When in doubt

Zo it out.

As you can see, the Blogathon managed to squeeze out the last drop of posting material and ability from my core which means I am back to blogging once in forever? Tragic, very tragic. However, for the sake of not letting my readers, and my stats down, here I am.

Like I said, there will always be Zo stuff. So brace yourselves for another set of updates from Zola land. No I don’t call her Zola, Zola land sounded nice. Isn’t Meredith’s daughter called Zola? I miss Grey’s Anatomy. *mental note to catch up on the latest season*.

So Zo, is finally sleeping in her own room. You remember, the room where she was doing this circle time sorta thing with all things stuffed and fluffy? Yep, that’s her room. Has been since we moved here, with her toys, and books, and clothes. But she never slept there. Because I just didn’t know how to start it. The Dude kept taunting me, but I did not do it. I could not do it. And it was me who had forced us to rent out a massive house where we would have a Guest room, and a Zo room.

Anyway. So last week? Actually on 1st Feb, my Bro-in-law was chatting with us and he causally asked if she was sleeping alone yet. The Dude rolled his eyes at me. And I said, ‘We start tomorrow’.

And surprise! We did. I did not want to make her sleep elsewhere and then move her, it would kill the purpose. The whole idea I guess was to ensure she knew what she was getting into. So right from the morning on Sunday, we kept talking to her about how awesome it was that she would now be sleeping her own room with all her toys, and fortunately, she got reasonably excited. So in the night, I took her to her room, and gave her her night milk, and asked who she wanted to sleep with. She said mumma. My heart broke a bit, but I quickly recovered and asked which animal. She picked the ‘bada wala Teddy’. And in another 10 mins she was done with her milk and fast asleep.

That’s been the routine. Everyday she picks a new toy to sleep with. Not necessarily the animals. The cricket bat, the beach toys, the spade, sieve etc, all of them get their turn. 3 times, between that day and today, she has woken up at around 5, asked for milk and moved with her sleep companion and blanket to our room. But she has managed the rest of the time. And I am very proud of my ickle Zo for that.

The times she did wake up, she would ask us to ‘Zo ko small baby banao‘ which basically means we need to wrap her in her baby swaddle, from which her legs stick out for a feet, and she would do mock baby cries as we rock her. She seems to enjoy it a lot these days. Another thing she loves is role playing. “Main mummy hoon, aap Zo ho.” Ok. “Toh phir yeh kaun hai” I ask pointing to Papa, to which her answer is always “Brother”. I have no clue where that comes from, Then she proceeds to ‘come back from office on scooter’, or hand me all her toys saying ‘Zo, look! So many toys!’, or going ‘Zo, eat your food’, or sending me on a ‘Timeout’. It’s fun, and she loves it!

Another thing she loves doing is the whole ‘Jab main badi ho jaoongi, X karoongi’. This X can be anything from cleaning her ears. to putting kajal, to cooking egg. And sometimes, she just does it and goes ‘Main badi ho gayi hoon!‘ ofcourse to be screamed at, or given a time out. Not that it changes anything.

On Saturday, Zo the little monkey did her first ‘scribble on a wall’. She got scolded. Then she proceeded to insert the pencil tip into a key hole and break it. I had had enough, so I thought of giving her a serious talking to, but in a manner most books and magazines suggest. So I sat on my knees, at eye level with her and asked her if that was the right thing, and how I was disappointed, and why did she do it?

She was listening to me intently, without getting distracted, a first I have to say. So mentally, I was thinking how awesome these articles were. And then I gave a pause for her reaction. She walked up to me, still looking into my eyes, leaned her neck forward, and wriggled her eye brows. Honestly, like a cartoon. She then bent, touched her nose to mine, and grinned.

I burst out laughing. I know, the worst thing to do when you are taking parenting seriously. But I found it SO cute, and SO hilarious, that I laughed, picked her up, and we both laughed for a while. I then called the Dude and admitted that I was the worst mom ever who would never be able to discipline her daughter, but in my defense, WHO in their right mind wouldn’t find that adorable.

Sigh. Ok moment two that needs to be recorded. She has this friend at Day care, who waits in his toy car for her to arrive. When she does, he calls out to her, and the little lady announces ‘I am here!’, and rushes in. This friend then tells her how he’s parked her car in the Parking lot, and how he did not allow anyone else to take it, and how he called her last night to tell her that (Eh? I love their imagination!). She nods, gets into ‘her’ car and says, ‘Let’s go!’ Mommy melts. End of story. Oh wait, Mommy is also forgotten, which is weird because 2 minutes before, the same Zo was bickering about how ‘School nahi jaana!’

That’s all for now. That would be an entry in my Zo diaries, and also a way of saying, No, the Blogathon isn’t the only way this place won’t die. I did contemplate doing the 100 Happy days thing, but, erm, 31 days pretty much killed me, I am thinking 100 days would be masochism redefined. Yep.

So there, hang on, and we should be back soon with more stuff to say. Till then, Zo says hi.