We celebrated Abhishek's 3rd birthday last Friday in a low key manner, partly by design and partly due to circumstances. We realized just over a week ago that we had not planned anything and instead of scrambling to do something more elaborate, we decided to keep it small. We also had the idea that we would do something jointly for Arjun and Abhishek, since Arjun's BD is only 4 weeks away. Malini told Arjun that the two of them would go shopping for a gift "when Abhi was sleeping," the idea being that it would be a surprise to Abhi. The concept was not entirely clear to Arjun. As soon as I got home, he described the plan in detail in full earshot of Abhi, who seemed to be very much part of the plan. He went, "I will be sleeping and aeta (i.e. Arjun) will put the gift on my night stand. When I wake up in the morning, I will open it." To both of them, the surprise part was the identity of the gift and not the fact that Arjun was getting Abhi a gift. Anyway, we all ended up going and we had a cover story for Abhi (Arjun had to be restrained from revealing the true purpose). Malini took Abhi elsewhere while Arjun and I went to the toy section. Arjun was eager to give Abhi the 'surprise' right away (this was still 2 days before his BD) and I had to do some convincing to make him wait.
The day before his BD, Malini asked Abhi what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday. He promptly replied, "Bone chicken!" This is his term for any chicken piece which still has the bone in it. Malini: "You can't have bone chicken for breakfast." Abhi: "Ok, then I'll have tofu soup," which is of course his second favorite thing to eat.
I hadn't been taking too many photos lately and wanted to take a few before Abhi turned 3. So, we did that before they headed up to sleep and then I had to distract Abhi while Malini and Arjun could go wrap up his gift. The next morning, Abhi was up early (as usual) and I went to wake up Arjun. Normally this is a herculean task, but on this day, I just had to remind him that Abhi was waiting for his 'surprise' and he was up in no time. The gift was handed over, the wrapping was ripped open and Abhi was thrilled. Later Malini asked Abhi what kind of cake he wanted. Chocolate cake, of course (both boys are absolute chocolate fiends - the darker the better). Arjun then asks him what kind of toppings would he like on his cake? Abhi, after some thought, "Blueberries and tomatoes." Needless to say, we skipped the tomatoes, although we did seriously consider options for putting tomatoes on top without causing the cake to go soggy.
Malini picked up Arjun and me just after noon and we all headed to the "New Children's Museum" which is in the downtown area.
It is not a very big place, but there were lots of things for the kids to do. They started with some clay working, and then moved onto some paper crafts, riding manual segues, climbing walls, blowing bubbles, making shadow puppets, and of course pillow fights! We were there for about 3 hours and then headed back home (with a quick stop at REI to get him some sandals, which was our gift). Tandoori chicken ('bone chicken') and Tofu soup were soon being consumed and after dinner, Prem and family joined us for the cake cutting.
Kids were soon running around, fortified by cake and a simple, yet satisfactory birthday celebration came to a close.
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