancy test. The pregnancy days passed by smoothly with my older son getting educated about 'how babies are born'. He would look forward to viewing the 3D sonography images with a lot of wonder and curiosity during our visits to the Sonologist.

I had just completed 36 weeks, when I started feeling the tightness in my belly. The doctor - also my cousin's wife, said that we would do a C section immediately. She didn't want to take a chance with normal delivery as my first born was C delivery. Within a matter of two hours - she had him out and and she let me hold him for a few minutes in my half dazed state. He was so fragile and so beautiful.

Days became weeks and weeks turned into months and soon we were celebrating his first birthday. He was super attached to his big brother and followed him like a loyal pup. Though my older son had moments of sibling rivalry and envy, he would love being the big bro...playing with his little baby brother, feeding him, showing him picture books, listening to songs and watching re-runs of Cars and Lion King. Thanks to his older brother - he learnt so many things at such an early age.

I sometimes can't believe that he is going to be twelve today. Oh! how fast time flies...He is such a happy child. I have learnt to enjoy being in the present moment from him. He can get engrossed in his creations for hours and at times days together. Once something catches his eye, there is no stopping him. He spent days together with complete focus on learning to solve the rubic's cube, he self learnt to skate, to cycle to use the wave board and the skate board. He enjoyed multiplication so much that he made a tables book where he calculated and wrote tables from 1 to 200. He loved experimenting with liquids...he once made a solution of soap water, oil, colors and some spices and called it his chemical locha. This chemical locha also got him into real locha (trouble) as he was told off by the principal for bringing such hazardous things to school.

Just like his older brother, he took on the role of taking care of his little sister. Today Tara learns so much from him. Her knowledge about playing video games, doing math, learning to skate, cycle and use the skate board is all thanks to him. He knows how to make her laugh, play hide and seek and other games with her. He is teaching her to play minecraft and has taught her to play UNO. He is the mastermind behind all the tricks in playing cards, pictureka and dobbler.

When my older son decided to opt out of school, we thought that he would continue schooling as he thrived in the company of others and we were pleasantly surprised when he stated that he would also like to unschool. His resilience is also heartwarming. His current passion is volleyball and his volleyball was damaged soon after lockdown was announced. We have repaired it for now. He has been so calm about it. He manages with the repaired ball and wishes for freedom to play in the outdoors. I wish I could gift him a volleyball. Alas this lockdown is testing our ability to improvise and do things differently.

There are so many stories to share about this boy...my heart swells with love and pride every time I think about him...

I wish him a very happy birthday and wish that he continues being joyful and fun, a self directed learner and a sensitive being. Love you my Siddhu Piddhu!