Updates

Aghoo and I have been in India for almost 6 weeks now.We are both having a great time- and getting pampered.

First couple of weeks just flew by in a frenzy- thanks to my sisters wedding and the chaos surrounding wedding. It makes me sad to think that there will be no more weddings in our immediate families for a long time- because both my sister and HD's brother are married now.Yes- there will be cousins weddings in a few years.. but will we be able to make it ? I dont know..

After the wedding, I have been going for regular treatment for my backache- traction, IFT, yoga etc etc.

Aghoo is having a BLAST with her daddy thatha,amma palya, akka palya, selvi akka, obama thatha, Elango thatha, hari thatha and various palyas and mamas.

She speaks quite a bit of tamil now and is very conversant even with strangers!

She wakes up at 6.30 and goes down to amma palya and selvi akka ( when I sleep in ofcourse). She has her milk and breakfast, while watching kakas kuruvis and squirrels. She then plays with her amma palya from 10-12.30. They get all her dolls( Krishna ummachi, Ganesha ummachi,Linda and Hannah) brushed, bathed and send them to school. They then become "(m)iss catherine " and "(m)  iss claudia"[her teachers].

They " teach " them stories ( mythological stories watered down) and sing etc. They then make mummum with choppu toys and feed them. Then it is " thacha time" for all the dolls. Aghoo then has her lunch.

Then she plays with her daddy thatha for an hr or so and then sleeps for a little bit.

Then she wakes up, has an egg dosa or something and milk- and plays with akka palya and selvi akka.

Someone usually visits us ( some relative) and she will play hide and seek with them. She again plays with thatha and palya in the evening. She only comes to me after dinner for her bed time story and sleep:)

I am on a schedule too, with yoga class and 2 sessions of traction/IFT.



Thanks to my back ache(!), we both are enjoying a good break from our routines.

Aghoo loves the attention she is getting in India. More later..

Aghooism

This is so cute that I have to post this before I board the plane..

We are in the care - Aghoo , Dada and I- going to the doctor because Aghoo baby is sick.

I am arguing about something with dada..

Aghoo , all of a sudden says..

Aghoo:-" Amma, yen nee daily daily dada kooda fight panre?"
Me:- illiye da.. naan daily fight pnnaliye..
Aghoo:- yeah.. panra nee.. See. Look at him. he is sooooo cuttttttte

My jaw dropped to the floor on hearing this.

and then she proceeds to say

" See , Dada sad iruka paaru.. paaavam"

There you go- she is definitely shaping up to be a dada's girl..

cantwaitcantwaitcantwait

leaving for HOME tomorrow!! Yes- I said home:)
Although Aghoo calls our home ( fremont one)- Riya's home and Dgl as " daddy thatha home ".

Madam has been down with fever since sunday- sigh! will we ever go to India without fever ? I dont know. Both the previous times, we traveled with a feverish Aghoo.Ah well!

For the first time, she understands enough to be very excited- she holds up 2 fingers and says " 1 2 days school, appram India poren pink (??!!) plane la".

Poor dada isnt joining with us and will join next week :(.. He will be alone for Diwali.

I, on the other hand, will be spending Diwali with parents, sister, cousins, uncles, aunts after 10 YEARS!

cantwaitcantwaitcantwait ( Sorry HD:( !!)

More from the other side of the planer ( literally) :):)

Observations

Miss Aghooness is dressed as Minnie mouse for halloween.

Yesterday when we came home, a surprise waiting for her-- her chittha had sent her a " pumpkin pie" costume:). She immediately wore it and had fun prancing around. She also very happily chatted with her chittha and told him about her day , her life etc..

Snippets

Chitha:- Aghoo, where is dada?
Aghoo :- " dada is in office. lotsa work.he is shooo tired.. dada miss me !!!"

On seeing chitha's friend's jeans,

" hey , i also have jeans- upstairs:)"

" Look at my pumpkin chitha .. I made it"

When we were walking back from school, our neighbor's daughter Abigail ( who also goes to Aghoo's school) was walking with us. She was chewing gum. Aghoo asked me what it was- Me being the mean mother who wont give her kid gum, said " I dont know".

Then when she was chatting with her chitha, one of his friends came on the screen and he was chewing gum. Miss Madam looks at it and asks me " Amma , grass la vandhala andha baby per yenna?" ( whats the name of the baby who came with us on the grass( lawn)?

I said " Abigail" and Aghoo says " aah! correct. Abigail maari indha uncle sapidara".. ROTFL!

Today was her school's halloween parade too. Somehow, seeing her  walk in a straight line, with her hands behind her back - made me teary eyed..She is still a little baby and she has these wild tantrums at home- how tamed she looked at school.Our culture is such that kids are suppressed and made to follow orders at such a young age.I dont think there is an alternative to this , given how our society functions and it is even good in many ways.. It just makes me sad to see MY baby like that.

Anyways, all her classmates screamed because they wanted to go to their parents.. Little minnie mouse was smiling and posing for the camera and generally happy. She was intent on collecting the goodies that parents were handing out.

Just stay as you are baby- Cheerful and happy!

Octoberfest

Lot of events happening in october. Aghoo/ Dada and I took a trip as a family after a long time to Monterrey.
Aghoo pappa had so much fun at the beach and the aquarium.. She was THRILLED by the fact that we were staying in a " bye bye home" ( hotel) for a night. The only thing she hated was being strapped to the car seat. She screamed all the way back.Since we walk to/from school, she has lost the habit of sitting in the car seat and screams every time.We have decide that we will fight that battle when we come back from India.

We went to a dandia with V& V - Aghoo was dressed up in  a chaniya choli and wore one of my jhimkis even. So cute!
Unfortunately, by the time we finished dinner and reached the dandia place, she was too sleepy to do too much dancing :)

We also went to a pumpkin patch - again the only glitch was madam screaming in the car seat. She loved the tractor ride and climbing the hay stack.
Aside:-I got her a little cars themed umbrella yesterday and she says" just like tractor uncle"- one of the fathers in the tractor was holding a similar umbrella! I cant believe she remembered it !

Today was her school's pumpkin patch- all the little kids look so cute walking in a line holding hands and picking their own pumpkin :)

Tomorrow is her schools Halloween parade- cant  wait to see all her friends.She will be a minnie mouse.
I bought this wig for myself to attempt to dress up as Daenerys Targaryen.. She had soo much fun playing with it.. :)

Have fun little baby :)

Ava's surprrrrrrrrrrrrrise

Since Ava is getting married in about a month, I started to plan a bridal shower for her about 1.5 months ago.
It started as a single email that I sent to her friends asking for available dates. Two of her friends - S&N, got soo enthu and planned the whole thing- including an awesome flash mob :)

It was a lot of fun keeping everything secret till the last minute- especially my amma who wanted to let Ava know and did not like the idea of a surprise :)

The party was to be on sunday morning. Ava's hyper enthu friends landed at home on Saturday evening. We practiced dancing( yes ! I did too) late into the night. Aghoo had lot of fun playing with all the mamas and aunties and loved the attention.

Finally, when the moment came, it was a complete surprise to Ava.We sang, dances, narrated their story ate cake and had so much fun.Achu also proposed-on one knee no less and complete with a solitaire- not that Ava had a choice in the answer :)

All in all - a fun and fulfilling weekend and party.Like Aghoo says" thirpi surprise pannalam".
When the party was done, Aghoo went to nap and everyone left. When she woke up she kept saying - "yellaraiyum call pannu ma. come panna sollu" .. poor baby :(. She saw that the decorations were still there and thought that the party was still on :(.

 Now, Ava will leave for India in 2 days and I dont know how Aghoo ( and us) is going to cope :(:(.. stay strong baby girl!

Conversations with Aghoo

Amma:- Aghoo , sit on your high chair. Time to eat
Aghoo:- Amma , I sit on dis chair ( pointing to the regular dining chair) appa dhan " style" a irukum !!

The cleaning lady has pushed out her crib from our bed( which  usually is right next to our bed). She takes a look at it and tells her dada

" Dada- fix pannu Riya bed. illati Riya babal vizhuva..lips big oww aagum". The back story is that , the last time cleaning lady did this, I was lazy and did not push her bed back into position . She jumped from her bed to ours, fell down and got a deep cut below her lip :P.

On having a pee pee accident

" dada- sorry dada. Fast a pee pee come panniduchu. yaya panniten" . Ofcourse that melts the said dada :)

She threw up twice on saturday night and was ok on sunday.So, she wakes up on monday morning and tell me

Aghoo-"Amma . No school today. Ok?"
Amma- Why baby?
Aghoo- because nethikiu naan blah ( her term for vomit) panninene. yenaku oww.

Amma-ok.Doctor ta polama?
Aghoo- illa. Dada magic panni fix pannuva.( every time she falls down , we do " one two three magic!!" to " fix" it ;)). Aparam naan home la irupen. Lots of icecream sapiduven.

Aghoo( to dada):- nee oww fix pannitu office po. Amma and Ava and Riya home la ice cream sapiduva. Not for you dada :P

Dada:- " yen da?I also want icecream"
Aghoo:- ok. Office poi ice cream sapidu !!:P

Simple pleasures of childhood

Wearing Pink sunglasses

Making Strawberry muffin with amma

Looking at Airplanes

Getting your nails painted

Relishing a chicken drum stick :)

Riding a toy go cart

 Playing on the street sprinkler

 

 

Learning to use chopsticks from a nice Vietnamese aunty- who  is also the owner of the restaurant.

Playing in your own little pool in the patio

Eating Strawberry icecream stick!

My little big girl

I know I shouldn't be jinxing this too soon and all that- but I am incredibly proud of my little munchkin.

So, as a follow up to the potty training mentioned in the last post, we sent her to school without diapers for the very FIRST time yesterday. I was expecting atleast 2-3 accidents and send 3 sets of clothes with her.

GUESS WHAT, nothing! nada! she told the teachers every time she had to go ( 4 times, if you are interested) and was actually coming back from the rest room when I went to pick her up.

Fingers crossed that this good streak will continue and no regression will happen!

Love is

When the husband tries to surprise wife by buying her favorite lunch - mutton biryani- from aachi aapa kadai on a sunday...

only glitch?

Wife tries to surprise husband on the SAME day by making shrimp biryani and chicken fry at home !!!

Result? we have been eating biryani for the past 3 meals.. nope.. no complaints !

Happenings

Last weekend being labor day weekend, we went to Lake Tahoe with friends and their parents.

Aghoo, Amma and Dada left on friday at 2 pm, since we wanted to take advantage of miss madam's nap time. She was so excited to go to the " beach" that she was in her best behavior :)The evil parents that we are- we fully capitalized it and used for for almost a week to her to finish her lunch and dinner, go pee pee / poo poo etc :P

The drive , which should have taken us 3 hrs, took 7 hrs!! Poor Aghoo was exhausted- but I was so proud of her for co operating so well. She napped for almost 3 hrs (!!), woke up and was really thrilled by all the junk food I was offering her to keep her happy.We then played the colors game ( I name a color and she finds an object with that color) for some time, did puzzles, colored.All that junk food make her throw up once w hit the mountains - poor baby. Thankfully, we were only 40 min from Tahoe and made it there without more incidents :).

She thoroughly enjoyed the beach, sand, water and loved the " beach home". For the 3 days that we were here, she was so happy  every morning when she would wake up and find herself in the beach home. Our friends parents thoroughly spoiled her too.

She was so sad to say by to beach home  when we had to head back :( and has been asking to go back there everyday.

The drive back was also long - almost 8 hrs. Aghoo handled so well as well. I restricted the amount of junk food in fear of her throwing up again - but we managed to entertain her and got home without any major incident or tantrum :)

This weekend we decided it was high time we made the transition to underwear - she has been in pull ups for almost 2 months now.
Aghoo was soooooo pround of herself- She has been doing no.2 in the potty for almost 4 months now ( consistently). No.1 is the big issue- She went to school in pull ups today, but her teacher thinks we can send her in underwear tomorrow! Fingers crossed !
She only had one accident over the weekend- otherwise, she either told us that she needs to go to the potty or we have taken her every 1- 1.5 hrs.
This morning though- she did not want to wear underwear to school and insisted on a pull up. I think she is still insecure about school and doesn't feel comfortable telling her teachers that she needs to go potty.

So, this morning she was happy to go to school ( she was excited to take her backpack with her) and happily went to off to her Miss Rama. I made the mistake of lingering a bit- because I wanted to talk to her teacher about potty training. Since she saw me lingering, she started to cry piteously when I was leaving.. :( my poor little baby- broke my heart. She said " I am sad .. I don't want  school. (lets )Go home amma"...

I really hope she gets used to school and starts being the cheerful child that she was in day care..
Love you Aghoo baby..

Like I was telling dada yesterday, sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the amount of love I feel for you... I cannot fathom loving another child, like I love you .. ( if and when I have another child i.e.). Your dada, being the more practical one, assures me that I was be gushing the same way with our second one too :P

Meet The little Diva

See how we are all dressed up ? " New new" dress and "neckase" ( necklace) courtesy Ava ( Divya).
Today is picture day at school. She got all excited and dressed up this morning. Only glitch- she refused to let me pull down her leggings and wanted to wear them bunched ( like in the pic).What ever makes her happy I guess :)

When I dropped Ms. Aghoo at school today. for the first time, she went in without a whimper! Hallelujah! Its been exactly 1 month since she started school.

Special thanks to "liss yama" ( Miss Rama) who came to Aghoo and said" wow you look so pretty today. Nice necklace" . Madam walked off to her to show off her necklace :)

The school will send individual portraits of the kids, which we can choose to buy. They also posted a class pic on their FB page

As you can see, the leggings have been un- bunched, but the hair band is gone ! Sigh!
Heres to more happy pictures at school and other wise , my baby!!

Logic

So, my dad doesnt wear a shirt when he is at home. Most days ,when he face times with Aghoo, he is wearing just a lungi and no shirt. Its a game between Aghoo and her thatha - Aghoo always says " thatha dress podalaaaaaaaaaaaaa" and my dad replies " yes ma.. thatha bad boy " :)
This morning, she was telling my dad about our impending lake tahoe trip .

Aghoo:- " Daddy thatha, naan beach poren. anga toys irukum. Lots of aimals ( animals) varum. Zebra eat pannum (?!!)"

Daddy thatha:- " naanum varen da.. yennaiyum kootitu poriya?"

Aghoo thinks for a bit and says " nee va. Aaana dress podanum ok? good boy pannanum. Jacket podanum "

ROTFL!

Last night HD had a work dinner and came home only after Aghoo went to sleep.
When I was trying to brush her teeth before going to sleep ,she was cranky and wouldnt let me.

So , When she was ready for her bed time story book, I instead told her a story how Cindy baby( imaginary character that I use to teach her lessons via stories) refused to bush her teeth and she got " lots of big big poochis" in her teeth and had to go to the doctor.

After listening to the story, Aghoo said " Naan good girl ma. Brush panniten". I asked her " appram why did you trouble amma and fight with me to brush your teeth?". She said " I want my dada amma! adhan cry panninen" . Needless to say the said Dada was pool of mush when he heard the story last night..

Weekend tales

I know it mid week already- but better late than never I guess?

This past weekend was a lot of fun. On friday, we met up with my friend Sri and family who were leaving for India- Little Aghoo and Sahana kutties had loads of silly fun! Sumptuous meal at Amber, Palo Alto followed by yummy desert at this place called "Paris" - awesome end to the evening.

On saturday, we had people (Sakthi and his wife) coming over for dinner. I started cooking in the morning, so that I dont have to give up my nap time ;).I made yummy veggie salna, parotta, palak paneer and jeera rice. Aghoo was her usual charming self and entertained the guests thoroughly.

On sunday, dada and Param uncle had made lot of plans and preparations for a bbq in the park.So, we set out at around 12.30 to the park, where we met with Vijay and Sangeetha( our good friends).
There was a lot of food that we gorged on - chicken, veggies, corn, veggie skewers,lots of appetizers,almond pie( YUM!) , hummus , salsa, juice, wine etc.Aghoo had a great time- because she could go to the play area as many times as she wanted and we also went on a " row row row a boat ";) (paddle boat) in the lake. Lots of fun was had..

Aghoo did not want to leave Vj mama and Sange aunty.

We came home and crashed- exhausted. Little Aghoo while going to sleep tells me " Sakthi mama ( from 2 days ago!) black shirt potirunda. Ashwini aunty purple dress and black pant potirunda!" wow! wat memory!!

My little baby!

What a cute couple

I always thought Preseident and Mrs. Obama were really cute. They seem to have a loving and solid marriage.

I love how in-charge Michelle looks/ talks/ comes across - even though her husband is arguably the most powerful man in the World. More power to her/ them!

Preschool - week2

The weekend was busy was Aghoo as usual.

Dada had an office party ( yeah right!) and was in the city on saturday . Amma and Aghoo had a relaxing day - ate lunch, slept for a couple of hours and went to the " kutty park".
We had fun playing ,looking at planes etc.We then came back home because we saw some other baby riding her cycle and Aghoo wanted to do so as well.

Well, of course - Aghoo cannot ride her tricycle yet. She wants to be pushed :) and so that's what I did.

What can I do to encourage her to start pushing the pedals.. she just wont :(

We then had dinner , watched Mickey mouse club house and went to sleep.

On sunday morning, we both woke  up, spoke to thatha- patti and went to Sahana's house for her bday party.

Aghoo had fun playing with Sahana's toys, kitchen and the highlight of the day- jumping castle and bubbles!
We had fun cooing over the cutie pie Sahas baby.

Aghoo was really cranky since she didn't have a good nap in the afternoon. She slept fitfully and woke up cranky too. Today is week2 of pre school. I kept telling her what a good girl she is and how she will go to school without crying. Poor baby treats her water bottle as a security object and holds on to it for dear life!

Thankfully though, there was no out and out crying today- she whimpered a bit and hugged me tearfully as I dropped her off in her class.It is so heart breaking to see her go into her class whimpering and resigned :(

I hope you know that we love you a lot Aghoo kutty !

Day 3:- Preschool saga

Argh- this is so tough. This transition is even more tougher than the day care transition- because Aghoo is older. She can comprehend much more and communicate her displeasure quite clearly.

She woke up very cranky today- and said" yarru koopida Asha home?" ( whos taking me to Asha aunty's house?) . I told her that Asha aunty has fever and needs to go to the hospital- so we will go to school. She kept saying " School pikalai ma".. My poor baby. Some how we managed to get her ready - all the time she was crying intermittently that she doesn't want to go to school.I hope this is rock bottom and things look better going forward.

Since she was so cranky, both HD and I decided to go with her to school. HD carried her all the way to school with her crying :(.When we dropped her off in her classroom- she was screaming and thrashing :(.

With a heavy heart, we both came back home. When we called 1.5 hrs later, she seemed ok according to Ms.Lupe ( her classroom teacher).

Tomorrow, they have a water play day- which I know she will love. I hope the teachers love her and she grows to love them as much as she loved her Asha aunty.

Today is Krishna Jayanthi- cant wait to go home and dress up my baby :) I had made kadala maavu urundais in the morning - hope my baby likes it.

Dear Aghoo baby,
Dada and Amma love so much kanna- please stay strong for us. It is heart breaking to see you cry everyday and I am so sorry that you feel scared in the new place. I promise that you will start loving the school and your friends soon kanna. It is a fun place and we know you will settle down soon.

Till then- chin up and tight hugs  :)

Preschool saga

My little itty bitty baby Aghoo started preschool yesterday!! How can she be so grown up?

We have been preparing little Aghoo for almost a month now- making school seem like  a very exciting place to go :) We had taken her to the school a couple of times and she was very excited to see the "fishies"( aquarium)  and the " kutty park" ( play ground) there.

So, on the first day we got up bright and early - she had her favorite breakfast( rice noodles with veggies and cheese).She chose her own outfit for the day and was happy to go.

Both HD and I were  working for from home , since we weren't sure how the day would go.Aghoo talked to her Amma palya/ Daddy thatha and her Appa thatha to get blessings :).

Since the school is literally 5 min away from home, we started walking at 8.25  :):) . Her drop off time is 8.30 ( I know- bad parents rushing her on the first day !!).

She was fine when we walked with her and left her in the classroom. She went to take some new toy and sat down with the other kids for the circle time. HD and I - both very very nervous- waited in the lobby for a bit and were happy that we did not hear any screaming. I made HD go check on her( STUPID MOVE !!)- and Aghoo saw HD and started screaming her head off. I started to cry as well and we had to stay composed outside of the class room.We checked a couple of more times and went home. In order to take my mind off Aghoo and her crying--I started cleaning out the cupboards in the living room and in the laundry room . That kept me busy for almost 1.5 hrs. HD worked out and helped me with some cleaning and when we couldn't bear it anymore--called her school. Her teacher said that she was whimpering on and off- but was ok overall.She ate her snack and was playing outside in the play ground.

We called a couple of  more times- Aghoo had lunch and slept too :) My little resilient baby!
When we could not wait any longer, we picked her up at 4.00 pm. She was sooooooooooo happy to see us. She told us that she " cried a little" and then played. She loved the playground time and apparently saw " planes" :). She also painted- " draw pannen ma - paper la" .

I asked her what she wants to eat- she said " rasa mummum amma".. my poor baby missed sadam for lunch ( school provides food). So I made her rasa mumum and she ate it happily. She also got a new puzzle for first day of school.

Today- second day- she still screamed her head off when I dropped her off. I hope she gets used to the new people soon. God- until then,please be with my baby..


In other news, last friday was Aghoo's half bday- we made a celebration of it, as it was the last day in her beloved Asha aunty's house.She wore a " new new dress" , " new new shoes" which she herself chose in the store and was very happy to cut her cake that Ava made :).

Love you so much my little baby.. hope you love and succeed in your school life :)

More Aghooisms

I am running behind her this morning to get her to wear her socks.

She says" Yion ( Lion) socks podaliye.. Iya no socks !" Err.. because a lion lives in the jungle!!  sigh.. what logic though!

She is looking at the Ramayana book that Ashu ( my bil to be) got and she points at the picture of Rama and says " amma, dis ummachi puppy shame ma.. dress podaliye" then she points at Sita and says " I like this ummachi. Dress potiruku " :):) She points at Hanuman and says " Hanuuuuuuuu ummachiiiiiiiii- monkey ma?!!" She is so surprised by this realization :)

Dear Aghoo

Dear Aghoo,
I want to write to you, so that I don't forget all that you are at 2 years and 5 months.You will be starting Montessori school at all of 2 .5 years next month and I feel like you are growing up too fast and I cant catch up with you.

You are hilarious with your come backs. We are in the process of potty training you. Some gems from your mouth recently.

" Amma I made LOTS of poo poo in potty ... !!" said with a very proud grin :)

Amma-"Aghoo- whats that on your pants"
Aghoo- * very non chalentely*  " Pee pee than da " :)
Amma:- * now sternly* " where do you do pee pee Aghoo?"
Aghoo- " Potty dhan da" * said with a very frustrated tone* :)

You are definitely a  Teenager in a toddler's body. The other day you came up to me and said " Amma, dada thittita. Dada angry ma" with a very pavam face . So, I slowly prod you " Why Aghoo? What did you do?" And you say" I cry amma. I want  ICream ( ice cream) I want icream" and I say " and then " and you finally admit " I no finish mummum".. you stealthy little sneak !

Sometimes you prove to us that you are still a little baby. Every time you do the big job in the potty- we reward you with 1 candy (m&m) . Dada, feeling extra lovvvvvvve, gave you 2 and you run to me with a worried little face and said " Amma- dada 1,2 candy kudutha ma".. :):)

When your dada and I get into an argument, you come in and say --" No fighting guys!".. it is downright comical!!

There are also times when you are so insightful.. like this morning  when I was upset about something and was pondering about it- you came to me, sat next to me and patted my hand and said " its ok amma..come here hugs tharen".. It made teary eyed :)How do you know when to say these things baby?

You love to stand next me or Ava or Dada when we are cooking looking at everything with wonder filled eyes saying" oo Onion potiya" or " now water podu ma".. Or " hey whats this??".. and you also want to taste it IMMEDIATELY- no waiting for the food to cook or cool down. If you are in a good mode it is "Can I taste?" and some times it is just " i WANNNNNNNNNNNNT"!

You also ask as soon as you wake up " Yaar Asha aunty home koopida"- which translates to " who will take me to Asha auntys house ( day care) today?". Some times you are ok with the answer we give you - sometimes you insist on " no amma come " or " no dada come ".

If you see things like the fire truck or a purple car in real life , and you have seen it in one of your books previously you tell us" see fire truck( fither truck :P), Book la patheleeeeeeeeeee?".. and you remind us :)


You can pretty much entertain anyone who visits us with your constant chatter and stories and you do love the attention.

You  loved the visit to the zoo and you also loved the straw berry picking trip last week ( straw berry tree pathen!!) .

You want to match your outfit to mine everyday :).You look at me with wonder even if I wear a tattered old kurtha and say " Wow beautiful dress amma"!! I am sure you will grow up and change your opinion on my fashion sense soon . For now, Let me bask in the love and adoration..




Love you little baby!! you are the one constant little source of joy every day!!


I hope you transition smoothly into your school and enjoy yourself !!

Books

Books and reading are very very important to me. My parents cultivated a reading habit in me and my sister and it continues to date.If we ever wanted to buy a book, no matter how pricey it was or even if it was something that we would never read, my parents have never refused to buy it for us.

I remember in my 10th std holidays, I discovered a small library that was quiet far away from home. I remember taking my bicycle there everyday of my summer holidays and discovering various books- I was heavily into Erich Segal . It started with my mom introducing me to " love story" - I was completely obsessed with him and tried to read all his books .I also devoured Agatha Christie and Jane Austen . I also fell into the Mills and Boon trap and was reading them fervently.Fun times!

When I was even younger , around 8 or so, I think I started reading Enid Blyton books.What a fun author!! The Five find outers, Famous five, Secret seven, magic faraway tree! Wow. Sis/ me and 2 of my neighborhood kids used to pretend that we were the fabulous four :) We would go into a small shed behind our house - where we would meet and drink lemonade and biscuits- just like the books.We did  just that and solved no mysteries unfortunately...We even had a password that you had to utter to get into the shed.We made poor baby sis stand outside because she did not know the "secret password" ;)

Then I graduated to the world of St. Clares and Mallory towers- wow.. mid night feasts and pranks. I used to love dreaming about such fun boarding schools :)

Once I went to college- I was introduced to John Grisham and Sidney sheldon- I didnt have too many people to exchange books with and our college library was a joke.!

My reading habit slowly dwindled and I started reading less and less over the past few recent years.

HD bought me a kindle fire for our anniversary and I am back with a bang!! Have been checking out 5 books every two weeks from our local library and voraciously reading them.The added comfort of being able to check books out from the comfort of my bed on my kindle and have them delivered instantly - ah! bliss!

I will do a post on all the recent books I have read shortly and one about my Aghoo's favorite books. She, to my delight, seems to be obsessed with books just like me!!

Weekend and other udpates

We took Aghoo kutty to the SF zoo.- me, HD, Ava and Ashu ( my sis and Bil-to-be). Much fun was had by all of us.

We started with the childrens zoo area- thinking that Aghoo would like to see it- she was so restless and  had enough of the little "yabbits" and "bunnies" and wanted to go see " giyaffes" and " yions" :)

So, off we went to the bigger zoo area- She loved the zebras , chimpanzees, gorillas, koala bears etc etc.There is a little farm area-where you get to per goats, horses,pigs etc.. Aghoo spontaneously broke into " old mac Donald had a farm " when we she entered there. She kept asking the pigs to "oink", horsies to " neigh" and goats to say " baba". -- " neigh sollu horsie.. good boy pannu.. neigh sollu " Lol!

We then went on a little train ride inside the zoo, where we saw peacocks , penguins etc.She had fun chasing a peacock even!

We had lunch in a cafe- where aghoo pasta packed from home and Amma gorged on a slice of Pizza.

We were all bone tired when we left the zoo. There is a beach right opposite to the zoo- ava/ashu and dada took aghoo there while amma sat down on the pavement and rested a bit.

We made a pit stop at Ashu's house- which is 10 min from the zoo.The bug people had coffee and chatted. Little Aghoo wanted cereal(!!) - which she had :)

We then went to DOSA for dinner -Aghoo fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep till we finished our yummy meals.She woke up and demanded IDLI!!funny little baby,, :)

*Aghooism*
So, this morning I was , as usual being late to work and shouted at poor little Aghoo because she wanted purple clip first, then green clip and geenrally making me late. When we were finally in the car, I told her " Aghoo I am sorry I got angry with you- but if amma is late, my office uncle will get mad and give amma a big time out ok?".She goes " thats ok amma.." and then to the " office uncle"- " office uncle, NO time out for MY amma.. Riya angry ok??" So sweet that my little baby wants to protect me from office uncle, even after I was nasty to her :(

Aghooisms and updates

Aghoo is starting to pick up a lot of English these days . Her primary language is Tamil.

Everyday I ask her how her day was and she always goes " Good" . She usually references herself as "Iya " and has recently started transitioning to "I/Me/Mine" . Yesterday, when i asked her how she was, she said " I fine"!!
She was eating ice cream and she spontaneously says " I like it amma" :)
Her day care provider's father is an old man who walks with a walking stick.She made a walking stick at home by stacking 3 markers and walks around the house saying " like thatha ":):)

Yesterday we had another first of the not-so-nice kind.She fell down from the bed and hit her mouth on the crib. She had a small tear inside her lip and a laceration on the chin.She cried quiet a bit when she saw the blood. She cried even more when we took her to the doctor.

Since HD is travelling, he panicked a bit when he heard the news. When he called my sister to video chat with Aghoo, apparently he teared up on seeing his precious daughter..

** start digression**
Let me record the fact that this guy did not shed a single tear when I, his wife gave birth to his precious daughter-- without taking any anesthesia or pain killers. One measly cut on his precious daughter and the water works open???

**end digression**

So, anyway, at the end of the day, when Aghoo was video chatting with my dad ( her daddy thatha)- she was retelling him the whole story of how she fell down , took her to the doc etc etc. She finishes by saying " riya come home.. dada ipad ( i came home and talked to dada on the ipad).. dada CRY!!!" ROTFL.. She is not going to let him forget this..

She is gong to be starting montessori school in August and I am so nervous for my baby!!

Every night , before going to sleep , she says her prayers ( ramaskanda), then I have to say this whole thing to her where everyone she knows love her.. it goes like this..

Amma loves you
Dada loves you
Ava loves you ( my sis)
Ashu loves you ( my Bil to be)
Chitha loves you ( Hd's bro)
Chithi loves you ( Hd's bro's wife)
Daddythatha loves you ( my dad)
Ammapalya loves you ( my mom)
Appathatha loves you ( hd's dad)
Ummachi palya love you ( hd's mom.. she is ummachi ( God) so ummachi palya)

 and so on .. all her friends, our friends , some times things she will " how abt vacuum?" or how about " blue chair"  and I have to say " vacuum loves you ... blue chair loves you" :):)

We all love you baby.. very much..

So, Whats Aghoo upto?

Since this blog is supposed to be about her and all, I should be chronicling her..

She talks.No - she actually has an answer for every question.She answers questions that aren't even posed to her.I cant believe that the wee little baby of mine has starting spewing so many words and that she has independent thoughts :)

Scene -1
She sees my dad on web cam.He isn't wearing a shirt - only a lungi ;) [ aside- i dont think i can find too many pictures of my dad from my chilhood where he is wearing a shirt :P]

She says " thatha puppy shame. shirt podaliye"
!!
Then she says " thatha- fufu ( hot) iruka? ..shirt podaliye?" ROTFL

Scene 2
We are in the process of potty training her , leading to many many hilarious comments/ scenes.

She comes home from day care and I tell her,
"Aghoo, pee pee time . va bath room polam". She says
" No thank you amma" !!!

Then when she has done the big job in the potty. She says -

"poo poo swim swim pannudu ma" :P I know disgusting!

Scene 3
We are driving home in the car from day care and she is sitting in her car seat .I am telling her something and she doesn't understand what I am saying.
She says " Turn around panni sollu ma"!!


Scene 4
She knows that I have back ache and we have been telling her that that I cant carry her because of that.
Everyday she will ask me if my back ache "mug ow" ( mug= mudhugu and ow= pain) is better. If I say , yes, she will say " appo carry pannu ma"!!

Scene 5
We went to the mall to take professional pictures. There was an animal adoption thingie going on. There were lots of cats and dogs that made Aghoo's day.

So she says " Amma, look! cat!! dog!!
" Yes Aghoo !"
" 1 ,2 cat dog ma" (1,2 = many many in her diction)
" yes baby"
she thinks for a little bit and says " old mac donald had a farm?" ROTFL!

Jerry Sandosky case..

My God! my blood boils when I read about some of the things the witnesses went through. They were children.Under privileged children at that!

The kind of things that they have to actually tell and also prove to a bunch of strangers in a court room. My heart goes out to these kids..

BURN IN HELL YOU A*******

Attempts at Fiction - 1

My attempts- at fiction (;))

She:-hey, why did u call me and hang up?

He- nenapu.. I Mis- dialed.

S-0h..

H- did u want me to call u?

S- no

H- ok. I won't call?

S- No!!!

H- sigh.. Seri Vidu.. What r u upto?

S- nothing.. Hostel common room la iruken.. Need to start studying for tomm.. Potuma?

H- study later. What r u wearing?

S- red salwar

H- with the green pants? Adhu doesn't suit u..

S- hmph!! When did u notice me? Née  dhan yepodum Shilpa va dhane pape?

H- how do u know? Does that mean u r always noticing me?

S- Poda.. Ask ur friends not to shout ur name every time I enter the class room..

H- then why do u smile( slighta) when they shout?

S-No I don't!

H- fine.. Canteen poviya evening?

S- probably... Nee?

H- nah!! Velila poren

2 hrs later

S-so how long were u waiting for me in the canteen?

H- who said I was waiting for u?? Chumma vanden... Yedhuku sari kattitu vande?

S- Chumma.. Yen??

H- u looked cute:)

S- adada compliment lam thare? R u drunk?

H- illadi..seri ippo yena Padika poriya?

S- amam- u better study for a little bit bfor u go out..

H- serida..... See u tomm?

S- k. Bye

2 hrs later

H- hey?

S- hmm?

H- padikariya?

S- trying. Née?

H-velila poga poren

S- ok..

H- I wanna see u...

S- ippava???

H- pinna? 5 yrs kazhicha? Ipa dhan!!

S- r U kidding me?time is9 pm

H- seri varadhey.. Am going out . Bye

S- kochikadhey da....

 30 min later

H- y did u come?

S- oh! I had to make an international call.. So phone booth vanden..

H- nambiten

S- Poda!

H- hey

S-  hmm?

H- thanks da chellam

S-:) ..paathu Po .. Don't get drunk?

H- seri da.. Sleep tight ..

S- :)

Going under

Made the blog Private.
Its not like I am a huge celebrity and people are dying to track me down. Its just that the past few days, I think of writing something, then I am afraid it will be read by someone i know (outside of this group ofcourse)...

Hope to write more..

Aghoo's fun weekend !

Aghoo had a  fun weekend this week.


Friday
I left early from work and went to pick up Aghoo. Dada was assigned the boring task of grocery shopping. Since we eat out on friday evenings, I did not have to rush home to make dinner. We pass our city's lake and its attached park everyday on our way home from day care. Poor Aghoo asks to go to the park everyday. So, we went on friday and had a fun time playing. Our  friend V mami decided to join us and more fun was had.

We then met up with our old friends- T aunty and S uncle. V mami and V mama decided to join us as well and more fun was had :) . Awesome food at PF changs!

Saturday
We woke up and spoke over facetime to daddy thatha and P patti ( my parents) .S aunty had invited us to her house for lunch. V mama/ V mami and Pamai joined us for lunch too. S aunty's mom and Mil are here currently and they made AMAZING food- which was hogged shamelessly by all of us.
Here is the amazing menu

beans parupu usili- Amma and Aghoo's favorite!!
Aviyal
Vengaya sambar
pine apple rasam
curd rice
aval pongal

Coming to dessert, it actually was a surprise birthday party for me- so yummilicious cup cakes was served!Again, stuffed our faces.

Then came the fun part for Aghoo. H-san and S-aunty set up a bouncy house in their backyard . Aghoo pappa and S pappa had sooo much fun. All the thatha/patties/ Ava/ mama/ mamis also joined the fun.

For dinner, we went to one of my  relative- V chithi's place. Their little baby , baboo is the cutesttttt!!!
She is one year old - Aghoo had lot of fun playing with baboo baby too. Another awesome dinner cooked by V chithi's mnom- parata/aloo- patani sabzi, dal, poli . YUM!

We then came home exhausted and slept till 9 am in the morn.

Sunday
Woke up and lazed around.Begged/cajoled Aghoo in to eating little bit of cereal and milk.
We had VJ mama and S mami ( our friends ) coming home for lunch. So we made the following

Egg Fried rice and chicken curry ( made by amma)
Egg masala( made by Ava)
Raita( made by dada).

This was also the day we decided to leave Aghoo diaper free , in hopes of the starting the potty training battle (!). After 3 accidents in the living room, it was close to lunch time- we gave up and dada took Aghoo to give her a shower and put a diaper on her :(. Need to resume next weekend.

Vj mama and S mami came and played a lot with Aghoo papa.They also brought yummy sweets from a new Indian place. After they left,Aghoo and amma slept for 3 hrs :).
Dada then took Aghoo to the neighborhood park and amma made Rava dosai and thengai chutney.
We then went off to lala land .

All in all, a good weekend for Aghoo and all of us :)

The one in which she sings

Aghoo loves to sing- though she doesnt get all the words right, she will confidentley sing her own version. Here are some samples.

Barney's I love you song- I love you, mee na tu ..and then some gibberish.
this old man- Thish ol man, thish ol man, this ol man( in the correct tune )!!
one / two , buckle my shoe- one , two, masha koo,thee four, that the doo :)
kannazhaga- kaaalaaga, kaaaalaga( also imitates shruti's voice, by singing this in a high pitched false voice).

She also loves to wave her hand to kannazhaga..learnt this form one of our friends:).She gets in the car and says"amma no koveri ( kolaveri) ok? want kaaaalaaga"

The other day we were waiting at a signal on our way to day care. She saw a doggie and the doggie started to walk. She says

" Hi Doggie
Gu morning Doggie
no coming doggie (  i.e. dont move)
akka pannu ( sit down)
gu girl pannu ( be a good girl)
 (and the doggie kept moving so,)
see you in the morning Doggie"

She is also such a girlie- girl. Loves to dress up in " nu nu dress" , wear " 1 ,2 clip" or sometimes " 1,2 kumini ( kudumi). She also wears her sun glasses and chooses her own shoes :)

She will preen in front of the mirror for at least 10 min everyday.

More Aghooisms

Picture this-
HD is travelling on work. I am going crazy trying to cook lunch / get Aghoo to brush her teeth / fill her bottles / clean vessels- all at once.

I am unusually ( erm.. usually?) cranky trying to hurry things up t get to work for a meeting. Miss Madame is taking her sweet time to eat her eggs and milk. I give her a stern warning "amma thirumbi varadhukulla 2 big aas ( mouth fuls) sapitirukanum- ok?" and I rush back to the stove to check on the sambar.

30 sec later a little voice pipes up " What you doing amma? Angry?" What choice do I have but to ROTFL?!

10 min later..I am again angry with her because she wont finish her eggs- so I give her noodles. She goes " Amma angry?" and I say " Yes Aghoo I am angry. You did not finish your eggs" ..She says " Amma see". I turn back and I see this WIDE fake smile :P.. What can I do but ROTFL?! And I laugh,, she says " Amma angry?" and I have to say " No baby I am not angry :P".

10 more minutes later. I am trying to rush her upstairs to take her bath - and we are already very late. She is dilly-dallying again and I get angry and shout( :( I know- bad mommy shouts!). She follows me to the bath room and when I trying to get her clothes ready, she climbs on my lap, hugs me and says "Amma angry?"

 She definitely knows how to pacify me - I she is much better than HD :P

Lately, she is fascinated with colors..I think , much to my dismay, her favorite color is " Gween" :P. This is karma for all those years when I said I hate green :(.

Aghooisms

Miss Aghoo's verbal skill are developing by leaps and bounds..

She is very much into identifying colors right now. So any object is an opportunity to play the color game.She goes " idhu yenna" with a very tapori accent to ask for the color- its incredibly funny :)

She loves to meet other babies- only unless they stay away from her amma and dada though. Poor little Kitty got lectures on friday about being  " yaya"( not clean).Kitty baby , the sweetie pie, came to me as soon as I called him and Miss Aghoo had to make a scene and make me carry her.

She does still have her OCD about cleaning up any mess. She has a small napkin that she hangs from her toy kitchen's oven door ( just like the real one!) and will clean up any mess the minute its made.Sometime I think she loves cleaning so much, that she makes messes only to clean up ( a la Monica ?)

She is very diligent about saying  thank you  (shank you :) ) and "you are welcome". If she says thank you to you, she wont let you be until you say " you are welcome"- a good thing I think :).

She is definitely not very generous with her " sorry" though- especially to people other than me ( dada and ava). I have to coax her and threaten her to say sorry.

Her " Violet" gets the brunt of her anger and her affections- Violet is frequently given time outs and hugged frequently too :)

I know I should record more of her chronicles here- should try to be regular..

Airport Musings

1) Dear Lady with the toddler,
I know the look you have- that wistful look when you are watching a couple of teenagers talking to each other, while your child is running amok all over the gate. You will get there one day. I promise.

2) Dear dad of teenagers,
You want to be included in the conversation that your children are having. You keep trying and they keep ignoring you. Sigh. You look at the toddler with such longing...Dont worry. Wait till they are in their 20s. All they will want to do is talk to you.

3) Dear old couple holding hands,
I want to be like you one day. Graceful/ yet smart. You are both reading on your kindle /ipad and holding each other's hands. There is a distinct familiarity and a look of content on your faces. I hope we get there some day.

4)Dear mid aged lady in the inappropriate clothes,
Grow up- those clothes are definitely not for you.Wear something appropriate and you will look much more elegant.

5) Dear lady with a cold,
There are kids running around- please close your mouth when you sneeze!

6)Dear guy sitting next to me with you iphone,
I am just people watching- I am NOT interested in reading your stupid work- related emails. I have 100s of those in my inbox !!

7) Dear toddler,
You are beautiful and such a joy-even though your parents may not tell you this enough( I know I don't tell mine enough). You remind me of my own baby waiting for me at home :)