Yoyo's growing up...

As a baby, my boy has been very strong, supportive and loving all along. A real 'Chota Bheem' indeed! He may also be the only baby on this planet who may have commuted about 90,000 road kms within less than a year when we did the daily commute together to Abu Dhabi while living in Discovery Gardens (Zen). Waking up at 6 am, enjoying the drive and co-cooing, oohing, aahing all along the road in the carseat and his mama by his side who tried hard (in vain)to squeeze in short naps during the tiring commute, with poor Baba at the wheel 6 days a week. After the day's events and all of us being out of home for a straight 12-13 hours (6am - 7pm), tired to the core, the work did not end. In fact, it only began!

One of the main activity upon returning home, apart from taking care of Yoyo, playing, bathing, feeding, eating, taking turns to have a bath, catching up with each other while Baby TV came to our rescue, was the religious, rigourous washing and sterilizing of Yoyo's dozen bottles(in no exaggeration- babysitting ones plus the bottles we needed for feeding him at home at night). For this I give complete credit to Satya as he did not skip this routine of driving and washing even for a single day!

With no time on hand to manage a sick baby, we struggled to ensure that he did not fall sick or at least as less as possible. Hence, as a paranoid set of parents we gave Yohaan's babysitter a clean set of 6-8 bottles everyday. A clean one for each time he had to be fed the 30-60-90-120 ml that he needed as he grew older. With added months the number of bottles went down, then the commute for him went down from a 120kms to a 1-2 kms just few lanes away after one year on the road and eventually just to a lift ride away.(as we had moved into a new home in DG in the same building as the babysitter, what a joy that was!, until it lasted that is...)

Today, it feels like we are light years away from those days though this was our routine all the way from Yoyo's birth up to his 3rd birthday. As he grew older, the needs for washing bottles reduced more significantly than other needs and I am now very close to breaking free from using bottles totally, as last night was the first night when Yoyo agreed to have milk from a glass instead of his bottle. He absolutely adores milk and until last night he has had a ritualistic method for drinking it from his bottle with his favourite orange blanket in his hand.

It took a bit of threatening, cajoling and finally bribing to get him to agree to drink and to finish the same milk that he refused to drink whenever it was presented outside of the bottle. As mundane as this may sound to some, I consider this a significant achievement in Yoyo's growth and mine as a mother. I'm proudly progressing as a mother who is first diaper free and now bottle free!! Yay, its time to celebrate indeed!

Though, sadly, it reflects that my Yoyo in not a baby anymore and is growing up fast...