I need ......

a big FAT vacation. Well you see, depending on the day of the week I have anywhere between 1 - 5 kids to take care of. So I am very stressed. Taking care of Kid # 1 (Vikram) is much much easier than taking care of my other 4 kids (My mom, my dad, Prabu and Chaitu). With V, I can distract him from his tantrums with a stroll around the park or just by tickling him. The other four, I have to start putting them on long time outs;). I am going to just go ahead and books us some tickets to Italy for 2008 summer and call it my gift to Mr. Husband for our 5th anniversary ;).

So how you guys been? We had a busy weekend. Went to the mall on Friday. Another major whining ahead, so please walk away if you had enough of me for today. Arizona's malls suck. I am so pampered by jersey's malls, these things here are just yuck. How hard is it to have decent stores around. Yesterday we did little grocery shopping and all and stayed home. Prabu left for Atlanta again today.

Prabu gave me the good news that their office move to a different city in Arizona itself. It might happen sometime in January. I am so close to hating this whole moving thing. I guess the good thing is it's not to another state ( in which case, I would have waved him good bye and told him to go by himself ;)). We will be starting serious house hunting the minute we come back form India trip. I do not want to move to another apartment near his new job and then move into a house again. I like to spend my time being a spoiled brat and enjoying sunny days of AZ instead of sweating like crazy by carrying heavy boxes around.

Ok, I am off to go check if that thing I threw in my room is working or not. What can I say? Parent's get on your nerves ( V is probably thinking the same thing right now in his sleep):)).

Someone is home

Prabu is coming back to night. He was supposed to stay till next Sunday but he is coming tonight and will go again sunday. Niceeeee :).

V is getting bigger and naughtier:). He found another friend in the complex. She is 2 years old and name is Adarshini. She came to play with him today. He kept saying "ba ba" to her. I guess he was trying to talk :).

Oh how can I forget this, I got a nice surprise package day before yesterday. It was from my girls Patti, Rosa and Show-may. Oh how miss them. It was a package from Harry and Davids with apples, pears, nuts and candies. It was so good. Thanks you guys. Love you and miss you :). I guess that's why I dream of going back to working at Meta Solutions one day. It was the best place I worked so far and everyone who works there makes you feel like we are all one big family. It's just wonderful.

Work is getting busy. I had 3 hours of sleep last night. I guess that's the drawback of working from home. You just cannot shut down and say I am going home :).

Come up with your own title

We spent the weekend stocking up the fridge with veggies and pantries with groceries and V's baby food since Prabu was going away for 2 weeks. Saturday night Prabu and I snuck out on a late night date after V slept (Note to self: Biyaching on your own blog helps). We went to a bar and I made the mistake of ordering dinner. Another note to self: Never order Risotto from a place that makes their own beers. It was like pilaf with water. I could sooo teach them how to make risotto. May be I should have offered. It was the worst dish I ever had. The drinks were so-so. But, I did enjoy the outing. It was just nice to sit and relax and chat with hubbs.

Prabu is away on a business trip. He won't be back for 2 weeks. V was all crying and cranky today. It was so sad to see him the evening. He kept looking into our bedroom to see if his appa came home. Mom and Som said that he is missing Prabu. I am in denial. I just keep thinking 10 month olds don't know much yet (I know I am wrong;)). V did give Prabu a kiss on the phone(by licking the phone)

Friends, acquaintances, buddies,......

I don't want to know the difference between each, neither do I have the interest to look it up on dictionary.com for a difference. I am sitting here in my bed, watching one of my favorite man's movie ;) and got to thinking about friends. Prabu is out with his buddy and that's another reason for this thought(s).

In Jersey, I had Jay, Dolly and Anu. It was fun. Now I am here, it's like all by myself. As much as I like my solitude, sometimes you just feel the need for someone to go out to dinner, drink or just a movie. I found out that there are few more who work from Arizona virtually for the same company I work for. I tried reaching them but we just couldn't schedule anything. Oh well!

Now I am going to say something corny, get ready. You do miss your people when you are away from them. I wish I could call Dolly right no and tell her to meet me on Stelton road for a coffee, or tell Jay to fly down for a weekend;). I think, after 8 years in this country now I feel why all the H-1 wives who come here immediately complain about how much their life sucks because they feel so alone. It's true, you do need a friend once in a while. Blah blah, your significant other is your best friend blah blah but you do need a friend so you can bitch about your husband and kid or just to discuss the top chef episode.

May be I should sign up for a cooking class or better yet teach one.

And the fun begins!

The first question other parents seem to ask us is this: "Is V sleeping through the night?" SO far the answer from us was this :"No problem at all. He sleeps just fine." And now we jinxed it. he still sleeps through the night ( touch wood) but has been trying not to sleep at all to start with. His usual sleep time used to be 7.30 PM. Now he nicely pushed it to 9 PM. And I am the only one in the family who believes in letting him sleep on his own so it's hard to do that too.

Tonight was no exception. he was so sleepy but refused to sleep. I asked Prabu if he would take him out for a drive since he is on his way to drop Chaitu at the airport. He said, it wasn't such a good idea because then we would have to put him in the car seat and back and all that. . Guess what happened. I became a car. As soon as they left, V started crying and he was sleepy. I put him in the car seat, put the car seat on his stroller and .....I ran. Yes my dear friends and family, I ran with the stroller like I was the car to give him the feeling he was in a car. He slept . Hallelujah! I ran about 5 times around my apartment block and he slept. He is now transfered to his bed from the car seat and the verdict is that he didn't get up yet.

Phew! What a relief:). I kept circling my own apartment because I was too scared to run all over the neighborhood at night;). So there you go. next time, your kid doesn't sleep, get yourself a workout. Or if you don't have kids and want a full work out, call me. I will lend you Vikram for a night ;)

PS: Always listen to what I say. I am usually right ;).

Bandoos Rascal

Well that's the character I created to tell stories to V while putting him to bed. Oh I love my baby. I am finding him cuter by the day. I cannot belive he is 10 months old already. We celebrated his first Vinayaka Chavithi festival on Saturday.

He is slowly starting to try hard to talk more. He says "sh" when you say "trash". he says "mummums" when he is hungry. It's just so adorable to watch these teeny tiny changes everyday.

Here are the latest pictures.

Oh Men !

No, I don't meant it in a funny way today. I mean it in "oh-these-men-do-get-on-my-nerves" kinda way. We all know I work from home and my dad thinks, the minute the clock strikes 2 pm (which is 5 pm in NJ, I work eastern time) I should shut off my computer and walk right out of my office/bedroom and take care of everything. I was happy when I didn't know he thought that. Now that I know, it irritates me sometimes. Come on, it's not like I shut myself straight 8 hours from 5.30 am. I make coffee for you ( twice), cook lunch in between and take care of V in between and other stuff while working. So yes, I do have to work beyond 2 pm. The funny part in this whole thing is, my dear brother has been working from home for the last 5 or so years and my dad never ever said anything like this to him and he never will. Again, oh men!I kinda expected this kind of attitude when I was taking this job but still it ticks me off and nope, I am not going to blame my anger on thyroid this time ;). Don't worry I did give him a piece of what I thought about his comment and ever since he is been trying to be super nice to me ;).

Speaking of men, do you know I have got two lazy men in my life. I hope V doesn't join their cult ;). They ditched my idea for a night out to downtown Phoenix to get a drink on Saturday. Chaitu asked me why I need a drink so badly. Honey, let me tell you something. When you take care of a 10 month old, work full time, clean, cook, do laundry and million other things, you do need a drink once in a blue moon (Please don't quote any woman who does all this and more and doesn't drink ;)).

Today I wanted to go get some ice cream and they are both busy and I don't know how to drive a stupid 5 speed car. Dang, I need a hot fudge sundae. That or I need to make new friends here in Phoenix. No one comes out because of this stupid heat and the one's who are in our apartment are 20 something singles who are more interested in playing volley ball every week than to talk to the neighbors. I should join them probably. Heck I can use some exercise.

Prabu is going away for 2 weeks on business trip coming Sunday. I think I will just surprise him by picking him up from the airport in my very own car. So who wants to join me in my car shopping. I promise to buy you a drink later ;).

Shake Shake Shake

That's what I do now a days to make V laugh. He is teething and poor thing is in pain. He cries a lot now a days. We try(ied)everything to sooth him but the one thing that makes him laugh in the middle of his crying is his momma picking him and saying "Shake Shake Shake" and dancing with him. He thinks it's hilarious. Oh kids:).

I am off for the day from work. Not that I wanted to but V came in to play in my room and decided I worked enough so, he turned my desktop off. So I played with him and now he is taking his mid-evening nap.

Thanks again for checking up on me after the surgery. I am actually doing great. I still have to drink using a straw ( throat hurts when i try to drink from a bottle)but apart from that I am back to normal. I am back to my cooking, cleaning, laundry doing, working, taking care of my baby super woman self. Hells yes! I am boasting of my capabilities. Why the heck not? We don't have super woman or super mom awards so I might as well give myself one;). If you are one of us reading this, please pat yourself on your back because you deserve and you are good at it. And all you men out there reading this, please go make a margarita or a martini for your gal, she deserves one.

I am going to update my recipe blog soon too. Since mom went all healthy and diet on us, we are actually doing pretty good. Even dad's food habit's have changed. He no longer needs oil and onion based curries. He is enjoying lettuce wraps and corn salad as much as chole and potato fry. And while we are on the topic of food, I just want to reiterate this again ( and I will do this again and again). Please do not go out and buy anything that has a label of "curry powder" on it. Adding that doesn't make a dish "Indian" or "reduce cancer". It tastes horrible and there is no "authentic"ness to a dish once you add it. I will elaborate more on this later on my recipe blog but for now just enjoy your dehydrated alu gobi and chole.

I lost half the butterfly

Thyroid is in the shape of a butterfly and I lost half of it yesterday in the form of surgery. Everything went smoothly. Turns out it was just inflammation and not cancer. I am home and feeling good. Cannot talk or laugh much. Throat hurts :). Hence the blog update.

Thank you everyone for your calls and mails. Made my day. The surprise call was from Saritha who is vacationing/studying for her CPA exams in India. I am so glad I have another great friend. Made me feel so good and special. And today, Som dropped off couple of DVD's. Guess what was in there. Biwi No.1. Yesss. Salman Khan's movie is what I need right now to recover fast;).

Good thoughts?

Can you spare some? I am getting the right side of my thyroid removed tomorrow. Should be out by 11 am. I am a little nervous :).

Laminated List

Do you have one? I just heard from Prabu that he doesn't have one and he is surprised that I do :). Ofcourse I do honey. I am saving it for the time when you move in with your second wife and I get to take your money and one of the hunks from the laminated list and move to Jamaica.

I am gonna share my list below, who is on yours? Oh come on, fess up.

Numero Uno : Sallu

After that in no particular order:

My Take home Chef

Matthew McConaughey

Christopher Meloni

Bingggggg

Bragging time

Ok, I was all nervous about the surgery on Friday and now I feel better. I had a 10 minute talk with the nurse at my surgeon's office and she made me feel a whole lot better (Now I don't have to work too hard on that will anymore). So no more blah posts. let me write some fun stuff.

So off to some bragging. V is able to show fan and TV when we ask him where they are. It's so cute the way he raises his head and looks at the ceiling fan. He is starting to mouth stuff but we cannot understand jack :). He is also getting to be stubborn and throwing small tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. He has yet to learn that we are more stubborn and him throwing a tantrum doesn't convince us much:).

More good news: Amma and Appa ( Prabu's parents) said they would like to come back with me in December to visit us. Yayyy. That is super exciting. I didn't get a chance to spend my childhood with my mom's parents much so I have no memories of them. I spent most my time with my nayanamma ( My dad's mom) and I so cherish them till today. And now I am just so glad V gets to spend good time with both sets of Grand parents.

Krishnashtami

We celebrated Krishnashtami yesterday. We dressed V in traditional clothes and mom made the foot prints and he messed it up. I took bunch of pictures. You can see the traditional Krishna and the Krishna with sun glasses here.

Labor day Weekend

It was a typical long weekend at the Thevars. Saturday we went on a drive to Sedona. It was beautiful. V was good overall. He just wanted to be out of the car seat most of the time. Sunday, Prabu and I went for some "India shopping". Getting stuff for family in India. All we did was buy clothes for all our nephews and nieces. And Monday, just stayed home, I cooked, we ate and just sat with our butt on the couch without having to move :)