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.