Goofy's gaffes

Here's what I did on my birthday weekend. It was a much more social day than years before. And I also wanted to write it down to remind myself how unintentionally goofy I can be at times. We were visiting a  Belgian friend from India. He has had a baby girl and was visiting his parents. Normally I am a person who does not get dates wrong but this time I missed it by a few months and we did all our shopping assuming the baby was almost 9 months old. We even went ahead and bought some clothes for 18 months old!!!. That the baby is big as I saw on FB updates just never made me realize my mistake.

Now D and the husband go a long way back and were flatmates in Mumbai. I remember decoding Indian ways and culture for D many times, whilst being fascinated by the honeycakes his mother parceled him. I also had a peak in his diary which he maintained in Dutch and had come to a conclusion that this language was indeed foreign. I am reminded of how deceptively simple it is everytime I have my Dutch classes:)

So we met and it was great to catch up and then of course when the baby was brought, there was all the aww...s and so cute.....s and can I hold her stuff. Babies smell so adorable. So sweet, and she has balloon cheeks, that was from big G. Where is her neck, asks little G? I tell you, there was no way I saw this coming, o:0 Oh, she does not have a long neck like yours, replied her Mama. And then, was my turn. Does she already eat? Yes, only just, said her Mama. She has just started holding her neck. And is now attempting to turn. Oh, isn't that a bit late, I said.

And then coming from the entire wrong age angle, I had to put my foot in my mouth. And does she already walk or try to? No, protested the parents, she is only 5 months old, she doesn't even crawl. Isn't that a bit early to achieve? A long time to go. This to a mother of 2, moi. Red-cheeked, I had to confess that I had got the dates wrong (like 4 months wrong) and all the stuff we had bought would only fit much later, etc. But they laughed it off, we all did. Laughing at yourself, not easy that.

One thing still strikes me is that amidst all this the husband managed shrug off his role in the whole thing. Though he was very much in the loop regarding baby's birth, baptism, etc, still when we went shopping he accepted my verdict on age as final. I guess he was happy with having organised a surprise delivery of my birthday cake at D's place.  Which also proves my long standing open hypothesis that doing one thing well is better than trying to tick away many chores on your list. But as I argue, men and women are given very different mandates and someone has to fill the gap, right?