Baba's Boy

My baby is clearly a "Baba's boy". While I do the heavy lifting of changing soiled diapers, cooking, feeding, bathing and napping,  Baba gets all the loving. Baba is a tall, dark and handsome mysterious, stranger who flits around the house, at all odd hours. He just cannot get enough of Baba or in his words, "Baaaaaabaaaaaaaaaa". If we were on the sinking Titanic and the crew told my son to choose between both parents, he would choose his father in a heartbeat and leave me to die, like the frost bitten Jack. 

Initially, this bothered me a lot. I wondered why the fetus I grew so lovingly in my womb, for nine painful months, didn't want anything to do with me. When I ask him to kiss me, he kisses his Baba. When I ask him whether he wants to sleep, he pulls his Baba's t-shirt down and clings on to him like a Koala bear, when I ask him if he wants to eat, he screams for Baba some more. 

Clearly Baba is the fun one and I'm the "naggy Nancy". Not my words, Baba's of course. Baba in the meantime, is just loving the attention and says things like, "Both my babies, can't get enough of me", "It's hard to resist my charms" and "Come for some McLoving" and more cringey one liners. The only time I've seen Baba's enthusiasm fade a little, is when baby leaves a big fat poo-poo in his diaper. Then he looks at the baby like a radioactive missile, which will explode upon touching. 

Most days, we find a way to peacefully co-exist with one another under the same roof. But some days, I'm really pained by both my boys. One morning for instance, I woke up with sound of persistent snoring by the big one and the little one, had head butted me out of my pillow and was blissfully occupying my side of the bed. Annoyed with this unreasonable behaviour at 4am, I stormed out of the bedroom and lay down in the guest room. Ironically, I couldn't sleep there, as I bitterly missed both my Chetans (Chhota aur Bada). Then I waited patiently for them to wake up, so that I could prepare a delicious home cooked meal for them.

Yesterday afternoon is another instance when the little one, refused to leave his Baba's side and take his afternoon nap. So I let him be and tried to sleep on my own. But as usual, I couldn't and found my way back into their room. I was pleasantly surprised to find them both in deep sleep. One lying on top of the other. The sight just melted my heart. 

The dynamic of a married couple changes with the arrival of that little third wheel. There is no longer a hormonal induced crazy romance, a gradual slowing down of things happen. Our idea of romance now is sitting together as a family and playing monkey games with our little chimp.