At four (and change)

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 !!