Our Backyard - a photo post

We have a cute little backyard and a lovely garden in our home, and over the last 2 years have done quite a bit of work on it. Well, to be honest, hubby has done most of the work but I support him with motivation, kind words, and good food ;).

Here is a photo post from our backyard:

We have ROSES.....

And DAFFODILS....

And LAVENDER....

We also have ORANGES.....

And LEMONS.....

And BELL PEPPERS and TOMATOES.....

We grew mint and cilantro and parsley as well - I don't have pictures of it though.

We also have a cherry and peach tree, but we planted bare roots, so it will be another year or more before they bear fruit.

Our home is located on top of a hill, and we get to see pretty remarkable views from our backyard.

There are RAINBOWS....

And LIGHTNING STORMS.....

We see an occasional SNOWFALL.....{this picture is from the front of the house}

And breathtaking SUNRISES....

Gardening is very therapeutic. I haven't been able to do much because of pregnancy and caring for an infant. But I'm ready for it now that Spring is here :)!

Collage from Spring2009:

Grenade

One of those days when I can't get this song out of my mind. Each such song for me that I repeatedly listen to has a memory associated with it. Today it popped up when I was running my weekend errands and this song played on the radio :)!

Grenade by Bruno Mars
{chorus}
I'd catch a grenade for you 
Throw my hand on a blade for you 
I'd jump in front of a train for you 
You know I'd do anything for you 
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby
But you won't do the same


I love the tune of the song....don't like the video as much!

Proud to be an Indian - Today and Always!

After 28 years, INDIA has finally WON the Cricket World Cup! And for Sachin Tendulkar, one of the finest batsmen that we have seen in our era (arguably the best ever), it's a DREAM come TRUE!!!!

The final game tonite between India and Sri Lanka was amazing! I watched it at home, on HD, with my family and few close friends. It was a nail biter, and kept us on our toes until the very end. I had goosebumps so many times. We won it in style, and no words can suffice the pure joy and euphoria that every Indian heart is feeling today!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was 5 years old when India won the last world cup, so I don't remember that victory very well. But this one will be cherished forever!

People in India are going wild with the celebrations! From the pictures and videos being posted online, I miss being with the crowds. However, it does not matter where you are, how you celebrate, whether you make noise or not, whether you drink or not, whether you wear "light blue" or not, whether you party alone or with friends - It's the pride and joy you feel for your country and the team for such an outstanding achievement!!!!

Proud to be an INDIAN - Today, and ALWAYS!!!!

Love you, India!

Baby musings - 1

Each time when I nurse the baby, she takes breaks in between. During those few precious moments, she gives me priceless smiles. Also, each time, a drop or two of milk drops out of her mouth and lingers around those pink rosy lips for a moment or two before I wipe it out. That sight is to behold!

Her new routine is sleeping as late as 11pm. Every evening, I start the process of putting her to bed around 9-9.30pm. She loves rolling over from her back to her tummie, smile at me, then roll right back in the reverse fashion and cuddle into me. I could keep doing that forever :). She then plays with her toys in bed, bursts into giggles as I tickle her, and loves to jump while sitting up on my tummie. All this goes on for atleast an hour, if not more, during which she nurses atleast twice. She is finally tired, and then dozes off while nursing! I think I am going to hold off on buying that crib for a while :).

When she wakes up, daddy has always left for work, except weekends. She looks at me, and gives me numerous smiles. I hug her, kiss her, cuddle her, and she keeps giving me smiles. After nursing and a diaper change, she is ready to roll! The day gets busy, but those few quiet moments in the morning with just me and her are priceless!

When she is very tired, she sleeps on her tummy. She looks ooberly-cute and I have to resist hard to leave her alone.

She is starting to develop stranger anxiety. When someone new tries to hold her, she turns her head towards me and clings on. Feels special that I am so dear to someone!

I spoke to her on the phone for the first time today. My parents said she was smiling and very happy to hear my voice :). I will do a video chat one of these days, and see how she reacts.

When she was younger, she used to sleep on my chest. She still likes to do that sometimes, although she is so tall that her feet touch the bed if she does that. I still don't mind though, coz very soon she will "grow" up and not want to do that anymore!

She LOVES bubbles. We introduced bubbles to her at the gym class, and yesterday for the first time we blew some at home. She is amazed looking at them and tries to catch them. The sparkle/twinkle/wonder in her eyes when they are blown is sooper innocent and cute.

Enough for now....it's past 5pm, and time to go home and HUG my babie!

Getting back to work

It's been a week that I got back to work after the longest leave of my life. I took my 2010 vacation, sabbatical, and partial bonding leave - all together, ~5 months, to enjoy motherhood at the fullest :). I know I feel really blessed to have such a good job and to be able to take such a long time off and be with my baby and family, however, as I resume work this week, lots of thoughts are running through my mind.

- The biggest question is - Am I okay with putting my baby in daycare or with a nanny? That would mean someone "else" NOT me is raising her. Someone else is teaching her all the important skills that she is going to learn in these early stages of childhood and developmental years. Many of my mommy friends who work full time have suggested I should make the most of the time I do have with my daughter - kind of hinting at - "quality is better than quantity"....I am somehow not convinced about this. When it comes to babies, quantity is important. They learn things slowly. You have to repeat the same thing over and over again before they get it. They observe so much, all day, and absorb everything - and learn through that. If I am not going to be around all day, how am I going to impact her as much as I would like to?

- My work is purely technical, where I need a huge amount of focus. I also cannot finish my work in the regular 8 hours, and very soon, when things ramp up, I would be totally consumed (mentally) by work related thoughts. When that happens, how effective will my evening/weekend time be with the kiddo? Not to mention the daily cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, socializing, etc that will need to be taken care of during the course of the week.

- Does it make sense to switch to 50% or 80% workload until the baby is old enough to go to school?

- Or does it make sense to switch my job profile to something which utilizes more of my strengths and is easier for me to handle during this stage of life? It would mean that I can easily complete my deliverables without being totally consumed by work, so that when I come home, I am effective in the time I spend with my daughter, and not very tired. It would also mean I can finish my tasks during the day so that I don't have to work at night or during the weekends on a regular basis. Occasional overload can be handled.

- During my time off, I did so many activities with my daughter. I took her for play n learn gym classes, swim lessons, music lessons, reading programs at the local library, play-dates, networking at a mommy n me group, social outings, etc. I want to be able to do at least some of this stuff even now, but weekdays are all gone with work. I can probably do one activity on a Saturday....nothing more. I don't like this compromise I am having to make.

- The whole breastfeeding thing is really hard to manage with a full time job. I either have to go home and feed the baby, or pump regularly at work to keep up my milk supply. Since my daughter is always low on the weight charts, I ensure that she eats all her meals in a timely manner. The moms' rooms at Intel really suck. They are very inconveniently located, and extremely small. They look like a highly compressed cube, and just the thought of visiting it makes me feel sick. So I never pump at work, and time my lunch hour according to the baby's feeding schedule.

- The good thing about being so busy is I don't watch any television....except for a little bit of cricket lately. I spend very little time on the Internet. I am much faster when it comes to completing my routine tasks at home and work. Phone calls are only made to the near and dear ones. Sleep is rarely compromised. Since we co-sleep, I enjoy sleeping next to my baby. I don't have the heart to put her into a crib yet :).

It's 5pm on Friday....so time to go home and be with the babie until Monday morning :)! I am thinking through what I mentioned above and will figure out what works best for me and my family, in the coming few weeks.

Satellite TV

I've always had cable for TV and Internet since I arrived in the US. I lived in apartments until a couple years ago, and never went through the hassle of getting Satellite or DISH installed. More often than not, the apartment would not be facing in the proper direction for the Dish to work. Sometimes, the apartment authorities would prohibit from installing individual Dish in your unit. Or, I might not be planning to stay in the apartment as long as the contract required for getting a connection. Whatever the reason, cable was more convenient. And often cheaper too.

But ever since we bought our home, I wanted to get Dish installed. However, until today, I never needed it. Now my cable is moving to full price (I got promotional discounts before) and I know I won't be moving anytime soon from here, so I felt it was the right time to get the Satellite installed.

Today, it's finally up and running. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but the technician never showed up. After a few phone calls, I got it rescheduled for today. He first put up the Satellite on the front side of the roof, but thanks to the timely intervention of our excellent neighbor (who dropped by during his lunch time to inform us that we were already pre-wired to install it at the back) we got it removed from the front and installed it in the back where it was supposed to be in the first place. Once that was done, the programming and connectivity inside the house went smooth.

I was excited when the technician left the house after setting everything up. After all, as of now, I have America's top 60 channels, a Hindi Super Pack for trial purposes, Free Cinemax and Showtime for 3 months, as well as ICC World Cup 2011 in HD for Free.

However, as I write this post at about midnight today, guess how much TV we (hubby n I) watched :)? Zilch.

Or as my hubby would say it - we watch "Ruhi TV" all day :). With an infant in the house, we hardly watch Television. So once all these trial packs expire, we will be paying just the minimum amount for America's Top 60 channel package (it's their cheapest package) and we hope that we still would get to enjoy only "Ruhi TV" all day :)!

Losing a cell phone.....

And being reunited with it after 4 days....

I went through a whole bunch of feelings and thoughts while the above happened.

I left my cell phone at the bank, and when I figured out after few hours that it's missing, I called them. They refused to have found it. I went to the bank, and the manager was very rude, and defensive. I had made no accusations whatsoever, still, he insisted more than once that his staff would not steal it. I went back to a couple of stores where I had been before going to the bank, but as I made the rounds, I came to the conclusion that either I forgot the cell phone at the bank or dropped it on the ground in the bank parking lot or home parking lot.

I went back to the bank to talk to the employee that helped me with my banking needs, and he refused to have seen it.

I came back home, and deactivated it. I changed my email passwords, and tried to locate my data backup on the PC. I had 95% of the data backed up, as well as all my contacts. I was only worried about a few videos of my daughter that I had not backed up. I sent an email to the company whose application I was using to create the videos and whose server they were uploaded on, and they promptly got back saying they would help restore them for me. So on that front, I was a bit relieved.

The day I lost it - I felt mentally exhausted. After putting my baby to sleep, I mentally was thinking which phone I will buy, and why. What should I do next time to more cautious about not losing it in the first place. I have not researched cell phones for a while now, so I only had a vague idea of what's out there in the market. I was leaning towards getting an android phone vs another iPhone.

I was a bit disappointed to lose it. More than the money, it was the hassle involved in getting a new one and getting all the data/applications back on.

However, I constantly had a feeling (the sixth sense) that I would find it back. So as soon as I woke up, I asked my sister to call her apartment office and ask them if someone has turned it in. They said no. I asked her to call the bank again, and ask if they could check the surveillance videos during the time I was there and an hour past that....and if need be, we would lodge a police complaint for it. The bank said they would not check their tapes for a lost or stolen cell phone, so we hung up.

However, after 30 minutes, the bank called back saying they found the cell phone. When my sister went to pick it up, they lied to her saying someone had turned it in. Another employee said it was found near the safe deposit box. I had already left my sister's place to return home, so the bank agreed to ship it overnight to me.

I found this whole thing suspicious from the beginning. It was obvious that some employee took it, and then when they realized that we would inform the police or the tapes might be checked, they decided to return it to me.

I got my phone back yesterday, and its working fine. All the data is there, and life is normal again. When you have a smart phone, a lot of your life revolves around it. In fact, it was liberating not to have the smart phone with me for the last 4 days. No email to check, no phone calls to make or receive, no social networking, no news/videos to watch, etc. I'm thinking I should spend this kind of a day at least once a week going forward :)!