Vishu 2008

Hoping this post gets through finally ... Blogger has been acting weird.

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What a great beautiful sunny bountiful day it is!!

I set up the Kani yesterday night at 11.30 – this late because (don’t laugh) I fell asleep while trying to put Kutie to bed. But at least I made it in time before the unlucky 12 o’clock (I have this idea that if it’s past 12 then the day has changed so technically you have seen the kani already) Anyway I made it … vaalkanaadi, rice, fruts, vegetables, nilavilakku, betal nut leaves were arranged in front of Lord Guruvayoorappan.

I got up at 5 and after lighting up the nilavilakku, went and got honey to view the wonderful sight. After that, we debated if it’s a good idea to wake up Kutie this early; finally deciding to try our luck I pulled him out slowly. He was still asleep but opened his eyes just a wee bit to look at the display. He was about to wail – so we rushed him back into bed. He slept for another two hours (phew) and I got to get ready for the big day.

After he woke up we continued last year’s tradition and gave the little guy a silver coin as Vishukkaineetam. This time around he had more fun asking us about the items and trying to blow out the lamp! :) He enjoyed plucking the roses from the garden and bringing them over – for once we did not have to buy flowers since we had beautiful roses in our front yard. Plus, being the first Vishu in our new home, this was an added feather in the cap!

I quickly got lunch ready wanting to spend more time with the little fella. Since it was a beautiful day, we played outside in the backyard for quite a while and then I took him to the park. He seemed to enjoy the swing and running around everywhere. The unexpected holiday really turned out to be a fun day for both of us.

Once home, he got taste of the grand feast. Its was illuminating to me, since usually I only offer rice, dal and curds – and today he had a more spruced up food with many spices and he ate with relish! (Note to myself – to let him in on more grown up food) Tired but still enquiring about his dad (who had to go to work) he was off into the world of dreams. His dad came home much late and the two of us had a lovely lunch and movie date.

Come evening we made a trip to the temple and the day ended with a blissful yawn (knowing I have enough left-over’s for two days)

Vishu wishes

Call it by any name, Biasaki, Ugadi, Bihu, Tamil Puthand etc its the time of the New Year - a time to celebrate and bring in the new!

For a Malayalee this is one of the big festivals, which the beginnings of the agricultural season in Kerala. Vishukani the most important ritual on 'Vishu' day; is the first sight you see in the morning - which is said to be the deciding factor on how your day is likely to proceed. For a Vishu-kani - this of course means how your year ahead is going to proceed and therefore becomes all important ritual. People makes sure its packed with all good things in life, in hopes of the same all year round.

The preparations for Vishu start the earlier evening, when the Kani is set up. Often done when the children are asleep to ensure that they see the blessed sight the next morning. Being far away from India means you might not get all items of the kani - especially the kani konna-- I have made up the fact this year with this picture alongside! ;)

Anyway, hoping for a great Vishu celebrations tomorrow ... more to come later!

Rang de basanti

Water sprinkers & gulal (colors) Pics from the Holi celebrations ...

The color of spring

Holi is probably one of the favorite festivals for kids where the festivities start months in advance. The water filled balloon attacks, the colors that brighten the atmosphere.

After coming to US, I often missed the celebrations and fondly remembered those carefree happy days. Come the night of holi, a big bonfire would be lit & after the pujas the magic of holi will be upon all kids and elders alike. Living on the fourth floor of an apartment complex at such times turned very advantageous and all my friends would be at my balcony (patio) to pelt down a string of water balloons. Sometimes we would rush to the terrace to get a better view, while one of the younger girls would keep a watchful eye on anyone trying to come up the stairs, and when that happened, we would all rush down the 18 steps back to my and my neighbor’s flat, that was the closest to reach. We would shut the doors and hide out; of course the boys would be furious and paint our front door in a mirage of colors and ring the bell to see if we open the door (they used to think we are so dumb to do that). Mom would start chatting with us and dad would be fuming in the background – he never seemed to understand the fun we had and of course, he knew he would need to clean up the mess later!

Finally, this year we made it to the Holi celebrations at Stanford. The music, the atmosphere, the crowds, brought back warm memories of the past. Though Kutie being too young was miserable at first to see throngs of people – faces marked with so many colors that you could hardly tell who it was. When a lady tried to color his face, he yelled like there was no tomorrow! Later, I bought him a little ‘pichkari’ and we had some quiet fun away from the crowds. The lines at the food stands were huge that by the time we got to eat our samosas, rice/raitha, & sweet lassi we were almost starved to death. I wish they had built more stalls than just two buffet style stalls. Plus they needed to enforce, no cutting in line policy.

The performances by Stanford’s own groups were fun and they really helped bring out good cheer. And of course like all big celebrations, by the end people went plain crazy … the water sprinklers that were being used to fill everyone’s buckets and pichkaries with water had created a little pool of water on the ground, and this muddy water became the appealing ‘color’ to many by the end. Some were lifted and pushed into this wet mud. YIKES!!!! There were many who looked like they did not want the mud bath, but were pushed and shoved into it nonetheless. What is it with crowds that they go berserk towards the end of it all?

It was great fun though, and though getting back into the car was a pain. Luckily we had an extra set of outfits for the boys and I put some plastic bags to cover our car seats. We had to run to the shower and clean up quickly after we got home ... just in case the colors brought in a rash or something especially on Kutie (he has a very dry skin and always on the verge of eczema). Then it was time for the afternoon nap ... all in all, a Perfect Day!

Happy Happy Day!

To the one, who has always loved me unconditionally!!!!


To the one, who has always been there for me!!!


To the one, without whom I would not be! (Sorry Achan! ;))


Happy Birthday, Amma!
Happy U, Ammamma!


Ed to add: Sorry for any confusion, folks - it was my mom's birthday, not mine yesterday. But she often visits all of you, so I am sure she is very happy with your wishes. Thanks guys ... U ALL ROCK!!!!

Stuff around the world

Sometimes browsing around helps –

First stop a great audio library of books at Storynory. The readings are done by Natasha Gostwick, who is clearly a talented individual. I know Kutie is too young to listen to stories but definitely something for little older kids.

Another cool site is Parent hacks which list many parenting tips from us – the parents. A good storehouse of hacks for potty training to discipline to having some fun.

The high's & low's of life

Aced my test last week, now have to look at the schedules for the next two classes before I can apply for the certificate. But I was pretty happy that I am now ‘almost there’ and a steady string of A’s should probably (hopefully) help at the work front as well.

On the home front, Kutie is keeping us on our toes.
5.30 PM Monday evening – I was little late to pick Kutie up from daycare (traffic, don’t blame me) and he was playing with a little cycle. I was happy to note that he was still doing fine. When I picked him up, I smelled poop – & the moment I mentioned it – he wails trying to get away from me. The day care ‘aunty’ mentions that she changed the diaper just recently and walked towards Kutie. At first, he turns as if to run away, but when she calls him, he goes to her in an instant. She takes him back into the room and I hear no crying, no tears – he lies their patiently until she finishes up with him. Dumb luck! NO!

Two hours later, at home: the mention of poop and a diaper change has Kutie wailing – tears running down his cheeks, the screams threatening to bring down the house, and the two other houses near ours!!

So now in his eyes we are the enemies, and day care, his best buds … when did this happen? SIGH!

Chronicles of a toddler

It’s been a while since my last post, and it was not something I had planned on – just something that happened – I stared into the blank pages and no words came out, there were no reminiscences to ponder upon. I felt at a great loss of words! Why? There was nothing wrong at home, at work or anything. Life moved along – Kutie accomplished another milestone of mastering to say two words together – “Acta poli” “Kaka poi” (daddy left, crow left – Elvis has left the building), and more astutely telling us about himself in the first person.

Then there were a few challenging nights, with the little fella waking up crying – we are still not sure if it was a bad dream, acid reflux, or if he was just plain uncomfortable! We started to change his routines a bit – moved dinner time earlier, so that there is no reason for an acid reflux wake up call at night. I read about sleep times for babies and realized that he is probably just not getting enough sleep so now dinner is moved up even earlier to accommodate an earlier bed-time. But its hard, to have his dinner ready by 6.30 - which means I have to get everything going pretty soon. No more park trips, little guy …. Sorry!

Sleep is good, Kutie. I remember my summer holidays, ah the blissful sleep till 9, 9:30, 10:30, oh till 11:30 AM. Dad would be gone to work by then, and Amma would have done with breakfast, lunch and other household chores. I would be groggy eyed eating breakfast and lunch back to back. Those days, no one cared about weight, so it was easy. At some point during the course of summer, Amma would appeal to my sense of right and ask me to get up early and help her out. But the day never came. The only times I woke up early was when the girls decided we were not playing enough during the day so we needed to meet up early mornings for a bicycle ride & a game of badminton. I never questioned why Amma let me get by with this careless attitude. When she was here last, she made a remark to Kutie when he woke up early “why do you get up so early, kutta, go back sleep, things will change soon so sleep well now” I remembered all of this over the last couple of days when Kutie started to have issues at night. She knew things changed, the blissful sleep without a worry would be thing of the past. Again, I am in awe of this wonderful person who let me have summer fun in ways that I wanted to; rather than forcing a routine at least during the holidays.

But back to not posting, work and school took a priority seat. This Friday my finals’ are looming large though in reality these are probably way easier than our Board exams. But what it is about exams and timed ones especially that just give me goose-bumps! So good luck to me!

Now why posting today, because I realized that Kutie is finally a toddler a ‘big’ boy. He is able to ably reply back to questions, albeit in his own way. The blog articles are likely to shift my role as a historian recording Kutie’s milestones to an active participant in his life. Case in point: Today morning, as I was feeding him, he wailed “Talamudi” (Hair – he loves to play with my pony tail twirling it around when I carry him, totally hates it if I fix it up in a bun). So I asked him, “Why do you like Amma’s hair so much? What is in Amma’s hair?” Without delay he replied, “(hair) Clip” LOL!

So get ready for more anecdotal conversations, run-ins with the whys and why-nots, and the advent of the little man in making!

How cruel can you get?

How drunk can you get - to be so off the mark that you let a boy burn to death and then possibly run away from the situation?

I just heard the news on NDTV about a 10 year old boy being burnt alive by a wedding party. Presumably, the wedding car hit the boy’s cycle and he asked for reimbursement and instead the men just took him. He was later found burnt (apparently only his feet were not charred and now is under autopsy). Hearing this, my head reels, my heart burns for the boy’s family – I cant imagine what his parents might be going through. You teach a boy to be self-resilient, go out and stand up to people for what is right and the result – THIS! I cannot believe it!!!

I was unable to find the story online yet, but now I am too depressed, angry, agitated to even bother too much!

Edited: Here is the story!

The best time ever …

… is when Kutie is asleep and I can nuzzle close to him in bed or when he sleeps oh so comfortably in our arms (honey and I fight over who gets to hold him – because we know the times are numbered – he does not like us holding him a minute longer than necessary). Ah the smells of a baby (ok fine toddler, and yes its Johnson’s baby powder…whatever!), the little soft warm body …. PERFECT.

The better times are …

… when Kutie follows us into every other room we go, helping out with our household chores along the way (Ok please don’t call the Child Services, he was only carrying his own little sock to the laundry room or the little glass to make his fake tea for us)

The good times are …

… when we can all sit contently in the living room and watch him play – all by himself with his cars, or watch him talk loud and fast into his toy phone or listen to him reading out from his books at the tea-table.

The bad times are …

… when I have to drop him at day care! This is officially the last time I do it … Are you listening honey!!! Oh forget it, I know you won’t … I just have to figure out a different way to get you to drop him off!

*** Thinking cap on ***

Eight - the magic number!

I am not sure why its 8 things about me or my son, but since I like the number ... why not. Since it was tagged by Aryan to Kutie - I decided it do it all about him, by him for him ...

Tagged by Aryan

8 Things I am passionate about:
1. Music – especially item numbers, that can make me dance.
2. My toys – cars, trucks and more of them please
3. Kitchen utensils are my other favorite toys
4. My books – especially if I can find a picture of something that I recognize – apple, car, butterflies, ca...
5. Jumping
6. Fire-trucks and police cars on the road – especially when the lights and sounds are on.
7. Going out on long walks – no sorry don’t turn around, just keep going
8. MILK … yes I said milk

8 6 Things I do that drives My Mom crazy:
1. No I will not open my mouth to eat
2. No I will not let you go anywhere without me, and that includes the bathroom
3. Yes, I love playing with your hair, even in my sleep.
4. If we play one song/one game – we cannot move into another one, just yet … well actually never.
5. Brushing my teeth is a chore (for everyone).
6. I like to brush my teeth with the steel spoon – Amma says that my teeth will all break soon … but who cares…


8 Things that I say often:
(more here)
1. One, too, thee ... (one, two, three ...)
2. Deet (light)
3. Tr-ruck
4. Vee-lam (water)
5. Mamu (food)
6. Chappathiii (chapathi)
7. Tummy (I laugh out loud, if I see someone’s tummy!)
8. Ali-cock-pter (be it a plane or a helicopter, its ‘li-cock-pter to me)

8 Books that I have read:
1. Blue Hat, Green Hat; Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy! A touch, Skritch & Tickle book; Opposites; Barnyard Dance- by Sandra Boynton
2. What do you do? – by Mandy Stanley
3. Maisy’s Fire Engine – by Lucy Cousins
4. Happy baby words
5. My first word book; My first animal book
6. The big board book of bugs and animals
7. Welcome to Bob’s building yard - by Lauryn Silverhardt
8. The very hungry caterpillar – Eric Carle


8 songs that I listen to over and over:
Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam item numbers … Lets dance baby!
1. Amabalakara (Black – Malayalam)
2. Rajamanikam (Malaylam)
3. Devuda Devuda (Chandramukhi – Tamil)
4. Aadungada Yennai Suththi, Dole Dole, Vasaantha Mullai (Pokkiri – Tamil)
5. Nursery Rhymes – ABCD, Ding Dong Bell, If you are happy…, Five little monkeys
6. Old songs - Hai na bolo bolo (Andaz), Chanda hai tu (Aradhana), Mere Sapno ki rani (Aradhana, because of the train and jeep in the same song)
7. Bum Bole (Taare Zameen Par – Hindi)
8. A few Marathi songs from You Tube – Sangu Kai, Sang Sang Bholenath etc

8 Things that makes me the person I am:
1. A smile that lights up my face
2. The twinkle in my eye, when I very happy
3. Cries – I can cry the moment I want – with tears and all
4. My dad – everyone says I look just like him
5. I love listening to music – in the car, at home - everywhere
6. I love doing silly things and laughing out it
7. I can talk for hours on the phone
8. I love cuddle time …

8 Other Friends Tagged
Jiya, Jiya, Jiya, Jiya, Jiya, Jiya, Jiya, Jiya

Sorry I don't know any other names :)

Here's a few that I tag
Angel - a new friend
Cee-Kay,
NM,
Hiba's mom - who is back with a bang!

Cheers!

Here's to all you woman who ROCK THIS WORLD ... girls, women, moms, grand moms, aunts, teachers - to each and every one of you ...
A Very happy Woman's Day!


(pic courtesy microsoft clipart)
And what better way to celebrate, but by launching a new design for my blog. Please let me know if you run into any issues. Thx!

First Crush

Piya Jiya tune mera, jiya le liya …

No, don’t get ideas … there is no puppy love! Well, maybe! No! Definitely not!

Ok here’s the story … Jiya is one of the girls from the daycare, there is another girl and rest are all boys all aged between late 2s to 8 months. Jiya is probably the youngest – very quiet, good looking girl. To get Kutie, adjusted to daycare, we (Amma and I) used to always ask him in the morning – lets go to Aunty’s house, to see all your friends … Jiya, Rishi, etc etc. Somehow this one name stuck. Now if you ask him where is he going, who will he play with? He will say “Jiya”!

I have never met Jiya’s parents, and I wonder if they will appreciate a boy saying their girls name over and over so easily … oh well! It’s cute and hopefully they will understand!

Keyword - worth a million bucks!

A nice summer afternoon. The flowers were blooming and dancing to the breeze. A little boy and mom decided to play some ball in the backyard. It was great fun. Then dad came along with a little video camera to capture all the fun they were having. Thud! The boy falls … he cries, he yells. Ah, a little scrape on the nose!

That’s the scene from today morning. And of course, being the 21st century parents, we decide to check online for a good remedy/cream for the little one. A little Google search should help right! Well actually if you don’t have the right key-words it will not! Look at the screen below. (Searched for "Cream for infant cut")



Do you see it?



On the right corner comes up an advertisement for “Find Cut Infant” LOL. I just laughed out loud. My poor baby stopped crying and came to see what was so funny. Of course when I showed it to my ‘smart’ husband, he was sure it was something wrong and tried the search a couple of times.

Ok so now to all perverts out there, go check out Target.com! :)


Edited to add: BTW, Kutie is doing well, the scrapes have almost healed.

Too hard to resist

Forwarded emails are often just a bunch of images and lots of blah with no substance but once in a while you see a really funny one come through ...

Only a mother would know!

When I was a baby, someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea,' which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.

My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch his little princess bring him a cup of tea, because it was, "just the cutest thing!"

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then Mom says, "Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet???"

Boiling Point

Over the weekend we made a quick trip to Lake Tahoe, to see the clear waters and snowy mountains. It turned out to be a great trip.

Getting back was hard, knowing that the long weekend was over and Kutie will have to start going to daycare for a full day and that my parents are going to leave early next week.

The worst thing turned out to be an email blast from another parent whose kid goes to the same daycare saying some nasty stuff about the daycare facility. Her complaints ranged from “the daycare is not run well” to “the correct brand of wipes were not used for her kid” and that she heard some shouting at another kid by one of the helpers. Of course, this was followed by a bunch of emails from other parents, exclaiming how nice the facility and the facilitator are and how they helped their kids etc. We even got a call from the daycare facility, explaining the situation and explaining her point and what happened. Of course, we started to have our internal discussion on what might have happened, what our next steps could be …

On one hand, the person who issued the complaint seems to have already found another daycare and has taken their kid away already – so wonder if this was something glaring or just her way to get away with the deposit (we have signed up for a 2-week notice to get the deposit back). Another interesting factor is that both the parent and the day care facilitator’s spouse work in the same company – could there have been bad blood right from the beginning … don’t know.

Now, with all of this, of course what do I do is the biggest question? The last two days Kutie has not been taking his usual 2 – 2 ½ hour nap but instead only an hour at the most (at the daycare). He seems to be clingier to me than ever before (which is not bad, I love the attention he showers on me, but still, it’s probably not that healthy and well, I know it hurts my parents most, since they are about to leave and the little guy sometimes just doesn’t want to be held by them). When Amma was at the daycare, we did notice that main facilitator not present on some days, and an older lady doing the diaper changes and feeding etc. Amma is now of the opinion that daycare facilitator is not the best supervisor of her own employees. But we cannot point any other faults with her - the daycare is clean, Kutie hasn't fallen sick (yet, Anti-Jinx mantras) and he does seem to enjoy the outing.

Of course, with my parents leaving early next week, and with no other daycare on our horizon, (plus I am not sure I want Kutie to go through the pains of trying another place this soon) I am stuck … so this is just a vent!

And when it come to frustrations, I had an argument over dinner last night with honey on sending kids to large daycare versus a small one with maybe only 1 or 2 kids. He was of the opinion that kids need to be with other kids, and if there was an option he would send Kutie to the daycare like ours with 5-6 other kids. His argument was that kids would get the interaction, learn social behavior, and will not be a shy kid (and of course he pulled an example of one of our friends kids, who runs in the opposite direction when he sees anyone coming in his direction). Now I feel the opposite, I agree that kids need company of their peers, but I don’t think it needs to start at age 2 or less. Probably when they start going to school at 4, when they would enjoy the company of other kids & make friends. Also I think being shy or not, (not sure if either one is a virtue or not in the first place) has a lot to do with how the family interacts with others is and not just on the kids playing with other kids. Of course, the whole point of the argument was a little lost in our case, since either way, Kutie needs to be in daycare since we both work and will not be able to baby-sit him!

*** Sigh ***

Pictures

Here are the pictures from our trip to the wonderful snow covered mountain tops around Lake Tahoe.

The snow covered mountains


A view of the beautiful blue waters



A view from inside the car of the clean sleek road



BTW Just realized that I hit my 100th post mark! YAY!!!

Fun in the snow @ Tahoe

We finally made it to Lake Tahoe (believe it or not, we had planned this trip from early Jan – packed our bags one weekend, only to cancel the trip last minute due to heavy rains) – to the snow-covered mountain tops, to the cold, chilly Tahoe lake. It turned out to be a great trip – albeit with a few mishaps!

Story so far …
We made the last minute plan Saturday morning to take the trip to Tahoe as the predicted weather was sunny. Luckily we got the hotel reservations and we made the few last minute purchases and were ready to go.

Early Sunday morning after a quick breakfast, off we go. No problems on the way and we make it to the ski resort in about 3 hours. Honey wanted to try his hands at snowboarding and signed up for one of the afternoon lessons. We rushed through to get lunch and ensure we make it to the mountain to see if all the fun or not! Unfortunately, Kutie does not like anything. Not the minestrone soup, not the French fries, no nothing! All he wants is to run around (probably because he was cooped up for so long on the ride) But with hundreds of people at this tiny restaurant it was like ensuring an ant doesn’t get trampled over by the marching army. We try to make by with cookies until we can find something else for the little guy …

Moving up to the snow mountains, Kutie seemed to have more fun. He exclaimed “tampu” (cold) when we held out the snow to him. The only problem, he wanted to run around so quickly but with other skiers coming down so quickly, we were afraid that he would get pushed out. After realizing that this is just not going to work, we took him back to the little restaurant and that’s when I notice that they sold small packets of Oatmeal. Halleluiah! There’s something that the little guy might like.. so I make a little serving. Of course, now rejuvenated he wanted to run around some more. We decided to head up back to the mountain and start to wait for honey to return from the top.

Far away, I see a guy waving. I wonder, is he hurt? Who is he waving to? Hmm .. is that honey? Not sure I try my little tactic of raising my hand a little bit – hoping that I don’t look stupid, if its not him. I run back to get the camera and try to take some zoom in and take some videos. Slowly he comes down bit by bit and its honey. He falls, he scoops up, he’s my hero!

Back from action, he is sore but has loved every minute of falling down in the snow! We get back on the road to get to our hotel. Luckily we find an Indian restaurant and serve up some hot rice and raita for Kutie. Tired, poor Kutie is the first to collapse.

We hoped for a restful sleep, but poor Amma had an eventful night – with vomiting and not much sleep. The car trip seemed to have taken a toll on her, but by morning she was much better.

Next morning, we made a trip to the lake and enjoy the cool waters. The path was lined with silvery snow, we walked gingerly across them to ensure we don’t fall and hit ourselves. After a great lunch we were back on the road to reality.

The end!

the sights... and the bumps ...made our trip a memorable one! And by the way, it was my parents & little Kutie's first time to see and experience SNOW. And they loved it! Of course, dad complained about the chilliness, but he always talks in opposites!

Pictures of the beautiful white snow, the killer slopes, the icy cold waters ... coming soon!

Here we come

A little take on the nursery rhyme ...

---

Here we come 'round the block,
'round the block,'round the block
So early in the morning.

Here we come to see the snow
To see the snow, To see the snow
So early in the morning

Here we come, so let it snow
Let it snow, let it snow
So early in the morning.

Here we come all bundled up
All bundled up, all bundled up
So early in the morning.

Here we come 'round the block,
'round the block,'round the block
So early in the morning.

---

Any guesses where we are off to tomorrow?
Clue: Its a very 'cool' place, with a lake covering two US states.
Update on Tuesday!

Happy Valentine's Day

Love is in the air
For today is Valentine’s Day.
Red and pink be today’s colors
My dear Valentine, Be mine forever!




{graphic courtesy coolholidaygraphics.com}
Ok that’s cheesy enough, even my tummy turns (yes I know I wrote it) Brrr … how bad can you get … whatever! It’s a Hallmark holiday, what do you expect?

Now, next mission, maybe I will get honey to read this one post.

But with the cheesy poem, I know its gonna backfire for he will never come back for more! The law of diminishing returns! *sigh*

To everyone else, May you find your true love and may you live happily ever-after! Happy Valentine's Day!