it is time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo from my Bumpy time in my last few weeks before he became Cubby! :)


to bring out this Tee again!


Yup! Some people never learn from their mistakes, do they?! Hehe!


We are mighty thrilled ofcos. The news or what is traditionally called "good" news was wanted yet unexpected making the whole thing even sweeter!


I found out only at 10weeks! Did a home test because I couldn't see my toes too well! :p am glad its pregnancy weight gain wonly! haha! It l'il over 12 weeks now and I am glad I had to keep this news in my tummy only for 2 weeks. Ofcos i told a whole of people as soon as i found out! ;)


Cubby is still trying to figure out concept of 2B (yes that's what baby is being called! Bumpy 2 was what was on Papa's mind, but I read it as To-be as well!)


Cub does hug my tummy and kiss it when requested but I am still not sure how cool he is with the idea! Only time will tell i guess! :) But we do say Thank You, Bhaiyya from 2B every single time and now he has come t expect it in return of the kisses!


So keep us in your thoughts and prayers and wish us luck!! :)


Cheers!

the Translator is here!!

and no, its the Google baba's translator I am talking about here!


We have been in Bangalore for sometime now, but the local language Kannada has eluded us. I do understand a smattering of it now. Between my Kannada and Amma's Hindi, we usually manage OK. But it is still far cry from being enough to have decent conversation or even fight with auto guy or give cabbie directions. M is even worse and his knowledge is far from even basic. Not that mine is any better, but still! * Note to self: Attend those conversational Kannada classes!


Cubby has been getting more and more proficient in the state language though and it is almost as strong as his Hindi, which is pretty good if you ask me. Amma is usually singing praises about how he speaks perfect Kannada etc. But how are we to know?! :p


So yesterday M was telling Amma to put Cub's latest fav Winnie bedsheet and pillow cover (recently gifted to him) on his gadda and put him to sleep. Amma was trying to explain something to M which he could not figure out for life of him. Amma's DiL whose Hindi is marginally better tried to pitch in and explain it too. She did her best and told M "Woh abhi thanda (cold) hai!"


Cubby exasperated by this lack of proper communication decided it is time to step in and do the needful. He told M" Woh bol rahi hai - It is WET!"


M couldn't stop laughing and neither could I when he told me about the incident!


So our l'il translator is here and we fear auto guys a little less now! ;)

just to tell you who is the better cook!

So yesterday was another BIDWF moment! Ironically, I forgot to tag previous post with a BIDWF! Hehe!


Digression + Rant

Our Amma decided to ditch us for 3 days starting Saturday without bothering to call us or inform us in any way and not picking up our frantic phone calls either. My logic is you don't come we really cannot do much about it, but least you can do is INFORM us. Even when she turned up yesterday she refused to acknowledge and kept saying there was too much tension etc. I doubt she was that tense 'coz she resolutely refused to pick up OUR phones and picked up when we called from different numbers and still didnt tell us anything clearly! gah!

Over!!


Thankfully my office is close to Cub's summer camp and I anyway tend to go there everyday for my "pseudo pick-up" and so knew that Amma had not turned up even on Monday and got Cub back to my office. Took permission from the boss to WFH for rest of the day. Had lunch with Cub at restaurant close to my office and it was a nice experience! Cub and me sharing table with two of my colleagues who kept indulging and most importantly he ate without too much fuss! Now THAT is a big deal! :p


That done we reached home. bathing and sleeping also happened without an incident. Yayy! :p He woke up after coupla hours and after l'il timepass i asked him if he wanted to eat egg - omelet, half fry, boiled egg. He said he wont mind a haaff fy.


I made it, sprinkled l'il salt and mirchi powder on top and gave it along with a slice of brown bread loaded with Marmite! (both father and son are huge fans of that yucky tasting goop! don't ask me why!)


Now when M makes a haaff fy, its not as plain is this. He adds l'il pyaaz - tamaatar and generally makes it really yummy!


So after having some of the haaff fy, he demanded "Mummy chatpata banao!" which is the expression his father uses for his own cooking. Always tells Cub "main nice aur chatpata bana deta hoon."


I said a distracted haan knowing there wasn't much I could do at this point to chatpataofy that doomed haff fy!


But kids Cub's age don't give up easily do they? Next question was "aapne fyying pan mein banaya tha naah?!"


WTF! I mean i know i don't spend too much time in the kitchen and my cooking doesn't go beyond the mundane, but i DO know that sunny side up egg is made in the frying pan.


Anyhoo! That asked and me meekly answering "Yes. I did" was obviously not the end!


Considering all his demands of making it tastier were ignored he came up with his own solution. "Mummy thoda backk pepper daalo. Phir nice ban jaayega!"


That is what I did. The child finished eating the haff fy in next hour or whatever is the usual time he takes to eat!


So now you know who is Cub's hero chez nous?!


Let me give you a hint. It is NOT the mother! :p


That apart his talk is pretty much a constant source of amusement. The "Why" phase has started too! Anything and everything and I mean EVERY phase uttered is followed with a Why?! said in a sing song fashion.


He also wants to do everything on his own and sometimes it drives us crazy. But more often than it is nice to see him getting independent! Why, today he even kept his lunch box in the bag and was all ready wearing his shoes and all to go to his summer school. Sorry camp. I kept calling it school and one day he said "Main summer camp jaata hoon!"


Yeah! Ok! Whatever! :p


I have also found a way getting some kisses from him. I call him noseychand, rotuchand, naughtychand etc depending on what he is doing. Coupla days ago I kissed him about a thousand times and said "I am kissichand!" Now Cub cannot imagine someone else being any "chand" and indignantly said "No! I am kissichand!!" I told him people who don't give kisses cannot be called Kissichands. So now I just have to say he is not one because he hasn't given any kisses and i get some kisses AT LEAST! :p


He of course managed to make it into another game and tells me to sneeze and call me "Noseychand" in return! hehe!


While he is getting cuter and more helpful his whining and crying for every silly thing is really pushing me over the edge now. I just cannot take it anymore and get angry even faster than before. I mean is it really that difficult to use a normal tone when asking for something?! Everyday I tell myself that I will be more patient, i will learn to ignore the whining but the moment it happens it just drives me insane! I holler at him and then cry. Suggestions to deal with this kinda behaviour (his and mine) are welcome! And he does seem to save this special kinda behaviour for my benefit or maybe i just get irritated faster. M keeps telling me to "distract and deflect" but I can do it only twice maybe. I get tired of it real soon! And i do want get over this as soon as I can for Cub's sanity and mine.


That said his maturity in understanding things is brilliant. And when I pretend to be sad, he comes and gives me a hug and tries to soothe me. I wish i had that generosity when he cries, as M pointed out to me...


That day he was trying to fold his book and I told him not to do it because it will spoil the book. He refused to stop and I took it from him and said if he doesn't want to keep them properly I will give it away to someone else. So now anything and everything he is using he says "It is MY. I don't want to give to someone!"


Poor baby!


This has again turned into a Cub update! I am not surprised since past few months haven't seen too much of him!



showing how he has become big and strong by eating subzi, dal and chapati! Which he MIGHT actually eat once in a week but talks about it on a daily basis!

you know your life has changed forever when

both of you get teary eyed in the morning hearing your son talk when you are leaving for work. Especially when he sweetly says "Apna laptop bag lo, cab mein baitho, office jao, zip kholo, laptop nikalo, laptop kholo aur kaam karo. Aur phir shaam ko ghar aao"


And then your son can feel two pairs of blurry eyes on him and feels shy and hides his face saying "Peek-a-boo".


And the times when he unexpectedly strokes your face or hugs you tight and you realize there is still so much good in this world that you are yet to experience.


Love ya my sweets! You are the joy of our world and the love of our lives!

so that my blog doesn't die!

I have been in this weird sort of funk. I think it has to do with my work and how I don't care anymore. I am still as happy with everything around me and in my life, but this whole feeling has been coming once too often and I cannot pinpoint why! Hopefully I will get out of it soon! I have to!


I haven't even been updating my blog as regularly and 5 readers I had are also disappearing. And it isn't that I have been just ignoring my blog, I have been too lazy to bother with fabulous blogs out there which saw me on their page with alarming regularity. Have i reached my saturation point? I sure hope not. There are still so many memories to jot down and so many more being made every other day.


Cubby has been obviously talking nineteen to a dozen. He makes up his own stories and songs and comes up with cutest stuff which I can't seem to remember always. Like the other day I was making some ready to cook pasta for him. He was sitting on the platform watching me make it. Suddenly he goes"Mummy app pasta bana rahe ho? Mere liye? Thank You!" How can your heart not melt and of course I tried giving him a bear hug which he resisted! :) He makes long conversations with people he likes, telling them what he did during the day, new things he saw etc though as a general rule its impossible to get him to tell you how the day went by. Prompt him a little and then he MIGHT tell you a little more.


We got his class photo a few days ago. I kept asking him the names of other kids and he refused to tell me. I know he is a bit reticent in the class and doesn't interact as easily with other kids. (Digression: This is a part that I hope he will learn eventually because right now I have no idea how to help him make friends so that his social interaction with kids his age improves. If anyone has any tips, please let me know! :) Digression over! So today I instead read out the names mentioned on the top of the photo and asked him to point out the kids and he got all of em right. So obviously he has been noticing and knows! :)


Cubby's school had their "ahem!" convocation ceremony last month. It was darn cute to see not yet 3feet tall l'il ones wearing a black convocation cap thing and smiling for photos (if they weren't tired of the heat and crying already!). Cubby got a sash that called him Mr. Gracious! That means that he shares his things readily and easily and is eager to help others. That is true, but a lot of it also has to do with the fact that he is not aggressive and tends to get bullied easily. And it's not funny how few gentle kids there are. I have been trying to teach him that it IS OK to hit back when someone hits him especially if saying No doesn't help. But it definitely is not easy. He will learn hopefully.


I recently had a mother who asked me "Why has Cubby changed?" earlier he would give the cars to if you told him to. Now even he cries for it." I was so tempted to tell her that he realized that neither other kids nor their parents insist that they share and that he is learning from them. But it is indeed amazing how they would all scramble to get their kid outta the classroom first so that their kids can get the car and then NEVER told them to share it even if some other child wanted it or just out of fairness. The kids once perched would be there the entire time not leaving other kids with any chance to play with em. Annoyed the hell outta me. Such is life, I guess! :( Rant over! Gah!


Cubby also keeps turning tables on us. Once at night we were getting ready to sleep. Light were turned off and M as is his habit was fiddling with his Blackberry for sheer timepass errr... to see if he had any important mails! ;) Cubby suddenly turns around and tells him "Lights band ho gayi hai! Ab so jao!"


He loves listening to stories and his parents are woefully short stocked. Now that grandparents are here there is some more stuff we are learning too and I hope to increase by database to keep him happy. Right now he is happy with daily repeats of Hungry Crow and Thirsty crow and complete the story everytime. When a pebble is seen it is picked up to give it to the crow! He was terribly unhappy when the fox walked away saying "Grapes and sour" and I had to enlist a Giraffe's help to pluck the grapes for the fox and how they both shared and ate em happily! ;) So improvisation is order of the day.


Of course its scary just how much they retain as it is awesome. Like yesterday my dad told him two stories of monkeys and the cap seller and Lion and Mouse for the first time. He remembered enough to tell me the gist of the story with some actions and sounds thrown in!


Sometimes, I wonder if I am wasting all this time where he could learn so much more. I know kids who know more stories and rhymes, can recognize their alphabets or solve big puzzles and I worry if I am not doing enough to feed his brain power. But then there is only as much we can do and are trying to do more fun stuff with him and hope he keeps getting good exposure. Right now in the time we have we usually end up running around in circles (literally), jumping from and on beanbags and parents and all such non-educational stuff! Bah!


He is growing up to be a wonderful l'il guy (except the whining) and is very helpful around the house. We also got him a side wheels waala bicycle and his daadu managed to teach him to ride it using half pedal, so he keeps riding around the terrace even tho its still a l'il tall for him! :) He is also mighty proud about that fact and so are we! :) He usually does the riding around night when we are at home. So he takes the emergency lamp and keeps it in the right place, turns it on, gets his cycle out, sits on it with little help and then takes his rounds. He keeps repeating our instructions saying "Sharp turn hai toh mein dheere chala raha hoon" and all that jazz.


When we have guests over, and we are having drinks and snacks, he takes the snack bowls around offering it to everyone! :) He takes breakfast plate for Papa, gets water bottle for us with glass when requested and so much more!


He acts so grown up most of the times that sometimes we forget he is a baby and happily keep ordering him around! :p He can take off his shoes and now wear them too. He might not always get the foot right, but he keeps doing it on his own and almost always succeeds!


His appetite has also improved slightly! Touchwood and anti-jinx. Of course feeding him is still a long drawn process requiring distractions, but logic of having to eat subzi-dal to get muscles sometimes works! :) He can eat seriously spicy stuff when he wants to. He loves chicken and fish and its time we should learn to cook that stuff me thinks. He loves junk food like farsaan and can give his father a stiff competition when allowed to eat unsupervised! He absolutely loves juice and the bad for health soft drinks which he gets rarely.


He is not in hugely into TV and can use it just as occasional distraction. He still loves his animated movies and Jungle Books rules even today! Apart from that Toy Story, Horton Hears a Who, Tailspin and gang will do. He has also recently discovered Superman and Spiderman and the father-son duo can be heard singing the Spiderman title track (tele series ) often enough! :)


What started as a dull post has turned into a full fledged after eons Cubby update and I am glad! :) Now the title isn't relevant, but i started with it, so I shall stick to it! :)


i LOVE you my darling son and cannot believe you are going to turn THREE in July! Phew! :)


and since it is an Cubby update i shall add some recent photos! :)

The occassional ticklish maalish in the sunny balcony!

The kid who clowns around all the time!

and KNOWS he looks cute while at it! :)

A chicken sausage breakfast on a cold school morning! :)

Running his heart out at the sports day! :)

The resaon for this mad excitment is the man in the background! The daadu! :)

Trying his hand at finer painting! :D

Holding homemade "Palm Print" flowers to give to teachers on last day of school!

Helping decorate his room! :)

and standing to show all the hardwork!

Thanks Shruti for the Wallies link! :)

The Man! The Machine!

Toh aapki hobbies kya hai?! ;) (with Dia)

Wearing his own sandals and proud of it!

might as well do some tag to break the block!

Kiran tagged me some time ago to tell the world some honest stuff about me! last time i had to do a tag about 10 things you don't know about me, I had struggled to reach 10 points! Lets see how I fare this time! ;)


I am a quick reader, but not the most attentive one. You ask me tomorrow what I read yesterday, chances are I won't remember. I just want to move on to the next page!


I cannot wear heels. After the first few times when they killed my back, I never went near them. I keep looking for nice flats. And yes, i trip over wearing them too! :p


I tend to start things with a bang but then end up losing interest pretty quickly!


I LOVE going to these home expos and exhibitions and shopping there. I realised this when my I answered "Exhibition" to almost all questions relating to "where did you buy this from?" about things in my house!


I have never been proposed! Not even M! Sigh! Ofcourse I have told at least 3 guys that I have a crush on them and the only way I can get over it is by telling them!


I save and reuse wrapping wrappers that I like. And yes, they go under the gaddas on the bed for safe keeping! ;)


I hate washing clothes! Give me a sink load of bartans, I can manage them, but even two clothes and I totally whine!


I am a very average cook which I think stems from that the fact that I am not an enthusiastic one.


I eat wonly dark chocolates. I might have a small piece of milk chocolate on rare occasions but that would mostly be only out of sheer desperation for one. Otherwise anything below 60% dark is not even called Chocolate! Ha!


I am not very good at accepting even constructive criticism. Ask M.


Phew that was tough! I tag Suma, Swati, JLT and WIAN to do this tag! Bring it on ladies!


And now here's some photos of the Jodhpur chapter of our Rajasthan trip! The Mehrangarh fort is absolutely awesome and MUST visit. The autos there are very kitschy and touristy and very very comfortable. The hotel we stayed at was beyoootiful! :)




Happy to be in a big bed after sharing a berth with me on the train! :)



Just to show you guys who tall the bed was! :)




I so totally fell in love with the autos! each one was unique!

The Mehrangarh Fort is stunning! Must see, folks!

The room where the king enjoyed his entertainemnt! it's s rich and the work so intricate! They really knew how to live it up! :)

The Blue city. They claim it NOT in comeptition to the Pink City! I was not convinced!



The "palkhis" for the Royal kids. our kids just get the royal "godi" :p



The men and the arms they use! ;)




The gorgeous silk stoles. I indulged in just one!



Candlelight dinner at ratan Vilas. It is a gorgeous property!



Stairway to the beautiful terrace!



View from the top!

The ma-beta in rare moment of lauuu! :p

I told ya i loved the autos. Guess what? they love me back! :) written in the auto!

The Vintage cars at palace now converted in to VERY expensive heritage hotel!

There were a lot more pictures. But i just got tired. And this post has been drafts since 9th Feb! gah!! Hope to be l'il more regular now.

Thank you for all your good wishes for the new home. We have settled down and have just few more boxes to go! ;) Next post I hope to give you a small tour! If i can get a carpenter to come and do some fixing that is! :p

happy gudi padva to all of you. may this new year bring everything good, beautiful and kind in your life and may you add the same in other people's lives!

Cheers!

new beginnings!

and No, I am not pregnant considering that would be an "expected" announcement by now! hehe!


THIS is what we have been busy with.


We have lived in the current house for over 4 years and it has been good to us. It took us forever to finally get off our behinds and do something about making the move. And now that we are ready to take the plunge and move to the next rented accomodation, it is but obvious that it feels odd. All the memories made in the current house we of course take with us. The first time we tried to turn the house into Home with things we liked. From bare walls and floor to its current state where we have collected enough stuff to last us a lifetime. The paintings on the wall compete with Cub's scribbling and the furniture takes much lesser space on the floor than Cub's toys which seem to like getting their share of fresh air!


There are kiddie stickers on the bathroom tiles and our photos pasted on used paper on random walls (we so need to spend money on frames!;). There are notes and messages written on gift cards found here and there.

We threw our first lunch do here by cooking for 20 people when cooking for 2 used to take us more than 2hrs everyday! We had lot of friends and family coming over and making us feel good by choosing to spend time with us rather than anywhere else. And all of then always told us how much they loved the place and the vibes it has reaffirming what we always believed. There was no lift even forget any other fancy amenities and yet the sunshine and fresh breeze aplenty always made it a great place to live in.

Ofcourse how can I forget Cubby got made in this house! ;) He grew up here too and has been the happiest thing to happen to us.

We now need a lift for our parents who arent getting any younger and space for the Cub to play and a chance hopefully to make friends. We move this weekend to the new house and cannot wait to make it a home. I really hope this house will prove equally lucky and we will get a chance to make many more happy memories.


There is a lot of miscellaneous work we need to get done. The woodwork isnt all that great and we need to get some chips and dislocations mended. Gte the kitchen in a bit of better shape than it is. But all that should not be difficult as long as the positive vibes continue! :)


There is the actual moving too. The amount of crap we have collected over the years is just too much. We are trying to be as ruthless as we can. Lots of clothes given away to Amma and also kept aside for charity if anyone thinks they can be used. Sundry wedding gifts which weren't opened in 5 years, old paperwork which means nothing today etc. I am sure when the packers come and pull the other stuff down from lofts there will be a bigger pile of give away stuff. The thumb rule of if you haven't used something for 2 years you never will so totally applies. Except for greeting cards, letters and books.


Wish us luck folks! :)


Here's some photos from our Rajasthan trip! This is the Jailsalmer bit. I don't think I will be doing full fledged posts on this trip. I just had too many expectations (i don't even know what). Plus Cub due to lack of sleep sometimes and mostly thanks to refusing to eat was a quite a pain throughout the trip almost. Add to that I almost always over reacted to his misbehaviour making it worse for all of us. He was happiest the day we finally went for the camel Safari. He started crying the moment he saw camels but within no time was a happy camper sitting with his papa and waving to me off and on. That night post safari Cubby slept for like 15hours straight I think. It was as if he finally got what he wanted out of his Rajasthan trip on the very last day and then could sleep in peace! :)


Yet the place is so worth a visit. The hitsory, sights and colours just blow you away and I look forward to making another trip and see the places I havent this time.

at some random early hour in a make shift room till we got ours! :)

The gorgeous terrace restaurant at Shahi Palace with a biew of a fort. Thanks Preethi for the recco! :)

This is how the restaurant looks! :)

The room! :)

The cenotaphs at Bada Bagh.

Local kid acting as a guide to subsidise his studies. And he did an awesome job of it! :)

Its actually kinda sad how there are no guides at this place to tell you the story behind it which is quite interesting! Thank god for this kid who wove fascinating tales. I really hope he gtes a better future!

There is one figure on horse on 3 smaller figures next to it. The rider is the king and the fgiures next to him are the number of queens he had and who went sati with him.

Indians can go in free! Ofcos only after we put off our shoes! :)

I obviously went during my monthly course period and ruined the sanotity of the temples! :p

And that's why he can afford to sell his crap a double the mrp! Gee!

Cub on his camel "Morya" with his Papa.

Shadow Play - Thats Morya and Pappu taking us for a ride! :)

The caravan!

Freshly made Chai paani in the desert! Awesome! :)

The Phamily Photu! :)

The view of the lit up fort!

When the seating is so comfy, you can even lie down! ;)

The covered area of roof top resto when the sun gets too harsh!

The shopping ofcourse! Tho i still regret not being able to buy any silver jewelry! :(