Stuff I learnt from my second year of motherhood

My little darling daughter turned 2 years old this Friday!! Two years have gone by already and she has now entered her terrific twos (as one of my other friend calls it), and why not? She is going to know more about herself and about the people around her and I hope I get to experience and learn from her and from being a parent through all the coming years too!

We got her a lot of balloons, a cup cake and used technology and FaceTime to have her grandparents and uncle and aunts see her blow the candle on her cake and wish her on her B’day! She had a cake cut from her day care too and she got to wear her pretty dress and open her presents and sing happy Bday to you 🙂 haha..I know she won’t remember any of this and she’s too young to really realize it was her birthday, but it was still fun, making her birthday something different from the rest of the days:) Plus, I’ll have this entry and pictures to show her later, when she is older and probably embarrass her too (lol..wicked mom stuff :D)

So when the first year of being a parent is all about enjoying the coos and caas of your baby and figuring out how to get them to sleep and guessing the condition of their health by looking at the color of their poo, the second year of her life has taught me many different things. Things that I had forgotten about and that I can actually use in my life too!

So, here is a list of things my now two year old has taught me over the past year:)

1. Being silly is really amazing! My daughter has this habit of suddenly walking like a duck/penguin when she is walking back from day care with me. Sometimes she does fake laugh, covering her hands on her face, like princesses do probably. Sometimes she’s say very loudly..’MOMMY, LOOK LOOK!! LOOOK!!!’- you have to pretend to look at some invisible and amazing thing that time, or she will just sing at the top of her voice. And she makes me do all of that..ahem. And you know what, once I let go of my inhibitions about people staring or me looking ridiculous doing a duck walk in my formal wear, I actually have fun! It is so much fun! You should try it, it is a better stress reliever than meditation or yoga! LOL!
2. Walk, pause, discover, repeat. It is a 10 minute walk from the day care to our home, 5 minutes if I am walking alone. And yet, when I pick her up in the evenings, we take anywhere between 20 minutes to 45 minutes to reach home. Do we go for a walk? Not really..we stop and pause and admire and look at every little thing on our way. Every day, each day, every time. And I have to pause with her. Sometimes she will spot a bug on the road, and will crouch down and stare at it walk or move or crawl or whatever bugs do, at its own pace, with a lot of intent. The intent of a scientist. Initially, I used to get really annoyed and just wanted to get home. But then I thought, why am I in a rush? Work is over, its a great evening and I do have half an hour to spare, instead of going home and starting chores again. So I took a leaf from her book, and started noticing, really noticing things the way she does. Again, miraculous and so therapeutic! These days, one of the best parts of my days are my morning walks to office, when I actually look at the colors of the trees and the plants and the flowers on my way and my evening walks back with my daughter. People passing by might think I’m lost, staring at a tree and the pink flowers, but nope, I am just pausing 🙂 It is good to pause, and do nothing some times in a day, like Garfield..heheh
3. When you don’t want to do something, just say NO!! With all the force you have. Absolutely nothing in this world can make my daughter do something she doesn’t want to do. Distractions work sometimes, and threats work zero times. I know, you think , we’re your parents, we know best, you have to brush your teeth and wear your dress and change your diaper and comb your hair and eat your breakfast, blah blah blah. Even when I think about all the things a toddler ‘has’ to do, it is tiring. I mean really, we have so many tasks and responsibilities as adults anyway, why shouldn’t we let toddlers be? They only have a few years to enjoy this sense of freedom 😀 But I digress. What I learnt was, if I don’t want to do something, then I am allowed to say No. Yes, that might upset some people sometimes, or you might just get away not doing it sometimes too! You will never know, until you say No! Hey that rhymes! (I’m a poet!!)

So, what have your kids taught you so far in life? And what have you been up to this weekend? I tried to write this blog while my daughter was napping and once all the dishes were done, and now I can hear her wake up, oh darn. I have learnt many more things from her and she really is an amazing teacher 🙂 But I think I’ll have to sign off for now and give her a cuddle..hehe. Have a great week ahead everyone!