22 in 10: bittersweet birthday

Esh did not recover fully from his illness. An excruciating headache and buzzing sound in his ear is what he complained of and it was his day. It was his birthday 05/22. A kind of a milestone in itself. A general midlife is what they say. Was this illness on this birthday a midlife crisis synonym? No way can do!

Sam and Anin got in a surprise dinner for Friday, surprise Tiramisu cake for Esh, which he cut at 12:00 midnight, the start of his day. It was very sweet of Anin and
Sam, very thoughtful to bring in the surprise candles too that said "eshu re" to put on the cake. :) A nick that I call for esh. The dinner - chili paneer curry and sprouts spinach daal that Anin cooked was yum m.

Tanay kept all our birthday eve shopping of balloons and his choice of 'red rose with gerbera' bouquet a secret and he slept with it. He was sleeping at 12:00 when dad cut bday cake.
The next morning when he woke up after everyone, I asked him in his ear
"Remember the bday? today is papa's birthday".
He jumped on his feet and wished Esh "Happy birthday papa". He took papa's hand and walked him to dining area and said "Surrrpriseee" :)

Then saturday afternoon during lunch was a surprise visit by friend Sreeraj after a long time. Later in the afternoon we started playing Rummy. Sam and me tried our hands first time on the game. It sure was lot of fun. The phone calls from Mummy-nana, Mamma-papa and Deepthi-Sindhur to wish Esh for his day made him very happy and feel special. The entire day was happy inspite of birthday boy not in his pink of health.

We went to California Pizza kitchen for dinner only to find closed for the day. The hungry tummies made us stop at Friendly's on the way and eat some not very interesting grub there. But it was the awesome ice-creams at Friendly's that ended the day. The bittersweet day started with eating Tiramisu cake and ended with an ice-cream - a complete satisfaction for the sweet tooth. Happy birthday to you Esh! Love ya.

Chedd'r peppers and mozzarella sticks

I am so thankful to God and at the same time glad that Esh finally is feeling better and was back to his form yesterday. It was his turn to be under the weather which lasted three days. For those days he did not step out of the door, not even to check the mails. Tanay and I missed him in his usual self. At the same time I made sure that Tanay doesn't miss on his parent time. I cooked in the mornings everyday and hit two birds with a stone(not that I want to kill a bird he-he). Esh got to eat hot food everyday and evenings were spent with Tanay. Sunday I took Tanay to 'How to train my dragon', 3-D version and he loved it. After that almost everyday I became his 'Nightfury' and he was 'Hiccup'. He loved the dragon rides and pretend plays of flying high in the sky. Later that day we went to library and spent the rest of the afternoon reading books together.

Finally when Esh was himself that evening we planned to just drive out. It was rainy, little cold. Esh donned his puffed jacket. I had removed shoes for Tanay as soon as we came from his school but esh's determination to step out made me tie them back. We all were happy. The weather tempted us to drive in to Sonic and we enjoyed our fried tots(Chedd'r peppers and mozzarella sticks). Tanay loved his mozzarella sticks. While we ate in the car, we left our car headlights on. As we finished gobbling down that greasy stuff and decided to move- the car wouldnt start. The battery juice was getting over as we emptied the ocean limeade juice from the cup. Then Esh looked at me. I could see Esh's eyes gleaming with pride over the decision he took to own battery charger. We juiced our battery up with the charger. And went on a long drive, filled up the gas and got back home. Ready for the next day, satisfied - refreshed!

Car song

On the other night I hauled Tanay to his room during his bedtime. Often he knows that he is tired and he should sleep but denies it so his train of fun keeps chugging. He says he doesn't like nights and that he likes only daytime. That is because all the fun is soon about to get over. Don't we on a Sunday afternoon? We often say...oh the weekend is over though we have few hours left.
oh well! Now we all were very tired after the birthday party and treading the paved streets of sesame with few rides here and there. I presumed that Tanay would snooze soon and decided to skip the story reading and sing a lullaby. Its been long that he slept to a song! It used to be "Chanda Re", so I started humming it for him and he said: "No not that one-I want the car song" and started bobbing his head. He somehow prematurely discovered the songs of "Rock On" when swapping songs on the cd player in the car. Now when in car for comparatively longer runs, he asks us to put 'Rock On' in Mommy's car. Same story for MJ's thriller in Esh's Infiniti. He has joined the head nodding society too soon for his age. And in the bedtime those ridiculous nods for the 'car song' will sure not help him catch the Zs. Somehow I managed to read "Papa-Please Get The Moon For Me" and "Yertle the Turtle". Believe me, the turtle was making me fall asleep. Tanay's peepers went red but he would shut them off. He was in daze but not ready to sleep. He wanted me to read a third book. I figured the problem, turned off the bed side light.I repeated 10 times the last two lines from "Yertle the turtle" and held his hands tight under the covers. Esh and I both think holding his limbs gives him a kind of assurance, helps him feel safe to ease off into dreamland. And Finally he was asleep. Phew!

Red

Red jello with some whipped cream And Red strawberries with some whipped cream, my ideal family dessert!

Sorry

Today I was in hurry as Tanay had soccer class in the morning, and so we made sure he makes it to his school by 9:00 AM. I decided to pack his lunch bag later and drop it later. Since my mind has been super-occupied with overloaded work in office, the fact that Tanay did not have his lunch with him got completely washed off my mind. Then I got a call from Ms Lucia at around 11:50 AM about his lunch. I rushed to his school and saw Tanay sitting in woeful state. His body language telling me "why did mommy forget my lunch? and I dont have anything to eat during my lunch hour and I am really really sad". The first thing I said to him as soon as I saw him was
"Sorry. See mommy got your lunch."
"What did you get?"
"Here."
"Did you get any curry?"
"Yes"
"Oh ok :)"
Silence.
"Its hot"
"No its not, its just warm, you silly"
And then one piece went in his mouth.

Newest Emotion: Blushing and Jealousy

This time when Sam and Anin visited us in Piscataway NJ we saw two new emotions showing up on Tanay.Tanay blushed every time AniMami hugged tanay or looked at him, so much to that he went hiding behind me when AniMami said I will miss you Tanay when saying bye. He has never done that. Then we saw the jealousy in him when SamMama and AninMami were playing word game on their iphone, so much to that he started crying and said that he also wants to play with AniMami. When AniMami and SamMama went for a classical Musical get together on saturday night, Tanay would have asked me at least 15 times where is AniMami and when is she coming- and not a word on SamMama. He sure is getting fond of AniMami