Lag of the Jet

Yay! We have  been in America Land now for two months...But is it possible that I am still going through Jet Lag? Or is there such a thing as Baby lag? Either way I would really like to have my energy back.

The many face of Abi: 2nd Instalment

For a four month old this kid is very expressive...

'Who me?' Face

'Dead to the world' Face

Contemplating Face

Yawn Face

'My hand tastes so good' Face

'How you doin' Face

'Get out of my face' Face

Paci Face

Mommy Shock

One night during the first week of Abi's birth Z woke me up, 'Hey, you need to feed the baby.' My groggy response was 'But the baby is in my belly.' At first I blamed the incoherent comment on pain meds...but now I know, it was mommy shock. Every morning I wake up, look at my daughter and exclaim in my head 'wow, I'm a mom!' Little by little it is sinking in...

I love being a mom. I should've done it sooner. Oh and most people say that Abi looks like Z, there are the small 4% that say sweet things like 'She's so pretty, she looks just like her mother.' Thank you dear 4%...I will always believe you, you can tell me anything (like faulty end times predictions) and I will believe you :)

~what the mailman thinks~

This morning I was cleaning our garage/patio.

Most women clean the inside and outside of their homes every morning. Usually because A) It gets too hot to do housework later in the day B) Everyday loads of dust accumulates and necessitates daily housework.

Side note: The garage/patio is my least favorite area to clean.

1 - It's dirtier than the rest of the house

2- Our car and motorcycle are parked in this area, so I have to clean around them

3 - It's an outdoor area so 1 hour after cleaning it becomes dirty again

4 - I've always had grand plans of making a little garden and pation seating...I dream of sitting on wicker furniture, drinking tea and bird watching. So everytime I step out there reality hits...I don't have the wicker furniture of my dreams. Every plant out there dies. And I have yet to find a bird book of Curry Land (if anyone finds one...it's what I want for Christmas)

Anyways so while doing one of my least favorite chores this morning the mailman came. Art came to the gate to get the mail and engage in a friendly conversation. I love having Art living with us, people talk to Art, they talk to him as if we are not standing right there listening.

The mailman saw me cleaning our garage/patio and had an epiphany...'They are normal people.' he told Art. This small comment made my heart swell. I have spent years trying to learn the language, culture, food, and mindset here in Curry Land...finally I have arrived! I am considered normal here.

So when I am back in America Land in six weeks and I am no longer 'normal' by American standards I am going to console myself everyday with the fact that the mailman thinks I am normal.

Some Curry Land mommy tips

Since I am a new mom people here are very forthcoming to share any advice that they may have. Unsolicited Curry Land advice is one of my favorite things to write posts about...it really gives a glimpse into the inner workings of this culture.

Tip #1 - when breastfeeding do not drink cold water, it makes your milk cold.
Tip #2 - your baby should not wear a diaper all day, so when at home let them go without a diaper, only put a diaper on when you are going to visit people.
Tip #3 - Give babies water to drink, mother's milk makes them throw up, water does not.
Tip #4 - put a black dot on your baby's face so that no one places the evil eye on them by coveting in their hearts.
Tip #5 - Tie a red string around the baby's wrist for protection.

Just so you know I have not followed any of this advice and Abi is doing just fine :)

The many faces of Abi

'awe & wonder' face

'Kissy' face

'milk on my face' face

'Kung fu' face

'nuh uh, no way' face

'sweet girl' face

'suspicious' face

'ohhhh' face

'thug' face

I love her Face!

a new fusion dish...i think?

I rarely am surprised by the things Z eats (I am just glad he keeps the fridge clean)...until I found him eating egg fried rice with salsa.

Here it is...

the bathroom post:

Lets retrace our steps shall we...So A was here, she was checking out this old cementary in the 'Rut'. She stepped on the heel of a pair of draw string pants she was wearing so inevitably they loosened...she had to be Magiver to keep them up until we got to the mall where she got to the bathroom to adjust herself.
This bathroom was not pretty, most public restrooms here are on the icky side so you have to go in prepared with your own toilet paper, wet wipes, and hand sanitizer. And you don't want to go in alone if it can be avoided. In most public restrooms there is a janitor type person usually charging admission to the bathroom. I am always curious what this person's job description is because they obviously do not clean anything.
So 'A' and I walk into the bathroom, I have Abby in my arms, and I see the janitor lady. She is just chillin' on the bathroom counter...Literally, laying across the counter, getting in her afternoon nap. 'A' goes into the stall and I stand in the middle of this gross bathroom holding my newborn baby (I tell you, the things one does for sisters). 'A' was taking FOREVER...so it left me plenty of time to people watch. The only person to watch...you guessed it, napping janitor lady. One girl came in the bathroom to wash her hands...the girl tentatively approached the counter since their was a lady laying across it, and then proceeded to wash her hands. Unfortunately the sink she chose did not work so the janitor lady offered a small token of assistance while she laid there. She pointed, with her toe, to the sink that the girl could use...
Meanwhile the reason 'A' was taking so long in the small stall was because she was trying with all her might to do her business and fix her pants issues all without touching anything...I didn't think she was going to make it...and I was not much of assistance with Abby in my arms. Luckily I did not have to resort to sending lazy toe pointing janitor lady in after her. 'A' finally came out...and I then pointed (with my finger) to the working sink.

You're Fired!

I am currently doing office work, eating and ice cream sundae, checking out friends on Facebook and updating this blog all while Abby is sleeping. Hubs just informed me that if I worked in a office in America I would be fired. In all honesty there are plenty of things that I would get fired for in America, i.e. nursing my baby at work (pretty sure that would be considered indecent exposure), wearing my pajamas until 11 am (last time I checked most offices had dress codes) and finally taking naps whenever I get tired. I don't have to worry about any of these office place offenses because I work from home. However, from time to time Z takes offense because in his mind when I work from home I should behave as if I am in an office place. I think I would rather be fired and collect unemployment, I definitely would make way more money that way.

whew...close one

Remember the post about my Curry Land driving incident, and the poor pedestrian that got hit by some crazy white lady...well I saw the poor pedestrian today. Luckily Z was driving. So I pointed him out to Z and said 'hey look that is the guy I hit' and then I was real mature and avoided eye contact and kind of obscured my face a little with my hand...you know one of those 'look the other way while scratching your temple' moves. I am such a great role model.

wait for it...

the bathroom post of corse...instead this is a post about my two new favorite monuments.

The first: Humayan's Tomb...in honor of A we shall call it 'Hawaiian's Tomb' because that is what she mistakenly called it.

One of the great things about 'Hawaiian's' is the ginormous amount of space to walk around and take in the beauty.

 Another great thing: Exploring, A and I are big kids and are more entertained by the nooks and crannies than the informative plaques. Now Z on the other hands stops and reads every plague.

I love taking pictures of old doors...the photos always come out looking so artsy, and that makes me feel good about my photography - because let's face it, artsy photographer I am not.

 The only down side of 'Hawaiian's' - no shade...which meant it was not baby friendly. So we kept Abi covered with her balnket and amish bonnet the whole time. BTW, every time I look at Abi's amish bonnet I think of 'Little house on the prarie' and then I wonder if itunes has 'Little house on the prarie episodes?' Because deep down I want to spend time curled up with my little doll baby girl watching them.

The second monument: Safdarjung Tomp (I am not sure about the spelling so let's call it Safari Jane instead shall we)

 Safari Jane is wonderfully intact and is a hidden gem that very few tourists take the time to see.

The best part...Safari Jane has shade. I had my trusty umbrella/parasol with me just in case there was no shade to be found b/c by this point Abi was fussy and did not want to wear her amish bonnet anymore. Maybe I will have to watch 'Little house on the prarie' episodes alone...maybe my doll baby girl is not going to like 'Little house on the prarie' because it will remind her of this amish bonnet that her mother kept putting on her.

'You can dress her up...

But you can't take her out.'
First, I would like to thank A for agreeing to contribute to my blog with embarassing stories...now onto the shame!

'A' had many a wardrobe malfunction while visiting CurryLand last week. Last year when she was here she did fine so she is not totally at blame.

Malfuntion #1 - we were all getting ready to go to the grocery store. A was putting on her shoes and then 'Rip!' The right knee of my pants she was wearing gave way. She had to quikcly change into a different pair because showing any leg would be very risque. Later that day she almost ripped the second pair while picking up Abi. We decided that the legging style pants called 'churidars' were not for her.

Malfunction #2 - This one involved a saree pictured above. Sarees are not the easiest to put on or to wear for long periods of time (and then there is the age old question, 'how do I go to the bathroom in this?') Anyways we were going out to dinner and A wanted to dress up a bit. I wrapped her up in one of my sarees (so I have to take most the blame for this malfunction since I am not a professional saree wrapper). I tediously pleated and pinned the saree just right, it took me 20 minutes and then we walked out to take pictures and then jump in the car to go to dinner and the entire thing starts falling off of her. I've heard horror stories of this but personally have never witnessed it. Fortunately we were not out in public when it happened. A change back into pants and a top - but not the 'churidar' pants those are off limits remember.

Malfunction #3 - now this one is my personal fave because it actually did happen in public and leads to a very funny story about a public bathroom that I will post later. So A was sight seeing out in the Rut...there is this really cool graveyard that we wanted her to see. Anyways she was walking along and accidently steeped on the hem of her drawstring pants...well then the pants got loose and started slowly creeping down - now A does not have hips so she was in a very precarious position of losing her pants...retying her pants in public is not an option because it would appear very immoddest (but then again no pants would be worse!) so A saves it by yanking the waist up and tucking them under her tank top and we quickly get to a bathroom...

BTW - I hope you all are on the edge of your seats waiting to read about the bathroom we visited. 

family dilema

M and Dabby are grandparents for the first time - Yay for them, but here lies the problem...they do not have grandparent names. We tried to decide on granparent names while they were here but one name is still pending.

For Dabs it was either 'Granddabby' or 'Grandpa Gupta' (he made that one up all by himself)...anyways since Dabby does not own a gas station 'Grandpa Gupta' was thrown out the window and Granddabby is sticking!

However M and I are not seeing eye to eye...she wants either grandmama, nanny, or grammy. My faves are grandmammy, anya (hungarian for grandma) or just the simple classic grandma. I guess when Abi starts talking we will leave it for her to decide

We are now three!

 Z, Abi, and me.

 She was born Feb. 25th 2012.

 6lbs, 10oz & 19in of gorgeous baby!

We are pretty much smitten.

'If you clean it...

he will come.'
So that is my own spin on the famous Field of Dreams quote...I whisper it to myself these days. Z and I thought that I had gotten out all my nesting moments in December when we put together the baby nook. Then on Tuesday it hit again...but this time it was not in the form of redecorating and reorganizing...but instead manic cleaning! Z is not very happy with me right now because since I am the huge prego one he gets to be the one who climbs on the ladder and cleans all the ceiling fans.

Woah Belly!

As you all know this entire pregnancy I have wanted to be huge...I am happy to report that I finally feel huge - YES! I love my prego belly...maybe borderline obsessive about it...here are a few things I obsess about:
~ In the past week my belly button has been in a different spot daily...so I am not really sure where the belly buttons final home will be after the baby makes its appearance.
~ NO stretch marks! My secret weapon has been 'Burts bees belly balm'...it is really greasy but so worth it.
~ ...to make a belly cast or to not make a belly cast? I would love to immortalize the belly, Z thinks it is weird...and I am pretty sure no one in Curry Land would understand why I had a cast made of my pregnant belly - wearing clothes that show my belly is taboo so I can not imagine the reaction to having a permanent belly fixture hanging on my wall.

rodents of a smaller size

One of the many good things about having Art living with us is that he is constantly teaching us more words and phrases in the language here.

One night in particular he was helping us with anatomy vocab...so I quickly grabbed some paper and a pencil and drew it all out so that I could reference and memorize later. Z doesn't do this however...he soaks in new words like a sponge. The only thing that is soaking into my brain lately is this memory blocking fog that I have recently contracted from pregnancy.

...anyways, back to the language lesson...so as you can see from my diagrams we were learning tons of important words and learning that they have words for things that we do not; i.e. there is a specific word for behind the ear, and the little thing that dangles in your throat...actually now that I think about it we may have a word for that dangly thing but the fog is encompassing my brain as we speak.

From the entire lesson Z had one take away...one word that is now his all time favorite...it is the word for boogers and it is literally translated 'nose mice'. When Art taught us this word Z started giggling during the language lesson...and then Z started to act out picking his nose and said 'look Art I'm hunting for mice'. Which then made Art laugh hysterically...I then quickly realized that I am surrounded by boys all day everyday - the impromptu lesson was over, I got up from the table and left them to their boyish ways. I really want a baby girl now.

have to share the cuteness

I've washed all the baby stuff that I think we will need and just had to stop and take a picture of all the cute little clothes.

I can't believe the baby will be here soon...and even more shocking - M and Dabby will be here soon as well...when we left America Land 2 and1/2 years ago they sort of led us to believe that they had no interest in visiting Curry Land. Now they are singing a different tune - haha! And boy am I happy, because M needs to teach me the ropes...I'm pretty sure she tried to teach me the ropes when I was little and had baby dolls aplenty but I was more interested in climbing trees at the time. 

What was I thinking!?!

I have a two friends here in Curry Land that are phenomenal quilters...their work is inspiring...so much so that I was inspired to make a quilt for the first time. I picked out an easy baby quilt pattern and fun Curry Land fabric and started the project. At the beginning of the project Z quickly reminded me that I did not have the tools to cut the fabric or a sewing machine to put the quilt together...at the time I wrote Z off as a Debbie downer...I am a perpetual optimist and not about to let things like 'no quilting tools' and 'no sewing machine' be my obstacles to making a baby quilt. So I improvised...

This is me cutting out the squares with Z's speed square from his tool bag...tool problem solved! It was at this point that my optimism started to wane mainly due to the fact that cutting out little quilting squares with a speed square was a time consuming process and not to mention frustrating. I then started to ask myself 'what was I thinking?' and Z's concerns started to make more sense.

Luckily one of my quilting friends stepped in...she did not know she was intervening and saving me from myself, she simply wanted to make baby b a quilt...she didn't know about the hours of frustration with a speed square in hand...but someone up above did and sent my friend as an angel! I excitedly handed off to her the fabrics I had picked out and cut knowing that it would come back as a piece of art. 

She made such a beautiful baby quilt! I am forever grateful for her time and talent. Thank you Mama M!

* I have learned a valuable lesson; I will not attempt quilting again until I have all the needed tools and equipment and can finally sew in a straight line.

when in doubt, google!

so lets say you are 36 weeks pregnant...and lets say you notice that your stool in a grayish white color...so what do you do??? you google it. And then you read all these medical articles about how white stool is an indicator of liver disease - WHAT! ...since you are not exhibiting any other symptoms that are in conjunction with liver disease, ie: high fever, abdominal pain, etc...you go on googling...and finally you find your answer - too many antacids. So FYI: when you eat curry and get major heartburn and then ingest 4-5 antacids in one day...you will have white stool.

The Yak effect

I think the elevation is getting to me here in Mt. Everest land...Every time I see the word 'Yak' or a picture of a yak I get the giggles. Z is barely putting up with me at this point of our trip. Here is my attempt at sharing the comedic chi of Yak.
~ Our first day we stepped into a small seven eleven type store to pick up some sugarless snacks...I eat around five times a day now so snacks are necessary. On the dairy aisle in its full glory was an assortment of Yak cheeses. We will be taking Yak cheese home with us to Curry Land.
~ The hotel we are staying at is super swank...it has a bar/lounge in it like all super swank hotels, except the bars' name is...'The Yak Bar' - I'm guessing the drinks are as strong as a Yak and you will be feeling it in the morning
~ Second day we went perusing through the tourist part of town...stores were littered with Yak paintings, Yak wool, Yak pillow covers, Yak books and finally my favorite Yak puzzles. Every time I saw something Yak in this market I pointed and giggled like a four year old. Consequently every time I pointed and giggled like a four year old the store keeper came up to Z thinking we were interested in purchasing the Yak paraphernalia...Z got pretty tired of explaining 'no we do not want the Yak (blank)please excuse my wife.' I really did want the Yak puzzle but by that time Z had had enough of my strange sense of humor.
~ Day three - we took a tour of the palace here, it's a lovely place chock full of great antiques and stories...my favorite piece in the entire collection - a mounted Yak head! It was smiling at us, possibly the most heartwarming taxidermy that I have ever seen.
~ Now we are on day four...Z and me are going to be adventurous today and try Yak butter tea, it's on my bucket list ya know :)
Still no signs of Yak rides...maybe we'll try the local zoo.

The Terminal

First off, if you’ve never seen the movie The Terminal go and rent it really quick before proceeding to read this.
Z and me were heading to Mt. Everest land…we had to wake up butt crack early to get to the airport and lately I don’t do butt crack early very well (ok honestly I’ve never done butt crack early well). We check in with our cheap Curry Land carrier, I hand over all medical paperwork that I knew I would need because I am 34 weeks pregnant. Bags go on the conveyor belt, boarding passes are in hand. We were just about to get in the immigration line and then suddenly check in guy from Curry Land carrier comes and gets us. He asks me to come back to the customer service desk (in Curry Land ‘customer service desk’ means someone has or is about to make you really angry). Needless to say after an hour of them calling people, looking over my medical records and back and forth arguments we are not allowed to board the plane. They gave us back our bags and money and wished us a happy journey with another carrier. From the broken English conversations that we had the only real reason they could give us why we were not allowed to fly with them was that if our child happened to be born on their flight then they would have to give our child free airfare for the rest of its life. In my mind that is the ONLY perk to giving birth while flying.
So we had to repurchase tickets with an international carrier that at least has reasonable policies posted on their fancy international website. The only drawback with flight #2 is that we had to wait ten hours in the airport till departure. Being the tired prego that I am I wanted to get from the check in counter of the airport to the terminals because Curry Land terminal is really nice. There are several international restaurants, moving sidewalks, and recliners…its dreamland compared to the sterile check in area with hard Formica benches. So we tried to check in early with International carrier…to no avail. So like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, I was barred from my desired destination by silly bureaucratic excuses and a sliding glass door.

up and away

We are traveling to Mt. Everest Land...no, we are not hiking Mt. Everest while I am 8 months pregnant...we are simply going to that particular country and I have never been there so this is the most creative nickname I have come up with so far. Other nickname contenders were 'poverty land': because it is the poorest country, 'yak & yeti land': this one would be a good name for a theme park, and then there was 'trekker land': which did not sound as grandiose as Mt. Everest Land. By the way M is so jealous, she has always wanted to ride a yak.

With drawls

During my first trimester I went through caffeine with drawls with flying colors, I only experience minimal headaches and agitation for a week or two. Sugar with drawls are completely different. I now am looking back on my relationship with sugar and realizing that I was the equivalent of a crack addict...so sugar detox this week has been just as gruesome as someone going through rehab.
Here are a few symptoms I am experiencing so far...
~ discolored splotches on my face
~ dark under eye shadows
~ extreme mood swings (Z is being pretty understanding since he himself leads a heavy caffeine/sugar dependent lifestyle)
~ headaches
~ and finally, salivating anytime I see a cookie.
...so far no shakes or night sweats, if it gets that bad I will hospitalize myself.

getting ready for Baby B!

After months of talking it through and planning we decided the best course of action was to create a baby nook instead of a baby room. A lot of factors went into our decision; ie. Culture - in Curry Land infants sleep in the same bed as parents so putting a baby in its own separate room would seem really cruel to most our friends. Space - We have a two bedroom, two bath house...but luckily there are tons of closets and cabinets, so utilizing space in those effectively has given us more space...or we simply could've expanded our living room when our neighbors knocked a hole through our wall :). And thirdly, expense - creating a nook instead of a room means that we did not have to buy tons of baby furniture...that money saved went into buying baby B a steel alloy enforced car seat, for some reason I wanted more than just plastic and styrofoam protecting our baby on the roads here. Anyways here is the low down on getting the nook ready for its upcoming inhabitant.

Baby nook project phase 1: SCHMORGANIZING!!!  

Z measured, picked out and purchased these lovely baskets then handed them to me and told me exactly what needed to go into each and where to store them...I cannot schmorganize.

The contents of this dresser had to be relocated to my newly schmorganized closet so we could have a place for the Baby's clothes, diapers and changing mat.

This was our linen closet, we had to empty this closet out to make room for a baby bed.

Baby nook project phase 2: DEMOLITION

Z knocked out the shelf in the linen closet and then re plastered and repainted the wall where the shelf had been

Baby nook project phase 3: BABYFYING

The nook is located between our bedroom and bathroom so curtains were put up in the open doorway.

The dresser top has been changed into a changing table

All of Baby B's belongings are snugly stored away.

What once was a linen closet is now a 50'' by 30'' Baby bed...Some friends are coming to Curry Land in a week and they happily agreed to bring the tension railing that will go on the front of the sleeping nook.

The rocking chair is beside my closet, unfortunately not enough room in the nook...but that means I can use it as a kindle nook when I am not rocking a baby right?