Planets and Tennisscope

Today was a rare day, comes maybe once in a lifetime, yeah that rare. The kids' school was open and Caunteya's office was closed. It was a different matter that we whiled away the precious 2.5 hours which I had high expectations of. Caunteya woke up to see Manav having already taken out the waffles from the freezer popping them in the toaster.

"What are you doing Manav?" he asked

"I am hungry. Getting some waffles"

A milestone. Now the older kid can get his own breakfast? How cool is that? 

Arnav spilled his milk and I was just about to yell at him, when Manav said

"He was just trying to make pieces of the waffle and his hand hit the cup and it spilled. It was an accident"

"You should be more careful Arnav" I said and let it go. We learn more from them than we teach.

When I went into Manav's class to pick him up he was bubbling with excitement. They had learnt about the planets. Dinosaur month done, its now planets in school.

"Mommy if you have a big tennisscope you can see Jupiter" Manav said

"It is tele-scope Manav" I corrected.

"Oh telescope. I want a telescope Mommy" he went on

"How many planets are there Manav?" I wanted to change the topic

"8 Mommy"

"Its 9 Manav" I said and went on to name the planets. I felt proud when I reached Pluto.

"There is no Pluto Mommy. Pluto is the dog" Manav said

Just then it struck me. I vaguely remembered Pluto being dropped from the planet list, dwarf planet or something. But I guess I will always remember 9 planets.

Manav started singing the planet song and effortlessly rattled all the 8 names. Just one day into "planet month" and he was so into it.

Manav fished out the only book that has reference to the planets.

"Arnav when you see a ring around a planet you think, I know what that is, that is Saturn" Manav said clicking his fingers.
 "Oh" said Arnav

"And Neptune is the smallest and coldest planet Arnav" I have yet to verify those credentials.

"Yes, I finished mouth, I chewed" said Arnav about the candy he was having, for him 'Neptune' sounded like 'chewed'

"Mommy sun is called the day star" Manav informed me

"And when you cut it you can see how hot it is" he continued

"You can cut the sun?" I over dramatised

"No, it was cut in the book Mommy" Manav confirmed he had seen the cross section.

We had tacos for lunch today. Manav said

"Arnav you are a vegetarian, you will have lettuce, cheese and olive tacos"

I went out in the afternoon and lost out on the evening "conversations" as well. They played a little with the police cars and the fighter planes. (They are not letting me write so I sent them to count till 100 and come back. It is working !)

Yes, I too don't have a clue what the autorickshaw was doing there. Maybe they remembered the Kolkata airport parking lot. Ignore my feet in the pic.

We asked Arnav one day who his best friend was. He said

"Jia Lin. She wears pink t-shirt"

And when I went to pick him up he walked up to Jia Lin and stared at her.

"Mommy see she is wearing pink t-shirt. I told you"

I must say I was extremely happy with my child's choice.

(100 done, now I have asked for 5 minutes, so they have started the hourglass)

Caunteya left for his tennis match and they called out

"Play well Papa"

"Hit all the balls"

Just now Caunteya called to say he'll be late, so off to get the kids to bed ( a long process alone). Manav is already

" I want Papa"

Anyways my hourglass long ran out, literally.