Today Luci went for her walk with someone other than us, her Mommeee and Dadda. It was funny just how it unfolded. She had greeted the man and followed him out of the gate and a short distance down the lane before she realized she was with THE MAN and not Mommeee or Dadda.

I saw her looking back towards the gate, her expression one of, ‘Eh? How the heck did this happen?’ Then with a ‘Whatever!’ she walked on, investigating all the interesting roadside scents.

I went back up to stand at the balcony to watch my precious walk off with someone new. I didn’t want to let her go, but I had to let her get used to the man. It was the same feeling of sending a kid away to kindergarten for the first time.

My sons of course are likely to contest that statement of mine and say I never fretted this much about THEM going off to kindergarten, in fact it was more likely that I was relieved to have them off my hands and have a couple of hours to myself. Well, honestly, they wouldn’t be far wrong in their claims. Hehe. I have never been a ‘sticky’ Mom to them. But it is different with Luci. I stick to her worse than sticking plaster. Or may be she sticks to me, I don’t know. Or may be both are the same. 

I got a call just then and started talking on the phone. Probably my voice was carried downhill by the wind. Luci who was researching the lush grass growing around the trunk of a tree near the playground, looked up and listened intently. On her face, I could distinctly see the ‘I want to go to Mom’ look. Believe me, I know it so very well having seen it often enough.

Whenever the L&M waters the plants in the evening, Luci can be found by his side. To tease her, I call her from the balcony upstairs. As soon as she looks up and finds me standing there, her face has the same ‘I want to go to Mom!’ look. In case the door leading in from the garden is closed, she creates such a fuss. When the L&M opens it for her, she comes flying upstairs to me. It is another matter that when she is there she looks down and sees Dadda out in the garden and giving complaining woofs, rushes right back down. And then she looks up and… you know what happens all over again. Yup, once in a while I have some fun at her expense this way.

So when I saw her looking my way with the same expression, though she couldn’t actually see me, I quickly withdrew into my room to complete that call. No point getting her distracted.

She returned after a while, with a look of achievement on her face. Awww… my baby has grown up.  I am so proud of her. Or may be I should be proud of myself to have let her go without me.

©Shail Mohan 2016

Day 15 NaBloPoMo 2016