Your first year!

Darling ! After the lil U turn into our present thanks your B'day on Monday, here we are back to the story of my memories of you from your first year.

You started giving us the sunniest of smiles by the time you were about 5 months old. It used to make my day...it still does !!!!  Awwww...i miss the 5 month old Zayed-who wouldn't run away.

And you also got pretty noisy and super duper curious by this time. You were trying very very hard to sit up on your own. Not being able to sit up used to annoy you a lot. Here, is my lil angry bird trying very hard to sit up.

We also started solid food one of those days in preparation for sending you to the nursery. And i was getting more an more anxious as the date of my joining the university drew closer and your date for joining the nursery. The first day i went to Uni you stayed at home with Abba. It was the longest we have been away from each other. Something i just couldn't take. I remember calling your Abba every few minutes to see how you were doing. Apparently, you wanted to be carried all day. On the up side your Abba realized that 'you are a handful'.

You started nursery in the first week of Oct. We started with short sessions of an hour then half a day and so on. You were quite a trooper, my little star getting used to the other children and your carers Debbie & Megan. You started settling into the nursery soon, but not without falling sick very frequently in the first couple of months. I can't tell you how many guilt trips i took for having to let you go to the nursery so young. But i guess, i had to do what i had to do. You first cold was so scary for us. You were little and i was constantly scared if you were breathing well with the lil blocked nose. So many sleepless nights!!! But you kept coming out of every bout of illness more strong and more spunky! And managing to sit on your own too.. Look what i snapped when you sat up on your own for the first time!

 I also remember, an episode from your 2nd or 3rd week at the nursery when Debbie called me  at the University to say, you wouldn't stop crying. That must have been the most helpless i had felt in a long long time. I was over 2.5 hrs away from my crying baby. But your Abba saved the day for us. He came to the nursery and cuddled you to sleep. And just like that when he called me say 'Zayed is sleeping to me don't worry' was the most relieved I had been in ages. Yet i had taken a taxi and was already on the platform waiting for the train back.

And then came the winter, and your cutest bear overall. I am so sad you don't fit into it anymore. It was your first winter after and how well we did being the cutest bear in town. I love your expression in picture below-starring at the camera !

With the winter came your Abba's frequent colds and flues. It was pretty much on and off all through the winter, until he fell really sick in March of 2013. He had to be in the hospital for about 10 days. You & I were at home alone. Uncle Ryan & Aunty Sonia often looked after you when i went to visit Abba at hospital. So did Aunty Manizah, who came over from London to babysit you. I had so much help, from our friends. But most of all it was you with your lil funny antiques who kept me in good spirits. By this time you were crawling all over the house, and trying quite hard to walk. When your Abba came back from the hospital we took a vacation to Devon- where you took your first steps with Uncle Raman. I don't think we have a picture of you talking your first steps...there i a video i am sure. But here is my favourite picture from that vacation!

And after that pretty soon in 21st April 2013 was your first B'day. We had a joint party with your frien Sophia at their house. It was lovely day and uncle Ryan set up the bareque ! And you my dear were already running around all over. 

Goofing around !

Hi Jaan ! Look what we have been up to yesterday. Goofing around was fun....but you were after the life of my lappy. Hitting my keyboard hard got you giggling and smiling mischievously. My cute lil brat !

Happy second birthday my darling !

Ta-da ! Look at my B'day gift :-)

And the cake

First month !

Your first month with us had so many firsts--the first smile, the first walk in the park, the first shopping trip and so much so. And my first serious anxiety about you, when you stopped feeding for a brief period. But after a hospital trip, several phone calls to the health visitors and pep talk from your Nani, i realized heartache is the bitter-sweet truth of parenting.

It was however only after Nani, mahi & mama left in June, that i started learning to be with you alone. It helped that the day they left your Titia Nikki came to stay with us for a weekend, followed my Robin mama. So it wasn't until August 2012 that we actually lived alone in the house-which was actually a lot of fun as i got to make dozens of home videos, took loads of pictures...got a lot of cuddles.

I had also started getting out and about by that time. Our first day of 'separation' since you were born happened sometime towards end of July when i went for my first swimming lesson. And what followed was...chaos to say the least. I remember leaving you and your Abba in the car, and the next thing i remember seeing your Abba waving frantically by the pool-side. You were crying like a really powerful crying-machine. Awww...i panicked so much that that i just dressed on top of my wet bathing suit. What followed was, you stopping your crying in no time the moment i picked you up, dowsing off to sleep even before we got home and me getting a bad cold ! haha...Sleeping peacefully tucked inside Abba's jacket when we reached home from the swimming lesson that day.

And on my b'day in August aged 4 months you had your first day trip with Aunty Manizah & uncle Waquar.  Look how cutely you were napping on our drive to Cardiff! During those days you were not very keen about getting on your pram, so for quite a bit of the day we had to carry you on our laps.

The day we met!

21st of April 2012 ! A really lovely sunny day i remember thinking between contractions at the Southmead Hospital. The first thing that the midwife said when she saw you was " get ready to buy a comb, the lil guy has a lot of hair". And then right after you were born, you had me and your Abba in splits by trying to lick him. That was making him ticklish and he kept giggling like a lil kid.Never though lying down in a hospital bed could get this interesting.

That is when the midwife asked me for your cloths and cap.  My oops moment, when i realised that my seemingly impeccable packing wasn't quite as impeccable, and it never crossed my mind that babies need caps. The midwife very kindly found us the blue cap you are wearing in this picture.

And after everyone left, in the ward i held you for several minutes and kept looking at you, half believing that my lil miracle was here and half imagining all the things we are going to be doing together. For the next 12 hours we both slept quite well waking up for snacks every now and then. Plus not to forget the first poopy diaper. Your Abba always promised to me that he would be the one in-charge of all the yucky stuff. And yet here i was staring blankly at you while you were clearly uncomfortable in your dirty diaper. One of the nurses then came to my rescue showing me how to clean your bottom. While i hated the fact that my designated diaper disposal man wasn't around,  but it didn't take us both very long to get back to snooze.

The next day we were meant to go home after all your check ups. But strangely enough we couldn't figure out if you were peeing on the diaper or not. This is meant to indicate that your kidney is functioning well. So sadly at 8 in the evening, we stopped waiting for you to pee and your Abba went back home. And you being you decided too pee (decisively this time) just a few minutes later. But in no avail, we were spending our second day night at the hospital. So we actually went home on  Monday the 23rd April, which was a super duper rainy day. And mind you it took us a good one hour or so to get you to sit in  the car seat. Every time we put you there, you would start screaming and crying. Until finally.....

And at home....

And on our first night at home....Well lets just say it was very little sleeping for me and your Abba, it was a lot of crying for you. And then in the morning...

In those early days, you only wanted to be cuddled my Ammi....a lot. And how so very cuddly you were!!!! And there came our next challenge to get you to sleep without me sleeping with you. We tried the bed, the cot, the pram, and everyone's laps....but you little mister just wanted to be cuddled to sleep by Ammi. 

Hi Zayed, Ammi here ! ;-)

My darling boy ! 

Depending on which stage of life you are reading this, this may seem anything ranging from 'cool' to 'creative' to 'spooky'. Well!! Eh... that's your problem to sort. I have already been working quite hard starting from the labour to the million diaper changes. 

You turn two in the next few days. Even though I have been wanting to write to you/about you since the day you were born, you see things have been pretty crazy, as you probably know already. When your Sabreena Mahi asks me about her baby and toddler days- i hardly remember anything. You have to concede that it was a long time back and i was quite young myself then. I realize from her questions that there is no way for us to know about your early childhood days unless our memory keepers do their job well. So, here i am trying to keep some of your memories accessible to you and to me. I guess leaving these precious memories to fade away from my mind isn't a great idea.

Our mothers are our memory keepers, so are our fathers, our grandparents and or uncles and aunts. You have a whole bunch of memory keepers holding so many lovely memories, anecdotes and stories about you.

Love love love....and as you have been doing these days kissi!!

Ammi