Monday, December 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Chattambi

My christmas boy turned 2 yesterday. We started the day with the presents under the tree. He ofcourse had no interest in any of those presents but the peapod went all gung-ho and claimed she saw santa come in her dream, drop presents and she woke up and thought it was just a dream after all. Last year we started this tradition of putting gifts under the tree. While we tried selling the santa story to a 4yr old then, it was evident in her surprise early morning that she hadn't bought the story from us like a innocent 4yr old should. But she was pleasantly surprised. I pulled out one of my new winter socks early last week to find some paper in one which read - peapod is a good girl, chattambi is a bad boy. I realized that was her note to santa to influence his lists of naughty and nice. She was totally edgy waiting for the dawn of christmas day. We bought a few gifts and I left it in the car. We woke up at 1 or was it 2, to go to the car and carry the gifts up to the tree. I actually feared she might just get up in the middle of the night and catch us in the act because that is exactly what she was plotting the whole week. She even wanted to sleep on the sofa to keep a watch. But that didn't happen since santa kept her busy in her dreams :). We went for Christmas mass early morning and my little boy slept through most of it. And then we had an elaborate christmas breakfast and Lunch. While we didn't plan for a party for chattambi this time, my cousins and the kids had come down and we pretty much had a blast :).


Dearest Chattambi,

You were a surprise package that arrived one nice Christmas morning. And you have brought such love and warmth into this pack with that glint of mischief in your eyes, your sunshine smile, your amazing naughtiness, your laughter, the way you imitate your father and call me chunni and sometimes even your need to cling to me. While I have always thought having a daughter would have been easier since your mom is one, 2 sisters to her credit and we already had your sister, we could have had dolls and doll houses and mini kitchen going parallel to ours and ofcourse both could go to the same school and stuff you know. Boys, ofcourse I didnt know much about. Girls I knew I had to raise them to be strong, good education, loving, generous, be really good friends, watch out for the bad boys, teach them about strangers, develop their antennas about bad touch, to learn to stay safe, fight unnecessary customs, follow their heart, be a feminist, Claim your rights and generally just do well and be happy. Boys were who I was supposed to mentally classify as good and bad and influence my girls to stay away from the bad ones.

In 2 years I have kind of figured out not much is different there. I want the same things for you that I want for your sister. I want to raise you to be the good guy, mothers like me dont mind seeing their daughter with. So I leave you with a few rules in no specific order.

1. Build bonds slowly and may that then last a lifetime.

2. Study. Education is everything. Knowledge is the only thing nobody can take away and you gain new insights everytime you share.

3. Read. Read. Read. They take you places, you meet different people, different aspects of different societies, sometimes you savour the writing, sometimes the story, sometimes the notes in italics, sometimes a few scenes keep playing back, sometimes the funnies make you laugh long after and sometimes your imagination runs off with a few lines.

4. Pray. We come from a family that strongly believes in it and celebrates it. I hope to give both of you that gift of believing in the Bible.

5. Respect Women, be kind to the old and keep an eye on the little tots(doesn't matter who they belong to). A very close friend once told me, a sign of a gentleman is one who lets old men, women and kids pass/cross even when he is in a hurry. And its never too early to be one.

6. Keep your promises. Make few and promise only what you plan to keep.

7. Hug and kiss your grandparents everytime you meet them. Get them flowers, chocolates and a bottle of horlicks(when you get older) even if they say -"oh what will we do with them".

8. Never ever do drugs or even smoke. I will kick your a$$ if I ever get to know and your father will kick some more.

9. Play. cricket, football, basketball, hockey whatever it is that takes your fancy. But get yourself dirty on the ground. That is where you should learn your lessons about winning, loosing and teamwork.

10. Learn to dance. Its a nice way to loosen up and if you learn the moves you can do it looking good.

Here is wishing you a long, loved, healthy and happy life.

Love
Your smitten Mumma

I leave you with a few pics of the year that went by



Twigs and leaves - his favourite picks


sneaking up on us

Loving his cousin brother

Negotiating with baby sis spoils from Ammachy's kitchen

Pick and read about anywhere



7 comments:

Artnavy said...

I loved this post
God bless the family!

K J said...

Good one Suni !

Sunita said...

@artnavy: Thanks
@ K J: :)

Risha said...

lovely post Suni! :) God Bless

Sunita said...

Thanks risha ....hope you remember you are the one who gave me the gentleman advise.

Sunita said...

Thanks risha ....hope you remember you are the one who gave me the gentleman advise.

Pushpa said...

IIIIIIIII so love the post...and those pointers it touched my heart...I can't tell you...what it meant to me rather what it means to me???
I feel like I m reading my mind out here...
Love this post