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.