Letter to my daughter - I

Dear Daughter,

You came into our world on 10^th August 2012 (Janmashtmi) and brightened our lives with your toothless smile, big, naughty eyes and cute gestures. I still remember the moment when the anesthetist announced in the OT “It’s a girl” and in that moment of semi-consciousness I uttered “Wow! We both wanted a daughter!”. Yes, you are a dream come true for us. When I came out of OT and asked your father “Are you happy?”, his feelings resonated in his chirpy and cheerful tone when he said “ I am VERY VERY happy!”

You are the cutest thing I have ever seen. And you look so angelic when you sleep. I don’t leave any opportunity to plant a kiss on your rosy cheeks. You resemble your dad so much that whenever someone comes to meet you the first thing they say is “She is Neeraj’s duplicate”, “She is daddy’s girl” and so on.

Being a mom is a full time job. As one of my friend so rightly puts “Once you are a mom, even going to the bathroom becomes a luxury”, is so true. Initially, I was so confused and clueless about taking care of you. You were so tiny! It was scary even to hold you. However, now I have become somewhat confident and sure. You have also grown up a little. And more importantly the presence of your nani and dadi helped me to cope with the initial jitters of taking care of a newborn.

In the last one and half month, I have fallen in love with the way you yawn, the way you half close your eyes and pretend that you are sleeping, the way you look at me with those beautiful eyes, the way you hold my finger in your tiny little hands, the way you place your hand close to your face as if avoiding any attention, the way you smile while sleeping, oh…the list is endless!

Your father often jokes about the fact that you need me and no one else when you are crying and cranky, to soothe you down. He says “She is Mumma’s beti. She just needs her mom” and you know what, I just swell with pride hearing this.

Being a mother has been much more rewarding than I ever thought. Now I just can’t imagine my life without you. Today I am publishing this post on the Daughter’s Day to let you know that you are so much loved and treasured. You are undeniably most precious to both your mom and dad and we are very sure that you will grow up to be a charming and sweet person. I want you to know that like all other parents, I want you to be successful, intelligent, pretty, kind, honest, loving etc. but most importantly I want you to be a happy person. I want you to be someone who enjoys all the small and big things in life and does not leave any opportunity to celebrate, to rejoice and to spread cheer and smiles around her.

Love you betu

Mom

(here's a cute pic of you taken when you were less than a month old)

Quilling

I was never a very creative person. Would rate myself as average on the creative scale. So I never made any awesome paintings or any other such artistic products that many creative girls try out in their free time at home. But recently I came across some paper craft which looked really appealing and beautiful. I thought it might be difficult, but when I searched for it on the internet and watched the “how to…” videos on the youtube I realized it’s doable and does not require too much of fancy basic stuff to start off with. This paper craft is known as quilling. There are lot many things that can be decorated using quilling technique but I started with something which was basic and would not be very tedious or time consuming. I started making quilling envelopes. Below are a few pictures of my quilling envelopes:

3-Tier Flower

Quilled Butterfly and flowers

The only basic things that you require for making these are:
1. Envelopes

2. Quilling strips (easily available on a lot many Indian websites)

3. Quilling tool (it’s a pencil like tool again available on the sites selling paper craft products)

4. Imagination :)

Now after getting the hang of basic quilling shapes, I am motivated to try out something new and fascinating each time. And needless to say, Internet helps. For example, I saw this pattern of “love birds” on one of the blogs on quilling and tried it and made a card for hubby on the valentine’s day :)

This is something that I intend to continue doing in my free time and continue experimenting!