Dreamer

Manav turned five and my heart is still doing the five feet deep dives imagining him 15 and 25 and beyond. Seems like yesterday when I wanted the boys to grow up fast so that I can get a little breather from this hectic life, while now all I want is to slow down. Years are passing by like moments and before I have a chance to recover from a blink, things have changed. I am forever panting to catch up, this rapidity in everything is killing and making me feel old in every sense of the word. Yes, be very careful what you wish for.

We started the birthday preparations and Manav painstakingly wrote the 23 personalized thank you cards for the return gifts. Arnav helped by putting stickers on the cards and envelopes.

Here they are spread on his Birthday Cake Box.

On friday, i.e 20th April we started the official birthday celebration by stopping by for doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts on our way to school. Manav chose the "rainbow sprinkles" doughnuts for his friends at school. Back in the car, Manav said
"Mommy did you see the pink doughnuts there?"
"No. Did you want those?" I was concerned for more than the obvious reason.
"No, they are for girls. I saw them on the top shelf. Maybe that is why you missed them" Manav put my concerns to rest.
"Girls bring pink cupcakes with Hello Kitty rings on them" Arnav volunteered important information.

Saturday, the actual birthday date, we started with all of us singing the birthday song on our bed while Manav was still asleep. I remember him coming to our bed in the wee hours of the morning and saying to Caunteya
"Hey Papa, remember you wanted to sleep with me. Well here I am"
Then I made his favorite pancakes and decorated it for his birthday breakfast.

Then we went for his last soccer match for the season. We had cupcakes and drinks. In the evening we had a birthday party in a neighborhood park. We played games - spoon and marbles where both Manav and Arnav had issues. Arnav said
"This is a bad game. The marble always falls off"
Manav tried twice and gave up. He cried some and hid behind the trash can. He still has to learn how to accept failure graciously. Then we played bingo (housie, tambola whatever you call it) and this time Manav won the 'full house' and surprised us all. The win didn't come without the throes of not getting favorable numbers called out and whining about it.

Pizza, watermelon and grapes later the kids gathered for the cake cutting. It went fine till the cake was cut, after which the Arnav started wailing as he wanted the transformer decal from the cake, while Manav reminded Arnav that it was his birthday, in vain.

The angry birds are happy

The cake and the offending transformers

Thus we had a great evening with the weather behaving and the kids not so behaving. Amidst smiles and cries we completed a day of outdoor birthday fun.

Next morning I reminded Manav that it was his cousin's birthday in India. I said

"Manav I just spoke to Ma and she said that Ghontu has torn his birthday dhoti"

"What is dhoti?" Manav asked

"It is a traditional dress worn in the bottom with a kurta" I made an attempt to explain.

"Oh, an underwear." Manav smiled

"No it is like a pajama" I settled for that

"So his two-three teared?" Manav said

I was perplexed as to what that meant when Caunteya explained

"Because he says/hears dhoti like do-teen that is why he is saying two-three" and when that finally made sense to me I just couldnt stop laughing. The kids and their accented Hindi is full time entertainment.

The other day they were playing some game in the car when Manav complained

"Mommy, Arnav says M + N = 4 when it is 7"

"Oh, you cannot add alphabets Manav" I smiled

"You can add alphabets. You just have to add the number of lines there are in a letter" Manav said

"But some letters dont have lines, like S" I was flummoxed.

"Yes, it has. It has one squiggly line. So it is 1." Manav explained.

There and then it came to me. These kids are clean slates, they don't have pre-conceived notions. For a moment I did think maybe he was coding alphabets like A=1 etc. but then missed the fact that there are other ways of doing it. And for me lines are always straight lines, while Manav has a whole arsenal of various shaped lines. While I am static and inflexible, Manav and Arnav are so full of possibilities, I sometimes get dizzy as I struggle to fathom the enormity.

Another incident like the above exposed me to a kids unadulterated mode of thinking. We were playing 'tricky questions' and I asked

"The sun is setting. What is it going to be - day or night?"

"Night" pat came the reply from Manav

"Depends" said Arnav " If it is Ma-Dadu it will be day, but for us it will be night" Ma-Dadu are my parents and they live in India. Of course, how could I miss that?

Manav continues to amaze us with his imagination. He has taken to drawing and writing and does a decent job of it. He draws outer space, rocket launchers, family and imaginary video games complete with levels by joining sheets of paper with tape. His current craze is Legos and keeps building them till cows come home. But he looks for "gun wielding" Finn McMissile, affirming that his earlier craze of Disney Cars is still very alive.

Holding on to the recent past and craving for new. Will not not settle for anything less than winning. If something is interesting has to be done and completed right now. Tomorrow is too late.

"Yesterday night, first dream was scary but the next one was very good Mommy."

That about sums up my five year old - Dreamer.