Sleep time

There is a wedding reception in the evening to attend but we decide to leave the kids behind. They will zap our energies and crumple our well-ironed attires, so I tell them that I am going to the doctor to have my tooth extracted. They believe it and do not make a fuss about coming out with us.

Mira just wants to wave goodbye from the balcony as we leave - that is a new habit with her. If we dont respond or forget in the hurry, she howls the house down. Every afternoon, as V leaves after lunch, she pleads with him to bring back Amma and then runs to the balcony to wave goodbye to him.

I tell them to go to sleep after dinner but Ash tells me that he will wait for me. He has umpteen questions for me every night as he prepares for sleep: "Where is Wee Willie Winkie? What time will he come? Will he catch me (Spiderman has taken a backseat now)? Let him catch Vaava as she is a bad girl..." It goes on until his father asks him to shut up. He then whispers to me: "pathukke parayaam (let us talk softly)." I laugh out loud at his conspiratorial suggestion.

Mira's routine is different. She wants to sleep on my shoulder. And she wants some lullabies. Well, they are not exactly lullabies. Her repertoire includes two hymns (Ithratholam yehovah sahaayichu= So far Jehovah has helped me, and Nandiyode njaan sthuti paadidum= I will sing praise to God with gratitude) and a Malayalam lullaby (Kannum pooti uranguga vegam = Close your eyes and sleep fast, my baby). She herself sings the first two pretty well, getting the intonations right.

I fast-forward, rewind or pause as she decides which song she wants to listen to. If Ash joins, there is a fight. If he wants the first song, she wants the second. So then I proceed to the third which both like.

But today when I returned from the party, Mira is already asleep. Ash keeps his word.