Its too Valuable!

Ved's "Show and Tell" was coming up at the Y summer camp last Thursday. On the morning of, as he was brushing his teeth, I enquired,"What are you taking for show and tell, Ved?"

Ved shrugged his shoulders to say he wasn't sure. After finishing with breakfast, I asked him to look through his toy box to see if he could find something to take to camp. I noticed that he was not having luck with ideas, so I suggested, "What about your fishing game?". "Mommyyyyyy, that's not interesting!!!!!!". "Okay, then how about your Spiderman puzzle?". "Booooooring", said Ved quickly.

I rounded up his swimming trunks and lunchbox for the camp while Ved continued to look through his toy box. As we were running late for camp, I blurted out my final suggestion,"Ved, what about your 3-D pictures and glasses. I think that's cool. Your friends will like that". "I can't take that to school: it is too val-uuuuu-ble", said Ved. "What do you mean?", I asked, especially having observed his stress on the letter u.
"Mommy, val-u-ble means important....Its too important. The Y camp kids won't know how to take special care of my 3-D picture", answered Ved.

I was amused because I recognized that Ved was essentially repeating my words which he had himself failed to follow, which was to "take care of his things". However, he had wanted to hold his friends to a high standard. "At least, the lesson stuck in his mind", I thought. Unable to come up with an alternative, he finally agreed to share his 3D glasses and picture with Y campers.

When I picked him up from Y-Camp later that evening, I learnt that he had only passed around his 3-D glasses to his friends that day. Apparently, he could not find his 3-D picture. It was safely tucked away in his backpack!!!

Bully bus

So, this particular day I was driving back home through Princeton University campus from the Y swimming lesson that Ved went to. All of a sudden, Ved exclaimed "Are you kidding me?" Not having heard that statement out of his mouth before, I asked in surprise, "What was that Ved?". "Mummy, I can't believe the bully bus is in front of us again". I smiled as I recalled the name that Ved and I had coined last week when an orange campus bus had cut me off at an orange light in order to get ahead on the road.

We shared a laughter as I had called the bus a "bully" and then Ved had turned around to say "Not nice bully bus"! So now, having spotted the orange bus again in front of us as we came up to the intersection, Ved had thought that the bus was not nice, cutting mummy off for the second time.

I had to explain to him that the bus was not a bully this time. "But its the same bus mummy, the bully bus!, explained Ved, somewhat surprised at my correction. Yes, I know, the bus has the same color but this driver is different, its a nice driver, he did not cut in front of mummy".

"Bully bus, nice driver?" asked Ved, correcting himself. "Yes, I guess we could say that", I decided to end the conversation amicably!