Water Bodies

My hair is naturally falling off else I would have had to rip it off my head. Such is the pace of life now. I had everything in control with all events marked in my calendar (no iPhone/iPad stuff, a real wall hanging paper calendar from Huawei, courtesy my friend's husband) or so I thought. Looks like I had Manav's and Arnav's swim classes all wrongly marked and must be Santa who gave me an intuition to check with the other student's mom the very day when the classes were scheduled. And Santa did make sure I had 2-3 hrs lead time notice so it actually went fine. Now for two weeks we have alternate day swim classes for the boys. And last Friday Caunteya happened to take the boys to the mall and ended up signing for the skating classes for Manav. So all 6 or 8 Saturdays are now booked there. I just made sure I wasn't the one ferrying the kids around. So summer just got busier.

Breather doesn't exist any more. But life is still entertaining all the same. Or so it seems when the kids are in bed and I am blogging. The other day Manav remarked
"Mommy I didn't know water had bodies"
"What?" was my distracted reply as I was driving
"Papa said something about water bodies"

Manav was explaining to Caunteya about a TV show.
"Papa there are two kinds of lions. One with hair and one without hair."
"You mean the male and female lions?" Caunteya said
"I don't know. But the one without hair takes care of the babies"
"Its called the mane, Manav" I added. Kids have to learn all the time right?

I was in the garage cleaning when I heard tidbits of conversation from the laundry room
"It looks like an american badger " Arnav said
"No its an iguana" Manav replied
"Or a snake"
Now my curiosity was sufficiently aroused to check what they were checking out. Once inside I yelled like no body's business. It was a baby lizard, you know the transparent ones we had in India where you could see all the organs inside. (Sorry for the description Sheetal)
"Mommy what is happening? We have ants, spiders, baby lizards, rolly pollies....everything in this house. You are keeping the garage door open and they are coming in. Please be careful Mommy" Arnav reprimanded while gesticulating.

Last Saturday morning Caunteya came back from his tennis match to a very dejected me. The boys as usual have been driving me crazy and I was madder, it being a weekend .
"Looks like you have been difficult, boys. Why is Mommy so angry?"
"No we were good boys" Manav said
"Then why does she look so tired?"
"Maybe she didn't sleep well or something. We were good boys" Manav confirmed.

The other night Arnav spilled water in his bedroom. Caunteya just stopped short of spanking him. He started crying and looked for me and finding me around pouted his famous pout.
"I am angry at Papa. He is a bad adult"
"Who spilled the water? You or me? Who should be angry? You or me?" Caunteya tried logic
"You are in a bad mood" Arnav pouted even more
"Manav and I will be here in this bedroom. Mommy can come in. No Papa. Papa will go to the old house." Arnav went on.
We all tried talking truce but in vain. Arnav was adamant that Papa leave us alone in the new house.

Last week Caunteya was caught up in workshops so we didn't see much of him. This was taking its toll on Manav. The second day Caunteya had a pre-screening of Harry Potter and was not home till the boys slept. Manav explained to Arnav
"Papa is watching a movie in office. He will be late"
"Nooo. Papa works in office. He doesn't watch movies. Hah" Arnav replied vehemently
Something snapped and Manav started crying, little sobs at first then full blown wailing.
"Mommy do you know how much I miss Papa?" he wailed
"Oh baby, I know. We all miss Papa. But he needs to work to get money so we can have a good time."
"I don't want to have a good time. I want Papa" more tears
"Ok, so lets do this. Papa can stay at home and I can go to work and get money so that we can continue having a good time" I wanted to distract him. His cries were beginning to break my heart
"Ok." Then he paused. " But then I will miss YOU Mommy" more fresh tears
"I want both Mommy and Papa" he stated his requirement in crisp words.
Somehow we made it through that night.

Manav and Arnav were playing in another apartment's play area. Some boys were there on the slide playing with their bay blades. My boys started watching them and one of the boys came up to where Manav was climbing the structure and asked him to back off.
"I am not coming down THAT slide. I am using the other slide" Manav tried bravely
"Hey, go away. Or I will slap you" said the boy.
Manav started crying and as much as I hated it I had to intervene. I visualized the millions of bullying moments that will come in my boys' life and I will not be there to help them out. It just made me so sad. But then one part of me wanted them to deal with it and be prepared instead of being shielded. After a pep talk with the boys (who by then had already sobered down, they didnt expect Manav to cry) I forced Manav and Arnav to continue playing. They timidly played a bit but wanted to go home. On our way back
"Manav, you need to be brave. When someone is not being nice to you or troubling you, you have to tell them so."
"But they are such big boys. How will I do it? They will slap me" Manav had genuine concerns
"Manav you have to pretend to be brave even if you feel scared. You have your brother, so together you are a big team. And no one can slap you." I tried
"But he is so small. How will he help me?" Manav couldn't be convinced.
I tried some other explanations but didn't quite work.
"They are bad boys Mommy. I don't want to play here ever. They live here but still they are not being nice" Manav made up his mind
That night while tucking him in bed I said
"Manav remember the time you scared Neil in the Preston Meadow playground. Now you know how bad he felt. You shouldn't do something that you don't like other people doing to you" I tried preaching
"But Mommy, then I was a lion. I was just pretending." Manav said
"Manav, for Neil you were scary. He didn't have a way to know whether you were pretending or being real. One can argue that the boys here were pretending to be mean. They were not really mean"
"No, they are bad, mean boys Mommy."
I let it go at that, hoping that he would have imbibed some of life's lessons.

Today I left the garage door open the entire time I was away to fetch the boys and visiting friends. Manav gave his two cents
"Mommy how can you do that? What if someone comes in uninvited and messes with our things here? What will we do?"
"I am sorry Manav. I will be more careful next time."
"Its ok Mommy"

Now some pictures. On more than one occasion we have caught the boys sleeping in the same pose. That is some uncanny resemblance. Check out the two pictures below.

Arnav with his favorite boiled bhindi and salad lunch.

This morning Manav was trying to write "It is not a good world" but got as far as "It is not a go" as the "page ended.".
"Why are you writing this?" I was a bit alarmed
"Mommy I want to give this to Papa. I don't want him to wake up before me." That explained. By the time Manav walked into our room we were out in the kitchen having tea.