An abnormally "normal" weekend!

If someone had told me about it on Friday, I would have laughed it off.  But how we actually spent this last weekend was nothing short of "normal"... in fact, a notch better.

Our usual schedule for Saturday is for two of our volunteers to come play with Aditya, and receive feedback and/or training.  One of them was R, our youngest volunteer so far, who turned 16 on Saturday, so she had asked for the day off  (And, of course,  the twins presented her with hand made cards on Friday).  Another volunteer M had also asked to take the day off.

As a result there was no plan and no structure, and we (Aai, Baba) actually loved this break from the routine.  The usual Saturday morning involves Aai going to the local farmers' market and get fresh vegetables, fruits, and pastured eggs.  This Saturday, the rest of the family joined in!  (Aditya was given the choice to say NO to this shopping experience but he wanted to go!)

At the market, Aditya was (as usual) fascinated as he looked at the musician who was taking turns playing his electric guitar, the sax, and the flute.   ("Tenor Sax!" he exclaimed as the musician began playing his sax. Baba went up to the musician who said it was indeed the Tenor Sax!)

We then sampled some strawberries, blackberries, a little bit of other summer fruits like peaches and plums.  (We do not eat or let the kids eat unlimited fruit, as that would cause a sugar overload.) We finished the trip with some avocado-shopping, and returned home.

Once we were home, everybody did their bit to put away the produce we just bought.  Baba then took the garbage out, while Aai cooked lunch.  Since we were not hungry as yet, we asked the kids if they could wait until later so we could do something we had been thinking of doing for the last several months-- fix the book case in the living room.  (We had bought and assembled it in December only to realize we had not done a perfect job with the assembly.)

The twins spent the next hour playing really well together!  Both Aai and Baba are now used to it, but we feel SO GRATEFUL for it! Seriously, neither of us ever played this easily with our own brothers!

Because Aai-Baba decided to try fixing the book shelf without "needing" to fix it, they fixed it way more easily than they imagined!

And then... Baba announced a surprise!

 We would be watching the Disney CARS movie as a family!

We sat down in the living room and played CARS on our laptop, and everyone had a blast!  Some cool things noticed during this period:
1.  Aditya followed and understood the story
2.  When in doubt, he asked OR if we suspected the kids were not understanding it, we would let them know we were going to pause the video, then pause the video, then ask them if they understood.  If not, we would explain, and then move on.  Except in one or two situations, Aditya was okay with these interruptions as well.  (Although interrupting a movie may not sound like the greatest idea, this is necessary so that Aditya knows the "context" around why something is happening.)
3. Both Aditya and Sister rooted for Lightening McQueen!
4. In the end where McQueen gave up his Number 1 position to help push the retiring old guy No.43 to the end of the race, we exclaimed how cool it was of him to be an awesome friend and not be only focused on winning the race.  Aditya responded, "Yeah, that's like Son Rise!"

After the movie everyone announced that they loved it!

(This is only the second movie we have watched in the last 1 year)

We finished Saturday with a bike ride and dinner at a nearby South Indian restaurant. (They serve gluten free food that also happens to be delicious!)  During the bike ride, Aditya was super flexible about sharing his new 20 inch bike with sister whose bike had a flat tire!

At the restaurant, which was specially crowded, Baba complained of the noise.  Not Aditya.  He was busy drawing with his crayons and later devouring his food!

On Sunday, Aai Baba decided to get out of their own comfort zone a bit more, and reach out to a family we know.  We called them, decided to meet them for a park play date and a picnic!  (Their two sons are about the same age as our twins.)

Next, we did a family meeting where Baba announced plans for the picnic and park play date in the evening.  We then passed the microphone around saying what it is that we were excited about.  Aai said she was very excited about meeting her friend and catching up with her! Aditya said he was excited about riding his 20 inch bike at the park, as well as the "Boating" experience that the park offers in the summer.  Sister, the social butterfly that she is, said she was really excited about meeting the two boys who she had not met for years!  Baba mentioned he was super excited about the boating, meeting the family friends, and his friend E (the dad of V and V) who works at the company that makes Turbo Tax (Aditya loves knowing names of companies where people we know work)!

We then also signed up to do things to make this a successful experience.  Baba signed up to make lunch.  Aai signed up to make dinner that we would then take to the picnic.  Sister signed up to make a list of toys and other supplies to take to the picnic, while Aditya signed up to actually gather the stuff on the list.  We also agreed that we would not tell others how to do their job, but could always ask each other for help or advice!

The preparations went extremely smoothly once everyone had signed up for jobs and were only responsible for those things... similar to the agile software firm where Baba works:-)

Okay, to be honest, Baba got exhausted (LOL:-)  from making lunch and answering Aditya's "is this food legal/ illegal on SCD/GAPS/ Gluten Free/ Real Foods Diet?" questions and sometimes reminding him that "diet related questions" were "playroom questions" and he wanted to make lunch so everyone could go for the picnic tonight.  (Aai then gave him a break so he could make  tea for himself and call up his own brother)

Finally, the family left for the picnic an hour later than we had decided.  As a result, we would have to choose between visiting the bike shop to fix Sister's flat tire and going to the park in time for the boat ride.  (Boating would close soon.)  Sister voted to go boating, so that is what we did.  At this point Aditya got anxious and said he really had to bike.  After a couple of times of Baba telling him that he could do that but we would first go do the boat ride, he seemed to understand.

Once at the park, though, we saw a totally new child.  He asked twice when we would go boating.  Once we told him "after the other family is here" he never asked again.

Lately he has been showing an interest in  birds.  He also is findings answers to questions like... is pigeon a bird? What about the lizard, the lion, and the duck?  (To another 7 year old it may be obvious but it is not to him. And that is fine. That is who he is.  The cool thing is he is now interested so he is finding out!)  How does a parrot look? Is it shaped like an airplane (since it flies)?  Is a crow smarter or a sparrow? Who is friendlier?

During the bike ride and at the park, he took a great interest as he saw the sparrow, the pigeon, the crane, the duck, the swan, the seagull, etc, for what seemed like the first time in 7 years!

Once our friends showed up, Aditya seemed to be excited about the arrival of his old time friend V.  (Actually V also had a play date last year with Aditya where the boys played a game of soccer followed by a game of Funglish.)  He then went up to him and waved to V saying Hi, although he did that in a "sudden" way that looked "different".

The kids then all stood next to the deck and watched different things in the lake... from swans to the paddle boats.   Apparently A said to V that they were going to kayak, at which V laughed, and A seemed to take it sportingly!

A little later, we began the paddle-boating experience.  Aditya and sister were disappointed to know they could not reach up to the paddles.  But with Aai Baba's assistance they later took turns sitting in Aai-Baba's laps and paddling and steering the boat.  We had a great time doing this for the next 30 minutes.

Once out of the boat, not just Aditya but all the kids asked, "when can we bike?"

We then biked and walked around the lake for the next almost 40 minutes, with Aditya and the two boys on the bike.  Sister walked and also earned some piggy back rides from Baba for being so flexible about her bike!

News Flash:  usually the sight of Baba giving her a piggy back ride leads to Aditya giving up his bike right away and asking for a piggy back ride.  Not so today.  He said he would rather bike!  Assertion! Even definance?  Boy-ish traits that are SO WELCOME!  However, he made sure to go not too far away chasing  V (who seemed to have zoomed away, with his own dad following him on foot).

The 40 minute ride clearly exhausted him.  More than the other kids, we thought. In any case, he played cricket and kicked around the soccer ball for a few more minutes, and then once dinner was served, he did not stop eating until he was done!

In the end, he remembered to say Bye to V and V and their parents too!

And on the way to the car he asked when we were going to see them again!  "Can you believe it?" said a part of me.  "Of course!" said the other:-)

Once we all sat in the car, Baba announced he had had a blast... who else?  "Me" said the twins and Aai right away!

We have been wanting this experience for years now.  We have worked for it,  but were not unhappy when we did not get it.

If we had become (and stayed) unhappy about it, we would never see this day!

Thank you Aditya.  Thank you Shreya.  And the biggest thank you to "Son Rise"!