Amma, do work!!

I have long been envying the SAHMs and WAHMs their time spent with their children, and wishing that I could at least be a WAHM, even if SAHM was totally out of question.

But yesterday, I was wondering how easy it actually was...

I had some urgent mails I had to send, and so admonishing Sonny boy not to disturb Amma, Amma had work, and leaving him to the snoring mercies of his father, I sat in front of the PC. Initially I could hear the father's exhortations to sleep, but after some time, the noises died down and I thought all was well.

Not so. In came Sonny boy, trailing his baby pillow.

"I no sleep Acha. I sleep Amma." determinedly.
And so saying he plonked himself on the diwan-cum-bed in the room. He lay down there, with Goldilocks, turned a few pages, murmured something about Big and Small and Just right, and Porridge and Chair and Bed, and then beamed at me- "End of shory. Now go to sleep"!

And up he climbed into my lap. The keyboard (which I normally balance between the table and my lap) was displaced. He placed it carefully on the table, adjusted himself in the most comfortable position, took firm hold of my ear and then looked up at me, and said,
Amma put your hands there.... (on the keyboard)
Amma, do work!!!"

How do WAHM's manage to finish their work and meet their deadlines in the midst of this?

Acha has pain...

Every day by the time I come back home to Sonny Boy, it is between 7.30 and 8, and this is with me taking on absolutely no late work. I just have time to give him a big hug, that will make up for all the hugs missed during the day, and generally ask him about what transpired during that day, and then it is time to feed him dinner, time for us to eat, and then time for all of us to go to bed. I wonder what I am teaching my son- almost nothing at all, if you don't count the 'shorytime' that has become a sleeptime ritual.

For one, I want my baby to develop a love for books,
for two, I want him to have an imagination of his own and not one fuelled by images on tv,
for three, I want him to have a feel and a love for words...
For all these reasons, I try making the 'shory'-telling session as enjoyable as possible, putting as much feeling into the words, as I know. My husband can keep his eyes open only with great difficulty after 10 pm. So on the rare days when he is forced to put Sonny boy to sleep, he rushes thru the whole affair, and then drops off to sleep, Sonny boy still remaining wide awake!

One night, after Sonny boy was brushed and pyjamaed, I told him to go to bed and that Acha would come and read him story.
"Noooo, Acha's head is paining," came the wail. Acha has no headache, he was told.
"Noooo, Acha's shtomach is paining...."
I firmly told him that Acha had no stomach ache, no pain anywhere else either and that he had better listen to the story and go to sleep.

And leaving him on the bed, with his father, I went off to finish my work. After about an hour, I came back to find Hubby snoring, and Sonny boy lying quietly, half asleep, in bed. Seeing me come in he sprang up in delight and said, "Amma tell shory!" He had been waiting for me to come...and so inspite of the fact that it was nearing 11, and I was almost dead on my feet, and Sonny boy was very sleepy too, I went .. Once upon a time...
And that little head snuggled on my shoulder, his body nestled in the crook of my arm, and his chubby arm crept around to find my ear...

And I am so glad that at least there is at least one way I can bond with my child.