Being in-charge of a life

After a long time, I am penning down some of my thoughts. This whole year I have been actively engaged with my toddler. I know this is his only childhood that he will cherish for the rest of his life. He started going to play school and then to prenursery class. He needs proper guidance at every step and great examples at home to frame his thinking. No amount of lectures or management skills can work unless you become the example for them. First challenge was him being a late speaker. We talked to him incessantly about anything and everything. Read him books, told him self-made nonsense stories. Gradually he improved a lot....... and finally when he could speak in Assamese properly.... there was a parent teacher meeting at his school where I got feedback about him that he hardly speaks anything in school. She mentioned him knowing everything he's taught at school but is adamant not to speak. He will play, jump, dance with music, listen to anything he's taught, eat his Tiffin, do everything he is asked to do, except for answering a damn thing when asked. She suspected that this is language problem and urged us to start speaking in Hindi at home so that he can reply back to people in Hindi outside his home. Soon after that, however odd it felt at times, we started speaking in Hindi with him throughout day and night. Luckily, kids are great learners and within 2 months,  there was drastic improvement in him, again received as feedback from his school. He started talking, replying back to people in Hindi, started enjoying school more and more since he could now understand everything perfectly. He now has a few partners in crime too. Next came another colossal challenge in front of us. Nursery school admissions for full time schooling where both parents and toddlers are thoroughly interviewed.  Both of us being ambitious parents, we wanted to get him admitted to the best possible school in Noida. We both started keeping our calendars filled up for filling up admission forms of innumerable schools and to attend parent's written as well as verbal interviews in schools.  That was not it. Most importantly, we had to prepare this 2.5 year old to say nursery rhymes..  tell the alphabets and numbers... Identify animals, fruits, vegetables, tell his own name as well as parents name, tell what he ate in breakfast, or tell what he is wearing and which color is it... Etc etc.....  in front of strangers in new schools in another room where they are taken separately for interviews. A lot depended on his mood and on his health, if he doesn't feel well he will never utter a word. We took proper care of his health these 1-2 critical months and for his mood, we bribed him with gems and chocolates to answer all questions his new aunty (teacher) would ask him in different schools. His playschool also conducted regular mock interviews for the children with various schools in Noida to remove children's fear of answering things in front of strangers. Plus we had to save a minimum of 1.5 lakh rupees in order to avoid picking up personal loan for his admission. Haha. This was the most difficult part to be frank. But we managed to do it somehow.  Thankfully all our efforts worked. He got admission in Amity international school, Noida which is considered the second best after DPS.  :)
Soon after this, I also got by B1/B2 visa for travelling to US with 10 year validity.  Might be travelling soon for my project for 2-3 weeks. Hoping to take my son to Disneyland some day. :)