My daughter Risha is nine months now. She has started standing, walking while holding furniture and crawling. We are all amazed at all the new things and discoveries that she makes. Suddenly her world is also being discovered by us. She has three new teeth coming up on her upper gums. She already has two down. She is biting into anything she can get her teeth into which is keys, plastic, cardboard, she even attacks shoes.
With all this there is also a flip side and that is while we just blink our eyes she will dive from her cot. She will lose her balance in a fraction of a second and fall off the bed. We are right there and I do not know what we adults keep doing. Moments after her fall we have taken turns in feeling those guilt pangs that we were not alert enough . This past week she has fallen on her head at least once while she has been in care with each member of the family. No we are not in competition here. God knows we do not want to be. It just happens. Immediately after a fall the adult who is with her invariably puts in a pray that may God protect her.
We had a new cycle today where she just sits and you have to push it from the back. The entire day I have only pushed her at home and down in our building. She knows which room it is in and she is all the time going to that room so that we get the hint that she wants a ride again. Till 10 minutes before she finally slept tonight she wanted that one last ride on this new toy. She loves it that she can sit on this thing on her own and not on anyones lap. It gives her that sense of control.
Besides her cousins she also bonds with the crows, dog and the kitten of the building. My husbands brother keeps a bowl of milk for the crows everyday. She loves to stand by the balcony and has her own conversation with them. Sometimes she screams so loudly in her excitement that the crows get scared and they fly away. She of course cannot fathom that they are scared of her as she is only trying to bond with them.
Everyday when her father goes to work she comes down in the building to say her bye to him. The kitten would initially ignore her. When we go down Papa, Mama, and Risha go up to the kitten who just Meows and she just smiles and laughs at that. Just seeing that animal gives her such pleasure.
Animals, we just tend to not notice them and now because of her I look for them to show her. Risha your meow or your Kaw kaw ( for crow ).
Incidently Kaw Kaw is the first word she said. She understood when we would keep pointing out to the crow and say Kaw Kaw and Crow. She just latched on to Kaw Kaw and now she calls them and speaks to them in that language. There is so much glee when she bonds with them. The other word she says is papa but I do not think she relates the two yet. She is just saying that as a sound as we keep telling her papa and mama. But she understands us by names if someone says call Rakita she knows they are calling her mother.
From the beginning she has a different cry for each of her requirements. If she is hungry, thirsty, needs to be changed or she has got hurt the cries are all different and that is how she communicates and I understand. The other day someone said she is such a peaceful child. I said that it is because the mothers today are more aware and understand a child cries only for a reason and they communicate the only way they can and not just for the sake of it. If you can understand what they want they will be peaceful. And if they cry or get agitated it is because you cannot understand what they are trying to communicate.
A child brings in so many emotions in you that you never thought possible. Just this morning my husband said to me, ” She is worth more that anything else in the world.”
May God be with her always.
