the only ray of hope....

NC comes back home on Monday...
Dear sister,
I am eagerly waiting and have too many hopes resting on you. Somehow seems like all will be well when you are close and not a million miles away.
I need to remember you have a life of your own too.. :)
Anyway, looking forward to whatever time we spend together, to lots of fun and lots of food... and lots of me free and T with you .. hehe...
Have a safe flight!!!

and i keep trying even after...

- losing two maids in one day... and
- having a fight with mum and actually breaking down on the dinning table ... and
- having an idiot relative pass snide remarks at my husband at a party ( details later) .. and
- having a fight with the husband, all our frustrations bursting out... and
- another long day of housework ahead with no help in sight... and
- a crazy energetic baby who manages to get into trouble in a second if not watched.. and
- another party to be planned that I have no interest in.. just doing it to make my folks happy.. which i'm pretty sure won't happen either.. can't think of surviving another evening amongst people i despise but have to be nice to inspite of them getting away with all sorts of crap with me and even my folks... and also P's side of the family... God.. BLESS ME!!!

T's Birthday Party..

I've had a crazy two weeks and completely forgot to post about the birthday party. P did a fabulous job of organising it. Lovely blue balloons covered the terrace. In fact it looked much fancier than I'd thought or wanted but it was lovely. I put T in a blue lakhnawi kurta and he looked adorable.

After much deliberation I wore my fancy saree instead of the cotton one that I had initially wanted to. I changed my mind after I saw what my MIL was wearing .. a black chiffon saree with silver work... :)

The only thing that bothered us was that a lot of our friends didn't turn up. And most of them only decided to RSVP the day of the party and not earlier. So we ended up paying for more people than actually ate and that didn't feel too good. Actually it was the first time P and I threw a party outside our home with a catering service and all. We completely over looked the fact that everyone invited does not turn up. I wouldn't care if a couple of people didn't turn up at a dinner at home.. the left overs can always be used :). And I think people don't normally cancel when its a small thing at home. Whatever the reason, P and I were disappointed with the low turnout.

The party on the whole was a success because T had a great time.. he was happy to be at the centre of it all. He slept only after most of the guests had left.

The in-laws seemed happy too, though I was disappointed in them but that's another story for another time..

Here are some pics of the birthday boy on his big day...

sliding with nani...


yummy creamy cake....

Vocabulary Update..

I think It's time I start taking a note of T's vocab.. He's blabbering non stop and some of it does make sense..
In addition to mamma and hot he now says...
bapa - for P
bah - for ball
bahyee - for bye
anth - for ant
huth - to hit something that he wants to get back at for hurting him (i'm not happy about this but either my folks or the maid has taught him and he uses it frequently)
and something that sounds like ' acha hai' or 'atha hai'.. normally used when he likes something ...

He also uses some gestures extremely effectively like..
Shake his head wildly from one side to another means No and a big one at that..
Shake his head from top to bottom.. wildly again means Yes..
Opens and shuts his palm and points at something or someone to show what he wants...
Points his finger at the dog and motions her to sit.. not that she pays any heed to that but its fun watching...
And of course, the dance... any form of music or even a repetitive noise or sometimes nothing.. (as if some music is playing in his head) starts him off.. the dance can be just an index finger moving bhangra style or the torso going back and forth or even the legs moving in funny odd ways.. but all of it in sync with the beat... lol

I don't think he's interested in walking at all .. he's happy crawling and just wants to use up all his energy in talk, talk and more talk.. he's definitely taken on P's side of the family.. :)

Think of Kareena..

So its true.. everyone has Kareena fever.. it's not her acting skills but her size zero.. or not yet size zero.. that everyone's obsessed with. I go for Pilate's classes in the mornings to this posh gym-spa kind of place. I really can't afford it but I somehow bumped into the instructor and I was desperate to loose all the pregnancy weight. She convinced me to try her classes and I got hooked. The only way I justify spending an astronomical amount on this every month is by not keeping a driver. I would have paid him the same amount so till I don't have a driver I can be a part of the elite set of Delhi ladies for an hour three times a week. Or to put it another way I can't get a driver till I don't loose enough weight to quit these classes :)
Anyway.. the point is that the latest talk in the gym is all about Kareena. What does she eat? How did she do it? Is she anorexic? She must have access to something that mere mortals like us don't, etc, etc.. This BIG diamond aunty saw her at some "friend's party" and supposedly she and all her friends couldn't eat another morsel and add another calorie after seeing her svelte figure.
So now whenever the exercises get too tough and we are huffing and puffing our way through the class .. the instructor yells... "don't give up... think of Kareena"... and suddenly new energy is infused in all :)

Happy 1st Birthday To My Precious..

I have been writing a million letters in my head to you right from the day you were born. Initially, I wanted to tell you about all the hard work it is to raise a baby. To let you know of all the nights that your mum, your massi, your nani and papa woke up to tend to your needs. To tell the tales of the wet soiled nappies and those endless hours of feeding. I wanted you to know all this so you know that we did all this for you because we loved you more than anything or anyone in the world. We loved you since the day we knew of your existence, when you were just a tiny pea in my womb. I wanted you to know that we all were so happy and grateful to God for giving us the privilege to take care of you.
We all have come a long way from those first few weeks. You are so grown up already. You have a whole new personality of your own. You are so friendly and outgoing that it scares me. How will I protect you if you go on like this… trustingly smiling and greeting anyone you see, the road side beggar or the fancy snob aunty. You manage to make them all smile back. You stand on your own now and soon you will be walking. You have an interesting laugh of your own now and the silliest of things tick you off. And you have quite a will of your own too. I can foresee a lot of stubborn fights are in store for the two of us and I pity your poor father who will be caught somewhere in the middle.
Right now you have left your games and are standing by my shoulder and hugging me in the cute little way you do by placing your cheek next to mine. And now you have pulled of my glasses and it’s hard to know what I'm typing. Ok.. ok.. I know you want me to get off the laptop and be all eyes and ears for you. There finally you are diverted and I can resume.
I have to tell you of the guilt I go through. I am never satisfied with the amount of time I give you. I wish the day was longer. I feel I don't try hard enough or know the right kinds of food so you would eat more and gain more weight. I feel guilty for dragging you to work with me everyday and not giving you enough space to play there, for not taking you to a park often enough, for going on holidays or parties and leaving you behind. Also, for not combing your wild curls often enough and for making you go through an X-Ray before you even turned one. Also, at particularly blue times, for using pampers on you instead of pigeon, for not having a garden in front of our house to give you enough space to play, etc, etc .. I hope when you grow up you will not blame me for all this. You will probably have other things to blame me for.
You are quite a good looking baby and a charmer. In fact most people wonder and some are rude enough to say that you don’t look like our baby at all. What they fail to see is that you are lucky enough to have got the best of your mum and dad. The thing I fear the most is that all the attention you get because of your curls and smiles will spoil you. And you are quite the brat already.
Anyway, I want you to know that the past one year has been full of more ups than downs, a lot more happiness than sorrow and a lot of learning. I have grown up because of you. I have become a different person because of you.
I will always try to provide the best of everything to you. Going by my experience you will probably not understand or appreciate any of this till you have a baby of your own. That’s how life is.
I wish you all the good things in life. More importantly I wish you contentment. I hope you are lucky enough to know what you want, if not at 18 then at 28 or even 38 but it’s important that you eventually do and you get to do that. I hope you never forget how much you were loved and always will be loved unconditionally.

A Very Happy Birthday to you my love.. Enjoy the little party papa has put together for you..