Yesterday when I picked up the kids, Ms Foley (Arnav's teacher) proudly conveyed that Arnav knows his pledge of allegiance very well. No prompting required.
This was the second time that I got specific achievement related pointers for Arnav. For Manav it is almost a daily affair so I don't quite pay attention. He already gets extra homework and reading from his preschool. Gosh I am bragging.
Coming back to Arnav, so first time Ms. Foley said
"Arnav knows all his coins. He picked up the pennies, dimes, quarters....and identified them correctly. I didn't have to give him any clues"
I nodded a "Thanks" and dismissed this as Arnav's Gujju genes(Gujaratis are known for their business acumen aka money).
At night Papa had to hear the pledge of allegiance and Arnav was really good at it. We all clapped and then Caunteya said
"You have to listen to the Indian Pledge" and started singing 'Jana Gana Mana'
"Papa why is your pledge so long and why is it a song?" Manav asked
Caunteya continued with a high "Jaya hey Jaya hey ......"
I stopped the entire flow with
"Caunteya that is not our pledge. It is our national anthem, just like Star-Spangled Banner"
"Then what is our pledge?" Caunteya asked
"Something like 'All Indians are our brothers and sisters'....remember we used to say that everyday at school?" I said
"Well not in ours" he said and continued singing Jana Gana Mana. I vowed to teach the kids the real Indian Pledge.
We were having our dinner when Arnav said
"Do you know why we need to eat roti?"
"Why?"
"Because it has vitamin C" Arnav declared triumphantly
"Do you know which food has all the vitamins?" Arnav asked again
"No, which one?"
"It is a secret. I cannot tell you" Arnav flashed his conspiratorial smile.
"That means, you don't know either" Caunteya laughed.
Then we started discussing vitamins. Now we need to tread very cautiously and rattle only true nutrition value of food and not
"Mushrooms help us smell better" , " Eggplant helps the food go down the throat easily"
the way we sell food to Manav. Arnav is fine with or without marketing, he eats ok.
Hence we had to google Vitamin K's uses and also look up which food has Vitamin K. So much for learning our sixth standard science chapter all over again.
Arnav was saying his "Humpty Dumpty" and after finishing he said
"Do you know why they couldn't put him together again?"
"Why?"
"Because he is an egg. And eggs are fragile. Once they break the things come out. You cannot put it back in."
And this morning he said the same thing but added
"Eggs have albumem (albumen)"
We had a bit of confusion this morning and both me and Caunteya ended up putting sugar in the tea so we had extra sweet tea. While we were explaining that to the kids
"When we put sugar in water can we see the sugar?"
"No"
"Why?"
"Because it melts" Arnav said
"So that is what happened. Mommy put the sugar, it melted, Papa couldn't see the sugar so he put in some more"
"We can make some sugar which comes as a big white ball and doesn't melt. Then when we see that in water we will not put any more" Manav always has a solution. I have been thinking that kids should be there in the innovation teams of companies. Maybe they already are, who knows.
Since we got the bunk beds assembled ( we had the beds separate as single beds all this time) Arnav has been having trouble sleeping
"I cannot see Manav. He needs to be next to me" or sometimes
"I want to sleep upstairs. You always make me sleep downstairs"
Yesterday when I went to say goodnight to him I told him
"See I can cuddle with you here as you are downstairs while I cannot do that for Manav. I just kiss him goodnight"
"Mommy I want to sleep with you in your bed. I am scared sleeping here" Arnav started
I gave him the usual reasons and said
"You can come into our bed after 6 AM, you know that" they check the time on our bedside digital clock and act likewise.
"Mommy you know what, you can sleep in my bed anytime. You don't have to see the time" and snuggled closer to me. An invitation I just couldn't resist but did and am still laden with guilt.
Guilt trips are common in parenthood. I do things that I know are not right, just because I cannot take it any more and then feel guilty as I couldn't handle the situation effectively.
"I hate it when they come to our room and hate it when they don't come at all" I said to Caunteya last night while dozing off.
That kind of sums up the feeling, if you know what I mean.
This was the second time that I got specific achievement related pointers for Arnav. For Manav it is almost a daily affair so I don't quite pay attention. He already gets extra homework and reading from his preschool. Gosh I am bragging.
Coming back to Arnav, so first time Ms. Foley said
"Arnav knows all his coins. He picked up the pennies, dimes, quarters....and identified them correctly. I didn't have to give him any clues"
I nodded a "Thanks" and dismissed this as Arnav's Gujju genes(Gujaratis are known for their business acumen aka money).
At night Papa had to hear the pledge of allegiance and Arnav was really good at it. We all clapped and then Caunteya said
"You have to listen to the Indian Pledge" and started singing 'Jana Gana Mana'
"Papa why is your pledge so long and why is it a song?" Manav asked
Caunteya continued with a high "Jaya hey Jaya hey ......"
I stopped the entire flow with
"Caunteya that is not our pledge. It is our national anthem, just like Star-Spangled Banner"
"Then what is our pledge?" Caunteya asked
"Something like 'All Indians are our brothers and sisters'....remember we used to say that everyday at school?" I said
"Well not in ours" he said and continued singing Jana Gana Mana. I vowed to teach the kids the real Indian Pledge.
We were having our dinner when Arnav said
"Do you know why we need to eat roti?"
"Why?"
"Because it has vitamin C" Arnav declared triumphantly
"Do you know which food has all the vitamins?" Arnav asked again
"No, which one?"
"It is a secret. I cannot tell you" Arnav flashed his conspiratorial smile.
"That means, you don't know either" Caunteya laughed.
Then we started discussing vitamins. Now we need to tread very cautiously and rattle only true nutrition value of food and not
"Mushrooms help us smell better" , " Eggplant helps the food go down the throat easily"
the way we sell food to Manav. Arnav is fine with or without marketing, he eats ok.
Hence we had to google Vitamin K's uses and also look up which food has Vitamin K. So much for learning our sixth standard science chapter all over again.
Arnav was saying his "Humpty Dumpty" and after finishing he said
"Do you know why they couldn't put him together again?"
"Why?"
"Because he is an egg. And eggs are fragile. Once they break the things come out. You cannot put it back in."
And this morning he said the same thing but added
"Eggs have albumem (albumen)"
We had a bit of confusion this morning and both me and Caunteya ended up putting sugar in the tea so we had extra sweet tea. While we were explaining that to the kids
"When we put sugar in water can we see the sugar?"
"No"
"Why?"
"Because it melts" Arnav said
"So that is what happened. Mommy put the sugar, it melted, Papa couldn't see the sugar so he put in some more"
"We can make some sugar which comes as a big white ball and doesn't melt. Then when we see that in water we will not put any more" Manav always has a solution. I have been thinking that kids should be there in the innovation teams of companies. Maybe they already are, who knows.
Since we got the bunk beds assembled ( we had the beds separate as single beds all this time) Arnav has been having trouble sleeping
"I cannot see Manav. He needs to be next to me" or sometimes
"I want to sleep upstairs. You always make me sleep downstairs"
Yesterday when I went to say goodnight to him I told him
"See I can cuddle with you here as you are downstairs while I cannot do that for Manav. I just kiss him goodnight"
"Mommy I want to sleep with you in your bed. I am scared sleeping here" Arnav started
I gave him the usual reasons and said
"You can come into our bed after 6 AM, you know that" they check the time on our bedside digital clock and act likewise.
"Mommy you know what, you can sleep in my bed anytime. You don't have to see the time" and snuggled closer to me. An invitation I just couldn't resist but did and am still laden with guilt.
Guilt trips are common in parenthood. I do things that I know are not right, just because I cannot take it any more and then feel guilty as I couldn't handle the situation effectively.
"I hate it when they come to our room and hate it when they don't come at all" I said to Caunteya last night while dozing off.
That kind of sums up the feeling, if you know what I mean.
If it makes you feel any better - the root cause for this guilt is not that you aren't doing something right, but our cherubic lil' Ernie... How in the world can someone, no matter how right he/she is, not feel sad when someone says "Mommy you know what, you can sleep in my bed anytime. You don't have to see the time" Do not worry, there'll be another post before long when we'll find you writing about the infinite trips that M&A made to your room last night :P Great post, and more so because now I can relate to "Guilt trips are common in parenthood" :)
ReplyDeleteYou are right....yesterday Manav came thrice between 5 and 5:30 AM....and finally I said, ok sleep here only to hear "But Mommy it is not 6 yet" and he walked off :-).
Deleteha ha!
Delete