Chai, Chaat, and Kids: Candles

If you are a mom with young ones you rely as much on your ears as your eyes.

Sometimes more. You learn the sounds. The thud that means someone is really hurt. The thud that you wait for a cry in case it was not so terrible as it sounds. The sound of the shoe rack falling down and all the shoes crashing on the floor. The sound of the kitchen almari (cabinet), that does not fit in the pocket sized kitchen, being emptied onto the floor. They sound of laughter. The sound of toys being dumped. The sound of furniture being drug, or pushed, or toppled. And then the most dreaded sound of all. Silence. With two toddlers you know when they are awake and you cannot hear them that something drastic is happening. Something disastrous. During nap time silence is a mother's best friend but during the wake hours of activity silence is a killer.

I was mixing banana bread in the kitchen and then silence. I took the corner at a run. Last time there was silence, all my pads were strewn through the house which was nothing too drastic but the verandah doors were open and it is an easy climb to fall a story down. Nothing deadly was happening this time. Both kids were carefully emptying all the hand soap down the drain. They were contentedly working together at this task. There was soap everywhere. Everywhere. At least they weren't eating candles like one time before. Vanilla flavored candles of course.

Oh well. Even though I live in a wonderfully exotic place my life still holds the mundane of crazy fun messes created by innovative little minds.