Piece of cake

There has been a significant change in Manav's conversations. Well it has been happening over time but I am just beginning to notice. Earlier it used to be our words wrapped in his baby language being spoken but now its all his own - words, feelings, language, vocabulary everything genuine, no copy here. Some incidents over the past few days.

Last evening the boys were having sprinkler fun. The sprinklers work in zones as per setting and they had a ball running from front yard to shrubs, to back yard and all over following the sprinklers. Soaked from head to toe they now became too inquisitive. They started sitting on the sprinklers, stuffing them with snail shells, covering couple of holes in the sprinklers and "diverting" water. These activities prompted Caunteya to make the "no touching sprinklers" rule. And when this was violated umpteen times Caunteya said
"I will never ever start the sprinklers again. Tulu (that's me) go shut off the sprinklers"
"Papa, it is your wish. You may never ever start sprinklers if you want to. You can shut them off now. I don't care. I will play."
"Yes, you can go away Papa, if you want to" Arnav chimed in.
They played on and got into mud baths. There was mud in every conceivable part of their body. After a good scrub Manav said
"Now that we had so much fun with the sprinklers, can we calm down with some TV?"

This morning we were running late for Arnav's dental appointment and were not sure whether we wanted to drop Manav to school (and waste precious minutes) or take him along. By the time I came into the car Caunteya had already told Manav that we are going to the doctor's first and then school. I called up the doctor, informed we will be late. Manav was furious
"Papa, you are not a kid. Why did Mommy answer my question and why did you listen?"
"What question Manav, I am not following you?" Caunteya said
"When I asked where we are going you said dentist's and now Mommy says school. Why are you listening to her, you are an adult not a kid" Manav was pretty mad
Caunteya did explain about the change in decisions but that didn't go too well with him.

Nowadays Manav's favorite whining is
"No one listens to what I am saying. I have to listen to everyone. Everyone is taking my things and I cannot take anyone's things" and so on. I love the way he generalises things, I mean in this sentence he referred to me and Arnav and sounded like including the entire universe.

And his curiosity continues to enter unthinkable
"Mommy, I am going to have hair in my armpits when I grow up, right?"

But he is still the sweetest boy around
"Mommy you work so hard isn't it?" when Caunteya said you have to eat what Mommy cooked.
"Yes, Manav" I beamed
"You cook and exercise so much. You have to put the oil and your hand gets exercise." Manav confirms cooking is hard work but very beneficial. How did I miss this fact?

Some more fragmented conversations
"Mommy, sit here a little bit. Tell me all about the walk we had today" , when I was kissing Manav good night.

"Here, I will show you how to approach this problem" showing Arnav how to color the opposite side.

"If Papa walks down, how will he get up?" while waiting to pick up Caunteya from his office. And he was very tickled when I told him "walk down" is a phrase. He started a conversation with his phrases
"Arnav when I say it is a "piece of cake" what do I mean?"
"Arnav when I "plant my foot" is it a tree there?"
Arnav was flummoxed to say the least.

Arnav is talking too, lest you think otherwise. Just that I have to tune my receivers to his frequency. When we have a bigger talker with complicated sentences it is easy to miss out on Arnav size conversations. I have to devote one entire post to Arnav to make sure he doesn't feel left out. Yes, I really think the boys will read this when they are older and will have a good laugh.

Stuck Carrot

Has been a while since I penned. Food for thought - since we moved in here we have been too busy, guess that is a good thing. Kids have ample space to play and hardly rant for my attention, guess that is a good thing. Husband is happy with the yard and has embarked upon stringent cricket coaching for the boys, guess that is a good thing. I like everything about this place - flowers, bugs, leaking faucets, very quiet neighborhood, being able to recycle, lawnmowers occasionally breaking the silence, hardly a face to be seen anywhere, library around the corner, ample biking friendly sidewalks for the kids and much more, guess that is a good thing. And the above are the exact reasons why I don't like this place and guess that is what "like- dislike" being the two sides of the same coin is all about. Just a wee bit tinkering iyour mind and you start flipping the like to dislike and vice-versa. Not sure if that is a good thing, or did I mean a bad thing.

Amongst these opposites the boys are growing up by leaps and bounds. Summer in full swing and most of the days they are at home, me being too lazy to send them to a half-day school and the lunch menu forbidding a full-day stint. The day they are home is again a mixed bag but I feel a strange sense of achievement when such days are done. I didn't write this (the very next day I send them to school irrespective of the lunch menu). And conversations are getting more refined with the little one joining in more often that not.

Last morning I woke up to Manav's cries on the potty.
"What happened baby?" I asked
"You made me eat those (baby) carrots. And now they are stuck in my bum and poopy won't come out" he wailed

And the other day
"You are just a beaver" Manav said pointing at Arnav
"No, you are just a beaver" Arnav retorted
Actually they meant Justin Beiber. Misha had introduced them to this teen singer but they preferred the wild angle.

I am not sure if I should include such an adult content in a kiddie blog, but then the kid said it so have to. Hope no feelings hurt.
The master bathroom in this house has a door without a lock. One day while I was changing Manav barged in saying something but stopped mid-sentence
"Mommy what are those hills?" Don't get any ideas I was clad, just not adequately.
While I was groping for an answer and a t-shirt at the same time, Manav self-explained
"Oh, look I have only marks" lifting his t-shirt and pointing
"and you have real hills" and walked away satisfied, leaving me stunned.

Thus summer continues with many more hilarious incidents which my old mind has forgotten. All I need is to train my mind to register the events. Awaiting the fourth of July vacation at my brother's, till then enjoy some pictures.

Feet in the air - during a recent playdate

Boys enjoying the Denton Airshow

Future Fighter Pilots

Ending with the savory bowl of pasta with "planet" olives, which closely ties with dosa for the position of "Most eaten food in the Parekh household". Yes, you got it, strangely the kids don't like Pizza unless a Birthday Party makes them hungry.

Memorable Memorial Day

Kids need Kids. Though they depend on us adults for most of the things, they thrive in the time spent with other kids. There are initial hiccups but if we just let them be (and not interfere with our notions of rules and behaviour) they finally settle into peaceful play. This extended Memorial day weekend Manav and Arnav settled down with Mitisha and Mallika, the adorable daughters of my best friend Mahasweta. When I write "best friend" it seems like school/college era and a bit foolish as well, maybe even embarrassing but she still is and will remain my best friend.

The evening they landed was a humdrum affair with the almost 2, almost 3, 4 and 8 year olds trying to mingle while the adults exchanged information over their heads. Next morning we set out for Galveston, touted to be a "poor-man's beach vacation place" (or maybe that's what I expected) but it turned out to be a perfect place for all of us. But we didn't know what awaited us as we were engrossed in the long drive with the kids flowing freely between the two cars, hence the multiple stops to accommodate seating preferences. Not to mention the drink breaks, bathroom breaks, food breaks and puke cleanup break. At last we reached the Galvestonian - our resort and that was the best part of the day.

Everyone just plunged into the pool having decided to hit the beach next day as it was already evening. Ouch, I just remembered that this is NOT a travelogue but conversations, so here I go.

"Misha, can you spell cosmopolitan?" I asked Misha to veer the current topic of who-gets-to-sit -next -to-Misha.
"What is cosmopolitan?" she asked and after some explanations and disclaimer that this wasn't 2nd grade stuff, she successfully attempted the spelling. And this started a new game. Manav and Arnav joined in
"Can you spell lamppost?" and got her confused regarding 1 or 2 'p's
"Can you spell sign? and the silent 'g' stumped her
and many other words until Arnav said
"Can you spell gaadi?"
"What IS gaadi?" she was stumped again
"Car" Manav explained
"I cannot spell foreign language words" was her reply and Caunteya I guess couldn't help but retort
"English is a foreign language"
and more spelling words were thrown at her by the boys until she said
"I am not spelling any more. This makes me feel like school and it is not pleasant. I am on a vacation" and didn't budge when the boys implored
"Last one please"

The family before hitting the beach

And then the sand castles

The kids had a great time on day 2 with sand castles, beach toys, wave riding and running around. On day 3 we went to Moody gardens. There they went berserk with the 4-D movie of Dora and Diego, loved the aquarium and chased the butterflies in the 100 degrees simulated heat of the newly opened rain forest pyramid. But the best part was again the "Palm Beach" inside the garden. They were practically tireless hopping from wave pool to water slides to lazy river to sprinkler parks to anything and everything water. It was constant happy laughter and lots of shrieking and yelling.

The evenings were spent dining at the great seafood restaurants lining the Seawall. We also visited Historic Strand and went on a horse carriage ride. Manav asked the driver
"How do you make the horse stop at the Stop signs?"

Ok back to some more car conversations. They were talking about doctors. Manav said
"Babies go to baby doctors. They give shots"
"I go to a pediatrician too" said Misha
"I go to Dr. Zarmin" said Arnav
"No, doctors are not mean just because they give shots." said Misha as Arnav's "Zarmin" did sound like "mean".
"It is Dr Guetersloh not Zarmin" Manav said
"I go to Dr. Zarmin" maintained Arnav
"No, doctors are not mean" maintained Misha.
and so they maintained the conversation .....

A couple of days ago ( I have been writing this post since the last few days, not getting done :-) I made gherkin fry which we call tindora in Hindi. Surprisingly Manav and Arnav loved it. Arnav said
"Can I have more Dora, please?"
"Yes, sure you can. It is tindora" Caunteya clarified
"Yes, T-T-T- Tin - Dora" Arnav attempted the phonics.

The blooms in the new house reminds me of our childhood home in Rourkela. Google led me to the name plumeria but I am still not convinced these are those. Same family though. 

I started writing this post on 2nd June and it is already stale. Need to let go of this one and start afresh. New things happening all the time but time is what I don't have now. Too many things to do, some I love, some I like, some need to be done, some I hate and some I can't stand doing and some happen nevertheless.

As Manav said just now when I kissed him goodnight
"Mommy I will soon become an adult and I will let you die"

More on this seemingly alarming statement later. For now goodnight.