Bringing up the kids!

The most important update.. Bambi started daycare(a couple of hours a day) this month. The same place that Mowgli went. Totally different experience. The first day, she readily went with one of the ladies there, inspected everything , gave everyone her “you are extremely blessed to have me smile at you” smile. I went out for a  walk, came back in half an hour and she was happily playing. The next day, same story. I was out for more than an hour. She had had her snack and was playing. The third day they told me to come only after lunch. The fourth day was the same. So was the fifth. The change being that the moment Mowgli puts on his schoolbag, Bambi will also run and get her bag ( Mowgli’s old one.. yes, she might suffer some trauma at all the hand-me-downs that she has) and stand at the door. The BH and I remember Mowgli’s tears and tantrums and shake our heads in disbelief. It’s the same question that comes back. HOW IN HELL CAN TWO CHILDREN FROM THE SAME GENE POOL BE SO DIFFERENT!!!! Now we see tantrums of a different nature. She puts on her ‘Be’ (bag) and ‘jhoo’ (shoe) the moment she wakes up and is ready to go. And tantrums galore coz her evil parents don’t allow her to trot off to daycare at 7 am!!!

Onam was eventful with an entire battalion from the BH's side coming to spend a week with us. After the initial panic and grumblings and mumblings the Virgo in me rose to the situation, put everything down in excel and managed happily :-) Seems like I'm getting obsessed with lists and excel. The kids had lots of fun, so did we. Though I'm sure I heard a collective sigh of relief from the neighbours when everybody went.

What have the kids been upto? A lot.. Bambi managed to scald her feet with boiling chai a day before my in laws were to come. Got all the sympathy and proved herself to be a tough cookie. The blister took almost a month to heal. Apart from the initial tears, she was least bothered with it. It looked so painful, but she just ignored the wound and went around climbing everywhere and picking at the scabs. The scar is still there. The BH plans to milk it for all its worth on how  a careless mama poured hot tea over her. Cocoa has morphed into a totally 'Love starved'  woman understanding now that along with the kids she too has to fight for our attention. Its not uncommon to see her gently pushing Mowgli or Bambi and trying to get on our laps instead.

Bambi is growing up to be the bully of the playground picking fights with every one. She even keeps track of who behaves badly to Mowgli and goes on to administer justice which usually means walking up to kids double her size and either shouting gibberish at them or one tight slap! She follows Mowgli around wherever he goes, playing with his cars when he is not there, snatching his cars and running away( more like wobbling away) as fast as she can. Independent as can be. Everything has to be done by herself.

At times its really funny to see them both playing. Mowgli would be earnestly playing with his cars or animals whereas Bambi is more interested in disrupting or creating confusion in whatever Mowgli does.

And I vigorously nod my head at Bill Cosby when he said “The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.” Absolutely!