Avni's 3rd year

Anikutta,

You turned 3 and mama is very very late this time for the yearly b’day letter. Looks like every odd birthday you celebrate in India bcos your 3^rd b’day was celebrated in India. Lets talk about your third year. If I had to come up with a single word to describe your third year it would be “blossoming”. You just blossomed into this wonderful toddler ,full of energy, talking non-stop, bold at times, a cry baby at other times and mostly a very happy bouncy and smart kid!

The year began with us finding out that you were going to have a sibling. You were so excited and instantly demanded a baby girl. Oh Boy! Mama and dada were not quite sure how to explain to you that we didn’t have a choice in that matter. You strongly believed and kept saying that it was your baby and mama is carrying the baby.

You continued going to Bhagyam’s daycare until June when ammamma came to stay with us. You were so excited about ammamma’s visit. Every conversation revolved around ammamma and how you would play/do this/do that/go places etc with ammamma. You spoke with her on the phone while she was in India and maybe that made you feel quite close to her.

With ammamma insisting so much we finally decided to have your head shaved. It was heart breaking to see those beautiful curls falling off. You continued having stuffy nose and severe allergies. We finally decided to get your adenoids/tonsils removed. July 1^st was your surgery. I have never felt so nervous ever in my life when dada took a very sedated you in his arms and walked over to the surgery room(brave dada). We both stayed outside until Dr.Swamy came out to let us know that you were all safe and sound. You were one tough girl and recovered soon and was your bouncy self within weeks. From the day of your surgery Dr.Swamy became your hero. You pretended to be him, you made stories about him, you wanted us to say stories about him and this went on for months until we finally decided to invite him over to our house.

You stayed home with ammamma and enjoyed it very much. You both sang songs, danced and had so much fun at home. Ammamma was very good at feeding you well and you became much more healthier and strong.The pregnancy made it more difficult for mama to carry you or run around and play with you. This phase made you get closer to dada as he spent more time with you. It was beautiful to watch how you both grew closer and how much dada adored you. You literally had dada wrapped around your finger and he sang praises about his lil girl to all and sundry!

Mama wrote about you on FB ,mainly the smart comments you made about one thing or the other. You had a huge fanfare among mama’s friends on FB. You grew closer to chechiamma,bhuyya,unni and ammu chechi. You also grew closer to sumamma,shilpa chechi and shilpa chechi dada.You loved visiting their house in MD mainly to take bubble bath in their Jacuzzi. You didn’t have to wait until you visited them to take a bubble bath as we bought our new house which had a Jacuzzi and you were so excited about it, especially to share it with unni and ammu chechi. You got a room for yourself (of course you have to share it with Neeru) and mama decorated it for both of you. You loved the new house for all the space it had and you and dada would escape to the basement now and then where you had all your toys and dada could watch his cricket in peace.

In August Neeru arrived. You adored him and was eager to hold him and do everything for him (feed him,change diapers etc). Everybody was so careful to ensure that you didn’t feel left out when Neeru came home. Chechiamma, Ammamma, Sumamma, dada, mama ,ammu chechi and shilpa chechi gave extra attention to you to make you feel secure. I was so proud of how you managed yourself even with the new addition to our family. You played your role as a “big chechi” so well and was very loving and caring towards Neeru.

So in Nov we went to India for a 2.5months stay. We celebrated your b’dat at home with big appuppa,ammumma,ammamma,reju chitta and chindu maama .All year you’ve been asking mama to make a princess cake for your b’day . How could mama not do that for you;so I carried all my baking and decorating supplies from US to India and made a beautiful princess cake for you. I’m telling you it wasn’t easy to ice that cake bcos of the hot and humid weather in Kerala. But all that hard work payed off when I saw that big eys of your widen and that pretty smile spreading across your face when you saw that cake. Only sad part was that dada wasn’t present physically for your b’day but we got him on the phone to sing happy b’day when you cut that cake.

You are still a picky eater – you eat egg whites and hate the yellow(even though we secretly smuggled this into your lunches with rice). You love chicken,rice and yogurt. You have started liking McDonalds but mainly their chocolate milkshake. You dream and cant wait to go to school mainly to ride in the yellow school bus. Your taste in toys are mainly boy-like :-You like trains, planes and buses. But you did love play dough and we hated it (hours of cleaning). You went to a teacher’s house(Dagma miss) in Kollam to learn how to write for a month. You did pretty well and learnt to write most of the alphabets and numbers. You had a wonderful time in Kerala/Bangalore and Nepal. We took the train from kerala to Bangalore and you had a ball.

This is all I can remember now. Next year you will be starting school and I cant wait to see what is in store for you and us!

Love you so much my sweet baby,

Mama