School Drop Off

I don't usually do the morning school drop offs. Today I was to drop little miss Haana to her school. When little miss Haana was ready, we loaded up in the car and got going! I was going along the route i usually take to pick her up, and both of us were zoning out or listening to the music or both. Suddenly little miss Haana yelped me, "Mumma! Why didn't you turn there? Papa turns there". I am vaguely aware of this side route Raj takes, but it didn't register with me as part of actual directions vs "scenic routes" one takes to teach Google maps a thing or two. Also i can't be expected to take a route unless I'm told at least twice about it specifically. I see someone forgot about communicating effectively. "That's not even a route, it's all the same!", I pacified her. "No Mumma, now we will be late! Papa turns that way!". If you think I allow this tough crowd to cramp my style, you'll be wrong! "Late? We're not late, we have plenty of time. And this is the faster route, you'll see!", I educate the poor child. She's not convinced. We both eye the watch on dashboard. 8:37. She has to reach school at 845, late at 850. No problem. 

As we continue driving along, i see the traffic light up ahead. It has just turned yellow. And it's still some ways off. I see it from a distance but decide now is not the time to stop on yellow lights. I  hold steady. In my mind we crossed the light on yellow and it turned red just as we were passing. No words or looks were exchanged in the car. But another traffic light is approaching up ahead. As if catching it from the previous one, it just turned yellow too. I hesitated. Not a good idea to speed on. My driving record is not exactly in sterling reputation. So this time I press the breaks and we stop. "You could've easily passed it! It was totally yellow even after we stopped", said little miss Haana. She's not wrong. We start on green again. But now she clearly feels I need help. "Ok you have to turn left from the church", she pipes. "After the church". " Yes after the church". So i did as I'm told, the left turn is Red, so we stop. I tell her laughingly, "I usually I don't go left from here. This left turn takes a long time to turn green, so I go straight, then take a U and come back and laugh at all these cars still standing here on red". "What?! Then why didn't you do that?", she asks bewildered. "Oh, I am just doing as I'm told now", we look at each other and laugh for completely different reasons. Luckily light turned green and we are off again. 

We were at the last stretch now. 8:41. She told me which left to take to turn into the school. We are now in school zone, so inching at 20mph or lower. 

"This is the student parking now, so feel free to use your license to trample through to the front door", she tells me. 

"I don't think that's what my license is for".

Some kids look like they just turned around in their bed and landed in front of our car. I successfully weave my way through them. 

"Dont turn right from here, there's a turtle there", she says referring to the car that's pulling up driven by decided an overly cautious driver. 

I pull ahead. And just then, in the middle of a parking lot that has not a single blade of grass in vicinity, suddenly a lawn mower guy races towards us in his lawn mower. Me and Gugu together yelp before turning a sharp right to weave out of his path. More bowling pins of ruffled haired sleep walkers amble in front of our car as we wait for them to perhaps decide to tumble to the side walk. We are now moving across another parking lot full of kids sitting on what looks like sleeping bags. Who are these homeless people? "Band practice in the morning". 

8:43. We are right there. Gugu and I are still talking about the lawn mower on his helicopter making his sharp clipper turn right into our car. Where did he come from and where did he go!! We giggled and little miss Haana tells me- "I'm not doing this again". 

"Right back at you sister!". And we giggle some more!! 

No tardy for her, and no lawn mowers following me, so we're all good! 

How To Lose A Negotiation

I thought Bobby and I had an agreement. 

Let me back up. Our freezer at home has limited space. One day returning from school pickup, Bobby n i stopped at Walmart to get some ice cream for home. It was summer afterall. I thought, mistakenly, that ice-cream is something we both can agree on. Soon after walking into the store Bobby found a box of "Bomb-pop". Box of 12 popsicles that were  3 flavor each - cherry, lemon and blueberry. I don't even think popsicle is the same food group as ice cream. We argued in the store and i tried to distract him with many other options of actual ice creams. But his mind was made up. The only problem was, our freezer only has space for 1 box. So we returned back home with a box of bomb pop in stead of a real ice cream. 

Even since then, I've been waiting for him to finish his popsicles so I can get something i actually like. Somewhere in there, I got desperate though. Got a small box of Klondike ice cream sandwich box of 6. I figured we will be able to finish these quickly. And it did. 

Today returning home Bobby asked me if he can have his popsicle is there's a last one remaining. I openly relished at the possibility that the popsicle box might finally finish, and its finally time for my turn at getting a box of ice cream for home. 

First, Bobby was quite encouraging. He told me i should get the box of blue bell we saw. We had seen a 10 pack of individual servings of blue bell ice cream, half vanilla and half dutch chocolate. I reminded him since it's my turn i can and will get what i want. I was thinking of getting ice cream sandwiches, i was missing those. That's when Bobby reminded me that I already did get that 6 pack ice cream box, so this is in fact his turn to get another box of whatever bad choice he's gonna come up with. We debated back and forth on who's turn it was. Somewhere in there Bobby told me he's decided not to finish that last popsicle after all, so the box in the freezer will remain. No one needs to get another ice cream!

At this time, somehow, I was pleading with Bobby to have his popsicle, and he was giggling away saying no! When did this negotiation get so topsy turvy!! This is classic negotiation 101 - how to lose a negotiation 101, that is!!

Gavials

Bobby and I were not all friends this afternoon. I picked him up from after school, and had to go get little miss Haana from her school. Usually Bobby doesn't want to ride in the car and wants to be dropped home. But today Aby bhaiya (Softy mausi's son and Bobby's elder cousin brother) was not at home and I couldn't leave bobby home alone, so he was coming with me. And he was not a happy camper. This is not the first time this has happened. There's plenty of walking and crying and angry shouting "I wanna go home", throwing about of arms and legs. I thank my stars that has buckled in the car seat and otherwise unable up get up from his seat. Since this is new to neither of us, I turned up the volume of my podcast and kept driving. This made bobby even more mad. After some amount of angry crying, there were periods of quietening down. Then a small voice asked "Mumma I want a softy cone". Declined. More angry crying resumes. Turn up the volume. 

I picked up little miss Haana, she had to get home, pick up her karate clothes and he dropped at her old school for karate. While picking up her clothes I got bobby his Lammy. He stayed put. We went too drop little miss Haana and then got back home. In the middle of this he had thrown over of his shoes in the car which somehow landed close to me. 

When we got back home, Bobby and i were not in good terms. 

But after all that bad behavior there is this - 

I was doing some work when Bobby came to me with a small paper and envelope for my help to write an address. I asked what this paper was. He told me it was about a gavin. Yesterday in our reading time we were perusing an encyclopedia, the reptile section. It had pictures of crocodile,  alligators and gavials - which are like alligators but with very thin snout. Bobby was looking for them on his school tablet and found that pebblego (the software on the school tablet) doesn't have anything about gavials. So he wrote a letter to pebblego to add them in. 

Here it is. 

One minute I'm mad at him and instructing him not to talk to me. Next minute I'm smiling at his letter to include gavials on pebblego and looking up pebblego address to mail his letter to! Only in exchange for kisses of course!

:)

Bobby is a Leap-er

The school district we are in, offers an advanced academics program. In addition to ACT or GT programs, they offer what used to be called LEAP. They take students that seem to grasp advanced concepts, fill them up in a class, and then teach this class anywhere from 1 to 2 grade levels above in english, science, social studies and math. The program goes from Elementary to Middle school children. Little miss Haana was in the program from kindergarten. 

The program takes the MAP test score as the initial eligibility criteria. MAP is an adaptive test that gets harder if you're able to answer correctly and easier if you answer indirectly, to establish level of learning. MAP test is administered 3 times a year to help determine level of learning in the classroom. A 95 percentile score in MAP deems the student eligible to test for LEAP. I requested for Bobby boy to be tested for LEAP before Christmas. He had 2 tests, administered in person by the district professional, leading 2-3 hours. Both we know nothing about, cause when I asked Bobby what was asked, how did the test go, what did you answer - i got same old, vanilla, "I don't know Mumma" answers. 

Finally just a summer began, I got the email and later a letter stating he had been selected for LEAP program from Grade 1. Guys who was most excited about this news? Little miss Haana! She was so happy Bobby gets to go to the same program and follow in big sister's footsteps!

Rolly

It seems to be a bad idea now in retrospect, but I went to IKEA by myself yesterday. During the week Bobby and I had planned we will sort and organize his toys and legos that are currently stuffed haphazardly into the credenza cabinet. We looked up some options on ikea's online site and decided we will go to the store over the weekend. But then when I asked him to come along he sprung this up to me, "Only if you get me at least 1 toy". "You stay right here", was my answer. 

And so I went by myself on this mission. It is hard not to get distracted at ikea, but I was mostly sticking to my agenda. Until I saw a sweet plush toy taxi! It was so cute, about 2-2.5 feet in length, yellow as a chick, with white lights in the front and red lights at the back. It was soooo cute! I had to pick it up and give it hug immediately. It wanted to get into my cart. I told her I'll take her to where her other friends are - she was just one of a kind, no other plushies were in that area, and certainly no other taxis. Where are the rest? I thought maybe in a different section I'll find a basket full of taxis, and then I can return her to a basket full of friends! After several turns and travels i found the kids section and baskets of plushies. There was a yellow octopus with big curious eyes! We took a picture together immediately. But then i returned it to is basket. No basket full of taxis though.

I called up Raj to tell him what a bad idea this was to send me to ikea by myself. And now all the plushies are talking to me, and I'm making friends I shouldn't be making! Now they want to come home with me! Raj told me I should put the taxi back. But I said I can't just leave her, she doesn't have any of her friends here. I have to find her other friends so she can be with them. This was, at a stretch, only half true. Raj said if the taxi comes home the 6 year old with snag it from me as soon as it gets home. That was a risk I was willing to take!

So on and on I went. The taxi then followed me through the store in my cart, eventually riding with me in the car and then coming home with me in my arms! 

Bobby boy saw her and loved her immediately. He did yank it from my hands and hugged her close, as Raj had predicted. In the night Bobby and I hugged Taxi in the bed and named her Rolly. 

Today 5

Bobby and I negotiate daily during the bedtime story time.

I ask him to read 1 chapter to begin the story time. Then he negotiates this book has very long chapters. I say he can read 5 pages. Then he says 5 is too many. And somehow we land on 4 pages. 

Then, he starts reading. Today, while he was reading the first page, he pauses to tell me, "Mumma, actually for today, I will read only 3 pages. Ok Mumma, just for today". I look up from the book I'm reading in bed, but say or do nothing that would imply agreement. 

He continues his reading. In a few seconds he looks up again and said, " Actually Mumma, just for today I'm reading 2 pages only".  I look up but then continue with my personal reading time. 

In a few seconds, this time Bobby said, "Mumma today I'm doing 1 page only. Play, just for today".

Now I jump up, "What is even going on here Bumble city! Just for today you'll be reading 15 pages today! Just for today". He squeals in protest, "Not 15!!". "Not 1 either!!", I protest! "Fine 2 then!". 

3. 

2. 

3. 

Noo!!.

Fine 2 then. 

And momentarily we reach an agreement. Momentarily. 

Dulce and my Reputation

Dulce did not have a good June. We traveled for a few days and boarded him at a place that had a strong recommendation from our friends'. That he would hate it was no surprise. But he got a skin irritation that got infected and had to be taken to urgent care while at boarding. He was prescribed spray, ointment, antibiotics and steroids. When he came home his situation had not improved at all. His skin lesions (in scrotum area) were raw and bleeding. He refused food. I was shoving meds down his throat multiple times a day. Multiple calls with the doctor and over the next few days his condition improved. 

It was not all grim though. In order to help with his scrotal skin irritation we had to spray medication at the area twice a day. I did this when I took him out for a walk. One day we had stepped out in the garage lane, I was targeting his scrotum area with the spray. Peering down to make sure I got all crevices and folds, holding on to his back legs while I was crouched down. Finally when I convinced myself I had covered all angles, and I got up, I noticed her. My next door neighbor was sitting in her car about 10 feet away from us, with a phone in her hand. I wondered if there's a video of me crouching behind Dulce peering between his hind legs with a spray bottle in my hand, somewhere on the internet. I decided to pretend like I didn't see her. I hoped feelings were mutual. 

Next on the walk, some ways off, Dulce did his business. Since i had been talking to his doctor, I was worried his stomach is very upset. There was also the question of him being on steroids, which I thought was excessive. The doctor had asked for a picture of his stool to assess if stopping steroids  is not causing adverse reactions. So, as soon as Dulce did his business, I took my phone camera out, and proceeded to take zoomed-in pictures of his business! Getting the right camera angle, the right lighting, crouched in.  And then Raj made a comment about how these pictures are currently being backed up on the cloud. And AI is learning new things about us with these pictures. I doubled up laughing so hard, i couldn't walk at all for a minute!...

Dulce soon recovered from his skin infection and apart from fluctuating gut biome, is now doing good! Same cannot be said about my reputation in the neighborhood!