16 Months

Still loves Mickey, but has a new found love for a teddy bear

Had a bad cold/cough thing going- bronchitis

Loves his pizza. Eats it for breakfast whenever we have leftovers

Loves to facetime

Does“kachiya ni topali ma meow meow”

Knows it’s time to go out when you have your shoes and jacket on

Loves dinner rolls right now

Tried a yogurt smoothie for the first time and didn’t gag

Went to see Santa. He cried. A lot.

Had his first lolly pop and some candy that Anand had when he was a kid

Loves chocolate and brownies

Very fussy at daycare

Moved on to #4 diapers (well he really should have like a month ago)

Got his first real haircut

Jumps on "1..2..3!"

He's very loving

Understands we are leaving daycare after we drop him. he cries.

He recognizes certain commercials on TV. When they are on, he runs over to watch them. most of them consist of music.

Christmas 2012

We celebrated our 2^nd annual Christmas party at Kavita’s house this year. It was weird because Christmas fell on a Tuesday this year. So most of us had to work on Monday, day off on Tuesday, and work again on Wednesday.  Veer had a blast opening all his gifts. He loves his plastic car mom & dad (#2) got him. He rode it all day long with Mickey and occasionally would let Raka get in it. Poor Raka.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!

Crafty Crafty: Hot coca in a Mason Jar

This idea has been all over Pinterest for a couple of years now and I finally tired my hand at it. Kavita did it last year (or was it the year before?) for her co -workers and I had pinterest-project-envy (it’s a real thing. Look it up!) at the time. I was mad I couldn’t do a project like that. Well at last I can. I made these for Veer’s teachers at school. I am not a big fan of hot cocoa but I know some people are. I like to drink water or wine or vodka. Everything else is just extra calories. Hopefully the teachers are fans of hot cocoa.

Here is the recipe I used for the hot cocoa (yeild 5 jars):

4.5 cups of non fat dry milk powder

 

2 ¼ cups of unsweetened cocoa powder

 

1 1/8 cups of sugar (i used granulated)

 

Chocolate chips

 

Candy cane

 

Marshmallows

 

 

Combine the milk powder, cocoa, and sugar. Layer the mixture at the bottom of your jar. Then layer with candy cane first, then chocolate chips and top off with marshmallows

I decorated the lid of the mason jar with wrapping paper. I didn’t like the look of just the metal lid, so traced the lid on Christmas wrapping paper and used that instead. Made a tag with instructions on one side and a small tree on the other and viola!

Pray for Newtown

With the recent Newtown tragedy Christmas doesn’t seem the same. The massacre has left the nation in a lull and I think being local it’s even worse. It’s on the news 24/7 I feel like. As important as it is to remember, I think the media over does it. I remember I got a text from Jalpa Friday letting me know there was a shooting in Newtown. I immediately Googled it and saw it with my own eyes.  That was around 12:45pm. Immediately after that the news spread at work and most of were glued to the TV on and off throughout the day. That first day we “learned” these “facts”: the shooter killed his father in NJ, then his mother in CT, and then attacked the school. The mother of the shooter was a teacher at the school. The mother was inside the building. None of these “facts” turned out to be true. There is no need for coverage on every little thing, especially when they don’t have their facts right. It is important we don’t forget but there is no need to be constantly reminded of it. I was driving by an elementary school today and saw a police car parked outside. I had mixed feelings about that. Should I be glad that the cop was there or worried? In what world do we need that kind of protection? Shouldn’t kids have the same experience we did of going to school without worry something bad may happen to them? It’s sad world we live in and something has to be done.  It has gotten so extreme that I sometimes things the Hunger Games world is not too far away.

Birthdays, Holiday Parties, Haircuts

Christmas is right around the corner and for the first time in years I am actually excited about the holiday. It has nothing on my real favorite holiday- thanksgiving (previously it was Halloween), but it’s coming close. I guess that’s what having a kid does to you. You care more about celebrating with them and family versus all whatever the opposite of that is. Last year, I did a lot of x-mas shopping after the holiday was finished – waaaaaaaaaaat!?!? I am only celebrating for commercial purpose. Anyways, we decorated the house right after thanksgiving and I love our house right now. I bet our Christmas tree looks like other interracial homes. The tree supports the catholic side and the ornaments support the Jewish side. That’s how we roll. We don’t segregate. We celebrate all holidays. We’ll have to figure out a way to do Diwali big next year!

 

 

We celebrated Anand’s bday earlier this month with a small celebration at home and then going to Frank Pepe’s on his actual birthday. Veer had a blast eating that pizza, as did Kunal, Diya, and Pari (well she ate a roll).

 

 

 

 

The weekend after we hosted an Ugly Christmas Party with some friends from the recipe exchange. I finally made Anand his cannoli cake and he loved it. Happy 35!!! He is still eating the cake.

 

 Veer got his first real haircut- not the bathtub hair cut I gave him a few weeks before this. I used a buzzer and trimmed his sides and back. He looks so cute with his big boy haircut. If you look at him now you would have a hard time believing that he had curls.

15 months

 

He loves Doritos, potato chips, French fries, and mathiya

We cut his hair after he turned 15 months

He loves Mickey Mouse

He loves his new suitcase his foi's future family got him

Still loves sweet potatoes.

Loves to dance to random Indian songs. He bops his head as a way of dancing

Loves Mickey Mouse playhouse

Saying "hi", "bye" on queue and more clearly

When I come home from work, he literally screams at me

He has had both of his flu shots

 

 

 

Ran out of space

I haven’t posted in a while because I ran out of space. I was trying to blog about thanksgiving, and Veers 15^th month, and Xmas, and miscellaneous stuff but I ran out of space for pictures on my blog. So now, not only am I not getting paid to write this blog, but I am paying Google to let me! Ahh, the man wins this time. So if there is anyone out there who wants to sponsor this blog let me know. It’s a whole $3 a month to do so. LOL.

We spent Thanksgiving at Gee and Parul’s new house. We tried with our tradition of watching Love Actually but that didn’t happen. It did bum me out but it won’t stop me for long. The weekend is almost here, right?! There was no foot in corn, literally, but the day was eventful. We had lots of little rugrats running around, including Veer. There was a memorable game of Uno that went on for like 2 hours. No joke.  Although we didn’t continue with our other tradition of midnight shopping, I did hit up Target the next morning and got some good finds, including this Dirt Devil vacuum for $8. It was talking to me. So I had to buy it. Seriously, 8! It's sitting nicely in the box in the garage.

 

But the day before Thanksgiving was super memorable for all of us. Samit proposed to Kavita.  After months of dating, numerous frequent flyer miles points earned, he pooped the question. We knew he wanted to do it that weekend and we even gave him some ideas on how and where to do it, but in the end he went with his gut and proposed to her in park overlooking New Haven where they first shared first date. *winknudgewink* Congratulations to Kavita & Samit!!!!! Now comes the crazy fun party of planning the wedding!

Shruti's Sweet 16!

 

Long before veer came into the picture, 15 years to be specific, there was Shruti. She was our little baby girl and last month we celebrated her sweet 16. Shruti was 1 at my sweet 16 and Veer was 1 at hers. She was the cutest little baby and I can’t believe we celebrated her 16^th birthday. It felt so surreal to be at her party. It was like watching my own child, which she is in away. I kinda now get how parents get so emotional at their daughters weddings. My little cutie is 16 now!  Veer had a blast and was a little dance machine on the floor. We found out that he doesn’t really like to dance in crowds; he loves the dance floor to himself. Center of attention.

 

 

14 Months

The little boops is now:

eating a lot more grown up foods like toast, mamara (rice puffs), whole grain cheerios, gathiya (chickpea flour fried noodles), dal, pancakes, chips, certain cookies

He is also very naughty - he fake cries, throws tantrums, cries really loudly on purpose

He also runs away when you chase him

He combs his own hair, or at least tries

He loves baths

He loves milk

He understand what "huggies" (not the diapers) is and gives us hugs on command

He doesn't understand what "kissy" is just yet. He licks us when we say "give kissy". His inner Raka is coming out.

He sometimes still acts like Raka - licks us, picks up his food from the floor with his mouth (instead of his hands), and he pants like Raka does when he is out of breath

He understands when it's diaper change time, to put his feet up

He says bye, hi, hello, mama, mum mum, something that sounds like "radhe radhe"

He loves Mickey mouse club house

He loves to pray. yes, he really does

 

 

Hiral's wedding and some more

Oh my. It’s been a while. I seriously can’t believe the last few weeks have gone by so fast. I have pictures ready for post but no time to actually write the post.

Hiral’s wedding was last weekend and we had a great time. We arrived Wednesday night and I didn’t a lot of people’s nails. I shellaced them. They came out awesome. I wish I had taken a picture. But you can look at my nails in the meantime. They are awesome, right. The color is called Hollywood. Rightfully so.

 

We had a mendhi party on Thursday, Vidhi on Friday morning and then garba Friday night. Hiral, Manali, Dipuldidi, Shruti, and I checked into the hotel at like midnight only to sleep (and sneak in a late, very late, night TB snack. What?! The bride wanted it!) For a few hours. We woke up Saturday morning and started getting Hiral ready. I must say I did a spectacular job. Of course it doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous herself. We were trying to help 5 bridesmaids, Lata aunty, my mom, my foi, and bhabhi get ready and still had ourselves to ready. Luckily we arrived at the venue minutes (literally) before Hiral greeted Abhi at the door. I mean seriously it was a close call. The important part is that we got in the pictures of her greeting him, implying we were there the whole time! Fast forward to the reception – that went off wonderfully and fast forward to after party. There was a small little hiccup (yeah you Milan) but things were okay after that.

 

 

 

 

 

And that brings us to Halloween. We (read I) only have control over his costumes for so long. So we are going to take advantage of it as much as we can.  Here is the little bear out trick or treating. He was roaming more than trick or treating in. I mean he is a bear after all. Bears don’t go door to door asking for food, they just cause chaos by walking around the peoples driveway and lawn.

 

 

 

Fall

 

 

 

 

 

1. I love fall. Absolutely my favorite time of year. The colors are so magical. The wind is just a little chillier. And most of all it’s an indication that the holidays are just around the corner.

2. When I worked at Beekley I used to see these all the time. I would love seeing them on my ride in. Another sign that fall is here.

3. This was at Zena’s baby shower. Can you believe we have kids within just a couple of years of one another? Rachael is already planning a Disney trip for us all.

4. This was Veer at my parents’ house. It looks like he found a new seat.

Face Lift

After months of contemplating, I finally did it. I gave the blog a face lift. Here's what the blog used to look like. As much as I loved the orange and pink (my reception colors) swirls, I have to retire them. The blog was for me initially and I didn't mind looking at the bright background but now that I have an audience (I would like to thank my blog fan base: Mom, Rach, Jalpa, and Vaishali) I will give you guys something a little softer to look at. Enjoy!




And can we note today is 10/11/12? You know it's the small stuff that makes me happy.

Crafty Crafty

Not only did I do two craft projects but they both included painting. The first one I started two weeks ago. They were personalized wine glasses for Hiral’s bridal shower. So I made about 20 and each one was unique and special. I had my friend Deepa help me with the start of that project. It was super easy to do.

Supplies:

Wine glass, paint brushes, stencils, glass paint

Method:

Clean your wine glasses. Lay the stencil over the glass and try to get the air bubbles out. You will get plenty of air bubbles but do your best to get rid of them. You can also free hand if you don’t have stencil or if you are just really good at painting. Use the paint brush and paint. Once the glass is decorated the way you like, let it dry. The glass paint I purchased called for 4 day drying period and ½ hour baking period. Yes, baking. If you want to make them dishwasher safe, turn the oven to 350, place the glass in the oven while preheating. Let it preheat and heat for a combined time of 30 minutes. Once they are cooled, they are ready to use.

Here is a picture of the beauties. LOL.

My second project was just a painting. I used to draw, color, and paint a lot when I was in high school and college. Life happened and all that stopped. But every time I go to the craft store or even Wal-Mart (thru the art aisle); I have this overwhelming need to paint. Like I NEED to paint. Anyways, I bought my supplies a long time ago and finally put them to use since we didn’t have Veer last week. Here’s a picture of that. I still feel like it’s not complete. It’s a work in progress. It’s a little amateur, but I think practice makes perfect.

13 months!

Weeks in review

This just happened:

Then this happened:

Then this happened:

Then this happened:

Then this happened:

And this happened:

What’s up with all these pictures?

1.    After months of worrying, he just did it one day. He held the bottle and fed himself. Like a boss.

2.    We went to visit mama (Anand’s uncle) at the nursing home and he we wouldn’t believe he just sat there with him. It was so cute!

3.    Eons ago before I met Anand I dreamed that when I got married I would dance to Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight. There is a line in the song that goes, “…And that laugh that wrinkles your nose…” I mean look at that picture. C’mon!

4.    If you zoom in on this picture he looks like a little girl. A really cute little girl. I know he will one day hate me for this. Note how foi accidently photo boomed in this picture.

5.    This was at my parents’ house in NJ this week. I like to think he is pretend talking to me on the phone.

6.    Who needs toys when you have newspapers?!?! My dad is starting bad habits letting him play with newspapers. From what I hear, he (my dad) folded all the papers after Veer was done and saved it for Veer to play with them next day.  Oh goodie, I can’t wait till he is back home and wants to do the same!

Veer is visiting my parents in NJ for a week. It’s been 3 days since I have not seen him and I miss him like crazy. Anand and I wake up in the morning and wonder what to do. We have all this extra time (like ½ hour) to just do our own thing or sleep. By now we pick the latter. At night time sometimes I roam around in the kitchen with this suspicious feeling like I should be doing something: getting lunch ready for tomorrow, figuring out if I have enough bananas for his breakfast, cleaning up his “toys” (Tupperware) or sanitizing his bottles. It seems like he is doing fine and barely misses us. Either that or my parents won’t tell us that he misses me. Meanies.

I have decided this blog will take a new turn. I will start my own pinterest projects on here in addition to updating everyone on Veer’s growth. SO my goal right now is to do one project a month. I am already working on one of the project now. More on in later in the week or next week!