Bringing up Maahira

Life and health are never to be taken for granted. We need to be grateful and thankful for every single minute we are able to live life without any health issues.  Maahira woke up with very high fever on 13th May 2021, close to 103. We gave her paracetamol and the fever subsided. She had dosa happily in my lap and then took a nap at 9:30 am. I sat next to her and started my work. Around 10:30 am she started getting very restless in sleep. She kept twisting and turning and with every turn she would open her eyes to ensure I was around and go back to sleep. At one such turn, she opened her eyes and kept staring at me blankly. I found it weird instantly and started shouting her name and tried jolting her. But she kept staring at me and became totally non-responsive. I lifted her and took her to dad's room (her body, neck, head everything was completely loose as though she did not have any control over her limbs).. the next 5 minutes were the most scared I have ever been in my life. Sh...

 

 The red ride on car was gifted to Jaadu by Naanu Nani.. Jaadu used to ride it like a pro and race around in our chennai house.. the legacy continues with Maahira in the Gurgaon house.. she absolutely loves this car and enjoys speeding on it.. 

 Maahir calls rabbits Muggy.. When she was very little, all four legged creatures looked the same to her.. she would pronounce 'Monkey' as 'Muggy'.. and then every animal was called 'Muggy' As she grew little older, rabbits were the ones who had the privilege to grab the 'Muggy' tag, while all other animals were called by their actual names :) This picture is with her favorite soft toy = Muggy!

This is how she went to sleep for her afternoon naps! This swing is one of mom's love symbols for me.. i have spent so much affectionate time on this with both the kids.. with jaadu, the first thing we would do after he would wake up in the morning was to swing together on this swing.. with maahira, she went to sleep for her afternoon naps on this for the longest time!  typical of any girl child, wanting to copy mumma with her lipstick and kaajal :)

After being home bound for a year due to the pandemic, we finally took courage to make a trip to Bangalore in March 2021. Mom dad and Monu had not seen Maahira after she was born and she was already 1.5 years by now! For Maahira, this trip was all about sitting in 'Daadi Shark' and visiting 'Naani house' (she calls Aeroplane as Daadi Shark since they look like a shark and Mom used to do the baby shark do do do step with her every time it was grandma shark do do do turn.. We made a visit to Coimbatore in Dec 2021, which was when Maahira finally distinguished between 'Naani House' and 'Mausi House' :))

Ranjana came to our house as a backup maid on April 5th 2021. She is a very young 15 year old girl. I was very apprehensive about having such a young girl at home and also felt guilty to make her work in the house (Chinmay made me feel better by making me realise that we are actually giving her a better life with three good meals per day). Chinmay fell sick on 6th April 2021 with very high fever. The two months that followed were the worst period that we faced as a family. We all caught covid one after the other, chinmay got seriously ill and had to be admitted. We lost mom to the disease. Not once in these two months did she or her family speak about letting her go back home even though they very well knew she was in the middle of 6 covid positive people. All her dad has to say was 'Madam, aapko zaroorat hai abhi uski. Let her help you at home'. she has been with us for over a year now. She loves Maahira very dearly and so does Maahira. According to Maahira, Ranjana didi i...