Muddy Puddles - Puddle Jumping

Veer is currently going through a Peppa Pig obsession and everything he does is what Peppa does on her show. We are having some seasonal rain out bursts here in New England and sure enough when I went to pick Veer up he was coated in dirt and his shoes and socks were sopping wet. Without even asking him I knew the answer – Peppa and her family jump in muddly puddles when it rains!! I then asked him why he jumped in puddles without wearing rain boots (which Peppa and her family wear). This morning as I was putting on  his Crocs (to enable jumping in muddy puddles without wetting shoes) I asked him if he was going to jump in muddy puddles and he went into his closet and pulled out his oversized rain boots that he wanted to bring to school with him to jump in muddy puddles. For the first time in my adult life I prayed for rain so my baby can jump in muddy puddles.

Summer 2014

So many things have happened in the last few weeks. I keep thinking that I should document it on this blog and then life comes in the way… So I thought I will document a quick high level summary.

Veer has been in preschool for about 3 weeks and the transition has been surprisingly easy. I am almost scared to say how he has taken to preschool. However, I do get the feeling that he is a little overwhelmed. He isn’t the super star that he used to be in Toddlers.

Veeru graduated the first level of swim classes and they had the kids do an adorable graduation walk in the pool… I cannot believe my baby is growing up sooo fast. We start the next session in the fall.

We took a trip to the Cape this weekend. My husband and I were raised in the coastal city of Madras/Chennai and we both love the water. (Though I suspect D likes it more for his Florida memories) Veer on the other hand flipped out! He was a lot happier making sandcastles on the beach. He was good for the approx. 3 hours that we were driving which totally baffled me.

Last but not the least, the hugest milestones of them all – We relinquished our white cuppy (Feeding bottle) for the paalu. S (The only baby who is younger than V) fictiously inherited them. This is a huge change and we are facing quite some resistance as this was the one thing V held onto as a security blanket.

My conversations with Veer are getting more meaningful by the day. As divine retribution, some of these are exactly things I said to my mom many many moons ago.

As we were getting ready to leave for school one morning and I was handing him his lunch box:

V: Mommy what is for lunch today?

Me: Idly

V: Again. We ate idly last night for dinner.

My baby is growing up! I cannot believe my little baby is growing up to be a little boy. I want my baby to be a baby for a little while longer. I am trying to squeeze as much summer as I can into the last few weeks of it that we have here in New England

Single Parenting & Traveling Singly

The past week was a first for us in a certain way – I had to do international trip and left Veer behind with his dad. Now, I have traveled internationally when Veer was a little baby but he was a lot less mobile, slept most of the day and his maternal grandmom was around to help.  Veer goes to full time day care so he would be occupied most of the day during the week. But these guys had a couple of weekends without mom and that was what I was most nervous about.

I have traveled for 27 years before Veer appeared in the picture. However, the whole time I was travelling I had the feeling that I was missing something, and I was - No stroller, diaper bag, medicines or toys!!!! Going through the dreaded (and terribly, terribly, terribly slow!!) security check was a breeze and was completed in around 15 minutes (Most of which involved watching slow and incompetent travelers one of whom had a whole pineapple in his hand luggage!!) On the flight, I was able to actually watch inflight entertainment (OK, I slept the whole 20 hour flight to and from India).

I missed my baby, my fellow traveler. I missed his curious questions; I missed observing old things in a new way through his eyes. When he and I went to India earlier this year, everything was a new and awesome experience. He was curious about the planes, the train ride between terminals, his ability to watch lungi dance on the tv in front of his seat, autos in Chennai, cows on the road – All the stuff I take for granted and run with…

I missed my baby!!

And here is what Dad had to say:

Mahathi was out on a whirlwind trip to India last week and it was just Veer and I. I would say that the entire operation was a success but slightly tiring on some days. Weekdays were easier than weekends, since both of us had full days. Veer kind of understood that it was just the two of us and cooperated well. 

Preparing his lunch was the key. I wrote down things on a sheet of paper what I wanted to pack and followed it. Cannot forget the water bottle, cannot forget the main course. I didn't forget to give him his shoes since they started play ball last week. But I completely forgot that he needed his crocs. Veer ended up using a girl's pink sandals!

But we had a lot of fun. Each evening we made sure we did something fun. One day we went to Friendly's for ice cream. Another day to the local reservoir to watch the waterbirds. We ate Popsicle with Tony thatha and Tazzie bow-bow. 

My biggest fear was if he fell sick, but luckily no such thing happened. 

Dropping him earlier than usual was challenging for him a bit: he had to get up earlier. Pick up was not too bad. I was able to leave earlier (had no meetings scheduled later in the day). I think he enjoyed his time with me as well. 

Koffee with Veer

Driving home last evening from work we had the following conversation

Me: Veeru, I am hungry ra.

Veer: Mamma, go drink your coffee

A few minutes later,

Me: Veer, you start preschool next month. You are becoming a big boy man.

Veer: Mom, I don't want to go to preschool. I want to go to college.

Point it Down

We are bang squat in the middle of potty training. And boy oh boy the fun questions that Veer is throwing our way... By and large I am letting Naana handle the whole training. On a recent trip to NYC, Naana was in the bathroom and hadn't locked the door. Veer walks in and goes “Point it down Naana. Point it down.”

Driving Mr.Veer

I bring Veer to daycare and back home everyday. Sometimes, my husband whose car is parked in the driveway leaves after us which causes me to drive slowly to avoid his car. I have been doing this for a while now, so I don’t think much about it. However, every time I am doing it Veer says to me “You can do it Mamma” followed by “Good job Mamma” after I have backed out completely! Each time this happens my heart warms up as my baby is looking out for me. 

This blog has died many deaths in the recent years. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, I dust it off and bring it back up to life every few years. I have been told many a time in the recent past to document what my lil kiddo does. As usual in my crazy life, I haven’t done that hoping that my memory will serve me when he is in his 30s with his own children!!! Inspired by a beautiful little girl’s mom I have decided to use this blog to document his milestones and his random musings.

Right now, my little Veer says the most random things and they crack me up. He is a very curious little kid who observes minute details that would miss my line of sight. Our most recent conversation which cracked me up beyond words was as follows:

Veer: Mamma, where is Navi?

Me: Navi is at home buddy. Do you know that Navi’s mom is my sister? (He hasn’t grasped the concept of cousin as yet)

A long pause…

Veer: Prabhu mama is my brother.

Shhh the baby is sleeping!

The first week of VDK’s life no one in the house spoke above a whisper. This is because we didn’t want to scare/shock baby! And even after we got over that our voice was down to low tones even if he was asleep in the crib upstairs and we were downstairs. This weekend, we were at a SuperBowl party and while we were all yelling and screaming at the dismal Pats loss, VDK in his car seat was fast asleep!!!!!!! I kept checking on him to make sure that he wasn’t waking up but my lil one was out for the night. Alright then, the whispering/low tones can now stop…

On a side note, he turned 3 months old this weekend. He is finally beginning to sleep through most of the night but my sleep cycle which finally got tuned with his has gone for a toss and I am wide awake at three in the morning watching AC360 and Piers Morgan tonight.

To Renewed Beginings

When I started this blog many many moons ago I had entered a new chapter in my life. I had finished a significant portion of my education and moved out of the secure, comforting awnings of my parents’ home. I was living by myself and working and learning the ropes of adulthood. I am attempting to resurrect the blog as I just entered another chapter of my life. I became a mother to a little darling boy who shall be known as VDK (read vee-dee-kay) which in Telugu means “for him”. So I am kinda writing a blog “for him” to chronicle his mom’s emotions through his early life. Writing this blog helped me a lot with the previous chapter of my life and I am hoping that by returning back to writing I will get some support and sanity in the otherwise crazy life of being a new & working mom.

Motherhood in a nutshell means having boatloads of patience. And I don’t mean small rafts but giant Titanic sized ships of patience. I should have called it shipload then…LOL!!  And no, it’s not just in dealing with baby - but in dealing with the free advice that people think is wise to dispense to a new mom.

The first week of lil VDK’s life was chaotic. He arrived a few weeks ahead of schedule and hence we weren’t prepared for the nitty grittys such as diapers and setting up the bassinet. After bringing him from the hospital D and I made a frantic Babies’R’Us run for essentials and bought giant jumbo packs of diapers and formula little realizing that babies change diaper sizes super-fast and a one week old doesn’t drink 8 oz of formula at one shot!!! It took us about 4 days to get the hospital tags off our own hands and a few more days to get them off VDK’s little ankles… In our sleep deprived state we took tons of pictures attempting to document every moment of his existence and his multi colored poop (ok this was to show the doctor!) We filled out forms for birth certificates and health insurance. The first time I was signing the waiver at the hospital as force of habit I began writing my own name and had to ask for a new set of papers to fill out and put my name against Parent/Guardian… VDK’s first visit was of course to the temple where he was officially introduced to the world in the form of a namakaranam. In the middle of the chaos it was D’s and mine wedding anniversary. I am now the proud owner of a Tiffany’s Diamond ring (which was more for the first born than the wedding anniversary) but we didn’t do anything. What got me through the early weeks was advice I received from a random parent in the waiting room at the doctors. Small kids = small problems, Bigger kids = Bigger problems.

Now, at almost 9.5 weeks lil V is starting to display his personality. His best friend is his maternal grand mom who talks to him in a language he understands. He has phone conversations with his grand pa. He chills out with his dad who is thanking his stars that his son has an ear for music and he lets me be the helicopter parent that I am turning into. He still sleeps in the car seat thereby allowing us occasional trips out of the house.  He is braver than us at the doctor’s visits for his shots crying for about 30 seconds while his father and I are freaking out and apologizing for putting him through the agony.  And that is my entry into motherhood J

Rose tinted glasses

Life has gotten in the way of my blogging. Have I made any significant strides in the last year? No not really.. Just the same old. Same old..

Sometimes, I feel that we look at the past with rose tinted glasses. (Atleast I do!) After over a year today I felt like reading some of my old blog posts. There is one I especially like about things I miss doing in Chennai... Ironically, I still missing doing all of them..With friends one weekend, we launched into a discussion regarding our rose tinted view of Chennai. We felt that if we packed our bags and went back to Chennai, we probably will not get the similar experiences or flashbacks. We have changed, friends have changed or moved out of Chennai or circumstances around us have changed..

Of travels..

3 years and 4 days later I went back to Chennai. Watching as the overhead map crossed the Arabian sea and entered India somewhere between Bombay and Goa tears sprung up in my eyes.. I was never one of those folks who pined for Chennai so I never felt the longing or urge to go back.. I made sudden plans and I was there but still I was emotional the moment I landed.. Parents and in - laws were at the airport to get me and I for once got the feeling that I have heard others tell me about.. I vowed only to wear Salwar Kameezes my entire trip there so I did that.. Of course I wore socks and carried my own bottle of water everywhere I went..

I wanted to have the moment where I say "Oh! So much has changed! Is this Chennai??? Wow!! I cannot even recognize the place" However, I couldn't bring myself to say any of that.. I have changed.. In ways that I cannot recognize I have changed.. The city has stayed just the same.. The eyes through which I was looking at them had changed. Of course, I did the usual.. Going to beach.. Going to Spencers.. Going to Saravana Bhavan.. Going to T - Nagar.. Attending a cutchery.. Going to ECR.. and Going to sleepover at D's..

Writer's block

Writer's block. No other explanation! Many moons ago, I read an article that said that a person's life is defined by his/her profession. At that point in life I thought that it was all BS and that every person is a mom, a daughter a wife, a sister, a friend, a brother, a dad and so on so forth. But in the last few months I think I am beginning to recant on my statement. All through my college and grad school days I was of the extremely strong opinion that I am absolutely non - technical and am probably not a great engineer. However, for the last ten months I have held a fairly technical job and I would like to think that I am fairly decent at it. More than anything else, i think that I have been trained to think a certain way. I am always amazed that education can do this to a person. It also reinforces my opinion that education is the one of the primary things that will drive a person to survival.

OK.. I promise not to die anymore. I hope. LOL!

Growing Pains!

This week my mind yearned to achieve the impossible. And all it took was phone call to a dear friend. I am not one for homesickness.. I don't spend my days thinking of Saravana Bhavan idlies and Sundal on the beach. Don't get me wrong.. I love Madras and enjoyed every aspect of it but I am not one for craving things that I know are beyond my reach. A few years ago I made a choice and I don't believe in regretting any choices I made. But last week all it took was one email and one phone call and I wished to be instantly transported to next to my friend. To stand with her and help her through her problems. For a few minutes my mind wanted to hug my friend and shield her from all the troubles of the world. We spent some time discussing college friends and the various escapades that we (read Me) orchestrated!!!

During a recent conversation with N we spoke mundane things and re-hashed all old gossip. She filled me in on all the families talk. Its at times like these that I am noticing that though my heart is felt with immense affection for these people I hardly am making an effort to express it.

I am noticing that almost all of my friends are getting married or are getting there. The boys have had kids!!! Its almost impossible for me to think that N was one of the guys that went with me to the A R Rahman concert and screamed and sang with me. He was one of the people responsible for introducing me to Illayaraja music and who can forget his rendition of Illamai Idho Idho during one of the college culturals. I am truly happy for him but at the same time realizing that we are all not teenagers safe in the portals of SVCE, Pennalur.

All this reminds me of a dialog from Rang De Basanti which for some reason stuck in my head.. "College gate ke is par zindagi ko hum nachate hain, College gate ke us par zindagi hum ko nachati hain" Roughly transalated it means " On this side of the college gates we govern our lives and on the other side of the college gates our lives govern us!"

Books Tag

As usual, I do any tags on my blog.. This one is to mention 15 books I cannot live without..

1) A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

2) Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

3) Sister of My Heart, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

4) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

5) Unaccustomed Earth - I won't say its a book I can't live without but I say it made a lot of sense to me., Jhumpa Lahiri

6) Not Without My Daughter - Betty Mahmoody

7) As the Crow Flies, Jeffery Archer

8) Kane and Abel, Jeffery Archer

9) Master of the Game, Sidney Sheldon

10)Adventures of Mr. Pink Whistle, Enid Blyton

11) Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri

12) The Toss of a Lemon, Padma Viswanathan

13) The GodFather, Mario Puzo

14)Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

15) Ok this is not a book per se.. But Calvin and Hobbes series..

I tag Swat Cat..

Rite of Passage Weekend or Plain Growing Older

One knows one is growing old when the idea of a fun weekend is pottering around the house. This weekend was the first time in about 2 months that I put brakes on the other wise hectic life. It began with dropping D and the in-laws off at the station for their trip to NYC. I got home and cleaned my kitchen with a vengeance!! I took a walk around noon to the Subway on Route 9 and brought home some food. I polished it off watching some random stuff on TV and took a brief nap. Afternoon I was elated to discover that I had two 20% of Bed Bath and Beyond coupons so off I went to buy some stuff. I hit the mall later and did a brief bit of shopping.(You know you are really getting old when shopping is brief) and headed home with food from Gourmet India.I decided to do a detour to Toys R Us to buy some stuff for the extended family. You know the store intimidates me. My childhood toy stores were initially Five Star on Radhakrishnan Salai which had a entire floor dedicated to kids games and later the basement in Landmark. But never anything the scale of Toys R Us!! Headed home and cleaned out some more.

Sunday began with more cleaning and some office work. Come evening I began slacking off catching up with family members and checking out friends blogs. Which brings me to the answer Rite of Passage? Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that if I had a free weekend I would spend it cleaning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conversations

Frnd to Me: Trains don't live in houses.
Me: Your right, trains live in stations.
Frnd to Me:(After a few seconds thought) No, trains live on tracks.

I am sooooooo amazed by this conversation that I thought I will share it with you.

25 Random Things About Me

Mugs tagged me on FB. I decided to do it here instead to save a dying blog.. This is in random order and I don't know if I will hit 25.

1) I am shit scared of cutting vegetables. I will do anything to avoid cutting vegetables. Buy frozen, cook them whole or get someone else to cut them.

2) I sleep with my mouth wide open. And by wide I mean WIDE!!!!

3) I cannot sleep in Jeans. So I never travel on trains in Jeans. I will wear a salwar.

4) I am shit scared of flying. Earlier I used to throw up the entire duration of the flight. Now I force myself to go to sleep the moment my butt hits the seat and I wake up when the wheels hit the tarmac.

5) Babies scare me. I can deal with older kids. Ooohing and aaahing over babies isn't my thing.

6) I need to read to perform some bodily functions. Hence I know the back of shampoo bottles and lotions etc.

7) I can accost people and scare them. I can also not talk to people if I have nothing to say to them. And if its the first day of college then I will not make polite conversation with random people who end up becoming my best friends!!! he he he he

8) I surprised my husband by enjoying Fight Club and Thambi!

9) I say the randomest things some times. The recent one being - "Dasaratha had three wives - Kausalya, Supraja and Ramapurva!!" And one of my all time hits being " Oh! Shit Where Do I live?"

10)I worked my butt off to become the House Captain in school and the Secretary in College. I love to do such stuff.

11)I will read any book with an Indian author.

12)I claim not to be a fan of chick lit, but if I get my hands on one I will not put it down till I finish it.

13)I wanted to become a play back singer, a food critic, a cardiac surgeon, a Nobel Prize winner and a film director. I am an Information Technology professional.

14)I always amaze myself when I code. That could also be because I set very low expectations :p

15)I hate sweets made of coconut.

16)My ardent wish is to completely confuse any kids that I might have.

17)I wish to own a house with a swimming pool in the middle of it. I am not a great swimmer.

18)I love ACGs though I currently don't own any.

19)I make up lyrics if I don't know them. I don't understand 50% of the songs I enjoy.

20)I know the Nagila Nagila song from Alaipayuthey in all the three languages it came out in and I like all three versions.

21) I can watch DDLJ any number of times.

22)I am not one for small talk

23) OK I ran out of ideas

Dandilsa do if you want to

Idle Sunday Afternoon

Alert***
I have spent the last two hours reading BigB's blog and hence this post is going to a rambling "what's happening in my life kinda entry"..

The last four months have been the craziest by far in my life.. I don't even know what exactly I was doing except that I have been multi - tasking at levels I have never done before. The year started off fine with D and me spending it at R and S's place. Then I went to visit my bro and sis - in - law down south.. To save on money I chose to fly from Manchester and hence spent around 8 hours using various modes of transportation from train to cab to walking to bus to plane.. Somewhere between the new years and eight days later when I flew to OKC I attended a job interview.. Wonders of Wonders they actually liked me.. So after I was back I started working and juggling school at the same time.. Travel to work entailed three different modes of transport and around 20 dollars a day!! Finally I got over my fear of driving through snow and started driving to work regularly.. Between scaling up at work and attempting to maintain my grades at school, the spouse and I decided to go on a domestic hunt.. So if I wasn't studying on weekends, we went hunting along with someone who was adept at doing it.. Compass in hand D and I set off looking at some as old 200 years old!! If I couldn't go because of work D would go by himself.. IF you thought this wasn't confusing in itself, I contracted the flu somewhere around the end of Feb - beginning of March time frame and promptly gave it to D as well.. From then on my husband and I have been continuously in and out of doctors' clinics till as late as yesterday!!

Fast forward about 1.5 months. Finals over, hunt successful. On the cusp of graduation and signing around 100 pages when both husband and I are down sick!!! I have been gone through around 3 boxes of Cleenex and mysteriously D is also down with some mysterious illness! So my first free weekend in 1.5 years and we are both in two different bedrooms trying to pass time which caused me to spend around 2 hours reading BigB..

Just moping and complaining.. Nothing much..

Pssst.. Did you know..

haar haar haar.. My reaction on reading this

But Angelina Jolie as Dagny!!!!! Yuck!! Dagny in my head is strong and upright. Maybe Meryl Streep when she was younger. Actually I don't think its a good idea to make a movie out of this book because no one can do justice to the writing that is open to such different interpretations.

TV Musings (Spoiler Alert For Those Who Didn't watch 6th April episode of House)

Pardon me for the long gap between posts.. What am I doing right now?? I am currently Jack of all trades.. I don't know if its a good thing to be doing multiple things at the same time all with different levels of concentration or if its better to concentrate on one task and move on the next.. Multi tasking is the name of the game!! And I also just segwayed into a post that I never intended to write..

Lets start again.. There are some crushes we are allowed to have. Matt Lauer, Dr. House, Anderson Cooper etc.. And hence I watch House!! Yesterday in a horrific turn of events Kutner dies!!!!!!!!!! He kills himself. For days before they went on about how its an episode like no other etc. I was a tad surprised and curious as to why they bumped Kal Penn off the show. Turns out that he is going to be working in the White House. Where did I pick up this random piece of information. I am only going to hint at it as I am not sure of copyright issues.. Its one of the three networks that has the above mentioned follks.. So I am happy for him and also discovered that there are others besides a certain Mr. Jindall to fly the Indian flag in American politics..

After several thousands of times of listening to people Blaming it on Alchohol I just switched radio stations on my car stereo and hit upon Imus in the Morning.. After some more days of listening to it figured out that its a right wing radio station. Not that I have anything against being Right Wing(in fact I am in the process of figuring out where I belong - Not that it will make any difference) but certain other shows that I listened to are bordering on being dumb. Its evident the extent of research that they have put into the show borders on negligable!! They criticize without substantiation, they criticize people's spouses and they criticize physical appearances!!!

Anyhoo.. I am a fan of Imus in the morning and it anydays beats Blame it on the Alcohol!!!!!!!!!

Also noticing that N hasn't blogged in a while.. Wondering what is up with her..