Convertible Bike

"You're the best, Mommy" declared Manav as he went to bed today.
"Oh, thank you Manav"
"Papa is the best too. You and Papa are the best" he reiterated
"Do you really think that we are good parents?" I asked guiltily reminded of the many missed glasses of evening milk, no reading done days together, being completely engrossed in my sewing or house hunt.
"Yes, you are the best" and he dozed off after a long nap-less Saturday while I stared at him unable to fathom when he grew up to actually compliment me.

Well seems like I am not the only one to be complimented. Last night we were at our friend's place and she fed them dosa. Manav said
"You're the best cooker Sheetal aunty. You make very good food"

Being four is all about reasoning and lots of it, combined with a great memory and a very decent vocabulary. Manav goes to great lengths to explain things, mostly to Arnav. Arnav was having trouble eating as he thought that his food was hot. Manav, always eager to help said
"Suppose I got a hot waffle. I then wait. Then it gets warm. I wait some more, blow on it and then it becomes cool and I eat. Don't let it go cold, then it doesn't taste good. Ok Arnav?"
Arnav tentatively blew on his waffle (spraying it with spit in the process) and then took a bite
"Yes, you are right Manav" he declared gleefully.

The other day a friend of ours had come from California. While picking her up I told Manav that Tina aunty is from another state which starts with a 'C'
"California" pat comes the reply.
She got him a set of presidential motorcade complete with Air force 1. They had a great time playing with it. Manav was driving the limousine and said
"President Obama wants to drive by himself. Arnav please go away"
"The police has to be here, Obama" Arnav replied with the police jeep in tow.
On way back after dropping her off Manav remarked
"We will have to take a flight to California. We cannot drive to there"
"Thats correct Manav." Caunteya said
"Yes, Mommy remember you went to Las Vegas in a plane? Just like that we need to go in a plane to California."
This morning they were again playing with the motorcade and Manav wanted all the cars, jeeps, helicopter and aeroplane so Arnav was left with a couple of cones and roadblock signs. Manav said
"These are construction things Arnav" and sold the idea to him
"Yes, I want all the instructions" and Arnav got busy collecting them while Manav happily played with the cars.

Today evening we went to the park. In an effort to fit Arnav's bike in the Corolla we had undone the backrest and it was hanging loose on the screws. When the boys took out the bikes, Arnav was a little crestfallen seeing his bike thus. Manav glorified the whole thing saying
"Arnav, look now you can drive a convertible bike. How cool is that?"
and Arnav took off on his bike dragging the backrest behind him pretty much like Kate Middleton's train.

Last Friday I took the boys to McDonald's right after school. They had a great time eating there followed by playing in the play area. I sat with Arnav and Manav was on the other side of the table. He said
"I am all alone"
"Are you the queen Manav? The queen is all alone" Arnav said, referring to the queen bee song that Manav sings.
Arnav is still an ardent fan of homework and was crying to get a homework page of his own. Caunteya comforted him saying
"We will ask Ms Foley to give two homework pages to Manav, so that you can work on one"
he wiped his tears and said
"Yes, we will tell Ms Foley to buy me also homework"

Over breakfast I caught Manav wiping the milk off his mouth with his t-shirt sleeve.
"Manav, please use a napkin" I chided
"But Mommy Caillou's father does that" and I remembered the scene on TV when Caillou and Daddy were sharing milk before bed and he did wipe off his "moustache" with the sleeves. I mumbled something about it being just a pretend thing and not real.

This morning Manav played his last soccer match. Season being over he will receive his trophy next Tuesday. In a last minute effort to get some "soccer sense" into Manav Caunteya was showing him you-tube clips of Lionel Messi's goals. Manav said
"The Lions are winning Papa" and cheered him on.
At the end of the video he did ask a very pertinent question
"But Papa, look how his teammates are passing him the ball, mine never do. How will I score a goal?"
and Caunteya was happy that Manav was actually following the game.

Today more than once Manav had remarked
"I don't want it to be night Mommy" and he does that when he is having too much fun and doesn't want it to end.
and I don't want him to grow up anymore as I am having too much fun with him right now. But we both know night will happen every day and soon Manav will also turn five. Till then let me rest my keyboard here with the sign I saw at "Image Cleaners" on my way to Yoga last Friday
"Drop your pants here"

Mamma Mia

Vonage has a new Visual Voicemail System which transcribes your audio voicemails to textual email messages.(Supports English only). For a while I thought that they were still in the beta version and getting me someone else's messages as they were totally context less and meaningless. But looks like they mean business. On Manav's birthday I got an email message

""Hi this message is for Monica. He died. So yeah and being got some good assuming you have a good game hope you had a long time I know that Mark Debbie. Just calling you another time. Okay bye"

and I took the pain to match the actual voicemail

"Hi this message is for Manav. Siddarth, Gautam uncle and Sasi Aunty wish you many happy returns of the day. Hope you had a nice time with Arnav, Mommy and Daddy. Will call you some other time. Ok bye"

If you think about it phonetically the way Manav does, it will make some sense. Of course this is similar to the auto word completer, spell check etc but a notch higher so they can make extra hilarious mistakes. As my mother says "Try to do things yourself rather than depending on others."

Time to show off my beautiful hibiscus in full bloom. Reminds me so much of our childhood home where a hibiscus tree was a part of the courtyard (in addition to the neem, guava and parijat flower tree). Yes, it was a tree not a shrub like the ones we find here.

The kalanchoe flanking it is not bad either

Ok, time now I got back to conversations. Yesterday, Manav was discussing the ice-cubes (hail) and tornado warnings. He said

"Mommy the tortuga warning came up and I was scared"

The Wild Kratz brothers use the turtle shaped flying ship called the tortuga.

"You mean tornado Manav?" I clarified

"Yes, tornado" Manav responded with a sheepish grin.

This morning I came out of the bathroom to find Caunteya lying on the couch with the boys on either side. I sulked

"I am very sad. There are only boys here in this house. I am so lonely"

"We can have a sister" Manav suggested with all his four year old brilliance.

"How can we have a sister?" Still pouting, I threw it back at him

"When we move to the new house we can get a new sister" Ok now I know that I am using the when-we-move-to-new-house-then excuse more than needed. I know for sure that we haven't bought that birthday bike for him as the new house has more storage or was it because he still needs to grow up for a 16 inch bike?

I have a new problem at hand. And as I always say, I solve one problem and 3 more spring up. When Manav sits down for his homework Arnav has to do his homework too. Does it really matter that he doesn't get homework from school? So every afternoon I have to go homework hunting. I usually dole out Manav's classwork sheets asking him to color or count but sometimes that backfires.

"Someone has already done this Mommy. I need a new one"
 Other times as seen in the picture below I only have to pass on an interesting object like scissors and he is content (for a moment)

Manav is concentrating on his uppercase and lowercase alphabets

Yesterday afternoon, they played the snake and ladders board game. When my parents were here we bought that and many a afternoon battles were fought and won and cried upon that board. Manav started with

"I like the snakes. They eat me, so yummy" and then graduated to

"Snakes are bad, ladders are good"

Arnav played a bit and then

"I have yellow so I will be on yellow square" doesn't matter whatever number can show up on the dice.

Manav won the game and there was outrageously insane amount of screaming as if we had hit a jackpot. He was so ecstatic that he was shaking. Went on to repeat replay mode of

"I had to roll a 2 to reach 100. If I roll 1 then there is a snake to eat me and any other number would not work. Only 2 needed and I did it"

Manav is now addicted to Abba's Mamma Mia song. He can sing not only the chorus but a considerable part of the song. Arnav just joins in with a

"My-My"

He took out the "drums" (upturned margarita cups) and the bowls for some music accompaniment which I am unsure of and played the song on his guitar. It was a splendid performance. Arnav brought out all plates and cups and asked me

"What would you like, tea or coffee?"

Right now I will kill for a sip of anything. But even for water it is self serve here. When the kids are awake though they fight each other to get me a glass of water if I ask for it. Often I need a couple of refills and they don't mind at all. There are so many things that they want to help with but are not quite capable and when they become capable they won't want to help. Conundrums everywhere. No sight of a beverage though.

Birthday and Shortcake

Manav is four today. I have a very feeble memory but I can never forget that morning 4 years back when it was 3 or 4 AM, still dark and we made a beeline for the hospital claiming my water broke. They sent us back and we had breakfast at McDonald's right outside Presbyterian. My mother had the pancakes. And we came home and slept only to wake up around 10 AM leaking like mad. This time they just said "You're going to have a baby today" and Manav was born at 9:44 PM. Since then, each day has been enlightening to say the least and am sure there is more to come. A series of birthday pics follows.

Just Born Manav

First Birthday at Indian restaurant

2nd Birthday at home, I baked the cake :-)

Third birthday at Planet Pizza

4th Birthday at home again, I didn't bake the cake :-)

Yesterday I got some cupcakes for Manav's school. I also got dinosaur gifts for his classmates. Manav inscribed his name on all the 24 dinosaurs' tags till late night yesterday.

After writing his name on each one he would put it at the end of the line and count the dinosaurs and say

"Arnav, is 12 a good number?"

"No"

"Yes, you are right, it should be 24"

And the game continued till 24. One extra dinosaur was there for Arnav.

Last night he just wouldn't sleep on his bed. He was yelling and screaming

"I don't like this bed. Please buy me a new one. I want a Wild Kratz bed"

I was consoling him when suddenly he said

"How about you give me my bag. I will sleep by myself and you can put the surprise in it when I wake up"

And he did doze off. I put in the new t-shirt which he wore the first thing in the morning.

This morning he again lined up the dinosaurs but face to face. He said

"I am trying to find out who is the most powerful dinosaur. When they are face to face they can fight and whoever wins is powerfulest"

The 25th dinosaur ended up being most powerful as he was left without a partner.

All three of us sang the birthday song for Manav who was busy with the dinosaurs and seemed to totally ignore us. I said
"Manav did you hear us singing?"
"Yes, I did. Mouth shut ears open. I heard the song. Thank you"
That got our mouth shut.

Over breakfast my father called to wish him. He asked
"Manav did you eat cake?"
"Ummm.....I didn't eat a big cake, just a shortcake. Strawberry shortcake."
He was referring to yesterday's shortcut strawberry shortcake we baked using the Bisquick mix.
"What is your brother doing?" my father asked.
"He is just being shy. He doesn't want to talk"

The rains spoiled the Easter Egg hunt at his school today. They had to hunt for the eggs in the classroom which was half the fun. Manav came home and hid the eggs again for a replica hunt. He piled them under the dining table and said
"Arnav come look for the eggs here. There are lots of them. And when you find them put them in my basket. We are sharing the basket"
Then he grabbed a candy and said
"This is for the elder brother. Younger brother can eat any other candy but not this one"
Today they got super hyper on candies, cakes and cookies.

With their Easter Egg baskets just back from school

Today more than once Manav remarked
"I don't want to be 4 years old"
Once while having to have his breakfast all by himself and not getting down from the table till he finished it. And again when we said he needs to sleep by himself as 4 year old do that. And of course all the other burdens of a 4 year old namely share, don't whine, don't cry, don't yell, keep an eye on your brother, put your shoes and clothes in proper places, brush and floss and rinse with little supervision, do your homework legibly (and neatly and the list goes on), made him not want to be a 4 year old,something he couldn't wait to be.

Summing up, I feel we hyped up the four-year-old-big-boy stuff way too much. Well now he is looking forward to 5 as he gets to go to Elementary School then. Am sure he wont want it when he gets there. That sounds like a repeat.

Minty bad breath

For the first time ever we had a babysitter come over and went out for dinner. It happened to be our 11th anniversary. Look at that plastic smile but we were really happy. Earlier when I had said
"Manav today is a special day. Me and Papa got married 11 years back"
"Married? About what? 11 is my roll number Mommy" was Manav's reaction. Maybe he thought "married" and "mad" were synonymous.

We returned to two sleeping children (they had missed their afternoon nap so this was sort of expected) and story of the evening from the babysitter. 

"It is algae, not algae" Manav correcting her pronunciation when she was reading the book. 

"If I need to I will go. You have already told me three times" Manav's retort when reminded to go potty before bed. 

"You must have left it at home" a teary Arnav talking about her handbag when she made a pretense of looking for it so that she can call Mommy and Papa.

"Wake up Arnav, you can't sleep" Manav aghast that Arnav fell asleep listening to her read.

Next morning Manav remarked

"When I woke up at night and came to your bedroom I thought Lola will be there. But thank God you were there Papa"

"Did you cry Arnav?" I asked

"No I didn't." then a second later

"A little bit. I cried and dada cried" Arnav added

"Are you a monster Mommy?" Arnav asked

"Why?"

"You are wearing a black T-shirt. Monsters are black"

"There are no monsters. They are make-belief" Manav's knowledge was practical.

While on our drive back from school, Manav declared

"A big cottonwood tree fell down in the storm Mommy" making me scamper to google "cottonwood"

and during a bathroom break

"If a frog is large it is a bullfrog. Medium and small frogs are not bullfrogs"

and on one of those random moments

"Coach Philips has bad breath" sending shivers down my spine as to how he figured that or overheard

"Who told you that Manav?" I asked

"She told. She said she chews gum as she has bad breath" So that was the coach's tactic to dispel kids from gum or was it?

And today while doing his homework Manav said

"The sun drinks away all the water when we play outside. So we need to hibernate"

"You mean hydrate Manav?" I said after sometime, happy I could make the connection

"Let me think, which word was it......yes, hydrate. Hydrate with H2O. Butterflies hibernate in Mexico as it is warm there when it snows here" Manav went on his knowledge show-off spree. Now when he wants water he says

"I need to hydrate"

Today Manav wanted all the dining chairs lined up against the couch, which I denied. He was very mad and said

"I am asking you the last time. Will you or will you not give me the chairs"

"No, Manav I already said no chairs"

"Ok then as you are not listening to me I will touch your sewer (the sewing machine)"

And on one of the timeouts (yes there were many today (a) because I was sewing non-stop (b)Manav missed his nap so was excessively unreasonable. I am glad its me and not him who is writing this blog)

" I am not your best son anymore. I am Papa's best son"

During the hailstorm today evening Manav yelled back

"The car is getting hurt Mommy. You have to move it"

They had a great time collecting the "round ice that fell from the sky". Still there was a whole lot of whining as Manav could not "see the lightening before hearing the thunder"

Reminding me of April showers and our first-born, four years back. Yes, it did rain when we were in the hospital. So many memories of that wonderful Saturday morning.

Camouflage

My young man, (turning 4 years next Thursday), climbed up on his bed, pulled his blanket over and told me
"I have tucked myself in and will sleep Mommy"
I was trying to put Arnav to bed (the boys share a room) and long before Arnav went to sleep, Manav had dozed off.  And my heart sank. I stole a long unhurried look at sleeping Manav with his blanket half covering him, little fisted palms jutting out, tiny feet with zigzag nails (story follows) and those eyelashes, now appearing longer, overflowing onto the remnants of his pudgy cheeks. Miracles happen, when you expect them least.

Ok, now the story of the zigzag nails. This afternoon Manav and Arnav were pretending to be some bird ( I cannot even pronounce the name and have no stamina to google to get the spelling) and Manav got his nail cutter out and attempted to cut his nails. I had to write "attempted" as he got zigzag cuts on his nails. Here's to all the safety features that they put into baby clippers. He explained to me

"I had to cut my talons as they were hurting my baby <the bird's name> when I was hugging him" Arnav was the baby bird.

This morning at the breakfast table, Manav chose to fill up his soccer camp application form. (He picks up random papers from his school front desk).

Wrote his name and roll number (though the roll number wasn't asked for, he is used to writing them together). The address he got around putting "6301". He filled "Joonr" where it was asked "Camp name" (He meant "Junior"). Then proceeded to check the box "No" where it was asked if your kid has any allergies. For the physicians name he wrote "Gootrslh" (He should have attempted to write his first name -Chad instead of the complicated last name - Guetersloh). All the while he was using his phonics to his aid and spelling things out. On top right hand corner he filled $1 for the "fees" and 4 for "family members". He wrote the phone number on the back of the form as he ran out of space.

Arnav remarked

"Good job Manav"

Friday's lunch conversation was very informative. Manav started

"The birds camouflage. So no one can kill them"

I immediately caught the word "camouflage" hearing it the first time from him.

"What is camouflage Manav?"

"It is to protect." Manav explained

"It is to blend with the surroundings so that predators cannot spot you. Just like the white polar bear on white snow" I just couldn't wait to show off.

"If you see the sharp claws on the white it is a polar bear, if you cannot see the claws then it is snow. See you can tell" Manav gave me his intelligent lopsided smile.

"Have you seen the lizard? It can change its color to green, if its on a green tree and then no one can see them and that is camouflage" I tried again

"Yes. Just like the gray elephant sits on a gray rock", "And the black clock on a black wall", "And the red bird on a red tree", "And a white bird on a snowy tree"

His imagination was running amok so I had to

"Manav, finish your food. No talking with food in mouth"

and think of means to "camouflage" myself.

Friday afternoon Manav chanced upon his dress shirt and wanted to dress like office going Papa. He asked for his matching black trousers and said

"No, the one without the letters" when I fished out a short-cut pair of slacks

He completed the ensemble with black shoes and socks. Please do not get any ideas about Caunteya's sense of dressing based on these. Manav just happens to have a very strong "matching" concept. Blame it on the pairing, sorting, matching, patterns etc that he does in school. Then came the laptop and as soon as he was done he said

"Arnav do you want me to drop you to school?"

"No, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter" Arnav waved him away.

Arnav's laptop is hanging open and doing a good job in concealing his shorts.

Right after this they had to go for their afternoon nap and Manav refused to get rid of any piece of his get-up except for the shoes (which are not allowed on bed ever). Finally he had to strip to his underwear to fall asleep . What else can you expect on a Texas spring afternoon?

They woke up from their nap and Manav was inconsolable. This happens, they get more cranky after a nap. On some earlier occasions Manav had said

"I have just woken up. So I will be like this for sometime" But this time he just kept crying.

"What happened Manav?" I asked him

"I am not being 4. I have been 3 years for a long time"

"What will happen when you are 4?"

"I will cut a creamy cake." He said

"Ok, see here is the calendar. Next Thursday you will be 4 years old." I said

He became immersed in the calendar singing his months-in-a-year and days-in-a-week song ( he sang the Sunday-Monday-Tuesday in the tune of "Kaisi paheli hai zindagani" and asked me to identify the tune). Minor disaster averted but major one awaits as I have deprioritised (read cancelled) his birthday party for house hunting.

I foolishly feel Manav has talent. I feel he understands music and tune better than me, he hits cool cricket shots, mimics his father in tennis, can do wonders if I put him in a chess class and the list goes on. Guess all parents are awed by the miracle that happened to them. This tiny living being that they created is incomparable and the best. And in a way they are right.

Birds and Bees

Today we all woke up late as last night we slept late as we got caught in house hunting. Arnav woke up crying and when I picked him up from his bed, he cuddled up to me and said
"You saved me"
"Hmm" I acknowledged thinking he was having a nightmare or something
"I was crying and you came and I stopped crying. You saved me" Arnav clarified.

Little Arnav is growing up very fast. This afternoon I subjected them to an impromptu quiz (actually we went to nap and as they were totally out of control I devised something to keep them calm). I asked questions like "what comes after June", "what number is between 17 and 19", "what comes after 39?" etc. alternating between Manav and Arnav. And I was surprised that Arnav actually aced in the maths questions and also did quite well in the days-of-the-week and months-in-a-year but not so well with alphabets. Manav on the other hand answered most questions but was stumped with the "what comes between numbers" questions and took a while to answer the what comes after 29/39/49/59 etc questions. Am sure this doesnt mean anything, just noting my observations. Arnav has jumped up a whole year as he does well with planets but fumbles with lower case F. But he is still a baby. See this
"What does a polar bear eat?"
"Skittles" Arnav responded
"Seals" Manav corrected

Arnav fell asleep but Manav didn't want to nap. He completed his puzzles instead. With the USA map he has been working for a while, but the Solar System was a first. I was amazed that he kept at it and finished it, pausing only once to remark
"The lawnmower is bothering me Mommy. I cannot think with all that noise"
I wondered what you need to think while solving a puzzle but am sure he was on the right track as he did complete the puzzle which even I have a hard time cracking.

Manav with his completed floor puzzles - note bigger than him

While we are discussing education, I must mention Manav was all about "bees" today. This is what we learnt at the lunch and dinner table combined.
"Never ever touch a bee" exclaimed Manav
"Why?" I asked
"They can sting you. Like this (pinching my arm). You can catch them with a net"
"There are three kinds of bees, the worker and the drone and the queen who's all alone , there are three kinds of bees" he started singing complete with tune and actions.
Then came the complete job descriptions of the worker, drone and queen bees. How the queen lays more than 2000 eggs, how they hatch and become larva, then pupa and then bee. And when all the honey is gone from the hive you can go and see the hexagons in them. Caunteya summed it up by
"You're going to graduate (college) from Ms Foley's class"

Now we had an onslaught of fruit flies. Maybe the mangoes are to blame. I begged for help from the boys to get rid of these. Arnav said
"I cannot be-lieve it" with a big pause between 'be' and 'lieve'
"We should catch them with a net. Let's go to Walmart and get a net" Manav offered
"Hmmm...I am not sure. Maybe we should spray something" I wondered
"Now that is a good idea" Manav agreed
"We should hit them with a shooting gun" Arnav gesticulated
"No, Arnav we should spray with the water gun" Manav corrected
"They are NOT fruit flies. They are house flies" Arnav changed the topic entirely.
Lest you get ideas about my house being filthy, that is not the case (yet).

This evening we had planned to go to the park. Well we do every evening but recently with house viewing I have been lagging in that area. Arnav just wouldn't wake up. Manav went and hugged him , slept beside him but still Arnav continued to sleep. Then he brought a loud whistle and blew it non stop till I confiscated it. Then he yelled, laughed, jumped, screamed, still Arnav was asleep. Finally he just went in the room and said in sombre tone
"Arnav wake up. We have to go to the park"
And Arnav woke up.

Some random pictures below.

The flowers in my patio are now in full bloom. Also, the basil and mint are nice and green. Cannot let Manav's lima beans and sunflower go unmentioned, he planted the seeds in school and now we have potted them.

In an attempt to clean the boot of the car I had brought these strollers and stowed them under the bed in the guest bedroom. The boys of course got hold of them and built a building here. They fixed imaginary leaks. Then they made these into ice skis and skated in them. Of course they also used the strollers as they are supposed to - carrying their teddy bears.

Manav with his tennis "knee band" like Papa. Note the clips he added.

The soccer boys

And for-the-camera smiles

Sri Lanka

Arnav's recovery continued into its third day and he's doing great without any pain killer. This evening we were laughing over high fives seeing him somersault with one hand and the other one tucked underneath. It came so naturally to him.

Also, today we received the birthday gift package from my brother. Manav's birthday is not till the 21st of April but this was an early delivery. With it came lots of surprises and all kinds of new ideas of play. It contained a lightening McQueen boom box, a remote controlled car, Dr. Seuss book on Solar System and a pair of Lego walkie talkies. I had to list the contents to do justice to what followed after opening the package.

"Arnav don't touch anything. These are my birthday presents"
"Ok. I want the remote control car"
"Mommy please read the book" Manav said, alternating on his feet, just couldn't stand still all the while scratching his head (he does this when he is super excited)
"Ok" I said, saying a mental thank you to nobody in particular, thrilled at the fact that my boy chose the book, THE BOOK over the fancy toys.
"No, lets hear some music on the boom box first. Or maybe we can play with the walki talkie just like Spudz in Bob the Builder. But then I wanted the remote controlled car so Bablu mama sent it. Mommy, are you listening?" Manav got me back to the real world. The world where kids will be kids and devious parental satisfactions are never to be granted.

The afternoon was well spent. Arnav ran behind the car though he had the control and was using it. He preferred stopping it, reversing it and driving it manually. Guess it just made him feel powerful. Manav fiddled with the car a bit but was more interested in the boom box. He got bored of the CD and turned his attention to the radio where more fiddling was involved. Finally selected a rap station and danced around to the tune and ended it with vigorous fist slapping on the floor with bent knees. I have no clue where he learnt this from. Then they both turned their attention to the walki talkies and here I put my foot down. I said
"We don't have the 8 AAA (yes, talk about batteries burning a hole in pocket) so we will get to it after we buy the batteries. And now we need to take the book, read it and nap"
The boys obliged reluctantly. We read and reread the book stopping short at the glossary (Manav didn't let me go without explaining what glossary meant) and I promised I will read the glossary once we wake up. (which I did). More drama followed in the evening when Caunteya came in with the batteries. Manav was quick in learning how to push-to-talk but Arnav just kept saying 'Over' over and over again.

After dinner we went on a drive, just so that the kids would sleep off in the car and we would be spared yet another day of bedtime routine which doesnt work anyways. Yesterday, I spent so much time with Manav but he just refused to fall asleep. We tried with the lights on, lights off, hugging his doggie, holding his book, with fan on, fan off, blanket on, blanket off but he would still reappear at our bedside in under 2 minutes. He said
"Mommy. I am sorry but you didn't tuck me in properly"

So today was drive day. Arnav started singing "Sri lanka, sri lanka". Caunteya asked him why he was singing that.
"Because they didn't winned the match" Manav said
"No, Surpnakha cut off her nose there" Arnav said
Both were right and we said so.

Last Sunday over a noodles lunch I tried teaching the kids about gravity and failed miserably. The ketchup was at its last few drops and I put it upside down so that we could get some easily. While Manav was waiting I said
"Why do you think the ketchup is coming down"
"Because it is liquid and it flows down" said Manav
"Why doesn't it flow up?" I asked a leading question
"Because it is its job to flow down" Manav rested his case and I will wait for his school to teach him about gravity. They do a better job.

On our way back from some errands the same Sunday evening, Manav was being very irrational. He drank some water and threw the empty bottle and started his other silly antics. He got a whack from Caunteya and started crying and saying
"There was something yucky in the bottle and I can still feel it in my throat and that is why I threw the bottle"
"Ok, so lets go to the doctor"
"Yes, I am not feeling well, it is still there in my throat" he was clutching his throat and making weird noises which was so realistic that we stopped the car to check. He gulped and rubbed his throat and said
"I am feeling better now. We don't need to go to the doctor's"
"Oh, ok. maybe there was a worm in the water" I said
"No worms are big and they live in the mud. There was some small black things in the water which got stuck in my throat" he continued his tale
"Oh, what are those black things? "
"I don't know. You check it out"
"We are going to a restaurant for dinner. Is it fine?"
"Yes. Don't worry too much. I will deal with it" Manav said matter-of-factly.

And once in the restaurant he started reading(spelling) all the menu and "read" them using the food pictures beside them. Ones he couldn't I had to fill in, which was more often than not. His reading continued to "Open" and "Closed" signs on the other shop windows while we were leaving. I am always in a hurry for Manav to start reading so that I don't have to read him his books multiple times a day. But as with other things I remind myself that these are moments to savor, live and treasure. The cuddling kids on your lap, hanging on to each word you read, pointing to pictures with their pudgy(not so any more, since my parents left) fingers, asking innocent, hillarious and sometimes meaningful questions and then drowsing off wrapped in your arms, fingers, night dress or hair is a BIG deal. Once they learn to read they will cuddle with the book instead, on their beds, fall asleep and not turn up at our bedside any more. Though that is what I want so much now, am sure I wouldn't want that when it happens. So here is waiting for things that I am sure I wouldn't want when they happen. This is parenthood.

Gallons of Dollars

We all get excited on Fridays due to our own different reasons.....the kids, well are always excited, they don't need Fridays...but yes, they are treasure days so they look forward to Fridays. As for myself, I look forward to the two weekend days where we can steal a movie(netflix) and sleep late and wake up late (yes, sometimes the kids allow this) and not have to worry about school. Not sure what excites my husband about Friday but lets just say that he is excited about Friday too, just to be with the family.

This friday was an exception. It started well, with Manav and Arnav getting blue icing cupcakes from school as it was Daniel's birthday but soon turned into a nightmare. Arnav's finger got jammed in the door that Manav was trying to close and we had an extended trip to the doctor's. Luckily, it was nothing major though it was not all that simple either. He's doing fine. They woke up from an exhausted evening nap (afternoon was spent rushing, crying, soothing etc) and hugged each other amidst 'Sorry's ' and 'Its ok's'.

The reason I mention this episode despite its lacking any "conversation material" is the astonishing rate at which Arnav (and any toddler I suppose) is heading back to normalcy. From the hysterical "I cannot move my finger" to actually holding a pen and coloring in less than 48 hours is amazing to say the least. His finger is still black and blue and red. He is using his good left hand for a good number of tasks like drinking milk, eating strawberries, picking things etc. But the fun thing is he can manipulate the good 4 fingers in his bad hand to do almost any task now like ride his bike, climb on his bed, car seat etc. As many times I see his finger, I wince but there is no reason to, as with just a little aid of pain killer he is doing great. My humble salute to this strong little boy of mine. Someone in the family at least has some decent pain threshold.

That night though we were all back to normal enjoying our ice creams at the colored (lighted) water fountain. Manav had remarked earlier at the dinner table

"I have never been to an ice-cream shop ever before"

It was a beautiful Friday night with live music, people enjoying the weather and food and my boys squealing with delight being drenched by the water when a wayward breeze would sway the "mighty" fountains toward them.

The other day it was getting particularly too much for me and I yelled at the boys. They complied with muted understanding to whatever I was saying but seeing their about-to-cry faces I sat down with them and said

"Listen boys, Mommy gets really frustrated sometimes when you don't listen and then becomes a bad person and yells. It can be avoided by you helping Mommy and doing what she says. Right?"

"What is frustrated?" asked Arnav

"Why do you get frustrated Mommy? You should not get frustrated. You should just let the kids do the things they want. Have you seen dinosaur daddy ( as in Dinosaur train)? He lets his kids do everything. If they want to fish, he lets them, if they want to play with water, he lets them. We can write down on paper 'No getting frustrated.' and 'No putting kids in timeout' so that when you feel frustrated, you read it and say 'N-O', oh that means I cannot get frustrated. Simple" (We have a hand written wall mounting which says things like 'No hitting', 'No pushing' etc)

I sighed (an extra long sigh) and went blank though now I can think of so many apt responses to this long lecture from my almost 4 year old. So now I have to compete with dinosaur dad.

In the midst of my another mad sewing spree when the whole house goes upside down, I happily doled out the big packet of goldfish for their evening snack. A word here about my rule of having one fruit and one junk food for evening snacks will make it clear that only goldfish is a "strict no-no" (as the kids would say) but I break my own rules when I am sewing. (All my sewed stuff is in a way like blood diamonds, with more stress on blood rather than diamonds). Back to the topic, Arnav was playing with the goldfish, throwing them around and crushing them. (Kids will always find ways to amuse themselves in the process either providing you with amusement, which is rare or making you extremely mad, which is often) Manav said

"Arnav stop doing that. Do you know how much this costs?"

"No"

"It costs gallons of dollars. If you waste so much, no money will be left to buy cool stuff like toys and more goldfish"

Yesterday we went to a birthday party and Manav is particularly fond of the birthday girl. I asked him whether he had a good time. He said

"Yeah...I did. But she didn't let me stand next to her during the game."

"Why Manav? What did she say?"

"She said, I have my sister, so she will stand beside me"

"Oh, ok. Its her birthday and she can choose who she wants, right? Thats fine." I kind of consoled him

"Yes. I said I had a good time." came the sulky retort which led me to wonder how many thwarted attempts this boy/young guy/man will have in his life before he actually meets his sweetheart. Gosh, the rate at which I try to fast forward things is not funny at all.

Now the kids' pretend play is at its peak ( or I will find out better). Arnav has kind of jumped up a whole year as he had to catch up with Manav and trust me it is not easy to not catch up with Manav as he (Manav) will drive you nuts with his non-stop nonsense and the only way to tackle that is to join him. (to our complete agony). In a typical day they start with being cats, cows, lions, dogs morphing into humpback whales, killer alligators and ending with robots, soccer/tennis/baseball/cricket players.

These days they pretend a lot to be the Kratz brothers Chris and Martin (from Wild Kratz). Yesterday in the park they drove away a little girl calling her a 'wild animal' (In the Wild Kratz series, they introduce a wild animal and give all its detail in a fictitious story). So Manav aka Chris and Arnav aka Martin would "steer" the ship (the play area is built like a ship, complete with viewers, stern, mast etc. as you can see my knowledge of ships is limited though once upon a time I did have a good understanding having immersed myself in Amitav Ghosh's 'Sea of Poppies') and yell out

"I see a wild animal Martin" as the little girl would try to climb up the "ship" and they would just point to her and go "wild animal" "wild animal" and to their utter delight the "wild animal" would abandon her climb and run into Mommy's arms. I did my bit to stop this but it ultimately ended in the girl and her mom's departure.

We also cut short the boys' play, citing their bad behaviour and started driving back. The punishment didnt work though as Manav started

"Hey Arnav you have such ugly shoes."

"No my shoes are very good." The shoes were new, just bought them day before in my way of atoning for not being able to keep Arnav out of harm's way.

"No, they are very muddy and ugly"

"No, my shoes are good. Your shoes are ugly" Arnav countered

"Are you kidding me? My shoes are ugly? Really" you should have seen Manav with his exaggerated actions and accent.

We stopped to pick up mail and Manav as usual asked

"Are they asking us to go to church?" in reference to the fliers we get about attending church

And sure enough there was one for Grace Church and I handed over the same to him

"Oh look Mommy, they have a map here." there was a world map on the reverse

"Can I have that Manav, please? pleaded Arnav

"No, you cannot. This is all fairyland. And you cannot touch fairyland" Manav fantasized.

Today Manav decided to be a robot while having lunch. I am not sure whether Caunteya had something to do with it as the "robot" would open his mouth and eat and chew and open again for food responding to a "voice command". I also pretended to be very impressed with the robot's abilities and said

"Wow, I like you robot. Can I buy you for $20"

"You will have to ask the waiter" said Manav pointing to Caunteya

"No, he is my pet robot. I will not sell him" said Caunteya

"Mommy you cannot buy me for any dollars" confirmed Manav

Then he continued the act all through his bath (and learned 1-10 in hindi) and also cleaned up the toys from the living room in his robot frenzy ( that was initiated by me)

Some time before, I reminded them for the umpteenth time that they cannot step on paper or books as God ( Lord Saraswati, as Manav says) gets very upset and all stories and words from books will disappear. Manav came back with this

"Where is God Mommy? I never see him around"

I delivered a weak lecture building on keywords like 'super power' , 'temple'.

So as you see things are getting complicated by the minute. I am still struggling to keep abreast with these soon to be 3T and 4T at the expense of my mental, physical and egoistical well-being. Already, there is an alarming increase in "I don't know"  and " I will google" responses. All I can do is wait for the inevitable "Don't ask Mommy, she doesn't know" or go back to work.

Monarch Chrysalis

The topic in Manav's class is now "The life cycle of a butterfly". I am amazed by the number of ways they have been working on this. Simple butterfly cut-out coloring, putting the different stages in order, reading the "Hungry Caterpillar" book, making a caterpillar out of the fruits(the hungry caterpillar ate) in a long net and some more cutouts and props. Manav comes home and tells me
"Mommy this is the chrysalis, you can also call it cocoon or pupa"
WhiIe I am thrilled (weird as it may sound but biology is/was my favorite subject), Caunteya raises his eyebrows at "chrysalis".
"Monarch caterpillar will produce a monarch butterfly" Manav affirms.

On way back from school one day to my usual what-happened-in-school question Arnav says
"I heard a story about a frog. A loud bullfrog"
"The frog's name in my story was amphibian. Just like the crocodile's name was alligator, this frog was amphibian" Manav confirms and goes on to add
"Some frogs are poisonous. Usually the small ones"

So shadow is caused by "blocking the light source", date is a "secret code known to a few early- preschoolers as month-day-year", the weather is "c-o-o-l and not c-o-l-d today", time is "almost eight-o-clock or little more than eight-o-clock and rarely eight-o-clock", to know how many dinosaurs are there in the jar we "count", the neighbor's cat is a "carnivore" as he saw it attacking a pigeon....... the list goes on. I am having such a great time reliving my school days. I can't help but notice the sparkle in Manav's eyes when he narrates these things to me. He loves learning and as his teacher mentions in his report card (yes, they do a 6 weekly reporting) "Manav loves science". Hope he always finds learning as novel and interesting all along.

One day I was folding the laundry and the kids wanted to help ( they always want to help, you have to have a big heart to handle all that help).
"Manav, sab socks ek saath rakho" I said
"Haan, karti hunn" Manav replied in his accented hindi
Caunteya told him "Finish the book phir nehalaunga"
"Yes, let me finish this then nelaya" came the reply from our angrez kiddo who sings "Hotel California and Eewin Eewin Eewin main to lut gaya" with equal gusto. Though we take a couple of minutes to crack which hindi song he is singing.

I took Arnav for his doctor's visit. He was well prepared for the same as Manav made sure he had a mock session at home. Arnav said
"I will lie down, watch TV and the doctor will check my boo-boo." (The dentist's has the TV)
"What is the name of the doctor, Arnav? " Manav asks his pupil
"Conductor" comes the quick reply.

Its the bike phase in the house. The boys are forever mounted in their bikes. They go to bed in their bikes, park the same and then sleep, wake up and ride to the bathroom, ride back to the breakfast table, park near the couch for some TV and of course the real ride to the carpentar park. Manav always asserts that he has the bike (bicycle) and Arnav has the trike (tricycle). I have told them that on Manav's birthday we are getting him a bigger bike and Arnav will take Manav's and Saachi will get Arnav's trike.

This morning Arnav woke up earlier and hijacked Manav's bike. Manav came in and started his lecture.(He is razor sharp in the morning).
"Arnav is this a bike or trike?"
"Bike"
"Then please get down and let me ride it"
"No, this is mine"
"You are a baby, you should ride a trike. Bike is for big boys"
"The doctor said I am three. I am a big boy" ( The doctor had said "See you when you are three" to Arnav)
"Did you give your trike to Saachi?" Manav continues
"No"
"Is it the 21st yet?"
"No"
"Then? It is not my birthday. And there is no new bike. When it is my happy birthday then you can have my bike. Now you ride your trike"
Not sure how this was resolved but as I said it is impossible to beat Manav in an argument during the wee hours of the day.

Caunteya came in early today to take the kids for soccer. He had to take a call from home and was setting up the phone in the bedroom and Arnav walked in
"Papa, what are you doing?"
"I have a call. Please close the door"
"Is this a place to call? When you are tired you come and sleep in the bed. Please come out."

Manav wore the beaded bracelet that Arnav had made in school. Arnav saw this and said
"Cool Manav. You are wearing my artwork. It is cool"

Thus is the state of things here at Parekh household. As the weather holds a surprise every day so do the boys. They tire you all day and then some more with their night wakings. Manav wakes up at night and tells me
"Can I tell you a favor"
"What Manav?"
"Can I wear shorts?"
and another day he comes screaming and crying from his room
"I don't want to play this game anymore."
Arnav usually wakes up to drink water all night long.

Time for me to guzzle some (water) and sleep. Tired to say the least but really wanted to pen (When I read "sheep pen", Manav was so tickled). It has been a while. Don't have an ounce of strength to put in the pictures. It will suffice to say that they will figure in the next post, whenever that happens. Till then sing along
"Fly Fly Fly Fly High
Fly Fly Butterfly"