First Year of Fatherhood

“May 23, 2012 – The D-day

4.30am – Up early

5.30am – Leave home

6.05am – At Cloudnine Jayanagar

6.15am – Preparations begin; anxious moments for us

7.02:50am – Mushki is here; a boy!!!

2.15pm – Mushki adjusting to our world; fun watching him

5.00pm – No one wants to leave him and go; right from grandparents to aunties to uncles

10.00pm – An unforgettable day comes to an end. I go to bed with Mushki close to me, need to keep an eye on him. A feeling of bliss envelopes me”!

The above is etched not just in my diary but in my mind as well. It has been one year since Mushki (as we call him) came into our lives. Boy, what a year it has been!

As I pen down my thoughts on the year gone by, lots of memories, thoughts and sights of Mushki flash across in front of me. Be it the day he was born, the first time we got him home, his naming ceremony, the first time he smiled, the first time he crawled, the first time he stood up, the first few steps that he took and so on. It has been a wonderful roller-coaster ride and I definitely can’t imagine how our world would have been without him in this last one year!

And how has his arrival changed my life? Let’s see…

I can’t express how I feel when he comes crawling towards me with a big smile on his face when am home in the evening after a hectic day at work; I can’t express how I feel when he puts his head on my shoulder & dozes away when he’s sleepy; I can’t express how I feel seeing him splash water all over the place when I give him a bath; I can’t express how I feel when I see him take a few duck-steps as he tries his hand at walking independently. I can probably go on and on and on.

Well, well, I know not everything is perfect though. To continue from where I left off, I can’t express how I feel when he doesn’t listen to me and proceeds to accomplish the mischief that he sets out to do; I can’t express how I feel when he gets really cranky and keeps crying; I can’t express how I feel when he spits out food when I am feeding him; I can't express how I feel when he jumps on the laptop everytime I take it out.

But at the end of the day, there is no better stress-buster than him and I look forward to spending as much time as possible during weekday evenings and the weekend with him. He brings a smile on our face like no one else can.

And finally to all those who are yet to become parents, I would like to quote a cliché, “you’ll know when you become a parent!”