Today

Today morning my good friend R woke me up for the morning jog.. I prayed to god(to see/feel good things) and I wanted to share the things I felt/came across during my jog..

It was a misty morning and the sun was just breaking in through all the trees. The scene was awesome.
I saw an old couple, they should be in their 80's walking.  (How active people are!!!)
I saw a woman, walking two dogs and a parrot. The parrot was sitting on her shoulder..
I saw a 200 yr old Inn, it is still in operating condition..
I saw a house which was built in 1713.
I saw the third largest sugar maple tree in Ridgefield CT, I tried to hug the tree, nope. I need my whole family to hug the tree..
There is another house just like a gingerbread house. They have lot of Rose bushes with lots of blooms and their fragrance was soo pleasant.
There is a conservatory of dance here and today I heard zumba music for the first time there and lot of woman dancing for that music. I felt the emerging energy.. That was cool..
The air was little chill but as the sun was in, I felt warm.
I saw lots of fresh flowers..
I was greeted by eleven people.
When I entered home, my blooms came running to me saying "Amma"
What else do I want from a Morning jog?    God sure is there..

Cherry blooms

Evening walks along with my little ones gives me gifts like this...
p.s. It was given by my Mowgli..

Mother's Day celebration at school

At Mowgli's school, the teachers arranged a party for Mothers(only mothers with their kid, that is the interesting part) and we had a nice time there sipping tea, munching cookies and fruits..  Every kid had arranged the table nicely and prepared tea for their mother.  It was awesome. The table had table cloth, vase with flowers, table liner, place mat, neatly folded tissue, name board,  trays with cookies, tea and fruits. Every single table had flower vase and everything I mentioned.  Even I dont arrange my table as neatly as that. (everything done by the kids) Unfortunately, I dint carry my camera to shoot the interesting moment.. They also celebrated the Teachers appreciation week at the school.. Every kid gave some flowers to the teachers. And my Mowgli made this flower...



After coming from his school, Mowgli started this conversation..

Mowgli: Today I am going to take you somewhere..
Amma: Enga da kanna?(Where?)

Mowgli: To the Diamond Store..
Amma: (I was amazed, but did not show that to him) Ethuku da?(why?)

Mowgli: I am going to buy you diamonds and emeralds and ruby..

Amma: Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa(!!!)

Mowgli: Yeah.. You can take whatever you want...
Amma: Anything???

Mowgli: Ear ring, necklace or anything you like amma...


So innocent my Mowgli is... He does not know, that we need to pay for them(he thinks that he can swipe his dad's card)..

Today

My Nemo is 20 months old. Today after MM took Mowgli to school, me and Nemo were playing for a while. As I had bought some plants, I went out to our patio and started to plant them. Suddenly I felt something fishy (usually Nemo will be sticking to me).  I turned around and saw Nemo laughing at me.  Ooops I was locked out in my patio. It was a glass door & he could see me through it.  I begged him to open the door. He laughed at me again(so innocent it was).  I was in my shabby pajama, uncombed hair, dirty hands and with no slippers.  I went to our neighbor, who is an elderly lady and told her everything. Got her phone and called MM.  He told that he left the windows open in the bed room and asked me to go in to the house through the window.  So I went to the Bedroom window and tried to open it. Unfortunately, it had two locks and only one was open and the other was not.  Hmm.. I went to our neighbor and borrowed her phone again and called MM. What can he do, his office was 45 mins away from our house... Anyway he said he will come... Now I have to spend some 45 mins or more(depending upon the traffic situation) in the patio. Fortunately Nemo was in good spirit, he started to play with me.   We were playing Peek-a-boo, Sha boo threes and was singing rhymes. It went for 25 mins. Then he started banging the door to open it. As sun was shining on his eyes, he went to his train & started to play with it. I was praying god, that he should not go inside some other room, where I could not see him. Then he started to play with the DVD player.  One by one he started to play the movies. There were 5 movies in the player and one of them was a movie about volcanoes.  When he played it, it started with a scary sound, he was terrified and was about to come to me, while my Knight in shining armor appeared and rescued my sweet little pumpkin..  He dint get down from his dad for a while..  I thanked my neighbors and came in.. Thus all my day's work was delayed by one hour..

Interestingly, I should thank God for four things

1. Nemo did not  panic / he did not realize that he got locked inside..
2. Our neighbor was at home
3. I remembered MM's cell phone number.
4. The weather was good outside today. lots of birds, blooms and even sun. hi hi.

Today is sure an exciting day isn't it?..

Today

My good friend Mookuthi, sent me a link for a free gardening workshop at Homedepot. I finished all my works and went there in time.  But nobody was there.  I started asking each and every employee, who pass by.  And at last, an elderly women came. She asked me, the type of garden I have.  Ooops.. I do not have a garden.  I just have a patio, where I grow some small plants. I told here about my plants.  She gave me a coupon and said there is going to be a draw on it. And she started explaining lots of things about plants and how to take care of them.. In no time, an hour passed. I was the only one attending the workshop. But when people saw us both talking about plants, they gathered around us and started to listen. When she was done with her explanations, there were some 10-15 people around us.  She handed a coupon to everyone.  She shuffled the counterpart of the coupons and took one out of it. Guess who the winner is??? It is me.  Hi hi hi hi.. I got a big hanging Pelargonium plant.. I was already happy and satisfied with the workshop.  In addition to it, I got a super duper gift too. Isn't it an excellent day, today?..

Eniya Tamil Putthandu Nalvazhthukkal (Tamil New Year wishes)

I used to think Why this much hype for Christmas, Easter or Halloween in this country.. And I also felt that they all target the kids.. I mean like Santa will come leave a gift for the kids and with Easter egg huntings and the Halloween Costumes for the kids etc..  
Last week, I met an Indian woman(North Indian while I am a South Indian) we were chatting.. She was asking how I am preparing for my festival next week. I was literally blinking( I don't know what it was).  Looking at my puzzled face, she told that she was talking about the Tamil new year. Ooops.. And our conversation went on.
Now coming to the point, how will I celebrate Tamil new year??? I used to get up early in the morning, go to temple and greet friends & relatives.. Everyone in Tamilnadu/Tamilian does that.. What is exciting about that? Will my Mowgli or Nemo ever appreciate or enjoy it? Or any other kid/younger generation enjoy it? No way. Will they ever think about it in future.. If they dont enjoy something, how can they pass on that to their younger generation? Now I understood why there is hype for Christmas, Easter or Halloween. They make the Kid to expect/wait for that day and the kids enjoy and appreciate them. And they remember the good time and the excitements they had forever. And they pass on the tradition to their younger generation. Makes sense isn't it?

p.s.: Our Deepavali has Cracker/holiday/snacks and Our Pongal has sugarcane/holiday/snacks, which will excite the kids. The Festivals which is not exciting for kids will definitely die soon. What can I do about that? Nothing much but I made lots of bakshanams(snacks) and drew some kolam and let the kids color them.. hi hi

Today

What will happen if I am left outside my home in the snow, all through this long winter.  I would have died.. Today while cleaning my Patio I saw this Mums plant. I bought it last September and used the flowers for my Kolu. It was still there in my Patio for the past six months in all the snow and freezing rough weather, it has taken all the pain to live..
Today as I was driving Mowgli to his school, I saw a Cop..  I was thinking what will he ask me, if he catches me.  license!!!.   As we were late, I was in my track pant. . And the license was safe in my Jeans hanging in the closet(obviously at home). Oooops... After going home, the first thing I did was keeping my wallet(license) along with my Van key.. Went to library today and selected few books & dvds and I was rubbing my pant for the wallets. But it was with the Van key, which I forgot to take. Oooops.  Run, run, run to home. And I ran driving home ;-) without the license again.

My everyday

5.00 A.M Alarm Buzz
5.15 to 6.00 Pranayama(Breathing exercise)
6.05 to 6.50 Gym
6.55 Water therapy
7.00  Morning chores starts Cooking, Feeding, Dressing up my Mowgli to school
8.25 MM takes Mowgli to school.
8.30-11.45 Feeding, Bathing, Playing with my Nemo, India Calls, Cleaning house, Washing clothes
Nemo used to sleep by 10.30 A.M now-a-days he does not sleep at all.. On Tuesdays he got his Mother Goose program in Library at this time. I go for shopping either on Mondays or Fridays at this time.
11.30 Tea time
11.45 Picking-up my Mowgli.
12.15 Feeding the kids again, Reading books, Playing, Chit chating blah blah...
1.00 Lunch time for me.
2.30-4.30 Kids goes for their nap..
While they sleep, Mail checking, Dhyanam, Farmville, Chatting with friends, Library routines, Blogging and again a Tea.. Now-a-days even Mowgli rarely sleeps.. If he doesn't, that is a real big problem for Nemo to sleep.. He will bang this or that and wake up Nemo. And  Mowgli has his Ice-skating classes on Wednesdays and Swimming classes on Thursdays. So those two days are busy days for me..
4.30-6.00 Kids wake up.. snacks for them, small walk or cycling..
6.30-7.00 Cooking, Dish washing, Grinding blah blah...
7.30 Dinner time.
8.30 Milk for the kids.
9.00 Story/book for the kids
9.30 kids goes to sleep.
This is the perfect routine, I always love.   But mostly my Nemo wont let me go to Gym, by being awake all through the night or exactly by 5 AM .. I think he has an alarm in his body... or Mowgli wakes up exactly by 5.30 AM for his pee-pee and bangs the bathroom door & wakes up Nemo..
I really really wonder, how women work along with their household chores. Some days I will have lots of time to chat with friends and relatives. Some days I will be running here and there with lots of work & that is exactly when I will get call from people saying I am not calling them:-(
I always feel bad about me not working. But the interesting part is that being at home gives me lot of time to spend with my little ones. Let me enjoy the innocence of my kids, as I may not get them as they grow older. At present, I really love being a mom..

Life

This is good/inspiring, isn't it? I am going to do all of them..

To do list 2011..

We are going back to India next year.. This may be the last full year here in US. Let me finish up some tasks, which I cannot do there.( I will have other important works to do there ;-))
1.Speech therapy  --  mm is having trouble pronouncing some letters/words.. So I have to straighten it up before we go back to India..
2.Learn Swimming - I started this long back while mm was 6 months old and due to some reasons I could not continue with it. Now my tiny nm is 19 months old. I am still a half swimmer.. I dont want to go to India as a half swimmer..
3. To learn photography  -- Whenever I see our new SLR I feel like exploring it.. But somehow, I could not..  The main reason is I dont find a reasonable time to spend with it (you are right I am a bad time organizer)..   And this auto option, which dilutes my inspiration by giving an excellent output..
4. Ice skating -- I have even bought my own shoes to try this..  let see..
5. Guitar -- This Guitar is with us for the last 6 years..  Whenever I see it, it is pleading me to use him. My target is at least a small rhyme with it.. ;-)
6.To learn about the stocks  - For a long long long time I am thinking about it.  Lets see how this works..

Spring is here!!!

Spring started yesterday! and it is snowing today... My Mowgli and Nemo are sad as they could not go for a walk, along with all the birds and squirrels who are also upset about the weather.. Last week the weather was soo nice. We even went out without our jackets. We also packed our winter items in a box and kept it in our storage. And now it is snowing & they have predicted more snow this week. I do not  know how this snow will affect my plants.. lets see.
I liked this crocus plants and planted lot of its bulbs in our patio. Two days before when I shot this pic, only one of the bloom was there. Today I shot the other pic with all the snow, all three of them (yellow,white and purple) were  ready to bloom. Look at their growth in just two days..
They open their petal only when they see sun otherwise they remain closed. But we can plant them under a tree as they bloom before a tree would get its fresh sprouts...
Interesting fact: Saffron (Kunguma poo) is also a crocus and is called Saffron crocus but it belongs to Iris family...

Can't  resist posting this quote....
If you love something, set it free... If it returns, you have not lost it.  If it disappears and never came back, then it was never yours to begin with... And if it just sits there watching TV/Computer, unaware that it has been set free, then you probably married it...

Mowgli likes Little Einsteins(Cartoon).   It comes in handy many a times for me like this...

Mowgli: How did I pop out of your tummy amma?
Amma: Doctors dissected my tummy and got you out da kanna..
Mowgli: How did I got in Amma?
Amma: Hey shall we watch "Little Einstein"?

It is just the beginning,  he is just 4 year old.

What do I like to do?

Playing with my kids
Take a walk
Watch Television
Eat nicely
Chatting with my friends/family
Read a book/Magazine
Gardening
Blogging
Browsing the net
Just do nothing at all for a while....

Maronen

When we were in Germany,  we used to roam around the city during weekends. While roaming like that during a winter day, we discovered a new nut called Maronen in a street side shop. It was soooo yummy.  They just roasted the nuts in a pan and were selling. For €1 we just got 6 to 7 nuts.. Oops. We started searching for that nut in the grocery shops. I found it FBL(Hi I remember the supermarket's name) MM was so happy when I roasted them at home.   After coming here to US, we get this nuts during the Fall and Winter.  Here it is called chestnuts. Mostly all our weekends during fall/winter, we will be munching these nuts at home.  They say, that these nuts does not have cholesterol and is the only nut having C-vitamin. why dont these yummy nuts grow in India?

Our German friend taught us the correct way to roast those nuts. If someone wants to know: Wipe the nuts and with the flat side down, cut the nuts with a sharp knife and make a 'x' mark.  Preheat the oven to 425 and it will take 25 to 30 minutes for the nuts to be ready. we can easily peel the shell off, when they are warm.  It would be difficult, if it becomes cold. Don't ever loose an opportunity to munch one guys...

Comedian of our home

Mowgli is really a comedian now-a-days..
Last week I put him to sleep and was washing dishes and he came running to me
Mowgli: Amma, I was trying to sleep, but my nose is not working. What should I do?
He had cold..

We went for shopping and as it is winter here, sometimes we shed tear due to cold wind.
Amma:  Do you know, why you are shedding tear?
Mowgli:  Becaaauuuse I drank a lot of water..
He looked so innocent when he said that.  Hats off for his imagination..

Yesterday he got up from his nap and got some tiny dust particle in his eye. It was so irritating for him. he started crying. I told him to close his eye for a while and washed his eye with cold water, but it was still irritating for him.  I asked him to lay down for a while, he started crying saying, "My eye broke, while I was sleeping"..

A few days before, he woke up from his nap, Instead of rushing to the bathroom, he went straight to kitchen, opened the shelf and peed in the trash can. I caught him and he said, "Mommy, we got a new bathroom and a new potty".. He was still sleeping. 
Kids at this stage are soo interesting to be with.   Thank God, that I have enough time to spend/enjoy with them. God bless them to have a bright and interesting future..

Happy new year and Happy pongal too!

Lets start  this new year with some good happenings in my life.

1. My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Lot of company for my kids..
2. We have bought a new SLR - Nikon D7000 ( A photographer is on her way) It is too heavy(It should be at least 3 lbs) and I am so scared to handle it, while my kids are around. Operating it is another big task, I am squeezing my tiny brain to take every shot.  Sometimes, I just click using the auto option...(So simple it is)
3. I have enrolled in our apartment Gym. It was a long procedure. When I went last year, they told that I can enroll during the calendar year. I went last week and the lady in charge asked me to sign some legal documents so that I cannot sue them if I fall down from the treadmill.  While I was about to sign the document, she asked me whether I am the unit owner, which I am not. They need my house owner's signature for their official record. That was silly. I dont know how they can stop me from suing them with my landlord's signature.
4. Started some water therapy too(Dear S along with you)
5. Ice skating is going fine and its really fun, especially seeing my little Mowgli skating.
6. I had a hair cut.  How come this be a good news? But it is for MM. He always like short and straight hair. And I had 4 feet long hair.  Now my hair is just less than a feet long and it saves 30 mins of my time daily.
7. As always,  I am enjoying my time with my kids.


Some not so good things are also happening in my life
My dieting is going terribly wrong. As usual I cannot resist Starbucks Mocha with Starbucks ice cream in it. I will control my craving all through the week & during the weekend I will make Gulab Jamoons or Coconut cake or Kesari or Carrot halwa and will add up some 2000 to 3000 calories:-(  If  I dont make any eatables our dear friends are gifting things like sonpapdi or chocolates.. I used to do Jogging, but now it is sooooooo cold and lot of snow here.  But I am very sure, I will reduce my weight before Spring.  Otherwise most of my tops wont fit. hi hi... 

p.s.  The above picture is the Amaryllis bulb plant which bloomed last year(during last new year). This year, I am still waiting for this plant to bloom, but it shows no progress. The plant looks healthy lets see.

Dumb phobia

I done know why a few men, don't feel like talking out with their wives. Is it due to that, they earn? or well educated? or man ego? Hmm.. I know a person, who dint talk with his wife for 12 yrs(living in same house). yeah, 12 years.. My god... Is he a psycho? I was really shocked when I heard that. And the reason was very silly(I mean, its not worth 12 yrs of life). I should not be saying this, he is very elder to me, but i could not digest that.

When we went to their home, he was talking with us for 2 hrs. Is that fair? I was really irritated. Elderliness should lead to patience and not to this brutal behavior. His ego hurts him to talk with his wife, but he plays motta blade with other person.. He goes out and mingles with lot of people, what a old women can do at home, without husband's support? How much his wife would have longed for him.. That women died(due to aging, blessed she is) last year with all those frustration.  I really thought God can't reward him in any other way.