6 months latter....

... I am still wondering how should I begin blogging. Life, babies, school, office, makeovers have totally kept me on my toes. So I decided to let some pics help me kick start.

Here is my little boy in the initial few months. (I need a nick for him for the blog now. any suggestions? I also need a new header. any ideas?)

Day 1.


Month 1


Month 2


Month 3


Month 4 - Sis & Bro


Month 6 - Father & Son


The jellybean is home. My sister is expecting a baby anytime this month. So the duo are back togather. Role play is their favourite game. Doctor-patient, mom-baby, bride and groom, shopkeeper and buyer and on and on. Lines like, "ok, now I am its my marriage....ok now its your marriage" might have us raise eyebrows, but the duo are in their own world.



Here she is fueling the vehicle.

Diwali Vacation - 2009

So the Diwali vacation has begun with a bang this year. The peapod's school closed for Diwali vacations starting this week and so did the jellybean's. So jellybean & sis arrived home on Saturday. The peapod & jellybean, 2 chatterboxes talking to each other makes an amusing sight. In an hour they had hugged, kissed, yapped, fought and made up as well. They danced the garba in the lovely ghaghra my sis got them. Jellybean speaks a little bit of Gujarati as well, can you imagine. The peapod knows her way around her granny, she knows the rules of the house, she knows what is a no-no and she also knows how she can work her way around those but the jellybean is new having quite forgotten what is it that works and what doesn't and ofcourse the rules have changed too. So while the peapod knows she cannot jump on the couch like on a trampoline but can jump on the bean bag, the jellybean clearly has forgotten. Playing with the 2-way light & fan switch have be was their game, but is no more entertained - its a waste of electricity. Likewise playing with the taps on was something they enjoyed as 2 year olds, its again off the list now with lectures on wastage of water. Plucking tulsi leaves off granny's garden after watering the plants and chewing them was an another stuff that was ok, but not anymore ever since the plant leaves almost shriveled up and mom is figuring out how to sort that out. So peapod has an advantage that she uses very well. If she is not getting her way, she will immediately go and get granny and embarrass the poor jellybean who like ever before is the drama queen, ready to shed a bucket at the drop of a hat. Its been just a day but they are back to their games, cooking, jumping, dancing, hiding and all sorts. It also helps when you have crazy entertaining aunts, one who joins their games with equal gusto and seriousness. It doesn't matter she is the mother of an almost 1 yr old. You tell me, who hides under the bed for a good 5 mins when playing hide and seek with two 3 yr olds? Who tries to come up with colors that are hard to find when playing "find the color" around the dinning table? The other aunt dances with them, teaches them to shake their bums and then throws them above her head just to get them laughing uncontrollably. Baby Neil at 10 months crawls around and stands with support and is still wondering what is the chaos all about? The girls love offering their food to him in tiny bits which he very eagerly sucks off their fingers. In short the kids are having super fun and its just been a day.

The Vacation Bible school(VBS) is a 6 day sing-song-story-color & dance thing for 5 days for 3 hours in the church. Its usually conducted during vacations, summer or diwali. Ours began today. Both the girls had been to VBS last year and enjoyed it immensely and they are back to it this year. Its basically full of music, new hymns, action songs, stories and many random activities based on different age groups. As kids, every time we went to Kerala we made sure we could attend VBS at my mom's place. We were a bunch of cousins who would go togather & have the time of our lives. The tempo & mood is high-beat during this week and 5 days pass by just like that. I am here sitting in office, just got off a conference call and have my tasks listed out in front of me but all I am thinking is..oh my, the kids must be having fun and I am missing it. Yeah, sometimes I am still the little girl who loves the loud music, songs/hymns and all the silly-kiddy fun.

And my little monkey, at week 29 is busy kicking. Sometimes I do not realize I am making faces when the kicks set in and makes me uncomfortable. Put on a little music and he/she then settles in well. I am off reading, can almost say "completely". I just don't feel like reading anymore. I am carrying "Devil wears Prada" in my bag and I haven't even opened it. I actually haven't read a book in a month. An another side effect of pregnancy, you think?

Hope you guys have a rocking Diwali as well!! Happy Diwali to my dear dear lovely readers. Yeah ok to the 3 of you who read me.

2008 in Pictures - Part 2

September-2008.

Best buddies in a tight embrace.


Pretend play


Late September-Early October
I went on my first onsite assignement after the peapod. I travelled to Vancouver, Canada and New York, USA for a week each for work. I loved New York to say the least. Specially Times Square. I loved the lights, the cold chilling breeze, hot coffee, good company, easy talks and energy of the place. My cousin and his wife were more than generous to drive me around New York, day and night giving me glimpses of downtown NY in just the one weekend I had. I even managed to watch a Broadway show with them, "The Phantom of the Opera". This was my first theatrical experience and it was awesome. The sets were just stunning, the way one disappeared and the other appeared. It was a very New York experience they say. There definitely is a next time.



October-November
A favourite game around here was taking turns to jump on the bean bag. This is before the Jellybean left us.



Putting on a little dab of talcom and posing for the camera


A beautiful guest that amused the girls. The duo were scared to get closer to the butterfly on the swing, what better that reach out for each other for courage.



Bed time. Reading out to each other.


Being good girls on the dinner table. They generally sit with their own plates and then what follows is a mother of all messes.


It was time to get Jellybean into a school. So my sister moved back. Nov 27th the Jellybean had an interview and she got through. She came to us as a very clingy and cranky baby a year ago. Now she is a girl with a mind of her own who guards her reputation of a "good girl" like a tressure. After every mess, antic the first thing she needs cleared is her reputation. She goes around asking "I am a good girl?" and if you dare decline, she will shout, howl untill you clear her title.

December-2008.

Dec 8th - The third baby in the family.


Around Christmas


Check the drama queen's expression behind.


That was 2008 in a shell.

Shrill shrieking Fun & Maka naka Bella

Yesterday when I went home, the duo, were all upbeat. The Jellybean complained that Ammachy had smacked her and the peapod went on about the yummy chocolate Dada got them before he left for office. After the hugs & kisses they both went back to playing their own games. During their play, both got to searching something, I don't quite recollect what. They started pulling out drawers and upturning stuff. I could clearly see it in a small container right between the drawers they were yanking open and the toy basket they were ruffling. Sitting on the couch with my legs stretched out lazily I kept asking them to look in the blue basket. Both looked at me and then went back to the drawer or the basket but very clearly acted as if the blue basket did not exist. Finally they emptied the entire toy basket on the floor, pulled over stuff from the drawers to the floor and I didn't know where to jump. It was very clear that they weren't searching any more, probably forgotten too, but having fun annoying me. Because, after creating that mess, they both look at me and when I chided them for their behaviour they smiled, laughed a little, looked at each other and then screamed their lungs out like it was bliss.

The more I tried to shut them up, they laughed and screamed some more. My sister had got them a doll that sings "twinkle twinkle" and says "Mumma, Daddy I love you" and then shuts up untill you pat it again. For some reason this doll seemed sensitive to our milk cooker whistling. Whenever the milk cooker whistles, the doll perched on top of the refrigerator starts singing & talking. That is untill yesterday. So y/d when the duo screamed and the noise reached deafening decibels, the doll perched on the refrigerator started talking. We all laughed and ofcourse regretted it immediately. The doll sang and talked and stopped and the girls would scream again. Again and Again, I was scared the neighbours might call the cops in with all the shrieks going on in here. Finally I switched the battery off. That made them mad at me and so they kept screaming at me totally annoyed. I was almost deaf. Finally I had to threaten them with "A little more noise and I will shut you up in the dark" to get some silence. After 2 mins they cried TOGETHER. Aah!!! They both slept after 15-20mins of book reading leaving me totally drained :).
So that is why the wise say never get the kids very excited because then they do not know how to calm themselves down and then they cry.

On a different note, both the kids are trying to form sentences with all the words they know. Its fun deciphering what they actually mean. While we are successful 99% of the time, the one word which is yet a mystery is "Maka naka bella". Last month , most days when I got home, the peapod greeted me with "Maka naka bella". On the phone, after the customary, hello mumma comes "maka naka bella". Ask her to repeat it and she will oblige as many times. We laughed and rolled on the floor just hearing her say it in her serious, no-nonsense tone. My take is, she was with my sis-in-law for a day. Her cousin, my sis-in-law's daughter speaks only Hindi. I think this is something she picked up from her and ofcourse I have no clue what is she trying to imitate. Whatever it is, it is soon fading and I don't hear it a lot these days but it was so sweet I had to save it in here.