Eventful Weekend

Pratyush
Originally uploaded by Alta Marie

It was an eventful weekend.
Friday evening as I left early and arrived to make it the Halloween parade at Kinder Kastle. It was wonderful parade and kids were dressed in all kind of costume. My little astronaut was there and it was a feast for sight. We went trick or treating till late evening until Pratyush thought his bag was too full and heavy and he dint need anymore candies, we turned to home.
It was the swimming class early on Saturday morning with evaluation and Pratyush was destined to be in the same swimming class for next 2.5 months. Well that’s not bad because now he is happy and excited during the class and that is good enough for me. After all his parents are no swimmer or athletics it will be unfair to expect him otherwise with limited access to the pool or gym. I made a friend there who is from UP and so considers me a neighbor both from India and in NJ. Every week I forget my mobile at home and so unfortunately never get to get her phone no, though she insists that we must meet up some time. We became friends 3 weeks back when she was discussing how outraged she was with her son who is 6 years old, when he started talking about some racist comment at his kindergarten, Well – This is going to happen. All I could suggest was to encourage his self-confidence and make him feel proud of who he is rather than what is color of his skin and his accent. I am glad Pratyush hasn’t brought these up yet, I don’t know if he is just not aware or he hasn’t faced a circumstance. Though he is fully aware of the difference in culture and languages from the people of different backgrounds. He made sure that he asks me if he should call Alta, “Just Alta” or “Alta Aunty” which is a normal custom with Indians and he never asked me this whenever we met another Indian family so far. I was surprised and I also understood what all his little brain can comprehend. Talking about Alta’s visit at my house, it was just wonderful. She is so full of life and fun, she was a complete hit with my 4 yr old. He is generally a shy boy and I kept telling Alta that while he knocked me out with his constant chatter with her from the moment they saw each other. They played soccer , hide and seek and hiding under the blanket and yeah Alta did teach her making the POP sound which he kept demonstrating for the rest of the weekend. When he saw he knitting the sock, he proudly announced his mom is going to make him a scarf and wasn’t aware that it was Alta who gave her the starting kit to make one. And I was more than embarrassed with my performance of broken needles. I will make that scarf. No matter how long it’s going to take. She is a photographer and so it wouldn’t have been complete without a photo shoot. I do not have to add more about pictures and the readers can view them all up there by following up the link. I tried to give her a round of the Indian Street of New Jersey and landed to TJ-MAX for some shopping. The only thing that was worth buying was a drill set as Pratyush couldn’t live without one or wouldn’t LEAVE without one.
Even my conservative and not-so-comfortable-around-people-I-don’t-know husband felt very comfortable around her. Pratyush wanted to know when he can pick her up again from station while I was aware she hasn’t caught the train back home yet. Then we left to see Chanda di and some of her friends with visiting parents to her place. We ate all the delicacies I could have imagined till way past mid-night, talked about everybody we knew stretching ourselves on every couch around the house while Pratyush crashed on one of the sofas by 9 PM. We also polluted the air a bit with fire crackers since Chanda didi couldn’t do so on Diwali day so it was sort of a Post-Diwali celebration.
Sunday was pretty quite, while the backyard was finally cleaned from the leaves and the grass was mowed. We made our trip to library and Apple store and purchased the IPhone. I loved the IPhone – I am never into buying gazzetts but I jus fell in love with it and so did Pratyush. We three spend some real heart warming time in the store. I would really love to get my hands on the Apple Air the thinnest and lightest laptop I have ever come across. Oh it was just beautiful. In the night we watched the Farsi - Iranian movie “Children of Heaven” or “Bachhaye Asaman” . it was a wonderful movie and something that we 3 enjoyed completely though we didn’t understand the language. We kept reading the sub-titles and telling the sequence of event to Pratyush. He was mad everytome somebody scolded the kids and asked me to put him on a time out. It was a very good watch for families and a Must-watch. Go and check if your local library has a copy and put it on hold right away, it was short but very moving. The child actors did marvelous job.
I read bunch of stories for bedtime and sang couple of songs while the baby-yet-to-born kept moving and kicking way past mid-night. And I was wondering how can I put this guy to bed now?
Blissful isn’t it. I wonder if I will feel those kicks in my life again, Amy be not and so I wish to enjoy it as long as I can.
Till tomorrow.