The cold and cough bug is visiting our home and I have a very bad feeling that it intends to hang around for the entire season. Why am I surprised? This was how it was last year. I guess I was just hoping that this year would be somewhat different. Sigh!

Anyways, here’s an interesting conversation we had a couple of days ago:

Tanay: Is it Christmas tomorrow?!

Me: No, Tanay. Christmas isn’t for another few weeks. Talking about that, have you thought of what you want from Santa this year?

Tanay: Umm….. I know! I want a Pygmy Marmoset Jungle set! Or maybe a farm!

Me: C’mon…. You have been wanting these exact same things for the last two years now. With the exception of the Pygmy Marmoset guy - that was an addition. Still… it’s a jungle and a farm. Why don’t you think of something different this time.

Tanay (After a lot of thought. At Least it looked like he was thinking): How about a snake! A real snake. It would be so cool to have him moving around the house…….

STOP…… Please tell me that I am not hearing this. A friggin’ SNAKE!!!! and that too a real one. Doesn’t he know that his mother gets these terrible nightmares where tons of snakes are wriggling around her feet! Doesn’t he have any consideration for her poor heart which might just give way if she as much as sees a live snake. Shudder! Apparently not.

A few weeks ago, we were walking through the industrial aisles of Costco, when Tanay’s eyes fell on a Spiderman costume. Although he still had to decide on which evil villain he wanted to be for Halloween, there was something about Spidey that made him make up his mind almost instantly. It was decided. Tanay would be Spiderman. Also, I warned him that I would not buy him another costume. Else I am pretty sure that by the time he leaves home, I will need to rent a storage just for his Halloween costumes.

In the days that followed, he did change his mind…. several times. When he first read Hercules, he was so smitten by Hades, that he almost insisted that he wanted to be him for Halloween. Of course I nipped it in the bud. I had to. What with Spidey hanging in the closet. While waiting for the D-day to arrive, he kept himself busy with practising the webbing technique and attempting to climb any and every wall that he came across. I actually called in the pest control guys, because I was secretly worried that he may try and get bit by one of the tiny spiders that lived in our home and surfaced every now and then. 

Finally the day was here. He woke up with a monster smile on his face, jumped into his costume and was ready to go out there on the crime infested streets and save all the people. Now, I love Halloween too. But I prefer to put an end to it, once the candy has been distributed. Unfortunately Tanay is still suffering from post Halloween hangover. At his music class on Saturday, he learnt a new song… one that has been driving me crrrrazy! It’s called the Monster Mash. You have probably heard it. It’s a nice song…but anyone who is forced to listen to it for two days in a row is bound to lose it. Anyone whose name is not Tanay. Not only that, he has also mastered the dance moves. Apparently the ghosts taught him those. The moves are pretty good actually. Maybe you want to learn them too. Here goes…enjoy!

I woke up this morning with a new found determination. It was time I got off my backside and started updating my forgotten blog. Trust me, I hadn’t forgotten it. In fact, I have about a dozen drafts lying unfinished in my folder. It has just been a crazy few weeks. But, if you ask me just why exactly have these weeks been crazy…..well… I really don’t know. I cannot seem to make a list of things which have kept me busy without sounding trivial. I mean… I really cannot put laundry on that list…. or other everyday boring things. Either it’s the curse of being a housewife/SAHM or I am just plain old lazy and pathetic. I chose to believe it’s the first….. but deep down I am pretty sure that it’s the later.

Anyways, the last few weeks have been busy with a number of wonderful Indian festivals which we have been celebrating. This year, Tanay has been taking a rather keen interest in learning about our culture including getting all dressed up in ethnic Indian clothes. At present we are all celebrating Diwali… the Festival of Lights. Every year we light up the house, eat tons of yummy sweets (but of course!), pray and meet up with friends and family. To do his part, Tanay announced that he wanted an “Indian festival surprise gift!”. groan!

This year, two rather amazing and wonderful things have happened. Diwali goes on for about three to four days and almost always begins with Shubham announcing that he has to travel on business during those exact few days. It sucks big time. Obviously, he hates it too… but well… what can you do?! So I wasn’t surprised when he called me yesterday to tell me that he will be gone for the next three days. But then, today has turned out to be…. in a way…magical. It had been raining all night and this morning just as I was about to start cursing the nasty wet weather…. the rain turned to ice and then to snow! It was actually snowing! I love the snow. But to see it in October was such a pleasant shock. I can safely say that we had a White Diwali! That’s not all. Shubham called to say that his trip had been cancelled. This has never happened before!!! I am so excited to have him home on this very special day. 

As for Tanay, he cannot wait for Diwali to be over coz he knows that Halloween comes next. He forced us to buy a “Horny Devil” (nothing but a red devil with horns) mask from Party City so that we could look cool….just like him. I think Friday is going to be rather interesting, I will keep you all posted. I promise. I am done slacking, Next step is to update some recent pics.

Last year, when Tanay started going to play school, it was the very first time he stayed away from me. It took him (and me) almost 3 months to get used to it. Of course, he loves going to school now, although every now and then he does come up with a, “I only love you Momma and I want to stay with you all day” look on his face. Now, only if I could explain to him that if I had to let this happen, it could seriously affect my sanity. Anyways, other than school, I have never left Tanay with a baby sitter or even with any friend for that matter. Frankly, there never was such an occasion where I had to.

But this last week was different. It started off with Back to school night at his school. I left him at home with Shubham. No problems. The next day, Shubham & I had to go visit a friend who had just had a baby. So we left him at a friend’s place for almost three hours. Again, no problems at all. Then came the big one. Some of you may have read about my very good friend Nidhi who was training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk to be held in NYC this last weekend. Since I was not sure if I was physically up to the challenge, I had promised to provide her with all the moral support she needed. So, all the girls left the husbands and the kids behind and went off to spend the night in the city. For the very first time, Shubham and Tanay were by themselves for an entire night. And, I am so glad I did it. We had the most fabulous time. And here is the best part…… so did Tanay & Shubham ( I am assuming he did)!!!

When I told Tanay that I had some work in the city and that I would be back only the next morning, he seemed a little suspicious. He said,” Why do you have to go? Send Papa. He goes there all the time”. But after promises of a visit to the toy store and Chuck E Cheese’s, he kinda reconciled. He even came to pick me up at the railway station the following morning.. a big smile on his face and a brand new shark in his hand.

I guess, my baby is really growing up. Although I think he has kinda sped up the growing process a bit in the last few days. He came back from school this afternoon and announced,

“I GOT MARRIED TO CHARLOTTE TODAY!”

Hmmm…… OK… slow down dude! I am not ready for THIS!

You guys have been a very patient witness to my night-time sleep woes for a very long time now. We had a good summer, sleep wise. Tanay was sleeping quite well….. in his room…. almost through the night. My body was beginning to get used to all the extra sleep. But somewhere, deep in my heart, I knew this was all too good to be true. But I chose to ignore that inner nagging voice and instead just enjoy the moment. 

Well, the good times are over. Don’t get me wrong. I love Fall. I love the colors, the crisp mornings, the colorful Hardy Mums and of course Halloween! But, Fall also brings along with it, the COLD VIRUS. And once this monster gets inside your house, all you have are the blocked noses, and the constant night time coughing and the lack of appetite and the nagging and the whining. You know where this is headed. Tanay is down, sneezing and coughing and not sleeping well! I am returning to Zombie Land. And I might as well make some friends there, coz the next summer is far, far away. Sigh!

Sunday night was a particularly terrible one. One where after waking up a million times, I just decided to roll out the comforter and sleep in Tanay’s room. Just when I drifted off, the phone rang! OK. You have to understand that a phone call at 4:30am scares the shit out of me. It’s most definitely from India and in a matter of a second, I think of all the worst things that could have happened to my family back home. It was my cousin…from Bombay. Calling to say Hi!!! Seriously?????? I mean, how hard is it to just check what time it is in the country you are calling. After telling him to call after four more hours, I tried going back to sleep. But of course I had to wait for my nerves to calm down. I saw that Tanay was fast asleep so I tried to sneak back into my bed. That’s when Shubham decided to announce that Wachovia had been sold. DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE????!!!! It’s almost 5 am and all I want to do is sleep!!

Tanay: I would love for Daadu (grandpa) to be the Green Goblin for Halloween.

Me: Daadu lives in India. He cannot be here for Halloween.

Tanay: Hmmmm, Papa lives here. He can be the Green Goblin!

Me: Yeah… he can.

Tanay: Now you….. Do you have any tentacles??

Me: Huh!?? NO! (thankfully)

Tanay: That’s too sad. You could have been Ursula.

(After a moment of silence, which I assume was due to his brain doing some overtime)

Tanay: I KNOW!!! If an octopus had to bite you…… you could have some tentacles!

HELP!!!

My posts are about to get more and more sinister. After all we are nearing Halloween. And this is probably going to be the biggest festival of the year in the Mehrish household. Move over Christmas!

It all started last Saturday when we were at Costco, stocking up on genetically engineered foods and paper towels. Right there at the entrance, we saw a bunch of Halloween costumes. Tanay pounced on Spider-man, ” I AM PETER PARKER. I AM SPIDER-MAN!” OK. You can be Spider-man. I was seceretly pleased. Atleast he did not ask to be a dinosaur. Although, I should tell you all that just because Spiderman is the new love of his life, it does not mean that he loves his dinosaurs any less. They are still top priority.

Tanay donned the costume as soon as we got back home and if he were to have his way, he would still be wearing it. Since then he has been wanting to do every single thing that Peter Parker does. In addition to webbing everyone in sight and fighting crime, he was told that, Peter Parker also does the following:

1. Sleeps in his own room.
2. Drinks all his water and eats his food.
3. Listens to his teachers. 
4. Listens to his parents. etc. etc. etc.

Yeah….yeah… I totally made that up. But how could I have passed up an opportunity like that. Shubham’s contribution was in form of a very profound sentence. He said, ” Tanay, remember, with great power comes great responsibility”.  To which his response was, ” Phhisssshhhhh! “(sorry, I did not know how else to describe the webbing).

This new craze, however scares me. This afternoon, I found Tanay looking for spiders in the house. I think, he wants to be bitten by one just so that he could turn into super hero. That would not be fun. This Halloween is going to be pretty interesting, I am sure of it.

While we were in California, one of our dear friends told Tanay a story wherein her head breaks out into two horns every other night…… indicating that her evil side has surfaced. Of course she meant it as a joke. But what she did not know was that this was going to become Tanay’s newest #1 story. He wouldn’t let go of her. He kept feeling her head for the horns….quite mesmerized by the fact that she had them (reportedly) and wishing he could see them. Then he wanted to know why I didn’t have any. I tried to explain to him that I really did have them. In fact my evil side was prevalent even during the daytime. Only it was invisible. Ask Shubham. He has faced the wrath and knows it all. Anyways, he went on and on about what color they were, how they would feel if he had to touch them and of course if I could please buy him a pair of horns from the Halloween store.

Fast forward to our last day in LA. We were cruising down Santa Monica Blvd. At a red light, we glanced at the guy in the car next to us. He was completely bald, except for two sections of reddened hair on either side, shaped like cones. Yes. He had horns. Red pointy ones. Tanay was ecstatic. Finally he had seen the devil! HE HAS HORNS!!! The light turned green and the punk zoomed off. Tanay yells out, ” HEY! Where’s the horny guy gone?!”

We get into the Monsters Inc. ride. Tanay & me in the front seat and Shubham in the back. We ooh & aah at all the monsters and finally the ride ends with Roz. Yes… Roz, the bookkeeper of the Monsters, Inc. factory. The same one who speaks with a very rough voice and has a slug-like body. I overhear her telling the mom and her three kids sitting in the car in front of us, ” You girls….. listen to your mother….. else….blah..blah..(No.. I did not get that last part). So, I was all excited hoping that she may say something to Tanay and make my life a little easier. But… no… I was so wrong. When our turn came, she goes:

“Hey… you! the gentleman in the second row! I LIKE your glasses!”

OK.

1) How did she know that Shubham had new glasses on and that he thrives on such attention?!

2) Why couldn’t she just be a normal scary monster and terrorize Tanay into obeying me or something. Well, she probably realised that he was beyond terrorizing of any sort. Why bother!

Of course, Shubham spent the rest of the day with a silly grin on his face. Finally SOMEONE praised his glasses. His day was made. Even if it meant being hit on by a monster. A fake monster.

We are back after a ten day vacation in California and I am suffering from the aftermath…. meaning loads and loads of laundry, which I think will suck the next fortnight out of my life.

The trip in itself was fantastic. To begin with, Continental surpassed all expectations, which by the way I had none. Both times, the flights were on time, with no turbulence - external as well as internal, and by internal I mean Tanay. We caught up with friends, cruised through the wilderness on US 1 and finally ended in LA. There began our quest to make all our dreams come true. We have been to Disneyworld in Orlando when Tanay was a year and a half. But we really did not do much then. This time, Tanay was focused. He wanted to meet Maleficent, the witch from Sleeping Beauty. I had strict instructions from him to make sure that the autograph book was ready and the camera was loaded and to take a picture of them together. Of course, she couldn’ t be found roaming the streets of Disney. Coz, face it…. there is no other kid in this world who goes to Disney to see her. Thankfully we came upon the Snow White ride which had an evil witch pop in and out at regular intervals. You should have seen the kid’s face when he came out of the ride….. beaming with sheer joy! The father however seemed a little unsettled. Turns out the witch was scary! Also, I feel it important to add that Tanay went on this ride two more times and every time he seemed just as excited. Once his witch dream was fulfilled…… we moved on to the next character on his most wanted list. URSULA. We watched the parade twice just for her, with Tanay screaming out her name like a crazed fan all through the second one. If you know of any other kid in this entire world who has the hots for Ursula or any other witch for that matter… please let me know. Atleast I will not feel all alone in this dark scary world.

I still have to upload the pictures. I know, I have been slacking. Maybe you can come over and do some of my laundry while I get down to some serious work……. Soon…. I promise.