As the time for my departure from London grows near, I feel like I'm realizing what I'm going to miss most...Iain. I've never been good with kids, and I know Mamta knows that, as whenever Iain says "lets play this!", I'll usually make up some excuse for why I can't play with him and not appease him. He's an amazing kid in that, he usually doesn't expect attention 24/7 and doesn't need someone to play with him all the time. And when you say no, he pouts for about 20 seconds, and then is back doing his own thing, independent as ever. I see my friends coming over and being so patient and friendly with Iain and it makes me feel a bit guilty. I know I have a low patience threshold for people, but I don't want to be so selfish that I can't even cater to kids!
Somehow, he's decided to like me, and I've realized it more recently, as more people have starting living at the Mertner residence. Antara and Rachana are around, and are definitely more receptive to his random calls for attention and his need for someone to play with him. Except somehow, whenever it's time to go to sleep, he wants me to put him to bed. Maybe I'm taking it to be more of a sign than it really is, but I think he likes me!
So the reason why this is weird is, apparently I've never told Mamta that I miss California, even though I complain to her about anything and everything. I have enjoyed my time here in London but have no qualms about leaving soon. I guess that means that I'm not very attached to any place, or thing, in particular. Right? Except for the first time, I'm feeling this dread about leaving London, solely because of Iain!
A couple things have really done it for me in the past couple weeks. So when you put Iain to sleep, you have to read him a story and then sing him a song. When I came in July, I sang him "Tere Bina" from Guru cuz it was my favorite song, and it seemed melodious enough to put someone to sleep. So I kept singing the same song over and over, because I heard from the rest of the Mertners, that they all sing him the same song. After singing him the song at least 20 times, one day, he says "I like this part", at a certain point in the song. After that day, every time that same part comes, he dances along to it. Not only that, he sings along to the song when I try to put him to sleep!
Speaking of putting Iain to sleep, the other day, after eating a MASSIVE amount of chocolate, which he justified by saying in his adorable British accent, "But I just can't help myself, it tastes so good!", I took him to brush his teeth and go "wee-wee". He was being so difficult and just playing around and not wanting to do any of it. So after struggling for about 5 minutes, trying to convince him to actually go to the bathroom, I said "Iain, I will count to 10, if you don't go wee-wee..." Immediately, before I even reached "2", he was on the toilet going to the bathroom. It was so natural for me to pull such a mom-type tactic....it was so shocking!
Anyway, I guess what I've learned in the past couple weeks is not only that I'm gonna miss Iain like anything, but also, maybe having kids isn't the most scary thing in the world? They seem wonderful...as long as they're as well-behaved as Iain is. Let's hope I can actually do as great a job of bringing up a kid as the Mr. & Mrs. Mertner have.
3 comments:
Aww...so cute! I knew you had it in you and were just putting up a tough front. Now you should be all set for baby sitting Simran when you come to LA..;)
Oh my gosh...Iain sounds like such an amazing kid. When you recounted that little story about how he said, "I like this part" in Tere Bina, my icy heart melted for a minute. Wow Vaish, if you can learn to like kids, maybe that means there's hope for me. Except...no.
PS. Rachana is there??!! I'm so jealous right now.
For the record, when we asked Iain who he liked better, you or me, he chose me. And when we asked who sings better, he still chose me! HAHAHAHA. No, but in all actuality, I'm jealous that you'll be his favorite Mausi.
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