Trains and Summers

Yes, I know there was no post yesterday. Too tired and excused myself for it being a weekend. But then so many things piled up and I have to write today. Today's post will be mostly pictures as we were out most of the time thanks to the gorgeous weather. Boys are enjoying their shorts and t-shirts. Yesterday morning I got some extra time to sleep as Papa took care of the boys when they woke up. When I made it to the living room I had to rub my sleepy eyes twice to make sure that wasn't a long worm. Manav told me

"It is not a centipede Mommy. It is a train with the caboose"

Of course after this Arnav came to me and said

"Can I have just one (candy) please? No two, only one"

Then they got busy with how they will eat these mango candies at the zoo. Yes, dallas zoo was planned for the afternoon but they wanted to go "now". Manav's classmate and his family were coming too so it had a promise of a great outing.

And now I know that the boys are getting their grammer straight, precisely the tense part of it, as Arnav says

"I already doed(did) it" and Manav says

"I brong(brought) it out"

On the way to the zoo they were chatting gleefully in the car. Manav was now in the big brother avatar and said

"Shut up Arnav. That means don't say a word."

Then we took the train to the zoo. It was a great ride and the boys loved every moment of it. Now and again we'd hear

"Hey we are on the street now"

"Look at those buildings and cars and bridges."

"Oh, now we are in a tunnel" Here they yelled their hearts out as the train was so noisy

"There is Rusty" when another train passed us.

I was so nostalgic and dreamt about the umpteen trips from Rourkela to Howrah station and how we'd( me and my brother)  prefer the morning train so that we could look out of the windows and of course we'd kill for a window seat. The boiled eggs,chai, bread omelette, cutlets ( I can go on) and that metallic smell of the train that would linger long after the journey ended.....ok I have to stop here....as Manav would say "Focus and Concentrate".

The zoo outing was great. There were four boys 7, 3.5, 3.5, and 2.5 years old and we had a refresh of our managing expectation course. The oldest was grumpy as he didn't like the zoo, he wanted to go home to his beloved video games ( only allowed in the weekends), the middle ones just wanted to run away hand in hand with no clue where or what for, often bumping into people, strollers and other kids or just falling down and getting up, all the time giggling and laughing and chattering. The youngest wanted to hold hands of the other two and often ended up going in circles and getting tangled up. Yeah three is a crowd.

On our return I was hoping that they'd sleep off as we were all so tired. But Manav and his friend were in full steam. They counted by ones (1,2,3...), by 5's (5,10,15....) and by 10's (10,20,30....) in a rhythm that even the train was finding hard to emulate. They sang all their alphabets, rhymes , songs.... basically about everything that they do in school. Arnav joined them and was having a hard time keeping up.

Today it was a relaxed Sunday. Arnav napped and Manav went tennis with papa. Then it was time to make that guilt trip to Costco where our wallets "let go". And the strategy of offering food samples was proven perfect one more time when  I offered Manav his banana as the evening snack but he said

"I want to have what they(the sample food kiosks) are giving"

Then it was time for gelato and the boys tried to bite the waffle cone with 3 scoops of icecream on it which was a both painful and hilarious watch. Arnav had icecream all over his nose and that brought peals of laughter and further replication of the feat, to our utmost annoyance.

Finally on way back, in the car Caunteya said we should talk about dinner. The intent here is if we market it well enough the boys would look forward to it and most importantly eat.

"Whats for dinner? What is something we haven't had for a long time?" Caunteya asked.

"Clif bar" said Manav ( though he had it just yesterday)

"No, its biriyani" I said

"Biriyani? Just like banyan?" he said

"No biriyani, the rice dish" I tried to explain

"Yes, I know but biriyani and banyan are similar"

So much for the marketing, we just gave up.

They played while I made dinner. Arnav wanted to change and got frustrated as he couldn't get one arm inside the t-shirt and went to Caunteya for help

"Its ulto( wrong side)" said Caunteya

"Noooo," said Arnav and he put on that arm. Then he looked at the front of the t-shirt and said

"There is nothing" he was expecting the front which was of course at the back and he started crying again

Caunteya was laughing and that made him furious

Arnav came to me and once satisfied with the t-shirt went and put Caunteya in timeout

"You are always laughing at me mister. You are a bad boy" and then made an angry face and said

"Look at my face" to intimidate.

Then there was "cat surgery" with doctor papa and nurse Manav ( he created and volunteered for that role) and Arnav was giggling when doctor checked his back

"Do cats laugh?" Manav asked

"Yes" said Arnav

"No, they are big boys. They don't laugh when doctor checks them"

Over dinner they listened to the '3 billy goats gruff' song over and over again. Caunteya was keeping them engaged saying

"Why didn't all the three billy goats cross the bridge together, or at least the biggest should have gone first"

"No, he was a deal" said Arnav

"No, it was the little goats idea to cross the bridge" said Manav

Dinner done, the family lounged in front of the open window and felt the cool breeze. Manav slept off right there stretched across Caunteya on the chair. Again I felt the deja vu. Got reminded of the summer nights when we would camp outside with our father on the folding cot and identify the constellations, count the stars and sleep. Summer of the 80's and 90's. Priceless.