Can I have some rain, please

I am so DeeOhNnEeee with the snow. Enjoyed it for about a day and then it got plain annoying. I've always cribbed about the rain in Seattle, in fact I refer to it as damn rain. Well not anymore. I'll take rain anyday over snow not over sunshine, don't get me wrong. I was trapped at home for most of this week and although the snow looked all white & pretty and the snowflakes glistened in the sun, waiting for the snow to melt got boring (if I could hum the Jeopardy tune here I would)!

We've learned Mr.Shandekar's spanking new Mercedes does not fair well in snow. The car actually got stuck in the snow. I mean STUCK. The wheels kept spinning and the behind kept swaying like the behind of an xxl person in Costco. I mean how can a car get stuck?!? It's not an ol' piece of crap like Mark's red-stolen-by-a-crack-addict car for God's sake. Mr.Shandekar had to put sand, deicer and shovel the snow out and then it barely moved. So he didn't take his German piece of **it to work instead took my smooth cruising watch-me-on-ice Japanese car.


I figured I'd take the bus in, no sweat. I bundled myself up with down jacket, gloves, cap, umbrella and entered the bus. There was no seat to be had. I guess everyone and I mean EVERYONE decided to bus it to work. So I waddle my way to the end of the bus and find one tiny middle seat free. I stood there for a while and examined it thinking - will my 20 pounds heavier self be able to squeeze into that spot? I took the chance and squished my way in much to the displeasure of the 2 people. And then it started getting bloody hot. I didn't want to move to get all the gloves, jacket etc off so I baked in silence. I got off one stop too late so had to walk all the way from Westlake to work, which on any other day would have been just fine. To add to my misery Le Panier was baking the best friand I've ever smelt but I had to suck it up and walk past it. Worst of all the socks that i put on had no elasticity so I had to stop like every 2.01minutes take off the gloves, take off the shoe and drag the sock back up!!

Dear Snow thank you for showing up but take your fluffy little white ass back to Montana where I'm told they drive in 3 feet of snow without skipping a beat.

November Snow

It's been snowing in Seattle for the last few days with more snow expected in the forecast. While Avi was here he kept rolling his eyes, held his big belt buckle and said - You wussy Seattlelites, can't handle a couple inches of snow. Arrgh. Sorry to break it to you Avi but I AM FROM INDIA AND NOT USED TO DRIVING ON ICE, DAMNIT.

Mr.Shandekar and I are both at home today, doing the working-from-home thingy just like every other person who lives here. It's beautiful looking out of our windows, sunny but heck freezing cold. Tara has been pointing to the window and saying be-be, be-be constantly. It took us a while to figure out oh, ba-by wants to go outside. She is having a blast eating the snow, if only we could put some peas in it.

Here are some pictures I've taken over the past few days from the confines of our warm home.

Everything but the Turkey

This year we couldn't use the same sentence we've used since we moved to the US - "We don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we are HI-B visa holders". With the addition of a US citizen to our family I was told I had to cook a Thanksgiving meal or report for work. After making a mess in the kitchen, burning my ankle (yes you read that right...my ANKLE) the meal was served.

Mr.Shandekar: Looks good
Me: Whatever
Mr.Shandekar: What's this greeny thing
Me: It's leek soup
Avi (spitting out a mouthful): cough, choke, it's salty
Me: Those soup cubes are salty!
Mr.Shandekar: What's that burnt thing?
Me: It's not burnt, just crisp it's bread stuffing
Avi: Stuff it into the garbage can
Me: Whatever, have some potatoes
Mr.Shandekar: Did you put a whole rosemary plant into the potatoes?
Me: No, but the can of herbs kinda fell in, have the cranberry sauce
Avi: It's sourrr
Me: Then have the corn bread with it
Mom: Yum, now this is delicious
Me: It's outta a bag, I just added water and baked it
Mom: Don't worry Yamu I'll eat it all
Me: But it all looks so good ......
Avi: Yeah but far from good
Mr.Shandekar: Glad we are going to Bob & Kristie's for a real meal later
Avi: Glad I'll be in Shanghai next year



PS: Tara slept through this whole meal, isn't she smart.

Talking about Tara, I cannot end a post without saying something about the girl. She got into the turkey spirit this week, watch here as she says gooble, gooble, gooble.



It snowed for the first time this year. We buddled Tara up and took her into the yard. She was besides herself and wanted to eat the snow (she pretty much wants to eat everything but food). I've posted all the pictures in the Month 10-12 album. And yes Roma, we put the mittens on right after I took these shots.

I'd like to thank ...

1. My brother for graduating, growing up, getting a job and cutting up my credit card all in a year. For buying Tara this (OMG!!) and for spending the holidays with us
2. My DVR for not missing a single show, so I could miss them and not sweat it
3. HBO for putting the episodes of The WIRE On Demand the very next day
4. My audience of 2 who read this blog and don't pass comments like ... Whatever, Big Deal, As if you are the only Mom in the entire world, That's just cheesy ... instead send me delightful emails making me feel like the only mom in the world.
5. Roma for leaving her expensive taste behind in Seattle. She has convinced Aditya that every bottle of Evian is a miracle.
6. Grape flavored Tylenol for helping us when Tara is sick, going through a growth spurt, teething, getting her flu shots and for whenever we want her to shut the heck up!
7. My Mom for changing 1,999,999 diapers and letting me change only 5 not-so-stinky ones. (Yes I'm a terrible, terrible mom but oh so happy)
8. My Urban Yoga Lotus drawstring pants that look so cool and yet cover up my child bearing hips
9. The folks on Craigslist who post here and not here
10. All the strangers in the supermarket, the mall, the long plane journeys who put up with Tara's chripy grins and actually talk back to her in the cutesy baby voice, so I don't have to.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Bed Head

Tara was born with a good mop of hair. I have faint memories of yelling with labor pains and the Doc telling me to hang in there as she could feel a whole head of hair. The Doc obviously did not see my get-the-baby-the-HELL-out look on my face!! When I first looked at Tara I went oh-no i've had Marge Simpson.

As Tara has grown her hair has made me envious. I have the almost Sai Baba hair - wavy, thick and difficult to style. I spend hours washing it, putting all sorts of gunk in it, blow-drying, then some more gunk followed by flat-ironing. All for kinda straight hair which when exposed to the Seattle moisutre goes frizzy in a second. Arghh.

My daughter on the other hand has lightish brown, straight hair which has grown to a point that it's touching her eyes. Mom combs it to the side which I don't like. I prefer a center parting which Mr.Shandekar doesn't like. He prefers it like a golly-wog which Mom and I don't like. Depending on who's carrying her she gets her hair jouged-up constantly.

Take a look and let me know what Jonathan would call BANGIN'.

1) Neatly combed to the right
2) Parted right down the middle
3) Waking up curly head and sweaty
4) Cover it up with a ridiculous cap

Hello, mah bahbee!

It's been busy in a nice sorta way at the Shandekar residence. This past week our relatives Lulu and Joythi came to visit from CA. The magnetic power that Tara possess is unbelievable. I mean who'd thing of leaving sunny CA for crappy SEA?! She's managed to convince folks to visit within 9 months of her existence compared to my 9 years here.

Tara was fascinated with Joythi. His Hello-Mah-Bahbee greeting was recieved with outstretched arms, toothless grins and frantic kicking. Tara protested vehemently if any of us even went close to her leave alone try to take her away. You can image the state of my bruised ego. Is this MY child, I ask?

Lulu saw the amount mom does for me and got petrified. In the brief time she was here she taught me how to make some quick dishes which involved everything but the microwave. She kept Tara entertained during the day while Joythi was in class and even managed to get her to sign back the word "more" as in "Read more books to me, Agi Lulu".

The weather was typically Seattle - stormy, windy, sunny, stormy. They've promised to return that one day in July when the sun is actually out and you can see the elusive Mt.Rainier. Until then the cute Elmo puppet and hand-stiched blanket will keep Tara's memories of tha-tha alive.

Say What

Over the last few weeks Tara has been using her vocal cords to no end. She has lenghty conversations with her Teletubbies and when she gets bored beats the crap outta them. She lets out a short shriek followed by tightening of the fists, gritting of the jaws (no teeth yet!) followed by some more bursts of shrieks.

Sidenote: I've updated the site to the latest version of the Blogger and now the header is all screwed up. I'll try and tool around with it later.

Here's looking at you and you

I whisked mom and Tara off to Vegas on Wednesday for a 3 day trip to celebrate mom's birthday. Had planned it a while ago but kept it a secret from mom. She's had her fare share of surprises so this time I told her a few days in advance as we had to get Tara's stuff ready. With all the new airline restrictions, we were told that we'd have to taste her milk in front of the TSA prior to clearing security!! Glad Tara is taking formula now, as we didn’t have to do this ridiculous thing. Although, we had to keep stopping by Starbucks and asking for a hot glass of water (the highness drinks only hot milk) as we weren’t allowed to carry any liquids.


Tara had a blast. The constant lights, multitude of fountains, slot machines going ting-ting-ka-ching and the hoards of people kept her occupied. Tara loves to be in the company of people, lots of people. At traffic lights when some random drunken dude is standing next to us moaning over his losses here's Tara enthusiastically grinning at him going LOOK AT ME, I'M CUTE!!! The next second she turns to the old lady with her bag of coins and gives her the same joyful expression. She wants everyone to talk to her, play peek-a-boo with her, touch her nose and say you-precious, and cuddle her. She goes to anyone who stretches their arms out except of course her most upset/annoyed/dissapointed mom & grand-mom. She literally pushs me aside with her hands and turns 180 degrees to the ignorant stranger. Where is the Stranger Anxiety that all the books had warned us about???


We stayed at the Aladdin which was directly across from the Bellagio fountains so every 1/2 hour we'd peek out the window to show Tara the fabulous musical fountains. By the second day, Tara was pointing to the window every 10 minutes, clever girl. So we’d put her into the stroller (have I told you the ruckus she creates to get into it, she screams bloody murder, arches her back, stiffens her legs and waves her hands frantically all at the same time) rush downstairs run across the huge crosswalk on the strip and find a place to watch the fountains. She HAD to watch it from the first row not from the 30th floor of our hotel, because it’s just not the same as watching it Live.

Vegas should be renamed scam-city. The hotel did not have a mini bar nor a coffee pot even thought I paid some major $$$ for the room.. I checked with room service and it would have cost me 19 bucks for a cup...not a pot...of tea (teabag 8.50, milk 3.50, service charge 2.50, and 19% gratuity). By the end of the stay I was wondering how the ginseng flavored body wash would taste with some milk. All said, Vegas is still Vegas. There is nothing quite like Vegas. I'm glad we took Tara at such a young age as she won't remember a darn thing. Mom was in shock & awe for most of the trip. I got tired of saying yes mom the ceiling is fake, yes mom the plants are fake, yes mom the river is fake, yes mom the lady is the tight shirt has fake....you get the picture. One of the fringe benefits of Tara is the annoying men with the “girls in 30 minutes” flyers stayed away from us, so too the waitress with the free cocktails....dang.

Happy Birthday Mommie, sorry I didn't get you a cake but I was afraid a girl in a bikini would jump out of it and that's one surpise you wouldn't be happy about. The ice-cream was a wiser choice.

Where's Quack-Quack

Roma left last nite and we are all missing her dearly. It was such a fun week, especially for Tara. Roma used to sing this song to Tara and at the end of it Tara would point at her with the index finger and go Quack-Quack (more like Qua-Quaaa)

"5 little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the pond and far away.
Mother duck said QUACK, QUACK, QUACK
And only 4 little ducks came back"

So today when Tara woke up and looked over her crib for Roma there was no quack-quack to be seen. It's amazing how Tara took to Roma, she didn't want to come to mom or me (which kinda ticked us off). I'm happy though, as Roma said she'll be here in a heartbeat whenever Tara needed her. Boy, am I gonna use this trick to make her visit again...soon!

It was Tara's first Halloween last week. A bit of a downer as we were planning to take Tara out Trick or Treating but she had a terrible cough. We just dressed her up in the Devil costume and proudly displayed her to the little kids that stopped by.


We also took Roma to the season opener of the Sonics basketball game. They gave us free shirts and towels on entrance, we were all completely into the game. I even heard Roma follow the cues and yell DE-Fense between her naps we caught her taking. The sonics lost by 2 points. Tara just sat on our laps with a frown on her face and her hand streched out for the ball. We were amazed at how focused she was for the first half of the game and then she joined Roma in snoozing.


We hope to see you back soon, Ms.Quack.