Happy Halloween

More Halloween Pictures

What a Joke?

My doctor just called to let me know that my blood test results have come back and I have very low Vitamin D levels. He is calling in a prescription for me. Really? Dude I live in Arizona. I still have my AC on because it's fricking sunny and hot outside and I have low vitamin D? Oh well! Add one more pill to my routine.

What does this tell me? I need to get a life and go out more ;). Reason# 345879 to get that Acura TL. I have had my eye son that thing for more than 2 years now. Time to go that baby home.

V is doing good. He gave his cold and fever to me and told me to go have fun with it. What a sweet kid ;).

Throwing Tantrums for Toys

That would be me. Did you really think V threw a tantrum for toys? Ahem. No. I did. I wanted to get him an activity table. Prabu thought we could wait till we come back from India since it's only a week more. I wanted it right now. I won.

When we got it home today in the evening from picking it up, V was sleeping. We set it up before he woke up. As soon as he got up he was about to cry but saw the table and went directly for it.

Where do I even start

Breathe... Breathe.... Not you , I am telling me to breathe. Ok let's go. I am watching Bommarillu for the 49th time so I should feel better by the end of this post.

Vikram's fever came down on Thursday. We dragged him to the doctors office on Friday to get his flu shot. He caught a cold on Friday night and it hasn't come down yet. Poor thing. His nose is blocked, so he has to breathe with his mouth and he had a hard time doing that last night. So what did he do? Ended up crying till 10 in the night. We took him out for a drive after trying everything we could to calm him down and make him feel better. Once we came back and took him to his room, he saw his bed and went and slept without a noise. I felt so bad for him. I am sure there would be more things like this that I have to deal with as he is growing up but yesterday felt like the most horrible-est(I know it's not a real word) day of my life as I just had to let him cry and nothing we did would sooth him. Oh well! Live and learn.

I had to get that bad part out first. We did have some good things too. Babloo anna and Julie came over to spend the weekend with us and it was fun. V played with them and seemed to have fun. Four of us went to Phoenix Art Museum and it was good. I will probably take V there when he is old enough. Babbi and Julie wanted dosas all weekend:). Mom made dosas for breakfast and dinner but we also had mexican and Indian for other time.

I just stopped by at the jewelery party to pick up the catalog. I know they said I don't have to buy but I feel guilty and they kind of caught me in my most vulnerable time. Usually when I am down like this, I try not to look at shopping catalogs. But now I think I am gonna go order me a ring or two perhaps ;).

Here is V at the end of his fever and before the start of his cold. Look at his tired eyes. My Poor Babbooski.

First Fever

Hey gotta record first time of everything. V had fever 2 days ago. It came down quiet a bit and he is doing good. Looks like fevers increase immunity. Good for him. We saw the doctor today and she siad he is doing great. She did think he needs to gain alittle more weight. So we ar egonna start him on cheese avaocadoes and even yogurt and eggs. Not a bad diet;).

Babbi and Julie are coming over this weekend. I got invited to a "jewelery party". Oh don't ask. Will fill in later on that if I do decide to go as I am not a big fan of companies where they say, "God made me do this." Oh phuulease!

Packing is getting done one by one. I just have to start making more lists:).

Must pick one

I had too many titles and ideas for posts in my head. I cannot seem to put anything down now. Some of them were:

- "Why do I love thee?" : About my love for Prabu not another V post ;)
- "Because I got them!" : My answer to mom's "I noticed you are wearing deep neck tops recently"

and a million other's.

Work has been good. Not too lazy, not too busy. Just right :). I did some shopping therapy. I finally have enough tops to wear 2 weeks straight without repeating. My goal is to go straight for a month without repeating.

V is getting ready to walk. He takes exactly 2 steps without holding anything. He is also getting big and loud. He got his first real time last week. What's a mom got to do when your son spits the food he is eating and laughs? It's so hard to be serious with him sometimes. He gives this naughty smile and goes all cute on me. I struggle to keep a straight face and be serious. I am learning:).

Here is him sleeping on the carpet in the living room in the middle of playing.

Tale of two cups

When Leela was V's age, Madhu would get her whole lunch/dinner broken down into 2 different rices and in 2 different cups at the same time. That way the second she is done with one, we can move on to the next rice without giving a break. I used to think, man she has to wash 2 extra dishes. LOL. Little did I know, here comes my tiny terror with his two cups and washing those extra tiny cups is not a problem anymore.



I mix rasam rice in one and a vegetable rice in the other. The thing is, if I just do it one cup - one rice: It's too boring for him. My man needs variety (and spicy). And he cannot wait for me to go mix the next round. He gets too hungry within that 10 seconds. So we sit with both cups. Oh! I so feel for Madhu now :). True, wait till you become a parent to know the real deal. Till then, just enjoy your nephews and nieces and hand them to their parents at the end of the evening. That's more fun ;).

Here are some pictures mom took today of V helping us pack for India. Never mind my messy room :).

11 Months

Someone turned 11 months today. One more month to go before th whole running around starts:).


That's him playing with Prabu's wallet :).

Here's a link to a new album i created with his monthly pictures :).

Rum and Coke, margarita or....

a glass of Chardonnay. I will take anything right now. I so need something after a hectic day. I am so tired. Instead of going to bed I decided to open the Amex bill today and got a mini stroke. Let me explain something to you here.

Prabu and I believe in gender equality. There is no such thing as "this is your job and not mine" at home for us. When it comes to mail, he checks all the bills and I take care of all the coach and williams-sonoma catalogs. Prabu works really hard to pay the bills and I work equally hard shopping and not looking at any credit card bills.

Since he is not around today, I said to myself, "Let me open it at least once and see how the bill looks like." Very very bad move. Our vegetable and fruit shopping total for 25 days is $400. Please tell me you spend that much a month too so I can sleep at peace tonight. I wish that $400 included wagyu beef or even some black truffles. Nope. Just fruits and vegetables which are priced much lower in this state that in Jersey.

Since I have no afore-mentioned drinks at home, I am just going to get a bowl of extra-rich but low calorie dulce de leche ice cream or as Prabu calls it "Oxi-moron ice cream".

Deja Vu

Seriously. I felt like I was in Kadapa today. Because that's the only place I lived where there was water problem. I woke up today to find out that they shut down water supply for our apartment (this is the second time this happened in 2 months). We had 1/2 bucket of water to use for emergencies and washing our face and stuff. I called the apartment emergency and the really nice lady says, "Maam, someone vandalized the water pipes yesterday and we have someone working on it. Unfortunately I cannot tell when it will be restored." AT that point I was hoping this was just a dream and I am going to wake up any time soon :).

Around 10.30 am, I call again to be notified that they are not going to open the water pipes till 3 in the afternoon. Alrighty then. So I pack everyone up and take them to the mall because we couldn't even use bathroom in our house. We walked around the mall. V was being his cute self and grabbing compliments from strangers. It was a nice day out. We did some grocery shopping on the way back. Finally we see water at 3 as they promised. I just realized, Prabu missed last water pipe issue and today's issue. Any ideas on how to take revenge on that guy?

After a nice long hot bath, I wanted to cash in as much as I can about the fact that I have a car till tomorrow morning. I went and ran some errands. And once home, it was cooking time:) Before I sign off, here is V in his fall clothes. It's starting to get little windy , so we put him in pants and full sleeves.



And here is him showing me where the fan is in his favorite onesie;).

A car is a car is a car

My Chauffeur is away for the weekend. I decided to rent me a car for today and tomorrow (Sunday is day of rest ;)). And boy does it feel good to drive after a while. The sense of freedom and independence you get while driving is just…hmmm…. Something you have to experience on your own. No, I am not crazy. Driving is a feel good thing for me like cooking. Well, I have one more day to enjoy it before I get shoved into the passenger seat of a 5 speed car (Whoever made those stupid a-yes-yes manual cars?).

I went shopping for me today all by myself. You see my aunt gave me some money before I left Jersey and told me to spend it on myself ;)( no you cannot have her. She is all mine ). So I bought couple of things. I hate clothes this season. The material, the cut, yuck. I am usually walk-in, pick-up, get-out of the store kind of girl. So I hate when I have to go to 20 different stores to find one piece that I like. After that, I took mom, dad and V out for a drive. V got so excited getting into the car. He kept laughing all the way. Then picked up dinner and now I am writing it up. So what you guys up to this weekend?

Top Chef

Bravo Tv has this show. It was third season and I was totally hooked. I can not believe I didn't watch first 2 season ( Why didn't I have Bravo in Jersey...hmmmmm). The premise is simple. Pick a top chef from 15 chefs. Good stuff.

Mr. Hung won the title and all hell fell lose. People are biyaching about how Hung doesn't deserve the win because he doesn't cook with "soul and heart". That's the funniest thing I have heard in a while. You go to a restaurant and order steak. Do you say, "Dang! that steak is so tender and juicy" or do you say "I don't see any heart or soul of the chef in it". Phulease.

This kid works as a sous chef at Guy Savoy. That is a big deal to start with and he was good. I hated his arrogance and attitude but I think i could totally see where he is coming from. When you get good at something, you get defensive and arrogant about it. Oh believe me you, we all do it :). Whether it be cooking, programming or even painting. Nothing wrong in saying, I am good.

Phew! Rant over. Had to get it out of the system. Now I am going to go see how to make that darn le Cirque's fish dish so I can cook it soon.

Birthday and an Apple

Today's mom's birthday. She didn't want to go out or celebrate. She is in to the "don't-spend-any-money-give-it-charity-instead" mode :).

Oh and about apple. Mom and V went to visit our neighbor today and they gave an apple to mom before they left (it’s a telugu tradition to hand a fruit to the guests before they leave.). So he comes home with it and starts eating it sitting in the corner.



He also helped his ammamma with packing for our India trip.

:)

He just makes me smile. What more can I say :)? And please blame grandma for that manpris he is wearing. I have nothing to do with that.




Shameless self promotion ahead:). Check out my recipe blog. I have my first post with a picture:).

Phew!

It's been crazy 2 days. Dishwasher went crazy on Sunday night. I had water spilling all over my kitchen. Ended up cleaning the whole kitchen. I think even the dishwasher knew I was behind my kitchen cleaning ;). Prabu always wondered why I need 12 pack dish towels. "Honey, come home. You will know why."

Monday morning, we got news from India that my uncle (Dad's sister's husband)passed away in Vijyawada. We were kinda expecting the news as he was on dialysis and all but still a shock to my parents and they are really sad. I might make a trip to Vijaywada when I am in India. I would like to See my aunt and introduce Vikram to her. I hate feeling that my V never had a chance to meet my uncle and now I don't want to think my aunt never met him too. Sucks over all.

I think with young kids around, sometimes you do not and cannot be sad for a long time, which is good sometimes. V is learning a new word each day and does goofy thing every day and keeps us cracking up. He hardly drinks milk anymore and hates rice cereal. All he wants now is rice, lentils, vegetables and more rice and vegetables. I got brown rice and whole wheat couscous. I think it's time to introduce some whole grains. Just plain rice is not gonna cut it any more :).

I haven't gotten a chance to upload pictures yet. I promise to do it soon :).