Ten-and-a-half Months, 72 Centimeters and 7.64 Kilogram - Apra is our Star!

Today in the morning I looked at my little baby daughter, sleeping in between my wife Ramona and me, and just had the strong feeling to write to you about her again, to share my love for this tiny being that has grown so much in the past ten-and-a-half months.

Apra is now 72 centimeters tall, which means that in not even a year she has already grown 27 centimeters – which is a lot! When she was just a month or two old, I could hold her on one arm and she would completely fit on it, her head in my hand and her tiny feet touching my upper arm. Of course in that time that was her main position – lying on someone’s arm, being carried around and just coming along, whatever this person was doing. Now she only lies like this when she is asleep and one needs both arms to hold her, getting help from someone else to open doors.

Whenever she is not asleep however, she is actively stirring up the whole family. The boys take her for rides on the bicycle, up and down the way of the Ashram. One of them will ride the bike with another one sitting on the rear rack, holding Apra in his arms. You can imagine how much she loves it! She is also a fan of cars and the motor scooter we have at the Ashram. Sometimes Purnendu takes her for a short ride – until the Ashram gate – standing in front of him.

Yes, standing is no problem anymore, she gets up on her own, without any help and without holding onto anybody or anything. Of course it is easier if there is a helping hand but if there isn’t, you cannot stop her! She will get up and stand and that all while she keeps on talking, to you or to herself! She calls me with a clear ‘Pa’ and Babbaji with a clear ‘Bab-ba’. On the question ‘Where is (enter a name here)?’, she stretches out her index finger and points out the right person – and that is already quite a lot at an Ashram full of people! And having heard the sentence ‘What is this?’ a lot in Hindi, she started saying it, too: ‘Ye kya hai?’

Something that still surprises her is when she has to sneeze. Her smile after such a surprising interruption is incredibly cute and as usual with all achievements, she looks around to see if everyone noticed, proud and happy about what just happened.

What we are funnily proud of – although we had no contribution to this – is that Apra’s very first tooth is finally showing in her gums. She has no pain, she is not even cranky, it is slowly coming out and we can just now see its small white tip. Even though this is the first one and it does not really help much in cutting yet, our little angel already eats everything. She still loves bananas but lentils, toast, cookies, potatoes, apples and different vegetables are on her daily food plan, too. And with this diet she has gained more than five kilograms since her birth so that she weighs now a total of 7.64 kilograms!

It is these seven kilos which made me write this all today because I was holding her on my arm in the morning, feeling the weight and just marveling at this perfect small princess in my hands. She had been awake just a short time before, the eyes still closed, the arms and hands searching for her mother, for the milk that could satisfy her hunger. She found it and then fell asleep again, on my wife’s arm. When Ramona went to the bathroom, we gently moved Apra’s body over onto my arm and at the border of sleep she crawled closer to me, feeling my assuring touch, my love, and went back into the land of dreams. And I, feeling the touch of my daughter, prepared to write these lines for you, sharing her love with the world.