With Ishaan growing up, the whole experience is akin to re-living Aman's early childhood. Only difference is that while Aman was a docile kid (still is), Ishaan is more adventurous, keeping all of us on our toes as he goes about climbing chairs/tables/ladders and running all over the place. Other than that, the similarities are very evident. And looks like in some cases, we need to again find a solution to a problem that we had fixed earlier with Aman.
Last Monday I am returning from Kerala to Chennai after spending the weekend there as has been the norm for almost all weekends for the past 5 years since Aman was born. My parents, Sheena and the kids are in the car to drop me at the railway station. I take my bags from the car and as I wave my goodbye, I hear wailing inside the car. Ishaan is crying his lungs out repeating "Ba-ba", which is how he says "Papa".
It was the same with Aman too. He would cry when seeing me off and then as I posted here, when my Mom explained the whole situation to him, he understood and never cried again. Being the first kid and the accompanying novelty of being a father for the first time, I was very close to Aman and thus I could understand his dismay when I vanished for 4-5 days after spending the weekend with him.
Ishaan, on the other hand is more of a Mama's boy and I also got less time to spend with him since I needed to spend time with Aman. It was only recently during the 11-day long year-end vacation that me and Ishaan got a chance to bond and since then "Ba-ba" has been on his lips quite often. Often enough to even make Sheena slightly jealous that he craves my attention more than hers. :-)
So, guess it is time to sit down Ishaan and make him understand that the farewell is temporary and that I will be back in a few days. Ofcourse, this is easier said than done, since he is very different from how Aman was at that age, I really doubt he will understand. Anyway, no harm in trying, I guess !!!
