Keep your sense of humor

There is a lot I am at peace with. Life is good with Samaira, Siddharth and me – all together, in one place! Our family. Unaffected by external, unwanted noise.

Samaira started her day care a few days back. I love her primary care giver there, Miss N. She is an amazing 73 year old grandma like lady who absolutely adores Samaira. Someone at Samaira’s day care told me that as a parent you have to keep your sense of humor, and if you don’t then you will end up crying. So true. Not just for parents, but for anyone. For everyone. Yet so difficult to follow. At least, for a new parent. At least, all the time. We have some cough, congestion, fever and pneumonia lingering in our family off late, but the happiest person marching through all of it is Samaira. A few hours after we took her to the ER because she had 102+ temperature, Samaira was smiling and giggling, of course when she was not coughing. I don’t know what this girl is made up of but she can make some amazing things happen. The day after we took her to the ER, I was out and about trying to get the right meds for her, the ones that she is potentially not allergic to. Somehow that took me 4 hours and a lot of frustration and a whole lot of worry. But when I came home to my smiley-pumpkin Sammy, I couldn’t help but laugh with her when I saw her smile and giggle.

The funny thing about tough-times is that often times you can laugh it off when in future, but not so much when it is happening. In that sense, I sometimes wonder if future could come before present just so I know that I will be able to laugh it off then, and so that I don’t worry so much while I am going through it in present. Twisted logic, I know. But that’s the thing about wonderment – nothing is off limits. It is so hard for me to see Samaira cough and feel congested and go through sickness, but now that she is feeling better, all I can think of is how she was smiling through it all.

While speaking to my brother the other day, I realized how Samaira has the power to bring us to a happy place, no matter what we are surrounded with. I feel truly blessed to be born to my parents, and to have grown up with my brother and sister. They are everything I could have ever asked for in a family. They are loving, classy, trustworthy, people with the highest order of integrity I have ever seen, imperfect and absolutely unconditional. The reason I know love today the way I do is - my family. And it is pretty darn powerful. So, randomly, out of nowhere, I just want to thank Maa-Daddy, H and P (my brother and sister) – for being in my life. I am a better person because of you and I wouldn’t have it any other way, ever. That’s what families are for. We stick around. And whatever tough circumstances each of us go through, we remember and remind each other to laugh. Keep our sense of humor. It helps.

Our girl turned 7 month old on July 17th and we celebrated it with chocolate cake made of Hershey’s cocoa powder. Happy Birthday, baby! I love you.

It takes two to talk

No no, it really does take two to talk. That’s what Samaira has recently started to suggest to us. She is building her own vocabulary to communicate with us and that mostly includes sounds like aaaaa, eeeeee, unnnnnggg, gggggggg. While she is perfectly capable of enjoying her monologs, she prefers to talk to people who have eyes and nose and mouth. And that includes her talking puppy, giraffe, monkey, hanging butterfly, Daddy, Maa (yours truly), etc.

There are times when she is making those oh-so-fascinating sounds and I am not looking at her. Those are the times when I hear a shrill shriek that says “aauuuhhhhhhhh”, which means “look here, I am talking to you.” Cool, eh?

Sometimes when I run out of things to talk to her and I am completely rhymed-out (I wonder if that is normal), I start talking to her about things like Higgs Boson, Ranbir Kapoor’s latest movie, some high profile political court case in India, Mamata Banerjee, Obamacare, etc.

But what she enjoys far more than my talks is Siddharth’s outrageously funny expressions and his version of Michael Jackson’s songs, both the things that I am more or less incapable of doing. I guess we both do our own thing that kind of works!

That said, Samaira is very generous when it comes to showering us with her smiles so we feel good about whatever it is that we are trying to do. Her giggles (and sometimes just the thought of her giggles) manage to crack open my deepest darkest moods and invoke the loudest of the laughter no matter where or with who I am. I have smiled to myself several times in past, but I have never laughed to myself before this. I used to think Siddharth is weird because he can really laugh-out-loud to himself, sometimes even when he is asleep (his explanation is that he cracked a funny joke in his dream). But now I feel like I am the weird one in the relationship :). Oh well, so worth it.

Our last week was a little eventful when we found out about Samaira’s ASD, strabismus, sleep apnea and potential surgeries associated with all of it. But her conversations, smiles and giggles make me believe that she can venture through anything with an air of, ummm, I guess laughter! 

Peace - more often that not. Content - kind of, sometimes, little :).