the right fit

My dear son,

The family project this Saturday was pingu cake for you as you had been chanting for it for almost a week. Somehow during the summer break, while you were on a daily puja schedule with your grandmother, you had quietly learnt the benefits of chanting. It worked like magic for you this Saturday. However, chanting for a water-park theme cake is a little too much for my patience lever, especially since you just eat the fondant and not the cake itself.

This last one week, you have been obsessed about telling me a story about three friends – ironman, hulk and captain America. How hulk was angry and threw around cars, creating a lot of fire. I guess the fire troubled you. You wanted an explanation for hulk’s behavior. So I had to tell you the truth that Hulk wanted burger but his mom packed him a sandwich for lunch so when he saw that he became a big and green with anger and hence the fire. How did the story end? Captain America took Hulk for lunch to his house where his mom made burger for everyone and Hulk was not upset anymore. Which is why I have been telling your father I need to order the entire Avenger series since I was those kids who grew up reading diamond comics, not DC comics. I am sure you would not even know who Saabu is or how intelligent chacha Choudhary is. I will tell you in detail later.

The entire week, there was something we talked about daily. Either with each other, with friends, relatives, retailers and even your dance teacher. What kind of under-pants would make you comfortable the most. And we got lots of different answers. From no underpants, to cut ones, to long ones, cotton ones, etc. The jury is still out on that one but I am proud to say we have all the variety in colors and shapes for trial. However, you still look pretty uncomfortable to me.

July 6 

fly to singapore

My dear son,

Yesterday, after months of waiting, your dream came true. PK (the movie which has an alien trying to go back to his planet), was being showed last night on television. In anticipation, you jumped up and down, danced to the PK tunes you could remember and sang loudly. We are used to it  actually so no surprises there. Then the movie started at 8 pm and you sat down and since you were sitting with Big Daadi you assumed she knows nothing about PK so you were fore-telling her. Each scene and she had to listen too. Infact we were told not to talk so that you could listen to the dialogues, sitting very seriously on the comfy-end of the lounger. All was fine until the songs came and then all hell broke loose. You were mimicking all of PK’s antics, expressions, dance movements, neck cranes during the songs. During your favorite song ‘bhagwaan hai kaha hai tu’, you were even rolling on the floor, and fake dipping in holy water, with extremely spiritual facile expressions. Like your Big Daadi said, “PK’s spirit is haunting you” and we hope to see the end of it hopefully.

In other news, you have changed loyalties and now you are not interested in going to Pakistan any more. You are in fact interested in going to Singapore to visit your favorite brother. And there was a “problem” at the house last weekend but it’s stuff that I can only tell you about and not write so remind me when you are actually old enough to read this.June 22, 2015

movie marathon

Dear Darsh,

We saw a few scenes from Spiderman 2 yesterday. You were very excited to see Toby McGuire’s bravado. I made you close your eyes during the kiss scene and you did for me. I don’t know what you think of this when you read this but it was so cute you closing your eyes with your little hands cos mama told you not to watch the smooch.

And we watched another hindi movie in the theatre Sunday morning. Your father got you ready and was slightly taken aback when you chose your clothes and the accessories(read bag) and the shoes. He was amused that you went through your entire shoe drawer to figure out the perfect matching shoes to complete your ensemble. In the evening we decided to go out again but you didn’t want to part from your doremon tshirt. So you decided to get it re-ironed.

On Saturday, you played with me non-stop until it was time to sleep. It felt like you were making up for all the lost time during the week. Saturday eve there was a birthday and you threw up ten minutes after reaching the place.  

June 8, 2015

your first crush

My dear son,

Today at 7:30 am, after your morning rituals were over, I decided to teach you how to spray paint with a tooth brush. This was one of the very few art works I loved to do. You sprayed the brush once with your thumb, looked at your hands and ran off to wash your hands. At your return, I asked you to resume the brush art work. You nodded, showed me your hands and said “now hands are clean”. That was the end of that. You screamed at your very good friend because she messed up your room. It has been a couple of days since then but you are still refusing to do a play-date with her because of that incident. Yes, I think like your father, you are a cleanliness freak. 

Yesterday, you insisted on going to the market in your superhero cape and mask. And for some unknown reason you were very kicked about the fact that children might laugh at you. And vainly you roamed the market like that until a little girl laughed at you. Thankfully you removed your superhero gear then. I guess like all the children in the world, you want to be a superhero too.

Last Saturday was a revelation. You went with us to the opthamologist and responded to her in the most mature way possible. I think you also fell for her a little bit as you have been religiously following her advice – to the point of even reminding me also that the doctor told you to have a banana,

Yesterday, you woke up at your usual 6 am but said you were sleepy. So I asked you, “should we sleep some more?” To which you replied with a question, “no office today?” You are 4 years, 3 months old now and for the last 3 months, since I joined office, I am sneaking off to work, literally. The few times I tried to say good bye to you, you would start crying. But in the last 3 months, I am proud to say you have become more independent than ever before. In the bathroom. You still refuse to eat food on your own and we are still threatening / cajoling on a daily basis during all meal times.

I made you join dance class this week. For two classes you just observed and your eyes were glued to the dancing children, but you refused to dance. And then just like that, at the tail end of the second class, you got off from the chair, told me not to follow you very emphatically, and joined the other kids.

A few days back, we had gone to meet your little cousin Tia. Your grandma had not accompanied us. And you were quite miffed about it. So much so, that you took my phone and faked a conversation with her for 20 mins trying to convince her to come and join us.

In the month of May, we were involved with two dinner dates. You threw up in both. We organized a couple of splash pool party cum play dates. We also went to HK which was a hit and you fully enjoyed the flight, the hotels, riding in the metro, bus, and ofcourse the highlight was hour-long market visits while you were perched on to your dad’s shoulders.

 Two movies and you slept in both. The second movie, you insisted on sitting on your seat and not sharing it with either of us. I ended up watching the movie from an aisle below.

Everytime you poop, you go check your weight and height. Your favourite channel is rhymes tv and these days you are obsessed about eating jackfruit. So we sliced and offered melons and you were happy to eat our version of jackfruit. You wear the blue-pink car shoes for every outing and fall asleep listening to pepper stories. Every night.