New year 2011

Our church didn’t have 6.00pm service on  NYE . They had New year's day service at 11.00am which will interfere with my lunch preparation for New year's day.  So we went to our neighborhood church for 5.00pm service on NYE.I am following the tradition of cooking lunch for my family on  New year's day just like my mother.  

It was very cold but we didn’t have any rain. The crowd was full of old people and we didn’t see our desi friends who are regulars in that church.

We were invited for a New year eve dinner at a  friend's house. We went to her house after church. NR had a good time there and we came back home after midnight. We had freezing winds that night and we were glad that our friend lived just ten minutes from our home.

[caption id="attachment_1217" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="NR doing a happy dance"][/caption]

On New year's day,  I made a shivrathri vegetarian lunch(again) thanks to CB. Evening we went to a nearby temple . We had good darshan and felt blessed to attend prodosham puja. Thanks to IPAD NR was quiet and happy in over-crowded temple.

I’m glad 2010 is over. We are starting this year with hope and prayers for my little son.  My word for 2011 is NR . We have made a pact as parents to do everything and beyond our capacity for the welfare our son.  Hope 2011 gives us strength and all my prayers and our wishes for NR be granted.

[caption id="attachment_1218" align="aligncenter" width="210" caption="Professional shoot at our home when NR was six weeks old"][/caption]

2010 Thanksgiving

I bought a puppy costume for NR . When I tried it , he felt miserable and cried till I removed the dress. Last year’s monkey costume came in handy. Monkey was happy with the costume.

This thanksgiving was cold  and damp yet most of the two year old girls wore fairy/princess (thin) costume without any sweaters or coat. The parents  wanted their tiny kids to look fancy without thinking about their health. I have no idea how the little ones tolerated the cold. My son would be shivering like a mouse out of a tea-cup,  if he is not bundled up.

NR marathon fever episode started after couple of days.

Autumn

Life has been busy in general during the month of October with festivals and other celebration.. Many of the post written during October are in draft stage since I am spending my time watching lot of television before going to bed and talking for hours with my family and friends back in India.

I liked my commute to work during autumn looking at all the trees covered with red/yellow leaves with mild weather. Autumn marked the start of festive seasons both Indian and western. During autumn I frequented restaurants during lunch. I loved the cozy corner and comfy table in my favorite restaurant drinking my warm soup served with bread. There is a lot of good restaurants in Lake Oswego /King city near the place I used to work and having variety meant happy lunch time. I miss going out to pubs/restaurant with friends /colleagues in the evenings and having good time. My friends loved having a friend who doesn’t drink. I was their official designated driver .

Ten years back, every weekend we went out for bowling or had friends for lunch or dinner at home especially 3 of my husband's colleagues. They came home for lunch and used to spend the afternoon and evening watching games and go home after having dinner.  Not once I complained about them hogging our weekend or all of them conveniently forgetting that we were newly married couple ; ). Well, things changed when they got married. And my husband learnt a lesson.

This is first year, I missed going to Garbha ( I even attended garbha just six months after delivering NR). Autumn started with vengeance in portland with cold , damp nights/days. I was in no mood to get dressed in traditional costumes and drive out in the pouring rain. Garbha starts at 9.00pm and goes till 1.00am . I curled up on my cozy warm bed and watched TV instead.

This is also the first year I didn't make any deepavali sweets/snacks. NR kept me busy during the day and after dinner I was too tired (or just lazy) to make deepavali sweets/snacks alone. This year deepavali at my house was a low-key affair.

When I don’t work, I’ll start hibernating during cold season. And this autumn/winter I am thankful that I am not working. I don’t have an hour’s commute to work in blazing winds and rain.  Every morning we (NR and me) get to sleep till 8.30 -9.00am  and I love this part of my SAHM life. Well, I am grateful to have a husband who makes this possible.  Thank you lord for this special luxury I enjoy even after becoming a mom.

Ganesh chathurthi and the week before

 We celebrated Ganesh chathurthi with usual vigor. Good that the festival fell on a weekend. I had the best baby sitter to take care of NR. Made the typical Ganesh chathurthi dishes mothagam, sundal , pongal and vadai. I have made it as a tradition to take pictures and to see NR compared to last two years seemed like long time. Two years ago as a six month old baby he laid on my lap during the pooja and now he was helping me with ringing the bell. We had some setbacks with his health last year but I am grateful for everything in my life now. Pillaiyar aka Ganesh has been my favorite god since childhood.  I pray everyday to him to give me strength to deal with life’s challenges.

 Earlier I was little skeptical about introducing both our religion to our future kids. With NR things fell into place and we don’t even think about that anymore. NR loves church and enthusiastic about visiting temple. The one common attraction in both the places is the “MUSIC” he loves the most. May be my secret wish might come true after all.   

I spent the Labour day weekend  lazing around the house. I found time to make some handmade gifts for my friend's birthday . I've known her for last 12 years since we moved to Portland , oregon. She was so thoughtful to bring my fav food home after my delivery. She is a great mom to three kids  one of whom is a special needs girl. I learn the love and patience from her. They are such amazing parents and her husband worked with me and CB. He had a critical role in the product development yet always found time to spend time with kids. I mean he will work throughout the night, go home in the morning when the girls wake up and help his wife and come back to office around 9.30am. He used to do this so often and he did that with good smile on his face. I and CB used to talk a lot about him and we are very fond of them.

 I always believed that god chooses such special people as  the parents for his special needs kids. They have the best heart and soul to love their kids without expecting anything in return not even an “I love u” back.

 I see many parents in the play group/play area acting like drill sergeants wanting and teaching some stuff  kids beyond their age and taking much pride in their kids skills/achievement. Thank god I didn’t have such restless parents. Kids from such household inherit their parent’s restlessness and relate achievement with self worth . They focus so  much energy on being the best among their peers and feel so unhappy no matter what they have/achieve in their life. 

When see my friend and her husband I see the kind of parents we want to learn from.  I call her every time I feel scared or afraid of something in my life. She always had time for me which is so nice of her. I’ve had people cut me off - while talking on the phone, when I make a courtesy call to say hello. I used to think why on earth I am being so good to such people. Lot of my friends and even I used to excuse myself when I have some urgent matters to attend but I''ll always make sure to call them back. I always feel reluctant to  call her knowing her schedule but every time we end up talking  for a long time.

There is nothing better than a handmade gift to say "I love u" or " I treasure you" . I made her C & C (a cake and a Clutch). Made a purple & pink cake and made a clutch with a beautiful print having purple flowers. I paid a surprise visit to her house around 8.00pm before her birthday to hand deliver her birthday gift. Special  friends gets special attention no matter how long and tiring my day was.  

 

 

 

Return of Seamstress - Part 2

I started sewing home essentials like curtains , table runner , holiday decoration etc. I 'd sewn beautiful dresses for girls as gifts. Then last few years when CB was working for MS in Seattle while I worked for Intel in portland my sewing hobby came to complete halt due to other priorities in life.  I used my machine for mending or to do some patch up work .

My sewing got a kick start thanks to NR. This little kuttan doesn't like wearning the hat  (like the ones from the hospital). Though he was just two weeks old he always removed his cap from his head. I used to wonder how ? Then I caught the culprit in action. He will turn his head left to right and after twenty plus turns the cap will come out of his head : ).  Then and there we knew that we have naughty and mischievous guy in our hands. My sister who came to US when NR was six weeks old could not believe this. My sister and niece used to wait to watch this and enjoy the sweet trick by this little fellow.

NR suffered from congestion and needed a hat to keep him warm as new born  and during summer when we had our A/C on at nights. Since it was summer I was not able to buy the winter hats like this so ended up sewing one for NR. 

Last christmas , I wanted to start the tradition of giving some hand made gifts to NR friend Sherry (My best friend's son who is 8 months older than NR).  I managed to sew 3 ponchos during the second week of Dec 2008 .  The sewing part took 45  minutes to an hour and cutting may be 15 -20 minutes. I purchased dresses for two sets of girls and boys during Nov but everything had to wait because of this project. Though I finished the project on time, due to snow storms, I was not able to send them on time for christmas.

I packed everything and our good friend took time to send them to my friends on my behalf.  Hope they enjoyed this personal gift.

PS : This draft was written in Jan 2009 : )

Happy Tamil and Malayalam New year 2010

En iniya Tamil nanburgalukku iniya Tamil puthandu valthukkal (Happy Tamil new year wishes to all my Tamil friends around the globe).

Orayiram vishu asamsakal(happy vishu greetings to all my malayalee friends around the globe).

Vishu brings fondest memories of my maternal grandparents. Nikhil will be missing the sweet traditions of vishu like kaineetam from grandparents and relatives.

We used to give kaineetam to little kids in the family in ten paisa denominations. Imagine the joy of 5 year olds getting handful of 100 mint ten paise coins .oh they felt so happy like they won lottery : ).

My mom and dad used to do the vishu decoration after we went to bed as a surprise. My mom used to wake us up early in the morning and lead us to vishu decoration spot blindfolded to get the glimpse of vishukani . It's considered very auspicious to see vishukani decorations when we wake up .

I used to love vishu's kaineetam since it meant more pocket-money to spend during summers on ice creams and hobbies. Those were the good old days where every kid from our neighbourhood was happy with simple things like camel water color box or playing hide and seek or some pretend play .

Most of my summers were spent drawing lot of pictures from my favorite story/comic books especially the folklore/fairytales books from Russia. We sent most of the illustrations  as birthday/festival greeting to our friends and family. Both me and my sister were good painters.I really wish they had saved all my drawings.   I always had the privelege drawing some art on the board during our first art class after summer holidays since my art teacher loved my art work. Reminder to myself: I need to go and meet her in person during my next visit to India.

My father is a self made book binder , so we had good supply of good quality card board, stock paper (we used call them binding wrappers) and calico. I loved doing pop up books and 2D animated drawing boards like King Arthur castle with characters popping out. I used to painstakingly draw, paint and cut each character then add a board backing. My earliest memory of doing a model was making different styles of miniature footwear using chart paper and sketch pens during my fourth grade vacation. 

End of summer meant getting new books for school and my dad binding all our school books. I learnt the art of binding from my father and I can still bind a book like a professional.

Wishing you all Very Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New year 2010

(photo by CS  - Portland Japanese Garden - Oregon ,circa 2006)

Christmas has arrived

Christmas has arrived in SeeSeeBee household . We finished putting up /decorating the Christmas tree last sunday. CB hung the  outdoor lights during the thanksgiving weekend.

We decided to have the christmas tree alone this year instead of decorating the entire house keeping NR in mind. Due to my concerns with safety, I was planning to buy a table top christmas tree this year instead of our usual 12 ft tree .  But papa went ahead and assembled the tree on sat while mama and the baby slept . I stayed late on sunday to finish the decorating . oh boy! I wish  I had help with putting up hundreds of decorations on the tree.  I am waiting for NR to grow up and be my assistant during holiday decoration time.

I had the same tree ,the same old decorations for past ten years. New exciting addition is our in-house christmas tree fan - NR loves watching the christmas tree especially when it is lit. We watch the tree sitting our stairs for ten minutes after his nap for last two days. He  runs often to our den to check on the christmas tree/ lights .  We have put up a gate in the den to block NR reaching for his fav " baol  aka ball " - red and golden ornaments hanging in the tree.

Presenting SeeSeebee Christmas tree

A thanksgiving to remember

NR  spent the day on CB’s shoulders and happily enjoyed his dad’s company.We didn’t have any special plans for thanksgiving this year due to NR daily schedule and our forthcoming trip to India. I was not even able to plan a simple thanksgiving meal since I was sick for last couple of weeks. I was little disappointed with myself for not celebrating NR’s first thanksgiving in a special way till I switched the TV on  in the evening.

I thanked god for giving us this peaceful evening filled with warm meal, warm house and warm company. This song which I sings often came to my mind.

It brought back my memories of Sep 11th 2001. We woke by a frantic phone call from a friend .We saw horrors of planes hitting the twin towers on TV. For the first time in my life I was so depressed. I went thru depression for more than a month in my way leading life like a zombie not able to feel happy or satisfied which was totally “not me”. My daily commute to work and daily tasks got me thru the tough time.

I learnt to see this world in a different way like my fellow Americans. We witnessed the generosity of this great nation. Both government and community came in a big way to help the victims. Most Americans move on and lead a normal life after this great tragedy. It taught us to be ready as couple to face the unknowns. It made us to prepare our estate planning and other essential stuff .

This thanksgiving evening I saw the generosity of the community again.  A Reserve Army soldier had bought a home in Kennewick, WA. His home owner's Association president threatened to sue him for not landscaping his yard. The soldier is serving in Middle East and the landscapers he'd hired skipped town. His pregnant wife was staying with her family in the east coast. Thanks to 65 volunteers 18,000 sqft of lawn was laid at his house within couple of hours. Read the news here.

I am hoping the community of Mumbai  and Indians in general should show the spirit of  kindness and courage during this difficult times. Our prayer goes to all the fallen heroes and victims of Mumbai city.

Happy Diwali 2008

Growing up in a small town in Tamil Nadu, my Diwali day was centered on wearing the new outfits, grand feast with family, distributing sweets to friends and relatives and having a good afternoon nap . I still get excited  during festival times even after living in US for more than a decade. Food brings fond memories both old and new . I managed to make Mysorepa, Boondhi laddu (tamil style), Badam Burfi, Murukku and Ribbon pakkoda this year.

I celebrated this Diwali with NR kuttan. NR cooperated so well today and watched me tidying up the house with his big bright trademark smile. He did not have the usual separation anxiety episodes. Taking care of 6 month old with no help makes life challenging especially during festival times. With the usual morning chores for NR, I managed to take a shower around noon. CB surprised us by bringing lunch from an Indian restaurant in spite of his hectic Monday schedule. He knew that it's not possible for me fix a festival meal with a six month old baby.

For every Diwali we celebrated in US, I used to wear ethnic dress and jewels and  visited our friends to distribute home-made palakaram (sweets and snacks) .This year we did not do our regular rounds  since CB taught a class that evening. We planned to visit friends during the course of this week when we get time.

NR took a nap during pooja time.  I thought I’d had to do pooja alone. With Divine intervention, my good friend decided to visit us exactly when I started the pooja. We prayed together and exchanged sweets. This Diwali I am thankful for getting our special and long-awaited gift NR . And also for getting back my physical strength on time to prepare sweets and snacks for Diwali after difficult pregnancy and postpartum.