Naptime with grandma

1 Jan 2012. Nischal is 3.

He was spending time with his sushi ajji( grandma).. and dad/mom weren't around. Automatically he insisted with grandma that he wanted the TV on.
Ajji - willing to sell her soul for a hug & a kiss - readily turned it on.
Thankfully, while Chota bheem pranced on onscreen, nap time also hit. Our man's little eyelids were drooping. He would still hit surface occasionally to make sure nobody turned his precious TV off.

Unlike the all surrendering ajji, our visiting aunt Usha - a teacher - still had her conscience switch in the 'ON' position. She took the opportunity and cleverly turned off the fan, and then the TV.

The drooping eyes snapped open - " Who.. What ..  Why ..? "
Usha aunty was clever - " No beta, the power has gone".
The little guy looked around to verify, and gave up. He went around the rooms for a little stroll, and then decided to join his already semi-napping ajji in the bedroom.
Ajji - unaware of Usha aunty's subterfuge - had her little stereo turned on with her bhajans singing her a lullaby.

Pat came the question: "How come the power is on here? The stereo is playing?"

While ajji scrambled for an answer, came Usha aunty to the rescue again   " No beta, we've put batteries in it. Thats how its playing"

Satisfied, and after testing the bed thoroughly for its springiness, the little master fell asleep after 10-15 minutes.

7 months - 9 months

The pincer grip

Not just rejoicing in his previous success, Nischal added yet another kiss-evading maneuver that turned out be the most effective.

Dad had to stop kissing his son - mouth ulcers. But it took him a while to realize he was the victim of Nischal's latest weapon.

Puzzled ?

The dad was, too - for weeks. Here's the skinny:

When dad tried to reach him with puckered lips, he'd put out his hand and grab hold of his lower lip. And then use his little pincer grip to the hilt.

Initially dad was all in praise of his dad - about Nischal's cute little fingers, holding on to things, how he grips, cutie pie, yada yada yada. The next day, he couldn't open his pie hole to even scream in pain.

The little nicks Nischal presented him with had bloomed. On the bright side, dad lost a couple of pounds - not being really able to eat anything without yelping about it.

Sympathetic balding?

Nischal's dad has a very valid reason for putting on weight - or so he says.  'Sympathetic pregnancy' - is the term he uses, and points out that most weight he has gained has been during the two pregnancies of his sons.  While his wife lost weight religiously after delivery and is back to being trim, he lovingly rubs his belly like he's still planning on delivering it sometime.  New years & resolutions have whizzed past, but there's another new year always round the corner, eh? Another dimension to Dad's aging process is his rapidly declining hair. His pate is emptying at the top. Unlike the bulk, that is something he's definitely losing hair about.   Nischal - despite his busy schedule of chugging milk, pooping & sleeping - seems to have noticed this and has decided to lend an empathetic hand here.  Now he also is rapidly losing the already scant hair he had.. resulting in a rather empty dome worse than his dad.  If thats not a true father-son bond, what is?

From 2009-02-06 - 2009-02-21

The choo choo won't leave the station..

Another popular game General Nischal used to play with his parents was the 'drip irrigation' game. The parents may not really be aware of the game, however.  

The game goes thus: 

1. Soil the diaper a little bit.

2. Yell like there's an ant biting your behind

3. Parents take the bait, and change the diaper

4. Give them a few minutes to relax

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 about 3 times over the course of an hour. 

7. Enjoy the look on Dad's face as he re-reads the pampers packaging and calculates the damage to his wallet. 

But before you spawn google searches for tickets to the next performance, we regret to inform you the 'drip irrigation' game has ended. 

These days General Nischal had been fighting a rather internal battle.
Since his mom got on some more serious medications, she's been advised not to breast feed. So, the man has been put on Lactogen & Nan. This has 'blocked' the aforementioned hero and thereby has caused the demise of the game. 

While the resultant flatulence set more ships to sail than Napolean ever did, the end result would still be that the choo choo wouldn't leave the station.
... the bear wouldn't come out of the cave.
... the shuttle didn't launch ..

.. . the rabbit remained in the burrow

.... the writer's stupid analogies' cup runneth over.  

But Nischal being the fighter he is, wouldn't ignore the issue either. All day he would struggle, make weird faces, and would be generally unhappy. The clueless parents of course, had nothing other than platitudes to offer him. And when the prized event did happen after a couple of days, it would cause him more pain than war injuries would.  

But now, the valiant efforts of his grandma and Sudha ( the lady from the village here to help with him) have now ensured he manages to poop twice a day. They sit with him, make the same   'uuhhmm..'  noises as him, massage his butt, lift his legs, etc. for 10-15 minutes until the choo choo finally leaves the station. :)

And then there's a dramatic change in persona. There's a glow in the face, he's back to looking around for victims to shoot at, planning new games with his parents, pondering about light fixtures,  practicing his 'bite the bottle with eyes closed' manoevre, etc. 

Now the birds are singing again, the water is flowing freely, and there is peace in the land ...

Mom - hit in the face, and dad escapes with a shot on his legs..

Reporting from the war front ... shelling by Mr. Nischal continued, and yesterday Mom was the first casualty. She caught a volley on the face and clothes, and let out a shriek. Surprisingly however, Mom later seemed unfazed and unhurt, and even talks about event in a rather light vein. 

Dad was hit a few hours later -  He claims he was tricked. In his own words 

"I was alert. Armed with a wet tissue in hand, I blocked and diverted the trajectory well. But just as I moved my hand towards the new diaper, the second volley caught me. I'm lucky I only got hit on my leg.. " 

Despite the confident front,  the previous arrogance has clearly left him. One could see signs of fatigue and humility on his tired face. Like the chap departing from the White house, he realizes that he'd presumed victory a little too soon. 

Mr. Nischal, unfortunately wasn't available for a comment. His office responded that he was 'resting'. 

.. More news to follow ..