The second child

A lot of mothers had told me, 'Don't worry, the second one just grows up on his own'. A very difficult statement to believe after having spent long nights dealing with colic, feeding, lack of sleep - the endless list of chores that comes together with the joy of motherhood.

Five months later and I believe! My second child or the last born (as he is called in Kenya) or kochimon (as he would be called in Kerala) seems to be growing up without much fuss.

He turned over, we didn't talk much about it; he sat, we didn't celebrate; and now he is eating his solids without any praise. We have little over a dozen photographs of him, no foot and hand prints, no baby books and very few blog posts! I am guilty of not even exclusively breast feeding him for as long as I did Tarana - and the only reason to start the top-up bottle was the attention I have to give Tarana at bedtime!

Is he just an easier child, I have often thought. My theory though is that we are responsible for making T the more difficult one by constantly fussing over her, and R is the easier one partly because he just is and partly thanks to normal levels of attention given to him (though, to be fair, R does have two more people to cuddle, love and adore him compared to T!)

Theories apart, he is growing up just too quickly and I am already missing the new born phase.

Kiddie sports day

Run from mom to dad was the most successful of races at T's sports day last weekend! Unfortunately, that race was for the one and a half to two and a half year olds - the rest were under some pressure to perform.

The ones that felt the most pressure spent the morning in tears and refused to run without their favourite teacher or parent; and the ones who didn't feel the pressure were happy to run but often forgot the rules of the race. In one vegetable relay race the children were to pick up a vegetable on their track and hand it over to the next kid. Certainly too confusing for a three year old - most got to the vegetable and stared at it, some picked it up and then stared at it, others, who kind-of got the point picked it up and ran back (in the wrong direction), though a few, after a lot of cheering and hand holding (literally) actually ran with the vegetable in the right direction!

The toddlers looked adorable in their 'house' T-shirts and the morning was a real blast - full of laughter and fun.