Negotiation

Priya — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:43:44 +0000

This past week has been interesting, with Tanay at home all day.. with Dhruv. Need I say more?

Wednesday morning, within an hour of waking up, I had sentenced Tanay to no TV for the next two days. Sometime late afternoon he came upto me and said,

Tanay: Mommy, how much money do you have?

Me (thinking that he was going to ask for some sinister toy again): None. I do not have any money!

Tanay: Well… I DO. And I can give you some if you let me watch TV. And then, you can go and buy yourself something nice!

Just great.

Maharaja Dhruv.

Priya — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:32:14 +0000

This is the name given to him by Tanay. Sometimes he even calls him “Rajaji”, meaning dearest King. When Tanay pushes him around in his li’l buggy, Dhruv sits with both his hands spread out, his head held high and his nose up in the air. Just like royalty! He has a mind of his own. You can never tell what he will do next and experience has taught me to be alert… ALL THE TIME! He has the most mischievous eyes and when he smiles at you with all of his eight teeth, you know it in your gut that something is about to happen!

He goes to The Little Gym once a week and is fast turning into a human monkey. He climbs atop chairs & tables & bath tubs (yes! you read that right!) with such ease, I swear it sends shivers down my spine! And more so because Tanay was such a cautious baby. I never had to worry about stuff like this. At last week’s class, Dhruv’s gym teacher mentioned that he seemed to be much advanced for his age. I seriously did not know whether to be happy or scared!

He is just beginning to say a few words here & there. He does seem to want to say so much more, but nothing seems to come out. His latest word is “eyes”, which of course is accompanied with a fierce jab into that unfortunate person’s face. Not only that, after being poke at, you are supposed to bear the pain and congratulate him on his excellent speech. Another word which he frequently says is “yayay”, which I am guessing means Tanay. Also he yells it out all the time. No surprise there. More than half of the time, I am doing the same.

This morning, I heard him stir while napping. When I went up to check on him, he opened his eyes for a bit, smiled and let out a “RAWR”. Before I could get a grip on myself, he went right back to sleep! Not only that, he woke up from his nap roaring like a baby dino! Looks like someone had a happy dream. Yeah, for most people, dinosaur dreams are nightmares. Not in our house. No prizes for guessing where he gets that from!

Can I dare to come back?

Priya — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:29:49 +0000

I miss my blog. Trust me. I have thought about it every single day in the past four months. And it was not that I did not have stuff to write about. My boys take care of that. They take their job of making my life interesting very seriously. But somehow, finding the time to actually sit down to doing it is becoming difficult.

So, today, I decided to let the laundry marinate on the bed for another day and logged in here instead. Let’s see how I do this time. Shall we?!

What is it with boys & bathtime?!

Priya — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:26:54 +0000

OK.. Here’s how it starts.

Me : “Tanay… time for a quick bath!”

Tanay : NOOOO! I don’t want to!”

Me : “What do you mean - you don’t want to??”

Tanay : “But.. I just took a bath… yesterday??…no… day before yesterday…no….”

Me : “TANAY…. get into the bathroom!!”

Tanay : “OK… let’s make a deal…. only body bath.. no water or soap on face or hair. Yes?!”

Me : “Arrrghh… OK.. no hair.. just body & face”.

Tanay : “Are you even listening to me Mommy?! I said no water or soap on face!”

Me : “Fine…fine… just get in there”.

Whew! Seriously, people, I am not even kidding. This is how it is every single time. And the funny part is that once he is in there, he is having the time of his life! He doesn’t want to stop! Then why put me through this unnecessary torture?

Sigh…. I guess, at some point, he will be interested enough in girls to bathe voluntarily. (Parenting. April 2010)

It’s time I took some History lessons.

Priya — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:24:07 +0000

This past weekend we drove up to my Aunt’s house in Westchester county, NY. Just as we hit the Tappanzee bridge, Tanay asked:

“Papa… is this the same bridge where Susan Murphy fought?”

“No, Tanay. That was the Golden Gate bridge”.

I have never felt so dumb in my whole life. I tried & tried to remember if I had come across a Susan Murphy in any of the history lessons I did at school. Gosh… I better read up on American history, I thought to myself. At the same time, I made a mental note to thank his teachers for talking about such stuff in their Pre-K class.

Unable to place this valiant fighter, I sheepishly asked Shubham,

“Ummm… who is Susan Murphy?”

“Mommy! It’s GINORMICA… from Monsters v/s Aliens!”

Drum Roll Please! There is a FIVE year old in the house!

Priya — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:57:49 +0000

Dear Tanay,

You are FIVE years old today!! I don’t know if you realise this, but, this is HUGE! I have been trying to digest this for the past week or so and seriously, I am yet to come to terms with it. I cannot believe it! I mean.. when did you get so big?! Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were my cute little two and a half year screaming out his A to Z of dinosaurs?! And now you are this handsome little boy who, when Shubham is away, tells me that he is the man of the house and will take care of me! The only thing that hasn’t changed is your crazy hair, but then again, let’s face it, that’s never going to change…EVER!

March 19, 2010 06:21 am, Happy Birthday Tanay!

So, a VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Minju! (yeah… you are probably going to hate me for blurting out this name on the internet. So, sorry in advance.) You are the most wonderful son a mother could ask for. You give me so much of joy every single day that I cannot even put it in words. Especially this past year… you have amazed me with your understanding and love. This year has been hard for all of us. But mostly for you. On one hand you were delighted to have Dhruv as your baby brother, but on the other, you were suddenly forced to take the back seat. I cannot even imagine how difficult that must have been for you. From being the center of attention to having to share the spotlight. But I have to admit… you did awesome!! I seriously did not expect you to handle the situation with so much maturity. From the time, i dropped you off at Aditi Aunty’s house while we went on to the hospital.. to this day… you amaze me and I have come to respect you for that.

I also owe you an apology. In the last few months, I realise that we haven’t really gotten to spend much time together. You know.. some good ol’e one-on-one fun time. And I feel terrible about that. I miss our time together and I promise that I am going to fix that.

You are learning so many new things. There’s karate… and soccer … and your drumming! You have declared on more than one occasion that, when you grow up you want to be a Jazz Drummer! Of course there was the time when you announced one morning, over a cup of milk, that your ambition was to become a vampire and then you proceeded to gulp down the milk, pretending that it was blood! ugh..SHUDDER! You have no idea how happy & relieved I am that you have given up on that. (Atleast that’s what I think.)

I love watching you get excited when you learn new stuff. It makes me realise how much you are growing. I only wish I could protect you from the disappointments that come alongwith it. Just the other day, you walked out of your karate class, head hung low because you did not get a magic marble (given for good work).

“Mommy…did I do a good job???

Mommy.. are you happy with me?? ”

“Yes..Tanay.. I am very happy… you did awesome!”

“But then…why did I not get a magic marble?”

I cannot get that look on your face out of my mind. I just wanted to bury you in my arms and protect you from all this. I didn’t want you to go through this… not at this age! Hell! when I was five, I probably didn’t even know what karate was! You are my baby and I cannot bear to see pain on your face….especially the kind that cannot be fixed with Tylenol.

I know this post has gotten completely out of hand. Hands down the most sappiest one I have ever written. But since I am on a roll, let me just say one more thing. I love you and I am insanely proud of you! I am glad that you are my son!

Have a Rocking birthday!! mmmwaaah!

Love

Mommy

It was great while it lasted.

Priya — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:12:25 +0000

It wasn’t very long ago that Tanay actually believed that his mother was an alien. A few days ago, I overheard him telling Shubham….

“Papa…. I know the truth! Momma is always lying. She doesn’t have eyes at the back of her head. She can’t see everything. Come…. let’s eat one more Oreo! teeheeeee”

There goes my “nothing is ever hidden from your mom” strategy. Oh..well… I will come up with something else. Suggestions are welcome.

Aaaand we are off!!!

Priya — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:28:56 +0000

Don’t miss our very own cheer leaders!

Now, he will teach me what “food” means?!!

Priya — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:40:11 +0000

One evening at around 6 pm :

Me: Tanay…. please come for dinner.

Tanay: What’s for dinner?

Me: There is eggplant+potatoes+peas veggie, Dal tadka, fresh rotis & rice!

Tanay: WHAT?! THAT IS NOT EVEN FOOD!!!

Me: Huh?! Excuse me!! Then what is food?!

Tanay: PIZZA!

Kill me. Kill me. Kill me. NOW!!

At least we are still in January!

Priya — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:42:34 +0000

My original plan was to have a witty, humorous post up on the first day of the year. As soon as the ambitious part of my brain thought of the plan, the practical and the more dominating part shot it down. A compromise was reached and I have succeeded! So Happy New Year everyone!!

This year, I have made no resolutions. Really.. what’s the point?! I don’t stick to them anyways. Why go through all that trouble?! The only thing I am going to focus on is to enjoy my boys! Coz OMG.. they are growing up so fast. It’s unbelievable! This morning, I found myself looking longingly at my cousin’s newborn baby’s pictures. Didn’t I just have a baby??!! NO. WAIT. That was 8 months ago!! Dhruv is all over the place! He is babbling, eating solids, and learning something new every day! And that smile!….. just melts my heart..sigh! And what can I say about Tanay! The other day he used the word, “hypothesis” & “impressive” correctly in a sentence. Gosh! when did he get all grown up?! I just want to bundle them up and stop them from growing up so fast!

So, here’s to enjoying every single moment with family & friends this year! Wishing you all health & happiness!