At the playground

Not exactly an Adi tale - was looking at kids playing in the lawn the other day while kiddo was practicing to be a tricycle champ. One of the moms came out and announced that her kids have to come inside at 6 and she went back home(her house overlooks the lawn they were playing at). Kids started having a discussion at this point and it went like this:
Girl 1 (confused): When do you think it will be 6?
Girl 2 (yes, she had an answer to it): I think its around midnight.
Boy 1(the one who knew his numbers): No. Its somewhere near 5.
Boy 2(smarty pants): Know what? Lets play in the other lawn. Your mom cant see you then!
And they all ran away happily to the other side.

The time I wished I could dig a hole and bury myself!!!

We were at Michaels this saturday shopping for things I didnt need until I went in there. Me and kiddo, that is. Hubby does not come anywhere near that place. Anyways, I was looking at flowers. And like any sane shopper I examined them, checked if they were on sale, calculated prices and kept putting them back. I was on the mission to find something I like at prices I liked. My multilingual kiddo asked me in malayalam as to why I kept putting them back and I told him that I did not like them(again in our language). Now anyone who has or has been near kids know that they keep repeating their questions. And he did too. Only this time he chose to do it in English. He went - "(serious tone) mom what you do is not very nice. You cannot just keep taking stuff from the store.." Yes. He suddenly saw a mickey mouse craft and stopped his sentence mid way! Right there - as if accusing me of theft. The nice old lady who was smiling until that point pushed her cart away and I, well, just read the title!!!

Happy Birthday

Here we are, on your 4th birthday, the day an adorable cutie with a lot of black hair and overgrown nails was placed in our hands... you had been in our hearts way before that though...

Let me be honest - the first few weeks were scary and we wished babies came with manuals. But we got past that with the mantra that as long as the baby is not crying relentlessly we are good. We trusted you to tell us when something was not confortable and you trusted us with, well, everything...

Then came the first sounds, first solid food, lets face it - first solid poop, first words, first steps and so on.. first birthday soon rolled by with you letting us know that you hate cake(am still surprised considering the amount of cake I had during pregnancy. Maybe you had had enough!).

And then you started getting independent. Being the over protective first time parents that we were we tried to control you. And you taught us that you are your own person and not just our baby. It took us a while but we have learned to accept it(most times atleast!)

And time flew by. You turned 2. You did not want anything to do with the cake. You didnt want to cut it and you cared least about gifts. All you wanted was to run around and explore. And thats exactly what we did. Or we tried to do. On second thoughts since you dont remember anything about it - lets stick with thats all we did all the time ;)

You learned new words. You were a daredevil. You climbed up a tall corner lamp(We have no idea how!). You jumped from everywhere. You figured your way around babyproofed stuff. We panicked. We watched you like a hawk. And we learned to leave you alone. Yes - we all learned to live with each other.

And then your 3rd birthday rolled by. You were excited this time about having your friends home for a party. You loved cutting the cake and blowing out the candles(although you wouldnt eat it). You were forming sentences and using 'because' much to everyones amusement. It got old pretty easily but we loved most of it :D

Another year rolled by and here we are - parents of a small handsome boy who we love to pieces. You have quirky responses to everything even stuff you have no clue about, you talk and talk and talk, you are opinionated and you know exactly what you want. You think any word with fart, pee or poop is funny.

From parents trying to make sure that you dont cry we have evolved to being parents who think that a little crying(or a lot, depends actually) is good for you and that it means we are doing a not-so-bad job. Yes, that helps us keep our sanity(ohh yes we are sane contrary to what you might see or think at times!).

You now try and spell different words. You have become a typical boy and already told me that you hate malls, clothing stores and shopping in general while specifically excluding toy stores. Those are fun you say. You love dirt, water, snow, sand(you get the picture - all things messy). And to our utmost joy - you speak malayalam too...

Even though you are growing up too fast and will be a young man before I know it, I want you to know that we love you. And that we will always be there for you. In the meantime, we will watch you grow every day,  every minute... to the wonderful person that we know you will become...

How old is the lil guy!

Today he was throwing a tantrum. He had all the reasons - we were travelling, it was cold, he was hungry, he was tired and he had missed his nap. So I did what I usually do - tried to distract him. I showed him Washington Memorial. He did not stop crying. We got him buckled into the carseat and somehow got through the moment. After he calmed down he explained it to me - "when am crying I dont like to look at anything. I also dont want to look at anything".

Seriously, how old is he again?!?

Tiny story

Location: super busy breakfast bar at an ocean city hotel.

They had these super yummy freshly baked muffins of all kinds - blueberry, oatmeal, chocolate etc. I decided to try a  chocolate one and thats how I know they were super yummy. And after some time I decided to pick another chocolate muffin after waging a war with my conscience.

Kiddo yells from other end of the small room - "but you had one chocolate muffin already..."

No one told me kids are suicide to self respect!!! Killed that feeling by drowning myself in more chocolate!

Why he cried!

It was bedtime and kiddo was crying. Real tears streaming down those pink cheeks and everything. And no - it was not because he was tired and did not want to sleep. It was also not because he wanted to sleep but wasnt tired. Lets go back in time by a few hours.
We were taking a walk and looking at birds going back home. To their nests. Up the trees. We were both happy. Now lets fast foward to bedtime beginning.
He lies down and thinks. This is how things went downhill:
Him: its dark outside. Birdies must all have fallen asleep by now.
Me: yes. Good night birdies.
Him: they must have eaten eggs for dinner.
Me: eggs?
Him: yes, they took the eggs broke them with a knife put it in a bowl mixed it put it on the stove and ate it!
Me(not sure if this is a teaching moment or just agree moment): hmmmmm
Him: and then they watch mickeymouse clubhouse
Me(sure by now that this should be a teaching moment): actually they dont have tvs.

I was about to correct him about the eggs and stove part too now that I had started but before then the face twitches, tears and howling happened. I had not realized that he considered that living without watching mickey mouse a tortured living. Uh ohh. Mommy misjudged the moment. It was definitely a 'just mind your business and say yes' moment. But I had killed it. And here we were with a super sad cranky toddler(yes, thats bad news!) So what do I do?

Me: you know what? I have never been inside a nest. Maybe they do have tvs inside. (Which is honest btw. Who knows what they have inside? Not me for sure!)
Him(stopped howling just tears now): i think so too
Me: yeah, maybe they are doing the hot dog dance.
Him(smile starting to appear): yeah everyone likes hot dog dance.

Hot dog hot dog hot diggity dooogg. And we both fell asleep. End of story :)

Baby

This weekend we met with some friends of ours, one of whom is pregnant. It was the first time that kiddo met someone whom I could explain to as 'she has a baby in her tummy'. He wasnt very impressed once he realized that he could not just lift her shirt up and see the baby and said -"not baby, she is a big girl!" (Ofcourse he said that about the mama-to-be). I didnt think further about it. Not until we were back home and all cuddled up ready for bed. This is how the conversation went thereon:
Him: I have a lot of pee in my tummy
Me: Mm hmm (not all that impressed. Nor interested!)
Him: I also have a baby in my tummy.. my baby.
Me: Ooh whats he doing? (Interest piqued by then)!
Him: I think he is looking at something.
Me: whats he looking at?
Him: A van. Orange van.
Me: how did the van get into your tummy? (I know I should have asked about the baby. But I was really honestly more interested about the van. Just to make sure he didnt eat his orange van. Just kidding. That would never fit his mouth!!)
Him: it vrooooomed away into my tummy.
Me: hmm that makes sense. What about the baby?
Him: ohh the baby just got tired and went away on his stroller (and he turned around and closed his eyes)

I never found out how the baby got in there or how he went away by himself on a stroller. Incase I do, I will keep you posted.