Mummie's new best friend

Mummie’s new best friend has just turned one and a half. It seems like yesterday that Mummie was all praises for this extremely adaptable and calm 14- month old. Well, yes! A lot of that has changed in these 4 months. The accolades remain though ;)

18- month old Pari now loves a lot of new things. She has learnt a lot of new things and her vocabulary is amazing for an 18-month old and Mummie cannot help predict that her new best friend will be a writer someday. When Mummie sees Pari looking into the mirror trying to put on make-up, she marvels how feminine her best friend is turning out to be. But when it is WWF time, Mummie seriously does a lot of re-thinking about mirrors and feminine crap. So, apart from recognition, vocabulary and perception… Mummie is really soooo bored of the IQ meters. The only meter Mummie ever bothered about is the fun meter, well try telling those statistics that to the grandparents huh!. But then maybe you have to track those parameters if you really don’t want to be out-smarted. Mummie tried getting Pari jealous by saying ‘Appu Atta naadi’ and Pari simply responded by saying ‘Teja Mama naadi’. 1-0 Pari-Mummie. Ok um so where were we, hmm… apart from recognition, vocabulary and perception, being a stickler for time and food a trait which she has taken forward from her 14-month stage. However brinjal is dropped out from her list of eatables and so have goodday biscuits. Her getting ready to go out checklist now includes chapstick and sunglasses. Well Mummie’s too. Once when Mumie was putting on kajal, Mummie tried to mimic the kajal stick for a chapstick on Pari and got that look ‘Are you serious? Kidding right?’ Pari helps keep Mummie in check you see. See that is what best friends do. You can afford to be goofy and they will humor you :D. She senses when Mummie misses Daddy and silently hugs Mummie and points to the laptop saying Daddy with the cutest heart melting smile. And well in turn Mummie is her punching bag if she has had anything sugary before bedtime.

Pari now has new books. Apart from the bow bow book that she finally tore apart (just about the time Mummie was wondering if Pari would ever get naughty), she now has a meow book, a tinkle tinkle song book and a colors book. Now Mummie converses mostly in English while Pari refuses to follow suit. So when Mummie says shoes, Pari looks up and says ‘Cheppulu’. She has that quirky look in her eyes, which if Daddy had shown Mummie, he would be spending few nights on the couch. But then Pari is Mummie’s best friend and she can do that right? Pari has a keen sense of music. Once Mummie played ‘Aiyvin Aiyvin’ and Pari was adamant to hear ‘Dooba Dooba Anjali Anjali’. Then Mummie tried ‘Sheila ki Jawani’ and whoa!!! It was an instant hit. So Mummie realized that she probably needs to learn groove all over again.

The supermarket is probably Pari’s next favorite place after anywhere outside. She loves grocery shopping. She walks over to the fruit aisle and picks ‘appul’, ‘banana’, ‘boppay’ and ‘gapes’ and Mummie gets to choose one among them to take home for the week. Then over to the bikkitu aisle, no choices allowed here. Mummie and Pari pick the same ‘Hide n Seek’ J.  Pari reminds Mummie that all girls need one ice cream a week to keep them happy and Scoops it is on Saturdays or Sundays. She knows how ice cream keeps Mummie happy and well you know Pari chooses the best flavors. Well, that is not what Mummie thinks when she has to eat Mango, but thankfully Pari never chooses Strawberry. Mummie and Pari have their share of altercations over who gets to operate the Microwave oven, who gets to ride the bike, who gets the read the newspaper first , who gets to watch TV, who gets to hold baby Pranitha first, who gets the bathroom first, who gets to peel onions and who gets to talk to daddy first. On all except the last two accounts Mummie wins.

Pari is developing a lot of traits that are common in the age group of 1-4. Being fussy, wanting something specifically, repeating actions that keep warranting a ‘NO’, wanting to go out with friends who come to meet, pouring water on the kitchen floor and a lot more. Mummie thinks it is very similar to what Daddy does except for pouring water on the kitchen floor. Since yelling did not work with Daddy; Mummie is now thinking of innovative ways to get Pari to understand how things should work. Albeit Mummie is not doing a great job, she does yell at her best friend to make her stop. After a few minutes of silence and a pause in the offending piece of action, Mummie gets that heart melting smile again. Though Mummie has that overwhelming urge to smile and hug, she resists. That is what best friends do right?