Space Station

"Manav Mommy wants to go back to work like Papa. How do you feel about that?"
"Great. I like that." Manav answered to my total disbelief. I sort of realized how much we expect a certain answer from a certain person and when we don't get that reply we are crestfallen. Beats the purpose of asking the question in the first place though.
"Mommy will be gone all day and evening, Manav" I tried again
"Yes, I know that. And I will have Papa" He explained.
"Oh, no no. Papa will also work. We both will be out" I heaved a sigh of relief and he, his sigh of disbelief.
"Weird. We all will be out of the house all day? We will be in school all day?" Manav was more curious than concerned.
"Yes, I guess so."
"And what if they close the school and you still don't come and pick us up? You know how Papa gets late some days? Then I will be trapped there all night" Speak of wild imaginations.
"No, that will not happen. They will make sure all kids are gone before they close the school"
"Ok. Arnav you will get to eat your evening snacks and play outside and color as much as you like." he started selling the idea to Arnav
"I eat my snack and play outside and color a lot already" Arnav was clear.
"Ok lets see, how much is thirteen plus six?" I changed the topic not knowing where this was going and how to handle it further. We will cross the bridge when we reach it. At least I broached the subject so it wont be a surprise. In a nutshell this is how a mother's mind works.

We got Arnav's head shaved (rather size 0 cut) as we had missed this when he was a baby. For Manav we had religiously gone to Pittsburgh Balaji temple and did all the puja etc for the head shaving when he was 9 months. Arnav is actually happy and loves the fact that he doesnt need to comb. He has been harping on that luxury so often that Manav wants his head shaved as well.

Here's how Manav looked

Before

After

And here is Arnav

Before

After



It has been nice weather all through and we have been having outdoor fun. The boys spend quite some time outdoors on their scooter and bikes. Last Saturday they were all excited that a tomato had turned red. We looked and looked and decided to pluck it later as I said it will get redder. Unfortunately, the rabbit ate away the tomato and next morning we only had the stalk to look at.

Check that out !!

Then they were playing in their tent outside. They have this weird game in which Arnav pretends to be the baby and Manav - the dad. They go on and on for hours, Arnav waking up and crying, Manav taking 'care of him', 'going for walks', checking on the 'house; and all that.

Daddy putting baby to bed

They love to play other pretend plays as well. The other day they were playing with the laundry baskets. The baskets were 'space helmets' as you can see



In this one, Manav proclaimed

"I am in my space station (the rectangular basket) and reading a sky-book on this (the round basket)"

Of course, am sure there is technology out there to project a book for an astronaut to read before going to bed, of course he cannot hold the book in his hand and all the while keep it from flying away in zero gravity.

We went out for a walk one evening and in front of each house Manav would say something

"I wish we had a driveway like this without the stairs. I could ride my bike from the front door into the street, without getting down"

"I wish we had this swing in our front yard"

"I wish we had this tree in our front yard"

Today we were discussing shapes on our way to school. I made the mistake of asking

"So how many sides does a hexagon have? Hint - think about a stop sign"

"A stop sign is a octagon Mommy" Arnav yelled

"Oh, and what is a hexagon?"

"Six sides Mommy. Octagon has eight" All this from Arnav surprised me a lot. I assumed it would be Manav with the answer.

While Manav effortlessly answered the 'next even number' , Arnav could answer the 'next number if you count by 10's' with as much ease. I have seen that Arnav is better and faster with numbers than Manav. Every other activity he lags behind and we have to be fair with the 15 months age gap. Two kids with the exact same parents (:-) are so different.

A picture filled write-up for a change. I know I am missing out so many interesting "conversations" but just dont have the time. Till the next one, here's something to ponder

"How does your space station look like?" and

"Don't you wish you had a sky-book to read too?"