Vikram's Daily Prayer

Whether he will continue this ritual of praying/talking to God before going to bed. I think I will let him continue with it till he starts asking "Momma, what/who is God" :). Here are two of his recent funny late night chats with is "friend". The first one is before we left for Hawaii and second was from after we came back :).

What he said in Telugu:

"Good Night Sami. I love you. Nenu good boy la untanu, andukane Pilot gentle ga drive chestadu. "

What it means in English:

"Good Night God. I love you. I will be a good boy, and so the Pilot will drive the plane very gently."

What he said in Telugu:

"Good Night Sami. I love you. Thank you so much sami. Good boy la untanu. Ammani satayinchanu. Repu school ledu. Intlo amma work chesukuntundi, nenu living room lo adukuntanu sami"

What it means in English:

"Good Night God. I love you. Thank you so much God. I will be a good boy. I won't bother mom too much. There is no school tomorrow. Mom will work at home and I will play in the living room."

Oh and don't fall for this cuteness :)

Hawaii Trip - Part Deux

After relaxing, enjoying the resort and their Luau, we headed out to visit Akaka Water Falls. V kept calling it "Kaka Water Falls". It was funny because "kaka" in Prabu's mother tongue means crow :).

On the way out we stopped by to get some fresh coconuts to drink and also got to taste "Ice Cream Dates" for the first time :).



V kept posing with his "Shaka" sign for me.


Local cafe recommended we visit black sand beach on the way back to the resort.


We headed to Kilauea Volcano the next day. I had to pick up a book for kids on volcanoes because V loved and appreciated what he was about to see more when we sat and read the book together:). You can see the volcanic ash emission behind him in this picture below.


Here is moi at one of the steam vents:)


Prabu and V on their way to the viewing center to see live lava flowing into the ocean.


And the fireeeee ;).


What did we do last 3 days there? R and R baby! We hung out at the pool, beach, enjoyed sunsets by the beach :).




Here is a link to all the pictures.

Hawaii Trip - Part Uno

People talk so much about certain places they visit that makes you wonder if it's really worth visiting it. I am not big into visiting National Parks (I know, Kill me now) nor was I blown away when I visited Grand Canyon for the first time. But Hawaii, baby is whole another ball game :). Vikram and I fell in love with the Big Island the second we landed. May be we were deprived of the trees, beaches living in the desert for last few years or may be we both needed the much awaited vacation. I mean how can you not love driving on roads that look like this.


Marriott upgraded us to a beach front room and we were in heaven. As soon as we walked into the room I had to lie down because I wasn't feeling well for a couple of days before our travel and the day we landed I was still a bit sick. V covered me with all the pillows and blankets and said, "Here are your gifts momma"


Half an hour after we took this picture we were on our way to the ER in Kona. Couple of hours there and I walked out with negative for flu and a dose of "Just keep taking the Tylenol for your chills and body aches. It could be just something else in the air" from the ER doctor. Thank you very much :)

Next day and rest of the few days we stayed in Hawaii, V would get up and immediately run into the balcony to make sure the pools, hot tubs and the beach are all still there :).



Resort hosted a Luau that evening and V got all excited watching the hula dance, fire dance and their singing skills.

Pictures From Day 1

Pictures from Day 2

Birth, Death And An Engagement

Before I start bombarding you all with a million pictures and a trillion posts about the Hawaii trip, I wanted to share some good news, bad news and some exciting news :). My cousin Keerthi had a baby girl few weeks ago. I finally got hands on the pictures and the name :). Here is Pragnya Kollipalli. Both mom and baby are doing great :).



My mom's aunt passed away in Delaware last week. She was suffering from alzheimer's and it probably sucks to say this but everyone was a little relieved because she truly was at peace finally. I don't think any one should go through that kind of suffering. It was hard on the whole family to watch her go through the pain. The funeral was yesterday and unfortunately I couldn't be there.

Here is the exciting news.. Ready....1...2....3... alright..lol. Chaitu found a girl who said yes to him (She ddn't tlak to me first , may be that's why ;)). Yes ladies and gentlemen, he found his match. It all happened very fast and I do have only few details that she is a girl ;) and her name is Srujana. That's all I can give out right now ;). I will provide you all some pictures and all that jazz soon. I promise ). Chaitu is in Australia right now visiting Pragnya :). Once he is back I might have to fly down to NJ just to see his face and make fun of him (oh yes I will). I spoke to him yesterday and I could totally feel his happiness. Ahhh... the young new love ;). So yes, I will be a sister-in-law soon and I will have a sister-in-law :).

Get A Clue.. Will Ya?

CNN reported today that Chris Brown killed his twitter account because he is upset that his new album was being blackballed. This sounds exactly like my 3 year old screaming "I don't want time-out". Well you should have thought about that before putting sand in your mouth. I wondered about this. Should Chris Brown be given any more news coverage? Should we allow him to get on TV and tell us his side of the story? Would that really make a difference? Not in my book and I am sure that's the case for several others. He either thinks everyone should forgive and forget what he did or he truly believes what he did was not wrong. I am going to go with the later. People can forgive, but can not forget. The day pictures of Rihanna's bruised face went public, his career was over.

Oh, Mrs. Woods, please don't think I forgot about you :). If you really did hit Tiger Woods (I have seen Rihanna's pictures, I haven't seen Tiger Woods Bruises), you are no less than Chris Brown in my opinion. There is always a different option other than domestic abuse/violence. There always will be a different path to take than raise your hand on your partner. The second you decide not to go with that option, get ready for the consequences.

CEO or Driver?

Chaitu wants V to go to Princeton. Prabu says, "I want him to go to a good school" A.K.A, he better work his butt off and get into an ivy-league. My mom can not make up her mind between wanting him to become a Surgeon or Civil Engineer (Yes,my family is that weird n case you haven't figured out by now). I usually say he will get a bachelors after high school irrespective of where he can get himself into. There won't be "I am not going to college" talks. Honestly I think he is going to grow up, look at us and go, "I am now 18, I have a brain. Let me use it and tell you what I want to do and where I want to go". Honestly I secretly wish he does something different and excel in whatever he picks. Not that I look down on surgeons or civil engineers or Scholars. I am all for people who pick a different road than rest of the crowd.

Yes, I am coming to the point. So V indirectly told me he will be different from anyone in the family. We were chatting the other day about garbage trucks, his current obsession. So instead of keeping my mouth shut, I said "Well, once you eat your meals properly, grow up and go to good school, you can start your own trucking business and you can be the CEO of your company". He slapped me with a super fast reply:

"No CEO Momma. I want to be big and strong and be a trash Truck Driver"

Oh yes honey, no one in our fmaily is a trash truck driver, you so will be different ;).

Here is his tiny collection of trash trucks:

Pasta Bar And Panda Express

I try my best to expose V to different kinds of cuisine. Not that it works wonders all the time. I dream of the day where I take him for dinner at The French Laundry and he will appreciate it as much as I do. Granted he is just 3 and has long way to go before he even knows who Thomas Keller is, I can still dream, can't I? In an effort to get him to have a sophisticated palette, I told myself I will try and take him to "nicer" restaurants and get him used to the kind of food and atmosphere.

Last night I took him to Pasta Bar. This restaurant became one of my favorites here in Phoenix and is very addictive. They have simple menu, pick all their produce from local farmers. My boy liked the atmosphere, flirted with the hostess (Oh yes he did), fell in love with their bread sticks, munched on their cucumber appetizer and barely ate his dinner (he was really busy watching where the hostess was because she said "You are so cute" to him every time she passed by).

Today we go out to the mall in the evening. He wants noodles from Panda Express for dinner. Finishes it off without a word and there goes my kid's sophisticated palette. No I am not trying to offend you Panda Express lovers :), I am just bitchin' about the fact that my boy prefers his 3 dollar noodles soaking with "god-knows-what-oil" than freshly made from scratch pasta with his favorite sauce. Ah kids, I tell ya.

Oh yes, here is a picture of V munching on his bread stick:

I Can Bake Baby!

Oh yes I can! Inspired by myself;), I baked a cake again for my good friend's surprise baby shower today. I still cheated at the cake mix department like I did for V's birthday. I didn't cheat on the icing part though. Made icing from scratch. I really wanted the red to come out red but it was just turning into pink and not red, so I gave up on that. My friend was going to wear a red and green saree for the evening (sneaked in to the venue by her mom-in-law :)) and I wanted the cake to be green and red too :). Oh well :). It came out a teeny bit nicer than the last one :)

Three Years

Vikram turned 3 last Saturday. We had a small get together at our house with few of his friends (Whose parents are our friends ;)). Every day for the past 2 months, I kept telling myself, forget the project craziness at work, work's going to be here, go start planning V's birthday party. Never happened. Instead of the birthday hoopla I envisioned, we had a fun and friendly evening of good company, kids laughs and a fire truck cake with fireman's hat candle :). V didn't care either way whether his momma made a big deal or not. He promptly said "Thank You" to everyone who wished him on that day and was less cranky (could be due to the fact that I went a teeny bit over board with the gifts).

Here's him showing off one of his gifts that I picked up in Vegas.


I did a fire truck theme (V's first Love) and even baked a fire truck cake.I never did a cake like this in my life before, tried my best to make it look like a fire truck. Bought red velvet cake mix and the fire truck cake pan and tried to slap on the icing as best as I can. No one in the family said a word but V wanted to know why I was cutting his fire truck into pieces :).

Happy Halloween

Tantrums....

V was throwing a major tantrum on Monday evening. Nothing would keep him satisfied. I said "I am going to count to 3 and then we are going to be quiet for few seconds. If not, I will have to take you to the fire station and give your name to the fire fighter to add it to his bad boys list" Well, turned out he didn't care and I followed through on my promise.

There was a fire station half a mile down from our apartment. My plan was to drive around and show him and he would be quiet. I was driving by and it worked but then there were two fire fighters playing basket ball outside. They waved and said hi and I pulled in and parked the car. Got V out. He was afraid for like 30 seconds. Then he started yapping, yapping and yapping..lol. He told them that I brought him in because he was a bad boy (shoot me now) and promised he will be a good boy from now on :).

I apologized to the guys. They were so nice. One of them said he has a son and he knows exactly what I was feeling :). They took V inside to show the fire truck, asked his name, gave high-fives and a fireman hat to take home :). It wasn't one of my best mommy moments. Just a desperate attempt to make him stop the whining and the screaming:). When I was putting him to bed I asked him again why he cried in the evening. "Because I wanted to wear the poop diaper and didn't want you to change it"

Diwali - 2010

Chaitu came down from Jersey and the Karras came down from Polacca. V had so much fun having the family around and playing with Anand. I uploaded the pictures in Picasa for you all to enjoy :). I have to say we had a traditional/non traditional Deepavali. We all had drinks by the pool on Saturday and then showered, got dressed in Indian clothes and went to temple. Ain't we half and half? lol

We took the kids to Children's Museum of Phoenix on Sunday. Anand and V had such a blast. Wish we had a 4 day weekend :). It was sad to watch V get all dull Sunday evening when every one went back :(. He is at an age where he is starting to show the difference between being sad and upset and crying just for the heck of throwing a tantrum :).

V wants you all to know he had "Dard-E-Disco" shower yesterday. What the hell is it, you ask? Well, it's a song from Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om. In that the hero is splashed with water. So my little man wanted the same kind of shower. So he will sit on his bath stool and I have to stand and pour water from a mug like a fountain. Oh yeah, I make him watch those songs. Why? Because I get tired of watching PBS at times :). Selfish you say? Hello, have we met? ;)

Polygamy - Part Deux

Remember back in the day I bitched about how I feel like a second wife to Prabu (Link to the Bitching;)), well the roles have been now reversed and I think Prabu feels like he is my second husband as I have made my work priority number one. Before you all jump at me with how my child and husband need to come first :), well when you are part of a team, you suck it up..lol. It's been such a bumpy ride last few weeks. The emotional roller-coasters, melt downs, break downs (both of which I am sure are the same thing),oiy.

Every week, I kept thinking, ok I should be able to breathe now, we are staging this weekend. It should be ok this week, we are going live. Nope, didn't happen yet. First it's set up, then it's going live, then it's checking the defects and then something else. Well I think I will end my work-whine right there, so how are ya'll doing?

I managed to upload some videos of V on to you tube(search for syinti). Also updated pictures onto Picassa. My boy is turning 3 in a month and I am pretty psyched about it :). I wanted to get him 3 gifts for his 3rd birthday. Then Chaitu (who turned 30 yesterday) reminded me what happened to the kid from Harry Potter who gets too many gifts on a birthday, idiot ruined it for me....lol.

So V's been good. Starting to show signs of becoming a brat :). Loves doing karaoke with me. His favorite songs are "Show me the meaning of being lovely" by Backstreet Boys, and a million other Telugu, Tamil and Hindi songs. We both dance to our favorite songs at night after everyone goes to bed ;). And his morning routine is with Prabu. I bought him this kiddie shaving kit from Target (has a 'faux' razor, shaving brush and cream, comb and mirror). So both boys get up, brush and shave and then have breakfast together before Prabu heads to work. Due to that I have been relieved from chanting the mantra "Vikram, brush your teeth" every morning.

With that I say good night for now. I will not make promises but I will try as much to keep this blog a little more active :).

Pinky Promise

Few weeks ago, towards the end of a "tantrum-fest", I taught V "Pinky Promise" or "Pinky Swear" as some of you call it. I told him he needs to behave now that he made pinky promise to me that he will. Fast forward to yesterday night, here's his updated bed-time prayer:

"Dear God, Thank you so much. I love you. I will listen to Mom. I will be a good boy. Pinky Promise"

Oh yes, he prays/talks. Depends on the mood. Days when he is way too sleepy, he will not say a word and just sleep. At other times, he will keep going on and on and on and tell God how his day was, what Sheriff did to Lightning McQueen (Go watch Disney's Car's -lol), how the trash truck guy waved to him ... you get the point.

So how are ya'll doing? Life's going at 300 miles per hour on this side of the coast. We moved to a different apartment over the weekend. Needed an extra room to house V's cars, bikes, trash truck, emergency vehicles and all. I am in the middle of working 18 hours days, cleaning, organizing the house and also trying to squeeze time to play pathwords on facebook.

I took V to a near by play school for a tour few weeks ago. Wanted to see how he would react. He actually seemed to enjoy it. He thinks they will let him play basketball all day outside and I will be standing there watching him. I don't know who will have separation anxiety once he starts play school. Me or him :).

Before I sign-off here are some pictures from August.

Must Have Done Something Good

Parenting books never interested me. I never read the "What to do when your baby is...." series (Even though I definitely want to read the new "What to do when your baby is 39 years old"). It's finally clear to me that these kids are born with a personality of their own. Just as you go into a relationship saying, "We can never change a person", you cannot change the personality of these kids. They are stubborn, they have an opinion of their own. At the same time, they are very forgiving and they are as much sensitive to things that happen around them as much as you and I are. You can and should give them the best of everything you can afford and offer, whether it is the clothes or the toys or education.

I had to re-think /re-do the whole way I deal with V recently. Things are going much smoother now with him. He was never a major tantrum throwing kid. There was always a reason when he got cranky. He loves his personal space and likes people to leave him alone at times :). Something that happened last night told me, I must have done something right with him and I hope he continues this way :).

V saw me with tears in my eyes and said, "You Ok Momma". Now I don't remember why I was crying last night and I only remember crying with happiness that he asked me that :). He was nice to me all night and was being goofy and funny with me. I think I saw him as a man and not as a toddler last night :). Just as every mother thinks of their son this way at some point, my time is today to say this: "V will make some one very happy one day. He already made his momma proud".

Happiness - Thy Name is Razor Scooter

My cousin Madhu sent Vikram a Razor scooter. It was Leela's and I am hoping I can pass it down to Anand :). Mom and dad are back in town from NJ and they brought it with them and V 's glee knew no bounds. It's been a week and he still parks it in the bedroom when he is sleeping. And today we found a red helmet and I cannot stop him from being goofy and funny all in one :).

Looking for "The One" again ...

Get your brain out of gutter. I am talking about a hairstylist..lol. Few months ago, I thought I found the perfect one who knew how to handle my hair. I am very picky because I am very sensitive when it comes to my hair and I hate rough handlers and people who burn your scalp in the name of blow drying :).

Went back to her for another appointment last week. First strike: Didn't want to cut my hair because well, you will regret it she said. Fine I gave in. Second strike: Let's not do the color you want, let's go lighter for summer and it didn't come out great. Fine. Third Strike: She wnated me to come visit her church.

No, no and no. No, it's not because my religion says I cannot go to a church and no it's not because I am busy with my temple activities. I just don't even go to the Hindu temple regularly. I go when I feel like it. I go at 7 pm on a Wednesday when I know there will be no one and it's just so peaceful. So thanks to her, now I have to go looking for The One again.

Making Deals

V calls nail polish, mail polish at times and got his hands and feet painted yesterday as part of a "plea deal". Before you think, my house is a jail and I am the ADA, Prabu the warden and V a prisoner... Here is how it went down :).

V's been sick since Monday night and his fever kept going up till 104 last night. We had to give him medication every 4 hours and for the first 3 times, he took it when we mixed it in his favorite juice and gave it. Smarty pants figured it out by 4th time. So now he says he doesn't like juice (gosh darnit). When I had to give him the 4th time, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Alright hon, time for juice.
V: Nope
M: I will give you a new toy cement truck
V: Nope
M: Well, if you don't drink it we have to go see Dr. Lisa then.
V: Nope
V: Can I have Purple mail polish?
M: Will you drink the juice if I paint your toes?
V: yes.

And the result is this



For the 5th dose, he had his fingers painted. So now he is walking around very proud of his nails. I swear, he will be one well groomed Ducati driving hunk ;).

Anywho, we had to take him to the doctor to make sure nothing serious. Looks like he has a viral fever and it should be down in few days. Poor kid's gotten week and is entertaining himself with watching his favorite DVD's over and over because he has no energy to talk/play or even walk for few minutes. Today was better than yesterday and here's to hoping tomorrow will be better than today :).

What I Did...

last night is something lot of people might not confess to ;). Since I have no shame let me say it. I played with V's toys. I should have been cleaning/organizing the house as we are moving into a different apartment (in the same complex) by end of August but nahh.. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday arranging all V's bikes,cars,ATV's and all :). He is down for his afternoon nap now and I was able to do it again and take some pictures too :).

Here is the proof for my one hour of "cleaning".

V's Message to Prabu

Selfless or Selfish?

You must be wondering what a strange post title on mother’s day. I hope I make some sense at the end of this. If not you can chalk this up as one more strange “Suji-ism”.

Happy mother’s day to everyone who acknowledge today:). Finally my age and the fact that I have a 2 year old has caught up with me and the meaning of “Mother” is slowly starting to make sense to me. Mother’s are selfless and selfish at times. Selfish because they would love nothing more than having their kids in front of their eyes as long as they live (no matter how old the kid is) and selfless, well isn’t it obvious, they are willing to keep you in front of their eyes for the rest of your life :). Think about it, would you really put up with this if it wasn’t your son/daughter:

“I wish Jane Doe’s mom was my mom. She’s so cool.”
“I wish my mom would dress a little nicer. She’s embarrassing me.”
“Mom, stop embarrassing me. You can’t just hug/kiss me like that in front of my friends.”

Even though my mom never said, “You will know when you have kids of your own”, I have heard it from others. When they say that, I never understood if they were cursing us or if they were hoping we would understand the shit (ignore the pun) we put them through. I cannot predict how V will be. I am pretty sure he will not be needy when he is 21 and I will definitely embarrass him more than once in coming years. He just has to accept that that’s part of my “Mom Resume” and there is nothing he can do about it.

One thing I realized after all the fights I had/have with my mom, at the end of the day she’s my mom and I love her for that, no strings attached:). And after 2 pretty serious/scary hospital visits of her in last 8 years I have come to appreciate the fact that no matter how different we both are, we both are happy that we are able to see each other and know that we are trying our best to be good :).

And what did my mom get (here comes the selfish part)? Well, I was able to take her to her favorite store and say, “Pick anything you want and do not ask for the price.” It was just our way of showing, you are worth it and you can because we are right behind you trying to make up for things you didn’t get to enjoy so far. The best of all, V telling her that she should get a necklace and not a ring (yes the sales associates would love to have V back in the store ;)).

When Our Plane Danced.....

Mom,dad,V and I landed in Jersey Saturday night. V was a good boy all along the 4 hour plane ride. He got 2 cookies from he air-hostess for being such a good boy (I wish they gave him a Pear instead. He prefers fruits to cookies and chocolates). When the flight took-off from the run way, we went through severe turbulence and the plane started shaking pretty bad. V got little worried. So in an effort to not let him be afraid of planes, mom and I told him that the plane is excited to have him on-board so it’s dancing. The only dance he understands is the Punjabi “Balle-Balle” that his friend does. We said the plane is basically doing a balle-balle for him and if he wanted to join in on the fun. So V raises both his hands and did a balle balle (basically he just threw his hand up in the air few times..lol). When he came to NJ, he couldn’t wait to tell anyone who asked him how he came that he came on a plane that did “balle balle”.

High Expectations?

Since Prabu won't be in NJ on my birthday, we decided to do an early birthday dinner yesterday. I have been thinking of going to Tarbells and so Mr.Husband took me there. One more disappointment. I guess I had higher expectations because I was walking into a restaurant whose Chef won the Iron Chef contest against Kat Cora on Food TV.

I know I shouldn’t have expected the food to be awesome but it felt mediocre to me.
The menu seemed nothing extra-ordinary. Fine, if you cannot have truffles and foie-gras on the menu, but onion rings, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, Spaghetti with meat balls? Seriously? I ordered Scallops with the tomato compote and maitaki mushrooms and Prabu the Roasted chicken. It was blah. I had better scallops at Meola’s in NJ. We also got their Tumble weed onions with ‘Secret dipping sauce’. Well it’s not as fancy as the name. Onion rings and the secret sauce. Let me tell you what it is: Ketchup, cucumbers, honey mustard, mayo and little sprinkle of may be chili powder. The warm chocolate cake with pistachio icecream was the only delicious thing of the whole meal.

I really do not want to get started on the service. I have said this probably a million times before. If you claim yourself to be a high-end restaurant then do not try to rush me out within an hour on a fricking Monday night. When you place my entrée with one hand while taking away my appetizer on the other – that shows you are just a wannabe high-end place. Please wait till I finish my first course before you fire my next course. Even Applebee’s waits for 2 minutes after the table gets cleared between courses and I don’t even have to pay $30 for roast chicken. May be it’s just me. If I want to just eat whatever I can go to a chain restaurant or a Chinese take-out. When I pick these restaurants, I pick them for an experience. I am not going in to just eat spaghetti or mac & cheese (unless those things have truffles in them;))

The only best part of the dinner, it was in a complex where there were benches outside few feet away from all the stores. Prabu and I sat there after dinner and had a good time just talking.

(C)OB(R)AMA

Thanks to Mr. President's Cobra Stimulus Package, I was very busy at work. I have no worked that hard in my life, neither when I was in school nor at any other jobs I held :). To spare you from the technical talk, let me just say the project is now done and no I am still not off the hook. Annual Enrollment is just around the corner. Since I didn't start this post to bore you with my work, let's get into business now shall we.

I didn't know when March ended and when April started. We did have fun in between though. Madhu, Rajan and Leela visited AZ for Leela's spring break. We had so much fun. Vikram followed Leela where ever she went and it was too cute to see them together. May be I should convince her to come here for every winter :). This picture was taken on the day they were leaving which also happened to be Tamil New Year's (hence the Indian outfit V's sporting). For some reason I love it. The sun light form the window, Leela watching V from the corner of her eye... just too adorable in my book :)



We also spent last weekend at Babbi and Julie's place in Hopi and V had his first Easter egg hunt :).

This month's going to fly. Babbi is visiting us next week. Week after my uncle and aunt are visiting us from Chicago. And then....I will be flying to NJ on May 2nd with V, mom and dad. Woohooo.

Parenting Manual

Every parent knows that their child doesn't come with a manual in hand. So there are like a million and more books written by various "experts" on how to raise that kid of yours with no issues what so ever. I did read 2 of the million books when I was pregnant. Then when V came along, I realized it's not the books on child rearing that help you but what you figure out about your kid and by observing what/how other parents do. At times, even after all the reading, observing and analyzing you just throw in the towel and say, I give up.

Now that V is 2 years and 5 months (tomorrow is his 29th month... on PI day;)) we have slowly started few tantrums here and there. He still is a good kid but likes to see how far he can push our buttons :). We have been going through one of those phases for the last week. Every morning and evening he cries for an hour for no reason. Anything and everything ticks him off. It's like a circle with no opening. He cries because he is hungry and refuses to eat. He doesn't eat because his teeth hurt, throat hurts..... and I probably didn't play the right song on the radio....don't ask.

There are four of us in the house and we still cannot help him at times. I am hoping this too shall pass. We had a similar episode in October of last year that lasted 3 days. I thought he will be over it in three days this time around too but looks like he wants to extend it. Today was total crazy day. I had to work till 4.30am last night and got up at 8.30 again and have been working non-stop(Dang that cobra stimulus), and then took dad for his doctor's appointment(routine check up) where they made us wait for 3 hours to tell us that his blood test results are good. Couldn't you just call me to tell me that instead of making me drive down and wait.

And then started evening drama from V. Laughing and happy for one minute and crying like anything the other minute. I wonder what kind of demons/aliens possess this otherwise fun kid. I tried food, drinks, entertainment, distractions, time-outs, toys and finally threw the "parenting manual" out the window and did something for which I will probably get the "bad mother of the year" award(not that I wasn't nominated before). I took him out for a drive and made him eat some food finally. And guess what he ate. Fries and strawberry Ice-cream. So do I get that award now?

When Kiss went to work....

A casual bed-time conversation between me and V (we speak in Telugu but for your entertainment, let me translate):

Me:Good night. I love you. Mwah..
V:Good night. No kiss
M:Why no kiss?
(V Pretending to remove something from his forehead and putting on the bed)
M: What happened to the kiss? Why did you take it?
V: Kiss went to work
M:It did... What does kiss do at work?
V:Eat Pizza
M: and..
V:standing
M:oh Kiss eats pizza at work while standing
V:Kiss come home and drink juice..
M: Does it come back home to me?
V: No. Good night momma

Darn that 2 year old;).

Dress Diet

And you thought I was skinny and had no issues ;). Well, I do have a belly/tummy that makes me look like I am pregnant even though I am not. I am still my 112 lb self but which makes the tummy look even bigger. Since I love my carbs so much and couldn't get my lazy behind to do crunches, I decided to motivate myself in a different route. I remember reading long time ago about something that Halle Berry said after she did her Bond Movie. She said she still has her swimsuit that she wore in that movie and she tries it on every now and then to see if she can still fit into it. If she fits that means she’s good with her weight.

That got me thinking about me, myself and my fashion choices. I forgot when I became the “baggy-t-shirt-and–track-suits” woman from “wow-here-she-comes” girl. I have no problem morphing into a woman from girl but don’t like seeing myself in track suits. I loathe them (I don’t care if they are made with velour with a gold finish). So I decided to do the “Dress Diet”. I bought this beautiful dress and the only way it can look “amazing” from “normal” is if have a flat tummy. So from tomorrow I am doing crunches and going back to gym even if that means I have to sleep only for 4 hours instead of 6. I want to fit into that dress goshdarnit..lol

I welocme you all to spend some extra cash and get a dress that you love and hang it in your closet. It will do wonders I tell ya ;).

"I eat Meat"

Since we spent Valentines day bringing mom home form the hospital, I decided I need to go out and have a "nice" dinner. I searched high and low for some good places. Picked an Italian place that I thought was good because they do not use dry pasta but make their own. What an utter disappointment? After shelling $140 for both of us I walked out shaking my head and thinking, "I could so beat that Chef in making Italian food myself." The appetizers were good but the dinner was a total disappointment.

Also a note to all you waiter people. Just because I am brown, doesn't mean I am a vegetarian. So please do tell me the Lamb and veal specials you have because I might be interested in ordering it. I can hear you describing the specials to the table next to us and I am surprised you didn't care to tell me those specials. You do know what happens when you ASSume..... right?

I think I am going to spend some time and money and create a "restaurant corner" in my dining room and make those dinners myself than pay these so called "high-end" restaurants and walk out disappointed.

Domestic Violence

Pssst,read this first: I have been thinking of writing this for a very long time. Just some thoughts. Move on to some fun posts, if this is not your cup of tea :)
This is a topic that’s very dear to my heart. And before you start saying, “Well men get abused too by woman” (Somehow I hear this every time I talk to someone about domestic violence against woman), let me just say I know that men get abused physically by woman and this topic is close because I know men in my personal life who were abused by their wives. So please, back off with that point of yours.

Few years ago I took a 12 week training program organized by a NJ coalition of battered woman to volunteer for them. It was very eye-opening to say the least. To talk to the lawyers that take up these domestic abuse cases, to listen to the women who went through the violence cycle and who are out and to see how the kids caught in this feel. One thing that stayed with me was something they mentioned in the first class. “You don’t tell a woman who was hit by her partner to leave”. Everyone in the training class was taken aback by that sentence. Then it made sense to us all. If you tell her to leave, that means you are telling her what to do which gives you the control of the situation. Then how are you helping her and you are no different than the abuser because it was all about being in control to begin with. You need to help her by giving choices and she should be the one to make that final decision whatever it is.

It’s hard to just leave the abuser for most women. It’s easy for me to sit in my couch with a margarita in my hand and say the women who was just hit by her husband should leave him without even thinking where is going to go with her kids, what’s next for her and what happens if he comes after her and her kids. Then it will hit you, you cannot judge them. Yes, it’s hard to watch you see woman staying in those kind of relationships but there are million reasons why they stay. Unless you are in her brain and know the reason, again, don’t judge.

Happy Birthday To You

V tried saying "Happy valentines Day" today but I think it was too hard for him. So he kept saying Happy Birthday to you. And then he wanted to know where the cake is. I told him I will bake him a nice cake when I am back in a good mood and up for some baking/cooking. With mom being sick and all I am just not up for anything. I am trying not be to be in too much of a crappy mood :).

Happy Valentines day to all of you. Hope you all are having a good one :).

Dear PV Hospital,

You Suck. When a patient walks in with serious pain and is in tears the good thing would be to find out what the issue is. If you cannot find a reason for the pain, then try to ease it but don't you ever send them home saying "It's not heart related". God forbid if it was related to something else and something happened to the patient. There would have been some serious hell to pay.

I asked you if you did tests to check her gallbladder and you said you did and the results were fine, but when everyone knows you didn't. The copy of results you gave me did not have it. I am glad I didn't come back to you yesterday and I found myself a much better hospital for my mom.

Till yesterday I wasn't sure what they mean when people would say, "Always question the doctor and the hospital". Thank you. You have opened my eyes and told me what exactly they mean.

I will be sure as hell to stay away from you and your staff and also will let every one know to beware.

A Rough Week

Mom mentioned to me casually on Wednesday morning that her chest hurt and I ran to her PCP which is an emergency clinic where they take walk-ins. By the time we got there both the doctor and I felt like it was getting worse from just looking at her face. The doctor recommended I just take her to the ER so we went. There they did an EKG, Echo, x-ray of her chest and an ultra sound of her chest and heart, ct scan and several blood tests and ruled out that it's not heart related and sent her home.

Yesterday she had an appointment with the nurse practitioner at her cardiologist's office and they said it's not heart related. I then took her back to the PCP hoping they will call in a GI specialist and someone will tell me something to ease her pain. I waited in the PCP's office for 2 hours and they still kept her waiting. I got ticked off and told them I am going to the ER again because she wasn't able to eat or much less even take a sip of water because it was hurting her
so bad. The pain seemed to come from her chest to her throat. This time I took her to a different hospital. This hospital was so nice.

They took her in and said they will keep her overnight. A cardiologist came again to double check it's not heart related and they called in a GI specialist. They did an endoscopy today and found that she had an inflammation of her esophagus. They gave her medication to reduce the inflammation and for the pain. She will be coming home tomorrow. Nothing serious anymore and she is also feeling pretty good :).

It's been a long week running around getting things done but we survived :).

A Night at the Tempe Improv

Mom and dad were back last week from their trip to India. We somehow survived without any help for the last 4 months. I was a full time nanny, cook, cleaner, laundry lady, and a Setup analyst too and I managed it all without much complains from anyone. I guess I deserve something bigger than a coach bag this time ;).

Last night was a night out of just me and Prabu. Russell Peters was doing a stand up there and I had to go. We had too much fun and I had stomach ache from laughing so hard :).

Here are the pictures from last night.

V is so psyched to have the G-parents back. He is talking way too much. He is able to talk to Prabu in Tamil and with us in Telugu which is good. But he tried to speak broken English when we go out which is hilarious.

Well that's all for now folks. Not much happening in the desert. Next weekend will be more fun because Chaitu is coming down from NJ and Babbi is visiting with his family as well on his way to Hawaii.

NJ Trip

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last update. Things have been crazy. let me see if I can get this one down. Prabu, me and V went to NJ during Christmas/New years break. It was a working vacation for us. Chaitu took good care of us and we had fun meeting family and friends. I still didn't get to see all my friends (Thanks to someone who was working 3 days straight without sleep). It was a whirlwind trip. Felt as if we were in India. The traffic, the traveling from one house to another, the noise :). What I remember out of the trip ? Dolls saying, "I am not leaving you yet" when I gave her a hug :).

At the end of the trip I was pretty exhausted. I needed a vacation :). That's exactly how I feel after my India trip. For me vacations are where you kick back and enjoy a glass of wine without having to get rushed and make plans. I do enough planning, working and running around at home. Why do it again? Good thing was that I didn't have to cook at all the 10 days I was there :).

No pictures though. Yup, I didn't even have time to take my camera out and even if I did V was more interested in staying behind the camera than in front of it. So it was petty tough :).