My amazing, post-baby body

Reading the gossip columns is my secret, guilty pleasure. It's an indispensable step, in my wind-down routine, after Adil has FINALLY, FINALLY, fallen asleep. My preferred source, The Daily Mail Online, is best served with a tall, chilled, glass of white wine.

Keeping up with the Kardashians and the Real Housewives, the Jolie-Pitts and Miley Cyrus, makes me feel, at once, incredibly awed by the insanity of their celebrity (or pseudo, in most cases) existences, and incredibly grateful, for the absolute anonymity, of my own.

It's deliciously relaxing and mindless reading - until I hit the photos of the stars and their perfect post-baby bodies. I come undone, when I hear that Reese (yes, of course, I'm on first name basis, with all these fabulous people) lost ALL her pregnancy weight, just ten days after her third baby was born. Keira and Scarlett, have no business flaunting their size zero waists, so soon after giving birth. And Kate, must positively STOP showing-off her super-flat mummy-tummy, as she effortlessly trots around, in four inch heels, with newborn Princess Charlotte, nestled, happily, in her arms.

This is what I look like, two years after Adil was born:

My body weighs several extra pounds and things have shifted around, possibly never to return. Last month, a total stranger, asked me when my next baby was due, and I am NOT pregnant, again.

Posting this photograph makes me cringe. I share it, nevertheless, because it portrays a moment of such pure happiness, that it far outweighs the inhibitions of my vanity.

I see a strong and confident woman, throwing her son, high up in the air. Her body is amazing, because she bore him, and birthed him, and carries him, still (all thirty-three pounds of him, now).

They are gazing at each other, with an exquisite and boundless love. He's squealing, with delight, and shouting, "Again, Amma! Again!"

And with a joyful whoop, she swings him towards the bright, blue sky. Again! And again!