Football and Tractor

So this was a beautiful Friday morning (28th Jan) with spring weather(70 degrees) in the midst of winter. I got the kids dressed for school, oh I have to mention that they pretty much dress (rather undress) themselves. Manav chooses his clothes and Arnav wants to do the same, so much for people judging my sartorial tastes by the way I clothe the kids. These days they choose a long sleeved T-shirt and put on a short sleeved over it...in Manav's words he gets to wear two, hence choose two, hence derive the maximum out of the routine. Now this became a little too much when he wanted to wear two socks, on over other. So it was a gray sock over a red one and his explanation - "Mommy these long socks slip, if we wear two they stay"...okay I got it but next comes another "Mommmmmyyyyyyy"....now his shoes don't fit as well, and even if they are forced on his feet, "It is itchy"...so that day he goes to school with bigger shoes, I just couldnt talk him out of the two sock idea. Did I mention Arnav pulled on two as well?

Now Manav wanted to wear Arnav's "tractor" T-shirt till he saw Arnav pick up a "football" T-shirt (has numbers on the front and back) and his love for sports won over cars. So they exchanged, Arnav is a sweetheart when it comes to sharing but largely mood dependant though and most of the time Manav sells him the idea ("tractor is VERY big, vroom vroom, look at the red color, its the best. The football t-shirt is not good, nothing in it, just numbers"). Then of course the game had to start. Manav started playing, Arnav joined but "Arnav you are a tractor, you will wait there, once the game is done you'll come clean the field and then I will play again"...so Arnav comes out to clean, does a little vroom vroom..."Arnav you have to clean the entire field, not just there" he follows instruction and just when I was wondering if Arnav is sick or something as he's never so docile, Arnav starts playing amidst "Arnav you're a tractor...you can't play" but in vain, so there goes another "Mommmyyyyyyyyy".

Some days I wonder if its worth having the 2.5 - 3 hrs of kid-free time I get in the mornings in exchange for an extremely excruciating 1 hr I spend getting them dressed and out of that front door. So much for the return on investment (ROI) analysis....how I am ever going to get that engineer out of a mom?

The football player and the tractor at their breakfast table.....please note the yellow tractor on the counter beside Arnav's blue plate, given by Manav to make "tractor" more authentic...