Our trip to India is dedicated to Gianna’s Grand Parents
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.
We reached India and Gianna’s Dada, Dadi, Nana and Nani were waiting to welcome us, especially Gianna.
To my surprise, on reaching at our home in India, Gianna passed a warm smile to her dadi-dada and nani-nana with whom she was meeting after more than a year…she did not forget them AT ALL. She happily interacted with them and loved showing her toys to them. The grandparents were super excited too and embraced her with all their love and affection.
“Dadi-Dada Sab”
That’s how she addresses her dadi-dada whenever she tells me that she wants to go to her dadi-dada. Gianna likes to call her dadi as “dadi-ma” and dada as “papa” (this is probably because we all call him papa). Gianna is very much attached to her dadaji and loves to be with him as long as she could. She does not want to stay away from him for long. Dadaji teaches her bhajans. Gianna loves standing near him when he recites hanuman chalisa every morning. One of her favorite interests is to drink the jal ‘holi water’ from the small glass that belongs to the pooja area...apparently, its now her water glass.
One of the cutest things that I noticed recently is that she loves to show her new toys to our pet dogs (Sunny and Sherry). Wondering how innocent these kids are. Also, surprising is to see both our dogs showing their acceptance for Gianna in the house, they don’t bite her.
Gianna loves her dadi’s dressing table. This act of her reminds me of my childhood when I used to stand up on the chair in front of my naniji’s dressing room’s mirror and would love to explore all her cosmetics. She has shuffled every drawer and every corner of the table that I am sure that it will take some days to re-arrange the things back in their proper place.
We are noticing quite some changes in her:
1. Gianna is behaving quite independently here.
2. She has started speaking three words sentences. The very first sentence that she spoke early morning at 5pm was “mumma pani dedo”.
3. She does not stick with me every time. Her attention mostly remains diverted to the two dogs, swing in the lawn, dressing table, new plush toys, etc. What more could she ask for?
4. She has not shown any anxiety to the new place. It looks as if she is aware of each and every corner of this house.
5. She now tries to eat snacks on her own with a spoon.
6. Her eating habits are still not very good. She is eating one or two meals less than what she used to have in the US. So that’s a worrying point to me till date…Wishing that her eating habits get better soon.
7. She has started eating while sitting on a small chair instead of a high chair. I would call this as an achievement.
8. The strange part is that she has not remembered any of her books which she never used to leave reading a single day.
9. She has become very talkative and extremely naughty. Guess that’s how kids should be.
10. Gianna is not taking much of a time to be friends with our cousins and other relatives.
Overall, an independent Gianna is what we got in this India trip.
I'm now looking forward to an equally enriching and rewarding trip to her Nani and Nana's place.
