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.

Tanay: Sara, you want to play?

Sara: OK!

Tanay: C’mon! You follow me.

Sara: No. You follow me.

Tanay: NO. You follow me.

Sara: NO. You follow me.

Tanay: I SAID YOU FOLLOW ME!

Sara: NO YOU FOLLOW ME!

Tanay: I am the leader!

Sara: No. I am the leader!

Tanay: NO! I AM THE LEADER!

Sara: NO! I AM THE LEADER!

You get the point. Once you look beyond the whining and screaming, it can be rather entertaining.

Years and years ago, today was the day my husband said hello to the world. We are planning to celebrate his birthday in the wilderness. You see, we are trying to make the most of this last week of summer. Catching up with some friends, just chilling and eating lots and lots of food. But then you already know that. We don’t need a reason to pig out! As of now the wilderness trip looks slightly doubtful. We have a rather shameful track record when it comes to stuff like this. We always plan such things but they never get executed. There is this strange inertia which overwhelms us and we almost always end up just eating and sleeping. Which is also fun….ALWAYS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Shubham! Keep smiling…. you light up our life! And, hopefully you will have a birthday to remember……wilderness or not.