Stress Reliever

Work has been crazy, home front has been crazier. The only relaxing thing now a days is me and V going to the pool. He loves it there and I am slowly starting on getting over my fear of water so I can start taking swim classes(stop snickering).

I decided to do what I do best when I am totally stressed out. Take a cooking class. I called up Kitchen Classics and they had one available yesterday and I ran :). Learned how to make 3 of the 4 mother sauces. Now if I can whip up some mashed potatoes and fried chicken for the weekend, it would be money well spent:).

Here's a video of V working the "Mixie". Smart ass uses the small jar as a base and the big one for grinding.

V and His Body Parts :)

Weekend of 07/13/08 :)

Prabu and I had the Sunday to ourselves and decided to go watch a movie. We saw WALL-E. I told you we are romantic. I tried to lure him to go watch Sex and the City with me, but he nicely declined ;).

I have also been catching up on lot of Telugu, Hindi and Tamil movies that I haven't seen in a while or missed it somehow. I hate violent movies(unless it has Sallu in it). So I have been catching up on all the mushy-romantic dramas I can get my hands on.

Oh and Chaitu is now US Citizen. And I have been given a responsibility. So where ever you are my future Vodina (Sis-in-law), contact me as we need you soon or the family is gonna kill ME. Make sure you are fair, you have long hair and you have mix of east and west qualities (whatever the heck that means) ;).

Fingers Crossed

Chaitu, mom, dad and V are all out to enjoy Verde Canyon by Train. Since Prabu and I have been on it before we decided to stay home. This is the first time since V was born that we will be leaving him with mom and dad for 9 hours straight. Now before you scream, "Chill what's the big deal", my hubby dear is nervous. Cross your fingers that they will come back and tell us that V was a doll and they had no issues with him :).

And now on to the important part, since we got some "alone" time, Prabu and I have no clue what to do. So we decided to do laundry. We are sooo romantic I tell ya;).

Woohoo!

Mom and dad will be US citizens in 3 weeks after taking the oath. Yayyy for them :).
Chaitu is coming tonight. He's got his citizenship interview on Tuesday. He's got some studying to do :).

It rained here yesterday which is a nice surprise. V had so much fun watching it. H's gotten a nasty cold and is liking it because now he gets to smell Vicks. He loves Vicks, what can I say?

Here is V and mom making "Vadiyalu". Those things are getting done in one day because of the heat.

V and P

Here is V giving me a "Sime". Yup he says "Sime" for smile. He is growing up fast and starting to repeat everything we say. He is also getting more and more clingy to Prabu.


Now a days I started sending Prabu and V on short trips to the store. It's a fun one-on-one time for them and a teeny bit break for mom and me.V also behaves exceptionally well when it's only one of us taking him out.

Long Weekend 07/04/08

Well it wasn't real loooong;) but short and fun. It was too hot for us to go anywhere. V didn't even want to go out for a walk at 8 in the night. He kept saying "Hot". And then went on to say "Soodu" in Tamil and "Vedi" in Telugu like we wouldn't understand if he said it in English. Since we speak 3 languages at home, he picks and chooses the words that are simpler for him to say. Where was I? Oh yeah the weekend. Stayed home, ran some errands and made some yummy food and ate and stayed home more. It was a perfect weekend for me and my man, eat, sleep and don't do anything.

Men In Black

My death-row meal ;).

Anthony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman, Eric Ripert and Scott Bryan at French Laundry. Do I say more? I wish I can meet at least one of them once in my life :) or dine at their place.

Fear of the Unknown

Well, I am going to utter something I thought I would never have to say because I didn't believe in it as much. "Generation Gap" ladies and gentleman, it's called generation gap.

I wish I was raising V in the 80's when I was raised. From what my parents told me, Chaitu and I were good kids and they never had to discipline us and when my mom raised an eyebrow we knew we were doing something wrong and we stopped. My mom at every chance she get's till today proudly says those things to the point I have to be like, "Mom stop. No one cares." They never read "What to expect when you are expecting?", they don't know who Dr. Spock is and what his views on discipline are and they didn't really care to call the doctor the second a bug bit Chaitu in the eye.

What happened in the last 20 plus years? Prabu and I were around kids before we had V. We saw everyone from a brat to well-behaved, anti-social to overly friendly kids. We kinda had mental notes which we never put it down. Whenever we found ourselves judging a kid or a parent, we used to joke saying, "Our kid is so gonna do that and we are gonna go hide in a hole." Now I have this cute bundle in front of me and I feel like I am trying too hard in raising him to be a good, quiet, 'don't-touch-anything-except-your-toys' kid.

Why am I doing that? You want an honest answer. It's because I am trying hard to make sure he stay put when we go out, doesn't raise his voice, ask politely for what he wants, doesn't grab at anything that's not his, stays in his high chair when we go out for dinner. I want my cake and eat it too. But then, notice any parents around you, they are all doing that. They might not be obvious but that's what they are doing. So next time my mom says, "You guys never touched the TV remote", I cannot help but come up with a lame-ass response of, "Mom, we didn't have a TV in our house till I was in 4th grade and that TV in those days didn't come with a remote."

Sometimes, I wonder if we as parents are missing out on enjoying our kid's childhood because we are so caught up on the web of well-behaved children, or may be I need to let it go because I shouldn't be afraid of the unknown or the unexpected behaviors of V that will come across me.