Kuttyma turned 7 yesterday. She woke up happy. She replied to messages on Whatapp, answered phone calls, chatted on Skype and wore her new outfit. She skipped off to school with homemade brownie muffins for her classmates.

The past year (especially the last few months) has been a blur of activity. I am yet to sit down and actually process all that has happened and yet my daughter never complained. She twirled around in beautiful ghagras and pavadais. She sang songs, made loom bands and many more of them and slowly made herself indispensable.

She laughed and smiled, sulked and stomped her feet. She waved goodbye and blended into new worlds. She spends most of her time on the sofa or bed with a book (or her kindle). She giggled to herself and demanded audience as she re-told the stories she had read.

She grows closer to me and yet is spreading her wings. I watch her with trepidation on most days. I keep my fingers clasped together and (try to keep) my mouth shut to let her figure out emotions, issues, the world and people by herself.

For her 7th birthday, she went to Disneyland with her grandparents (without me!!), had 3 birthday cakes, got an heirloom piece of jewellery, a book on computer coding, a colouring book, a finish-the-story notebook. A trip to NASA is pending.

It was a good day and as they say, time flies.