My dad's a superhero!

In conversation with Vijay:

Vir: Papa, pata hai, I'm Spiderman!
Vijay: Really! Wow!
Vir: And Ishaan is Superman.
Vijay: That's nice.
Vir: And William is Superman too.
Vijay: Cool!
Vir: And I'm also Batman!
Vijay: Batman is really cool, Vir! And who am I?
Vir: You're a policeman.

:-)

Everything's on the record!

Vir: Mamma, pata hai meri class mein ek plant bada ho raha hai. Jab woh bada
ho jaayega, toh hum usko khayenge. (Referring to a plant that the kids helped
with and that is now growing on their windowsill)
Me: How nice Vir! Tune help kari thi na usko banane mein?
Vir: Nahin, maine help nahin ki.
Me: Kyun?
Vir: Maine seed nahin pakdi thi
Me: Kyun?
Vir: Kyunki main ro raha tha
Me: Kyun?
Vir (shrugging): Kyunki aap nahin thay

So matter of fact! And I realized that this whole thing referred to his first day of school, when I thought he was too uninvolved and traumatized to notice what was going on anyway. Apparently, he stashes away everything into his little brain for later use and discussion. I'm racking my brains to remember if I've said anything inappropriate in front of him in the last...let's see...couple of years.

Me? Inappropriate? Naaah!

Dear Vir,

As we remind each other whenever it suits us, you're now three years old. That's pretty grown up. Yet, it appears that you're not grown up enough to really know that sometimes, the things you do cause me some amount of stress. For example, it's really not fun for anyone except you when you push your little sister when she's sitting and playing by herself. It's also not funny when you take the cookie on which her morning happiness depends and fling it across the room. Or worse, take a bite of it right in front of her. She finds it very confusing when her cookie becomes smaller so quickly. She also doesn't appreciate the constant nips and scratches she gets from you. Of course, I don't need to write you a letter to say all this. We live in the same house. I could just tell you and that would be more efficient. But that's the thing. I have told you. I'm not really keeping count but the number of times I've told you has definitely hit the high thousands. So I'm guessing that's not working. That's why I thought of writing to you. I guess one day you'll read this, and the way you're going, you'll probably still be pushing Tara or tricking her out of her cookies. So this letter will be timely no matter when you read it.

Meanwhile, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to finally understand that you're, regardless of how grown up I say you are, just a three year old. And while you're unbelievable cute and can pull at my heartstrings in a way that nothing else can, you're also very annoying a lot of the times. But that's what three year olds do - they bug their parents. And it's my job as your mother to deal with that. Not your job. So I'm going to take what you throw at me and do my best to smile while at the same time gently yet firmly guiding you towards not bugging me. And you'll just be you. Sometimes annoying, sometimes leading my blood pressure to spike, sometimes really testing your little sister's strength and patience, but always always the most lovable little boy in my world. Deal? Alright then.

Love,
Mamma

First splashes

There's a small window of time in a baby's life when he or she enjoys splashing water because splashing water is fun, not because creating more work for your frustrated mother by splashing water is fun. There's a big difference if you're that frustrated mother.


After months of just sitting in her tub slightly dumbly while I give her a bath, Tara has finally figured out that water is huge amounts of fun. She seemed to get it in one big flash this afternoon when, after maybe one or two tentative little splashes, she went all out in the bathtub. I had a pretty overexcited and aggressive little baby in the tub after that!


This is very exciting for me. I can now go out and get bath toys and bubbles all over again! I really miss that...of course, I stopped doing that for Vir more than a year ago because fun as it may be for him to watch my face when I walk into a totally drenched bathroom, cleaning that up is just not my favorite thing to do. So Tara, enjoy this while you can, because with a mother like me and a baby like you (I know you're going to be no angel in the bathtub a year from now), it's not likely to last!

Questions from a three year old

"Mamma...America mein curtains kyun nahin hote? Blinds kyun hote hain?"

"Papa...fighter plane mein se smoke kyun aati hai? Normal plane se kyun
nahin aati?"

"Mamma...jab main table hilata hun, toh uske upar wala lamp kyun hilta
hai?"

It's amazing the details he observes now. Thank God for the internet. Next time he asks me something I don't know, I'll pretend to be too busy on my computer to answer immediately, frantically pull up Wikipedia, then turn around and knowingly explain the working of aeroplanes or rockets or whatever else his little brain wants to know, thereby maintaining my 'mamma-knows-everything-I-must-always-listen-to-mamma-reputation.'

I can't believe I think this way though - trying to impress my own silly little son through pretend Wikipedia induced knowledge. I bet Wikipedia can't cure such madness. For now though, I'll be happy if it can tell me why there are blinds in America instead of curtains.

Let's see. Over the last month, a million things have happened.

1. The Gogoi family unit of Vijay, me, Vir and Tara has moved from Gurgaon to New Jersey. Sans Baggdu. (Plonk. Baggdu, if you happen to log on to this site, we miss you all the time.)

2. Vir has somehow wrapped his head around the geographical distance between nana nani's house, which he calls Dehradun, Vatika City, and America. He's fuzzy on the details, but he knows that we're now far away.

3. Vir has started school here! He's out of the house from morning to evening, which is a first for him and for us. Let's just say it's been very interesting. He is more or less settled in but is hanging on to some things to assert his independence and show that he can make choices too. For example, he chooses not to eat at school. Or go to the bathroom at school. I feel terrible about this, but also know that he's happy when he's there and he enjoys his new friends and teachers.

4. My little Haryanvi is picking up spoken English. It's hilarious. He now says things like, "I take this car home. Tara so happy. My parents so happy." And "Look at me. I'm all wet." And "This is break." We love it and can't get enough.

5. Tara has no idea that things have changed so much. But that's because she's been really busy practicing her new skills. She can now point to her tummy, baaah like a tiger (of course a tiger says baaah - that's all you can hear at the zoo if you go), throw flying kisses like a cheap roadside romeo, clap when she's happy with herself, and sway from side to side to show she's having fun. She's also crawling like a pro and has covered every inch of our new apartment by now. Especially every inch of the bathroom, which she loves. She will literally come running from anywhere as soon as she hears the bathroom door open. I don't know what both the kids like about loos in general. In her case, I suspect it's her recent discovery of the joys of toilet paper that drives her. I found her halfway through a gleeful unrolling of a fresh roll yesterday. She's even reminded Vir how much fun this used to be, and he's now rewound to when he was less than 2 and used to do this! Needless to say, we spend a lot of time rolling up unrolled rolls of toilet paper.

6. Tara has also discovered her love for cabinets, the diswasher, and the refrigerator. So, when we're not rolling up toilet paper, we're pulling her out of cabinets, or getting her unstuck from the dishwasher racks.

Okay, so that's not really a million things. It's only 6 when you write it down. But it's made up of a million smiles and laughs at the antics of the little brats, a million doubts and uncertainties about whether we're doing the right things for them, especially with this big move and all, and a million moments of just being together and happy. So you see, a million things have happened! I will try to remember some specifics and add to this list. Or just start from a million and one now that I've started updating this blog again:0)