Inaaya, my little silly heart

I've not done justice to my daughter in terms of writing about her. I have written so much throughout Taufik's first four years. It is unfortunately, only in that, she was born at a time when this family is going through so many changes. Death of her grandfather, dealing with the precatious situation of her mother, our move to Luxembourg, my trying to wrap up my education and tying up all the loose ends before leaving beautiful Thailand.

I thought that it would be a good idea to jot down here the latest progress in my darling daughter's life.

She has begun walking. Today for the first time, she took her first steps all on her very own. Taufik was away at William's house today, and we were rolling about in her Mak Ngah's bed, then we moved down to the floor while Hidayah tried to catch up on her reading. Maeve Binchy's books.

I hooked Inaaya's hand onto the bed, the stool or the wall and called out to her to try and take a few step towards me...leaving just enough distance for her to do that without support. I could feel that she was ready because she was walking efficiently with just holding one hand. So she did just that, rather nervously, and it took her quite some time to decide whether being in Mommy's arms was worth the risk of falling. But walk into my arms she did!

The tentative steps taken were rather wobbly, but later on when Na joined in the fun it got surprisingly skillful. I held Inaaya at the waist, then I would just let go, she would took quick little steps to get into her Mae Na's arms. And she was so proficient at it, I found myself clapping in great delight at her achievement. And she was so happy to hear us clapping and laughing each time she walked the distance.

Na didnt quite get the hand of how to hold her at ready for a walk to me, Na was rather nervous about letting her go, and rather finding herself walking independently, she found that Na's hands were always at her side as she made her way to me. So Inaaya took things into her own hands. She wailed when Na tried holding her up so she would stand, and once Na got the message and she was placed down on the floor, she made her way to me by crawling. Then she would hold my hands to signal that she wanted me to get her standing. I did just that, and then she would walk briskly to Na. This went on in the manner again and again till she grew quite tired, literally.

To top off, the icing on the cake is that today she started babbling differently. The 'b' vowel now becoming her favourite thing. "Ba ba ba ba ba". And she loves blowing bubbles, she's been doing that since she was eight months and found blowing bubbles irresistable when her mouth is full of milk or water.

She is such an amazing little creature. At late in her 7th month, she was crawling proficiently up the playground slide steps. She could pull herself up to stand. At eight months, she just decided one day that she was going to drink through a straw. I was amazed, and so were the mothers and grandmothers at the playground.

I was very amused today when I saw her doing something so silly and adorable. During our play this afternoon, Inaaya found Mak Ngah's heart cushion on the floor. A lovely, soft, bouncy cushion that makes you wanna squeeze it till you cry.

As we observed her we realised that she found great joy in pulling herself up and falling delightedly onto the cushion. And she did this again and again with great gusto! LOL.

Isn't she a character this child of mine?

Oh I love her till my heart hurts.

Mommy of 2.