On July 25, 2019, the day of her birth, me and my brother were bouncing around the hospital waiting room, excited to see the new member of our family. Our grandparents were sitting in the waiting room too, trying to calm us down and making us patient.

I wondered how my life would change with a baby in the house, and how my brother’s and parents’ life would change too, because as far as I knew, babies are the most mischievous, loudest and the most annoying part of a family.

After me and my brother sat down and started talking about babies, a nurse and two assistants caught my eye. The nurse was wearing a white coat and a formal, buttoned light blue shirt, while the other two assistants were wearing an indigo-colored shirt and pant. She was sliding a wheeled baby carrier against the white tiles of the hospital. They were about five metres away, and the nurse was looking at us.

Was our sister or brother here? I wished for any gender, because there is nothing wrong with having a sister, nor even with having a brother. Both men and women are equal, so we shouldn’t have genderbias.

The nurse stopped near us and smiled, said, “She’s here. Go ahead, take a look!”

Wow! So we now had a sister! Me and my brother rushed to the carrier, our grandparents still behind us, walking with gleaming faces. As I got closer to the carrier, I could see something moving in a dark green cloth, like a human baby-sized caterpillar, waiting to come out of its cocoon. My grandmother put a hand on my shoulder, praying for our life to be full of blessings.

“Look at her, isn’t she cute?” she asked me, crying with joy. I nodded, and touched the cold metal bars of the carrier, examining her face. My grandfather took a look and was delighted by her beautiful face, and so was my brother.

My brother spread his arms and beamed, “I have two sisters now!”

“Yes, you do, take very good care of them. Protect both your sisters, and respect your elder sister too,” my grandfather said, rubbing my brother’s hair.

Her face was fair, as white as snow, and her lips were the colour of pink coloured flowers. Her mouth was too small to fit a penny, and she had the same light brown eyes as I did, half open. Her ears and mouth looked three times smaller than my brother’s. When she looked into my eyes, I felt a strong bond between us, forming slowly. She was now a part of our family and her name was Fatima.

When she was welcomed into our new home, she only had one job to do: disturb the peace by crying. Day and night, she wailed loudly like a lion cub for several hours, creating a huge amount of chaos in the house. She didn’t let us sleep peacefully and sometimes she cried without any reason.

“Babies are so annoying,” I told mama when Fatima woke me up. “I thought she would cry less since she is just a few days old, but she roars like a dinosaur. I just don’t know how to keep her quiet and stop her disturbing the peace.” I slid into Mama’s arms and she laughed quietly.

“Well that’s just nature, and you can’t change that. Yes, babies are annoying and they cry a lot, but when she grows up, she won’t cry as much, and she’ll be quite playful too. You’ll see, now go back to sleep.” I gave her a hug and went to bed.

Mama was correct. When she turned four months, she cried less than usual and started cooing too. Her giggles and laughed cheered us up when we were bored. At seven months, she started rolling side-to-side, grinning and making us all happier than ever.

We expected her to crawl in a month’s time, but the unexpected happened. At ten months she still hadn’t taken her first step. Mama was worried that there might be something wrong with Fatima, because majority of babies crawl at eight to nine months.

There was nothing wrong, we just had to be patient.

She started crawling at eleven months and we were so relieved. Now she can take small steps by holding onto something and we all are waiting desperately to see her walking soon all by herself.

Here, I want to say that each baby is wonderful and unique in their own way. We should never compare them to others, but instead let them grow at their own pace and always cherish their achievments, big or small.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 16th, 2021