Searching..

We are searching for a new apartment, as our lease is about to end this month. The criteria for our new home are

1. It should be near some good preschool for mm.
If the preschool is nearby, we do not have to buy a car, as public transport in not good in our area.
2. It should have hardwood floors.
I don't want mm to lay down and rolls in carpeted floors and also it is convenient to put my new born in a wooden floor. mm pukes at least once in 3 weeks. It is easy to manage a wooden floor than a carpeted one. I done know how people manage a carpeted floor with small babies and toddlers.
3. The unit should be in ground level.
mm often jump and run and play. And our neighbor who is below our unit is getting disturbed by his activities. whenever mm runs or play she complains/knocks the floor harder than him. She works as a child research scientist(she seems to know a lot about kids). We don't want to disturb our new neighbor too.
4. It should be within our budget.
Main thing. We cannot give away all our money to the land lord ;-)

Actually, we saw a lot of houses and if one fits in the condition the other will not. At last we found one such unit and we packed everything in our home. We dismantled the shelves, cot etc and were ready to move into the apartment in 2 days while the house owner demanded for one more month of security deposit. Hmm... enga kitayey vaa. bye bye solllitome.
Thank god, our house was not rented to anyone else, so we extended our contract and are continuing our search. Lets see how it goes...

My dear husband forgot my birthday. "Arrr...Six yrs achi. enimey ethellam expect panna kudathu" this was what, i was thinking, while my dear friend J called up to wish me. As i was taking bath, he picked the call and came running to me, saying blah, blah.... What next, A simple outing and fine dinner in a Thai restaurant.
But one thing is sure, it was funny to see his sad face, apologizing, blah, blahing, the same face, i saw before 7 yrs among the crowd of people. Did i say, that we were married for six yrs, Its like yesterday for me now ;-)

My little apple is soo crispy...

I dint write about mm for a long time. I have lots and lots to say.

mm is 30 months old and just now started to talk a little bit.

When i took him to India, he was a baby boy but in this three months, he has been shaped into a toddler boy. He talks, he got his own characteristics, he chooses what to eat and play and even to wear his favorite dress.

Today, i was playing with him. After a while, he started to read/watch a book. So i took my slogam book and started to read. A few minutes passed, mm called me to play with him. i told him that i am in middle of the slogam and asked him to wait. After a while, he again called me, i repeated the same. He came and took the slogam book and kept it in the floor and sat on it and said "Kannom". I told that it was with him. He thought for a second and hide it in his car trunk and said "Kannom amma".. I told him, if the slogam is stopped in between, god will feel bad. Then he thought for a while and told "Om shanthi shanthi shanthi hee" and kept the book in the swami stand and grinned at me.

Whenever i say slogam or Omkaram, he says, "No Om amma" and starts singing "Mary had a little lamb".

Whenever any kid visits our home, he will offer his toys to them and will ask them to play with him. he will try to make friendship with them. I am really happy for this character. This he inherited from his dad.

During our travel to India, we had a break at Brussels. There were lots of Indian kids playing. There he met a small boy, he should be 3 to 4 years old. mm tried to play with him. mm observed him and behaved very sweet to him, shared his toys, obeyed the rules in the game and called him anna. The boy was so impressed that he got some snacks from his mom and shared it with mm. He prized and gifted him a blue color car. He said to his mom, that the baby behaved very well, so he wanted to gift him with a toy to play. He dint feel like leaving mm at all. I was really proud at that time.

On board, during our travel, the air hostess presented him some coloring book, crayons and a bag and a bottle to play and work. On the way to the seat, he saw the other air hostesses, who greeted him and he started to give them the gifts he got (instead of holding it tight). They were really impressed. They said that the kid is soo generous.

mm is a copy cat. We use to call our people in India during weekends and his dad will hold the phone in his hand and will be walking while talking. mm will also take his toy phone and walks along with his dad while talking.

Last weekend, we went for fishing to a nearby river. We three, along with some friend, it was nice hot day. While we were fishing, "the float and the pin" which we used, caught into a plant. One of our friend, folded his pant, removed his slipper and went into the water to get them back. copy cat mm got into action after him. mm's pant was already folded as it was very hot. he removed his slipper and went into the water. The water was really muddy and contained lots of tree remains. Ooops mm dint expect that. He started to cry, as he became very dirty. He dint move even a little bit. It was a funny scene.

He likes elder kids than younger ones. After a few time, i came to notice, he is trying to learn from them. With younger kids, he plays 'peek a boo' and try to make them laugh.

Yesterday he came to me saying, "Kadichi amma, kadichi". I asked him, "Ennada kadichi". He took me to his toy dragon and said, "Dragon kadichi amma". He was telling it, as though it was real. Actually it is a fire engine which can be transformed into a dragon. After a while, i realized that while transforming into a fire engine, the dragon can hold our fingers. My son was right, the dragon bite him ;-)

Yesterday, I was playing with him. and this happened

Amma: Amma kathula nee ethavathu vishayam sollu and amma vun kathula ethavathu vishayam solluven.
mm:Ok amma
Amma, mm kathula: Tomato rice panninein
mm, amma kathula: Amma
Amma, mm kathula: Rice mm ku pudikum
mm, amma kathula: Appa
Amma, mm kathula: Vera enna pudikum
mm, amma kathula: (was thinking didn't know what to say)
So i told him to repeat what i say
Amma: enaku
mm : enaku
Amma: amma na
mm : amma nna
Amma : Pudikum
mm : no pudikum
he started to roll in the bed laughing. Ooops Appa madhri pulla Arrr..

One day, we were having our milk and cereal. I was feeding mm. After a while, he put a break.
Amma: palla kudichidu mma
mm : no
Amma: See naan fulla kudichiten, neeyum kudi
mm: no amma.
Amma: Yaaravathu palla methi vaipaangala
mm: Daddy
Ooops, he noticed the bowl, even i hide it behind the cereal box. MM left some milk as I poured too much of milk in his bowl. Arrr...

Last week we were seeing a movie, I dint even notice the movie's name. In that movie, the Plane was being hijacked and they were about to have a crash landing. Suddenly i saw mm rolling in the floor. Then I realized he is pretending to be in the plane, while it is landing..
My baby has grown so much. He knows a lot and his mom is thinking that he is still a baby.

Yummy

Today morning i got up by 4 A.M.. Pregnancy symptoms, hungry. I was sitting and eating some strawberries and this came to my mind. I surely will never get illaneer or karumbhu here. But i will never get such a sweet and tasty strawberries there in India. hi hi

Guess what?

Yesterday we went to take our 5th month scan and again it is a BOY.. My second star is on his way to shine on us. So funny my dream came true. My mom and grandma had a bet on the gender of the baby. Ooops my mom lost and had to give away 1000 bucks to my grandma. Poor mummy!. We had selected a few girl names(for the second time) Now we have 4 months to search a baby boy's name.(last time we had only 15 days to select a boy's name) My FIL started saying that in our horoscope, it is said that we will have 3 kids. Lets see what God has written for us.

Yaavarum Nalam

While i was in India, after my sis's marriage,
After a very long time, we had a getogether of family members and we went to this movie. There was a lunch at my sister's in-laws place. There my sis and her husband planned for this movie. My family members started to home(along with mm) and we started to the theater. Most of the youngsters in our family were present, leaving all the old people back to chat at home. We were really excited and were in time to movie. When the movie started, i was shocked. It is a horror movie. Aiyayooo. (Naan oru bhayanthangolly) I was comfortably hiding my face behind MM, when my mobile rang. My mom called up and said that the house keys are with me. Ooops... All my excitement went off. We were 30 mins away from our home. And it will at least take 1 hr to drop the key at home. hmm. I told my brother... he started and in a while called back and asked for parking ticket, as the bike was parked. Ooops. Again my cousin brother went to give him the parking ticket. He came back after some 10 min.

All due to my silly mistake. It was me, who locked and was keeping the keys. Some 20 members were standing outside for 40 min, due to me.
My brother came back after 1 hr. He told that the movie seemed greek and latin to him. I was telling him the story, during the songs and in interval. Still, he lost the real pleasure of watching the movie continuously.

But the whole movie plan was memorable. As we, the next generation in our family started to roam around the city without the elders in a group. I still remember the days, when my mom, chithis and mamas and atais leaving, all of us at home, when we were kids and going to movies and shopping.

Simple memories to treasure....

Hungry...

This post was written by me during my eighth week of pregnancy. I had enough energy to write it. but could not publish it as i dint feel well suddenly. Dreadful days were those....

Hungry, but cant eat...

Idli and thengai chutney
Pazhaya sadam and sundakaai puli kozhambhu
Puli sadam and thovayal
Neeez thanni
Noongu
Karumbhu
Illaneer and vazhukai
Mutton soup and bone fry
Killimukku maangai

hmm.. I wont get any of them here. I miss them all and most of all, I really miss all my people here. I am hungry but could not eat normally. Its my eighth week of pregnancy. continuous throw ups and morning sickness and giddiness is there. I am taking some tablet to stop vomit but most of the times, it doesn't work. Poor MM, had to cook, wash, clean and take care of mm along with his regular chores. Poor mm, had to adjust with the sleeping time, play time and denied outings by his unfit mom.
Next week, me and mm are traveling to India. Let God give all the power during the travel.

After a very long time

After a very long time, i am hear with my computer, ready to write something.
Lots of things to say..

We happily said bye to 2008 and embraced 2009
I became pregnant again
Was in a bad shape due to morning sickness/Nausea
MM/mm suffered a lot as their wife/mom could not take care of them
MM cooked, cleaned, washed, took care of everything /everyone
Me/mm went to India leaving MM behind
Enjoyed the Shower of love from everyone
Celebrated pongal with our people.
Blessed with Amma's food during pregnancy.
mm went to a small playschool
mm became ill (playschool, lots of kids, very obvious)
MM joined us after one month
Visited everyone in our family
Shifted our house from Kottivakkam to Pallaavaram
It was my sister marriage. Had a great time, meeting everyone, chatting, enjoying.
Was very tired, again mm became ill
Went to Kerala , visited lots and lots of temple and went to Kumarakom(Just me and MM. just like that leaving mm with my in-laws) Had fun but leaving mm behind was very disturbing
Got a hibiscus plant for my mom
My Vallaikappu was done there in my fifth month of pregnancy (Lucky me)
Had an oppurtunity to meet few of my friends
With tears we started and here in US back to our normal life...

mm/me both of us miss India very much. It is heavenly in India with our people and friends. Here it is very lonely and boring. No one is compelling us to stay here. But we got into something, from where we could not escape. To be very frank, Everything ends in money.....