The day raks hinted about being hungry...

I am back and quite firmly on the saddle after raks unceremoniously took over from me last week. Either ways, I have the most momentous news to share...

Let me first take you five years ago, when raks was just about six months old. After a lot of research on the internet we bought a formula drink to supplement the mother's feed that she was still on...And I prepared a bottle for her and put it on her mouth. The very next minute, there was a shower of white sticky milk on my face, as she spat it out with an unerring aim.

Well that didn't deter me at all. After being a mom for about five months or so, I got quite used to being puked on and used as a poo poo seat.

Next my mom wanted us to take her to Guruvayur for Anna Prachanam to officially start feeding her rice with the divine blessing of Krishna. At the temple, the rice and a variety of sweets mashed softly to feed the baby are given, after it is offered to the God. And we took turns to feed her. So she got the first one from me, her father, two sets of grandmother, grandfather, aunt and cousin. At the end of it all, she looked so adorable with bits of rice here and there on her face, until she turned and spat them all on me with a smile.

Well if she is determined, then I am tenacious and so began the great war of mammu! First the basics, put the food in the mouth, ask her to chew it and then swallow. But no, she did the first two steps perfectly well and the last process of swallowing it, did not register at all, as it all ended up on the table. 

Everybody came up with different solutions -

1. Show her birds; crow, pigeon, sparrow 
2. Show her things around the house
3. Take her to the terrace
4. Tell her a story
5. Sing her a song

And the results were -

1. The birds flocked on whenever she and I used to make an appearance at the balcony, as they finally ate all the stuff that she spat out
2. I showed her toys and stuff kept in the house and her keen memory registered them all and asked them to be handed over to her with immediate effect but she still spat the food out
3. Terrace was great because she had a wide space to spit the food on all four directions with some feng shui effect
4. Story telling worked and I got to spin some real fantasy stuff with the birds and the dog listening in and waiting for her to spit. (which she did quite frequently to their delight)
5. I can't sing to save my life so I never really tried that...

I tried all the formula foods in the market varying tastes and flavors and the result was the same... It took me two years to discover that she was partial to sambar and liked to eat vegetables but there is still no guarantee that she would eat it all...

Meal time literally became a warring zone, while I assembled the ammunition (plate, cups of curry and spoon) and she would try guerrilla tactics of hiding under the table, under the chair, behind the door or shouting out of the balcony asking her friends from the next door to come and rescue her.

I took advice from any mother or grandmother, servant maid, watchman, Tarla Dalal website, Kids websites, friends, about ways to get her eating. Tried all manners of cuisine but no... In my dreams, she would come smiling and ask, "Amma! I am hungry. Will you give me lunch / dinner/ or anything to eat?" But no I didn't hear the word 'hungry' from her mouth at all, not without being prefixed with a 'not'.

And the other day... after a lot of coaxing, blackmail and bribe, I made her eat quite early, as I had a meeting to attend. By the time I came back it was noon and she came up to me and asked, "Amma! I had my lunch right? But somehow I feel like I didn't?"

I watched her with disbelief with my mouth gaping... Finally... Finally she is hungry... 

I called my mom, grandmom, aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, brother-in-law to give them the good news and then went about getting her the lunch...

But I guess it was too much of a good thing for one day as she was back to square one from the next day onwards.