Monday Fails. And Recovery.

Being on half day, and having spent very little time with my several children in the last few days, I decided that it would be a good idea to take the three of them to the Kingdom of Dreams. Peanut loves it and I thought it would be very nice to take Pickle and Papad as well this time. I phoned home to tell the maids to get them ready and planned to show them a good time at the Culture Gully.

I reached home in the afternoon and packed up the excited lot of them and we headed over to the KOD. As we got out of the car, I noticed everything was rather quiet. Indeed, there was absolutely no one around. I stood there holding one of my babies in my arms and closed my eyes in frustration.

 Monday. Closed. What was wrong with me? They would be so disappointed.

Except that they’re all under 5 years of age.

I turned around brightly and announced ‘We’re going to the MALL instead!’

There was a chorus of Yayys, the loudest of them being from me, and we piled back into the car. We reached the mall fairly smoothly except for Papad’s insistence on trying to drive the car part of the way. The kids had a great time in the play pen near Fun City. And I was reminded about how I really couldn’t stand places like this before but now they just seem like such a good idea that I could kiss the guy who thought of them, that money-making entrepreneurial visionary son-of-a-gun.

After their play time was over, I took them over to the Food Court and bought them ice-creams and Noodles. The twins must have thought it was Christmas – or they would have if they weren’t so small and didn’t know what Christmas is. Still, the three of them had a gala time.

When we headed back it was 5.30 p.m. and I figured we had just about enough time for a nice dip in the pool. The twins went nuts in the pool the first day and I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to manage the three of them, but the couple of visits after that to the pool were reasonably smooth. Therefore, I announced that today would be a double-treat day and that now we were going for a SWIM! There was another chorus of Yays, mine again being the loudest followed by Peanut’s enthusiastic yell – she was wondering how come Mama was being so nice today.

I headed in to change into my swimming costume while the harried maids got Peanut, Pickle and Papad into theirs. When I came out of my room, the three of them were standing there waiting for me and Peanut asked in a forlorn voice ‘Mama, how come no one is in the pool today?’

I went over to the window to look out but even before I got there, it had already struck me.

Monday. The pool is closed. What was wrong with me? They would be so…

Aha! I turned around with a bright smile and said ‘Guess what! We’re all going to have a bath …in YOUR mini-pool. Yayyyy!’

They looked a little suspicious this time but my enthusiasm was apparently very infectious because about three minutes later they had all jumped into the little plastic tub that I had bought for them a few weeks back. And had a gala time splashing around, fighting each other and ensuring that my clothes were completely soaked by the end of it.

Aaah. Thank God for the ability to turn little disappointments ( and poor planning) around!

Except, what happens when they are older than five?

We’ll worry about that later then, shall we?