Sometimes when I look back at my life, I can't help but smile thinking how much my life has changed for the better over the last one year or so, especially after becoming a father. To a cute, little bundle of joy named Aadyasha. In this fast paced, chaotic world and with all the hustle and bustle of daily life, she is the one who keeps me calm and grounded. After work when I return home tired and exhausted, and find my toddler daughter Aadyasha waiting for me with her pristine smile, I feel like being refreshed and re-energized at once. The way she beams up at me as I take her into my arms out from her crib, the world melts away for a few seconds. What more would a father wish for? Not only does her presence in my life provide me with comfort, but in her, I have also found a constant source of warmth and joy. It's kind of weird but I love to find toys strewn in random places around the house. And all my tiredness and worries of the day vanish away the moment she holds her head up and flashes her innocent, divine smile. I would do anything to keep her smiling all the time. Every minute that I spend with her, my heart gets filled up with so much peace and satisfaction that I feel really lucky to have been blessed with an angel. She has changed my life, she has changed my perspective too and I can't thank her enough for that.
Almost every morning she gifts me the best possible start to the day when she crawls up to me and tries to wake me up with a drooly kiss and tries to say something in her baby language that would have been accompanied by a sparkle in her eyes. And when I finally open my eyes, I find her smiling at me, as if she were saying Good Morning to me. Yes, her papa is her best friend, no doubt. Her early morning routine involves, among other things, me taking her to the terrace and letting her meet her best friends -- the crows and the pigeons and the flowers in our potted garden. She just never gets enough of them, it seems. Even as I feed the birds with wheat and millet grains, she would keep looking at them with amazement and probably converses with them too in her baby language. She too, I guess, is a nature lover like her father, she seems to be so fond of the birds and the furry beings. Nothing makes her as happy as when she sees them near. When I let her to crawl on the terrace floor, she even tries to catch them, probably to cuddle with them. She also loves it when Chottu licks up her face and she bursts out laughing.
We also have our evening playing sessions together after I return back home from office. She would have been waiting for me and as soon as she sees me in her room, she gives me the priciest gifts by sharing her sweetest smiles and happiest coos with me. She makes those adorable sounds and coos back at me as I try to tickle her belly. Television is one other thing that makes her really happy. She is actually very fond of watching the cartoons and also the animals and the birds on the National Geographic channel. She also loves her bath time, especially with soap bubbles. She just doesn't want to get out of her tub.
Sometimes it saddens me that I am missing out on some of her other little moments of life while growing up. I wish not to leave for office but instead could stay back at home, to be able to be with her all the time and watch her grow every single second. I wish I could capture every single moment, right from the time she wakes up in the morning till the time she goes into her dreamland at night. Right from the day I became her father, I felt her lively spirit waffle down into my soul. I so love carrying her around and I love watching her in her elements, crawling around the house and exploring things or even when tearing up the newspaper or trying to put every single thing into her mouth. I love that look of wonderment and intrigue on her face when she finds my face covered with shaving foam. I love the way she acts to be listening to me with all ears and then nods her head every other time, as if she understands everything that I say to her. Or probably she understands even more than I realize. And I also love it when she climbs up into my lap when she gets tired after playing with her toys.
But she is growing up fast, she will turn one year old next month and I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. It seems like just the other day I held her up and took her into my arms for the first time at the hospital when she was born! How I wish I could somehow slow down this growing up process! I fervently wish that she remains this little, drool-covered, baby faced princess of mine forever. I want to savour every moment.
Just then, I am woken up from my thoughts by Ananya as she walks into the room and says, "Whose thoughts are you lost in, honey? I have been calling out for you since so long. By the way, what's that smell? Has Aadya peed her pants once again?"
"But her diapers still feel so dry!", I say.
"Honey, these are Pampers dry pants. Not only do they ensure dryness from the outside but inside as well as they have magic gel that soaks up all moisture. Thus our Aadya's skin remains dry and healthy for up to twelve hours! And so we find her happy and smiling all the time", Ananya replied.And in the next few minutes, Ananya changed Aadya's wet diaper with a clean, dry one. I shall always remain indebted to
Pampers for keeping my baby always happy and smiling. Thank you Pampers.
