Whom should I marry?

So my 5 year old(who nowadays claims he is 7) asks me the other day, "Whom did you marry Amma?
Me: I married Appa.
R: Ok, then whom should I marry?
Me: Well you grow up like 25 yrs, you can marry any girl you want?
R: I will marry Ritiha?
Me: You cannot amrry her coz she is your sister
R: But then she will marry someone else Amma, I will marry her, she is my sweetheart.

So again I repeat the you cannot marry your sister dialog.

He then goes about ransacking the bedroom, searching for somethign to play while I go off in the hall.
After some time he returns with a perfume bottle and shows it off to his dad,
Appa, this for my marry (instead of I will give this to the girl I marry)

Appa as usual did not understand what he was telling while I wanted to laugh out loud at this statement.

R's Annual Day

Sat I woke up and started crying hysterically, Why, u ask? We have created a Private IPL League among ourselves and based on the players you select you are awarded points and will be top/bottom in the race. Normally I set the players the previous night but on Friday I did not realize that there is a match early in the morning and did not set my team, when I woke up I realized that my team was not set and I would loose points and so the major let-down.
Noon in-laws and big boy went to the zoo with his Uncle while we stayed at home with the kid. Evening we went to a friends place and returned by 9pm.

Sunday was R's Annual day at tamil School, he was in a skit(a a cat) and also in song.
We went for lunch and then the programme was supposed to start at 2pm, but everything was delayed and it started at 3:30, the programmes were over with quickly and we returned home by 5pm.

Kids went out to play while I watched the Malu movie--How Old are you? for sometime before having dinner and hoping on to bed.

9 months on this 9th April

My baby is 9 months on this 9th and what is she up to? She is holding and walking all along the couch, is crawling fast on all fours that we have to be constantly after her, is talking aata--tatata, aana and other baby words all the time.
She is still eating pureed foods but very much interested in our food. She eats ragi, wheat,fruits and her favorite cereal.She loves watching her anna and akka all the time.

She has 4 teeth which she will show off to everyone aroud, if I kiss her she will smile, her so special smile and nowadays she has a new smiling technique, so whenever she gets food that she does not like she will close her mouth , it is as though you put a gum on her face, she will plaster it shut and now if we make her laugh she will laugh with her closed mouth itself, it is very nice to see.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I love her

Waiting for her many other milestones.

D is for Dreams

Last night I saw a dream that my baby girl started walking, infact not walking but she was sitting down and then started running. I was excited, speechless, did not believe it was true, so I took her to another room and plonked her down and viola , she was up and running. I went about screaming excitedly at everyone around, grand-parents came running to see the visual and lo and behold there it was again. This morning I woke up to realize it was a dream.

Sometimes the dreams feel so real, as though everything is happening in real and then you wake up in the morning to realize that it never happened. The dreams that I remember are usually happy ones..............so what do you dream of?

C is for Cute

Cuteness Overloaded is my 9 month old baby girl. We had always wanted a second baby and having a first hand experience I was prepared for the night feedings and sleeplessness for the first 2 months, like I say to so many of my friends, nothing changes after the first 2 months, just that your body gets used to the sleepless nights.
I distinctly remember how terrified I was as soon as it used to get dark during the first 1st -4 th week after my first one was born, I was scared thinking of the nights, how bad it would be, the pumping that I had to do at 4 am in the morning. With my first born this saga went on for 2 months after whcih he has not given my much trouble.
Moreover my 2 year old nephew was here with my parents and he did not allow my mom to come near the baby at nights, so it was pretty much me and hubby, after the first week it was pretty much me talking care of the baby at nights and even mostly the other times.

Then July 9th 2014 happened, the baby latched on immediately for her first feeding itself, no issues there, at night we send her to the nursery, they got her back after every 3 hours but we were pretty much rested the remaining time, she hardly cried which is so much of a blessing. After we came home mom, me and baby slept together, I pushed my hubby out with daddy to the other room, she was a sound sleeper, normally babies should feed 3 hrs at night, my little one slept so well, we had to wake her up for her feeds and normally I did only 2 feeds, after feeding, I gave her to my mom who patted her for some time and then all 3 of us would be asleep, day times also she slept peacefully, I was no longer scared of the evenings. 3 months later dad left for India,my mom and baby moved out to the other room, she came for feeding once at night and that's it, otherwise I slept peacefully, mom took over all our home tasks and taking care of the baby.

My little one was also pretty easy going, she played,slept,smiled a lot infact some girls at out apt have nicnamed her Smiling Ritiha as she is always smiling to everyone around.
Now everyone says that she looks exactly like my son and whenever we go out everyone will be oooing and aaaaaaaing at how cute she is, infact when we went to leave my mom at the airport people standing in the queue were gushing at her and one lady put all her luggage down to come and peek at her and squeal at her, I secretly thought she would take her away and go if she could, now the question I have is How come no one ever said that my son is cute if the look alike, is it because she is a girl?

I know, started this post with this question but got digressed...
Any thoughts??

B is for Broadmoor

Broadmoor is the apartment complex that we have been staying for the past 6+ years since we came to US (after wedding). It is a slightly old apartment complex with about 500 units, all interconnected with internal gym/swimming pool/game room.
Hubby was living with friends at another place and then when I came a month later we signed a lease at this apartment complex (Apt 309) courtyard facing.
We shopped for bathroom curtains, bath essentials, kitchen essentials and it was the first time I was setting up a home. We also had a group of bachelor guys who stayed in teh 4th floor and another 3-4 couples in the same apartment.
All of us mostly hung out together. I was too much into cooking then and tried and tested various new receipes for everyone.
It was here that we conceived our first baby and when it was nearing for my due date we decided to move into a 2 BHK as we needed the space with parents coming over.
We shifted to Apt 303, hubby did most of the moving and arranging as I was 8 months pregnant by then. Our baby boy first arrived in this apartment and we had my parents and the in-laws both come over and stay with us.
We celebrated my son's first food giving ceremony here with all our friends. After parents leaving we felt the house too big and shifted abck to a 1 BHK (Apt 213), also we had left baby boy in India and it was only the 2 of us.
At this time there was a case of bed bugs all over the apartment and hence we threw away our sofa/bed and other stuff away, we sort of had a matteress in the front room and we were sparwled over there all the time(kind of like bachelor days). At this time we got addicted to the serial "Prison break" and would watch back to back episodes. We also had new friends with other friends who were having kids our son's age.
Time flew in going to gym, workign out, playing TT(remember the game room)

6 months later our baby boy was back, now the previous bachelors, most of them moved back and the new ones had formed thier own groups, we sort of felt left out and at one point I was very homesick.
Slowly we got to meet other families from the apt complex, we had a first apt Diwali celebration where I was a part of the initiative commitee. Had our first book reading club and formed a bond with many friends, suddenly there was a lot of activities going on, Thu evening Saibaba aarti, Navratri pooja, Shivratri jagran, get-togethers at so many places, birthdays of dear friends were celebrated, holi, independence day,Ladies parties were organized and enjoyed together. Kids played together all the time, we knew each and every one, we shared and joked and formed a common bond, lots of old faces have gone but new ones have come and kept the tradition going.

Broadmoor is truly a home away from home for me, a perfect place to live in.

A Letter to my Baby Boy

First of all I love you my baby and there is no one in the whole wide world that I would love more except your little sister(I have to write this else you will be yelling at me, she is my sister Amma, you have to love her more).
At this age of 5 you do not listen to anything that I have to say, I have to keep repeating things ten times for it to register in your head or most of the times you will not even blink an eye.
At this age all you want to do is play with your friends, have sleep overs and generally just have fun. It amazes me to see your developed social skills, you can play with both kids above and below your age, you are very popular in school too where other parents coem and tell me, Oh, you are Ritvik's mom, XXX always talks about Ritvik.(proud mama moment)...Be like this always sweetheart.

If anytime in life you are faced with rejections or hurt (which you will for sure), all those are part and parcel of growing up ,remember to not give up , you can always come back to your Amma and Appa and we will welcome you with open arms.
You have grandparents , cousins, aunts and uncles who love you to bits and pieces.

You are growing and will definitely want to try out new things in life, but please do not play with your body, health is very important in long life and so is putting oil on your head and body(which you so run away from nowadays).
Please do not take drugs and get addicted to alcohol and abuse.
Go wild, live your life but also be responsible for your actions.
Sometimes I wish I could hug you and keep you safe in my arms forever.

I love you my baby, umaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah