Karwa Chuth 2016

Writing a new post after years. Today(2016) I want to express my feelings about Karwa Chauth. Talking to my college girl friends on a WhatsApp group, that we have exclusively for our batch females, I realized that many of us celebrate this festival. One of us asked that we all share our pic of this day's celebration and of-course we did. Don't we girls always need a reason to share pics ;). One thing came out strongly, that many of us celebrate this festival. We didn't dwell into the details, about how intense the fast was for each of us. We all may be having different reasons to fast, starting from detox, body cleanse, following tradition, truly believing that fasting will extend the life of their partner. It could be reason to feel the extra special love of your partner that day and reciprocating the same way. It could be a reason to get presents from your spouse. The reason could vary from testing our will power or maybe not even going that far. I hope nobody was forced to follow the tradition. Somebody like me, takes an extra step each time just to add some spice to the mundane life, so kids can get a glimpse of the traditions, living outside India. One thing was common, that we all were decked up for the day. Let me clarify that all these girls are successful women, in my opinion. They are highly educated women with a masters in Comp Science. Successful careers, traveling jobs,Professor, executive and the most important category of highly qualified full-time Moms, is what I am talking about them. Life is not easy for them. Managing home, work, kids and family is part of their everyday life. Taking out time from their busy schedule, to do something extra on a weekday, is not easy. But they did that and hats off to them. Whatever their individual reasons might be, who cares. All it matters that, there is something common in all of us. There is a thread that unites us girls, after 13 years of graduating. And that is our Indian culture. In college, we all had varied personalities. Life was all about studies, campus interviews, movies, dance parties, farewells, late-night chats and road trips and Hrithik Roshan and SRK. We might not have thought of what life holds for us, 10 years ahead, at least I didn't. The main goal for most of us was to get a decent job in a software firm. The person who qualifies Infosys/Wipro is a superstar and somebody who gets a job as a java developer is a role model. Looking down the memory lane, so much has changed. We have accomplished much more as a whole batch. So many success stories to share.What struggle we had to go through in 2002, as market faced a huge slump that year. But we stood strong and got to taste the sweet success. I salute those girls, who have decided to give up their career a break to raise a happy family. In my opinion, that is the most tough job for a woman, who wanted to excel in a career. It's easy to get by a lot of things at home, if you are a working woman. But if you are full-time wife or mom, you are seen responsible for perfection in everything at home, spouse's life, sometimes his career(u let him work late, while u take responsibility for everything else), kids life, may be in-laws as well. You alone may be responsible for everybody's success or failure, which is truly commendable and I may never be able to do that. Going back to the KC pictures, multiple pictures of these girls settled in various parts of the world floated on the group that day from East coast of US to West coast of US, Kanyakumari to Punjab and Bangalore, Australia etc etc. Some were dressed in lehnga, some adorned sarees and jewels, and others wore salwar suit. Some just shared regular family pic and there were a few who didn't celebrate the festivals. Some shared beautiful mehndi pics that glorified their hands and arms, while a few forgot to take a pic of that day and we blamed their hubby, as usual ;) And as all what's app group, some were silent observers or too busy to check messages.

India tip 2010

The last time when I went to India I had told my parents that I will not be visiting India again unless you guys make a trip. In fact, I told them in a more emotinal game. With just 2 weeks of vacations in a year and not sure if Manish could join us, lugging a little toddler in a long journey would be really painful for me. Plus, nobody will be satisfied as I would not be able to spend a lot of time with them because of the duration of the trip. Nevertheless, I kept myself strong for a year, but started giving up after that and also for some other reasons as well...

Planned the trip multiple times from April - July but did not work out for some reason or other. My family had given up hope that we will be visiting them soon. Then finally everything materialized perfectlly...co-ordinated with Manish's malysia trip so that we could at least travel together 1 way and weather would have cooled down in India a bit as well.
With all said and done, the tickets were booked in June for August end trip and I started planning and waiting eagerly as well. With all the horror stories I had heard from some people of travelling in summers with little kids, I was little apprehensive but for some reason , my heart knew Ariv will be just fine.

I love you

It seems like Ariv has realized the concept of what a family is. Sometimes when all of us are together, he gets cozy and starts singing I love you, you love me....we are a happy family song by Barney..... All the words are not very clear, but we just love it when he follows all the actions of the song and gives us a group hug and kiss . I don't know how and when he picked up this song but it is absolutely a adorable moment for me and Manish.

He is still working on the alphabet L and sometimes on R..anything with L/R get replaced by y /r /n /v etc as per his connivence..Here are some of his cute versions of his vocabulary:

I love you - I vove you :)
lalla lalla loree -yayya yayya yoree
light - yight
lets go - yets go
lemme see - menee see
library -yibrady
strawberry - strawbetty
Ms ann marie - ann manie
Ms Laureen - Ms Yaureen

On a brighter note, he is picking up Hindi as well. All credit goes to 2 weeks of India trip where he started to build up on his Hindi speaking skills. And of course at home, we speak in Hindi most of the times. Some of the cute hindi statements that he passes are :
Aapko kya chahiye mumma /daddy , whenever he finds us searching for something.
I reply saying "Ariv mumma ko kiss chahiye"
Ariv : big kiss / small kiss ?
Me : big kiss
Ariv : ok
Then he will come and give me a big smooch on my cheeks and ask : more, yahaa bhi (pointing at other cheek)
I say yes and he replies with ok and gives me another one :) .

Another thing he does is whenever I pretend to cry in front of him, he will come and give me a hug and say...mat ro mumma...kya hua mumma, I vove you mumma...boo boo ??(did u get hurt ?)...
Just to listen to these cute lil words from my cutie pie, I pretend to cry every now and then, in front of him..I know, its wrong, but who cares...anyway, he will figure it out one day ...:)

Mom's excerpt - Its been longgggg that I have been away. Just busy enjoying time with Ariv and doing things for him. We had a good winters so far. Went to california for 10 days during christmas break. We had a nice time with Nitin-Swati and visiting places like Napa Valley, SFO, LA, yosemite valley..etc etc.. And then during Feb , went to Atlanta. Escaped some part of winters this year. I guess, in Michigan the best time we need to take a break and go vacationing is winters. This way, we get to escape the winter blues for a while. And days prior to vacation, goes in planning about it .And days after vacation goes by, remembering beautiful days and waiting for spring.
I love the way, Ariv is growing up: So confident,smart and social kid. Just the way, I want him to be. He is getting mischiveous as well as so adventorous. He does not know to walk slow, is always running around. Loves to dance to music ,play with balls/kitchen utensils.He loves to water the plants. Unfortunately we just have 1 plant in home and it just took him 1 time to figure out how to water it.He saw me doing this one day and now everday asks me for the jug and proudly goes to water the plant.
I am planning to get more plants in spring/summers, so that Ariv can water them.
He feels so proud when we ask him to do something and he does it : simple things like: go get ur chair, sit down, lets go,bring ur shoes,go get ur jacket, bring moms jacket, put this in trash, go throw ur dirty diaper in diaper pail, bring ur ball, bring ur book, get ur sippy cup,lie down, push this,pull that, press the button, close the door, open it, switch off the light, etc etc..he pretty much understands everything we say and follows all instructions.

Arivs side of story : Ok, so here I begin. I have learnt how to bully other kids..I just push them and they fall..Ha ha.I have mostly girls in my class , so it is easy for me to bully them.Well, ok ok..I learned this hard way.some boys used to do this to me and I used to just whine ..Now I have started doing the same ...My teacher told my mumma that I have started to stand up for myself. And my dad and daadi are so proud of me..ha ha .My mumma calls me gunda and I feel so proud :) I am learning to talk, and I love to say mummmmmaaaa mummmmaaa all the time.My mumma also loves it.But sometimes, I call everybody mumma and call addy as mumma and otherwise..Mumma and Daddy keep correcting me so as to who is mumma and who is addy, but of course I keep doing it for fun....:)I love my addy and wait for him in the evening .Me and mumma usually come earlier than him and I keep asking mumma about addy ... As soon as the garage door opens, I give the most excited and loudest HIIII !!!!!! to my addy....then we have a lil cuddling session and then I am back to my pranks. I love to eat paneer.When mumma is cutting cubes of paneer, I get some pieces to chew which I love.I love any form of paneer : be it sabzi or paratha..I love it :)I love dal,roti sabzi as well. and of course, mac and cheese/pasta/pizza are my fav. An who can forget about candies/chocolates/suckers and my vitamins which I love and want more and more of them.
We celebrated Holi last Monday, and mumma prepared poori,aloo sabzi,dahi bada and malpua...I dont like yogurt/raita/dahi bada..The only form of yogurt I like is when it is sweet : be it mango lassi/fruit yogurt/smoothie or simply with sugar...Who cares for salty yogurt anyway. But I loved malpua and had a lot.
I love cakes and pastries as well, and cant resist it. When Mom bought a beautiful cake for their wedding anniversary, I couldnt wait for dad to come. I threw so much tantrum , that she cut a piece for me to enjoy...I enjoyed it sooo much, especially the icing on the cake is my fav part ...:)I love to dig in the icing and eat it with my hands .
I have also learned to give huggie and kissie to mom and dad as well as others whome I like. I only give it to people I like, else I will say a big NOOOO ..And I make sure I give equal kissies to mom and dad, each get 3 kissies at a time :on both cheeks and forehead. But I love to get kisses everwhere, hands, feets, face and tummy being my fav part as it tickles me and makes me laugh.I love to go "Up" and climb stairs by myself and then do jai jai . I the lie down and do a dandwat pranam .My hair is growing and my curls and locks are coming back,so my mom is planning to get them cut short. I love to go out and tell mom dad "aath ..aath do"and then pull their hands and go pount to the door and say "baaar ..baahr jaana hai " ... More to come soon... See yaa later

Halloween tick teat

yeah... Ariv had just unbelievable fun trick and treating carrying his lil bucket around .he was dressed up as a lil froggie and looked adorably cute.Somebody commented that a prince has turned into a frog. I was really nervous how Ariv will react when I put on this costume on him. On Friday, they had trick or treat parade at all floors in Compuware building where I work. Its a blessing to have a day care at my work place, really. I just get to spend some extra time with ariv and can take part in his day-to-day activities a lil bit more. So basically, I reached his class at 9 and dressed him up in his costume. Initially he was a lil resistant but when he saw his frnds dressed up as well, he got ready.
Ally was dressed up as a cute kangaroo ,Reese as a princess, Ritu was a lady bug, Ryan was a pooh and Allen as a chinese character . The 1st treat came from Reese when her dad bought in bags filled of goodies for each of the classmates. And then we started our parade starting from 1st floor business stores . Ariv was just being so choosy and actually was picking up chocolates :Twix being in a shiny cover his fav pick. I was surprised to see my lil pie picking his candies and putting in his bucket. At some floors they were offering some coloring books and some small toys. He was just not interested in those. Even if I would sneak some toys in his bucket, he would pull that out and go back and return it to the lady offering those and nod his head in a "No" . Boy, that made me realize that my lil tot understands everything ,just that he does not know how to communicate. But he just loved the whole process. It took us almost 1.5 hrs to go through each floor on each side of the building but he was walking all the way carrying his bucket. He didn't wanted me to carry his bucket,what if I steal his candy ;)

After I saw that he enjoyed so much, I took him to Canton Summit Trick and Treat parade that evening and he had a gala time there as well. This time dad was also with him, so I got a chance to click more pics :)

And then Saturday evening was so cold and chilly, but ariv went out with some frnds for trick and treating in neighborhood. And this tick or teat title. He heard his older friends saying "Trick or treat" and tried to copy them and what came out of ARiv was cute words : Tick teat...:) .. Boy , is he growing or is he growing up ? Time is flying so fast.

Till a day before Halloween , I was not sure if Ariv is still young for Halloween and if I had wasted money for his costume. But seeing his zeal, enthusiasm and all the fun he had , it was just so much worth it.

15 month update

A lot has change since Ariv has been a year old tot. Be it his gibberish baby talk, always trying to explain us something or be it his pointing and saying "thisshh"(for 'this') towards something he wants. Or his lil temper tantrum which is a funny act (at least I feel so) or his act of trying to do all by himself : eating, wearing shoes,taking off his jacket , lying down when I say "Ariv, time for diaper change" or sitting down when I say "Ariv, lets wear shoes" , or his lil booty shake dance ;). It seems time is flying and Ariv is growing up by leaps and bounds.

ABC's about myself

A- Available?
Uh... Busy but depends , for what ?

B-Best friend
My Husband

C-Cake or Pie?
Cake

D-Drink of choice
Iced Green Tea

E-Essential thing used everyday
Clothes , for sure ;)

F-Favourite colour
Plum

H-Hometown
Duh.... What exactly is it , fight continues :)

I-Indulgence
Recent one on chocaolates .:(

J-January or February
feb

K-Kids and names
Ariv

L-Life
is beautiful .

M-Marriage date
Feb 18

N-Number of siblings
1

O-Oranges or apples
Both depending on my mood.

P-Phobias
Of getting fat ,old,ugly and sick :(

Q-Quote
99% of the things that you do in life ,is a mind game.

R-Reason to smile
My betu

S-Season
Summer

T-Tag three people
Do I have to ?

U-Unknown fact about me
I was a very shy personality while growing up..I know, people who know me today wont believe it.

V-Vegetable you do not like
I choose to like all veggies.

W-Worst habit
Laziness.

X-x-rays you have had
Last one was for chest and Face, to check for my sinusitis sometime spring this year.

Y-Your favorite food
Thai

Z-Zodiac
Pisces