deviousways

Little man was at the very edge of the sofa. He was balancing himself, doing something intricate, some elaborate game that only nearly-five-year-olds can think up. Naturally, my first thought was he'll fall over and hurt his head. "What are you doing," I said, not shrieking exactly, but louder than I normally am. "Being upside down," he replied, very, matter of fact. And twinkled at me, as if to say "there, there". I had to laugh. At myself, mostly. And just from the sheer joy of seeing our little boy doing something so naughty, so normal. He's been sick, you see, for the past five days. Something triggered an asthma attack in him. It started with him coughing a little and rapidly got so bad, till we could count the minutes he wasn't coughing. Doctors say children cough like this because their bodies are not getting enough oxygen. He would cough and cough, clutch his throat, say he couldn't breathe. The cough wouldn't let him ...

Sometimes children say and do the darndest things. And help you learn something new about life and living.... When little man was just over a year old, he ate a cockroach egg. Or at least, he tried to. But my husband noticed and hurriedly got it out. Baby probably had a taste, though. Ugh. Why did he think he could eat something like that? I realised children don’t subscribe to our notions of ‘good’, ‘bad’ and utterly yuck--till we actually (like I did), have a mini meltdown and yell that they absolutely cannot just pick up shiny, brown objects, just because said objects look interesting! But then children are so open in their approach to life. So trusting, for one thing. For a long time, when he was a baby, he would happily exclaim "Ajja" or ‘Ajji’ (Kannada for ‘grandfather/grandmother') whenever he spotted a white-haired gentleman or lady. He would hold his arms out with a winsome smile. The recipients would coo and respond in kind. Till, my husba...