A box of memories..

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and checked on your baby and then sat looking at her, fascinated by the innocence on her face? Yes, of course! The tiny part of you that has gained independence and is now a human being never fails to amaze you, scare you and make you laugh your heart out at times. That is motherhood! Being a mother is a life-time job but the first couple of years are the most memorable. My daughter is six years old now and when I look back, the very things that made me fret make me smile now. I opened a box yesterday that was packed two years ago and has not been opened since. It was like a peep back into time.
When baby S started crawling, I was apprehensive of everything in the house. What if she bumped her head? What if she slipped and hurt her chin? I could not even begin to imagine the innumerable germs on the floor her tiny hands would touch. I Googled the phrase ‘how to baby-proof your house’ and literally implemented everything I read. One day, my husband came back from work and found me walking on all fours in the drawing room.
‘What do you think you are doing?’ he asked, giving me the  ‘Are you crazy?’ look.
I smiled back sheepishly. ‘ I read that to ensure that an area is safe for a crawling baby, one must walk on all fours to check.’ He was speechless. Sounds insane, I know but really works!

The box contained all the paraphernalia I accumulated to ensure that everything around baby S was soft and injury-proof.
Mattresses– I went to a home furnishing shop and got two full size cotton mattresses cut into half. The four mini-mattresses were convenient to place anywhere baby S decided to crawl and explore. No germs, no slipping and hurting. Sounded perfect till I realised that there was a risk of the mattresses getting wet if my baby decided to relieve herself. I could put on a diaper but did not want to restrict her movement during her play time. Nevertheless, I decided to take a friend’s advice and tried Pampers. It worked! I figured out that using diapers for your baby is perfectly fine as long as you choose the diaper wisely. Baby S was happy, so was I!
Crystal- Wrapped between layers of mattresses, lay long forgotten pieces of crystal. Just as in every fauji home, ours too had carefully collected pieces of crystal adorning our drawing room. As soon as baby S achieved the milestone of standing and reaching out for things on shelves and smashed the first crystal piece, the entire collection was packed and kept in a box…the box that saw the light of day yesterday. The rest of the non-crystal decor was upped to a height above three feet. Having a baby does raise your standards(literally!)
Covers– Next, lying under the mattresses were covers of all shapes, sizes and varieties. You can’t round off all the edges and suddenly the glass centre table you were swooning over once is giving you the nightmares. Solution? Use padding to cover the edges. That is what I did. Every sharp edge was padded, every electrical outlet covered and every cupboard latched. The house did look a bit weird with all the contraptions in place but as long as it helped, I was fine with it!
One day, I was sitting on a sofa with my dad, tired after a long day of fretting and fussing over baby S. She was standing with the table’s support and trying to reach out for the baby doll on the nearby sofa. I could have gotten up and handed over the doll to her but I was too tired. She extended her arms and took a step, then another. She was walking!
Where is the goddam camcorder? A phone at least!
I could not locate my mobile before she grabbed the doll and sat down to play with it, giggling at her own achievement. I was unable film it but I did enjoy the moment!
I smiled as I kept back the things in the box. I don’t need any of them now but the memories associated with them are priceless, just like the one I just shared. Maybe I will open it again someday, along with my princess and share with her too.

Author’s note: “This post is a part of the Pampers #SoftestForBabySkin activity at BlogAdda”