1. Weekend morning breakfast with M entails feeding her 8 oz of milk and if I am lucky, a fruit. The routine from waking her up to finishing the breakfast expends my energies completely and I dread the thoughts of having to do this all over again for lunch and dinner (I have realized btw, that this is one reason why I keep a job outside the house, the frustration that I cannot be that mom who can accomplish so much with her kids and home, and look so good, drives me out of my house! I am better off paying someone who is more qualified to do it! My way of helping the American economy :-))
Anyway back to breakfast time and M. So we fight on the milk, she gets through about three-fourths of the way and refuses to open her mouth for anymore. She has made up her mind that it will be it. I give up and after about 15 min get the banana out to at least make head way with that part of breakfast. There is no chance in hell this kid has any plans of complying. I realize it is a losing battle and attempt to bribe her with 'I will take you to the grocery store if you eat your fruit'. She still flat out refuses. So I give her the ultimatum that she can think about her options, fruit and store or stay home with the in-laws. I tell her to think about it and walk away. She comes to me in 2 min flat and says 'I will finish the remaining milk, will you take me to the store?' I am flabbergast at this 3 year old's deal making abilities! I actually lost this battle as I was willing to get at least one thing into her :(
2. We are getting ready for bed and M says she is itchy all over her body. So I advise her that it is because of the weather. Being winter, dry skin is common, I say to her and get her to move on with bedtime to avoid another distraction. She processes it for a fraction of a second and asks, 'So will my skin become wet in summer?'
3. Dinnertime, M chose to eat Mac n cheese, Mackena as she calls it. She had finished about 2/3rds of it when I could see her reaching saturation and so the disinterest in the food. So I tried to tempt her to finish by throwing the bait of Orange Soda as a treat. But my requirement was that she ate 'One Mackena - one soda -one Mackena'...you get the drift. Her response to it was 'No no no, I will eat One soda-one soda-one soda-one soda....' I kid you not, she repeated it about twenty times so I get the picture :)
4. M was sitting on the chair, which had a rounded back and eating her water melon, with the plate on her lap. She decided to place her plate on top of the chair, on its rim. So I told her that it won't work as it is not flat. Her response 'So does it tippy toe too?' A bit of a backgound , M is a tippytoer and her grand mother constantly reminds her to walk 'Flat Flat' :)
5. We were at D's friend's place the other day. In a conversation the girl called out loudly to her mom, Maa. And M says to her, 'li-ni, that is how you say my name'; thinking the girl was addressing her and was having problems saying her name :)
Friday, May 9, 2008
Friends
Recently, I got a very nice letter from our good friend's dad who was visiting the US and to help his son out in a cross country move to our area. I was thanked by Uncle for being a good friend to his son. Uncle, this brought to mind all the good friends I have had in my life.
My earliest memories of a friend is Radhika. These were my early teen years. She was a couple years older than me and emotionally the stronger one of us. We bonded so well. Our common love included cricket, and Linda Goodman. True, we liked the players more than the game :) But it did help us learn about the game too! We analyzed our sun signs and the cricketers', to death. The one thing I recall is her being so responsible. I was so proud of her when she met someone and stood ground with her decision to marry him. It was just like her, to take control, be responsible and confident. We were good friends much after we moved on with our different lives. They are happy memories. I learned to be self reliant from her.
Speaking about cricket brings to mind another best friend, Dinu. He was one of the budding players on the street that Radhika and I would watch and talk to. He was the quiet kind. The other cricketers included his brother Anil, and the other neighbors, Seeni, Dasa, Kumbi. I became close friends with Dinu especially. I feel that I took more than gave to this friendship, in hindsight. But he never seemed to mind. I still keep in touch with him, and he, to this day reminds me of how he was back when I first met him. Sweet, shy, quiet and 'I am here for you' kind of friend. Thank you for the good memories of a good friend, and to have shown me how to 'give' in a friendship.
My best memories of a childhood friendship are of CB. I owe her so much in my life. She had a way of describing things, of making me laugh till I cried, and of analyzing things to death. She along with her parents (who I sometimes used to feel must've been my own in some previous birth) loved me like no other family had until then. Our days in undergrad, are the best in my memory. We laughed at everything, everybody and everywhere. We made fun of every person around us, and there are times I recall, when I would be on the street, buckling down with laughter, as I held on to my book bag, when passers-by, would look at us like we had just lost it! It would be some silly thing, like mimicking a teacher from class that day, or someone on the bus who asked for a seat in a funny English (ya right, like we spoke the Queen's English!). Juvenile, maybe in hindsight, but absolutely funny at that time and place! I wanted to be like her. So happy and so confident of what she wanted in life. She was the one who convinced me to take my GREs and go to graduate school. She wanted to be a Chemist like her dad, and I wanted to be like her! A lot has happened in our lives since then but we still keep in touch. CB and her family taught me how to laugh, to have a goal and to take charge when I needed it most.
MSc gave me Nagamani, Sanjay, Mahesh and Melwin. I had never heard laughter like Nagamani's before. It was always so full of life and from deep within. We hit it off like a house on fire. The best memories include singing 'Nowhere Man' with Nagamani and CB, in the Organic Chem lab, the 3 by 5 coffees with the guys, the masala dosas on Residency Road, making fun of our Quantum Mechanics teacher, or for that matter any teacher; they were all good times. Sanjay taught me to be precise in my work, Nagamani taught me how to juggle responsibilities, Melwin taught me how to be punctual, Mahesh taught me kindness. I may not have realized then how much I needed these lessons in life, but I am glad I was there.
Grad school was the beginning of many lasting friendships. Raag was first an acquaintance, then a friend, and now my husband and rock. I owe a lot of good things that have happened to me, to this rock of mine. He has been there with me through thick and thin, and after 15 years of marriage, I can proudly say, he is my bestest friend :) I cherish the flourish of this friendship.
Grad school would never have been the same without the support of my closest friends, KRR, RK, UMR and the gang and I made sure to acknowledge it in my thesis too! With these friendships came more in the form of marriage, and job moves. The list is too loooonnnng! What all these friends have done for me and my family, I cannot quantify or put down in one blog. They long ago went from being friends, to 'extended family'. Life without them is hard to even imagine. They have been the friends indeed when we needed them the most.
School, work and life as a whole has brought me close to so many people who I consider as very good friends. And god knows I have needed them more than they, me.
So, Uncle, when you wrote to me that I was a friend indeed for a friend in need, I said to myself that I am glad I am able to do what so many friends have done for me when I was that friend in 'need'.
My earliest memories of a friend is Radhika. These were my early teen years. She was a couple years older than me and emotionally the stronger one of us. We bonded so well. Our common love included cricket, and Linda Goodman. True, we liked the players more than the game :) But it did help us learn about the game too! We analyzed our sun signs and the cricketers', to death. The one thing I recall is her being so responsible. I was so proud of her when she met someone and stood ground with her decision to marry him. It was just like her, to take control, be responsible and confident. We were good friends much after we moved on with our different lives. They are happy memories. I learned to be self reliant from her.
Speaking about cricket brings to mind another best friend, Dinu. He was one of the budding players on the street that Radhika and I would watch and talk to. He was the quiet kind. The other cricketers included his brother Anil, and the other neighbors, Seeni, Dasa, Kumbi. I became close friends with Dinu especially. I feel that I took more than gave to this friendship, in hindsight. But he never seemed to mind. I still keep in touch with him, and he, to this day reminds me of how he was back when I first met him. Sweet, shy, quiet and 'I am here for you' kind of friend. Thank you for the good memories of a good friend, and to have shown me how to 'give' in a friendship.
My best memories of a childhood friendship are of CB. I owe her so much in my life. She had a way of describing things, of making me laugh till I cried, and of analyzing things to death. She along with her parents (who I sometimes used to feel must've been my own in some previous birth) loved me like no other family had until then. Our days in undergrad, are the best in my memory. We laughed at everything, everybody and everywhere. We made fun of every person around us, and there are times I recall, when I would be on the street, buckling down with laughter, as I held on to my book bag, when passers-by, would look at us like we had just lost it! It would be some silly thing, like mimicking a teacher from class that day, or someone on the bus who asked for a seat in a funny English (ya right, like we spoke the Queen's English!). Juvenile, maybe in hindsight, but absolutely funny at that time and place! I wanted to be like her. So happy and so confident of what she wanted in life. She was the one who convinced me to take my GREs and go to graduate school. She wanted to be a Chemist like her dad, and I wanted to be like her! A lot has happened in our lives since then but we still keep in touch. CB and her family taught me how to laugh, to have a goal and to take charge when I needed it most.
MSc gave me Nagamani, Sanjay, Mahesh and Melwin. I had never heard laughter like Nagamani's before. It was always so full of life and from deep within. We hit it off like a house on fire. The best memories include singing 'Nowhere Man' with Nagamani and CB, in the Organic Chem lab, the 3 by 5 coffees with the guys, the masala dosas on Residency Road, making fun of our Quantum Mechanics teacher, or for that matter any teacher; they were all good times. Sanjay taught me to be precise in my work, Nagamani taught me how to juggle responsibilities, Melwin taught me how to be punctual, Mahesh taught me kindness. I may not have realized then how much I needed these lessons in life, but I am glad I was there.
Grad school was the beginning of many lasting friendships. Raag was first an acquaintance, then a friend, and now my husband and rock. I owe a lot of good things that have happened to me, to this rock of mine. He has been there with me through thick and thin, and after 15 years of marriage, I can proudly say, he is my bestest friend :) I cherish the flourish of this friendship.
Grad school would never have been the same without the support of my closest friends, KRR, RK, UMR and the gang and I made sure to acknowledge it in my thesis too! With these friendships came more in the form of marriage, and job moves. The list is too loooonnnng! What all these friends have done for me and my family, I cannot quantify or put down in one blog. They long ago went from being friends, to 'extended family'. Life without them is hard to even imagine. They have been the friends indeed when we needed them the most.
School, work and life as a whole has brought me close to so many people who I consider as very good friends. And god knows I have needed them more than they, me.
So, Uncle, when you wrote to me that I was a friend indeed for a friend in need, I said to myself that I am glad I am able to do what so many friends have done for me when I was that friend in 'need'.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Parenting
I am a parent, and a proud one at that. But friends of mine simply believe that my husband and I are not capable of being proud parents. It is in our genes they say, and I must add, the grand parents are like us to a large extent. So it may well be a big genetic component that is in play here.
Let me first write about what makes me proud of my offspring before I get into the 'what can be improved'...
1. Resilience: This is something I need to learn from her. So strong and such a come-backer. She is phenomenal in the way she has learned from the accident.
2. Commitment: Be it to a friend or teacher's expectations, can't even think of one complaint. Very very committed. She is really a 'there for you' kind of person, not in a Seinfeld way!
3. Focused: I cannot peel her from a book or TV show :-) I wish I had that kind of focus in anything!
Having written this, I will wait to put the 'what needs to be improved' list. There is a lot of time in life to work on it :)
Let me first write about what makes me proud of my offspring before I get into the 'what can be improved'...
1. Resilience: This is something I need to learn from her. So strong and such a come-backer. She is phenomenal in the way she has learned from the accident.
2. Commitment: Be it to a friend or teacher's expectations, can't even think of one complaint. Very very committed. She is really a 'there for you' kind of person, not in a Seinfeld way!
3. Focused: I cannot peel her from a book or TV show :-) I wish I had that kind of focus in anything!
Having written this, I will wait to put the 'what needs to be improved' list. There is a lot of time in life to work on it :)
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