12-12-12 (and Wish List Wednesday)

12-12-12 - the century's last sequential date....do you believe in numerology? I don't...it's just a cute date for me :). And I am going to spend the day slogging away at my desk....I do have a Holiday dinner from work to attend tonite, and hubby/I are hoping to make it a date night...let's see if the kiddos co-operate :)!

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Yesterday morning, the daughter wanted to put on socks+shoes on her footie-pj's. I kept telling her they won't fit, but she was persistent. So I put the socks on, and as soon as I put one shoe on, she tells me: "See I told you"! - LOL!


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At daycare, I gave her a gujju snack. Her daycare provider did not know what it was. So madam was teaching her how to pronounce it...she asked her to repeat after her: "say gaaa" "theeeee" "yaaaa" "gathiya" - the lady was laughing so hard.  She called me and made me listen to the conversation over the phone :)!


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Today morning, it was very chilly when I put her in her carseat.
I asked her: "R are you cold"
She says: "I think so"
And after a pause, she asks me: "mummy are you cold?"
I said: "yes I am"
So she tells me: "oh come on"

What is that supposed to mean, I have no idea :)!


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My awesome friend Preeti Shenoy's new book "The Secret Wish List" is being released on Dec 14th. She is hosting a creative prompt series "Wish List Wednesdays" and the prompt for today is "The three things I badly wish I could have are......" and here is my response:

After my daughter's birth, I try to live in the moment, in the present...most of the time. I don't make too many plans for the future..neither do I worry much about what will happen 5 years or 10 years from now. I am content each day if I have lived it fully, and have had moments of fun and creativity. As a mom, I feel at peace when I've managed to keep both my kids happy and well fed and clean. 

So what I wish right now is: 

1) for both the kids to be healthy and happy

2) to be able to give my best to my children, family and profession, and go to bed each day feeling content and peaceful

3) to be able to find time to help those who are in need. 

It's really that simple for me. I feel very blessed and grateful for all I have, so there is nothing tangible that I badly want. 

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I still cannot upload any pictures to the blog....have sent a request to Google storage for fixing the issue - no update yet. Hope it resolves soon!

Happy 12-12-12!

Day 5: Big Sister

After being in denial mode in the beginning, then struggling between high and low emotions, big sister R has finally fallen in love with her baby brother.

Every morning, she showers him with kisses. Most mornings, she requests that he be placed in her lap, or that she can hug him, and asks me to take a picture. If he is playing in his crib with the mobile on (it has wonderful soothing Mozart tunes), she settles next to him, and is careful not to hurt him.

She turns on the piano on and presses the button which plays a programmed Jingle Bell tune - she says 'here we go" and starts dancing.....while shaking her tushie and dancing around, she also comes and shakes her bhailu's tushie and makes him giggle :)....

Before, if a visitor asked if they could take the baby with them, she didn't care. Now she will promptly say NO, he's mine!

She insists on bringing his feeding bottle herself to whoever is holding him. She even tries to feed him but is too clumsy to manage it on her own.

She has made up a song for him, which goes like this:
R baby R baby
Don't worry R baby
I am your big sister NOW
 {Tune: Mustafa Mustafa}

At night, if the baby wakes up crying, or is being changed, she is sometimes bothered and wakes up. But she is very patient, and as soon as he falls asleep, she does too. Before, she would start screaming and not tolerate him being taken care of at all.

If he is relaxing on his rocker, she pulls up her little recliner chair and relaxes next to him.

The baby loves his big sister too. As soon as he hears her voice or spots her, he smiles :). He keeps staring at her while she is around. If he is napping, he wakes up as soon as she arrives near him.

Whenever we dress up and have to take a picture, she insists that mumma carries both at the same time....one on the right and one on the left (she says that too) :)....

I can see both of them bonding amazingly well, and that makes me the happiest mumma in the world!

PS: I could not post Friday coz my laptop conked out :(!
PPS: This post would be so much better with the awesome pictures that I sorted out to upload...but - I cannot add pictures to this post as I am out of google storage...which is confusing coz it says I am only using ~5GB of the total 21GB paid storage that I have....I don't know how to fix the issue right away so once its resolved, I'll update this post with pictures!

Day 4: Getting fit

I gained 42 lbs during my first pregnancy. I was doing amazingly well with the weight gain until ~35 weeks, but the last 5 weeks I gained 3 or more pounds every week and there was nothing I could do to slow it down. By the time I got pregnant again, I had lost ~32 lbs.

The second time around, I was dreading the same thing. But I got lucky. I only gained a total of 25 lbs, out of which I lost 10 lbs at delivery. So the combined excess of 25lbs is what is still left.....and not all of it is going to come off by itself.

I've always been a very active, fit person all my life. I was on the skinny side all through college, and after coming to the US, I gained a few lbs but lost them over time, and managed to maintain a healthy weight all throughout. Until now, that is!

For some women, the pounds just melt off their body post-pregnancy. I am not so lucky. I have to work hard. I have to watch my diet. Nursing my babies full time makes me very hungry. But I watch my portion sizes and never binge on junk snacks.

Once Rusham was two months old, we settled into some sort of a routine in our lives. Every day there is a new challenge, and more often than not, the routine is disrupted, but we finally got used to having two kids. And I took the opportunity to incorporate some level of physical activity during my day.

These are the things I do:
- Jump rope as often as I can. Sometimes I do 500-600 a day, sometimes 200. The best part is I can do it at home at any time.
- I park my car in the overflow lot at work. I come home during lunch, so I have to walk a total of 4 times back n forth during the day, which I do at a fast pace.
- I rarely take the elevator to my third floor cube. Climbing the stairs burns a lot of calories.
- I walk within the buildings from one end of the campus to the other. The weather here is lousy - it's been raining non-stop for the past few days, and it gets dark/chilly by the time I leave work. So outdoor stuff like biking or a run is completely ruled out.
- I do Surya Namaskars and yoga routines as and when time permits.

The arms and belly need a LOT of toning, but I'm just getting started and doing what I can right now.

It's been 3 weeks that I started doing all these things, and so far, I've managed to lose 6lbs. Not bad, eh? I still have a long way to go, but it's a good start.

I had to go to a party last weekend where the dress code was Western. None of the outfits in my closet fit me, so I went ahead and bought a dress...got a great deal on it ($12) and it did a great job in flattering my curves (or I should say bulges, in all the wrong places?)....

Inspite of having said all of the above, I must say that I don't feel depressed or stressed about the excess weight....I have two beautiful healthy children and my body is supporting me in nursing them full time....my body has been so gracious to me during both pregnancies....I have to be patient and give it some time to return to its new normal shape!

I have a long break from work coming up, and I hope to workout a lot more in the coming months. My goal is to get to a healthy weight and fitness level by the time Rusham turns 1!

Day 3: The Thakkar Kitchen (part 2)

Continuing from the previous post...

This is what I cooked for dinner tonite....

Methi Kaaju Matar Malai (served with Paratha) - even though the name says malai, I used 2% milk and reduced it to make the gravy. This is a healthy dish and very flavorful too!

For Diwali, I tried making two new sweets. I loosely followed the recipes from the internet, and they turned out good. 

Peda - entirely cooked in microwave....

Kalakand - this one was a hit. It reminded me of "doodh no maavo" from Ahmedabad.

Mum made some awesome snacks - chakri, kachori, kela ni wafer.....

During a recent visit to a local temple, we tried a very good alternative to a typical vegetable cooked in Gujarat - they made "zucchini tuver" instead of "ringna (eggplant) tuver" - Dad and I (and my sister) are somewhat allergic to eggplant and we mostly avoid it. So this variation has become a hit in our house now. We all love zucchinis a lot (even the daughter).

Zucchini Tuver - with Bhakri, homemade pickle, ghee/gol....

When mum makes dinner, it's traditional dishes like this one below, which is our family recipe.

Vaalor Dhokli - a variety of vegetables (instead of Vaalor) can be used with dhokli...yum yum yum!

And on my birthday, mum/sis/I made this for everyone....

Undhiyu - I love all the colorful veggies.....Mum made those awesome muthiyas.....it takes a while to prep for it but cooking is sooper fast. We always have leftovers and enjoy them for a couple of days.

I had a picture of the finished dish but I can't find it on my laptop....

As mentioned in the previous post, if you need recipes, please leave a comment!

Day 2: The Thakkar Kitchen

With mum and dad around, fresh healthy meals prepared daily are a norm. Mum takes care of lunch, and usually, I prepare dinner. My dad is very fond of my cooking, and he has this curious look on his face when he asks me what's on the menu for dinner. He gets excited when I tell him I'm trying something new...especially if its something non-traditional.

My sister is an equally good cook as mum and I. She loves to bake, and her cakes are to die for! So the Thakkar Kitchen, as we like to call it, is always an aromatic inviting place!

One of the things I love to do is taking new ingredients (that are not typically used in Indian cooking) and making Indian dishes out of them. I was on a cooking spree in November - we tried out so many new dishes. I used to upload an Instagram picture to FB whenever I made something new, and so many friends have asked me for recipes. I usually google for recipes, but always modify them to suit our taste. Sometimes, I combine two or three recipes together. Whatever I do, the result is always great...which gives me the confidence to keep trying!

Here's some of the stuff I cooked recently:

Dabeli - Ahmedabad street food. A healthier version with no butter and also without onion/garlic to suit my parents' preferences.

Aloo Tikki Chaat - mimicking the famous "Bhalla" from Agra. We made this on Thanksgiving day and it was delish!

Chunky Guac - with black beans, roasted sweet corn, lemon zest, cilantro, black pepper and salt - served with some kind of healthy chips - we do quinoa/black bean, or gluten free multi-grain with flax seeds.

Lettuce wrap filling - Another favorite in our house, mimicking the veggie lettuce wraps from P.F.Changs!

Couscous Upma - I don't like traditional upma much, but I absolutely dig this one!

Chaat Baskets - I can never get enough of chaat. This one is my tried and tested recipe of all the ingredients that I love in my chaat. My mom loves it so much, she always makes me prepare more so we can have it for 2 days straight!

Paneer Tikka Masala Pizza - I don't like Pizza at all....and living in the US, I'm sometimes forced to have it (parties, group lunches, etc). I have never tried making pizza at home until now....so I took whole wheat pizza dough, and made a paneer tikka masala gravy to go on top, along with Amul cheese and Cilantro - and this is one pizza I could eat anyday! My dad said this is the best pizza he's ever had :)!

Spicy Masala Baby Potatoes - These were so so yummy!

If you need recipes for any of these dishes, please leave a comment and I will email it to you!

Day1: Today....

Hubby and I called our niece in UK to wish her on her birthday...before we could convey our wishes, she starts complaining:

"Can you please scold mom for not telling the tooth fairy to get me a soap-making kit on my birthday"? and she promptly handed over the phone to her mom. 

After getting the gist of her complaint from her mom, I tried to explain to her why she didn't get what she wanted from the tooth fairy. She starts bawling and said, "Oh she couldn't even do THAT much? I wanted it only on my birthday, and no other day" - LOL! 

She turned 10, and I don't know what drama lies ahead in the teenage years :)!

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On the other hand, my daughter woke up today, much earlier than expected, and did not want me to sleep in. 

R: Mumma you're my gotu (while cupping my face between her palms) - she imitated me doing and saying the same thing to her brother!

****waits a little bit**** hugs and kisses keep coming*****

R: Mumma Ruhi eat your head

****waits a little bit**** hugs and kisses keep coming*****

R: Mumma Ruhi go potty...poo-poo coming....

She knows that when she says she needs to go potty, her dad or I will drop whatever we are doing and take her to the bathroom. And she uses this weapon against us oh-so-effectively all the time!

Did not get to sleep any longer, but I admit, the cuddling before we got out of bed was nice :)!

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My son - what can I say? I'm doubly blessed in the smiles department. The moment you lock eyes with him, he starts grinning, and keeps on doing so for a while! It's absolutely amazing to experience a 2-month old smiling at the sight of you....

I thought my daughter had the best smile on earth.....and now I my son has an equally good one....and I can't get enough of it!

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On a recent road trip, hubby was driving and strayed a bit to the side of the lane, which made the tires screech a little. The daughter promptly announced: " Pappa, be careful; be a good boy, Pappa"! LOL!

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November was a very busy month. We had Diwali, New Year, my birthday (celebrated in SoCal with family around), thanksgiving, a long road trip with both kids, the baby's first visit to the beach, and so much more. I wanted to post here so many times but really could not find the time to do so. However, starting today, I'm hoping to post daily, for atleast a week. If I can do it for the whole month, it'll be great, but I'm only going to shoot for 7 days at a time. So if you are a regular reader, do check in and leave a comment :)!

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year

I wanted to wish all my friends here on my blog a Very Happy Diwali and A Happy, Healthy, Adventurous and Prosperous New Year!!!!!

While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region of India (festive fireworks, worship, lights, sharing of sweets), the essence is the same - to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying Reality of all things (Brahma).

We have mum n dad with us this year - for the first time since I came to the US from India - and it feels so festive just because of their presence :). 

It is also Rusham's first Diwali....our gotu is warming everyone's hearts by his precious smile all day :).

Ruhi seems to be getting better with the sibling rivalry as each day passes by.....and we have more happy times than cranky times during our day, which makes me happy when I go to bed each night! She enjoyed a great Diwali party at her pediatrician's house - she is quite smitten by her - and she was delighted to see her DOC dancing to Indian music....she can't stop shaking her bum to music after coming home from the party! She is also loving the Diwali lights that we put outside our house, and the lights in our community. We also put Diyas and will burn some sparklers tonite.....

Mom and I have cooked a bunch of snacks and sweets - we distributed a few to our friends and neighbors - I would not have had the enthusiasm had mom not been around....

I have a bunch of pictures to share....will do so once I download them to my computer from the camera.....

I hope you had a lovely time with your families and loved ones...