It's a beautiful Day

No the title and what I am about to write has nothing to do with each other. I was listening to that song by U2 and just typed the title:). It's getting hot and everyone back home is worried as to how we are doing in the heat. Heat? What heat? We stay at home during the day with Air conditioning set to 72 degrees. We go out for walk late evenings when it's very nice and even if we need something we get into the car which is usually "pre-cooled" by Prabu before we step foot outside ( talk about being pampered). SO it's not all that bad. When we do get the electric bill this month is when we will know the real deal;).

V's been as usual. Cranky a little bit and trying real hard to push our limits. He finally figured out how to use the pacifier and we do give it to him when he is really really cranky. Chaitu called and wanted to know if V sat by himself with no help in the car ( see picture below).

Well first Prabu was holding him from the side but after 2 minutes we didn't need no help. Our man was pretty good by himself. Even at home, when we put him on the floor to play, he rolls over for a bit from one end to the other but then immediately tries to get up. Funny guy, I tell ya.

It's not about the Indian stores

It's more about the fact that I feel like NJ is my hometown. Now to all of you rolling your eyes and saying, "Oh please, you weren't even born here.", as my friend Patti says, "too bad, so sad" you think that way but that's just how I feel;). I really just miss the people, the roads, the familiarity of it all:). It's been exactly a month to today that I came to "fee-nicks" and I still miss NJ. Oh well! I will get over it soon and this feeling too shall pass:)

Prabu and I went out for dinner to his colleagues place last night along with V. He was a very well behaved kid. Let's see how this "well behaved kid" phase lasts. My bet is for one more month and after that I see a brat in making. Right now, he is at a stage where he is not ready to crawl but goes to place sin the room with just rolling from one end to the other end. He wants things that he cannot have ( just like his momma;)).

Ravana Dodda ( mom's sister) is here from Seattle, so V is gonna be double pampered between both the grandmas. We heard from India that Mom's older sister is now doing better. She had a sun stroke and is in the hospital right now but doing better now. She should be able to go home in couple of days.

I updated the recipe blog with some random thoughts. Will be adding couple more recipes soon.

Long Weekend

I know I have been MIA for few days. I will try and make it up:). We went to Grand Canyon on Saturday with V. It was also a trip for meeting Manga Aunty and family who came to Minneapolis to visit Gopi. Mom and I packed some lunch and off we went. By the time we came home it was 12.30 in the night. Prabu did a good job driving ( gotta give the guy credit somewhere once in a while;)). It was V's first long drive and I think he did ok . He did get cranky in between but not too bad. Every time he would get cranky, we take the camera out and he is all smiles.

Here are some pictures. And no, no one got hurt when the 6 month old took to driving;).

Blah!

That's just how I am feeling lately, so the title:). V has been very active lately, signs of him growing:). You leave him at one corner of the room and by the time you blink your eye he ends up at the other corner. He hasn't started crawling yet but rolls himself over and over to reach his destination;).

I have some "fotos" I need to upload but just too lazy to do it tonight;). Here is a picture of V trying to cover himself with the sleeper bag.

House Hunting - Part Deux

"That house is wayyyy out of our budget"
"What IS our budget?"
"You need a GPS to go through that house"
"Why are we looking at them then?"
"You are such a miser"
"You are such a spendthrift"
"Want some cheese with that whine?"

-So that's usually how our conversations are coming down to now a days when we go out looking for houses:). Prabu and I start the day nicely looking at these gorgeous model homes and then slowly, the heat gets to us and we end up being mean to each other ( Heat is just one of the excuse. We take anything;)). But honestly, we are just taking our time. Market is looking good for buyers as of yet and we are playing the waiting game at this point, even though I would like a commitment soon.

We had a nice friday night yesterday. Sarita and Somprav hosted dinner for us, Monica and Pallav, Amrish, Parul and their baby girl Anvi. Sarita made an awesome dinner and we had a great time with everyone. By the time we got home it was 2 am. Since we live 2 apartments from them, we didn't get stuck in any traffic:).

V says hi to everyone:). He wants ya'll to know he helps his appa with sorting the mail we get everyday by eating the junk mail;).

That's for tonight. Not much going on in "fee-nicks". Since V is asleep, I am just gonna go watch me some Iron Chef.

Jealous Much!

Look who got all iffy about someone getting all the attention with their finest sunglasses;) and decided to steal them.



V got a playpen today:). Surprise, surprise. Guess what happened after we put him there for pictures. He slept by himself without us having to sing anysongs in high pitch voices nor do anything. Oh these kids. Tooooooo unpredictable:)

Singing ...."It's getting Hot in here..."

It was 105 yesterday. Since we try to stay home it doesn't feel much but you cannot even go to pick up your mail. It's hottttt. Mom keeps comparing Phoenix to Kadapa ( my native place). She says, "Kadapa - Phoenix, same-difference"... lolol

Here are some of the pictures of V I took yesterday. He's all set for this weather. The only thing missing in the picture is a cold drink or ice cream in his hand but that should come in pretty soon before you know it:)

You can see all the other pictures I took here.

Introducing "Iniya Akila Natarajan"

Isn't she a cutie with those big eyes:).

Iniya in tamil means Sweet:). I am loving this name. So unique and fresh.

Aki had a girl

Aki had a baby girl yesterday at 8.14 Am. What a great mother's day gift! I am so sad I couldn't be there but so excited for the parents. baby and mom are doing well and I will know the name in a couple of days. Since the little one was not scheduled to arrive till the 27th of this month, I don't think Aki and Siva had names ready yet. So they still need time:).

Guess who turned 6 months today. Mr. Vikram Prabu Thevar:). he is deep in sleep right now and if I try to take a picture, he will get up. So picture session later.

Hope you all had a great mother's day yesterday. V got his grandma a card and he is treating mom and grandma for pedicures later on;).

Today V and I were outside in the morning and we met our sweet neighbor. She has a 5 week old. His name is Dalton. V loved his new friend. It's nice to make friends around. Don't feel like I am alone in a jungle. D's mom and I chatted for like 20 minutes ( yes I am a chatterbox). She has been in Phoenix all her life so she gave me lot of tips and stuff which is always nice to hear.

I will do another post about our house hunting this weekend.

I am too excited to..

type anything other than this.

Aki is in the hospital and by this time tomorrow I will have my niece:). She is going to be coming in 2 weeks early just like V. Aki and Siva are so psyched. What a great mother's day gift:).

I will update more later.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Again, pictures say it all.



That's my boy having his first set of vegetables today and we started with carrots.

Finally after 3 days of being cranky, fussing and not sleeping properly V finally slept 3.5 hours in the afternoon which is good news. Since we started solids, he is not drinking enough water and that was kind of bothering ( I don't want to post too much info on that here;))him. We finally made him drink some extra water mixed with apple juice and went easy on the amount of cereal and he was a happy boy.

So tonight, we all sleep better:).

Before I say good night and head back to my Zen, check out Suji's Recipes: I added some good stuff I made today:).

Yeah Baby !

My birthday gift that my boys(Prabu, Chaitu and V) bought for me came in mail today. Here it is.


I am downloading all my music into it tonight. So if you don't here for me in the next few days ( or weeks or months;)) that's probably because I am too busy playing with my new toy.

Talking about music, if you look to the right I added G's myspace page for his band. Check it out. I am so sad I will miss the album release party but excited about it for them:).

Let the fun begin!

I am going to start of by showing guys some pictures so you know what I am talking about.



See where his territory(the blue zone) is and where he ended up. He lifts his butt up first and moves his way out:). Fun stuff I tell ya!

In other news:), Keerthi is now a consultant for IBM in Melbourne, Sarada is graduating from Harvard and Gautham's new album is released. I am so proud of my cousins:). I have to ask G if it's ok to post the link to his band here and when I get the green signal I will let you guys all join in the fun:).

Nothing much else going on here. The weather is getting hot but since we stay in most of the time we don't see the effect of it as much yet. When we do go out late in the evenings it's actually pretty nice.

Here's what I made for dinner tonight.

Ciao.

Wiggle Giggle

V that is. He figured out how to use his head and butt to move around and we leave him one corner of the room and he shows up at the other corner withing 3 minutes. He is not crawling yet, he just wiggles his way out and turns back and gives us a smile. He thinks he is being funny. And we try to put him to bed by patting and singing and he does the same to us. He keeps patting our hand. Prabu thinks it's not that's he is actually patting us, it's just that he is trying to tell us that he won't sleep no matter how much we try because he is just not ready:).

Prabu and I went out for dinner tonight while mom and dad babysat V. We went to Maggianos. What can I say? I am a sucker for Italian food.

No pictures today. V's been getting very cranky lately when it comes to trying to put him to bed. It's becoming a big chore:). I know what you all are thinking: You haven't seen nothin' yet.

Kandukondain Kandukondain

No, not the movie silly:). "Kandukondain" in Tamil means I have found it. And guess what I have found in abundance today: Curry Leaves. I was like a kid at candy store today in that Asiana super market we visited. They had so much of it and I picked up 5 bags like there is no tomorrow:). Just had to share my excitement with you all because I was ready to move back to Jersey if I finished the ones I had and I couldn't find more. Haha, now I don't:).

Any who, moving away from curry leaves, I totally forgot to post an important picture and give credits to someone:). Julie drew this when she was here last Sunday. She did this when V was taking a nap on mom's shoulder. Mom says, "Julie is an artist". "Ya think mom". She is awesome:). Thanks Julie


And one more picture for today. This is V as soon as he woke up from his nap in the morning. I was going to take a picture of him sleeping but he just woke up and decided to pose for me.

Phone Numbers

Our phone numbers haven't changed. We still have the same cell and home numbers:). Will be doing it some time in the near future;). When we do I will send you all an email.

Epic Post

Haven't updated in few days, so thought I would keep you guys up with what's happening. Chaitu came in on friday evening and spent the weekend with us. We dragged him for house hunting on saturday. As soon as we walk into the first model house he says, "Oh! you have to get that pool and how much does that cost?", second house: "So pool is included or no?". We had to smack him and say, "Could you please get away from that darn pool? Look at the house first and we will come back to pool later." Then he understood we were there to see the houses and not just the pool. Oh men!

Thanks to each and everyone who called, mailed, sang and texted me birthday wishes:). It felt good:). I have said this many a times before but nothing wrong in writing it here so some day V will read this and know exactly what his mama wants on her birthday. Honey, whatever its is you do make sure mom has a gift box to open. She loves to open gifts:). So Here's what happened on Cinco De Mayo ( which also happens to be my b'day). V decided to wish me Happy Birthday exactly at 12 in the night by crying for milk. Well thank you very much hon:).

In the morning, after having breakfast and reading the greeting cards from V, Prabu and the familia we headed out to see houses. Window shopping:). Then we had Thai take out for lunch and Prabu made chicken curry and rice for dinner. It was nice over all. Someone asked me how I felt since it's my first birthday as a mother. No different. However, next year though, I am taking V out to party with me:). I love birthday hooplas:). Gotta train him young;). Here are some pictures.

Here are couple of new things V started doing. He started blowing raspberries:). And sticking his tongue out. He is too funny.



Since his doctor told us we can start on stage 1 fruits and vegetables we got some of them. Chaitu mama thought applesauce would be nice. Err No:). This is what you get when you try to feed him that.



Babloo and Julie were here yesterday. We hung out, had lunch, went to the pool, enjoyed the hot tub. Julie taught me basics of swimming. Yes, I am Sowjanya and I don't know how to swim. LOL. I am learning:). I also need to learn how to drive a manual car. Whoever invented those things. Why would I want to make my life harder when there is an easy solution for everything (Can I get some cheese with that whine?)?

Email? TV? anything else?

V loves to read my emails and check out what I am writing in the blog. Prabu is right now sitting next to me playing with him and trying to show him his toys and stuff but nope. My boy just loves my laptop. We already stopped watching TV, thanks to the little one but now cannot read email without him wanting to see what it is we are doing.

I took him along with me to the fitness center in our community. He loved it cause there were TV's all over and even if I tried to get him to face me he was still happy because he could watch Tv through the mirrors that were there all over the walls. Had to cut the rounds short and just walk him around the pool.

I made Shrimp Scampi with angel hair pasta tonight. It came out awesome. I know, I know. People who usually cook don't like what they do but sorry you got the wrong girl. There are days I don't like stuff I create but usually I love me my cooking:).

Doctor's Visit

We took V to his new pediatrician here today. Just wanted to introduce him to the doctor and vice versa. She said he is doing fine. He was all smiles in the exam room. Back home it was a totally different guy. He was cranky all afternoon and it took 2 hours to get him to bed for a one hour nap. Had to sing same lullaby over and over. He's got his songs very set for different things. When we feed him rice cereal, it's one two buckle my shoe or any other English nursery rhyme. For formula, it's classical carnatic song Keraya Neeranu and for sleeping it's the Hindi lullaby, Soja Chanda from the movie Mission Kashmir. Does he know the difference? Yes. Does he make faces when I sing one song instead of the other? Yes. Does he smile and eat the cereal quietly for the nursery rhymes? Yes. So I guess I gotta keep it going. And no, the good thing with kids is that you don't have to be a trained singer. They don't care. They just love to hear your voice just the way it is. No comments made:).

Evening we had Saritha, Somprav and Siddhi for dinner. Siddhi was so cute playing around. Here's a picture of her.


And here are some pictures of daddy and son sorting today's mail.

V and his toys

So we bought V his first toy today. SO far he was playing with the gifts he received. Here's the weird creature that sings and counts and does what not:). Leapfrog almost makes all parents believe that if you keep buying their age specific toys your kids will just get smarter automatically:). They wish. My boy was more interested in the noise that we made while opening it than the real toy itself. But then again, I haven't come across a kid yet who is interested more in the toy than the empty box at this age:).


Also, wanna know what happens when you watch world cup soccer when you are pregnant? You will end up with a kid, who picks up the toy we give him and throws at his feet and kicks it and laughs. V thinks it's so funny to kick stuff. He thinks blankets are for kicking too and not covering. Oh well!

One more thing about V ( Paati is going to be so happy reading all these things about him). Since we started rice cereal he's been good eating. He is slowly starting to grab things and mess around, so this is what you get when you try to feed him now a days.

He gives my mom a look of triumph that he grabbed the spoon from her hands.


And then he pauses to give me a pose for the camera.



And finally grandma and grandson have a tug of war for that darn spoon.


Take a guess as to who won ;).