At Four (and change ...)
I entered my fours this summer and it looks like I have indeed entered the mid toddler-life crisis that everyone has been warning me about ... everything seems to be in a rut .. the same daily routine in pre-school, the same cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats - Just Bunches) every day, the same Dora series, the same weekend stuff (dinner parties, shopping, hiking, play dates), the same Gangnam dances .. life's got to be more than this.. I need to check out those Porsches everyone talks about.
So, to shake off the mid-toddler blues, I did what I learned
from my mom (and the US Government) – go
shopping for things I don’t need with money borrowed from the future. There is nothing like a few new outfits from
OshKosh to brighten a dreary pre-K experience.
So, what else is happening? I am nailing all the checklist
items for an above average desi kid (my
dad said that it was the Lake Wobegon Effect that makes all desi kids above
average – he is weird... he also blogs). I am reading well, writing well, dancing
to Bollywood songs well and can do mango lassi shots. I watch a lot of Dora on
weekends – I managed to convince my parents that Dora is “educational” because
it teaches Spanish.
We have been traveling a quite a bit this year (my sister picked up
this obsession with visiting as many new states in the US as possible with a goal of 50, I think. I believe my dad managed to convince my sister that there are only 23 states in the US now and
that the deep South seceded recently from the US. So, we might be done with
this gig fairly soon).
Earlier this summer, we went to Mt. Shasta, Crater Lake and
Redwood National Forest for a long road trip. I stopped asking “Are we there
yet?” after my mom showed me where we were on the GPS relative to our destination.
Trust her to spoil a delightful stereotype. What’ll she tell me next – that an
overweight, red-clad, aging Santa will not actually squeeze through our chimney
and drop into our faux fireplace to place exactly wished-for gifts in hastily hung stockings on Christmas
eve ? Hmmm… I wonder if mom’s insistence that Santa
actually likes “a wet cappuccino with 1% frothed milk with a shot of mild
roasted Starbucks coffee along with an almond biscotti” more than “milk and
cookies” is a clue…
Anyway, we had a blast on our summer trip. We took many
photos (way too many photos)….. (I don’t know when I will hear the last of my dad
droning on …"in my day…. We had to think carefully before we pressed the
trigger .. every shot was precious .. we had to frame the subject properly… the
right optics, the right aperture, and right moment”….and I am not even sure if
he is talking about photography or hunting… who puts that much thought into
photography… I mean, really…. you just flip our your smartphone and press the blue
button and fix everything in post…
Emboldened by the successful trip during summer (I overhead
my parents congratulating themselves for their strong defensive tactics .. “we
held the kids to less than 4 timeouts and 3 tantrums. The pivotal play was when
Anukha was throwing a Hail Mary tantrum with her insistence on eating only
noodles and we cleverly intercepted that with a YouTube "Tom and Jerry" distraction”… I was like… how many more days to Superbowl again? and this will hopefully end then …), my parents decided to another trip during Thanksgiving to
Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.
We had a great time during Thanksgiving. We spent two days
at Raji aunty’s place (a childhood friend of my dad) in Scottsdale, AZ and I
had limitless fun and yummy breakfasts every day. We then drove over to the
Grand Canyon, which was, like … big and grand. My dad said that the Grand
Canyon is really gorges .. I think he meant "really gorgeous". I am finally
beginning to learn more words that mean the same as awesome, nice and amazing.
(It seems to give my parents a deep sense of gratification for those long
drives if my sister and I go “Wow !! that was totally amazing.. I cannot
believe it is so nice here.. it was totally worth it…” (especially the last
part)).
After visiting the Grand Canyon, we headed over to ZionNational Park in Utah (after the obligatory photo that my sister had to take at
the “Welcome to Utah” sign … eye roll).
Zion was really nice with very tall cliffs and lots of interesting rock
formations (Aanya helpfully chimed in .. “Anukha, Anukha.. did you know that
geologists are rock stars?”.. At this rate, I hope she keeps her day job).
After spending a day in Zion, we relaxed a bit that evening
and headed over to Las Vegas the next day to fly out of there. Vegas was strange to say the
least … they really have their geography and history totally messed up – they
have Paris next to Venice which was next to New York, and ancient Rome is next to old
Egypt that is next to some kind of medieval castle. And as if that wasn’t
enough, there was an ugly looking gold-gilted building with strange letters
“TRUMP” written on it. One would think that anyone who is associated with that
ghastly monstrosity would choose to remain anonymous.
I saw that Vegas is the place for “just the right amount of wrong”
… I am not quite sure what it means … but I had a feeling that it was not exactly
a license to throw my fourth tantrum, so I stayed good for the rest of the trip.
That’s all for now. Caio
!!
