And the party is still not over .....

We threw a virtual baby shower to 10 to-be-mommy bloggers. And that is what the last post was all about, just in case you were wondering.

You all have probably already read around about how it began and how it felt and the madness around continents in the last couple of weeks. If you haven't please read a synopsis of it here and here is the story of what happens behind the curtains.
I will just list a few moments from the last 2 weeks around this baby-shower that probably will give you no more insight than you already have ..but then I have to post.

I receive an e-mail from Tara on the 1st of April with her plan to host a baby shower. I thought it was a good idea and sent her an email saying so.

I completely forget about it and casually check my mails over the weekend. I think I started checking around 10pm and was at it till 2am and even then I wasn't done. No mails go unread in this account of mine unlike my yahoo account which almost always is junk. Also, my yahoo id is such, I myself feel ashamed spelling it out to anyone. Ok, coming back to what I was saying, I fell asleep 2 days on the laptop just trying to keep up the reputation of a clean inbox.

During the week, I had to check atleast alternate days to be in the game and know what was happening. I soon realized I was only checking and checking and I wasn't able to reply anywhere, to any thread. Such chitter chatter, so many threads, plans ....catching up was getting impossible.

Once during the week I fell asleep next to my laptop on the bed in the guest room. At around 3, I realized the peapod was sleeping next to me. I had tucked her into bed in our room with pillow walls and when she got up she probably realized I wasn't around and she just got down from the bed, came to the guest room and found me asleep hugging the laptop so crawled right next to me. It took me a few minutes to realize where I was and why were mom and daughter sleeping next to the laptop.

I see this message from Kiran saying my cell phone has being disco-ing all day .... and laughed for a long time. I had a tough time imagining her handling this on her blackberry since ofcourse I was having a tough time handling it otherwise.

I was also trying to find people I know like JLT, Art & Fuzzy but couldn't trace them amongst the furore. Soon I realized JLT was very much in and kicking sas just that I didn't know it was her.

I was replying randomly here and there only to never being able to trace the thread again.

When Dotmom said, she needed headhunters for the Signature book, I gate crashed, jumped Queues and said "I will". Finally I can contribute, I had a spot I thought.

I was suppose to list the doula gang with their blognames. When I began on the weekend that followed right before the deadline I realized what a mamoth task that was going to be. While I was looking around helplessly, Altoid came to my rescue with a ready made list. I stared at it for almost 5-10 minutes and wondered ..so what do I need to do now since this was all ready? So I thought and thought and thought and then thought, what the heck, I will create a table, put a column header, add filters, bold it, color it, divide it into multiple sheets, give it borders, write formulas and said ok, I have done my job. Some job satisfaction I need. (I have seen the hubby do this endlessly before we bought our car. He compared cars and the value for money versus comfort and mileage. And after that beautiful spreadsheet, what did we buy ..ofcourse the Hyundai-Santro which we always knew since that was the only thing affordable in that whole list.)

For the wishes, people were coming up with such priceless gems, straight from the heart and I just did not know what to say other than express the love and warmth I felt. With the little interaction I have had with you girls over the last year or so, I have enjoyed knowing you and your lovely kids.

Finally on the 24th I saw everybody putting up their riddles. I was scared I might not get a chance to get to the laptop in the evening and I put it up during our lunch break. I had butterflies in my tummy, I was gigling, I couldnt stop smiling in office, looking all stupid probably. I was very excited

Finally when I saw boo's message and her post, I had to go to the common machine to check my mails and share and yell about how excited I was feeling. Soon I saw messages from Poppins and Maggie starting to surface here and there and I wanted to bet on the MTBs. What a day it was. You MTB's rock and so do all of you who were so much more involved behind the scenes.

I check my mails today and there you go, now we have the MTBs on board and so the party continues. Enjoyed this mega baby shower thoroughly. God Bless the little ones.

Riddle-me-Ree, Who can she be?

Greetings wonderful MTBs!!!
and good work to all of you!
For having solved the riddle before
I give you all this clue.

The letter " A "

Write it down, add it on...
And let's move on to the next little song.

“Gangster Ajit's darling moll
Shading her skin from the desert sun
Has a daughter who's a little doll
Making her days home from office such fun”

Solve it and you get your lead
Misguess, and you lose your speed
Solve it slow but solve it now
And before you go, take a little bow

Go to 'Comments' and leave me a clue
Tell me which blog you are off to.
Good luck! Good luck! Be on your way.
You have your work, cut out for the day!

Conversations with the peapod

We can converse with the peapod now. She mostly responds by saying "OK" when she agrees and refuses outright by saying "No No No".
When P was onsite, I used to drive the peapod to church on sunday. During our 10 min drive, I would tell her she is not supposed to make noise within the church or play in the church, ok? and I asked her to repeat ok after me, which she did. She started responding to ok? with a "ok" and soon realized that she was agreeing and was not allowed to go back on her word once agreed. These days "ok" comes after she has thought over it. So now when we say "ok?", she takes her time to think and then agrees or completely ignores it.

We have a Tam Brahm family staying above us. A sweet old couple. They love the kids and often call after them from the window or the balcony. Y/d we were on the swing when aunty called out.
Aunty: peapod, I am going out. what do you want?
peapod: lower
Aunty: How many?
peapod: twooo
Aunty: which color?
peapod: ello
Aunty: what else do you want?
peapod: fissshhh
Aunty suddenly wriggled her nose as an instant reaction and continued what ele do you want
peapod sensing something is wrong: fisshhh with a smile
Aunty wriggled her nose once again and asked "do you want chocoloate?"
peapod with a dimply smile to tease aunty again" Fisssshhhhh"
Aunty: I dont like fish, do you want chocolate?
peapod: "No, fissshhh"

So there is a sense of humor somewhere in there. Thank God.

Last Sunday's Sermon

For the last 50-60 years, marthomites(a sect of christians), have been offering mass at a Church which was built by the britishers in the 1800’s. We have been sharing the church and the premises with atleast 3 other congregation. Currently we are trying to build a church and ofcourse fund raising is our priest's biggest worry. So far it has already costed us almost 50-60 lakhs. We are running the last leg of collections and it is the most difficult task to peacefully force people to donate. This entire sermon was in the context of this church building exercise. I am just trying to reproduce the essence of the sermon below

He said, we are busy building houses for our kids. We are not happy with 1, we invest in 2 and some in 3. It is our investment for tomorrow. for our kids. It is to make sure whatever happens, I & my family are secure.

Please, do not be blinded by these notions. If you wish to invest for your children, invest your time. Invest your love. Invest in imbibing values. Invest in good times together. Invest in peace in your homes. Invest in blessings. Invest in teaching your kids to know God. Invest time in praying together. Only these will yield happy, stable-minded & god-fearing kids. None of the materialistic investments can ensure a happy child or a prosperous future.

Inspite of all your financial plannings don’t fool yourself to think you are secure. Man proposes, God disposes. A flood, an earthquake, a famine, a job loss, a life loss can change your state of security in a matter of no time.

It made so much sense to me. He kept reverberating with the words, Invest wisely my dear kids, invest wisely. Don’t invest in things that are volatile by nature. Invest in your loved ones. Invest in good relationships. Invest in prayers for your kids.

I couldn't agree more. Out of the religious context or the church building context it is still as relevant. We need to plan and invest and save for our future but not over do it. We generally over do it wanting to be doubly sure but forget life gives us no guarantees.

Marriages and ulterior motives

Last year, early December we did been to Kerala. My granny was yearning to see the peapod. The jellybean had met all the grannies, grandpas and innumerable uncles and aunts even before she was 1.She was quite a traveler until she joined us. On every call my granny kept urging me to visit her with the peapod. Every time we want to visit Kerala, mom is always talking about who is getting married next. I did not understand this “waiting-for-a-marriage-to-go-to-kerala” concept very well. You want to meet Ammachy, just go I would say. You want to meet your Aunt, just go. To mom & my aunts, marriage is a very convenient way to meet all our relatives spanned over 3-4 generations and geographically all over Kerala. They can meet almost everybody and they need not sit, plan and execute plans for each day in each direction. That is “ek thir se do nishaan”. To me this sounded all cheap money-saving-plans.

For the last wedding in the family 2 years ago, we were specially asked what dates would suit us, Is November better or December and after managing to raise our cell phone bills to an all-time high by just calling each other, planning the travel & shopping, we had to let it go, thanks to last minutes changes in the project and team structures. One down, now for the next trip we are waiting for the next one to get married and he didn’t seem remotely interested. There were holidays and annual leave to be planned around it and someone didn’t give a damn. All he cared was about himself. As Christmas holidays started approaching, all frantic relatives, suddenly very curious and caring have been wanting to know what are the parents actually doing. The parents were given a good dose about how they aren’t really doing their job well. He is an intelligent, good looking, kind & a responsible guy. He has managed to creep into every one’s good list, including mine where he has no company yet. By December, I realized there was no marriage on the horizon before the year ends. We quickly, planned & booked odd day flights way before the holiday season started to the native land. We flew cheap but it turned out to be a very expensive trip. The only consolation is the sweet caring wrinkled happy face of my granny and the hubby’s granny when they saw us. We were there for a week, every night a new home. We even traveled in the KSRTC buses with the peapod. She was really no trouble with all the new faces or new places or the crowd and rush surprising us. Touchwood. The cows and hens and goats kept my little city baby mesmerized. She was seeing all of them from such close quarters for the first time. She also loved playing in the sand and pebbles in the front yard and walking through the rubber plantation. It was a little hectic with the kind of time we had and the number of places and people we thought we must meet.

Now we agree to the concept of planning leaves around marriages or such ceremony. A cousin is getting married in Kerala this month but we can not go since both hubby & myself can not afford any leaves. The consolation is, oh we can all go for B’s wedding.
And I really hope we can go for some family wedding in Kerala and meet all those we couldn’t meet in the 1-week marathon holiday. Its not considered cheep anymore, just practical. Other than the fact that this is cheaper since it saves you all that taxi fares, but it also saves you a lot of time, that you can spend simply sitting beside your granny and listening to the story of your four fathers……for the 15th time the same day.

Kolad - An overnight trip

Remember I wrote about a trip to Kolad a couple of days back, thought I did finally tell you about it. Kolad is a place in Raigad Dist in Maharashtra and there are a lot of farm houses or adventure resorts built around the river kundalika here. It was an overnight trip and we had made our bookings at Hans adventures. It is a beautiful place with greenery all around and with farm animals roaming the roads.

Since this was a team building exercise, there were a couple of activities planned like the bridge crossing and lake crossing for the day. Inspite of the hour-by-hour itinerary we planned, the gang decided to go to the waterfall first and get our selves drenched in the cold water after the long journey. By the time we(as in girls and the peapod) reached the waterfall the guys were already in. The peapod watched on and then shly, put a finger to her nose and announced "puppishame puppishame". We waited for the guys to get out of the waterfall, so that we could get it in. The peapod enjoyed the waterfall shower.

The cold gushing water from a waterfall is what you need on a scorching afternoon. We went straight from the waterfall into the swimming pool and played ball all afternoon untill 3. The boys in the team pampered her and each was trying to teach her swimming right then. She has started using the word "chalo chalo" and splashing water after that everytime she is in the bath tub. At 3pm, I had to literally drag her out of the pool and feed her something. She had the rice and dal and slept for the next 3 hours. Since she was sleeping I couldn't go for the bridge crossing and lake crossing activities. It was indeed fun like the team says and its my miss.

This place had ducks and swans quacking all around. What else did my little one need. She was following them around little bushes and gardens and chairs and tables. If they quacked, she quacked twice over and louder. After a little while I got tired following her and gave up. She kept everyone entertained over lunch and breakfast with her quacks and whacks. When the ducks went into their shed, she followed them and refused to come.

After the peapod was up, had milk and fed it was late evening. When we reached the lake the bonfire was lit and chairs had been arranged around it. A beautiful evening.
The lake, the dark sky, a full moon (almost), twinkling stars, the reflection in the lake, the bon fire, the peapod running around chairs. Everything was so picture perfect. So peaceful. Lots of good hot food. They had arranged for music as well. The peapod danced initially but she looked a lot confused with the kind of dancing happening around her. She just knows to do a little step here and turn there and rolling hands and she hasn't seen any of this on TV either. Latter she crawled into my lap and stayed there while I kept talking about the sky and stars and moon untill she drifted off to sleep. We started back next morning around 9 and this wasn't a pleasant journey since it was getting hotter by the hour. She was getting slightly cranky but still manageable inspite of the heat and the roads. A peekaboo and some distraction on the road was working for short durations as well. I myself was dead tired and if she would have cried, I probably would only have just cried along making quite a scene.

Overall, a pleasant outing but I did make sure of a AC bus next time I am travelling with the peapod.

Happy Birthday to my Little Girl

My little girl turned TWO on the 28th of March. We kept it simple this year. We cut a cake at my in-laws place. We got 2 candles, blew them in style and cut the cake. Her Ammachi, on special request made some great chicken biryani, which her mom ate to her hearts content. Her Appachi made some delicious beef fry. Again the mom shamelessly licked off till the fingers threatened to disappear. So what did the birthday gilr have, you ask? A handful of cakes and chocolates and a lot of prayers, hugs and kisses.

Dearest sweetheart,

2 years back I still remember Dr. Rao pulling you out of my tummy and hanging you upside down before handing you over to the nurse. I looked at the clock, thanked the lord and kept thinking if you were a girl or a boy never quite getting myself to ask, because it did not matter.

You know, looking at you, I reaffirm my faith in the good lord. My only prayer to the almighty is to give us the love, wisdom and patience to help us raise you into a happy, loving & a stable human being. You are my precious gift from him. Your Dada once in a mad fit did conclude that I married him just to have a baby and I accused him of the same with some more twsited logic... :).. sheesshh, this is the kind of eccentricity your Dad & Mom are capable of. Now don't say I didn't warn you.

Now we have the terrible twos or terrific twos ahead of us. I am asking for gallons of patience and wisdom on a daily basis to keep me going. No baby it’s not about you at all, aren't you my sweet little angel. It’s just to keep Mumma sane.

God Bless you my sweet precious child. In the last 2 years you have warmed my heart and brought a smile by doing the little things you do. By smiling and yapping constantly when we are back from work. Hugging & kissing unexpectedly. Using me like your hurdles stick and jumping around every time I lie around or using my legs like a tunnel when I am standing with my legs apart talking to the neighbor or on the phone. You make me happy the way you gel with all your cousins and other kids in the complex. You make me proud by doing nothing significant at all but by just smiling and being happy.

Most of last year is hard to describe you without the jelly bean. You have learnt to share well with the jellybean around. You do sometimes generously and sometimes not so very well and that is when I have to smack you into sharing. You are always asking about the jellybean when she is not around and sometimes even when she is. You are busy calling out to her even in your sleep. Whenever you hear brandy howling or you see a cat or something new, you go looking for the jellybean and drag her literally by pulling her to the terrace. You sometimes want to show her something in your book and you will never take the book to her, but will go hunting for her and get her to the book willingly or by force. And when you force her, if she cries(which she always does since she hates being bossed around by you) you even yell "chup chup" and yank her towards your word book. You sometimes invite her to dance with you by just calling out her name and showing her what you want her to do. If you find her uninterested in a dance when you are bursting with energy you go and hold both her hands and keep mumbling stuff in your baby language while stomping your feet to which she replies in kind in babbling and dance.

You have your moments of baby fights too. You do pull her hair, pinch her, or scratch the poor little one's face if she doesn’t heed to you or if she was just in the way of your tantrum. You are careful never to raise a hand in front of us, you always do it behind our backs but the jelly bean’s cries and your look give you away. You have been caught saying "Nooooooo noooo" to the jelly bean in the garden when she tried plucking Ammachy's orchids and then a minute latter did the honors yourself to get a earful from mumma and granny. You and the jelly bean love parading around in anybody and everybody's footware and sometimes because you cannot wear 2 pairs at a time, you both have been found exchanging one each so you have the best of 2 footwares. Who would have thought of such brilliant plans?

Right now, since the last 2-3 months, you totally need anything the jellybean has, even if it is identical. You were found comparing 2 lemons for almost 2 mins before deciding which one to hand over to the jelly bean. You create a ruckus everytime aunty and uncle leave while the jellybean kisses and waves tata-bye-byes peacefully. You absolutely have to go everywhere the jellybean goes. You will not stay back at home unless you are told she is being taken to the doctor. The last time when Mumma tried telling you I was taking the jelly bean to the doctor, I was surprised to see you stop your cries, take back your defenses and smile shyly and poke a finger at your bum. Yes darling, injection. WOW!! You surely know what I am talking.

I love watching you grow each day and I hope I am laying some good foundation for you and cementing it with enough love and prayers to last you a lifetime.

I want you to know, whenever you read this, you are my precious child and I love you like I did not know it was possible to love someone. I will quote these 4 lines from this song before signing off.

Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe

Your’s forever
Mumma