Where is my baby?

You know your tiny precious little baby has grown up into a big girl when:

• You suddenly realize that you have your living room back! I mean for the first 3.5 years, it was not a living room but more of a playschool - full of baby equipment like a rocker, swing, activity gym, rattles, high chair and the list goes on. Yesterday when I was cleaning up her toys in our guest bedroom (which doubles up as N's playroom), I suddenly realized how all her stuff has moved from the drawing room into this bedroom. And now this is her haven...a place where she spends a lot of time in...drawing & coloring on her new table & chair, doing puzzles, playing with her friends, etc. Suddenly we don't receive comments from single friends who visited us saying your home looks more like a playschool :-)

• Her toys graduate from being dumped into one big laundry basket in the corner of a room to being organized into cupboards or shelves or cubbies so she can pick and choose what she wants to play at a given time and can keep it organized once done.

• You see your little one able to rock her body weight back and forth expertly and swing herself so high so easily. Suddenly she no longer needs you to push her back and forth yelling "higher mommy...higher!!!"

• Your little one can actually tell you what she wants to eat and what she doesn't. Unlike just a few months ago when just getting stuff into her system was an accomplishment...didn't matter what you were stuffing her with :-)

• Your little one is not just asking silly questions but actually stuff that makes you stop and think. And not once or twice...every single minute...every single hour of the day.

• When you see her mothering her soft toys telling them not to worry coz her mommy is here.

• When you notice that she actually has a very sharp sense of time. For example, you pick her up from day care a little early one day and she says "why did you come jaldi today" or when you are running late for her pickup and find her waiting on her mat at school instead of playing in the park. It is so eerie to see how they just know!

• When you see her trying to write alphabets and numbers on her DoodlePro instead of her usual drawing or random doodling. And this after NO effort whatsoever from our end. Infact we chose to send her to a Montessori and not a traditional school where they emphasize on holistic learning rather than just reading or writing at such a young age.

• When you see that she can actually keep herself busy for hours now engaged in some activity or the other at home rather than her calling us to play with her ALL the time until just a month ago.

I am sure this list can keep growing as I find myself marveling at every new little thing each day. It is just so emotional to see the transformation which seems like it happened overnight. Not sure if it is because she has now graduated from being taken care by a maid to going to a daycare setup or it is just her age to grow into such things but things are changing fast now and thankfully for the better. Knock on wood. Kala Tikka. Love you my baby. Can't believe you will be 4 in a few months already!!!