Tuesday

Last night Chip was in a lot of pain. He had a bad bout of diaper rash. He would not sit on his bum. He sat on his haunches with a frown on his face and pointed towards his bum and cried plaintively “Doongi Baoo, Doongi Baoo (my bum hurts)”. There was not much I could do except air it and distract him. We read his favorite books, made towers out of lego blocks, ate a ripe peach but the ouchie would not go away. Chip wanted to go to the park, on the swing, like we do on most evenings, but how could he with an inflamed butt? We saw some cars come in as neighbors returned home from work, saw the kids play with their skate boards, and tried to guess which neighbor was mowing his lawn. We called Baba to talk to him and ask him when he would come home, but the ouchie would not go away.

Dinner time was fast approaching and I asked Chip what he wanted (A moot question, really, since dinner was ready). Chip promptly replied “Pizza.” I hesitated. Dinner was ready and junk food was usually reserved for the end of the week. Not on a Tuesday. How about salmon with honey and corn? I offered his favorite food. “Salmon nako. No fishie” He was adamant. “I want pizza and juice and baby Hanuman”. He had it all planned out. He wanted to eat dinner watching Hanuman on TV. I looked at the clock. It was 6:30. If pizza had to be ordered, it had to be ordered now. We called Baba and asked him to get a pie on his way home.

40 minutes later, Baba arrived with a pizza box and called out to Chip. Chip came down and saw the pizza box. Oh! He was so happy! The look on his face! His eyes sparkled and he was grinning from ear to ear. He jumped up and down, hugged his Baba and came running into the kitchen shouting excitedly. “Aie pizza aala, Baba pizza. Wow. Pizza. (Pizza is here)” There was not a moment to be wasted of course. Dinner was to be served immediately and in the family room in front of the TV. We gathered the plates and the pizza box and hurried to the family room. We sat on the floor, the pizza box spread next to us. Chip went and turned on the DVD player, the TV, the receiver and handed me the remotes. I cued the DVD to his favorite part. “Akdam Bakdam” blared out of the speakers and watching Hanuman do his silly antics, Chip dug into the pizza with gusto. The ouchie had not gone, but it was certainly forgotten for the moment.