This blog started off to serve (also) as a journal to chronicle my son's growing up years; to jot down my parenting moments. Sadly, over time, I let many moments slip by; by not immortalising those on paper. However, without lamenting more about the water that has flowed under the bridge, I'm going to condense in here all that I can gather and remember from the past many months.
R is growing up real fast. He'll turn 6 in about 10 days time. I can see a lot of changes, yet some things have remained the same. For instance, his obsession with the whales and dinosaurs continue and his passion for cars has moved up notches on the status quotient. Where at one point even the humble autos and buses or even for that matter the Marutis and Hyundais excited him, it's now all about Lamborghinis, Ferrari World and the likes! Added to the mad mix is the new found fascination for superheroes, transformers and sci-fi movies.
There was a time when he could not differentiate between primary colours and he'd line up all the crayons and pretend that it was a train. And, now, he believes he's no less than Picasso and almost effortlessly churns out pencil sketches and coloured drawings on the go. He fuels his own creativity and imagination by looking at picture books and images from Google. Yes, don't ask!
R has become a phone thief and I've to constantly remind myself keep it away from him lest it disappears with him when I'm not looking. The only solace is that it is not some mindless video game that lures him, rather it is the queen of information, Google (what else) that keeps him occupied and enthralled. His search criteria include, among other things, "how to make origami spider" or "how to make airplanes that fly." I always knew I'm raising a nerdy fella but if ever I had a doubt, it has all been quelled.
Displaying some of his artwork:
General art: of course, it had to have whales and dolphins in it!
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| Night it seems! ;-) |
A card he made for Teacher's Day:
Artwork using stencils:
I was going through the previous milestone posts and I found one at four years where I had expressed my concern over his lack of interest and dull comprehending skills with topics that revolved around mythology or the general interhuman relationships. As an update, the graph didn't show much improvement until very recently. There has been quite a bit of turnaround, as though a light bulb got swtiched on. He's suddenly watching a lot of DVDs on Krishna and Hanuman. And then, recently, I caught him thus:
On that note, I'm glad to see the progress he has made with all the letter-blending and phonics he's learning at school. He can now read fluently, although he's more occupied with getting the words right and not assimilating the information that is being read. But, I understand that will come with time. Having said that, his general reading habit or pattern has, in general, waned. More than a diminishing of interest, I'd put it down to the rushed schedule of school and after-school activity he follows. Honestly, I need to take equal blame as I'm not investing as much time reading out to him as I earlier used to.
Speaking of after-school activities, I'm one of those parents who does not believe in keeping the child occupied with creative/non-creative/life saving/ non-life saving activities after school. Yet, to my own surprise, I've R enrolled in three activity classes spanning the entire week. He learns the keyboard and attends an art-and-craft class during the week, and learns skating over the weekend. In my defense I've to add that all of these have been at the insistence of R himself. I almost refused to send him to the art-and-craft one but he wouldn't hear of it. However, it's great to see him enjoy and thrive in all of these activities.
The lad has become more vocal about his opinions, and I must say, his opinions have become more pronounced. I can no longer hoodwink him into 'forgetting' incidents or distract him enough to obey me. He has also certainly learned the art of manipulation and melodrama. His responses elicit a range of emotions in me, from sheer exasperation, to some that tickle the funny bone, and to some more that have me wonder if it's a 6 year-old or a 60 year-old that's talking.
Scene 1: I'm trying to get him do something but he has other ideas. I sometimes marvel at how the teacher at the school get 25 such kids obey when I suffer at the hands of one kid.
Me: Please do it this way. Even I know certain things.
R: (looking surprised) Really? You also went to school?
Me: Yes, I went to school and more than that!!!
R: Umm..ok..but do you also remember everything?
Guess he caught me there ;-)
Scene 2: Referring to a picture of Devi and Lord Krishna in which the Goddess has an upturned right palm in a manner of showering her blessings whereas the Lord is not shown thus.
R: Why does Krishna not have special powers?
Me: Umm, not sure what you mean. Can you explain?
R: See, Devi is transferring her special powers to us with her hand, but Krishna is not. So, it means he does not have any powers. Why so?
Scene 3:
When the power goes off and the generator takes over, there’s a short lag before the appliances come alive. It was one such time while we were watching T.V. Usually, the TV resumes at a default channel rather than the one at which the viewer was. However, in this instance, there was no lag and the TV resumed at the channel where we were at.
I showed surprise at this and said as much to R.
R remarked rather nonchalantly that since this time there was no lag, the TV remembered our channel, else it forgets and goes to the default channel!
Scene 4:
Out of the blue:
R: When I become a father how old will you be?
Me: (Cheekily) That depends on when you become a father.
The joke was lost on the innocent lad so I said simply,” maybe 60”
R: (in a rather mortified tone) 60? You cannot be 60!
Me: Why not?
R: That’s a big number. Your hair will be all white and you’ll almost die!
Hmm, the casual reference to my death has remained unchanged from
here. :-)
And, a recent one:
In the wake of the Tsunami and flood alert in Chennai, I was generally expressing my concern over the state of affairs.
R: (excitedly) When will Tsunami come?
Me: Don't be so excited, R. Pray that it doesn't come.
R: Oh, but why?
Me: Because, it'll cause a lot of destruction and we don't want that, right?
R: (thinking) hmm, yes, Ok, I'll pray to God that it doesn't come, but if God is very angry and it does come, then I'll pray to God to give me more strength and power than the Tsunami itself. Then we need not worry about it, right?
Me: (thoroughly stumped. Yes, right! The golden rule is to surrender and ask for strength when things don't go our way. We adults have so much trouble understanding and following this rule and this child puts it so simply!)
Quite a longish post, this has been. Thank you, if you've been reading :-)
