Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Gift

Pattu was excited at the number of gifts that she received on her second birthday. That was really the first time she understood 'gifts' - or so we thought looking at her excitement. Neat boxes, colourfully packed and secured with pretty satin ribbons - so many of them in various shapes and sizes! She just couldn't wait to open them.

As I helped her open the boxes, I wondered how she would react to what is inside the boxes. I opened the first one for her and she almost grabbed it from me, opened the box, threw out whatever was inside (she didn't even give it a glance) and held the box close to her and said gleefully, 'this is my gift'! That's when we figured out that it is the box that excites her and not really the stuff inside it.

Once while getting ready for a friend's wedding, we had a tough time telling pattu that a Re 1 coin inside a shoe box does not make a great gift for a wedding. She just wouldn't budge. She insisted on carrying it all the way to the wedding and wanted to hand it over to the bride. She wouldn't trust us enough to carry it for her. Luckily she dozed off in the car and I managed to sneak it away. I wonder what it must have been like to hand over a shoe box with a 1 rupee coin in it! Well, part of parenting I guess! I did share it with my friend later and had a good laugh as she said, 'Oh, that would have been my most memorable wedding gift' :)

4 comments:

Jaya said...

Avigna also loves the boxes more than the gifts...guess its the attractive wrappers that excite them more :)

Rohini said...

LOL! This seems to be a theme. My 4-year old wanted to take dirty, old crayons as a birthday gift for a friend...

Uma said...

Jaya, quite true. And something about the boxes too ... neat, angular...
Rohini, I just saw that post of yours and had a good laugh too. I was also in a similar predicament, luckily for me, pattu dozed off.

Swapna Raghu Sanand said...

I laughed when I read about the box and the one rupee coin. Kids are so sweet. My 3 year old son liked your card and said he wanted to see it again.