Bonnie

Arnav walked into my bedroom carrying his "McQueem" t-shirt and demanded to be changed "NOW". It was 6 AM, not a bad time at all considering he slept through the night after crashing with me at 8 PM last night. After changing him I stumbled to the bathroom and Arnav chose to close the bedroom door. I came out and he insisted to open the door for me. Absolutely. I love chivalry. But when this task is being attempted with a bunch of color pencils in one hand and the cup that contained them in other hand, it is sure to go awry. I tried opening the door myself but was greeted with a loud cry

"No I will open it"

I waited for what seemed like endless minutes and then just opened the door and went out saying that the chai will "fall" if I don't rush.

Arnav wailed in full morning steam and Caunteya somehow pacified him. He came out and told me

"Mommy did you say your tea will fall?" with the quizzical one eyebrow up look

"Yes"

"If your tea falls you make it again. Is that clear?"

"Yes, clear Arnav" I said trying to contain my laughter

"If it falls again, you make it again" he made it extra clear this time.

My baby is gone, welcome BIG boy. When he reads this, if at all, he would love it I am sure. The growing up moment.

The tea was saved, but my oatmeal did spill....the beautiful design on the black cup - priceless

Over lunch Manav told me

"Avery vomited today. It was red. I and Daniel screamed blood but it was watermelon"

His homework quality if not anything else has deteriorated over time. He insists on putting his special effects on everything. Today he was coloring and there was water at the bottom. He started coloring it blue and I was happy. But when I came back I saw he had colored the whole paper blue, the house was blue, the girl was blue...everything was blue.

"Manav why did you do this? Why is everything blue?"

"Mommy while I was coloring the water splashed. So everything is blue"

Today evening we went out to a friend's house and they had a great time in their backyard. They absolutely love all the girly stuff that they get to play with. Arnav was wearing a pearl necklace and pushing a pink stroller with a pink doll and came over to me

"Mommy say Hi to baby"

"Hi baby"

He came back again, this time without the baby

"Mommy, don't say Hi, there is no baby"

How on earth did he know I was about to say 'Hi baby' as I hardly had eyes for the denizen of his stroller, being more interested in pep talk with my friends.

Manav was playing 'family' with THE girl. He absolutely adores her. She is just a couple of weeks older and gorgeous with huge non-black eyes ( Manav is sleeping, else he would have surely helped me with the eye color.) The 'family' game takes various forms with the younger kids around designated to be baby or puppy, depending on what the 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' want to do, whether they want to go out for a walk with the 'dog' or stay home and 'feed' the 'baby'. And of course all the drama ended in the kids running around the house. I missed my camera.

Back home, I decided not to glue them to the TV, trying to keep them off me. But the result was disastrous. They decided to 'clean' the kitchen island trying to 'help' Mommy and then started tearing the wet kitchen towel to multiple pieces and throwing down to each other as 'fish food'. And the fish were indeed gobbling the same up with alarming speed when I realised these kids needed dinner.

Of course the game ended with the usual wrestling duo on the floor. I must mention they did clean up with looming threats that Manav cannot go for his soccer game. This threat has been working pretty good so far. Earlier in the day, I had even pretended to call and talk to his coach Bonnie Phillips ( I had to mention her name as Manav just goes into silly peals of laughter repeating her name) and cancel his membership. Manav told me "Are you really talking to her or pretending?". Whatsoever, he did finish his lunch without further prompting.

After dinner Manav became very sober and picked up a novel to read. As expected Arnav made a beeline to grab the book but Manav said

"Hey, don't take this book. You will not understand. It is like Hindi and Bengali."

Not sure how Arnav let it go at that, but he did. Manav offered to read to him instead and flipped open a page and read

"Combine words and make composite words. Good job" and continued

"Only three year olds can read this. They can read this because they are older. Three year olds  can put together words. Three year olds can put together numbers. Three year olds can put together everything."

"Now which page do you want Arnav?"

"See Mommy I am sharing with Arnav" he smiled back at me

"Yes, Manav I feel so good when you share. It feels great when you don't do silly things and silly talks" I poured out my relief.

"Yes, I am not laughing saying 'Bonnie' 'Bonnie'" and both of us burst into those uncontrollable peals of laughter.

Try that, try laughing with a child. It is very contagious. It is the ultimate form of stress relief. The sheer stupidity of the reason makes the laugh pure, full bodied and teary. Though at the very next moment you might be ready to tear your hair, this is totally worth it.