How was your week?

Mine began with a trip to the pediatrician as it was M’s vaccination day. As a parent, you know how important vaccination is for your little one. There just can’t be any doubt about it. But when that needle pricks your three and a half-month-old, all logic goes awry. The same thing happened to me, S was a little better, though. Of course, later we went overboard with buying her dresses as if to say sorry for making her go through the pain. I know, we can’t do that always. It’s definitely not good parenting. But we’ll learn. Hopefully!

So, vaccination. Yes. My munchkin was flashing her cutest smile to the pediatrician when the needle pricked her tiny thigh. The way she cried after that made me want to just grab her and run away from all the doctors and all the needles in the world. Of course, that is just the mother in me talking. But there’s just something about babies crying that tugs at your heart that even our pediatrician cuddled M and said how sorry she was too to have to hurt her. Well, technically she didn’t hurt her but it was sweet. I know, it’s for her healthy life and just the beginning of some of the hard things that we as parents have to do for her. But that never makes these things any easier, does it?

Gratitude turns what we have into enough. ~Author Unknown

So, that brings me to this feeling that is slowly creeping up on me. Actually, a new realization. I don’t know what to call it, though. It’s just that a new dimension has been added to our lives – S and mine. These new roles, the hats of which we have donned, has somehow given a new layer to our relationship. And like every other turn that we have taken together, this one also seems to have brought us closer, in a different but special sort of way. It’s like we are rediscovering each other all over again and that’s a huge thing for two people who have been together for almost a decade and been married for 5 years out of that.

Gratitude truly has magical abilities. It is like pixie dust!

Well, not to sound like a teenager but I think I’m falling in love all over again. Yes, with the man who now has a beer belly but somehow still seems to me as that handsome, broad-shouldered guy who has an uncanny ability to make butterflies flutter in my stomach. And not to take any liberties but I’m sure he’s feeling the same but may not know it yet!

Well, the joys of life, these. Moving on.

I had been feeling really sick owing to a bout of cold since morning but this epiphany, this moment of gratitude just suddenly makes me feel so warm. I guess gratitude truly has magical abilities. It is like pixie dust!

Hence, why not sprinkle a little more of that while I’m at it?

So, my good people, these are some of the things I’ m grateful for:

• A partner who makes discovering new aspects of life and myself a happy experience.

• My munchkin whose smile makes me forget everything, especially the one right after waking up every morning.

• My parents for always worrying about me. Every time I feel they couldn’t possibly love me more, they end up surprising me.

• My sister for letting me stalk her on social media and annoy her with my perspective of what she should or shouldn’t do. Anyone else in her position would have stopped talking to me entirely. So, thank you, dear sister!

• Shopping for the little one. Oh! such fun!

• Books and their authors. Thank You for writing stories that I can get lost in, forget all my woes.

• Good food! Sometimes staying at home for days on end can get a bit too much. Having a three and a half-month-old doesn’t make trips to the restaurant easy or that frequent. That’s when home delivered food comes to the rescue for this mom on maternity leave.

• Freelance work from an International brand, small joys.

• My new crockery unit. Oh! I can’t stop admiring this new piece of furniture.

• My maternity leaves extension, even if it’s on Loss Of Pay.

Well, those are the things that come to my mind for now.

Linking this to Friday Reflections, co-hosted by Janine Ripper and Mackenzie Glanville and Gratitude Circle Blog hop hosted by Vidya Sury.