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.
"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.
My case starts here - I am sitting next to him and smiling, giggling, laughing - clad with Oos, aahs and wows every other minute - and my clueless KSB asks "Kya hai??" - so I read it out to him and we both have a great time laughing! Thanks DJ, for making the otherwise boring evening so jolly! Just love reading your posts - I have said this earlier, but no hesitation in reiterating the fact that you have the best combination of kids - both compliment each other very well! Loads of hugs and kisses to them!
ReplyDeleteHey Sheetal you are my most ardent reader....and I love your comments...keep them coming.
ReplyDelete