Do Not Disturb

Phew! What a week! I was ready to just call it quits and buy a house is suburbia Bellevue so I wouldn't have to do the Seattle-Bellevue commute twice a day. Mr.S is in London supposedly working but I have a faint suspicion that he's sitting by some cricket field having a cuppa chai. So I had to take Tara to daycare and back, no even though my mom is in town, Tara is not going to be taken out of daycare. She has adjusted to the place and I don't want her little brain forgetting and going back to the weepy state it used to be in a few months ago. We moved into my friend Arun's condo thinking the commute would be less of an ordeal but hell no, it was miserable. I sat in traffic 2 hours in the morning and 2.5 hours in the evening every tiring day, sometimes more.

We got home today and I'm going to curl up in front of the TV and watch all the episodes of America's Next Top Model cause even though I can't stand that show and Tyra Banks drives me completely insane it's far better than sitting in my car starring at a bumper.

So please unless you are calling to tell me I've won a lottery and you are planning to deliver the winnings to my house, cause I am not parking my butt on the car seat for the next 2 days even if it means millions, please DON'T CALL ME.

-x-

Oh, before i head to the couch never to leave for the next 48 hours I must give this late breaking news. Tara is walking, uh-huh. As in not holding my hand and being dragged along, but some serious walking on her own. She gets so excited that she can walk that she lands on her butt after 5-6 steps. She does not want to sit in her stroller and keeps yelling "walk-walk". She doesn't even want to be carried, all she wants to do these days is walk! I take her for her 15 month check-up next week and was dreading the "Is she walking?" question, not anymore!!!

-x-

I've started putting her hair in a pony-tail now cause the boys at daycare tug at the cute clips I used to put on her. Sidenote, the little boys in her class get all excited when she arrives. I found it strangely sweet that they would all announce Tarah-Tarah and figured they do it for every kid that walks through the door. So one day I went in and one of the boy's mom said "Your daughter is a heart breaker. My son and that other kid fight over who gives her the first kiss every morning". I just stood there aghast but replied with a "how cute". Then it struck me - no wonder she comes back with so much snort on her face and none running down the nose.

(Thanks Avi for getting her hooked onto Cheerios!!)

Look. There. Wow

What's that awful smell...eww...smell of a very stale website. I think I managed to chase away the 4 readers and 1 commenter I had on this site. It's been a rough week for us what with Tara getting an awful cough (again) Mr.S getting the flu and I getting the worst allergies e-v-e-r. To add to all that Mr.S takes on a new job which has us potentially moving back to India. NOOOOOOOooooooooo. Hence the quietness. Now will you come back please and promise to stay?

My mom heard all of us sniffing, sneezing and coughing this past week and what does she do? Get on the next flight to Seattle. She is the bestest, I tell ya. She is recovering from surgery herself but couldn't picture us being sick without having some of her homemade soup. Love ya, Ma. We managed a whole 2 months without her care! Tara is besides herself. She recognized Mom immediately and has been crawling behind her like a little lamb chanting "Agi, Agi" (grandma). We were wondering if she'd remember ... sure she does, no doubt about it.


My brother was here for a few hours this morning on his way to Japan. Yeah, his whirlwind tour of Asia has commenced. He gets to work with a chap called Kobayashi (How cool is that - Usual Suspects fans). They are treating him like some big-wig. Mr.Kobayashi sent him an email with a picture of the Narita airport and where he'll be waiting for him. Take a look.

By now you must be wondering what the title of this post has anything to do with the body. Every morning when Tara wakes up and Mr.S draws the curtains she looks at the trees and says Look. There. Wow. She's started forming sentences, the little girl. Not walkin' but talkin'.

Ides of March

Conversation early this morning:

Me: How old are you today?
Mr.S: Do you have to rub it in, 35 argh. It's my birthday so you wash Tara's butt.
Me: It's my wedding anniversary today so YOU wash it.
Mr.S: Uh-hello it's my birthday and our anniversary. I rock-paper-scissors you on all counts.
Me: Humph, alright.

10 minutes later .....

Me (yelling from bathroom): She's constipated, hehehe.
Mr.S: Awh Sh*t.
-x-
Caesar had to beware the Ides of March but not us, it's a happy day here. Let's have fruit!

Lazy Sunday post

I was ahem told that my previous post was way too wordy, lacking in pictures and basically put you to sleep. Hey, atleast someone's sleeping! So this post is gonna have few words, one random video and lots of Barney pictures. Thank you for your feedback, now can I go SULK.

Goodnight nobody

A few days ago I read one of these Mom Blogs where the lady said her 15 month old son goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at 7am. WHAT? How lucky is she, I thought. Then a couple days ago I spoke to my buddy Srikanth who has a 7 month old and he casually mentions his daughter sleeps through the night. WHAT?? The more I talk to people it seems like all their kids pretty much sleep right through except my precious awake-all-the-blooming time daughter.

The process of putting Tara to bed starts every night around 7:45pm. We turn down all the lights, Mr.S sets the humidifier on and I read Goodnight Moon to Tara. My friend Shannon gave us a Lap edition of the book, that Tara really enjoys. She puts every page to sleep by patting, rather hitting, it furiously. As soon as I utter the words Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Air she knows the end is near and frantically starts turning the pages in the opposite direction so we never get to the last page of Goodnight Noises Everywhere. The only noises I hear from then on are yells, screams, arching of the back, stiffening of the legs protesting and me desperately trying to hang on to this wiggly little fish.

I start singing Edelweiss and she knows there is no turning back at this point. She yells for about 5 minutes and then plop she's off to sleep. It's 8:15pm. I put her into her crib and I hear her gentle snore on the monitor. This lasts till 10pm when the yelling starts again. She wants her nighttime feed. Yes, I'm a bad mommy I still give her a bottle at night. Mr.S usually makes the milk as I try to sneak in a small nap from 9-10pm. She gulps down the milk with her eyes closed and falls right back to sleep.

Like clockwork at 1am I hear the rustle of her blanket and she sits up and starts muttering Moooo (the bedsheet has cows on them, when they have sheep then she goes Baaa. Note to self, buy plain colored sheets!). I have to pick her up and rock her back to sleep. That takes about 20 minutes if I'm lucky and then back into the crib she goes. She keeps fidgeting for the rest of the night and I have to sqeeze my hand through the crib rails, try and find her and then pat her back. Around 4am she wakes up for good, she stands in her crib and starts tugging at my comforter until I wake up.

I am so tired by this point I just lift her up and put her in between Mr.S and me. Then the cutest thing that can ever happen, happens. She turns to me and says "ma-mah" (yup she has finally started saying the word!) and then turns towards Mr.S and says "pa-pah". This back-n-forth goes on a few times until she knocks off till 6:30am. She snuggles as close to me as humanly possible and lies purring in my arms. Sweet Bliss. I wouldn't exchange any amount of sleep for this moment every morning.

People tell me to put her in her own room and let her cry it out for a bit. Get some sleep they tell me, you look worn out. I can't. I won't. Someday Tara will want her own room, her own space and I don't want to loose this moment we share. This 4am moment that I've come to cherish.

Oh, who am I kidding.

WHY THE HELL DOESN'T SHE SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT?!!!?

Cryin' and stuff

Can I give you an explanation before you pre-judge and think what kind of a mother makes her little one cry and continues to take pictures.

There is a rush every morning to get Tara ready and off to daycare. Her hair has grown a bit now and every strand takes off in a different direction mostly landing on her eyes. So I've started to put some clips. She despises this, she's into her shaggy-dog look what can I say. A couple days ago I was trying to put the clips on and for the life of me this girl would not sit still. I reached my wits end and went - T A R A H. That was it. She made the pouty face followed by the waterworks. Crying.Did.Not.Stop. Leave alone I was feeling terribly guilty and in walks Mr.Shandekar who imitates a Tennis player hitting a serve and she breaks into a laugh. Just.Like.That. Wait a whole damn minute. Here I am holding her saying sorry Tara I really didn't mean to shout and she continues to yell. Here is husband making some sorry-ass tennis move and she laughs. So I don't feel guilty now on taking pictures of her crying and crying.

(Did you see her cool Nike shoes? Thanks to BJ & Rebecca! We've put her in these grown-up shoes with the hope that she'll start walking.)

-x-
We had dinner at my ex-boss's house today. Tara had an absolute blast playing with Mariko and all her kitchen toys. We enjoyed the yummy fresh food that Michiko had cooked for us, quite a change from the take-out and mom's frozen food we've been having for the last couple months. We ended with a chocolate cake we took over to their place which was just too good according to little Mariko.

-x-
In other news, Avi's knee injury turns out to be worse than hoped. He might have indeed torn his ACL yet again. It's already been replaced once so he refuses to go in the second time around. His whirlwind trip of Korea, Japan, Beiging, Shanghai starts in a month so it's hard to feel a lot of pity for him.

-x-
Our India plans are on hold for alteast some time now. I've convinced Mr.S to stay on in this city where Spring refuses to arrive. We had 5 inches of snow again last week. Tara says iceeez-iceeez and begs to be taken out.

-x-
Finally I found more non-pink clothes. Hurray.

Sorry you had to see Mr.S's horrible toes. Oh, you didn't notice it? Now that I've mentioned it you have, oh dear. Sorry, really sorry. Gross, I know. What a way to end the post.