Ruatfeli's hesitance to start walking preyed constantly on my mind, like her failure to become a fat, chubby little baby like her peers. I tried to play it down, and said she will have her whole life to walk on her own, etc. But you see and hear about precocious little hussies walking even before they turn one year old, and the mother in you cannot help but hope she does start walking too.
I guess everything comes in good time. Towards July end, she started standing on her own, but only on the bed. Then she started taking steps, again only on the bed and not on the floor. She's pretty careful, I guess :). Later on, if we gave her something she really likes, like 'vaimim chhum', she would walk all around the house, clutching the vaimim for dear life. She didn't like to walk around empty handed, she'd simply stand till someone gives her a hand, or she'd go back to crawling. At 1 year and 6 months, she was finally walking around confidently, and sometimes she won't hold our hands even when we want her too. I guess she's reveling in her new found independence. Now she goes walking about the house, taking a peek at us sitting in different rooms, and walk away as soon as we call her name. Although we spent so much time worrying about her milestones, I suppose she's finally caught up with most of her peers. Now all we have to do is worry about when she'll start talking, and then her schooling :)
On other news, today is Eid. And I was really looking forward to it because I wanted to browse leisurely through Thakthing tlang secondhand market without worrying about being late for work. Every Saturday, the secondhand people from all over Aizawl come and spread their goods at Thakthing, and you can get real good finds here. I usually don't get beyond vegetable shopping on other days because I'd have to go to work. But like I said, it was a holiday today. So I marched up the hill, pregnant and all (yep, it's a little soon ), bypassing vegetables and meat alike, and started riffling through a pile of baby clothes. I checked my bag to see if my purse was still there, and it was. I finally chose a shirt for Ruatfeli's sibling-to-be, and when I reached for my purse to pay for it, it wasn't there! Someone had picked it, in the twinkling of an eye, and I stood up, mind reeling, and all I could see was would-be pickpockets teeming all around me.
I called up H and told him the bad news. His curt reply was 'So what can we do?'. A little commiseration would have been nice, but he'd always said I was careless with my purse, so his reaction was not unexpected.
My purse was quite new, the most expensive one I'd ever owned, purchased in Kolkata for me by Hlimpuii. I didn't carry a lot of cash, around 900/- of my own, and our department's lunch money in my care, about 500/-. I was more worried about my ATM card, my driving license, my electoral ID, work ID, the key to our almirah, and also....my husband's electoral ID! I am guilty of carrying everything in my wallet. I have to say in my defense I don't usually lose things. I used to be quite proud of myself for not losing cash or mobile phones, unlike some of my hair-brained friends (Padma for one!). Now I feel terrible, I have flashbacks of my fine leathered walllet being manhandled, visions of my poor ATM card getting abused, the thief coming to our house and opening our almirah, the hassle of getting duplicate IDs and license, etc.
A lot of good Eid brought me, I hope you guys had a better holiday.
