Dear Piya,
We just came back from a vacation.
This was immediately after you turned two.
In hindsight, it would be interesting to ponder upon why we did not take this immediately before you turned two, as it would have costed us two tickets less (full price, to & fro for you, baby!), but that would have hardly changed the non-monetary experiences we had during the course of our vacation.
The trip was planned for two weeks of stay in three different countries - Paris, Prague & Budapest.
These cities are usually popular with tourists, and so we decided why not pay them a visit. After all, Paris has Disneyland, Prague has Praha Zoo and Budapest has luxurious swimming pools in the name of thermal spas - all of which could cater to a young toddler’s interest.
What I forgot was that in addition to these wonder accompaniments for the trip, we had you - a wonderfully hyper-active toddler.
We posted a lot of pictures of our trip online for our friends & family to see how lovely these cities are and how much fun we are having enjoying in there.
But just like nobody posts online about the pain in their stomach over the lipstick on their face, we too did not share any sour experiences.
I think I am going a little harsh here with the use of ‘sour’ because what we experienced behind the scenes was more like a comic sitcom for the passerby, as a little toddler gave her parents a hard time playing ‘Catch Me If You Can’ on the streets abroad.
Yes, that’s you, our little roadrunner!
I ask myself what I was thinking taking a two year old to foreign land for a vacation.
The naive answer in my mind was that I expected to relax a little through time away from the routine of a working day.
The real answer now is that of the laughter of an audience who enjoyed quite a show watching us say ‘Please, baby, please...’ all through our tour, to make you sit, eat, walk, lay down, keep quiet, stay in one place, stop from throwing things around...you get the flow, don’t you?
Whew! I am getting tired just by re-living those memories!
And then I start to go over the mesmerising laughter on your lips as we chased you watching character after character on Disneyland. You couldn’t get enough of all the cartoons around you. Add to that the sheer number of toys you got lost in and our day was made.
The zoo in Prague had you with its first elephant! Every hippopotamus, every giraffe, every tiger and every lion after that were the cherry on the top of your cake of happiness.
And while a thermal spa wasn’t really the swimming pool you expected, you blessed us with a sound sleep in your stroller as your parents enjoyed some carefree time to their own, at a hand’s distance from you, in the thermal pool.
You cried. You got cranky. You ran away & fell down & did more such annoying things more times than I could count.
But you laughed.
You danced.
You jumped.
And you hugged me even more number of times.
You learnt of newer words, ones which I had struggled to make you repeat from a book.
You saw grand structures with awe & you jumped on every vast street for a stroll.
You stubbornly demanded any ice cream we ate & you relished many unhealthy snacks.
Don’t be surprised if I tell you that it was you who woke up your exhausted parents every single morning with a, “Get up! We are getting late for fun!”
All in all, it was an amazing trip.
And to all those people who say that traveling with a toddler is like doing a vacation wrong, I would like to say, “You bet. But it’s all worth the trouble if you do it well enough.”
Thanks for a lovely trip, honey.
As we returned home all healthy & safe, I couldn’t have asked for a better journey with you.
Love,
Maa.
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