The battery in the garage remote is weak and takes me several iterations to make it work. Most of the time I am running against time so its very frustrating wasting almost a minute trying to close the garage door, the precious minute I hadn't factored in my calculations. Returning and trying to open the garage door is a shade less frustrating......well we are home.
So yesterday when I was backing out of the garage and simultaneously trying to close the door, I hit the remote multiple times on the dashboard to "reactivate" the battery.
"Your windows or whatever it is will go bad Mommy" Arnav said
"What?" I was confused and the door still wouldn't budge.
"You are hitting the remote on the hard window and it will damage the window and remote" Arnav clarified. He meant the dashboard of course.
" Have you heard of the word "patient"? Manav spoke at last. He is not known to be silent for more than a minute at a time.
"What are you saying Manav?" I was still tinkering with the remote, trying all positions and finally the door started down only to go back up as I had hit the remote again too fast. This is not working at all and I had two preachers in the back seat. I took a deep breath and with a little prayer on my lips hit the remote, this time a little bit more purposefully and slowly. It worked.
"It means waiting for things to happen" Manav continued.
"What? " I had lost the context and was recalculating based off the lost minutes.
"Patient means waiting for things to happen. You should not hit the remote on the dashboard. It is hard. You should wait for it to work after you press it. If it doesnt then you should hit it on your hand or pants, not on the dashboard. The remote will get damaged on the hard surface and all battery will come out and it will not work." Manav rambled on.
"Oh, ok. Thanks Manav. I will try to be patient"
"Good" they both said
Then we drove on and I was more relaxed having finally done my math and made sure I wont be late for gym.
"Why dont we tell stories today? Arnav you start" I said
"OK. Duck and his friends went to the park to play baseball." Arnav started
"Where did they go?" I asked as Arnav's park sounded "Pawk"
"Pawk, pawk. Where kids go to play. There are slides, monkey bars, do you know that?" Arnav clarified.
"Oh, park. OK continue" I smiled.
"The baseball got stuck in the tree. Duck threw the bat to get the ball. The bat went too high. Then duck threw the glove to get the ball. The glove went too low."
"Oh, so the ball was in between the bat and glove on the tree?" Manav asked
"No, the bat was on top, then the ball and then the glove. Then all three of them fell off the tree. Then duck and his friends played baseball. The end" Arnav completed.
"How did the things fall Arnav?" I asked
"Have you heard of the word "gravity" ?" Manav just cannot wait for his turn. This started a "Mommieee I wanted to answer" cry from Arnav and we wasted a couple of minutes gaining status quo.
"OK, Manav's turn to tell a story" I was now getting a bit worked up with the school zone and people driving at less than 20 as there were cops all over.
"There was a person and he wanted to be the queen. "Do you want to be a queen bee or a queen in chess?" "Queen Bee". So he became the queen bee. There was a person who wanted to become a King. "Do you want to be a king bee or a king in chess?" "King bee" So he became the worker as there is no king bee. There was a baby who wanted to be a baby bee. So he became a baby worker as there cannot be a baby queen. Now there were dinosaurs everywhere. The tall brontosaurus thought a little bee cannot do anything to me. He came too near and was stinged by the bee. And all animals were stinged by the bee. So they stayed away from the bees. The end"
"Very good. " and we all clapped. I had made it a point to verify from Ms Foley (Arnav's teacher) if they had been reading about duck playing baseball but haven't yet. It seems too good to be a made up story and I am sure Manav made up his.
The other day Manav was with me on the back seat and unusually quiet. I thought he fell asleep and turned back to check.
"Why are you so quiet?" I asked seeing him wide awake.
"If I talk you cannot drive safely. So I am not talking. We don't want to get in an accident, remember?" he said
That was the only time he was quiet and I didnt ask him why at all other times he chose to make it dangerous for me to drive.
Last morning Arnav woke up with his blue and black batman in his hands. He always goes to bed clutching something. He asked me
" Who do you want to win? Blue batman with sword or black batman?"
"Blue batman" I managed with mouth full of toothpaste.
"Ok, blue batman won" Arnav declared after hitting them against each other, and we both celebrated.
"Arnav, have you forgotten that the blue batman sucks up power with his sword? So he is the good choice and he will always win" Manav said from his bed
Then he asked for the batmen and showed us how blue batman sucks up power using the small hole in his sword. I couldn't help but think how similar this was to my yoga instructor telling us that energy (or prana) is not just inside our body but all around us and we need to understand that. All the energy talk made us hungry and we scampered to the kitchen for some breakfast.
This morning Arnav and I came out in the garage to get in the car while Manav was in the house trying to get something.
"Bye Manav." Arnav said
"Why, he will also come with us to school" I said
"No, we will go. Manav will be leftover" Arnav smiled.
"Left out you mean Arnav" I instinctively corrected and realised he wasn't listening, instead poring over a dead worm which must have come out during the showers last night. They mess up the tenses (always add 'ed' to past tense, hope you didn't miss the 'stinged' earlier in the post) and say weird words. Its fascinating to see how they pick up a language and apply some logic in making up new words which might not be legitimate and instantly pick up the corrected word as well. Arnav continues to struggle with his 'r' but has a good size vocabulary now while Manav continues to ace with his language and math. Or so I think.
A few days back, while driving to school, I said
"Boys you need to keep quiet. Lets all listen to the news today" I have to have innovative ways to minimize or guide backseat chatter. Lest you start oohing and aahing on my innovation prowess, let me add that oftentimes the innovation is as blunt as "Please keep your mouth shut".
"OK" they said
Gene and Julie at 103.7 FM were talking about how a TSA agent was arrested at the DFW airport as he was caught stealing passengers' iPads. After listening a bit,
"Thank God our iPad is at home and not at the airport. It would have been stolen as well and we cannot play chess or fruit game anymore " Manav concluded and made me wonder whether he really believes what he said. Are things really that simple for a kid, an almost 5 year old?
So when do things start to get complicated? When will he start applying the logic that even if the iPad was at the airport it stood a chance of not being stolen and if it is at home it still stood a chance of being stolen? When do their short simple "subject-predicate" sentences start getting heavy with adverbs, adjectives, gerunds, conjunctions and other parts of speech? Just as their life will change from the primary shades of black and white to different shades of gray but I hope they will continue to see the world in its beautiful colors and marvel at its creations. Enjoy its simplicity and respect the complications.
Have you heard of the word "patient"?
So yesterday when I was backing out of the garage and simultaneously trying to close the door, I hit the remote multiple times on the dashboard to "reactivate" the battery.
"Your windows or whatever it is will go bad Mommy" Arnav said
"What?" I was confused and the door still wouldn't budge.
"You are hitting the remote on the hard window and it will damage the window and remote" Arnav clarified. He meant the dashboard of course.
" Have you heard of the word "patient"? Manav spoke at last. He is not known to be silent for more than a minute at a time.
"What are you saying Manav?" I was still tinkering with the remote, trying all positions and finally the door started down only to go back up as I had hit the remote again too fast. This is not working at all and I had two preachers in the back seat. I took a deep breath and with a little prayer on my lips hit the remote, this time a little bit more purposefully and slowly. It worked.
"It means waiting for things to happen" Manav continued.
"What? " I had lost the context and was recalculating based off the lost minutes.
"Patient means waiting for things to happen. You should not hit the remote on the dashboard. It is hard. You should wait for it to work after you press it. If it doesnt then you should hit it on your hand or pants, not on the dashboard. The remote will get damaged on the hard surface and all battery will come out and it will not work." Manav rambled on.
"Oh, ok. Thanks Manav. I will try to be patient"
"Good" they both said
Then we drove on and I was more relaxed having finally done my math and made sure I wont be late for gym.
"Why dont we tell stories today? Arnav you start" I said
"OK. Duck and his friends went to the park to play baseball." Arnav started
"Where did they go?" I asked as Arnav's park sounded "Pawk"
"Pawk, pawk. Where kids go to play. There are slides, monkey bars, do you know that?" Arnav clarified.
"Oh, park. OK continue" I smiled.
"The baseball got stuck in the tree. Duck threw the bat to get the ball. The bat went too high. Then duck threw the glove to get the ball. The glove went too low."
"Oh, so the ball was in between the bat and glove on the tree?" Manav asked
"No, the bat was on top, then the ball and then the glove. Then all three of them fell off the tree. Then duck and his friends played baseball. The end" Arnav completed.
"How did the things fall Arnav?" I asked
"Have you heard of the word "gravity" ?" Manav just cannot wait for his turn. This started a "Mommieee I wanted to answer" cry from Arnav and we wasted a couple of minutes gaining status quo.
"OK, Manav's turn to tell a story" I was now getting a bit worked up with the school zone and people driving at less than 20 as there were cops all over.
"There was a person and he wanted to be the queen. "Do you want to be a queen bee or a queen in chess?" "Queen Bee". So he became the queen bee. There was a person who wanted to become a King. "Do you want to be a king bee or a king in chess?" "King bee" So he became the worker as there is no king bee. There was a baby who wanted to be a baby bee. So he became a baby worker as there cannot be a baby queen. Now there were dinosaurs everywhere. The tall brontosaurus thought a little bee cannot do anything to me. He came too near and was stinged by the bee. And all animals were stinged by the bee. So they stayed away from the bees. The end"
"Very good. " and we all clapped. I had made it a point to verify from Ms Foley (Arnav's teacher) if they had been reading about duck playing baseball but haven't yet. It seems too good to be a made up story and I am sure Manav made up his.
The other day Manav was with me on the back seat and unusually quiet. I thought he fell asleep and turned back to check.
"Why are you so quiet?" I asked seeing him wide awake.
"If I talk you cannot drive safely. So I am not talking. We don't want to get in an accident, remember?" he said
That was the only time he was quiet and I didnt ask him why at all other times he chose to make it dangerous for me to drive.
Last morning Arnav woke up with his blue and black batman in his hands. He always goes to bed clutching something. He asked me
" Who do you want to win? Blue batman with sword or black batman?"
"Blue batman" I managed with mouth full of toothpaste.
"Ok, blue batman won" Arnav declared after hitting them against each other, and we both celebrated.
"Arnav, have you forgotten that the blue batman sucks up power with his sword? So he is the good choice and he will always win" Manav said from his bed
Then he asked for the batmen and showed us how blue batman sucks up power using the small hole in his sword. I couldn't help but think how similar this was to my yoga instructor telling us that energy (or prana) is not just inside our body but all around us and we need to understand that. All the energy talk made us hungry and we scampered to the kitchen for some breakfast.
This morning Arnav and I came out in the garage to get in the car while Manav was in the house trying to get something.
"Bye Manav." Arnav said
"Why, he will also come with us to school" I said
"No, we will go. Manav will be leftover" Arnav smiled.
"Left out you mean Arnav" I instinctively corrected and realised he wasn't listening, instead poring over a dead worm which must have come out during the showers last night. They mess up the tenses (always add 'ed' to past tense, hope you didn't miss the 'stinged' earlier in the post) and say weird words. Its fascinating to see how they pick up a language and apply some logic in making up new words which might not be legitimate and instantly pick up the corrected word as well. Arnav continues to struggle with his 'r' but has a good size vocabulary now while Manav continues to ace with his language and math. Or so I think.
A few days back, while driving to school, I said
"Boys you need to keep quiet. Lets all listen to the news today" I have to have innovative ways to minimize or guide backseat chatter. Lest you start oohing and aahing on my innovation prowess, let me add that oftentimes the innovation is as blunt as "Please keep your mouth shut".
"OK" they said
Gene and Julie at 103.7 FM were talking about how a TSA agent was arrested at the DFW airport as he was caught stealing passengers' iPads. After listening a bit,
"Thank God our iPad is at home and not at the airport. It would have been stolen as well and we cannot play chess or fruit game anymore " Manav concluded and made me wonder whether he really believes what he said. Are things really that simple for a kid, an almost 5 year old?
So when do things start to get complicated? When will he start applying the logic that even if the iPad was at the airport it stood a chance of not being stolen and if it is at home it still stood a chance of being stolen? When do their short simple "subject-predicate" sentences start getting heavy with adverbs, adjectives, gerunds, conjunctions and other parts of speech? Just as their life will change from the primary shades of black and white to different shades of gray but I hope they will continue to see the world in its beautiful colors and marvel at its creations. Enjoy its simplicity and respect the complications.
Have you heard of the word "patient"?
I slept off while putting Kaisha to bed at about 9.30, got up at 1 am and turned my laptop on.. Soon after, Kaisha woke up and I was super sleepy to even turn the lappie off - but I sure made the right decision of reading this post! Like you mentioned in the other post - it's an infinite series of teaching and being taught - Yes, "PatienT" is the key! I've been falling in love with Arnav over and over again with each of your posts, but Manav is stealing the shows (and more than his share of love) these days... Love has no boundaries - certainly not when it comes to the most adorable Manav & Arnav... loads of love and hugs to them! And thanks a ton for this post, love you! Wow, it's raining love - guess it's the Valentines Day effect :) Good night!
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