Tanay: What does anniversary mean?

Me: An anniversary is the birthday of a marriage.

Tanay: Are you married?

Me: Yes. To your Papa. Me & Papa got married many many years ago and today is our anniversary.

Tanay: NOOOOO!! You cannot be married to Papa. YOU HAVE TO MARRY ME!  Now who will marry me??? I am so sad.

Me: Awwww….don’t be sad. When you find a nice girl, you can get married to her.

Tanay: Just like Papa found you!

Me (gleefully): Exactly. He found me and then I hung on for dear life!

Seven years of absolute joy and bliss. Shubham & I can hardly believe that it’s been that long. We were under the impression that the seven year itch starts when you complete seven years, but then a friend mentioned that, the itch in fact has already ended. Hmmm… I am confused. Anyways, I intend to rent the famous Marilyn Monroe movie this weekend and watch it with Shubham.

I know I have been slacking lately. OK, slacking a lot. What can I say… we have been busy…doing our own thing. Shubham has been bitten by the work out bug and has been devoting all his time to adding some muscle to his bones. And, just like every other thing that he takes up, he is very serious about it. Of course, I now have to answer his “How do I look?” every single day. You have no idea how tiring it can get. But I am happy that, at least this obsession of his is for his own good. So, while Shubham focuses on getting flatter abs, I promise to aim for the exact opposite. After all, balance needs to be maintained in this universe.

Tanay came up to us this morning and gave both of us a “Happy Anniversary” hug. We also got special anniversary-smiley-face stickers from him which we had to flaunt on our shirts. He actually wanted them on our faces, but I managed to talk him out of that. Don’t give me that look! One of the stickers was a huge alligator!

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!