And now i only have one functioning hand...

Downside: burned my ENTIRE right hand on hot coffee at central market when the coffee pot nozzle thing was broken

Upside: finally found a bandage that fits my whole hand

Downside: am now wearing a diaper on my hand

Upside: have found the most comfortable bandage for a burn ever

Basically I don't know why we ever left Disney World...

{wordless wednesday}

{The one where I finally adjust my white balance so they don't look bright red in every shot and try to get fancy with the focus, but I leave my ISO on way too high all weekend and all the photos are super grainy}

6 months?

Who me?

Woo-hoo! Nandini, you are officially six months old today, err, some time last week.

Could I totally forget to record this huge milestone and let the day go by in blur?? No way!

Better late than never I guess. I am so proud of you!!

Do I constantly wonder how I was blessed with such a good baby?

No way!

Do I worry that you are so quiet normally and do I panic in the middle of the night and wake you up from sleep to check on you?

Not me!

 

 

 

You can sit on your own, though you really don't like to, because you would rather be in someone's arms or on the go. You are such an experienced crawler already. You definitely have your own opinions already. And it so funny listening to you express them. You know that you have to increase your normal volume if you want to get your favorite toy or stuff that piece of food in your mouth.

Would I ever laugh at you while you are screaming and bouncing up and down in my lap trying to reach something?

Never.

Did I totally disrupt your sleep schedule yesterday so we could have a girl's day of chai and shopping?

Nope!

Oh yeah, and give you hard matri and then a mint leaf to chew on whole? Ooops...not me!

I love that your hair hasn't fallen out yet. Except for a short-lived small patch at the back, you never really went through the bald baby phase. Do I purposefully feed tons of avocado to keep your hair full and shiny?

I love, love, love dressing you up in all manner of different outfits. You have your lion. We have put you in Avi's old lady bug and little monster outfits. You have your baby girl monkey outfit. And a recently acquired mermaid's tail, best worn with many strands of pearls of course. You may also have a little skunk outfit. And I may or may not have put you in it to test Avi's skunk spotting abilities. He laughed and hugged you as you tried to crawl towards him in the slippery velour. Until he remembered that he was scared of skunks (I scared a 'kunks!!). I definitely did not bemoan the fact that the short tail did not do justice to your posterior. And we definitely did not call you Pepe le Pieu for a while. And not because of the smell, but because of his womanizing.

Do I laugh at other parents who question my laissez-faire parenting approach?

Not me.

You tend to stare around in the room in total amazement a lot of the time, especially when you go somewhere new. And you give the sweetest little looks to people when you want to charm them. I wonder where you get your quiet sweet demeanor from??

Definitely not me, ha!

6 months ago....wow.

This post is linked up on Not me! at MckMama's.

Ahoy there!

Hmmm....what is that mysterious creature??

Is it?  It is! The elusive baby princess mermaid.

{Ignore that toe.}

Bet'cha on land they understand

That they don't reprimand their daughters
{If only that were true..}

Flippin' your fins you don't get too far..

Pirate day was coming up and I desperately needed something to dress Nandini up in.  Luckily I still had lots of yarn scraps lying around and I was able to start working on this Friday evening.  I couldn't find anything cute online, so I somehow mustered all of my crocheting ability and came up with pattern and finished it against all odds. Actually it didn't take that long.  And you could probably do it in like one-tenth the time if you don't have an actual baby.  And a toddler who keeps pulling your yarn out of the spool and running around in circles with it until you are trapped like a bug in a spider web.  Like every five minutes.  It does help if you ignore the laundry and dishes all weekend.

What do you think?  I can work on typing out that pattern.  Let me know if you are interested in seeing it. 

I also linked up here: Idea Room.

Aaargh!!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

{Peer into the depths at th' graven images from years past}

Ahoy!! We be charrrtin' a courrrse t' th' little sandcrrrabs's Museum in Houston ferrr th' Pirrrate's Ahoy Bash! We hope t' be t' most extrrravagantly drrress'd family again this yearrr, and a bottle of grog! What in th' name o' Davy Jones be ye doin' t' fest?

Rememberrr, blac kie kajal makes grrreat deadlight patches, bearrrds and moustaches, and a bottle of rum!  Avinash be verrry fond o' th' moustache, aaarrrgh!  Also, ye can ne'errr set sail wrrrong wit' gold jewelrrry, scarrrves and strrripes, avast! 

English-to-Pirate translators can be found herrrrrre, herrrrrre and herrrrrrrrrrrre.

The news

Avi's school records the 'news' from the kids every day and it is the cutest thing.  Probably what led us to choose his school in the first place.  The ask each kid what his news is and write it on a biiiig notebook which gets saved.  I love that it gives him a voice and validates what he has to say.  I love to record what he says, but I usually do it out of his sight.  It is so cute to picture all the kids taking turns.
Apparently most kids don't say anything every day, which is also just cracks me up.

Avinash has only had one entry so far:
I ride a bike.

Which is funny, because he really doesn't.  He has a little tricycle at my parent's house (no way I'm carrying that thing on the plane), but he can't really push the pedals or anything.  He can sit on it and push it around with his feet on the ground a little, but that's it.

I try to get the news out of him after school every day too.  That is why I love picking him up (even though I hate driving there in the middle of the day).  I can't wait to hear about school.

And I got to hear this on the car ride home Wednesday.

Avi see Nisha.
Oh yeah, did you guys play?
Yeah, p'ay choo choo p'ains.
Oh, what else happened at school?
Else! What else I do mommy?
I don't know I wasn't there.
Mommy at work.  What you do? ?
Hmmmm.....read books and write papers?
What else mommy??
Uhh....not much.


I was so stunned by his empathy.  It gets me everytime.  I couldn't believe that he wanted to know what I do all day too, ha!!  

Baby Led Weaning

Nandini is soooo crazy about food right now.  And not just ice cream.  It seems like in the past few days her interest in all things food has just skyrocketed.  She has been wont to go after anything Avinash is using.  And will grab your water glass and dump it all over you if you are not faster than her (which is not easy, believe me). This is her at our favorite chaat place in Hillcroft over the weekend.  Could she be any poutier??  I gave her a few spoons of yogurt and nursed her, but she wasn't having any of it.  Nandini wanted dosa!!  She instantly stopped fussing when I gave her a little hunk to hold.  All she did was suck on it, but I took it away pretty quickly because I didn't know if she could have it.  I realized later that it is made from rice flour, so it is probably fine.  She was all like, Mommmy I told you so!!!                                                I read up on something called baby led weaning too.  She seems like a perfect candidate for it.  It is also perfect for me because while I have no problem nursing her anytime/anywhere, I get all lazy about spooning food into kids' mouths.  It just bores me.  I bought a bunch of avocados, mangos and pears.  We tried it with a little hunk of pear and carrot, but I don't think they were quite soft enough yet.  I am trying this very slowly.  Has anyone else tried this?  

blog your heart

{for Stephanie Howell's challenge}

i worry

I worry alot, more than I need to. It keeps me up at night.

I worry about Nandini and listen for her breath. I often have to resist the urge to poke her or jostle her crib (which is still right next to my bed). I want her to sleep through the night (and me) but I worry when she does.

I worry that I did something wrong. Avinash was totally sweet and loving, but has turned into a jealous Jealousy Jealousypants overnight. His latest thing? "Don't touch my toys EVER again!" Followed by a smug little smile. I thought that was bed, then he started hitting her gratuitously, but always follows it up with a saccharine little "I'm sorry." Sigh.

I worry that I'm not paying enough attention to one and then the other. That he watches too much TV, that I let her sleep too much.

I worried soo much when I found out molluscum was going around Avi's school, but no one is his 'grade' has it, so I forced myself to calm down. Seriously though, warts for 12-18 months? Gross.

I worry that I never know the right things to say or do for people. I never thought that I would still feel so insecure once I got to be this old (I'm thirty, eep, I still can hardly believe it. Yet being younger than that now feels foreign.)

I worry that I can never control myself and end up unloading every negative emotion I have on my husband.

I am trying to stay positive and be thankful. We did aarti last night again which helped. A nap after I got home from work today didn't hurt either.

I know that I need to try harder, because I have so much to be happy about. My babies are healthy and so beautiful. And hilarious.

And, I seem to have a few seemingly trivial things which fill me with joy.  Losing one or two pounds (the other way has the opposite effect, sad I know), Avinash eating a good dinner, seeing flashes of him growing up into a 'real boy' (ha!), Nandini laughing or just being preternaturally cute, and Ryan praising my cooking (why are so many of these food related??).  The list can also include going to Central Market and putting together a crafty scrapbook page.  I need to work on remembering more of the good things and expanding this list in my mind.

ps - Dancing around to Bollywood Music until we all collapse doesn't hurt either.

wordless wednesday: Nandini on the red carpet with her handler.

{Nandini and I randomly ended up in the middle of fashion night out when we met up with Rachel in NYC last week.}

{Avinash last week, eating all the prasad before puja even started.  Nana of course lets him get away with it because he is his little Krishna, ha!}

Nandini - You were so hilarious at puja today.  You were so calm and collected in the beginning.  Even as Avinash pretty much smeared our entire foreheads in tika over and over again.  You sat through it all with your usual equanimity.  We started to sing the aarti and I told Avinash to read his Hanuman book in an effort to put away the red tika powder.  Well, once you spotted that book you wanted it.  Bad.  I had to hold on to you in my lap pretty tightly to keep you from jumping out.  Ryan and I couldn't help laughing in the middle of singing as you persistently cried out in frustration.  Not sobbing tears, just hilariously frantic bouncing and frustration over our percieved inability to understand what you wanted.  Oh, we know.  Trust me dear, we know.  It was nice to laugh a little tonight because it has felt like a fog all day.  Ana's biopsy is tomorrow and I can't help worrying.  She said yesterday she's not concerned because she her faith in God, but she was definitely starting to get nervous today.  Apparently they might need to do surgery too, so she was preparing for a few days in the hospital just in case. 

August Scrapbook Pages

 

Vintage baby knit pixie hat **more new AC Amy Tangerine stuff**
I crack myself up sometime. I love the hipster humour on tumblr, and I couldn't resist a vintage joke after I made this pixie hat for Nandini. It is great how well the Amy Tangerine line coordinated with this dear Lizzy die cut paper. Love mix and match!

So Lucky **even more Amy Tangerine**
Once I went back to work I finally got around to documenting how much I loved being at home with my babies.

Out of Frame **more Amy Tangerine**
I love how silly our self-timer shots always look. I had to scrap this photo mainly because of the look on Avi's face. He is very proudly holding up a piece of chalk and smiling. I love his confidence.
Again, I used the AT stuff with AC Margarita. It was an easy mix.

like a Bollywood movie
More self-timer shots. We tend to have very short attention spans and took these photos at a friends wedding. I used the letterbox frame in Piknik to make this shot even more movie-esque.
I stamped and embossed the paisley background on kraft paper with white Zing.  I really like how it turned out. 

MckMama photo previews!!

So excited to get these photo previews from Jennifer after our photoshoot this afternoon.  Made me feel like braving the crazy haircut, the crazy heat, the inevitable diaper blowout immediately before the time was totally worth it.  I have learned so much and been so inspired by MckMama over the years, it is so nice to meet her in person.  I know she is really popular, but I think with good reason!  She is so down-to-earth and humble.  She is obviously a great writer and photographer, just super-talented all around.  She made both kids so at ease and talked to both me and my husband about random things.  Working with her was really lovely, and I'd like to think of her as a friend.

Talk about SOOC, these are images from her cell phone of her computer screen!  I was too excited not to share.  We had some bad news about our nanny earlier today, so we are praying that her biopsy goes well and no malignancy.  I think Avi overheard me on the phone with her and not sure how much he understood, but has been asking to see her non-stop since then.  I am so worried about her and feel awful for not noticing something earlier.  I'm thankful at least she is getting it biopsied soon so we will see what happens.  Goodnight..

We all She screams for ice cream

Nandini already has her nanaji wrapped around her little finger.  We all went out for ice cream in our last night in pa.  Avinash wanted berries and sprinkles, which was more for show and less for eating.  Ryan got a fudge brownie shoofly sundae bigger than his head.  And we all forgot to get any for Nandini!  She sat in Nana's lap while he ate.  Every spoonful she tried to get. 

{Photo from a different ice cream outing - soft serve at green park which was actually way better anyway..}

As the spoon came up she opened her mouth wide only to be foiled each time resulting in regular tears of frustration.  Poor little girl then had to endure her own mother laughing at her!  Luckily for her, once my dad caught on to the cause of her consternation he quickly chucked the cup and herded us all back to the van to go home.  Then promised her unlimited ice cream next time she came to visit, ha!

On scrapbooking..

This is a hobby that I sort of fell into.  I was always a pack rat and loved collecting little momentos.  I never knew what to do with all that stuff though.  Even my wedding pictures just languished on my computer unprinted.  A few months after I had my first baby I started to really want a more concrete way to preserve his memories.  On his first christmas my husband actually surprised me by printing out a whole bunch of his baby pictures and created an album with funny captions and everything.   This was our first scrapbook and so amazing especially in retrospect.  

A little while after that I discovered the Becky Higgins baby kit online.  It wad perfect for me because it had everything I needed to get started.  I used a lot of found scraps then too.  It was the nest way for me to unwind after work and putting avinash to bed.  My husband and I would usually watch something from netflix together while I cut and pasted photos onto paper (and we still do).

Some early scrapbook pages.

I got really involved once I discovered Two Peas.  It is a great source of inspiration.

I love to try out new things, but sticking with some basics to get pages done can help a lot.  My favorite pages are ones that don't just have little flowers all over them, but really tell a story about my family.



This is one of my first pages and one of my most favorite because I love the story it tells.

Stick to a basic pages layout.  One of my favorites is patterned paper with plain cardstock to mat photos.  Add a title, some stickers and journaling - done.




A few examples.

Aaaand even more.  When I can't remember I use facebook or my blog to help remember all the little stories.  It is so much fun looking through the albums with my son already and he is not even three.  He gets a kick out of seeing all the photos of himself and his relatives.

Recently I got into making banners as well. I found that it is a great way to display things along with decorative touches. So easy to put together.

I did this one for Avi's birthday cards. I may make something similar for his artwork and Nandini's too eventually.

Linked up here: Kelly's Korner and Idea Room.

Please let me know if you have any questions.