Tornado Brain

Woah, I didn’t show up here yesterday.

That’s a first in a very long time.

To be fair, we are very much jet lagged and still haven’t unpacked our suitcases. Work started full-force, Ankur worked an overnight on Monday night, taxes are due soon, and Ankur lost his glasses on vacay.

Which means there have been multiple trips to Costco, this apartment is a tornado, and yes, I missed a morning post.

Life.

Aside from all those ramblings, here are the current happenings.

Ishu’s favorite thing right now is his new scooter he got from his Masi and Masu and Maya.

He can ride it, but when he does, he goes really slowly. And this kid likes to move fast. So he basically just walks it everywhere, occasionally tripping over the wheels. It reminds me of the episode of Friends where Ross gifted Phoebe a bike but she can’t ride a bike (and he didn’t know that), but she proudly and confidently walks around with her helmet on, taking her bikes for walks.

That’s essentially what Ishu is doing with his scooter.

And then he looks up at everyone passing by as if to say, “Hey, you. Look at me and my cool new ride.”

Other happenings.

Yesterday, after one of our Costco runs, I was starving and impulsively ordered some shawarma wraps from a Mediterranean place a couple blocks away. Ishu was not interested in sitting down at the table to let us enjoy said wraps. So we took said wraps to a park half a mile away and sat down under a tree (even though there was nothing but shade and wind) and had a picnic dinner.

Ankur got a chicken shawarma wrap. I got a gyro wrap. And Ishu ate some packets of ketchup. With the occasional bite of gyro and tomato.

We liked the name of the park (Arrigo Park) because it sounds exactly how Ishu says, “Here we go.”

It was windy and our parking was about to expire, so it was a quick picnic. A quick-nik. But it was nice nonetheless. To be sitting outside watching all the dogs running around and playing with each other.

And then last thing is that we signed Ishu up for a class!

I thought I was anti-class for toddlers. Because I am always so afraid that class or daycare can stifle some of that curiosity and freedom to explore.

But now Ishu’s reaching an age where I think a little bit of structure would be nice. So, we’re not jumping to daycare. Because mama’s heart can’t take that. But we ARE trying this “Preschool Prep” class which allows the adults to stay in with the kids for the hour-long session. I’m dippin’ my toes in.

And our first class was great!

It was farm-themed and we all know how Ishu feels about moo-moo-cows. And all the other animals. So he was thrilled about all the things.

I appreciated how there was structure, but there was also so much room for exploration and no shaming kids for hoppin’ up in the middle of story time and walking around the room looking at things (of course, my kiddo).

It’s funny how daycare was really traumatizing and challenging for him. But when I am in the room with him (as long as he knows I’m in the room with him), he doesn’t give me a second glance. Like, for example, the instructor asked all the kids to sit with their grown-ups on the circles before they started the activity. Ishu initially sat down on an orange circle next to me. And then he decided he wanted to sit on the purple one across the room. So he stood up and ran to it and plopped down on it without feeling the need to stay by my side. I don’t know how to feel about it. But I think it’s a good thing?