The art of diversion and subterfuge!

Traditionally it has been a problem for Little Anya's Mommy and Daddy when it comes to having full attention from her while feeding. The mean time between her two distractions is really a microsecond! They have been keeping her occupied on the dinner table with toys and many other things that could interest her. It started getting worrisome when the magic of these things faded away.

This new solution had been discussed before and had been tried with varying success but one fine morning, her Daddy decided to undertake a daring mission to use every possible aspect of diversion and succeed feeding Anya at a very great risk ( and that did not mean feeding her inside the Lion's den ofcourse but it could mean that she could have fruit and yogurt on her hair !)

The usual porridge was prepared with fruit/yogurt mix by the side and this time Little Anya was given the fruit/yogurt. With the spoon in her hand , it meant relinquishing more or less full control to her!

Daddy had to act swiftly, while the enemy, sorry I mean Little Anya, was busy playing with the fruit/yogurt, He had the unenviable task of shovelling in as much of porridge into her as ever possible . He was lucky and managed to empty almost three quarters of a bowl into her along with a lot of fruit and yogurt too. The operation was over in ten minutes flat. The casualties were the Financial Times newspaper and ofcourse the floor which bore the brunt of the fruit yogurt mix. Financial Times was rendered entirely out of use and the floor had to be cleaned with minimal effort.

Now folks, this might sound like the Blitzkrieg but believe it or not, Daddy did not read any WWII history book to come up with this. The genesis of this risky but effective plan was her Mom's mind! Daddy was only following the orders ! As he usually does ( now this one could be a contentious statement, but it is all about living dangerously these days!)

Little Anya at Busborgen

Well folks, in Swedish, 'Bus' is mischief and 'Borgen' is the castle and Busborgen is a place in Västerås where kids can go and play and run around and climb and have a good time, while the parents could sit and chat and catch their breath! Basically do a lot of 'mischief' !


Well, for Little Anya, she had a lot of running around, climbing and all that but it did not mean that her Daddy could rest. He had to be on the double most of the times and taking photos while he could actually have rested!

Little Anya challenged herself to a couple of things such as plunging herself into the 'ocean of balls' . Once having gone in there, ofcourse there was no looking back. There was a lot of give and take and throwing of balls. The whole occassion was made special by Little Anya showering her smiles and making sounds at other kids/babies and their parents.

There ofcourse was a section for the grown ups and Little Anya tried her level best to get into that and we can assure the readers that her daddy had to do all within his powers to contain the hurricane that day.

However, one could definitely say that she did have a good time there. The mere fact that she put up quite a brave fight to postpone the journey back home and did infact fall asleep immediately after being put into the carseat speaks a lot.

There were plenty of things to look at and play with. She did not really have to make a choice, she did it all !

Little Anya at the Öppnaförskolan

It has been increasingly difficult for Little Anya's dad to keep her occupied at home. There are toys and TV but everything lasts just for a while, then there are books and music which could provide some more help but then even standing by the window and waving at all the incoming cars and people does not suffice.

Thankfully one find day the answer presented itself in front of her Daddy, who's mind had more or less come to a grinding halt and had run out of all feasible alternatives. Little Anya visited the Öppnaförskola and there she found loads of toys, doting personnel and several mothers and small children to smile at. Öppnaförskolan in Swedish, literally translated into English is 'the open pre-school'.



As if her parents' prayers have been heard , Little Anya can cook her own food and eat it, even feed her daddy for that matter.

There are so many toys and play things that her Daddy can take a while and think about methods to relieve his crumbling back. Needless to say our Little Anya has become big now and despite her increasing prowess at walking, she still insists on being carried from time to time.

It is quite a social experience for Little Anya and her Daddy there. She gets to endear one and all with her smiles, her 'Elvis style' haircut on top of all her ever going comments on life in her own language, which appears to be a mixture of Hindi, English & Swedish!

Ofcourse for her Daddy, it is interesting too since he can see so many other parents who are on the verge of pulling their hair when it comes to channelising the energies of their young ones. Öppnaförskolan seems to be a haven for all such sleep deprived, hungry, unkempt and hapless parents!

Daddy cant complain much since he ha made good friends there and even gets to discuss boring subjects such as the Chinese economy and performance of Huawei etc while Little Anya is busy playing. Yes, grown ups are human beings too and they are also sometimes allowed to have things they like to call 'interests'.

Waking up Little Anya

That was a special day when Little Anya woke up and was happy as usual. Her daddy decided to play some Missisippi Delta blues for her. That really caught her fancy. She was quite happy and dancing to the rhythm.

All this happened inside her bed ofcourse. On a fine day, when Anya has had a decent night's sleep, she wakes up so chirpy that it can instill life into any soul.

It was a rare occassion for her to allow her daddy to take so many pictures of her. She went through the ritual of playing with the soft toys in her bed, first chewing on them, then chucking them and then playing with them ( not exactly in this order though !).

That day , it was as if , she was giving poses for her Daddy to capture ! it was a photosession of half an hour where she did not need any coaxing or suggestions. Her performance was quite suo moto for that matter.

She has a pair of comfort fleeces ( which infact are many pairs safely stored!) that she likes to play with and they usually double up as agony aunts for her when Little Anya feels a bit down. Ofcourse the same comfort fleeces suddenly transform into wonderful playmates that Little Anya likes to hug and squeeze and laugh with !


That was a morning that bore witness to incessant clicking of the camera shutters.Many nice photos were taken and a few are presented here .

That day resides in the memory of her daddy as a dream unthreatened by the morning light ( as Pink Floyd would say )with Little Anya in her full splendour!

After having seen all these pictures, it would be quite interesting to look at the 'Operation wakeup' video that was taken just a little while after she was born - http://days-of-our-lives1.blogspot.com/2007/02/operation-wake-up.html Time runs by fast and Little Anya is not that little anymore !