There are too many of them to recall and record. It is probably their ephemeral nature that makes them so precious, to be enjoyed for the moment, leaving behind that happy feeling. Now, at the end of the trip, as I think back, I feel so content and happy, so there must have been so many of these.
Brothers
Daksh almost always helped Vedant with his shoes when we were stepping out. Vedant, too, sat patiently, and after a while, started to go straight to Daksh to get help with this shoes.
This was at Copenhagen airport. Daksh is a very careful big brother, and always worried about Vedant’s safety :-).
This was my way of keeping these two calm and occupied while I needed to cook or get other work done. They could easily play for half an hour like this.
And this was on the flight back :-).
Thatha and Paati
Children who have doting grandparents are fortunate in a way that cannot be equaled in any other way. Daksh and Vedant are blessed to have grandparents who shower them with affection and love and attention that cannot be substituted with anything else in the world.
This was our favourite spot in the whole house. Daksh and Vedant spent so many hours here, sitting on Paati’s lap, listening to stories, being fed their breakfast/lunch/dinner and saying “Plane ba! Kaka ba! Toto ba!” 🙂 Vedant kept repeating this even after we came back from Copenhagen, when Amma and Appa had returned to Chennai.
This was one of Thatha’s way of keeping the kids occupied.
Thatha and Daksh formed an amazing team. I would like to see some of their conversations recorded, and played back in front of all Sri City employees. I’m sure they would flat out refuse to believe it’s the same Ramesh Subramaniam. The goofiness in some of their chatter is roll-on-the-floor hilarous.
 
And if not for Paati and Thatha’s efforts, we would have had a Vedant-crying symphony playing in background, during all our time in the car. Vedant even used to stick his legs out to Thatha asking for a massage. And Paati’s pori and mixture came to the rescue many times, to beat both hunger and boredom.
This is how exhausted Thatha and Paati were at the end of each day, running around behind the two grandchildren.
Chitappa and Chitti
When Arjun and Athena’s little one comes along, if we had a best uncle-aunt competition between them and us, they would win hands down. They did everything kids would ever need an uncle and aunt to do: played, made silly faces/songs/dances, invented new language/terminology that’ll get added to the family dictionary, challenged them, taught them stuff and created some new family traditions :-). I realize that some of what I’ve written below will not make sense to anyone but us, but it has to be recorded. Athena, Arjun, thank you for being the best Chitti and Chitappa ever!
The Airbnb we stayed at in Reykjavik had a Google home device, and Vedant saw one of us ask that device to play a song for him. From then on, he would go walking around the house saying “Goo goo, attown” (meaning Google, play Uptown funk) or “Goo goo, appy” (meaning Google, play happy). He said this to anything that looked remotely like an electronic device. It used to be so hilarious watching him screaming at the switchboard, getting irritated that the music wasn’t starting, and Athena egging him on in the background, constantly imitating him.
 
 
And what is the one thing Chitappa had to pass on to the next generation? The ability to fall asleep anywhere and in any position. Arjun got very good at getting Vedant to fall asleep, almost always falling asleep with him.
 
Daksh was quite the angry young man at times during this trip. Athena figured that he got angry more easily when he was hungry, and they invented a new term for this: hangry. That means angry because you’re hungry. And then Chitappa and Chitti invented a new game that was part of Daksh’s anger management therapy. It was called “You can’t make me angry ha!”. This is what Daksh was supposed to say in any situation that could make him lose his cool, and to the person irritating him or trying to make him angry.
And of course, Chitappa and Chitti had the all important job of teaching Daksh to make faces while we were taking photographs.
Chitappa and Chitti were stuck with Daksh for company during all our flights. And Chitappa was Daksh’s assistant – giving him his food and water, fixing his headphones etc. From when we got to Seatlle, Arjun would keep telling Daksh “Daksh, it is my honour to be with you today” or “It is my honour to be on this trip with you”. At first Daksh didn’t understand what honour meant, and would keep yelling “I’m not an honour, I’m not an honour”. Over time, and with many different explanations (that’s a topic for a whole new post, how we explained the meaning of honour to him), he started saying “It’s my honour, it’s my honour” 🙂
 
Chitappa and Chitti also started this new tradition of making announcements for all important events, like when Daksh needed to use the bathroom. “Attention all Subramaniams in the house: Daksh is now going to the bathroom to do his big job <drumroll imitation>”
Amma and Appa
The “aww…” moments with Amma and Appa were few and far between, for they were primarily occupied with keeping Daksh and Vedant alive and safe :-). This is how they were most days, not just at night, but all day.
This photo below was taken at an epic moment. We were all watching TV, and Rahul walked up to Daksh sitting on the Ikea chair and said “Daksh, I want to sit here”. Daksh replied “I sat here first”, and refused to budge. A taste of your own medicine? Poor Rahul had to settle for the carpet.
Some of the really few and far between precious moments, where we were just playing with/talking to the kids.
 
