Yellow Jello

Daylight Saving has taken its toll. We sleep late, wake up late and everything gets skewed. It will take couple more days to get back on track. Also, the weather has been acting up, after a few days of 70+ temperatures it has gone back to 50s and 60s making it a hard choice to stay indoors v/s venturing outdoors. Wind and Clouds have been having a field day. Needless to mention the kids are sick, the usual runny nose and cough kind which is fine otherwise but messes with their nighttime sleep. Net result, four of us are in the same bed more often than not.

Yesterday when I was picking up Manav, his teacher showed me the experiment that they were performing. She had cut stems of celery and immersed them separately in food colored water ( green, blue, purple and various other colors) and asked Manav to explain it to me. Manav said

"The stems will suck up the water and become that color"

So on our way back I asked Manav what it was all about. He said

"We were doing a science experience with observations"

"Experiment you mean?"

"Yes, I always keep forgetting that" Manav said

Today we did see the blue celery stems and leaves. We then decided to buy white carnations and color them pink. Manav said

"We need food color too. We have to buy pink color"

"I like purple. Jia Lin wears purple t-shirt" said Arnav

Then Manav began singing

"Wee Willie Winkie......" and Arnav said

"No it is ........

Three little mon-keys swinging on a tree,

Teasing Mr croco- dile Can't catch me"

Then he mumbles something, more of a whisper and completes by saying

"Snap and then zero, no more" complete with actions.

Arnav also sings the color song like
"Red, green, jello, blue....." and when I correct him he says
"No, it is not ye-llow it is je-llo"

Manav and I became a team today to do our sewing project. It was more of a tactic to make him feel elevated hence more amenable to my ways and as he refused to nap I had no other choice. We finished the onesies and took pictures. He insisted on taking one of mine and I broke our rule of "No touching camera" in a desperate bid to contain an imminent tantrum and risking Arnav waking up . He took this picture of me, his first with a camera.

When I asked him why he cut me off the picture ( of course he was not aware of zoom etc) he said

"Mommy I like your smile. That is what I clicked" Of course.

In the evening we went for a walk and met some friends at the grocery store. Manav becomes a different person if a girl is around and particularly if this girl is around. He keeps an animated conversation going and becomes a knight in shining armor for her. When other kids were disturbing her he went with a stern

"Don't so that" and when that didnt work

"Let us move your seat so that he cannot pull your t-shirt" (we were in the store's restaurant )

and both Manav and Arnav started playing their waiter game and running with all urgency to get her lemonade and bananas or whatever she was ordering. As expected parting was a big deal with lots of whining.

On way back Arnav said

"Please take me koley (pick me up) as my back is hurting. I cannot walk any more"

They came back to some computer work

Over dinner Manav started

" I don't want paratha, I want honey bunch of oats"

"I don't want paratha, I want honey bunch of holes" Arnav chimed in.

Thankfully Caunteya spun a tale and was able to feed them the paratha and dal I had so painstakingly prepared ( once in a while I do cook). Manav somehow ended up putting on his number 10 t-shirt, shorts, shin guards and cleats and insisted on going to bed thus with his "soccer sippy-cup" in tow. I think the fact that we were using the soccer water bottle at dinner gave him this idea. He said

"Mommy guess what? "

"What Manav?"

"I got hurt on this (showing the corner of the wooden shoe rack) but luckily I was wearing the shin guards and was saved"