Potty Training - Final Chapter

Hopefully this is our Final potty training chapter. If not, I will write Volume 2:)

Sonali's daycare takes all the credit for her training. Her teacher is awesome and she started by seating her in the potty every 2 hours. In about 3 weeks, she was completely potty trained and got the concept.

I was too chicken to let her go without diapers at home and the few times I tried initially, she had some accidents and I got worried. But soon after, she asked to go to the potty herself and her diaper stayed dry without accidents. Now she is out of diapers and insists on not wearing them at all!. Yoho!

Nighttime -She goes before her sleep to the potty and stays dry in the mornings too. I am paranoid about the sheets to let her sleep witout diapers, so I put on a pair of pullups after she sleeps. But so far, nothing on it and she is dry. Goes in the morning in her potty. So one of these days Iwill gather the courage to take those pull ups off too.

We have been travelling and she did great on the journey about her potty training ( took it way more seriously than I did:) ).. but I will wait for a whole week to declare complete success. So far it seems to be going the right way.

Good Luck to all the moms who are in the process. Daycares rock for this reason atleast:)

Sonali's moments

Have not blogged in a while and will update soon..
but I want to record priceless conversations I have with sonali these days:)

She is talking so much and throwing tantrums per schedule for a 2 yr old, so no surprises there. But what really surprised us is the inability to deal with it patiently.

Yesterday, after an exhausting evening with her, I was loading the dishwasher and cleaning up when she comes to me and says:
" Mommy , what do you want?"
" Peace of mind, sonu"
Thinks for a brief second, runs to her father and goes:
" Dada, mommy wants pess of mind, can you go give it to her? "

:)

She got her flu shot last week and was very concerned about it. She refuses to remove her bandaid, almost like its a prize for her shot.

" Mommy Dotor do 'chuk' for me"
" What?"
" I went to Dotor. dotor put Jection and do 'chuk' for me"

Interpret it as:
I went to the Doctor, I got an injection and the chuk was the expression of the prick:)

How can I not brag?

My dearest hubby has written this recommendation about me on Linkedin, in his own creative way to show his love for me:) Of course I did not publish it.. but I had to brag:)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Priya,I've written this recommendation of your work to share with other LinkedIn users

Details of the Recommendation: "In the 5 yrs that Priya has worked with me and in my company, she has been a wonderful caregiver, companion and colleague. As a direct consequence of her efforts, the organization has shown a 50% growth within the last 3 yrs. While she does command a premium in the market, she is worth her value in every sense of the word.

Priya is always looking to improve herself and measures herself to the highest standards possible. Often, she frustrates herself when she fails to meet them but she must realize that she is already ahead of her peers in most categories.

I look forward to many more fruitful years of collaboration with her"
Service Category: multiple
Year first hired: 2004
Top Qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative

Parenting lesson 103

Try to finish your potty work at home when u take your toddler out!. Try not to use the public bathroom as much as you can. Read on to see why.

We were at Target last week and I really had to use the restroom, so I took my daughter in as well.

She was at first very curious ( first time in a public bathroom) and then her mouth got ahead of her mind and she started the questions , LOUD and clear
" Mommy what's this? ( pointing to the potty)"
" its mommy's potty"
" OK. What are u doing?"
" Going potty. Can you not talk for 5 min?"
" not talk? OK."
After a second
" mommy U like potty? Sonu also wants to sit on a potty"
She then bends to look at the adjacent restroom and goes:
" mommy what's that"
" Another restroom sonu"
" I want to go another restroom, sonu likes it. Sonu wants to go NOW mommy"

I was so ready to vanish into thin air right there!
Have you had such experiences? Share them so I feel better please:)

Many updates

Its been a long time since I took time to blog. Believe it or not, I have been busy even at work:) yeah yeah it does happen once in a while.

Sonali is into full blown long sentences and can communicate clearly and precisely about what she wants. If we dont understand something, she gives us the "look" and repeats it as many times as needed:) I really wonder what she thinks about us!

Here is a small funny conversation we had the other day
She( pointing to hubby) : mommy its my daddy. Is he your daddy ?
Me: No sonu, he is my husband
She : husband?
Me : yeah. Mommy's husband and your daddy
She : No No, my husband my husband. daddy is my husband!

I had to leave it at that to save further confusion and embarassment:)

Sonali also moved to a new pre-school this week and she is doing GREAT!. We got her excited about her new daycare for a whole month and I think she likes it there. So far so good. Every evening though, she grabs all her things - Blanket, pillow and change of clothes. For some reason, she does not want to leave them behind.

We have planned our first real vacation with sonali. FINALLY, we booked everything and it is for real. ( So far we have been talking about it for 2 yrs)! September, disney, here we come. How do I prepare her for the big giants of mickey and minnie??

Oh she loves to sing! Wants to sing all the time, so time to enroll her in music classes?? maybe too soon I think.

More updates to follow.

First real compliment?

The other day sonali's daycare teacher and I had this conversation, leaving me elated for a minute and back to questions the next.

She told me that she is expecting a niece and that she would like if that child was like sonali!!!!!!!!

I just stood in shock for a minute. then I smiled and said " Thank you that is sweet of you" and then grinned a whole lot and felt proud for another minute and then asked myself: " Really?? Is she sure?:)) "

Sonali is all of BRAT at home and is a cherub outside. There is a tamil saying: veetla Puli veliya Eli ( Tiger at home and rat outside). How do these kids distinguish between what is theirs and what is not at this age?! They do have more inside their little head than we attribute them to.

Well anyways, I have blogged her compliment so years later she can look at it and wow at herself:)

Our crazy travels - Part 1

I used to work for an airline soon after I graduated after my Masters. I loved loved working in that group and you would not believe the perks of working for an airline.

Now before some of you uninformed presumptuous folks start to say : ": No wonder the airlines went bankrupt" get your information and facts right!.

So as an employee of the airline, you get travel benefits at free or discounted rates to any place!! YES!. but we never displace revenue passengers, so we are the last ones standing near the airline door at the terminal, waiting to see if we have exhausted all our revenue stream. Then if there is space, we are let in.

As a result, we end up vacationing in Europe in Cold winter and the hawaii in peak summer:)! But STILL its worth it I tell you.

Anyways we have done some crazy things and before my memory gets the better of me, i wanted to journal these.

1. Hawaii - we went there for our honeymoon and stayed for a week. LOVED IT. We tasted a very nice icecream baklava in a small pita place on Mauii. We liked it so much that we decided to go back to Hawaii for this.

So we hopped on a flight from ATL on Sat morning,, flew 9 hours. Reached that evening. Had our little treat. Stayed overnight, lounged at the beach that morning and took the afternoon flight back on Sunday to ATL- another 9 hours. CRAZY! but worth it:)

2. Suitcase delivery : My cousin landed in NJ for his Masters but had an extra suitcase that domestic asked him to pay for. So I told him to leave it with my friend and go on to Raleigh. During one of my innumerable trips to the east coast, I picked up the suitcase.

My husband I were talking one sat evening and he said he has to work on Sunday. so I decided to go to Raleigh and give the bag. So I took the morning flight on Sunday, flew in, met my cousin at the airport, handed the bag and left on the next flight bac to ATL!!.

3. Rome over a weekend : Friday evening, we decided to hop on the flight to Rome. We also coordinated with a friend in germany to meet us in Rome on saturday!. All set, we reached the airport a little late and missed the flight. So what did we do? We just took the flight to Paris and thought we would get on a local connectin the next day and get to Rome. As luck would have it, ALL local flight were quite full from paris to Rome that weekend and we waited an ENTIRE day in the Paris airport. Meanwhile my friend had arrived in Rome and the poor guy started looking around all byhimself:)! WE got the connection only late sat evening and reached Rome that night.
We had the whole of Sunday to look around and took the Sunday night flght back home!. So much for our Roman Holiday!


... more to come.

Is this for real?

Before I am jolted from my dream world, I need to write this.

My daughter has been sleeping all by herself IN HER OWN BED for the last 3 days... I am counting. Her eyes were wide open when I put her in the bed, I said Good Night. She asked for the blanket.. then stared for sometime while I kept pacing the room and finally fell asleep. Three days.. you hear me??

I am still counting.. the days and my blessings:)

Sentence list

I am trying to pen down a list of sentences that sonali goes through at every stage.. let's see how far I can sustain this interest.

Right now.. these are some examples.

" hey Guys,, Dont do that"
" Amma, be careful " - when we are driving
"Let's go Keezha/meela" ( Let's go downstairs/upstairs)
" I go kool " ( I want to go to school)
" Shall we spash? " ( Shall we splash)
" I dont know."
" Thank e" ( Thank you)
" Ur welcome"
" Sarry " ( sorry)
" Amma, pulease " ( please)
" its mine... my turn, my car, my clip..." --- this list is endless
" Shonu car - its white. Appa car - Its Red"
" Oh Oh, I go poopy. Amma, change diater, puleaase "
" Ebibody, follow me.. follow follow " ( Everybody follow me)

I'll keep adding to this list as I remember them:)

Where is my baby?

I thought I recently had a baby:)

Well, it turns out that I am quite slow in counting days!. It seems like I just held my little baby in my arms and wondered what I felt. She is now going to be 2 and I still wonder many things about her...:).. just not the fact that I am completely in love with this one!

Sonali has been talking forever now, so she has no trouble singing her own birthday song - only a million times everyday. She is very excited abotu the prospect of a cake and song.. and her favourite question these days is - : Who's coming? At this, I have to start listing down the names of all her friends and once she is satisfied with the list, she will grin and leave me alone , for about 5 minutes when she starts the birthday song again.

My little baby is growing....

She is very expressive and has learnt to make sentences to communicate with us. Although its fun to see her talk , we begin to miss the days when she would babble or just say a word and we would wait till eternity for her to repeat it , to make out what she meant:) I guess she figured that if her stupid parents cannot learn her language, she might as well learn theirs!

Kids are so attentive and listen to all that's going on around them. I am so surprised at some sentences and words she can pick up just being in the room and pretending doing her own stuff. All this means hubby and self cannot even have a decent fight anymore ! What a world I say!

Oh well, my little baby is no longer little:) She is growing.... I wish I could time again to my convenience!

Friends

Friends - they come in different varities and shape your life in many ways.

When i think of my friends, I think of them belonging to some kind of circle around me. The closest are the ones in the inntermost circle and with whom I share a really special bond. This bond has formed over the years and I cannot be happier or more grateful about how it has turned out to be.

These are folks who dont judge me for what I am or what I say. IF I am happy, they are happy for me. If I am sad, they feel worse than I do. I dont see them everyday or dont even talk to them everyday.. but I know they are there for me. I can call my best friend and tell her/him the silliest emotion I am feeling today and I can be rest assured I will not be judged. Its the ultimate feeling of comfort.

I love the feeling of friendship and hope I can continue to feel this way after many more years.!

I miss my best friends today and this is for them -- Thank you for being there always:)

My daughter's concern

A few days back, I asked my husband to give me a pressure punch on my back for my backpain.
I was lying on the bed stomach down, my husband started putting pressure with his hand on my back. My daughter was watching this from her crib.

Her spontaneous reaction was:

" Appa, NO, dont do that, paavam amma"

We both looked shocked for a second and burst out laughing and I was grinning from ear to ear all that day!!!!!

IT totally made my day. I love her so very much:)

Temple visit

We took our daughter to the temple for the first time over the weekend, for a friend's baby's naming ceremony. She was very excited and surprised to see the new place.
I took her near the idols in my attempt to induce some knowledge into her.

The first idol was that of Lord Puri Jagannath. For those who have not seen this idol, its supposedly an unfinished work of a sculptor who got angry since his work was interrupted by the king ( story told to me by my friend ). So the idol looks very different from the usual south Indian idols.

Me : " look sonali, this is Lord Jaganath"
Sonali took a good look , like she was registering something
Sonali : " Amma, Elmo....Appa, Cookie monster"

There were no more words to be said:) My daughter said it all!

Old Mc Donald had a farm

This is my husband's version of Old McDonald!

"Old McDonald had a farm, eeya eeya ooo
On that farm he had some ducks eeya eeya oo,
quack quack here, quack quack there..
.............

..............

Old Mc Donald had a farm,..eeya eeya oo
On that farm he had a wife,eeya eeya oo
A shoe shoe here, shoe shoe there..
shoe shoe everywhere.. oh oh oh

Old Mc Donald had NO farm.. ayyo ayyayyo "

Take your child to work...

...or not.

My office had a " take your child to work day" yesterday. Most activities were tailored for kids 7-13 yrs of age, but on my admin insisting that it would be " cool" to bring sonali in for lunch, I decided to take her in.

I took her in the morning under the assumption that its only a few hours until lunch and she will be very excited seeing new faces, new gadgets and so on. Everytime I make an assumption about my daughter these days, she finds a way to disprove it. She did very well this time too. To begin with, she would not look at anyone or talk to anyone. A cheerful " hi cutie" was met with a sideward glance in the opposite direction and dead silence. Needless to say, the cheerful HIs stopped after a while.

I gave her a piece of paper and some crayons and put her on a chair near mine at my desk. She was excited and so was I. It lasted for exactly 7 minutes. Then I gave her an unused keyboard and some tissue paper and my daughter got very busy wiping down the keyboard, then my desk, then my mouse, then the keyboard I was using and finally she wanted to clean my nose with the same tissue. No she did not give me a choice.. I had to oblige.

She was bored again after her cleaning spree. So I put the headphones on her and opened a tiny window and started playing some youtube rhymes for her. She sang along with them, without a care in this world. I had to go around apologizing to the folks I share my cube with. Once she figured the headset was too much work and much less fun, she removed it and tried to see if she can break it. So off we went to find something else to do.

I walked around with her a few times, got her back to my desk and put her on the chair again. She stood up in the chair almost immediately , bent down a little and a few seconds later, I heard her voice LOUD and clear : " Amma, Poop". Yes yes, its one of the mistakes of potty training I know!. Anyways, I told not to worry and that I will change her once we get some lunch. She was quiet for a couple of seconds and again went : " Amma Poop, poop, thonu poop ". only louder this time, as if I dint get her message the last time. I think even the guy is the remote corner office heard her.

Now the worst part was that I forgot her diaper bag at home, so I decided to head out and forget lunch. As I was walking out, I saw lunch come in and I was once again coaxed into taking a bite. So I sat there and took the first piece of pizza and started feeding my daughter.

I sat her down in a chair in some empty cube and as I give her the food, she promptly spits it out. As i bend down to clean it, she takes the receiver from the phone and wraps it around herself and starts giggling. She is very surprised I am not smiling at this point, so she does it again to see if I get it this time!!. Then she stands up in the chair and loses balance and starts to fall down. I manage to catch her in time but I could not stop the tears or the loud wailing. Once again the remote corner office guy knows my daughter is hurt.

After some calming down, we go back to eating pizza. This time, she wants to feed herself and since all parenting rules say you got to teach ur kid to be independent, i let her have the plate. She simply took the plate, turned it upside down and dropped everything on the floor. Mommy cleans again, gets a new plate some more pizza and more of the spitting follows. I give up and decide to take her back to her daycare.

As we walk out, she goes : " Poop amma" again and this time also pointing to her back ( Like I dint know where it came from)!! I was so exhausted by noon and felt like I gave birth all over again.

So really, don't let people talk you into being " cool" and bringing your 22 month old to work - especially if it even remotely resembles mine!

Oh and the remote corner office guy is our Vice President. I'll let you know if I have a job on Monday!

Parenting Lesson 102

" When you give a timeout to your child, make sure you give one for your husband "

My daughter has progressed from the no-biting stage to the sure-beating stage. Now that we have taken care of that no-biting thing with Stern NOs and 2 second timeouts, she needs a new way to express her excitement. She decided to start beating. Again, we are the privileged ones for the most part.. but sometimes she has a soft spot for friends of ours she likes and they suffer too:)

The beating is something I really need to control so I get very strict with her. I immediately put her down, keep my face still and give her that Look and say NO. She stares at me for a minute , wondering if I will change my expression and I don't move. As she pouts her lips, her dad comes running to her, swoops her up and starts to pacify her. Worse yet, he also makes her laugh and what does she do again? Yes she gives him a good beating. I don't stop her now because I think this one is worth it!!

If mommy tries to discipline her and daddy comes to her rescue every time,, she is really not going to get anything out of it. Every time I tell her not to do something and she doesn't like it, she will go running to daddy and knows she can get away with it.

So I have decided that every time sonali will likely get a timeout, I will first put my husband to a timeout room and chair and then handle my baby. Preferably lock him in there and maybe even go shopping:) Ok now my evil mind is working.. so I'll stop.

Believe me..

.. when I say that my feet have grown by at least half an inch.

I thought it was a myth when they say that your feet grow during pregnancy ( yeah like every other part of the body growth was not enough for us!!!)... but its sadly true.

I discovered this sometime back but refused to acknowledge it and was able to use some shoes that did not show too much difference between x and x.5.

Today as I was trying to squeeze myself into a pair of pretty shoes that I bought in the yesteryears, I just could not even get my feet into them!!!!. I did not want to admit defeat, so I did wear them and to say I am sorry about that would be an understatement!. I am sitting at work, with the shoes off and every time I want to take a restroom break or coffee break, i keep postponing it. A lesson well learnt for my stubborn self!

So pregnant ladies out there - get a size larger than what you wear currently.. better yet, wait and buy them later.

Where is home?

I love India, love chennai and love going back for a vacation as often as I can. When I came to do my Masters in the US, I wanted to go back within 6 months. I never thought this land would be home. Home to me was always back in India. When I went home after a couple of years later, I still knew my heart would always belong here. I thought this would never change - that I'll always be a visitor here in the United States and my "home" would be where I was born and brought up - India!

I was surprised to find myself proved wrong. The first visit after my marriage was a very short one, so I did not even have time to think or indulge myself in thoughts of any kind. My second trip after the baby was a slighter longer one -to celebrate the happy occasion of my dad's 60th birthday. I loved every minute of it and would not have given it up for anything,..... but that was the first time I started feeling a little uncomfortable after a couple of weeks. I suddenly realised that when I refer to home, I refer to my actual home in the United States- our first home that my husband and I bought together. Don't get me wrong - I am quite happy visiting India and love to stay there, but I no longer think of that as my permanent home. I get a feeling of uselessness by the third week in India - I feel some kind of irresponsibility just idling my time and as much as I though that would please me , it simply does not:)

Weird huh? So there is some truth to the saying that "The bride leaves her birth home and gets a new home after marriage" ! - at least in my case.

Logic or feeling

Allright folks, I am back from heaven 7 after a pre-pregnancy pair of jeans would just not fit me.

My husband and I are very different when it comes to arguments. He kills for logic and I kill for the lack of it. Yeah yeah, I hear you - " Marriages work when two people have different personalities blah blah... " Marriages just don't work automatically - you need to make them work? Do you hear me , MEN?

Ok I digress. Back to our arguments, this is how the end of an argument will go :
Him : " Ok peepso, give me one good reason why you want it that way"
Me : " and how many times have I given you that? I feel its the right thing to do"
Him : " Feeling something may not be the answer always.. in this case, apply your logic and think"
ME ( thinking) - WTH.. Does this guy not know me at all? Logic I believe, my foot!
Me ( after a pause) : " I did some thinking and I believe I am right"
Him ( smiling at this point) : " What is your logic baby"
Me ( angrier at that smile ) : " Oh whatever, you only care about yourself, that stupid logic,,, what about my feelings? I do exist here- a human with feelings... " and so on..
Him - completely confused and a blank stare
Me - storming out of the room , still wondering why I felt unconvinced about my own argument.

U see how different we are? I thrive on feelings and emotions and he so does not. I wonder if this is a common trait for women and men? He is more pragmatic and I am not. It would interesting for me to see a couple who have these roles interchanged.

All this also leads me to wonder if men react in a certain way only because they are expected to? I mean.. men don't cry, men don't show emotions - all these are some unwritten rules for how Men should behave and I wonder if men want to follow those to a T.

Does the same apply for women... probably not. When have we followed rules?:) We only follow our feelings!!!!

Do I feel great or what!

My colleague looked at me today and said : " Wow, you have lost so much weight.. what happened? Eat well"

Can you tell I am on 7th, 8th and all the heavens above?!

The little truth that I dint tell him was that my shirt was probably covering all the flaws , but who cares:)!

So you see, when I get down from this elated level, I shall come back to earth and blog some more!

Parenting lesson 101

Now don't ask me where the first 100 lessons are. I believe you can group them all together into " Pazhaya-pondatti kadhaigal" ( Old Wives tales) and I have heard my share of them from ... well u know the old wives:)

Anyways back to our topic in discussion - my daughter has this peculiar habit of biting us when she gets very excited. I think she started this around 15 mos or so when she got a lot of teeth. So just like we blame everything else on teething( baby not sleeping thru' night.. oh its teething.. baby not liking my food.. oh its teething), we did the same for this.
But the pattern proved enough to dismiss our false assumptions. She would only bite when she is excited and the privilege was reserved only for her mom and dad. Sorry folks, you 'll just have to pass on that painful unbearable experience that leaves a not-so-desirable mark!! ( u lucky *%&$*@)

We have been constantly telling her a strong NO when she does that and I usually follow it up with " " No biting Sonali, only kissing". I believe there has been some effect and the biting has reduced a lot ( no kissing instead yet), yet she still does that at times. Yesterday was one such day - she was very excited about something I said or did and I picked her up and hugged her and OUCH OUCH OUCH! on my shoulder. I quickly put her down and raised my voice and said " NO" and told her " No Chinchu for you" ( Chinchu is her term for " lift me up"). I guess this was my first time-out if you may call it that. She stared at me for a second and pouted her lips. Before she could begin to cry, I lifted her up, kissed her , hugged her and said sorry only about a million times. The timeout lasted exactly for 1.5 seconds. I just don't think I am cut out for this!

I need to either learn to be tougher for time-outs to work OR just take one myself and stop acting silly!

Potty Training - Chapter 2

No, I did not get very far with it but thought I'll blog my failed attempts , so I'll remember them later

The potty is still sitting in our bathroom, but now my daughter uses it.. Yay!. How?
Everytime I use my potty, she likes to sit on it ( with clothes AND diaper on) and DO NOTHING. When I am done, she is also done and hurries out of the restroom before me and wants to close the door behind her. A few times I have seen the door shut on my face! Dont like the training this early on I'd say:)

Her constant answer to the question: " Do you want to go in the potty" is a resounding "NO".

Oh I hear the daycare does a good job of potty training.. Really ? Tell me its true for that seems to be my first, last and only hope.

Good luck to me!

Good mommy?

My daughter is 19 mos old now so I am kind of expected to be an expertise in baby raising for the first 19 mos, and everything that has to do with it!. I, unfortunately don't think I live up to those expected standards.

A lot of my friends are pregnant and they want to know many many things and I understand that since I have been there. Totally. I would not hesitate to ask a stranger at my daughter's future daycare if they liked size1 or size 2 diapers!

But when the very same questions are posed to me, I go blank.
" Did you use preemie diapers or the regular ones from day one?"
----hmm, maybe preemie, wait.. maybe size 1. just try one of both

" Do you remember the day your baby had her first solids?"
----I think i can get that from our camera. I have a pic.. it was around 4-5 mos!....

" what did you give her?"
----the usual

"hmm like what?"
---- I think its best to go with ur Doc's advice.

" How was her poop for the first few days? How much would she go?"
----not sure, but certainly ask my husband -bet he took some measurements:)

" What was her first word, when did she start recognizing you? when did she blink her eyelid? when did she first smile......"
----I wasn't blogging back then, so I really DON'T KNOW!

These are the times I feel the need to assert myself. As far as I have heard, mommies remember every little detail ( even the poopy ones), but the fact is I don't!. The surprising fact is also that I do not mind it at all. I really don't think I need to remember every little fact to be a good mommy. I I love my daughter and she knows that and I'll be there for her always!. Phew! Felt good to re-affirm that:)

Having said that, I also admire moms who do remember all that. It shows their attention to detail and their memory power... but not necessarily their power of affection over moms like me.
My friend A asked me a question last week( I can't even remember the question now:)) but needless to say I dint know the answer. She was really sweet and said : " Don't worry, you don't need to remember everything". Thank her for that rule!

The next time someone asks me and I know what to say, I am going to challenge them to get an answer from my husband!. Then they'll see how cognizant I am.

Mom, I have a Val-day party!

I thought I would hear these words from my little girl when she would be not-so-little... around 28 maybe?. OK. how about 25? Oh well I give up... 24 it is!
Anyways, the point is , I really did not have to wait that long. Her daycare announced a Valentine's day party. Yes you read it right. Her class, which consist of about 9 midgets less than 2 ft tall are already hopping on the commercial brand wagon of Val day!.

I had 2 choices
- I could ignore the invite and act like my daughter wouldn't care less, so not make a big deal of it.
- I could give in, send snacks , send cards and let her know in a very weird and indirect way that I am a part of her party!

I chose the sensible thing.

I sent a cheese tray, dressed her up in red, signed cards for a card-exchange and some chocolates for the teachers? Wait , was that not the sensible choice? please don't tell me so.

My daughter will have proof of this day and can you imagine what a strong weapon that is, if I protest to her parties later? This trend apparently does not stop with her oh-so-innocent toddler class. My friends tell me as they grow older, they have parties at school where they can bring their dad and dance with him. ( Ok, this one I need a recording of, for my own selfish reasons.. am totally laughing my ass off just thinking about it:))!

What next? They'd find you a good match to go out with? Well if that happens, I am sure I will find myself sitting and blogging about this again, but really doing nothing about it:(

I sure hope my husband has a plan in mind.

Do men Cry?

I believe they do, especially the handsome ones:)
Roger Federer is testament to this fact. For those who dint watch it, make sure you catch it on youtube or whereever.

For those of you who dont know what I am talking about - Roger Federer lost to Nadal in a 5 set match on the Australian court. Fed lost his first chance at taking his 14th grandslam. During the trophy speech, Fed lost it , got emotional and had to take a break!.

Felt really sorry for him, but nadal totally deserved it. He earned it. I only watched the replay and the final sets of that but that was enough to tell me what a good player nadal is.

It almost seemed like Nadal was crying after the match.. at least his facial expressions dint show the exuberance of a winner that day. My husband's theory is that he was trying to suppress his excitement , as a polite consideration for his opponent. I just think Nadal was too tired and exhausted.

Oh well.... I am still a fan of Fed's game and looks:) So will be cheering for him on the other courts this year. So does this make Fed an underdog now?!

So I am guessing if Rog Fed cried on court, my husband will finally come out of his pseudo belief that men dont cry!... Next weekend i'll see if I can get a federer out of my man:)

Did I skip a few years?

This morning, as I was getting my daughter ready for daycare, she started yelling when I wiped her face. She assumed her Pottu had fallen off and started crying : potoo potoo while pointing to a corner of her eye( she still can't point to the exact location on her forehead for it). Then I had to guide her little finger to it and tell her all is safe and well!.

Then, I took out a shirt for her , she looked at it and went " No". What?! " No" she said again. For a good 5 seconds, I looked at the shirt, then at her wondering what was going on. Then I pulled out another one and she again went " No". Not it was my turn and I went YESSSSSSSSSSSSing and dragged her to the bed and she was visibly upset as she looked at her dress. Then I had to distract her from the dress to pottu, while I slipped it on. As soon as I was done, she went " WOW" as she touched her shirt!. I believe she would have had the same reaction if I had gone with the earlier pick as well. So much for motherly instincts!

Then we go down to get shoes. She was very impressed with her socks and no problems there. As I am ready to slip her shoes on, she goes: NOOO. A very bold one this time. So fresh from learning my lesson upstairs, I decided to slip it on anyways. She just kicked them away , gave me a sharp angry look and pointed to the other pairs of shoes in her box. So then I took out 2 pairs and gave her the choice. I think I completely confused her, as she looked from shoe to shoe!. I was brimming with joy since I assumed this small gesture would keep her away from the NOs!... but a few seconds later, she pointed to one pair and asked for them.

Did I skip a few years? I thought this happened much later and i have much time to dress her up like I want to. ! It does not look like I can embarrass my daughter showing her these snaps later in life, like mom does to me now:)

On a related note, sonali loves to dress up, asks for hair clips, pottu and loves bangles and anklets. Her daddy is definitely happy with that and hopes she will continue to be so!. Secretly, I hope so too:)

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New year to all. Its been quite sometime since I blogged and most of it has been laziness and a little part that can be attributed to mundane stuff that kept me busy!
But for those hoping my hiatus would last, here's your big new year disappointment- I am back:)

Baby Talk - This should really be Toddler Talk but I am having a tough time getting to terms with that. My baby( toddler) on the other hand seems to have transitioned so well into this new role. She is now 18 months old and its so amazing to see her grow. She has been talking for quite sometime now, mostly words or 2 word sentences, but her vocabulary has increased in bounds over the last month. She started talking by trying to imitate our sounds and speech and although she still continues to do that, her innovation is starting to show. She says the cutest things that we don't understand a lot. That frustrates her, but am guessing when she turns 18, she'd be happy if we dint try to understand her:)

She says " I la poo" for I love you and blows amazing kisses on our cheeks and No(se). Her best feature right now is Pretend Play. She uses her swing , tries to put her doll to sleep and sing to it. Feeds food to her bebe( baby) as she calls it and waves bye and blows kisses!. Sometimes she goes around saying Bye bye to some imagined person( I hope) around the house... sometimes she goes and kisses all the inanimate objects around the house ( yes, believe me)!. She gives a big sloppy kiss to the kitchen carpet, mindless of the mess she herself created on it a few minutes back. Its a good thing I put a lock on the trash can door!

Sonali is mostly learning our language( tamil) at home and I am a little worried about how she will manage in daycare. Worried if she will be alone and setback because she would be confused with the bilingual (un)connection? Her pediatrician seems to think it is nothing to worry about and in fact it will be better for her in the long run.. I sure hope she is right!

Amongst other things , my dad left for India after spending 6 months with us and it feels like I lost a right hand. He was amazing with the baby and the cooking and helping around the house. Sometimes he is more perceptive than I am with regards to sonali and I have learnt quite a bit from him. My brother left after spending the Xmas break with us too. That just added to the gloom. But my husband has been such a sweetheart and I think I will feel better soon!

Hoping to have a great 2009 .......