Happy 13th

Dear Adi,

Turning 13 or 13th is our phrase for this year. I am an official teen age mom and soon to be high school mom. It is very overwhelming ma. You are growing to be a beautiful young lady and I have already started drawing my life lessons from you. Its not going to be a mushy birthday letter from now.

We are stepping into the phase where I can feel that gap between us some days. You are getting closer to your friends than us, you chose what to share with us, you have your own world now. Imagine a family with two extreme kids where one is in her own world and the other constantly keeps looking for Amma/Appa. That is us precisely now. I am not liking this setup at all but learning to adapt myself to the reality!!

My only hope is for the table to turn in few years like everyone says. I will wait with all my will kannamma same as how my Amma waited for me. I could so relate your present life to my high school life and how I rebelled to my Amma. Till you come back to me, I will make do with LHB. His unlimited hugs and kisses keeps me sane.

You have an Instagram account and strictly denied me from following you. Your spare time are mostly spent in hangouts. You have hosted couple of sleepovers in past few months at our home and as parents our contribution was just cleaning the home before the event, ordering/delivering pizzas and donuts. That was it. You took care of everything else. I am happy we are able to host sleepovers though we live in a condo and our home is relatively smaller. The presence of those girls cheers me up too.

You are too good at teaching shortcuts to LHB, like the pattern you taught him to remember the dots in a dice. He learns from you in no time whereas Amma has to slog for days to make him remember something. You both have silly fights and you always say he gets his way out easily than you but I am sure you know the truth. You are still our priority and he only gets the attention spared from you! You are the world to him so as I say many many times every day please pretty please be nice to him ma! I know that he gets on to your nerves often but can you not annoy him please? He blindly believes all that you say so please watch your words!! May your sibling love grow more and more with each passing year!

You are continuing with the Indian classical music and piano lessons though I wouldn’t call them as your passion. One thing you did with passion this year is the Odyssey of the mind competition. It was a group competition and the six girls who participated in that became more like twin sisters now. I am very glad to see you with a gang. Friends are very important in life ma. You need them always!

We watched Gilmore girls together this year and we always blame each other as one will watch it without the other sometimes making the other miss few parts. Also, you will declare “Amma I will put Gilmore girls so we can watch it together” but I will get carried away with some other work in 2 minutes while you will continue to watch and then bring me up to speed when I come back to sit.

What I remember the most is the day you rewinded the episode where Lorelai and Luke reconcile after their first big fight and kept it ready for me to watch as I ranted to you that I couldn’t stand to see Lorelai sulk/cry. You wanted me to see the couple get back together. We watched it so much that LHB started liking it and declares “Amma now its your TV, do you want me to put Rory for you?” 🙂

Sometimes you tend to be a tad self centered but Amma is working on it to make you not take things for granted and learn to appreciate any small kind act. I attribute this behavior more to your age than your own self.

You adapt to situations very well. A girl who outright denies Indian dresses was seen wearing kurta/salwar out of her own will during last year India visit. She bugged me to get her few pairs of salwars and even kept bindi in forehead everyday. Do you know that girl by any chance?

You can make stove top Indian tea now. I have been blessed with a cuppa few times last year.

Cleanliness – Its better we don’t talk about it!! **rolls eyes heavily**

I will wake you up with a treasure hunt and we will bake the cake at home as it is our yearly tradition to celebrate your special day ma.. You made sure I am preparing for the hunt and you wanted me to keep a mini hunt for LHB too. This shows that the child in you still exists kannamma 🙂

You are a little scared about high school and the pressure/work involved. I am sure you will handle it with grace given your academic records so far!

Here is to a beautiful and rocking teen years. You know where to go if you get into any trouble. Your family will always stand by you no matter what!

Love,
Amma

 

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