Discombobulated ...

The other night I was brushing Manav's teeth and he said
"Discombobulate"
"What did you just say?" I asked a trifle surprised
"Discombobulate" no hesitation and perfect pronunciation
"What does that mean?"
Now that I was certain he said that word, I probed further. I love playing these games with Manav. He is developing a vocabulary and I love finding out how/where he first heard it. Sort of getting to the etymology.
"I don't know. I just made it up" Manav said
"No, I don't think so. Try to remember where you heard it" Of course he cannot make up a legitimate word.
"It means confused. You know how the pigeons get discombobulated when you just take them to other part of the city but they still come back home using their homing instincts? "
I got it. That's the Wild Kratts ( a TV program they watch regularly using their 30 mins of TV time/day) at play.

The kids are on the iPad while I am writing. When Caunteya handed over the iPad to Arnav he repeated the same mantra before Caunteya could
"No emails or maps, only chess, tennis or fruit game"
and next moment I received an email in my inbox

Debjani
4:05 PM (37 minutes ago)
to undisclosed recipients

Opuyytyi_

Sent from my iPad

I walked over to the kids and said
"You are using the email"
"Papa gave the iPad to play" Arnav said
"But Papa said no email right? I can see what you are doing though I am not around. So don't do what you are not supposed to" and I started walking away
"You are not God Mommy" Manav shouted back, to make sure I heard.
The other day Arnav had informed me
"Mommy, Manav said God can see the whole world with his two eyes"
so I wasn't surprised at the remark. I managed a smile though, with my back towards them, of course.

Arnav quizzed me while on the potty today,
"What is pee-pee in Chinese?"
"I don't know" I tried to downplay my raised eyebrows while my heart was beating wildly with all kinds of images and thoughts crossing my mind.
"It is Aveeno" he smirked
I didn't know what to say, so just smiled. I couldn't and don't have any inclination to test the veracity of his translation. I would just like to dismiss this as "Arnav Chinese"

They had recently celebrated Chinese New Year at school and when I went to pick up the boys Manav said
"We had a great time. And the best part is we didnt have to speak Chinese in Chinese New Year. See I am still speaking English"

Still sleepy I walked out of the bathroom when Manav chimed
"Mommy, don't keep the lights on. Electricity will run out and the bulbs wont work any more."

Long time back they were helping Caunteya with the shredding.
"Why do we shred mails Papa?" Arnav asked
"When we throw mails in the trash and go to sleep at night, a man comes and takes important mails out and reads them. If we shred them he cannot read." Manav explained with his hands and face expressing each and every word.

Manav drew this picture this morning ( the shot is on the dining table, so the brown areas is the table)

He explained it thus.
"The cutouts are the door and windows. Manav and Arnav are sleeping in their bunk bed (see the ladder) with their blue blankets (with Manav on top) and Mommy and Papa sleeping with their red blanket over their heads"
"What are the two yellow things?"
"They are toilets with the flush handle and poop inside"
"And those rectangles?"
"They are the kitchen tiles and the refrigerator as we cannot live without food. I will be so hungry"

Manav had his Haatey Khodi yesterday at Saraswati Puja. He said he will write three things for God
"1. Thank you for making me four
2. I wish you would make me nine
3. Thats it, just 2 things"
Arnav said, he will write three things too
"1. I will be nice.
2. I will not yell
3. Thats it, just 2 things"

This morning while blowing his nose I remarked
"Manav, looks like your cold is gone. Nothing in your nose"
"Yes, Mommy it has to. Remember I namoed ( prayed with joined palms) to God yesterday and asked him to take away my cold"
"I catched a cold Mommy. Manav didn't catch one, he dropped it so he doesnt have cold" Arnav put forth his two cents.

I must mention this blueberry tasting incident that happened a couple of days ago. We were eating blueberries and quickly came to the conclusion that there is no way of determining whether the blueberries are sour or sweet before eating them. We had hypothesised that soft ones were sweet and the hard reddish ones were sour but both were proved false. Arnav had a smart idea, he pushed the blueberry on his front bottom incisor, sucked the juice, took out the still almost intact and said
"Hey wait a minute. This one is sweet. And I can say that before eating it"
So, he continued with this shabri-ke-ber act and dished out all the sweet ones. We sure were impressed.

My Gujju part of the family.

I rest my case here.

"So how was your day?"

"So how was your day?" asks Arnav, sipping on his (makeshift) coffee.
"It was good. The kids were fighting in the bank. How was your day? " Manav answers with a drawl.
"Good. My kids were also fighting." Arnav runs out of adult conversation material.
"Who dropped you to school?" Manav restarts
"Papa"
"Who picked you up?"
"Papa"
"Why? he didn't go to work?"
"No, he was late."
"Why?"
"There was waffle for breakfast and he could not finish it" Arnav does this, comes up with smart reasons.
"Oh and office started right?"
"Yes"
And then they almost fell out of their chair laughing. They are having these "adult-catch-up-over-coffee" discussions quite often now.

Welcome to enlightened Manav and still-a-baby Arnav, after this long hiatus. A lot has happened since I last wrote. There is no way I can sum it up in one post....so get ready for a slew of these.

Manav has started reading and Arnav has started providing his insights always starting with
"Mommy we have a big poblem (problem)"

Manav reads
"We sell for less"
and there is a startled "Mommieeeeee"
"What happened Manav?"
"See I told you, they sell less cars (disney) at this Walmart. We should have gone to the green Walmart"
"Manav, this means they sell stuff for less money. Less dollars, not less cars."
That kind of brought down his anxiety level and we ended up bagging Rod "torque" redline and Acer.

Arnav always asks me sweetly
'Mommy is your back feeling ok today?"
If I say "No it still hurts"  he says
"Why? I saw you taking your medicine, it shouldn't hurt"
and if I say "Yes, it feels much better, thank you" he says
"Yayyy....can you please bend?" I oblige and he hugs me tight and says
"There, all better"

Arnav is sure growing up but somehow doesnt display as much mental alertness as Manav. He always "forgets" but sometimes he does surprise us with his little insights as I mentioned. We were all discussing animals and Arnav started
"Papa, do you know, there are some ant like creatures who eat like an elephant"
"Ant eating as much as an elephant?" we laugh
"What was the name again Manav?" Arnav scrunches up his face and asks for help
"You mean termites, Arnav"
"Yes, yes, termites, they eat like an elephant"
"Because there are so many of them, even if each eat a blade of grass, together they eat as much as an elephant" Manav clarifies.
"Yes, Yes, termites eat like elephants. See I told you Papa" says a jubilant Arnav

"Manav what more can you tell us?" We want to continue the conversation
"What do you want to hear? Do you want to know about the cactus with spikes?"
"Yes"
"Well there are cactus which have spikes to protect themselves from predators in the desert" Manav offers next
"Now who is going to attack a cactus in the desert Manav?" Caunteya scoffs.
"There are animals who want to sit on the cactus and eat it but as it has spines no one eats it and see without moving a muscle it protects itself" Manav dramatically waves his hand
"That sure is smart" we say

Then we started discussing the food chain. Manav explained that plants produce their own food from sunlight and rain as they are green.
"Hey I can wear green, stand under the sun and rain and still I cannot produce food?" Caunteya teases him
"Papa, all have different ways of preparing food"
"So HOW does a plan prepare food?" Caunteya wants to hear the real answer
"I don't know. I am not an adult. I dont have answers to all questions" Manav shrugs
Then we sort of veer into chlorophyll and photosynthesis and tell Manav that we adults also dont have all answers to which he says
"Yes, humans cannot answer all questions. We can google"

Then we move on to the difference between extinct and endangered. Arnav has learnt the word "extinction" as he is on alphabet 'X' and not many words start with 'X'. So while Arnav dwells on the word per se, Manav puts forth his understanding.
"Because we have killed their homes or the animals who live in them, there are not many left and eventually they will all be gone. These are endangered and when there are no more left they are extinct"

And then to eating habits.
"What are animals who don't eat meat called? " asks Caunteya
"Vegetarians" Manav answers
"Vegetables" Arnav says

Once I told Manav
"Stop being extra smart and finish your food"
"OK. I am not smart. See this thing inside the bottle? It is not water. It is something else. I am not smart at all so I don't know it is water"
Its useless to argue with him.

The other day Arnav fell down from the couch (he always perches on the back of the couch) and hurt his head. While he was crying an angry Caunteya said
" This is dangerous. You can get killed"
"Papa, now I know two ways of getting killed. I will learn more ways later" Manav said
We were kind of confused and anyways Arnav was still yelling.
"See we can die if we smoke and second,if we fall down from the couch we can die too. There, two ways" Manav clarified. He had watched the smoking stuff on the TV and was very intrigued by the lungs.

Arnav, is either plain lazy or too smart. Manav always goads Arnav into doing things which are favorable to him but now Arnav doesn't bite the bait.
"Now who will be a strong boy if he finishes his milk? " Manav coaxes Arnav to drink his milk
"Manav. Manav will be a strong boy"
Manav doesn't budge
"Listen Arnav, God is watching you and so is the cow who gives you milk. Adults cannot watch you all the time. Now if God and cow see that you are not finishing your milk there will be no milk from tomorrow. Would you like that?"
"Yes, no milk from tomorrow. I don't like milk" Arnav pouts
Manav gives up with his hands spread and classic shrug.
"What can we do Mommy? Let him be a weak boy" Manav takes it too far with this statement as a strong fist (Arnav's) lands on his back. What follows is commotion best left out of the narrative.

Some India moments below....

Finger Licking Picnic at Nature Park, Kolkata

Railway Station Trips at dusk

Their own bed and breakfast !!

There was lots of cricket ....

And chess on iPad and Board worked great for jet-lag

Sheriff and FinnMc decided to take a spin

And now back to a mild Dallas winter.

"So how was YOUR day?"