Musings - July 2012

These random musings posts are becoming a norm now. I just can't seem to find time for regular posts....although I'm reading a lot, and think of so many subjects to write about. I felt this way the last time I was pregnant too, especially during the third trimester. I think it's mostly fatigue due to the hormones that is limiting my ability to do things outside my routine. This too shall pass :)!

So, we finally bought a new car last weekend. After several weeks of online research, visits to the dealerships, getting quotes from all over the country, and dealing with pathetic car salesmen in this country, we drove home our car on late Saturday night. I think we got a great deal (if I may say so :P), but regardless of the price paid, we are extremely happy and satisfied with our purchase. We went to the temple on Sunday to get puja done....and it went very well. The kiddo and her mumma wore Indian dresses together...a rare occasion for us!

Some suggestions I provided at work for team lunches and conversations with management have been taken into consideration and actions are being taken. At one such event last week, I had a fabulous time openly sharing my thoughts about our research strategy and the memory ecosystem. I am usually subdued by my manager who does not give our team a chance to speak up.....and always makes us feel intimidated. But he was on vacation so his absence made it easy for me. I got the leftover cookies from the lunch event home.....but they were very few, so my sooper adorable admin made a whole box of new ones for me (she even made mini-cookies with mini-M&M's for the kiddo) and dropped it off at my desk the next day. I feel spoilt!

The daughter's daycare called today after lunch, and told me she was extremely fussy with the food. I have been requested to send non-Indian meals for the rest of the week....her feeling is that she is bored with Indian food {sigh}!!!! This generation of kids are so demanding!!!!!

Kiddo's obsession with water balloons and balls continues. I don't think it is ever going to end.

"Chicka chicka boom boom" is one more favorite book of hers - we read it atleast twice a day.

She LOVES coming really really close to me, and saying "hoon tane khaaaaaaaaaai jaish" {I will eat you up} in a loud roaring voice....it's simply priceless!!!!

Bedtime conversations with the daughter after the light is turned off are becoming cuter, and harder to resist, as each day goes by. Yesterday, she was talking about how she fed "theplu" {paratha} to the rabbits at the park, and how they were eating her food....and then she made chewing noises, then said "yummy yummy sooooooooooo goooooooood"! She was delighted by the fire from camphor at the temple, and the breaking of the coconut by her dad, and was talking about that last night as well. She remembers everyone she has met that day or the previous day, and wishes good night to each person. It's actually so peaceful and relaxing to hear her process all the stuff going through her mind....

In less than a month, the daughter turns two - how can time fly at such a lightning speed????

Our first peaches

From blossoms to juicy fruit - the story of our first peaches! We planted this $7 bare root tree 3 years ago in our backyard....and it is bearing fruit this year - we got about 20 peaches!

She makes me happy!

She loves to stop and smell the flowers.

She loves walking barefoot on the grass.

She loves the birds, insects, animals (geckos, mice, snakes) in our backyard.

She loves watching the fruits and vegetables grow.

She loves the sun.

She loves watching the sunset and saying Goodbye to the sun.

She loves the wind.

She loves the rain.

She loves the moon.

She loves the stars.

She loves books. Our favorite book to read before bedtime is Goodnight Moon.

She loves to sleep on her mumma. Her new favorite thing to do is "sleeping with the baby". She climbs up on me, settles her ears on a soft spot on my tummy, and goes to sleep while giving me a full-body tight bear hug - something that reminds me of those newborn days!

She loves to say "I love you" and kiss me gazillion times a day. I reciprocate.

She loves to smile. Her smile is priceless.

She makes me so so happy.

Love you, betu!

{this moment} Splash Park

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember" - SouleMama

I took a couple hours off from work today morning, and took the daughter at a neighborhood Splash Park. I also took some water balloons with me, which we filled and popped, and generally, had a blast! I also had company of a couple of mommies (and their toddlers) from my Mommy&Me group, so it was good socializing for me as well :)!

Musings - June 2012

Not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones, or anxiety, or anything else (growing up :P?) - but I've found myself being a lot less tolerant lately. For example, I visited a friend last weekend....I've known her for 18 years. Our personalities are quite different but whatever time we spend together....with families, siblings, spouses, children - is good. There are many things about her that I do not like....they are not new so I simply ignore them and focus on the positive. But this last weekend, I somehow had decided that if she taunted me unnecessarily for anything, I would confront her - something which I have not done in 18 years. Maybe I knew she would, coz she always does? Anyway, so she did pass a comment which irked me beyond measure, and I politely but candidly confronted her. Things were okay as we left her place soon after, but I'm sure she is shocked at my behavior (the confrontation) as it's new. I think my confrontation was also a result of few of her parenting choices that I observed during the weekend, and were totally opposite to my choices. One thing they did with the kids was completely unacceptable to me.....I wish I had the guts to voice my opinion when it happened itself.

On the other hand, Pregnancy and motherhood have made me a lot less judgmental about people than I used to be. I also speak less in situations where there are people I am not very close with, just so that I am careful not to offend or hurt anyone unintentionally. With my spouse, family and close friends, I am still very much myself - I share my thoughts and opinions very openly. However, I have also become extremely protective of my daughter and people close to me. I hate it, absolutely, when someone does not respect my privacy and shares information related to me or my family to anyone else without letting me know. One other thing that bothers me is the fear of losing close people from my life, now that my daughter is part of it too. I would hate to see my child getting close to someone, and then that person moving away from our life for no fault of hers. I can bear the pain and hurt, but I cannot bear to see my child deal with it. Fortunately, she is still too young to get too emotionally attached to anyone, but the thought does come to my mind. An ex-friend of mine is one such example. I shared a lot with him during my pregnancy and first year of my daughter's growing up. We grew apart, and still, sometimes, it bothers me that he never remembers her or feels like meeting her. It's been more than a year that we saw each other....and it's clear that we are not part of his life anymore. I've moved on from our friendship....however, when I think about how close this person felt with my child, I still wonder how that feeling vanished so easily.

Also, I have started to find more and more people unauthentic. You can say its a negative way of looking at them, but my experiences say so otherwise. I try very hard to keep a positive outlook in life, and always try to look at the positive side of people or situations, so it's simply not me. People who are sneaky, do a tit-for-tat, monitor all my updates and activity on FB and use it negatively against me, check my blog just to see what's going on with my life but never bother to leave a comment or say hello in personal life, pretend that they are good friends but they are far from being one (infact, if I ever ask them for help, I know I'll be sorely disappointed), and people who are just jealous of me for no reason whatsoever - I'm surrounded by so many of these non-genuine people....Indians in particular (which is a sad thing to say, really).


A lot of deja-vu events have been happening to me. I have thought about people to call or email and within minutes, that person would contact me. Even people who I am not in regular touch with. I have vivid dreams and some of the stuff from my dreams is coming true. Thankfully it's all positive stuff so I'm good. The other day, the kiddo was jumping around in the house and I had a thought that she will do a somersault on the rug....and in a couple of minutes, she surprised herself (and us) with a full somersault. Our family room floor is tile so we usually don't let her do stunts there....we do it in the bedrooms which have carpet or on the bed.


My non-Indian friends have a hard time dealing with the hot weather, but I simply love summer, and I prefer it over other seasons. I don't feel chilly when I leave work in the evening. I don't have to turn the AC on (yet) in the house - a fan running at low speed and the window/patio door open keeps the house at 72-75F, which is just perfect. I love the cool breeze in the evenings, and going for walks after dinner is so relaxing. Lots of flowers are blooming everywhere, and it's generally a pretty time of the year. We have a kayaking team-building event planned next week at work, and I am so looking forward to spending time at the lake.

This will sound bizarre - but I find it true. I have observed that couples start looking like each other (physical features) after a few years of living with each other :). They start behaving and dressing up similar soon after getting together....but even physical attributes, which might be very different when they got married (think shape of their noses), start looking similar. As I said, it's bizarre and I have no logic/rationale for it.

Our 22-month toddler TALKS so much. It's mind-blowing. Our daily bedtime routine is to listen to her blabbering non-stop for 30-45 mins.....by then, we are both sound asleep and she then realizes there's no one listening so she goes to sleep too :). If we are having an adult conversation, she yells to us on top of her voice: "BE QUIET"!!!!! Today, I took her for a walk with a huge bouncy ball on the street in the morning....it was windy so the ball kept rolling away from us on the street....she was so tired by the time we caught it and were returning back home, that she sat down on the middle of the road and said: "Ruhi siddown, Ruhi tired" LOL! Then when we came home, I gave her a bottle of water to drink, and after a few sips, she says: "Soooooooooo gooooood"!!!!! She also repeats/imitates every.single.day we say. She will ask questions in style like this: "where is museum, ummmmmmmm? where is park, ummmmmmmmmm? Where are the keys, ummmmmmmm?" I am enjoying every second of her toddlerhood though :)

Here is a collage of the kiddo from last weekend....for a change, she loved wearing this western Indian outfit which was gifted to her by a close friend of ours! In the center picture, she is trying some dance move, in between chasing bubbles (we had the automatic bubble maker on) and playing football with daddy!

The week that went by - in pictures :)

Every morning, I prepare a fresh meal for the daughter. On the menu today was mix-veg pulao....and here are the ingredients that went into her lunch dish :) - so colorful and nutritious! 

While I was cooking, I kept her busy by building towers out of blocks, dancing to music, and playing peek-a-boo with her :).

I made Paninis last night for few friends....more than the food, the kids had a blast playing. It's always fun to hear their noises in the background....it not only makes the house but also the mind n soul lively!

I bought a professional grade bubble maker that blows 4000 bubbles every minute for the kiddo coz I feel she will never get tired of loving them so much {we love them too :P}. We turn it on in the backyard every day and set her free!

We went to a friends' house last weekend....they have a solar-panel heated salt-water pool in their backyard....and the water temperature was just perfect for the kiddos that evening. The daughter floated around for 2 hours in the pool....was fed dinner by her daddy while lounging in her floatie and wanted to camp there overnight if permitted :). 

She also visited the Children's Museum with her daddy, but I don't have any pictures from the outing. 

Weekend is going to be fun with some gatherings n short-distance travel to meet friends :)

{this moment} Beach and Sunset

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember" - SouleMama

We got back earlier this week from another beach vacation. All of us had such a good time with family that even a 3-day work week felt too much. The kiddo hated going to daycare, and I had a hard time getting stuff done at work. I really wish we lived minutes away from the ocean!

A picture-perfect sunset.....

As soon as she spotted the waves, she wanted to run towards the ocean....

She loves beaches n sunsets :)

Thrilled n excited....

I waited for a few minutes but she had no patience...she went right in to catch the waves....

Daddy's turn now....

What?? It's all over??? She kept saying..."Mumma water coming"...she wanted to stay there but it was very chilly....and she was shivering....check out her shoes :).....we had a hard time getting her back in the carseat!

She slept late last night after an hour of yapping in bed....I thought she will sleep until late, but sigh, she woke up at 6.15am and was full of energy! I'm so tired due to lack of sleep....an agenda-free relaxed weekend at home is on the cards!