Monday morning blues

The daughter woke up today morning, thinking we were still at the National Park (we spent the last 3 days at Yosemite).
{I woke up thinking the same way too}

She told me: "Mumma let's go"
I asked: "where?"
She says: "Let's go to the park. Big Park."
I asked: "which park?"
She says: "Yosemite" :)!
{I wanted to go back to Yosemite too}

She was a grumpy baby while I cooked breakfast n lunch, packed her bag, and got ready. But she was happy when I finally said it's time to go.

She readily sat in her car seat, and when I started driving, on the very first turn, she says "Tunnel coming" "one more one more". The last 3 days, we passed through tunnels on our way in n out of the park. She is obsessed with them and was expecting them again.
{I wanted to drive in the mountains with tunnels on the roads and beautiful views too}

She kept asking me "where's maasa"? {Maasa - her uncle always took her to the swimming pool at our lodge and our water-baby was missing that}

I was dreading her daycare drop-off. But she had missed her friends and was looking forward to play time, so even though she really wanted to be somewhere else {I felt that way too while walking into work :P}, she was not miserable (or crying) when I dropped her off.

I don't get Monday blues often. But I think Yosemite ALWAYS gives them to me. I love that place so much, that I never want to come back to civilization. We were unplugged for 3 days (no phone, no internet, no TV) and were just enjoying the wilderness and nature. We saw a coyote in the wild, a racoon at our lodge, a family of deer, squirrels, and many birds. The waterfalls were going crazy with the warmer temperatures bringing gorgeous spring flows. We hiked to the base of three of them...and it was awesome.

More than anything, I was so happy that the daughter loved the outdoors, the hikes, the falls, the wildlife. She is my park-ranger in the making!

Random Musings

I absolutely love that the daughter chooses to call me "Mummaiyo" when she is feeling all lovey-dovey and greets me when I return home from work. She says Mumma, Mummy, Mama, Shachiiiiiiii at other times but Mummaiyo is always very special :).

I like to think of the coming weeks as my tushie n tummie growing times :). Not too excited about this growing aspect, but I always think of the reward at the end to help me chug along!

Comparison of our kids development - We all know that each child is unique and gifted. Comparison is not worth it. But is it really possible to never compare your child with anyone else? I don't think so. Some people hate it when I mention few things here and there, so I usually limit such conversations with people who I know will understand and relate to it. I adore my child, and for me she is perfect.....however, I also want the best for her, and so sometimes I just compare her with kids of her age to see if she is developing normally. I think it's healthy, and it just shows that as a parent, I love her and care for her. Boo to people taking it negatively!

We need to buy a new car.....I'm doing some amount of research every day and taking notes of various options, features, prices, mileages. We will be going for test drives soon. All this is fun, until I have to haggle with the dealer. I absolutely hate dealing with car salesmen and bank loan agents in this country. I am dreading that aspect already. I'll see if I can get a great deal without having to go through the negotiations at the dealer.

Before becoming a mom, I could read a book from start to finish without any issues. It was not always in one sitting, but it never took months either. I rarely used to quit reading something I started. As a mom, I find it very difficult to get to a point where I'm actually enjoying a book. Once I am over the tough first few pages or chapters and have started enjoying it, I find myself taking out time from nowhere to get to the end. I am currently reading "Room" and for the first 75 pages, I struggled. I quit reading it for a week and now that I have read more than half of the book, I think I will finish it before the weekend starts :). Not sure what I will read next, so if you have any suggestions (mostly non-fiction), please pass them along.

Conversationing with the daughter is becoming even more enjoyable:

• Hubby has this Talking Cat app on his iphone where the cat repeats everything you say - the daughter will talk to the cat for 10 mins straight. She will show her all her toys, introduce all the body parts, say phrases like "I knowwwwwww" "oh maaaaaan" "no wayyyyyyyyy" "oh yaaaaaaa" "oh oh" in such an Americanized accent. She will describe everything she did that day, say names of all her daycare friends - hubby and I just patiently listen to the conversation. I should record it sometime soon to show her when she grows up :). 
• Every morning, I ask her, "where are we going today?" and she will have one of these four answers. 1) Park 2) Swimming 3) kaki (waikiki) beach 4) Maamu-Maami house (she calls most of our friends maamu-maami). She knows she is going to be dropped off at daycare (and she loves it there), but those other choices are way better :). 
• She knows how to convey the same thing in different languages. "Bhua" "paani" "water" - she uses all three when she is thirsty. "one more" or "biju aap" when she wants more of the same thing. I find it amazing and fascinating. 
• She knows when I am tired by the end of the day. When I get into bed, she says "mumma tired" "baby tired" and is usually very gentle with me. It tells me that her sensing is very powerful even at this young age.
• She is able to read body language fairly well. The other day hubby n I were having a small argument, she sensed it and immediately started acting goofy to distract us and let it go.

People who don't have kids don't understand some of the constraints that parents of kids have. Enough said.

I took Pioneer Woman's Flatbread Pizza recipe and made "Naan Pizza" over the weekend. It was yummy......the pesto base tasted better than the marinara base. In case you are interested, here is a list of ingredients I used: Naan (from Costco), Pesto sauce and Marinara sauce (from Trader Joes), red+yellow+orange+green bellpepper, zucchini, red onion, garlic cloves, roma tomatoes, Amul cheese, avocado, olive oil, salt, pepper :).

Early to bed and very early to rise.....makes people suspicious :). That's what happened when I set out for an hour long walk with the daughter on Saturday early in the morning. We were the odd ones out. People did not understand why we were out so early. But, we saw tons of chirping birds, doggies doing their morning thing on walks with their owners, we took a short break at the edge of hill and looked out at the green pastures, we saw awesome flowers of different colors, and we had a lovely mom-daughter time.

I don't like the new blogger interface :(. I'm sure with time, I will get used to it.

Enough of musings from my end for now......I am looking forward to my yoga class tonite :)!

She puts a curl in our world.....

❤  She puts a curl in our world.....She puts color in our world ❤ 

I love spring.....
She lurves spring....
We luff spring :)!


These pictures were taken Saturday AM in our backyard after we returned home from her swim class.....warm weather made all of us happy, and we had a fantastic fun-filled weekend!


PS: This is Post#200 on my blog....enjoying it so much more now than when I started it. I'm on a roll and I hope I continue to be so :)!

{this moment} Something new.....Something old

"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

The first two pictures are from last weekend. Intel organized a Purple Picnic outside Arco Arena for few lucky employees and gave us all free tickets to the Kings-Trailblazers NBA game. The kiddo thrived in the loud arena atmosphere.....she was feeding off the energy from the crowd and was thoroughly enjoying her time out there. For the picnic, she had lots of company from the neighborhood kids, so she had a blast. She went down for her nap around half-time and slept for more than 3 hours!

And in this picture below....the daughter is 3 days old. It's the day we brought her home from the hospital. I was browsing through her birth pictures and this one simply melted my heart all over again - so beautiful, so precious, so tiny, so soft, so cuddly, so huggable, so lovable, so squishable....so angelic!

5 simple relaxation techniques

During my yoga class yesterday evening, I made note of these 5 very simple relaxation techniques that we can all use during the course of our day to help relieve tension, stress and help calm us down. Some of these can be done while we are on-the-go or working at our desk. Some require a quiet environment to help focus and slow down.

1) Tennis ball massage - Stand on the floor with your feet slightly apart. Put the tennis ball under right foot and roll the foot over the ball, applying medium pressure. Make sure you cover the whole foot, including the heel. Repeat for left foot. Repeat 3-5 times.

The organs of our body have their sensory touches at the bottom of our feet. This could be one reason why this simple massage provides so much relief.

I always ask my husband for foot massages. Sometimes at night, if I am tossing and turning in bed and cannot go to sleep, he will massage my feet and I drift into deep sleep within few minutes.

Try it, and let me know if it helps you!

2) Ear Lobe massage - Rub your hands to warm them up. Start with a gentle massage on the right ear, covering all contours. Slowly increase pressure, and pull the ear to relieve tension. When you massage the right ear, you should feel relaxation on the left shoulder joint and muscles. Repeat the same for left ear. You will feel the ears warm (mine were hot :)) after doing this. Once both the ears are warm, stretch the left ear from the top towards the left side of your body, and at the same time, pull your right ear lobe down. You will be using both your hands to do this. Repeat this exercise for right ear-left ear lobe.

Since I work in front of the computer all day, my neck-shoulder area is always tense. I found this massage a great way to relieve tension from this area.

3) Squat Pose - Also known as 'garland pose' or 'malasana', this very simple pose helps tremendously in loosening up the hip joints. It also helps in stretching the entire legs, and strengthens the ankle. In winter, when we are all bundled and curled up all day, we need to do this pose for few minutes every evening to help relax our hips and legs.

This pose also helped me tremendously during my pregnancy.

4) Taking the tongue off the roof of your mouth - Anytime I consciously think about where my tongue is, its always touching the roof of my mouth (except when I'm talking or eating or singing :P). It's a good position - it helps you focus. But when you are trying to relax and let go, try to take the tongue off the roof of your mouth and just focus on your breath. At first, for the first few moments, you will feel different. But very soon you will realize that it calms you down.

5) Focus on your breath and Shavasana - I would be surprised if you have not heard of this one. But taking a few minutes out during the day for yourself - for your body, for your mind, for your heart (which never skips a beat and keeps you alive) is sooper important. Just lay down if possible (in shavasana or corpse pose), and let go of every thought running through your mind. If it helps, turn on some soothing instrumental music in the background, on very low volume. Starting from the head, consciously release tension from every part of your body, while always focusing on your breath (always breathe only through your nose). In the beginning, your heart will be racing. You will slowly reach a resting heart rate, and once you do, if you have truly let go and mentally relaxed yourself, you will drift into sleep.

It's important to pick a quiet place for this one. Otherwise, it takes more effort and time to cut out all the outside noise before you can focus on your breath.

During my yoga class, when we do Shavasana, the teacher always reads a story to us. Halfway through, I drift into sleep. And when I wake up after 5-10 minutes, I feel like a different person than the stressed, anxious and tired person who walked into the class 75 minutes earlier.

Try these and let me know if they were helpful to you!

An update

I was not my usual cheerful blog-self in my last post {I say blog-self coz I'm only cheerful while writing blogs....thank God you don't know me in real life :P}. Things were stressful over the weekend, but not so much anymore.

Thank you for all the prayers and support. It means a lot. Many of you have sent personal emails, called me, checked on things - it's amazing how many genuine good friends I have made through this blog. And then there are people who know me well in personal life, have read almost every post that I write (including the last one) and have never bothered to leave a comment or communicate with me. I really don't understand why they would bother reading about my personal life so religiously.

Parents (especially mom) have been doing better. Recovery is taking its time - it's a long road ahead, but we are moving in the right direction. I had booked my tickets to travel - and then mom n dad, uncles, aunts, loved ones - they all advised me not to travel. They had very valid reasons this time around (and I can't list them all here) so with a very heavy heart, I listened to their advice and decided not to go. I was not getting good vibes about the travel as well, and I figured I should listen to my gut feeling more than anything else.

In the meantime, here's some awesome stuff happening in my life:

• Laughter and humor have returned in my conversations with mom and dad. And it's always, always a very good thing. My maasi's (mom's sisters) are joining in the fun too. It just makes the situation lighter, and the pain much more bearable for the person who is dealing with it.
• The kiddo and few of her neighbor friends had a gala time observing a ladybug walk/jump/fly on the driveway. Such a small creature....doing nothing extraordinary, but it was a treat for the kids. It was pure delight for me to watch the show.

• I started going to yoga classes again. I have found an amazing teacher here locally. I went to her throughout my first pregnancy and I stopped after that. I had some pain that was bothering me at night, and just after one class with her, its all gone. After about 75 mins of yoga, when I came out and was walking towards my car, it was so magical. The sun had set, and the last few minutes of daylight were lingering. There was no wind, no sound of cars...everything was quiet except the loud croaking of hundreds of frogs in a creek nearby. That short walk after a very relaxing yoga class felt like meditation. I soaked it all in!
• I've been on a cooking spree. Over the years, cooking has become a relaxing chore for me. And it's also something which I really enjoy. I made mango pickle at home - it's only second best to mom's pickle :). I made a kick-ass rava-idli-upma from leftover idlis.....I experimented with the ingredients (used cashews instead of peanuts and used a different kind of chutney) and it turned out the best I've made so far. Yesterday I made dosas for dinner - I got the batter from the store, but I used Amul cheese with chutney powder and ghee as filling....it was a new combination that we had not tried before. Hubby loved it so much. Kiddo always gets three fresh home-cooked meals daily. Both of them enjoy my cooking so much.....I feel happy seeing both of them happy :)!
• The kiddo's gibberish talks are getting better and better each day. She says "ammonia for umbrella", "goga for dora", "sheums for fryums", "shoogar for sugar". She uses phrases like "oh ya", "no way", "oh man" often. She sings a few hindi songs now..."nani teri morni", "abc song", "shoni shoni aaja maahi ve", "jach gayi jach gayi kudi jach gayi ho ho ho ho ho" and few more {we don't show her videos of these...she just listens to these songs in the car on her way back n forth to daycare}. She LOVES to dance to any tune - rhymes, salsa, bongo music - anything you play, you can find her shaking her leg or booty. It's awesome really....to see her enjoy the simplest of pleasures in life.
• Apart from bedtime, the next best time I have with my kiddo is in the potty. Yep - you heard it right - potty. When she goes potty in the morning, she says "mumma sitdown" so I take a small step stool and sit in front of her. We giggle, play peek-a-boo, we talk about our dreams, we sing songs.....it's just me and her in that small bathroom sitting close to each other, and we have the best bonding time to start our day!
• All the hills around our home have turned green. I see cattle grazing all day on the hills. Flowers are slowly starting to bloom. We have cherry blossoms in our backyard. It's just so pretty at this time of the year.....I love the greenery! {I will try to click some pictures of the pretty scenery this weekend and post them here}. 

So, even though things are crazy busy at work, I still have my taxes to finish by end of this weekend, the weather is crazy - we've had hailstorms and thunderstorms in the last week & parents dealing with injury and pain are always on the back of my mind.....

I feel blessed! L.I.F.E IS G.O.O.D!

Tough and Sad Times

The past few weeks have been rough....

On my family and people around me.....

First, a few weeks ago, the daughter's daycare provider and her family got into a road accident. They were struck head-on by a drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the road. Broken ribs, broken bones, three people in three different hospital rooms which were all on different floors.....it was terrible. Yes, I helped out. Quite a bit actually. I was "asked" and "chosen" to help by the family, because they trusted me more than others (how I love that).

My rakhi-bro's wife fell down in her bathroom and injured her face. She got stitches, and it took several days to heal. My brother was also not feeling well at that time, and they went through a tough week of both being unwell. I helped them out too....little bit. Delivered a hot piping delicious meal the day this happened. Emotional support after that.

Then, one evening, I went down to the cafe at work to get my afternoon green tea. A friend who I used to play Racquetball with often before I had kids asked me if I had a few minutes to talk. I was told that both his kidneys have failed. He is looking for a transplant, and needed help from my huge network of friends and family here. He is a young man in his early thirties, single and was thriving, until this illness hit him from nowhere. I'm helping him out as much as I can.

Then my dad had an accident couple weeks ago and was hurt. Thankfully, it was nothing major....but what bothered me is that the person who hit him, chose to go check on his vehicle instead of attending to this 60+ year old man who had a scooter on his leg. Dad also called for help from a nearby panwaala who refused to come over and help saying "sir this happens everyday".

And today morning, I woke up extremely exhausted. The kiddo has a bad cold, and did not let me sleep all night. I had missed my dad's call last night so I thought I will speak to him and mom. I called our home phone and no one picked up. That is an instant cause of worry. We usually know if they are going out somewhere, especially in the evening. I called his cell, and my bapuji (dad's elder brother) picked up. Mom and dad got hit by a car (they were on a two wheeler, the person who hit them ran away but they have the license plate number) and got injured badly. They were in hospital when I called. Mom lost a lot of blood coz the ambulance took half an hour to get to the scene. She has several stitches on her forehead, and a fracture near her eye/nose area which needs further evaluation once the bleeding stops and swelling goes down. There are several other bruises and injuries that both of them got. I was profusely crying when I heard all this going on. I called my sister....told her everything. One of us is planning to head back home and be with them for few weeks, even though everyone is saying we are not needed and that they can manage. I even blocked my tickets to go tonight, but I have to get some tests done before I can leave, so I told dad that I'll wait a day or two before I make plans.

This is one of the times when I truly wish I was living closer to them. However, by no means it makes me feel guilty of coming to the US and having a career here, as I know that they are truly happy for the choices I made and the professional growth n success I was able to achieve so far here in this foreign country. Things happen....sometimes they are great, sometimes they are horrible. I hate people going on a guilt trip about the choices they have made just because something bad happened to them. Since I can't help them out physically, others are reaching out. An aunt has made plans to stay with mom and dad for a month - she is my second mom, and she's always been there for us. We have absolutely amazing neighbors as well - even though I hate the fact that I am not physically there for them, I know they are taken care of by some very compassionate souls.

My daughter saw me upset and crying today morning, and told me "Soddy mumma, it's okay" then gave me a hug and a kiss. She is also such a sweet compassionate soul......I'm grateful for her presence in my life.

Anyway, I hope this string of accidents and bad news stops for a while. I cannot take it anymore. I might be in India for some time....I'll know by this weekend. I'll continue to write here though, coz I feel it is the best way to relieve my stress.