Monday, 2 July, 2018

It’s Monday and Papa is back to write about Avani’s world. Last two days have been difficult for Mumma. She contracted the Herpes Zoster virus - a virus left over from when you get Chickenpox. Mumma never got chickenpox in her life but here it is to trouble her anyway. It resulted in painful red rashes on her right thigh - main reason why Avani can’t spend too much time in Mumma’s lap for a week or so. Mumma can continue to breastfeed. However she’s on heavy medication. She’s strong though - no painkillers; only screams and sniffles. :)

Yesterday Papa got a scare when Avani had 3 red spots on her cheeks, one on her chest and 4 more on her right hand. It looked like Chicken Pox which she can get from Mumma if she touches Mumma’s rashes. Avani is too small to be vaccinated for Chickenpox. Papa had got it when he was 14 years old - not a merry time in any way. Generally, you get is once in life - vaccination does help. However, by evening, it was established that those were mosquito bites. Papa killed 3 mosquitoes in sight - a skill he prides. :P

Enough about pox & bloodthirsty mosquitoes!

Avani doing a Raj Kumar yesterday - “Jaani ye chaaku hai chaaku. Kat jaye toh Khoon nikal aata hai”

Mumma and Avani were color-coordinated with cushions yesterday

Time: 09:31

Writing has started early today. Mumma will be staying at home since she’s not well. Today Lakshmi also came in at 0837 - earliest ever! Avani was awake and playing on Papa’s face and shoulders. Avani was ready to picked up when Lakshmi beckoned to her. She played with her trains in the hall - brilliant sunshine was streaming in from the east looking balcony door. However, Papa drew the curtains since it was heating the hall up. Papa went to the washroom and when he was back at 09:25, Avani had already been happily sleeping for ten mins with Mumma - having had her breakfast in her favourite way - directly with momma. :)

Time: 11:07

At around 10:05, while Papa was brushing his teeth and Mumma was in the last room, there was a thud followed by sounds of a baby crying loudly. :( Papa ran out of the bathroom to see baby Avani on the floor - she had woken up and after curiously looking around for fellow humans, decided to go about to find them. However, she is too small to climb out of bed and doesn’t understand concept of depth or falling. Sadly she ran out of enough bed during her journey and fell off. She was consoled quickly - no bumps on her head or anything. Mumma put Arnica on her forehead and gave her some water in Avani’s little silver glass. She was smiling again in no time. Papa and Mumma had breakfast while watching Black Mirror (S02E02 - both of them are now glued to it) Avani played with her trains on the floor near the balcony door. Soon after breakfast, it was oil massage time with Mumma and Lakshmi with old hindi songs playing on Google Home. Avani is now in the bathroom troubling both her caretakers while taking her innocent but mischievous bath.

Time: 12:21

Avani had her milk (around half the bottle ~30 ml) at 11:20 as she had fed with Mumma just an hour back. At 11:27, she seemed ready to sleep. However, Papa’s confidence was met with Avani’s retaliation. She wailed and wailed in Papa’s lap trying hard to extricate herself while he tried hopelessly to calm her to sleep. Finally, he kept her down and she made for the Borges bottle. It was perniciously placed - so Avani was given the bottle which she licked on with conspicuous pleasure. There was a piece of cardboard which Papa suggested she tried instead, she held onto the bottle and cardboard with eagerness, not letting go of either. More attempts were made to help Avani sleep but none met with success. After 25 minutes, Papa brought Avani to Mumma. Avani stuck to her, fed again and slept at 12 noon. During this time, Papa talked with AC repair people who wouldn’t come to fix the leaking AC. So Papa fixed it himself by working on the exhaust pipe. :)

Time: 17:49

Avani took the longest day-nap ever today - 3+ hours. She finally woke up at 3 pm. Mumma, Papa were discussing on which mattress to buy for the bedroom. Mumma wants to buy natural latex, Papa has no preference, however he did find a value-for-money memory foam product. They were watching the show, sharing earphones, when Avani woke up, stretching and turning, looking for humans around her. Since Mumma and Papa were right behind her, it took her some to find them out. Avani was fed the remainder of her milk bottle soon after waking up (~40 ml). After 15 mins, it was time for her to have her lunch. In between, Avani played around on the floor bed with anything that caught her fancy. Today’s lunch was kadhi-chawal. Avani ate some of the kadhi; the rice seemed a little hard for her little toothless gums. She made a huge mess - there was food on her legs, dress, seat, chair, floor… everywhere!

It took a long while to clean while Avani played with Papa around the house. Then she was came back to the dining area to play on the floor where she was most interested in the contents of the fridge. She was successful in persuading mumma for something from the refrigerator. She got a rose-water bottle which, as usual, she licked with delight.

 

It was Lakshmi’s payday today. Avani licked the currency note before Lakshmi took it. It was her way of purifying the money. At 1745, Avani seemed sleepy. Papa helped her sleep with the same, hackneyed songs which Avani sleeps to due to boredom.