My Lady of the Lantern

A fortnight ago, I had this itch to write a year-end roundup. I have some pretty significant life events to report this year. Thankfully, I am over the itch.  I had so much expectation from this year. I was so excited for 2016.  What has actually happened is a mudslide, and yes, here are a few positives from this year (in no particular order): I cleared an exam this July (results came in November), which is a life time qualification, and essentially used as an eligibility basis. I got a sim card that allowed me free calling for over two months, and free internet, free text messages. I participated in a two day conference in a different city in November, which was a good trip for me. I enjoyed the conference, and went sightseeing. It was also very refreshing. The paper I presented there, was one I hadn't hope to complete in time, and yet I pushed myself to go write it, and submit it, so being able to get through to the conference was an achievement. M turne...

Elsie: Figlia, M is so naughty. We should give him back, or give him to someone else. Figlia: No use. They will return him back to us. We should get used to him.  1. M, at 2 years continues to be the baby. :-) 2. Conversation happened a while back when I discovered M had drowned a few apples in different vessels kept in the refrigerator.  For more Microblog stories, visit Mel . 

Day before yesterday, Figlia suffered an eye injury at school. She was playing with straws, and one of them went into her left eye.  The incident happened about an hour before school was to end for the day. She was attended to in the school, but she came crying all the way home in her school bus. At home, her eye was watering continuously and she was in pain.  After an emergency visit to an ophthalmologist, it was found that she had suffered a corneal abrasion, and then after a prescription of a cocktail of eye drops, her pain has completely gone. She was called for a vision test yesterday, and doctor reports that she needs specs! Specs! She had never reported reading difficulty. None of her parents wear specs.  But she needs them.  On doctor's orders, she wont be attending school all of this week, and will go for a repeat visit to the said ophthalmologist next Wednesday.  I am not very conversant with reading an eye prescription, and do...

(M) ~~ He is not being allowed to run outside the house naked. (Figlia) ~~ She is being prevented from eating from M's plate, even though she has already finished her own portion.  (Figlia) ~~ "Will anyone in this house ever understand me?". [Well played, kid] (Figlia) ~~ Because she feels tortured by being asked to pee every few hours. (M) ~~ He wanted candy and was handed one. Unfortunately I completely unwrapped the candy and gave it, thereby causing ultimate sacrilege of his intention to unwrap the thing and then eat it. (M) ~~ I am not allowing him to hit Figlia with his toy truck.  Figlia is extremely sensitive and intuitive, and very whiny these days. She puts my patience on test frequently.  M's naughtiness is matched with how he comes back with bruises here and there all the time. He had a bleeding lip last night thanks to him hitting a chair handle while trying to get down from it.  M is also far more finicky food-wise. ...

I heard an infant's cry sometime around 5:30 a.m. today. It was still dark outside (hello winter), and I spent a few moments listen to the baby exercising its lungs. There has been an advent of about four new babies in my neighbourhood, including two in my building.  It could be anyone of those bubbas.  I was happy that it wasn't mine. M still is a sleep-wrecker, but that kind of crying is history.  And yet, when I see newborns, I have this urge to hold them, to touch them, and to feel that tiny life in my arms - to see how those tiny fingers wrap around a single finger of mine...their antics and all.  And oh, for the tiniest of fleeting moments I might even experience an urge to be pregnant and have a baby. When my senses return after the lapse of that nanosecond, I am just relieved to not be going through all of that, and those struggles of babyhood.

Wow, M really has stepped up his bug fest. Figlia uninstalled the snot machine only for it to be installed by Mister About-to-be-Two. Plus, the allergic reaction to the insect bite, plus a day of diarrhoea, and I am just sitting pretty about his birthday. Last year, he ran a fever right before his birthday, and sickness is a not my favourite repeat trend. My in-laws are here, and both of them have also been coughing/sneezing and hence there is ample source of infection everywhere.  Thanks for the comments on the previous post. Yes, it could be a growth spurt. I missed documenting an amazing milestone that happened sometime in October. I was out and about in the park in our neighbourhood (it's a gated township) one evening and I had to rush back home for some reason. I told Figlia to stay with M, while I returned back, and I came home for fifteen minutes and returned back to them. That was the first time that Figlia and M were together that way for the first time. ...

In nine days, M will be two. Can you believe it? Unlike Figlia, he won't have a party. To tell the truth, I am not even firm with what will be done for the birthday. This year has been hard on me, and I am in the midst of an existential crisis.  We have travelled outstation twice in the last six weeks, and I went out solo for a conference on my own for a couple of days last week. I wish I could spend some more alone time (maybe a few months?), but that won't happen. Figlia will be five in a couple of months. She is smart (not the first time I said that), and picks up everything like a sponge, and sometimes plays back data in front of people I would not share the data with. That means we have to be careful with what we say to each other in front of her. Then the little Missy will pick up the tone, and reprimand either parent, or both for the way we are talking. She is having a food problem. She has never given me trouble with food. But she is constantly hung...