Thursday, April 1, 2010

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)

4 comments:

Shilpa Bhatnagar said...

Hahaha! Can I please request you to take a picture of Tara sitting in the dishwasher the next time she does that, before you pull her out? Thank you.

And Manika, I seriously, seriously think you should write a lot more - you're a fantastic writer (and if you ask my sis, she'll tell you that appreciation from me doesn't flow so freely usually - which means I truly mean this!) :)

Living in Gurgaon said...

Thank you so much Shilpa! You totally made my day:-). I'm actually going to try to write a lot more now that I'm away from the Gurgaon madness.

How are you doing? Your pictures just keep getting better and better. I keep trying to copy you, but all I have on my camera is bad quality pictures that say nothing at all! How do you do it?!

Unknown said...

Manika, I look up your blog every other or so month ever since I found out your son's name is Vir Gogoi too. Well, welcome to the US and hopefully you guys are well settled in by now. If you want the two Virs to meet (and also have some home-made Indian/Assamese food) please let me know. We live near Philly and would love to have you guys over.
Dev Gogoi

Living in Gurgaon said...

Hi Devajit,
Thank you so much for your comment. I had to come back to India for some reason and should be back next month. Would love to get in touch when I'm back. Would it be possible to send your phone number or email add to me? My email is manikagandhi@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Manika