My dream-world kingdom for a decent dream!

I've been blog tagged - by my wife no less. I am compelled to blog on the topic of "dreams/dreaming/the attempt to dream" by her in this fascinating new game infecting all of us online netizens.

I should love this. My previous blog was all about how my life is like a continuous daydream. The fact that I never seem to wake from a constant state of waking sleep...

But this time, I need to blog about something else. Like the last umpteen blogs, it will concern Antara to some degree.

Our 3 month old is a deep sleeper like her mum and me. Good for her. Nightly dreams probably comprise of endless supply of milk, her fav wind-up yellow duck singing "How much is that doggy in the window?" and Mona dolly dancing around in a manner only a pink, digit-lacking soft toy could.

Maya and me lead a fascinating life too. We dream....not so much about milk and toys and dolls, oh my! (pardon the shameless rip off on the Wizard of Oz)...no, we dream of dreaming!

You see, a close friend based in the UK asked me tonight "Hey, how come you're awake? Isnt it near midnight?" I explained the following to her:

+ Antara would be asleep in 5 mins
+ M in 5mins 5 secs &
+ Yours truly in 5mins 15 secs (it takes 10 secs to turn off the light, trip on the bed, curse twice and collapse into a fitful sleep :))

A tough 3 months at the office, the first 3 months of parenthood, the last 3 months of M's maternity leave and 3 months of seemingly constant upheaval have left M and me - for the lack of a better term - dream deprived. We arent tired, we arent disillusioned, we arent over the moon - we're sleepy and we sleep dark, dreamless nights of sleep. A good 15 hr night of sleep, doorbell failures in the morning and a nice night of dreams should fix us up nice. But 15 hrs of sleep??? Dream on, Hari!

There M, kept up my tag. This tag goes to Aparna (in the last weeks of her pregnancy) - write about your dreams. What does an expecting mom in the last weeks of preggyhood dream about??

The birth of personality

"Drink baby, drink". Swing by our flat ANYTIME of night or day and odds are you will hear this cry. You see our wee babe is learning to feed using a bottle.

M will soon be heading back to watercooler gossip, monday morning blues, arguments and crazy work hours. I.e. she is headed back to work. So, while she will miss the li'l tyke, we need to get our kid to get used to feeding from something other than mom.

Ant is 2.5 months old. So, this creates a new problem. You see she is beginning to show the first signs of personality. And like her dad learning Italian, she is learning the bad stuff first. She has started building her personality with the following traits - stubborness, sulking, naughtiness.

Three exhibits to illustrate my point -

1> Naughtiness: Put the bottle in her mouth, and she will rotate that tiny head of hers to get a better look at mom. She will look M square in the eye and simply manipulate that rubber nipple out of her mouth using her new best friend - her tongue. And then grin at mom! *Smart-ass alert*

2> Stubbornness: The other day, M had to step out for a couple of hours and our nanny - yes we needed one to remain sane - gainfully tried to feed Ant from the aforementioned bottle. No dice!

She simply cried herself to a hungry sleep. Cant wait for the 'terrible twos'.

3> (My favourite) Sulking: The same day, M gets home and Ant wakes up. Shes hungry and tired. But she will not look at M. That's right - she sulked. Refused to look at mom, fed grudgingly and ignored poor M for most of the evening. This at 2.5 months!

Of course, I am dad. And everyone knows that daughters and dads have a special bond. So, we have her good personality trait show up - Shyness. One grin from me and she responds with a shy grin. She always has a slight blush, even turns her little face away and covers it with her tiny paws. Cool bananas!!

Dont get me wrong - overall, shes a gem. Sleeps 7 hours at night allowing mom to sleep. Will kiss me on demand (the best trick ever) and enjoys a good round of rough-housing with dad. But, if only she would have that damn bottle!

So, what we have is the birth of personality. The good, the bad and the pretty (hey, its my daughter).