5-month's update

I've been terrible in my updates. Have rather been penning little thoughts and updates on the other blogs, whereas I should have been concentrating here.

Some five months from the last entry, Daniyal has grown exponentially. From sitting up to rolling over, crawling to pulling himself up on his two legs, this little one is ready to take the future by storm. The teething that had been brewing for the last 6 months (I swear!) escalated into a week of torturous nights, and woe behold, we have three teeth, out and proud, in 14 days exact. In that fortnight we had a lot packed in. Chacha, Chachi and kids visited, lots of to-ing and fro-ing between malls (for anyone living in Dubai, they know a trip to a mall is a marathon in its own right), a biteful of Ami (me) and three teeth. All in all, Daniyal took more time popping one tooth than I did popping Daniyal. So far, I am still ahead of the game.

But I fear I won't be for much longer. Positives first. I have somehow, managed to enforce the power of "no". There has been mild retribution for digging fingers into the flower pots, but that too has abated. Point has been delivered across. Negatively however, I get a "no" right back now. With added finger motion to give it more weight. There's nothing like being mocked through a mirroring of your own actions by a midget. Every time Daniyal "no's" me I am reminded of Asim as a baby. At about 2 years plus, Asim went breaking drinking glasses all around the house. So this one time, Ami schools her smile to (what she thinks) is a solider-to-the- gallows look and says, "Ami ko keya kehtay hain?".

If she was expecting a "sorry", she was rudely disappointed. For Asim mirroring Ami's mock anger, screamed back at her, "Hai meri kismat!" with a palm smacked into his forehead for effect. Ami, mirror for mirror. Definitely heading in that general direction I am.

On a slight change of subject, Daniyal is completely in love with dogs. A bit of a nightmare for the father, who has a hereditary fear of the animal. I think it's slightly cruel to allow the child to grow up without a dog, but as Shahid says, "he wears the pants in this house". So the pants have decided, no dog for now. Am pinning my hopes on a teenage revolution. A coup de tat, where the proletarian (me, I suppose), along with the children will rise in protest. For the time being though, we pop over to the neighbour's and play with theirs.

Daniyal learnt "bye-bye" largely because of the neighbour's pup. This is him waiving from my bedroom window in the general direction.