Dear Baby Z,
Written on
You are 7 months old today. You are now a full fledged baby, congratulations!
Two weeks back your grandparents came and on that day it’s as though a switch went on and now we have a squealing, blabbering, super responsive baby at hand. You were immediately enamoured by your grandparents and are completely at ease with them. Maybe the video calls every day were effective!
This month you learned to sit unassisted (albeit like a wobbly peg bobbing in the sea). We got you a highchair which you love sitting in. You love joining us at mealtime and playing with your food. So far you have had banana, carrots, potatoes, cucumber,rice, and lentil soup. You devoured the lentil soup like we hadn’t fed you in days. It’s pretty clear you enjoy food as much as your mamma.
This month you went on your second long road trip. It was your first visit to Makkah and Madina. I was very apprehensive before taking you because I didn’t know how you would react to such a big crowd. But you were an absolute delight! You loved seeing all the people around you. You smiled at strangers, drew children towards you with your signature happy head nod dance, and enjoyed trying the food we were eating (I maybe guilty of giving you a french fry or two, after licking off all the salt. In my defense, you LOVED it. I’m hoping to give you some baked ones from home).
This was one of my best pilgrimage trips. I wore you constantly, despite an aching back, and truly felt connected to you. At the saee, as people walked back and forth between Safa and Marwah, it hit me with such force what hajara (as) would have endured as she desperately sought water for her thirsty child. We walked on cool marble in an air conditioned path, yet our thoughts were with this incredible mother who didn’t stop till her child’s thirst was quenched, her calloused feet hitting the scorching rugged hill till a source of water was gifted from God. A mother’s love for her child made possible a well of water that hasn’t dried to this date and quenches the thirst of millions of pilgrims.
Having you with me made my trip so much more spiritually charged. My supplications were more profound, my tears more profuse, my prayers more prolonged. Thanks to you.
May the One who gifted you to us envelope you in His mercy and protection.
Nazreen Fazal
Writer, Wife, Mother, Indian, Muslim. So many labels, one me. I write, I rant, I ramble in order to make sense of everything happening around. Join me on this journey as I share snippets of my life, going about work, my parenting wins and fails, and the murky waters that's long distance marriage.
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