Ketan and Anju's grandparents have gone back to India, so after a month and a half, I finally have them for full evenings, straight through to bedtime. Jennifer, my new roommate, reacted incredulously when I told her I'd been with kids for eight hours, and I responded, "Oh, well. I actually like hanging out with them." These experiences made me want to record a day in the life with Anju and Ketan.
In the morning I took them to camp, but we were all tired, so they read in the backseat and I sang along to music up front. In the afternoon I picked Ketan up first. He had gotten a Mavericks poster, so he quizzed me on their names, which went really well since of course I know none of them.
Ketan: Starts with an S.
Me: Sam!
Ketan: No.
Me: Susie!
Ketan: What? No. S-h.
Me: Shhhh--Shane!
Ketan: No. S-h-a.
Me: SHANE.
Ketan: No. S-h-a-w.
Me: Shaw!
Ketan: No.
Me: Shaw...dolington.
Ketan: No!
Me: Shawt? Shawr? Shawn? Shawn!
Ketan: Yes. Wow.
Me: HAHAHAHA I never knew how bad I was at guessing names.
Ketan: Yeah, that was awful. Next one starts with T.
We picked up Anju, who proudly announced that she had only two more chapters left of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Ketan kept talking, which distracted her, which made her yell, which made me say, "Guys! Talk to each other with patience, okay?" We got to piano, Ketan started his lesson, and Anju realized her bookmark had fallen out.
"You're at the place where Harry says Dumbledore is the only wizard Voldemort ever feared, and then Tom Riddle says that Dumbledore fled at the mere memory of him." She looked at me with wide eyes, said, "Oh yeah," and found her page. Then her bookmark slid to the floor, and she burst into tears. "This is the worst day ever!" she yelled. "Sounds rough," I said. "Will you give me a hug?" She pouted and shook her head. "It will make me feel better," I said, and she glumly sat on my lap so I could wrap my arms around her. From my seat, she got distracted by the artwork and was soon happy.
After piano lessons, we went home to eat snacks and change into capoeria clothes. They made fun of me for eating an avocado, and I made fun of them for not eating an avocado. We went to cap, they did their thing, and after we drove to Chick-fil-a. No one was in the parking lot, and when we got to the door, we saw a sign saying they were closed because of a power outage. "Where else should we go?" I asked. "In-N-Out?" They didn't like that, and finally we settled on Sonic next door, which, when we got there, was also closed because of the power outage. Our third choice was Torchy's, so we drove there, got tacos, argued about soda vs. water, and ate.
Anju had to go to the bathroom, so Ketan and I sat on a bench near the door. We accidentally played a no blinking game.
Me: Oh! This reminds me of a Doctor Who episode. It was soooo creepy; I watched it at night and it scared me to death. There are these angel statues, and they can't move if you're looking at them, but as soon as you turn around, they move closer, and it's awful!
Ketan: Let's do that.
So I stared at him, then turned my head away and back really quick. He had moved infinitesimally closer. I looked away a bit longer, and when I glanced back he had raised his arms and was making an awful face less than a foot away. I shrieked, then we both fell over laughing, and I hit his leg because he had actually scared me. Anju finally returned with a horror story about how the light had turned off in the bathroom and she had fallen over.
When we got back in my car, Anju and Ketan debated whether or not Dumbledore or Gandalf were older. "Gandalf is somewhere between 95 and 2,992 years old," Ketan said. I laughed, and he continued, "You told us that, Miss Trish!"
"I know, but that was months ago! I'm surprised you remember. But I think it was 2,772." He disagreed, so I pulled the car over and made him get out to look at my license plate (Gandalf's age is my trick to remembering my number). "Radioactive" was playing on the radio, and Ketan has started doing this thing where he sings one word ahead of the song, but to the right melody. It is both impressive and annoying, so I let him go for awhile before reaching back to punch him in the knee and tell him to stop. Then I turned on "Sidekick" from the Very Potter Senior Year, and we all sang along loudly.
"Do "Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts"!" Anju requested, so I did. When the chorus kicked in, I yelled back at them, "This is perfect for you guys!" because they had been complaining a lot about wanting school to start. Ketan sang, "Gotta get back to St. Monica!" and we all laughed until I pulled in at the house. They took showers, I put them to bed, and Anju showed me that she had finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the car.
"I love the part when you find out Tom Riddle is actually Voldemort," I told her. "The first time I read it, I was all WHOOOAAA. It was great. Now you get to read about dementors!"
I raised my hands above my head and made a creepy face, which caused her to fall over in bed screaming. I fell on top of her, hugging her and apologizing.
"Don't make a scary face again!" she said. I agreed, and smiled, and she screamed again.
"Hey, that was my normal face! Don't scream at my normal face--that hurts my feelings." She giggled, and said, "I thought you were going to do it again."
"Do you want me to do it again?" I asked. She nodded mischievously, so I did, and she screamed and laughed. I got up, handed her the third Harry Potter book as she was sitting up, and smacked her in the nose with it. She crumpled, crying, and I covered her face with my hands, apologizing and asking to see whether it was bleeding. It wasn't. "Man, we need to make sure there's a lot of space between us at all times, huh?" I said. I back three feet away from the bed. "Is this good?" She giggled again, I handed her the book delicately, said goodnight, and went downstairs.
Sanjay came home and told me he appreciated my good influence on the kids by setting an example by reading a lot. "No problem," I said, as if I could do anything else.
Sanjay: Pretty soon they'll be reading stuff that you're reading!
Me: ...
Sanjay: I guess they already do that, huh?
Me: Yeeaaah. We pretty much read the same things.
And that was yesterday.
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