13th Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated a our 13th wedding anniversary on July 7th. It was a low key affair as usual .  CB prepares the tea and toast for me everyday and keeps it in our office room before leaving for office. On our anniversary I  got a  surprise card and a gift voucher along with breakfast.

Anniversary Card :

Our Love has been a Journey

I couldn't have known when we first met that everything in my life before then

had been leading me to you

But looking back I realize that every decision led me to just the right turn

and that every road taken or not

brought me one step closer to you and the love we share

Today, I know for sure that when our paths came together

and we found one another, it was really only the beginning

of  the most beautiful journey of all

the journey of two hearts that beats as one

Happy Anniversary with all my Love

- Hubby

I made a simple meal Fried rice, vegetable korma, Methu vadai (urad dal vada) and delicious pal paysam.

These days, I prefer gift vouchers than a gift . I can use it anywhere at anytime no pressures. I have started giving visa gift card to everybody . I always like giving personalized gift but realised the usefulness of gift cards when I had NR. We received gift vouchers  from friends and colleagues and I used it throughout the year to get all necessary stuff for NR.  I have always seen new parents receiving insane amount of dresses, toys and others stuff which can be used only for first three months. As new mother though I purchased tonnes of dress for NR, I never used all the dresses. I dressed  him in cute night gowns which made diaper changing a breeze specially in the first two months.

Though spending time outside the house is a premium for me thesedays, I want friends to use the gift cards to buy stuff otherwise they don't  buy for themselves  : ).If you a friend you know the reason for receiving gift cards this year  as opposed to carefully selected /hand picked gifts : ).

First Birthday

Personally I wanted to keep NR birthday as family affair but CB wanted to invite couple of  close friends. He booked a recreation center near our previous work place  few hours before boarding flight to India in April.

CB made another trip to India to bring us back  to USA. NR's birthday was due six days after our arrival . NR's birthday fell on Easter day  so CB was keen on celebrating his birthday Apr 12th though I wanted to have the party at least two weeks after our arrival.  I had the worst jet-lag this time since NR was having his  own nap/bed time schedule. And I had to cook warm meals at least couple of times of day to accommodate my mil's need(s). I was able to gather myself to a "Wake-up State"  for few hrs during the day just two days before his birthday.

Quick calls were made to invite friends, order cake and to order food. CB and a close friend got  supplies needed for catering .I shopped for all the party essentials the night before the birthday party and managed to drive home without falling asleep on wheels : ).

We attended the 9.30am Easter mass at the church and rushed back home  to get ready for the party. One of my good friend arrived with her two energetic boys from seattle.  Friend came home and helped to pack stuff needed for the party. CB and a friend went ahead of us to decorate the venue.

Friends  graciously attended NR's birthday party inspite of getting the last minute invite . I love evite for making this possible.

The venue  had this huge indoor play area for kids .  But the no. of adults permitted for this venue was just 18 as per the fire marshall  though we could have accomdated atleast 30 people. So we were forced to have short guest list and ended up inviting very few close friends whom we know for last 10 yrs exception being my blogger friend sheela.

I ordered light and tender chiffon cake with fruit basket fillings and Ivory butter cream icing with "pooh bear theme" . We were not able to order a custom cake with "Polar bear Polar bear what do you hear" book theme due to copy right restriction.  For his second birthday NR will get his custom cake made and decorated by his special baker aka "Amma".

The birthday boy behaved well though he was in jet lag phase. He was excited to cut the cake and loved his first piece of cake. We had slight technical problem with his music candle . The candle sang the birthday song five  minute after we blew out the candle :).

 

The guests had delicious Indian food .The restaurant required us to order  atleast  25 plates  but we had just 15  adults in the  party. So, we ended up with more food and our guests happily carried the delicious food/cake back home.

We booked the venue for 4 hrs which gave us time to chat with friends for quite some time. Friends and grown up kids pitched in to clean the venue along with CB . 

Though this party was a simple affair compared to the parties we have at home , I was really happy and satisfied that we managed to put together this party in less time with a bouncing baby , jet lag and a demanding MIL .

I thanked god for giving me this opportunity to be a mom after all these years. I request my readers to take minute to wish NR a  long , peaceful and happy life.  I would be grateful if you could do the same in your prayers.

Do you believe in signs ?

My mom was so sick and hospitalized for almost two years . I was  5 or 6 years old then. Few months before her major surgery (32 years back it was a big surgery and it was first of its kind done in that hospital) we were praying in our paternal grandpa's house (My father lost his dad at a very early age and his family was brought up by his maternal uncle. so we call him our grandpa). 

A flower fell off from one of the deities during  our prayer. One of my father's elderly cousin sister remarked that the flower fell off at the exact moment when she was praying for my mother's health . She said it's a good sign and our mother will  live longer after the surgery. Yeah she was right.

My mother is leading a good and healthy life for last 32 years thanks to all the prayers from family, friends and relatives. This incident made me a believer.

We went on a vacation to India around Dec '06 - Jan '07. I had planned for the usual christmas party at our house and bought a dozen of  kidsy flashlight as gift for kids attending the party. We cancelled the party due to my project deadline at work  and upcoming India trip . I bought lot of fancy cars and trucks for baby boys in family/friends circle but we were able to pack only 25% of what we bought due to new US airline baggage policy (Singapore Airlines was allowing 32 lb at that time while the local flight allowed ony 22 lbs). All flash lights and toys stayed with us.

Next couple of months after our India trip, every kid walking into my house received a gift and I managed to give away almost everything. But Cow, zebra and tiger flash lights , a car and a truck  stayed.  Somehow they never went out of house inspite of my best efforts to dispose them. Now I believe  it was a sign indicating NR's arrival.

The flashlights became NR's first official toy. He loved watching beam of light falling on the walls , roof and on headboard . That became  my  favourite mom - baby time when he was a baby.

The car and the truck are NR's fav toys right now.  He lives, dreams and long for this Bu car (Blue car) and Kakar (red car). Looking back, I realise these toys were meant for NR.

Yes, I do believe in signs :) like this girl in this movie. BTW, " Fools rush in " is one of my 'all time favourite'  movie.

Kar Krazy Kid

NR is mesmerized by anything that rolls . Books, water bottles, ball, toy car, spoons, water bottle cap everything get rolled in our floor .

NR loves to touch everything and tries to create sound with his fingers. This habit of him started very early on around 5 or 6 month of age. He loves to see the texture change when he draws line in our sofa . He loves the sound he can make when he scratches our sofa.  He draws with his index finger. Even to open a page he uses a single finger . And he loves to roll everything with just index finger. I have never seen him push things with his whole hand.

His craziness for wheels started with a spherical block from a Block set .My brother  bought this toy during  his honeymoon trip to Singapore/Malaysia. NR instantly loved the blocks and he loved unstacking them . I chose to bring only few special gifts back to US from India  . The block set topped the list , since it was from his fav uncle and aunt.

Few days after returning to US, I saw him rolling a spherical block from the block set with full vigor on our wooden floors. He figured the art of dynamics.  Thus the craziness for wheels was born.

He entertained himself with this game for hours in a day. He is mesmerized by motion of wheels.Then he graduated to rolling the ball , toy cars, bottles etc . Anything and everything is rolled around including plates. I am constantly ducking myself from flying objects.

I smile constantly seeing a 12 month old demonstrating this typical boyish traits/likings. He mutters the word "car" in typical American accent when he goes to sleep, during his sleep(yes along with giggling, crying during his sleep  he also talks )and when he gets up in the morning (read earrrrrrrrrrrrly morning) the first word he utters is "Carrr". 

Q/A Session with NR.

Amma/appa/othera : NR enna venum unakku (NR what do you want?)

NR : CARRRRRRRRRR

NR crying profusely and the mother who has no clue as to what caused this melt down asks

Amma:  Ennada venum unnaku?(what do you want?)  in a frusturated voice

NR :  CARRRRR (rolls his eyes sorrowfully) in spite of  seeing the car nearby or holding one . No matter what the situation might be he always answers "Car".

NR became hopeless fan of cars thanks to my younger sister SPD. He loved watching her drive off to office . She got royal welcome when she returned from office. Inspite of staying in India for three months , I could not recognize my sister's car horn but this little fellow would jump out of bed while sleeping when he hears my sister's car horn in a distance. He would urge us to take him to the front gate to give his chitha a royal welcome.  It was so sweet to watch a 10 month old baby shouting with joy seeing her drive in. And chitha was all too proud to have a little puppy waiting for her arrival with such joy. In an instant the whole family would sink into this elated state seeing him welcome his chitha. Chitha loved to take her son for a ride every evening .  NR had a blast going around the city in his chitha and mamma's car . He loved the crowded roads in India  filled with lights beaming from every single vehicle on the road.

Nowadays his toy cars are climbing the walls, fridge doors, dishwasher doors, bathtub walls, coffee table, dining table and any flat surface. Till now he has not started walking on his own but he walks with support. Even with his minimal skill/balance he rolls his car on the crib ledge/bathtub wall ledge from one end to another.

I am hoping this phase will pass thru soon and next one begin when he starts to walk and run.  If it continues,  I'll have to get back my athletic body(which I had almost two decades back) and energy to run behind him and say more prayers to calm me down during my panic attacks.

Learning to speak one word at a time

NR's first word was "amma". His second was "that-ta(tata as in bye)" .  During our stay in India he started calling my younger sister "ith-tha" (chitha), my brother "mama " (uncle) and his wife "Pappa".  We were quite surprised why he kept calling her pappa though we taught him the right word "Athai". After couple of months we solved the mystery.

My chithappa (father's younger brother) has been referring a  baby doll (girl) in the showcase  as "pappa" to him.  My SIL looks like a school girl . I think to a 11 month old brain she resembled the doll hence pappa. she brings such a vibrant and happy energy where ever she is  . She was entertaining NR  like a eight year old girl.  Our guy treated his athai like a playmate . It's a daily routine for my SIL to take out the doll and teach him "Ethu pappa, nan athai" ("That's doll , I am your aunty") in a typical malayali accent ,but he always calls her pappa ; ).

He was calling CB as "Afffaa" (Appa -dad) and some how it got changed to "Papa".  

 I sing old mc donald to him everyday (read every single hour of the day) . I pause for few sec when I sing "And on the farm he had some"? then say the animal name. One day he cooly replied "kowve". That started "Iwant to repeat what you say " phase.  If he can't repeat the words , he makes perfect noise which mimics the word like for butterfly he would repeat "bubba iiiiiiii".

Seeing the tulips on our yard in full bloom last month , he said "Poo, Poo" (Poo means flower in my native language) . He picked up this word from kachuri ammuma who used to show and teach him flowers in different color every single day while weaving garlands for deities before pooja.  She has a garden with wide arrays of colorful flowers meant for deities.  He never said that word during our stay in India but decided to say it , while sitting happily in his cozy living room in america.

I started playing throw-catch ball game with him ever since received his first ball last Dec. It's fun to watch him throw the ball saying "thow"  and then running behind it  to retrieve it like little puppy. Everything is thrown around  the house his car, book, block, bottles which many times lands on his  head .  When I hear the word "thow " and if he is not in my vicinity, I dash to him like mad woman wanting to avoid major mishaps. Whoever said "Having a baby is a bliss" forgot to add the phrase "provided you have 10 people to help you around"

These days, going for walks with him is fun . He would keep saying words cars , thee, pooveh , bow bow all of which we see in plenty during our walks.

NR's dictionary of words

Kow-ve = Cow

Baaa-oll       = Ball

Baa-awk =  Block

Baow = Bird

aaaoy = Boy (seeing little boy in his fav book "It's good thing you are not an Octopus")

booooooook = Book

Bow bow = Dog

Bu car       = Blue Car

Carrrrrr  = Car

Cock = Clock

Poo or Poovay = Flower

ith-theee = Tree

mum mum = Any eatables or anything remotely resembling food.

TATT-TA  = tata/bye

orrrrrrs    =  horse

iththow =  Throw

Nr's fav words are car, cock and thow . He uses these words hundred times day when he spot car/toys or clock .  

NR is 14 month 16 days old

Polar Bear Polar Bear what do you hear

"Polar Bear Polar Bear what do you hear ?" is NR's favorite book.

In my desperate efforts to entertain him while trying to make him sit, I started reading him books since he was 5 months old . This book was one of the books first set of books I brought from library. Out of those 12 books, two books became his favorite books. 

How do I know? He  was never interested in looking into other books. He will turn his face right or left continuously while reading other books. When did I notice this ? The very first time. 

 He received his own copy of these two book as Christmas gifts last year.  The books travels with him everywhere .

Till this date he treasure this book. He gave his first clap when I took out this book to read when he was 10 months old. His face oozes with happiness (also with tonnes of  jollu ) when he sees this book.  Whenever he cries or has separation anxiety or temper tantrums all I have to do is to take out this book.  Unfortunately I packed these two books in checked luggage and had a tough time during our travel to India. I made sure to have them handy during our return trip. He never liked sitting in the "facing out" position during take off and landing.  so these two books came handy during landing and take off during our return journey. 

He is so familiar with all the animals in the books, he was psyched to see them in person during his first zoo trip last month.  

Another fav book is "It's good thing you are not an Octopus".

My new clutch

I have been sporting a new clutch from last year

I along with a trusted partner created this clutch

I am crazy about this clutch 

I have been eyeing, admiring  and speaking to my cute clutch even during the making process.

I have been expressing my love, admiration and even my frustration . 

My clutch was just showing the feelings  and now clutch is talking to me

I am the  in house specialist  who can decipher clutch's dialogue and requirements

 I even change my clutch's liners many times a day just to have fresh scent

The best part of having this clutch  is

- I can dress my clutch to my desired color and fashion 

- I love it more when my clutch is naked

My clutch grows along with me so is the weight of the clutch

The best part is "My Clutch" never likes to part from me.

I should have renamed the title to "My Fore ever Clingy Clutch"

However, I want this to clutch to grow up to be luggage so I can drag it along ; ) to give much needed break to my hips