Mickey the Menace

There can be two category of kids, one that is silent, obedient and sober. The other is adventurists, active, destructive and a menace. Mickey surely belongs to the second.

In her 10th month, Mickey would climb up the sofa, its back, then climb up the window and stand there. When she would be tired, she would sit on the backrest of the sofa. Then Shri would say 'kapi' meaning monkey. Mamta, Shri's sister would say that it was all coz of the Hanuman Chaalisa that I kept reading during my pregnancy. Her favourite passtime is standing in the first railing of our balcony. People seeing her do that get shit scared and get worried for her. Even more when they see Shri and I not reacting to it at all. The other thing she is very famous for is sitting on the backrest of the sofa and stretching on the breakfast counter to get whatever is lying there.

Climbing and acting like a monkey is not all. Mickey has got the electric shock atleast twice. Once she put the switch on and then pulled out the Laptop charger. The other time, she swtiched on the mosquito killing bat and put her finger into it. The kind of screams that she gave both the times made the watchman come upstairs. :)

Mickey can eat anything. She has usually been a non fussy baby regarding food. If she is fed  when she is hungry she usually eats unless the food really tastes bad. Thats a whole different story, will write about it some other time. Apart from the regular food, Mickey has eaten almost everything from rubber bands to beads. We have realized only the next day. The funniest was when she ate the washing powder (Surf excel) and she had loose motion for three days.

She has eaten and continues to eat any of the creams from the tubes from 'Johnson Baby cream' to 'Derma dew' to 'fair and lovely'. She opens the tube, puts it into her mouth and sucks it like she is sucking a noodle. Thats not the end of it. She even licks the white shoe canvas in our neighbors house. I don't know to which of these can or should I attribute Mickey's fair face.

Coming to play, a lot of toys have been passed down from Samprada, Mickey's cousin. These are usually puzzles for alphabets, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. The toys were all intact, just as new when Mickey got it. 3 months down the lane, less than half the number of peices of the puzzle can be found. A few of them are bitten, a few of them are stuffed inside the speakers of our music system (I can see them but can't take them out as the entire speaker has to be dismantled for it).

Mickey's Pinky - It was a gift on her first birthday. Mickey poked into the eye and now Pinky is without an eye. Pinky's dress is torn from all sides and the foam from inside is used as cotton for protecting Mickey's ear. Today, one eyed Pinky with torn dress lies on Mickey's shoulder day in and day out. At the night if Mickey has to go to sleep, Pinky has to be put to bed first, Jo Jo laali has to be sung for Pinky which Mickey does herself and then once Pinky sleeps, our little nanny goes to bed.

Apart from the toys, there are many events at which mickey has created a lot of tension. This one tops the list. My mom had her heart in her mouth for atleast an hour This was when Mickey was a year and a half and couldn't open the doors. In the month of May 2009, when my mom was here, one day, Mickey went into the room. She wasnt scared at all. She would close off the door and after a while when she had to come out, she would start yelling from inside. This day when she went into the room and closed the room, only mom and Ramya (my sis) were at home. Mom told Ramya that it was a good opportunity to teach Mickey a lesson. She said, 'lets not open the door for her when she yells this time'. She had just said this and she heard a click. That click was of locking the door. Mom tried to open the door and it surely was locked. She got so scared, she called Vanita, our neighbor, coz her cellphone was inside that room. When Vanita, called and mom spoke, her voice was shivering. I asked her to calm down and gave her the location of the key to that room. When the room was opened, Mickey was found playing with Ramya's laptop. She wasn't even worried that the room was locked. The entire evening, this was topic of discussion. All mom had to say was "I never thought a girl can be such a menace."