Dinner and a movie

On Sunday night we went on a date with Appu. We took him to our currently favorite restaurant here in Calicut for a speedy dinner - while his little sister napped under achamma's careful watch. Rohan opted to stay home to watch his favorite Thomas movie instead and for once we thought, why not, if everyone is happy.

So it was just the three of us and it really is nice to spend a little time one on one with our big boy - he is already five years old!! When the waiter poured water in his glass he said "Thank you" and I told him "That was very polite, Appu, good job!". His comment was "I've never been polite in a restaurant before". So now he can tick that off his list :)

This is us in front of the steaming hot tagliatelle with cheesy pesto. Too bad I don't have a snap of the french soup in a bread bowl, I really must go back to document that, as soon as possible.

While we wait

We have done a lot to prepare the children for the idea of having a new sibling popping out at some point.

We told them right away when we found out about the pregnancy, we have read books and talked about what the baby was like at various points in time. There is a character in the "Little Bear" cartoons that is called No-Feet, because he is a snake. In the first few weeks Rajiv and Rohan had a lot of fun referring to the baby as No-Feet, because we had read that the arms and legs form later...

Then we all chose a name for the baby. Temporary, let me reassure you. It was decided for some reason lost in the fog of time that we should call him Picu. We don't know that it is a boy, but let me say "he" anyway, for now. We talk about Picu all the time and we talk to Picu too, sometimes.

A few times Rohan has seemed a little disappointed that he will not be the smallest child anymore and he likes to reaffirm, constantly, how small he is. Overall though the kids seem really happy about this new baby.

Still, sometimes I wonder whether there might be some doubts or fears they have and that they don't feel free to share with us. So a couple of weeks ago I asked directly: "Are you happy that Picu is coming out soon, or are you also a bit worried?"

Rajiv (convinced) - "I'm happy!"
Rohan (frowning) - "I'm worried. I am worried that Picu is not coming out!"

I can only sympathize with this feeling. We have talked about this baby for so long that it feel like a permanent feature of our life, to have a baby in mamma's tummy. Probably Rohan thinks he's been had and babies don't really come out of tummies, they just stay there.

Rajiv too seems to have trouble picturing a mamma with a vacant womb. We sometimes talk all together about whether Picu will be a boy or a girl and Rajiv really wants another baby brother. S would like to see what it is like to have a girl and he tries to convince Rajiv of all the advantages of that outcome. These days, Rajiv's reply is always: "The next one can be a girl, ok?".

Let me not mention the dad's reaction at this thought, but the point is that both my children are so used to me being pregnant that they think that's what moms do, they grow babies season after season in one continuous endless cycle. How appealing..

No, grazie

Mamma is cutting pizza into small pieces that will cool faster and places them on the plates in front of two little boys who are sitting at the table chewing like there's no tomorrow. Mamma keeps cutting, kids keep chewing.

BUZZZZZZZZZ! BuZZ! BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Rajiv- There'a bee in the house!!!
Mamma- No, Appu, it's just a big fly.
Rajiv- Oh. It will not sting. It will just bother us.
Mamma- That's right it won't sting us, just bother us a little.
Rajiv- Yes! It will think we are food, but we will say "no", and the fly will say "o-k"..

Mamma opens the window and pushes the fly out, just in case.

Momma is 4 and has blue hair

When I picked up Rajiv at his preschool on the day of the concert, they gave me a little paper bag with some Mother's Day things and a plastic cup with three small seedlings growing in a little bit of soil.



Now the seedlings are only two and something must be done urgently before they die off. I don't even know what they are supposed to grow into, but a couple of clues lead me to suspect them of being sunflowers. Yikes! What am I supposed to do? I guess moving them out of the plastic cup should be a priority... On the other hand, if these little plants survive life under my "care" they will be surely ready for the big world outside, just like my children :)



Anyway, let me move on to the real subject of this post. Because we were going to the concert when I received all these things - plus a little bit of drama with Appu who seemed to have had his hand smashed by a door but then at a closer inspection was in fact ok - I just put it all in the car and I was very proud of myself when I remembered to take the seedlings in the house, but I didn't think twice of the bag.



Then a couple days ago I opened it. It contained a candle in a glass cup, all decorated with glitter by Rajiv himself, and then the real treat:

Now, first of all I would like to point out that the teacher who wrote down Rajiv's answers should have written "mamma" with an "a", because that's how I spell my name. It's incredible. I always get my name spelled wrong abroad and now even my mommy name has to suffer the same insult.. :)



I don't need to comment on the rest, except for the last line. Within myself I am debating whether this means that I am spoiling my children with too much shopping activity - for them and not. But leaving that question aside, it is funny that Rajiv should rate our shopping outings so highly.



What do you think our shopping looks like:

Like this?

Or maybe like this?

I will let you guess.



No, ok, I'll tell you: It's a little bit of both.

Friendly Mosquitos

Today I was going to write a post about all the nice conversations that I am having with Rajiv these days.

We talk about how he is going to play a bigger cello when he grows up and he tells me, with a dreaming expression on his face, that his cello is going to grow too.

He asks me why I am putting the melon in the organic trash bin and I say that it has gone bad. So he says, "Yeah, he was pushing the vegetables, that's not nice!". That's right.

He asks why he can't watch a lot of videos. I tell him that watching too many videos hurts our eyes. Surprisingly, he seems to agree immediately. He says the videos bite our eyes, just like mosquitoes. But the mosquitoes don't bite our eyes, only our body. I remind him that if he stays under the blanket the mosquitoes won't be able to bite him.
He agrees and adds: "And Rohan is going to catch them!"
Me: "And papa'?"
Rajiv: "Papa' will zap them!"
Me: "That's right, we don't want mosquitoes!"
This must sound too harsh to him, because he says that maybe they can stay, if they are nice. No biting. And maybe they are hungry and they need something to eat. How about noodles? But really small ones, which we don't have - so they can't sit at the table next to Appu - but they have small noodles at their home and really small bowls too, so they can eat there, or maybe bring them over. They can't eat apples though, because there are no really small apples: that would be silly. There are no small trees, because birds live in them and they are not small..

I wish I could remember the rest, but right now I don't unfortunately. We had a rough night with Rohan being sick and I was not even sure I would feel like writing about something nice. But maybe there aren't many other things you can do when you have only slept a couple of hours.

Rohan was really cute and affectionate today morning, by the way. I hope he is feeling better. I'll check with Meaghan soon and maybe I'll just go back home and stay with him today. Or maybe I'll try to work a little when I still can, we'll see.

How old are you? - Part 2

The next day:

- I like how you guys filled the new basket with your toy cars. It's really full.

- Yeah, I think it is very heavy..

- It is, let me try.. Aaaargh.. No, I just can't lift it, we might have to wait for papa' to come and help us..

- Yes! Papa' is veeery strong.. ..he is thirteen!

How old are you?

- Mamma, are you five?

- No Appu, I'm thirty. (internal voice: gasp! how did that happen!)

- Oh, good! You are not five! (????)

- Yeah.. Thirty is a lot.. It means I'm not a kid, I'm a mamma! (says with moderate enthusiasm)

- And papa'...

- Papa' is thirty-two.

- Yeah! Papa' is thirty-two! (Pause...) I'm going to be five and then I'm going to be thirty-two, like papa'.

Note: In case you are getting confused, he is not even going to be five yet. He is going to be four - in a week :)

You tell them stuff, but who knows what they are thinking..

Just a few minutes ago, Appu shows me a drawing he made and tells me it's me - and by the way, he did that because Rohan yesterday had made a picture of me, and he wanted to measure up :)

Anyway, back to the story. Appu says:

- Mamma, it's you!

- It's me?

(maybe I sounded doubtful)

- Yes, when you were very small.

- When I was small?

- Yes, when you were inside *my* tummy..

Non si puo' fare una frittata...

Mamma and Rajiv are looking at a book. There is a picture with some eggs.

Mamma - Look, eggs! And one is broken..
Rajiv - Yes! It's hatching! There is an omelet inside!

Words roundup

Rohan is beginning to talk. He says "bye", mostly unprovoked. He also says "mamma" and "papa'", somewhat interchangeably, and he says something like "ta-ta" when he is offered milk and he wants to express his enthusiasm (in Italian "milk" is "latte".)
He says "ba" for "ball" and "wawa" for water. The word he uses most skillfully though is "NO!!", exclamation marks included. :)

Rajiv, in the meantime, is getting more articulate and I wish I kept a notebook with all of his noteworthy expressions.

A few recent favorites:

Mamma offers him some pasta with broccoli. The big chunk of broccoli have been of course removed, but a few offending green fragments are still sticking to the pasta. Appu looks at is sadly and then tries: "I want to wash it..."

"I want a new computer!" (wasn't this supposed to happen at least ten years from now?)

Papa': "Are you a baby?"
Appu (with the confidence of who has just spotted a trick question): "No, I am a girl!"

Appu: "Rohan is so cute"
Mamma: "He is, and Appu is cute too!"
Appu (smiling at the silliness): "No, I am big!"

(whithin a few seconds)
"I am sad... I am mad!! .. I'm all better" :)

Sorry, I guess this one will be lost on non-bilinguals

Appu says:

"Let's go eat a big ciotola of noodles!"

Steps, pools, drums and more fun.

My laptop is undergoing some serious surgery after Rajiv has liberally showered it with juice last week, so my blogging capabilities are somewhat limited. Regular (not bad for a joke, eh?) posts will resume as soon as possible - and pictures too.

For now, a few quick updates.

I think I mentioned that Rohan has taken his first step about two weeks ago. I really mean a single accidental step, but I think he enjoyed it. He took his second step today. Again a single step, but intentional this time. He is clearly trying to walk, so I think it won't be long now that he has set his mind to it.

Little Rohan has been quite sick lately, but he is on his way to recovery. Clearly his physical fitness has not suffered, but the same cannot be said of the parents. Surprise... :)

We spent last week in Calicut - again - and Rajiv had a great time with all his cousins. We went swimming and he loved being in the pool, sticking like a clam to mamma or aunt Shal. He had water wings - or whatever you called those things in American English? - but he used them mostly as a fashion statement. We will definitely try swimming classes again this summer, I am sure he will love it this time around. (There she goes again, mamma, jinxing herself.)

Let me close with a short mamma-Appu conversation. The scene opens with Appu hitting mamma (not too hard) as if keeping a particular beat.

m: Appu! No hitting! Is mamma a drum?
A: No.. No, no! Mamma is not a drum.

(Keeps thinking...)

A: Mamma is a BIG drum! Yeah!

Sigh...

Appu dice...

"Un buco, two bucos!"

(E se lo proponessimo per la nuova pubblicita' del Maxibon?)