Seven Heaven!

Dearest Ayu, this is the year you turn seven 7️⃣

and for all of us, you are our slice of heaven! 🍭

We started the year with an exciting adventure atop a hot air balloon 🎈

You were such a sporty soul to come along and make the most of that boon 🤙

When Amma & I dared to dive from the plane in Dubai 🇦🇪

Beyond the adrenaline rush, what touched our hearts is the way you waited with baited breathe and captured our descent from the sky! 🪂

You transitioned from pre-school to primary, 🏫

Beyond the first 2 nervous days, you have fallen in love with GIIS clearly 🤗

You have never complained about your long bus ride 🚌

What astonishes me is how well you remember the path and whatever comes on either side 🛣️

Although early days, but your journey in Grade 2 has been rather ‘exemplary’ 👌

May this forever be the adjective defining your trajectory 🚀

Very soon you were appointed the leader of your class, 🫡

And how cute is it to see you concerned about your section and without those anecdotes, not a day would pass ☺️

You presumed that being a leader meant being bossy and to scold 😤

It was good to have a chat to course correct that notion which is wrong and old ⬅️

Must admit though that often this year, you have been forgetful and frustrated 😠

Beyond shaking your head, hopefully you can shake off this habit and be more grateful and elated 😆

You finally learned to ride a cycle without trainer wheels 🚲

Thanks to Monica aunty’s patience, you explored our Old Holland neighbourhood and enjoyed the Green Corridor feels 🌬️ 🌳

Through the year, your camaraderie and bond with her has grown deeper 🤝

She is your confidante, playmate and her company has made you stronger, kinder and happier 🥹

How beautifully had you planned her birthday party 🥳

Treating her to Roti Prata and Milo Dinosaur had made her and all of us rather hearty 🥰

Diligence was something you demonstrated all through the year 💪🏻

Be it independently preparing for your Olympiad or working on the animal habitat project in full gear 🦒

You wanted to break through the shackles of being helped or being told what to do,

One of your pet lines was “Trust me Baba, I know how to do this”, including learning to wear your own shoe 👟

When your Amma was away on a week long trip to Spain 🇪🇸

I realized how easy and enjoyable it was to live with you as you were independent, mature, creative and followed plans without any pain 🙌

You finally learned to bathe on your own and always enjoyed a good, long shower 🚿

I will now miss the times when you would shampoo me and give me a lather 🧼

I am amazed at how you continue to water the plants at home and fold your clothes ever so gently 👕

Though we still have some way to go when it comes to keeping away your toys attentively 😉

After a long break, we got back to the chess board, largely thanks to the inspiring achievements of a Gukesh & Pragg ♟️

You got me check-mate in two consecutive games and that enough for a week long brag 😂

I loved your weekly “AyuBabu Spa” weekly massage sessions 💆‍♂️

Your not so podgy hands now provide such firm comfort and this one of your best love expressions 💕

We spent a lot of time together in cabs going to your cricket classes and matches 🚖

This was our precious time where we chatted, listened to audiobooks or solved Wordle with a lot of head scratches 🤕

You love a good challenge and your penchant to solve puzzles came to the fore 🧩

I was most impressed with the way you beautifully connected the dots on Vertex and improved your muscle memory at the core 🧠

My favourite memory with you this year was to watch our first Test match together 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Was so happy to see you enjoy the long game over four days and your comprehensive, daily match report despite the weather 🎤

Your love for cricket shot up a few notches higher, be it practicing daily at home or playing more inter-school matches 🏏

To see you juggle between pace with a fluid action and left arm spin is sheer joy as much as it is to see your desire to practice more catches 🎾

Your team won quite few but you’ll lost a fair bit whilst competing against stronger, senior boys 👦

Whilst it was hard to digest the dejection but it was good to see your cheering for your mates and dealing with the loss with hope and poise 🥹

This year, we started speaking about money in terms of how to save, spend, donate and invest 💰

When we spoke about the underprivileged, you almost always came up with an idea that could not only help you earn but whilst ensuring that you took good care of the rest 🤗

You asked us some interesting yet awkward questions around what is a “crush” and being “gay” 🙋‍♂️

As much as it caught us unprepared, we are glad that you asked and we crossed these zones called grey ❓

You are quickly learning the tricks of negotiating and manipulating your way out of situations

Be it pushing your luck to play for longer, playing pranks & tricks or naughtily using my words against your Amma and testing our patience 😤

One of the ways we bond together is to stream and watch matches on the big screen 📺

I really hope and pray that we continue this tradition even when you are a teen 👨🏻

We discovered “Dude Perfect”, this awesome Youtube channel full of trick shots 🎯

Their acts left our jaws wide open and we started immitating their chest thumping celebration lots! 😁

You moved on from thin baby story books to those thicker ones from Enid Blyton 📚

Be it on long flights or at home, you would read on your own patiently and hopefully these give you joy and enlighten(ed) 💡

We were blessed to have a week long break in Mexico, diving in cenotes, floating in paradise beaches and sipping tamarind juice 🇲🇽

You just wanted make sand castles and I can’t think of a better way to let loose 💃

Dearest Ayu, this is the year you turn seven 7️⃣

Get ready to sleep by your own now and just like your room, may you make your life your own heaven ❤️