Tapodutt and Clean up

Yes, the day started like this.....snow all over and school closed and Caunteya chose to work from home ( bad decision). The boys got busy with building blocks ( I absolutely had to look up Wikipedia to understand how LEGO came up with this great idea) and kindly posed for me with their product.

That reminds me Arnav kept on repeating something that sounded like 'the product' and I asked him what he meant. He said "Dada says that" so it was a while before I figured out with Manav's help that it was "Tapodutt"

"Who is Tapodutt? " I asked Manav

"Tapodutt is brahmin's brother" Manav said

This must be from Ramayana but I have no recollection of this though.

I did remark seeing Manav's lego 'product' "You made a masterpiece Manav"

"Yes, Mommy. Here's the master (showing the green guy) and this is his piece"

Then Manav asked his question of the day

"Mommy do you know why there are 50 stars in the flag?"

"Because there are 50 states"

"No, so that you can count 50 there" and he started counting.



Then they started coloring and I had to click this one as they were having so much fun. Of course later it became nasty as they started throwing the crayons and breaking them in half and removing the wrappers. Just now Manav came and told me

"This is when we made the mess. And this is when you were angry also"

Then they changed into their sweaters which they managed to find while we were looking for something else. These were sent by my dida(grandma) last year. Thank you great grandmother.

Then Manav found this bag from the shoe closet and paired it up with those glasses from his toy bin and posed for me. Of course Arnav grabbed the same from him and posed too.



They  again started playing with those animal flash cards and Arnav again got his share of 4 cards. (Finally I figured out why Arnav got those particular 4 cards everytime. They are the only ones which are in portrait, others are printed in landscape)But this time Arnav protested and Manav said

"Let's make an animal card train. And your's will be small and you can pull it. Mine will break because it is too long"

Arnav seemed to buy this logic.

Then Arnav was going around with a soccer ball (small) inside an easter egg and called it soccer coffee ( flicked from Manav, it was his idea).

"Mommy have some soccer coffee" Arnav said

"Oh thanks...chomp chomp" I pretended to have it

"No, Mommy don't chew, drink it ...slurp slurp" Arnav said.

Manav tried getting it back

"Arnav it has dirty and wormy germs in it, throw it in the trash"

but Arnav didn't buy this one.

Then Caunteya came out of his "work room" and was making some chai. Arnav walks upto him

"Do you want some soccer coffee papa?"

"No thanks, mujhe shanti se jeeney de" Caunteya was miffed as they were yelling too much during his conference calls.

Manav says " Did you say sunkist papa?" That's a jelly bean flavor.

Then suddenly Manav comes up with

"This house is a mess. We need to clean it up"

I didn't even register it as no one cleans up here without an incentive. But I was surprised that Manav actually started cleaning. Arnav and I happily joined in and within 15 minutes we had the place clean !! It was such a dump, wish I had a 'before-after' picture. Manav egged us on saying we have to clean fast else toy fairy, clothes fairy, shoe fairy and all other fairies will come and take things away.

And now Arnav is spitting on his palms and smearing the same on the chairs and wiping with Kleenex....his version of cleaning.

Earlier he came upto me and said

" I fall down. I did not cry. I have big muscles." flexing his arms.

Today it was express dinner, bath and sleep as the boys didn't nap in the afternoon. I was fumbling with Manav's socks and said

"Sorry my brain is not working"

"Why Mommy?"

"I am so tired and remember we didn't sleep in the afternoon" I said trying to make him feel tired too.

He seemed to understand and peeped into the bathroom where Caunteya was brushing Arnav and said

"But Papa's brain is working"

"Why do you think so?"

"See he brushes, puts Aveeno and everything perfect. His brain is still working"

Yeah, that kind of put things into perspective for me.

Have to close this with Arnav's remark before he went to bed

"Non't say Papa I drink water" He is not supposed to drink water (within 30 mins) after his fluoride rinse at night. So Papa you didn't read this.