The Single Life

Last week, Tara and I moved from one single-male inhabited apartment full of empty Bud Lite boxes to another single-male inhabited condo full of Guitar picks. Arun picked us up from the airport after our trip to Whitefish, we were completely exhausted - the flight was delayed by 1.5hours then they had technical difficulties and then they had to de-ice and then, oh my god just shoot me now, it got windy so when I walked onto the Airfield the stroller took off and went directly below the plane, luckily baby was on my hip at that point. Tara giggled with glee when she saw Arun, a hysterical giggle that I wish I had caught on tape. Not as funny as Theo (you gotta watch this video, trust me you'll see it again and again and again), but close. Every time Arun looked back at Tara while driving she would break into a million giggles. Thank You, God. This meant I could palm her off to him and take a break for maybe just a minute.

Arun's house was more kid friendly as he didn't have a frighteningly long flight of stairs like Avi's place. So, I could go to the loo and not have to worry about Tara rolling down a bazillion steps and landing herself on a pile of snow. However his condo did have 2 guitars, 1 piano, 1 ginormous telescope and 1 miniature boat whose mast was broken by little miss busy hands in the second that I looked away from her.

Arun did me a huge, huge favor and drove Tara to day-care so I had to do the nightmare commute of Seattle-Bellevue-Seattle only in the evenings compared to twice in a day. I was shocked that Tara happily went to Arun with no yelling, kicking of the feet protesting like she does every morning when her father takes her. This girl just makes it DIFFICULT for us poor exhausted parents, I see. I got an absolutely hilarious email from Arun after one drop-off :

Tara was quite happy on the way to daycare this morning. She ate all her cheese even though she tried to feed her shoe every now and then. Yes, for some reason, she decided that cheese looks good on her shoes. She had a long conversation with herself – I think she must have been complaining about the traffic and that fact that she would have a busy day at day care.

I can safely say that I've put off Avi and Arun from ever having kids. When we were in Whitefish at a posh restaurant the wait for 2 was 2 seconds, the wait for 3 was 30mins and the wait for 2 + toddler-requiring-highchair was 1 hour. Avi repeated "I'm never having kids" only about 2,398,564 times. Arun on the other hand said my daughter was welcome to his place anytime...although I think he didn't complete the sentence....anytime he's not around, is what he meant.

We got home on Sunday as Mr.Shandekar was expected back around 6pm. But wait I forgot he's travelling from India!! My dad always said if anything/anyone arrives on time in India, it's usually a day late. His flight was delayed, he got re-routed through Chicago and landed in Seattle at 3am. He had a good trip and even got to spend time with his niece and celebrate his sister's birthday. We are in the will-we-won't-we stage of the whole move-to-India thingy. I say just flip a coin as long as we stay here in Seattle. For now, I'm just happy to have Mr.Shandekar back so I can read InStyle while on the throne, take a long shower, surf the web in peace and not have to panic on what Tara might be up to when she's not in sight.

PS. Sorry no pictures cause I know that's why you even bother coming to this site. I've left the camera's USB cord along with 3,000 dirty diapers at Arun's condo.

Avi can't jump

We spent the President's day weekend in Whitefish, Montana with my brother. He reminded me that he did live near a ski resort and there are moundfuls of snow everywhere but I figured I survived the Seattle snow storm so how bad can it be? Well, pretty bad. There was so much godforsaken snow every flipping where that Tara and I were confined to his apartment for most of the weekend. Boy, was I glad to pack her off to daycare when we returned to Seattle. Avi cooked his famous sri lankan curry for me and even took me out to a fancy Italian restaurant and get this, paid too!! He also got Tara hooked onto Cheetos , Haagen Das Bailey's ice cream and chicken.

The highlight of the trip was meeting Avi's friends Brandon & Angela and their beautiful blue-eyed baby Gracy-Mae. Oh, what did you say Avi? The highlight was NOT watching you play basketball cos you HURT YOUR KNEE within the first 8 minutes of the game!!! Sureeee. Avi has always given me a hard time for not watching him play stellar basketball. When he was 15 and running after rebounds I was 20 and running after crushes so I never got to a court on time. This match was pegged to be THE match to watch, here was the pre-game coverage:

9:30 (B): Pro E's vs. Copperheads odds: Cu heads -1. This is the most anticipated match up so far in the tournament. Word is that ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN 3-8, and ESPN Classics (anticipating that it will be a classic) will be brought in to televise it. Around the plant there is more trash talking about this game then any other. The slight edge goes to the Cu heads from the standpoint they were the only team that listed positions with their rosters. Jason Thomas as their 5'6" Center seems to be the match up that the Pro E's can't compete with.

Instead of getting the Championship trophy this is what they got instead:

Tough break award. Copperheads probably get this one. A pre-tournament favorite the Cu heads were delivered a huge blow 8 mins. into their first game when Avi went down with a knee injury. Without Avi the Cu heads did not have their Twin Tower line up with Avi and 5'6" center Jason Thomas.

Since we were already at the courts I decide to stay on and watch a bunch of old-farts (they called themselves that, don't judge!) play ball. It was funny to see that teams actually wanted to loose so they could just have some pizza and beer. At one point this old man mutters "I'm tired and that was just the warm-up". Then I noticed two players from opposites teams talking very seriously so I strain and listen in "You lean on me, I'll lean on you and we can call that defense, alright?".

It was fun overall but I felt really, really bad for my little bro. I was asked by one of his colleagues whether Avi was the best ball player to come out of India. Not really, I'm guessing our Mom and Aunt were far better but I bet he's the tallest. Luckily he didn't rip his ACL, his knee is still pretty swollen and he's got a brace on. I know, poor kiddo. Maybe he should just stick to the bars?!

We did get a special mention from the President of his company:

I enjoyed meeting Avi’s sister and child. She came all the way from Seattle to see her brother play basketball. Turns out, Uncle Avi got injured before she made it to the gym. I am sure her being there made it hurt a little less.


-x-
On a completely unrelated note I managed to find an outfit for Tara which did not involve Pink. Big achievement.

Solitary Rose

Mr.Shandekar came home with this today. I know you must be thinking it's just a chocolate dipped strawberry. But, he got me two. I know - it's just two chocolate dipped strawberries. Hold that thought. Valentines day was never something we celebrated in India and as a result never cared about. After moving here, it seemed everyone was doing something on this day. I recite the following anecdote all the bloody time which bugs the husband to no end. Maybe, this will be the last time I will EVER mention it since I got chocolate dipped strawberries.

Many, many years ago we were at a Thai restaurant in Capitol hill eating the usual panang curry, 3 stars please. I noticed from the corner of my eye an old hunched lady caring a bunch of roses. We briefly made eye contact and she crossed the street and came all the way into the restaurant and looked at Mr.Shandekar and said "Would you like to buy a rose for this young lady?". Heart shaped flutters were oozing outta me. Mr.Shandekar asked how much it was, $1 came the reply. He looked at me and said do you really want a rose? Gone are heart shaped flutters replaced with daggers. He didn't buy me that measly one dollar rose. Ok, so he had student loans and was living on borrowed furniture but c'mon.

Since then I've received a cellphone, a dvd player, a necklace (Don't get too excited it was bought at Costco. I mean who buys a necklace from the same place you buy a crap load of toilet paper?), dinner at Mamma Mia my favorite Italian restaurant, suspicious DVDs (please, please don't ask me the names. Deal? Deal!) and a box of Dilettante chocolates. All these gifts arrived either late, very late, too late, oh-so very late and why did you even bother late. Valentine's was still a do-nothing kinda day at the end of it all.

Not this year, the surprise arrived early. We will be busy packing on Valentine's - I'm off with bebe to Montana and Mr.Shandekar is off to India to interview for a job work. Even though the gift costs only 5 bucks, enormous if you think it's just a piece of fruit in chocolate, it means so much more. Maybe next year I'll get this, maybe just maybe.

Look so fine

When I had my post-baby shower I warned everyone about my dislike/distaste/despise of the god-awful color pink. Please people, anything but Pink is what I recall saying over and over again. I still did get pink, but it was mostly wrapping paper which when sprinkled with white polka dots doesn't look half as bad. Most of the clothes Tara wore when she was an infant (what she's no longer an infant - I mean when did that happen?!) was from India, hand-sewn to perfection by all my aunties back home. So for a long time, pink had no place in our household.

But, see this!!!

I get Tara's clothes ready for the week every Sunday and I try so damned hard to pick out different colors but end up with pretty much all pink. Houston, we have pink overload. Gosh from the blankets to the one-sizes to the shoes to the bumper on the crib it's all shades of pink. The cutest designs are in pink and I cannot run away from it, instead it's wrapped in a bag and handed to me with a fat bill. Thank you Gymboree.

Is this why when we girls grow up we tend to hate that color? I can't blame us, I mean too much of anything pink will make you sick. This is an American consumer thing though. While in India we got every shade of the rainbow outfit for Tara. She was in red <-, yellow, bright orange and even blue (her ear's were pierced so none of that is-it-a-boy-or-girl confusion). However out here it's hard to find clothes that don't have a pink tinge to them. Is that because it's politically correct to say "She's such a cutie" instead of "Your baby's such a cutie", given you have a 50-50 chance of getting it right?

When we were at Bryn's birthday party Mr.Shandekar goes up to a friend and says - so is that a boy or a girl you have there. Just for a minute put aside the fact that he could have oh maybe said it TOTALLY differently, but the infant was dressed completely in pink. Mr.Shandekar is that foot in your mouth masking your vision now? He got what he deserved,"Mate, that's why SHE's dressed in Pink".

So most days Tara is in pink from head to toe. Ok, I admit I'm starting to become One with Pink. My Aunt Roma gave her some gorgeous pink dresses (pic above too), she wore pink on her birthday and even her sweats are pink. Every now and then there comes a day when she wiggles so much and fidgets so goddamn much that I grab the first thing I can lay my hand on and she ends up with the combination below. All I have to do is put some bells on her and we have our own little elf.

Quick update & Budh-lite

Thanks everyone for dropping us a line and checking on Tara. Her cough is almost gone and the drippy nose is not-so drippy anymore. The antibiotics worked like a charm, don't know what long term harm it has but for now the little one is back, weak, but back. We didn't give her any Tylenol all day but gave her some before putting her to bed, hey we need some sleep, ok.

Today we watched the Superbowl XXII-whatever at our friends Bob & Kristie's place. Tara was the only non-adult and by half-time the guys had her doing a version of touchdown (touching her head and grinning from ear to ear). I've noticed something over the past several months; the Pre-Tara me wouldn't give much attention to kids/babies in general and I don't think I ever played pee-ka-boo with another baby or said hi-you-cutie-sweetie-pie. In fact, I'd be the one on the plane who'd ask for a seat change as soon as I saw an infant within 10 feet of my seat. But people, other people, obviously people unlike me are so friendly with Tara it's altogether shocking. Someone or the other kept entertaining Tara during only the most-important game of the year and didn't complain. Maybe they see the tired look on our faces which scream - help, can you take her for just a minute, I promise it'll be only a minute, pleeeaase. Whatever it is, people are really, really nice or alteast the people at Bob & Kristie's.

And here's my favorite Superbowl commercial (you know we women only watch it for that!).

Fever

101.6, 102.1, 103.3....did you read that One O Three point Three!! Holy crap, sense the rush-to-the-ER strain in my voice. That was Tara's temperature early this morning and it was sky-rocketing like google's stock. She's had a terrible cough/cold thing for the past week and missed a couple days of daycare but nothing serious. When she came home y'day and the daycare note said they had to "wake her up" at 2:30pm that got me worried. She usually naps the least and for her to knock out she must have been really down. Went to the ER, as usual, soon as we get to see the doc the till then listless child is all kicking, waving going how are you doing this fine day? She's on a dose of strong antibiotics, yuck. The fever remains frightfully high.

Now onto some ramdom thoughts.

I was sent this website by Mr. living in NY cool (but broke?!) photographer Mark who asked me to get educated on the unique and breath-taking sculpture Park and not mock artistes. I'm still not convinced but if seeing the website makes you wanna finally come to Seattle, please please visit it and then visit us and help change some diapers!

Mrs.Breedorf how can I thank thee. Not only are you the sole commenter on this rambling site of mine but you put me onto sites like this. The Sprouts food arrived yesterday. Thank you, THANK YOU. The food is so good, heck I've been taking bites from it. Although Tara is not eating much since she's sick and all but I'm sure she'll be ordering seconds. In case you can't read the labels she's got things like: Basghetti – Brown rice elbow pasta with an organic tomato, onion, fennel, and raisin sauce and Banana Bean Pudding – Adzuki beans, bananas, and a hint of vanilla.

To those who emailed me saying how in the world can you tell ba-bah means bubbles. I know, you must think I'm nuts and just want to brag about this genius of a kid I have here. But seriously, she say ba-bulles now for bubbles. In fact one of the notes from the daycare mentioned it too. There, happy now? Or, maybe she's just saying bullsh*t, like you are.

Tara got home her first Art project this week. It looks like a Rorschach inkblot thingy than any sorta art. I bet her teacher probably banged the hammer more than the toddlers in the room. I'll use it as a table mat for a while and then off it goes.


I'll end with a picture of the sickly one. Went to Gap Kids over lunch one day frantically looking for baby socks. My mom is right there is some sock-demon hiding in the washing machine. While I picked pink socks and another pink sock my buddy Steve forced me into taking one red pair. Then I realized I needed and outfit to match the sock and headed to Gymboree.

Yes, I'm vain.