Scraps of Paper

Once again I am collecting and documenting all the slips of paper around my desk and in my purse that have scribbled on them, my kid's sayings. At the time I jotted them down, they had a purpose, some significant meaning. Which is why I probably should have written the blog post right then when it happened instead of months, even years later. Yes, some of these are THAT old. Now that I look back on them, I am trying to remember exactly what I found significant in each of them. Let's see how this almost 40-year old memory does...

Priya knew her alphabet at 18 months and started reading at 4 1/2. When Sanjay didn't follow in her footsteps we weren't too worried as everyone assured us this was one of the big differences between boys and girls. So when conversations like this next one filled our days, Bartee and I just had a good laugh about it. As much as he struggles, he never gives up and no matter how wrong he is, his confidence remains high. Two of our favorite things about our favorite son. A glaring example of his confidence in this exchange...
Sanjay: "Samantha starts with a 'C'. What does Felicity start with?"
Me: "F"
Sanjay: "Oh, just like 'Evan'"
Me: *Shaking my head*

Recently school was delayed due to the weather... this conversation took place in the morning while looking out at the snow on the ground:
Priya: "Is there a late start today?"
Me: "Yes"
Priya: "Bullseye!"

Overheard Priya on the phone with a friend of hers from school. She's not particularly close to this girl.
"I don't think we have anything else to talk about. Do you have anything to talk about? I don't."
When I asked her later what the little girl wanted, Priya said, "We were just chattin'".

We were watching American Idol one evening during the auditions and several things were bleeped out because they were inappropriate for family viewing. Sanjay says to me, "It's waaaaaaay to appropriate for us. Mom, now can we watch dinosaurs?"

I forgot to turn in some paperwork for the school. Actually, it was just a box tops collection sheet so there was no deadline, but Priya asked me about it. When I told her that I hadn't turned it in, she was disgusted with me and said, "Maybe I should be involved."

Priya organized a photography class that was going to be held on Wednesday's after school. She discussed this with a bus buddy named James. When I asked her how many students she had signed up, she said, "It's only him because it's obvious I'm not going to get anybody else and I want James to be comfortable." She did end up holding one session with him and both of them took it very seriously. She thought that his photography had improved considerably after the class.

Some friends visited last winter for a few days. The friends were Michael Senior and Michael Junior from the east coast. While they were here, they came to be known as "Michael and Michael" by Sanjay. After they left, Sanjay said, "I wish Michael and Michael were here because I love those persons. I even like the kid of Michael and Michael."

I cannot remember the significance of this one really... but I do remember it was an after dinner conversation we were all having. I think Priya told a joke or two and then Sanjay wanted to get involved. So, he made this one up... and seriously, I don't think he knew the punchline himself until I suggested it. For some reason that night, he kept going with my answers only.
Sanjay: "How does the monkey get across the river?"
Daddy: "Swings on vines?"
Sanjay: "No, there's no bines."
Priya: "Swims?"
Sanjay: "No, he can't swim."
Me: "Walks on the rocks?"
Sanjay: "Yeah, that's it."

For some reason this year, Sanjay was really into my birthday. It was so sweet. The night of my birthday he kept going on and on about it and I jotted down this sequence of ramblings. "On your next birthday, I will love it. Your birthday was beautiful. I loved it. Mommy's birthday comes first. Priya's birthday comes next. Mommy's birthday was so sweet. I loved it. When Mommy's birthday came again, I will love it."

Sanjay talks a lot. His mind is very creative. Here's an example: "What if your printer was a money printer? Like... pennies come out the side and dollars come out the middle? And, if you want gold, you just press both buttons on the computer and gold comes out. That would be awesome."

We had dinner at a friend's place about a week ago. The festivities ran late so we drove home around 9:45pm. The kids were exhausted, in fact, Priya had fallen asleep on the friend's couch. In the car on the drive home, Sanjay announced, "Everybody be quiet. I need a nap."

Sanjay telling his playdate friend that his older sister is in 2nd grade: "She goes into two-th grade".

I was trimming Priya's fingernails last week and I was particularly rough on one of them. She suddenly blurted out, in a very believable British accent, "Be nice on the old granny". I started cracking up.

The prime example of why I should really blog them as they happen. This, I think, came out of Sanjay's mouth, but I have absolutely no idea what he was saying or what was happening at the time. "I dropped an airnaut, then I got it."

Sanjay touched my arm and got shocked. He immediately said, "I got a snatch from you." (This one happened more than a year ago when he was still sorting out his vocabulary.)

Legos come with instructions on how to build what's in the picture on the front of the box. Board games, too, come with instructions on how to play the game. Sanjay has always and still refers to these as "constructions". It still cracks me up and I've stopped trying to correct him. Sometimes I'll even join him. He'll say, "Wait... put the constructions in, too", when we are cleaning up.

I don't know if it was the Summer of 2009 or Summer of 2008, but when we returned home from our annual Maryland trip, Priya said, "Nana's house is like a wonderland for me". I love that her time with Nana and Pappy is so precious. She treasures it so much.

Sanjay's calculated method of choosing friends, which he discussed with me on the way home from preschool one day:
"First, Matthew was my friend. Then Kyler was really great at art, so I wanted him to be my friend. I knew he would be my best friend in the whole entire class. Hmm... I thinked about it. So, I got him to be my friend. He made much beautiful art."

And, I end with my new favorite quote which I found on the Internet recently...
"You cannot take back or return lost time. It's history, so walk on." - Anonymous

Videos...

I just fixed the videos so that you actually have permission to view them. Sorry about that. They should be working now.

The Incident

The loss of Thunder was a big event Monday morning. Although she is completely over it now, at the time I wasn't sure how everything was going to turn out. Priya loves these horses. Most toys bring measurable joy then are forgotten within the first couple of months. Certainly within a year, they are in a corner collecting dust. Not these horses. Within a day of receiving them, they all had been named and they are still so important to her that 2 of them got to go on vacation with us last week. Only one made it back alive.

And, that's how traumatic it felt on Monday morning when this was all going down... which is why I instinctively grabbed my camera to see what I might be able to catch on film. I don't know why I do it. I may regret it later or I may treasure these "crying/angry" videos more than I treasure the happy ones. She may hate me for it or she may love me for it. Only time will tell.

I dug around and found the video clip of her opening this gift on her 6th birthday, then I spliced in some stuff from Monday morning. Here's the result...

Vacation Over... It's Back To The Daily Grind

We're back home tonight; the kids are worn out; it's back to school tomorrow. They went to bed early tonight and I'm expecting to have to wake them in the morning. Both are exhausted.

This morning while we were packing up, Caboose got a hold of Priya's "specialist" toy horse. It wasn't a good outcome for the plastic fur-coated little guy.



When Sanjay shared the news with Priya, she wanted to know "Was it the one whose leg goes like this? Was it Triple Crown?". When Sanjay assured her it wasn't that one, I thought all was well. But then she had one more question... "Was it Thunder?". Sanjay said, "Yes" and that's when the flood of tears began. She cried so hard... it was as if she were mourning the loss of an actual live horse. She told me to just throw him in the trash... she couldn't bear to see the condition that Caboose left him in. She was very angry with Caboose, even at one point threatening to call the vet and have him put down. The full week of activity and sheer tiredness just added to her emotions. It was a crazy mess, but she eventually snapped out of it.

While Bartee was downstairs catching up on the latest Tamil movie, I threw together this little video of our last couple of days in the mountains. Enjoy!



Also, if you haven't seen them yet, I uploaded a few more photos to Facebook. Check them out, here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

More Fun in Ski Country

I just had to take a picture of the kids with their head-gear on. Aren't their little heads cute?



It was quite possibly the music from the race course adjacent to the terrain park or maybe it was the rude snowboarders that cut him off on the jump before this, but something made Bartee's skis slide out from under him on this rail. I only wish I had kept the camera on him throughout the entire fall. Thankfully no one was injured.



We have been able to leisurely spend our days on the slopes because of the amazing dog walker that we found in the area. She sends us a daily email journal of their time together. Today she took him hiking around Lake Dillon and sent us "some photos from our time absorbing local Dillon history". I had a good laugh at him posing by these signs. Too funny.

Angry on the Slopes

Here's the video I promised yesterday... it was shortly after this clip that she threatened to bury my camera in the snow. Fun times on this difficult trail. :)