Celebrating Ayaan 5.0

This was a milestone birthday of our dear boy, Ayaan’s and yet again, we found ourselves amidst COVID restrictions. This year we decided to focus on him and just us hence, we booked ourselves on our first ever ‘Cruise to Nowhere’ aboard Royal Caribbean. The birthday boy and us alike had a blast to say the least, and we can’t wait to get back on another such cruise! We loved the ocean views, the many activities including the entertainment shows, rock climbing, pool time, the kids’s club, and our favourite — the bumper car!(At the time of writing, the author has returned from yet another cruise trip with her parents and what a gorgeous weekend that turned out to be :) )

For his star birthday, we did have a prayer offering at the temple with the only other family we have in town (Ayaan’s uncle, aunt and the latest addition, their little daughter/Ayaan’s cousin) followed by a cozy home-cooked meal. A couple months later when the COVID restrictions relaxed further, we had a lion-themed party at Waka Waka kid’s indoor playground, where his friends and he had a gala time indeed.

But this post, Ayaan, isn’t to share about how we celebrated your birthday alone, but to celebrate you, our precious diamond, to recount the year as it has been, how much you’ve grown and developed right before our eyes and the incredible person you’ve morphed into! And thus we set forth, in our usual A-Z style:

A: Ayaan spa — This is the year you started massaging your Baba’s legs and head and called it the “Ayaan/Ayu spa”. You would even use body lotion for the smooth feel.

B: Board games — Amidst on and off stay-at-home days, you found joy in playing board games with us. You could play multiple rounds of ‘Snake & Ladders’ and even took a liking for Chess, so much so even if your father wasn’t home, you would play online Chess!

C: Cruise to Nowhere — This was a first for you and us as a family. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the time just with you being the centre of attention and are glad you enjoyed basking in all the attention too.

D: Devotional songs’ Satsang — You learnt quite a few ‘bhajans’ this year and would join me (my schedule-permitting) at the online Satsang sessions. The older aunts and uncles always encouraged you; infact there have been times you’ve joined even without me and your devotion would blow me over!

E: Eating prawns — This year, finally, we introduced you to prawns and seafood. We were initially wary given the seafood allergy that runs on your paternal side, but boy, were we glad you weren’t allergic and more importantly, you devoured them!

F: FaceTime — Another COVID-year where FaceTime came to the rescue many an evening where both your parents were busy at work/other obligations and you would spend time chatting and playing with your Mamama-Ajjo and sometime, even your uncle. You also attended weekly Bangla lessons with your Thamma as she conducted her “Sahaj Path” sessions via Zoom.

G: Gardening (watering) — You took a fondness to gardening and watering the plants and would keenly assist Piya aunty while she were doing so.

H:Hotel staycays — Given we couldn’t travel overseas, we took short breaks to spend quality family time together in different settings. Your mom had also received some “HealthCare Hero” discount vouchers for various staycations which we used to good effect for stays in the city and Sentosa island.

I: Indian Cricket fan — This year you took to watching cricket and cheering for the Indian cricket team whole-heartedly. You’d be disheartened if they lost and would cheer loud as your favourites took to the field — your current favourite is Rishabh Pant.

J: Juice Boost — Weekends were spent at some classes, which your father took you to and would get your favourite Boost Juice — King Williams Chocolate. You would look forward to your Boost dose every Sunday :)

K: Kind host — As you grew, you turned out to be quite an excited, kind host at the many house parties we hosted. You would not only show people around the new house but also tend to each guest, and were quite entertaining, yourself if I may say so.

L: Lion — Your spirit animal this year has got to be the ‘lion’. ‘Little Singham’ was your Netflix go-to show. You also were enthralled by ‘The Lion King’ story. In addition, your favourite Bollywood music album for the year was without a doubt ‘Shershaah’, you would listen to the songs on Spotify, on loop.

M: Marvel Love — Thanks to your school friends, Aiden and Gabriel, you also were introduced to the Universe of Marvel and thus followed, the collection of a lot of Marvel merchandise right from books, toys, stationary to even underpants and tees :D

N: New address— We moved out for the first time since your birth. It was an emotional time for us to leave the very home where we first saw you crawl, take your first steps, make your first friends and yet, we were enthused by your resilience as you soon made yourself comfortable at our new abode and thus, we as a family, were all set to make new memories together, while holding onto the older ones, in the nostalgic part of our hippocampus.

O: “Oh my goodness” — This is the one phrase you used the most this year. You were turning out to be quite an expressive child and were quite dramatic even.

P: Paddington — You also changed schools this year and started Kindergarten at Little Paddington, not too far from our new home. We were quite touched to see how soon you adapted, made friends and soon became, the teachers’ pet. It has brought us tremendous joy to attend the Parent-Teacher meetings and listen to the exponential progress you’ve made in your hard and soft skills this year. Of course, you need help with your Mandarin, but we are glad to see the effort you’ve been putting in.

Q: Questions ++ — Curiosity was your best friend this year. On every possible thing you spotted on a car ride or any new topic that your parents might talk about, you’d have oh so many questions, sometimes we even wouldn’t have answers to but we’d only encourage you to keep asking, nonetheless.

R: Reading on your own — One of the most significant milestones this year, is your ability to read. You started with the baby books, but with time, have now shown interest even in reading books beyond your age. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have you join our “Bookworm Club” :)

S: Swimming — This year, we finally enrolled you for group swimming classes. You were always a water baby hence it was not surprising to see you enjoy your classes with Coach Nikki, and get very comfortable in water. Infact as the year went by, you were eager to show us how you’d swim, albeit short distances, even in an adult pool, sans any floats.

T: Theatre — We did spend some evenings at the theatre catching some animation movies, which you expectedly enjoyed. The Tom and Jerry and Paw Patrol movies were much looked forward to and you would sit in wide-eyed wonder while gobbling up a tub of popcorn.

U: Uno — You did continue to play Uno cards, but soon also found love in other card games such as Bluff and Solitaire.

V: Vocabulary — We started playing the last-letter-word game as a way to hone your spellings and vocabulary and were you full of surprise, what with words such as television, electricity, tyrannosaurus, lockout while I’d have words such as time and eggs! :D

W: Waka Waka — Given this was a milestone birthday, we decided you deserved a gala celebration with all your friends, even if a belated one (thanks to COVID restrictions). The lion/safari themed indoor playground was the perfect setting, with a lion themed cake as well — you had a blast!

X: Xtra mile — This year also saw us adding an extra letter to our daily ritual of “RRTB+W”, so it was Rose, Rose (2 positives), Thorn (1 negative), Bud (something you are looking forward to) and the latest addition “Watering” (referring to any kind act that one did for another being that day). This definitely encouraged Ayaan and even ourselves to be more thoughtful and helpful during the day.

Y: Yoga — You also took to yoga, even virtually with your Mamama, the newest Yoga Teacher on the block. You would even opt to join in during my home workouts and were exhilarated to complete ’em with me.

Z: Zoo— This year we also reckoned you should be alright walking under the night sky in the premises of the zoo and hence set forth on an adventure with you, at the Night Safari as well as the RainForest Lumina, the latter with your bestie from infancy days, Viola. We also celebrated your half yearly birthday at the River Safari, watching the giant panda duo.

We are so proud to call you ours and can’t wait to witness the incredible journey as you complete 2000 days on Planet Earth, very soon!