Every few weeks, I re-realize the obvious - Avyaan is growing up, and fast! When you are a new parent, you get tired of hearing the same cliche from the veteran parents, "Cherish these days, they don't last as long as you think!". But as you continue your parenting journey, you have to admit that cliches are cliches for a reason. It feels like yesterday when we brought this tiny human home, who comfortably fit in my forearm, and now, containing him in my lap is a challenge.
You can literally spend the entire day watching him play with his toys, throwing stuff around, identifying objects in his books. There isn't a dull moment in the house when he is awake. It is the silence that gets you because there are only two kinds now. The first is when he is sleeping and you suddenly have an hour or so of simultaneously having nothing to do, and getting as much pending stuff done as you can. The other silence is the deadlier one, the kind when the little hurricane is out of sight and not making a noise. That is your cue that something major is about to happen, and you better brace yourself for whatever mess will greet you when you go looking for him!
Now that his vocabulary is exploding, he is picking up new words daily, and having him around is akin to accidentally turning your on-screen narrator on the computer - a tiny voice that will name every single thing in its line of sight. Since he is still figuring some of the more difficult sounds, it is super cute to watch him try to name things and extract a smile out of us.
He has gotten taller, so now we're running out of places to hide things. He can even reach the kitchen counter, so we have to be extra careful when working with knives and other kitchen implements. He once toppled the pooja ka lota in the temple at home, and he can now reach the oil, diya, etc., so now we have to keep the inside room locked if we can't actively supervise him.
He now understands us a lot better but follows instructions only when he feels like it. He has also gotten much better at communicating what he needs, but that also means he has gotten better at distracting us with demands for random things when we're making him do things he has no interest in, such as eating. So there are only two effective ways left to get him to do stuff - Bribe, and Blackmail! And since neither of those is a great parenting practice, I find myself conflicted on whether to choose the ends or the means. Any parents out there who can get their kids to eat, brush, nap, etc. without resorting to bribes or blackmails, please teach me!
One great thing about all this, and that brings me to the title of this post, is that the little minion has started becoming useful in some of the chores, only when the task is of interest to him. So, we have to convert everything into a game. With the right motivation, he now helps with the toy clean-up, putting away groceries, folding the laundry, fetching sundry items around the house, etc.
As Prajakta summed up the other day when I commented, with mixed feelings, that he is growing up - "The good thing is that he is growing up, but that is also the sad thing!"
