How I wish...

Suddenly my days are jam packed. There is absolutely no me time. The weather is great and lots of things are happening and I am actually liking it. Amidst all this I have this constant fluttering heart and butterflies in my tummy feeling, just thinking about Manav starting school this fall. Already the registration is underway and he is kind of set to go to school. Just that I am not.

Seems like the other day we brought him home and the first feeling I had was if only we had extra insurance then we could have stayed in the hospital a little longer. We had absolutely no idea what to do with Manav. He seemed so fragile and every task was an effort. We have kind of come a full circle as he turns 5 on 21st April and his emotions are so fragile and every task with him is an effort. He is questioning things which I dared not ask my parents, even now.

"So if that drink is not good for kids, how can adults drink that?"
" I eat, Papa eats, I sleep, Papa sleeps, I play, Papa plays, so if he can copy me why can't I copy him? If he can say "None of your business", why can't I?"
"I never cry or say I am upset when you use 'such words' with me, why do you have to get upset when I say the same words?"
"Why do adults act like kids and tell on them. When I do something you tell Papa. When Arnav hits me I don't complain or cry, I try to be brave and not tell on him. Why can't you be brave?"
"Don't tell me you are angry when you do that. I am VERY angry now"

I am censoring my explanation of these paradox, as even when I was answering, I felt I was not doing justice. He has a point but I am the parent and that is what I drove across. Anyways all I am reminded when I type this is
"Main karun to saala character dheela hai"  ooops bad word.

Last Tuesday when we were supposed to drive to Florida for our vacation, there were deadly tornadoes in Dallas. The kids were stuck at school and we had the scariest time ever. When I finally got them back I asked
"Manav were you scared when the tornadoes came?"
"No, there was no tornado. We had another of those drills. We went to the hallway, they switched off the lights and we ducked our head in our hands. But no tornado came"
What a bliss to have no concerns amongst raging mayhem. Aaah childhood.

We had a great drive back home from Florida especially if we compare it with the drive to Florida, amidst the raging thunderstorms. The boys loved the fact that we crossed Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and then reached Florida. They are learning about the states in school so they could relate with the welcome posters at each state line.
"Now we should be entering Georgia" Manav said when we were in Alabama.
Caunteya explained we will directly drive into Florida, so no Georgia.

On our way to Florida we stopped at a hotel to sleep for the night. In the morning I was taking the kids for breakfast when we met a lady in the elevator. She came in while the door was almost closing and said
"I tricked you"
"We are going to India" Arnav smiled and said
"Oh that's so great" she exclaimed
"Nooo we are going to Florida" Manav corrected
"Thats even better" she said
"I tricked you" said Arnav and we all started laughing.

We were jiving to the tune of desi boys in the condo we rented in Florida. My friend has two daughters and the older one was leading the dance floor and others were happily following. Then Arnav came up to Caunteya and said
"Papa we don't have only desi boys we have desi girls too" and burst out laughing. This kiddo is fast becoming an entertainer now that his slur is disappearing. But he still has issues with 'r' and he admits the same. The other day someone asked his name
"I cant say my name. It has a 'r' in it" was his answer.
Arnav pouts and complains
"Why did you put a 'r' in my name? Manav doesn't have any?" if only I had known baby !
And I started thinking, that is one of the many things we don't have control on - our name. We are just plain lucky or doomed depending on what went through our parents' mind when they named us.

We are planning Manav's birthday party. I asked him
"Do you want an angry bird cake or lion king cake" these are his current favorites
"I want a lion king cake as I already have the angry bird t-shirts." Manav said and immediately I regretted asking that question. How can I have mismatched birthday theme for my baby? But then I thought maybe thats what will be great, a bunch of mismatched characters, sort of "these are my favorite things", lets see how that develops as the list is ever changing.

With thunderstorms and rains comes rainbow. And that is another topic they are learning at school. Arnav said
"Mommy for a rainbow to happen there has to be rain and sun. As there is no rain today, the rainbow will not happen. Maybe it will happen, but without the color indigo. And as there is some wind, maybe the rainbow will have more orange" and his imagination ran wild as he painted his own rainbow from the available elements of nature.

Beautiful blue water, sugar white beaches and abundant sunshine marked our vacation. Manav summed it all - "We should live in Florida Mommy" How I wish.
When I was getting Arnav in his swim clothes for his swim class day before, he asked
"Are we going to the beach or Lifetime Fitness?" How I wish.

Sand Castles in the making

The Dolphin Cruise, we spotted bottle nosed dolphins.

"The stick tastes like ice cream too" and they licked on..

Mr Smart Pants, kept sitting there and made everyone else work at pouring water (refer first picture)