Pre-school - so soon??

Our little one is heading off on a big adventure -- preschool!
The first day of preschool has arrived (Monday Sept 21) and it's time for our little darling to begin an educational journey that will last nearly two decades. Gosh is she really that grown-up already – I remember bringing her home from the hospital, like it was yesterday!!

The night before, I talked to Gauri about her special day (she seemed very excited),

I am ready for School (the day before)

"I am so excited Neel"

picked her attire for the morning, packed some snack, she packed her back-pack with all sorts of stuff, teddy, doll, hair clip, toy cell phone, nighty-night Lucy book, a pair of clothing etc…..Alarms were set, with breakfast menu on mind, we went to bed early.

As we reached the school gate, I was feeling like I was going to cry any minute and as I dropped her off to her class and she asked me “mumma where are you going” my face turned red, my eyes were barely able to hold the tears in them any more, thanks to the teacher for pushing me to leave while letting Gauri know that I’ll be back after "picking up some groceries".
With little over 2 hours in hand, I did some grocery shopping (with no one asking to sit in those big- loud toycar shopping carts, so hard to maneuver and always stuck in the checkout lanes!), some laundry folding and organizing, and yes I also ate some breakfast that day! Yuppie!!.
Apart from all this, I had only one thing going on in the background – a hard-to-resist-urge to call the preschool about fifty times to ask, “Is she happy? Does she look happy? What’s she doing right now? How about now? Isn’t she wonderfully terrific? Don’t you agree she’s the most fantastic child ever? Does she look happy now? And now?”

God, I couldn’t wait to pick her up (no wonder I was sitting in the parking lot 20 minutes before the pick-up time). I miss my darling baby. And as soon as I picked her up – we hugged (real tight) and she asked “did baba and Neel miss me” and as Neel woke up from his nap and saw Gauri, he uttered excitedly - “ge-ge”; that’s it!! – Gauri said “I think mumma Neel missed me because he is smiling at ge-ge” (We think Neel calls Gauri Ge-ge). Gauri had the most wonderful stories to tell me all the way home !! :)

"I am ready to study too"

What's baking in our oven!!

“When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.” ~Laiko Bahrs

I following this saying – religiously; because (as some of you already know) although I can cook quite okay but I am a pathetic baker! While my mom (the BEST cook ever, seriously) baked the most amazing cakes (and for everyone’s birthday, all cousins friend’s kids etc.) me on the contrary, fail, if I am even short of one ingredient. Baking does not come natural to me. So, I had never ventured into the area of cookies etc. But in an effort to keep Gauri busy and to fulfill her random demand of very specific shape and color cookies, I have tried several recipes in the past. And after several failed attempts, I can say that I have finally been able to bake some really decent cookies lately.

Several months ago we baked some Vegan chocolate chip cookies – vegan because Neel is allergic to dairy (just like Gauri was when she was less than an year old; I really do hope he also grows out of this pretty soon) and so I am on no-dairy-no-soy diet too. The cookies came out pretty good and my big air-tight container was empty by the end of second evening. Both Gauri and her baba gobbled them quick (Gauri actually eating something with that much likeness - Best compliment ever).

Recently we tried these “Pink” heart shortbread cookies (yes these days everything has to be pink or princess) and they were fantastic too. Not only did Gauri had much fun making then (Kneading the dough, using the cookie cutter and frosting them) but she and baba once again enjoyed them much. Neel and I just watched since they had butter this time (I’ll bake you some vegan cookies again Neel!). If anyone’s interested here is the simple recipe for shortbread (the key is to follow the recipe)

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
Note: I found that for delicate tasting shortbread with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, replace 1/2 cup flour with cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl cream the butter and sugar until smooth.
Add vanilla extract and then stir in the flour mixture.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven.
Cut the dough into whatever shapes you wish.
Place the cookies on the baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

Happy Baking everyone!!

Hanuman ji please give me toilet paper

Tuesday night while I was trying to nurse Neel and sleep Gauri both at the same time, with lights turned off, to make it dark enough for Gauri to try to sleep (and stop playing with Neel, so he could also sleep), Gauri suddenly gets up and whispers in my ear – “I need to go potty”, and then we had the most interesting conversation of all times. Here is exactly how it went:

Gauri: “Mum I need to go Potty”
Me: “Are you sure?”
Gauri: “Yes, I have to”
Me: “Then go”
Gauri: “No, you take me”
Me: “I can’t I am nursing Neel”
Gauri: “Pleeeeeeease take me, please come with me”
Me: “No Gauri, I cant honey, just go…..you cant do it on your own, you are a big kid now”
Gauri: “but there’s Bandar(monkey) in the Bathroom”
Me: with a little stress in my voice “Gaaaaauriii – there is NOBandar, don’t make up things, just go if you have to”

Note: Somehow Gauri is scared of monkeys, and I really have no idea why and where did she get this in her head, but suddenly one day she stared saying –monkeys will hurt me…We were worried at first and asked her why she thinks so, but then we thought it probably is normal for kids her age to get the concept of being scared sometimes.

So anyway,
Gauri: “Will Hanuman ji ask Bandar to go away?”

Note:
As per Hindu mythology, Hanuman ji is an incarnation of God in the form of an Ape. He is considered the one who has the powers to take away all difficulties/ fight demons for anyone who prays unto Him

Me: “sure, yes He will”
Gauri steps down from the bed and stands at the door whispering
“Hanuman ji open the door”
“please open the door for Gauri”
Now with stress in the voice:
“Please open the door Hanuman ji”
“Hanuman ji – open the door for Gauri, I have to go potty”
I was trying to avoid talking since Neel was trying to fall asleep in my lap, but then I had to intervene between Gauri and her Hanuman ji conversation
Me: “Gauri Hanuman ji does not open the door, you open it and go”
So she finally did go.
After a few minutes I hear Gauri again:
“Hanuman ji please give toilet paper to me”
“Hanuman ji ??”
“Hanuman ji I need toilet paper”
“Hanuman ji please give toilet paper”
“Oh god - Hanuman ji please give me paper towel”
After asking Hanuman ji for several minutes, I guess Gauri took the Toilet paper own her own and very disappointed-ly came back to me. BY now Neel was asleep and I was free to talk to her.

Me: “Gauri are you okay, did your potty?”
Gauri: “yea, but Hanuman ji did not give me toilet paper mama”
Me: “Its Okay Gauri”
Gauri: “I don’t think Hanuman ji can scare away the monkeys if he cant open the door and give toilet paper to me”!!

She was quite disappointed that night and I was half laughing and half wondering what and how am I to explain such complex things like “God” to an inquisitive kid like my little “Sweet-pea”.
She slept disappointed but I slept smiling thinking about this funny dialogue.

Since I have no pictures from that day, here are a couple of new ones of all of us.

Happy Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami, the festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna, is an important festival in the Hindu calendar. It is observed on the eighth day (according to the Lunar Calendar), of the dark half in the month of Shravana (again Lunar Calendar). I think personally, that this can be compared to the Christmas in the western world.

This is such a special festival for us specially because we all are Krishna Bhaktas (Devotees)and His Birthday is SUPER Special. Gauri already knows about “Krishna’ since she always offers prayers to Krishna before her meals (something that her nanu taught her and her prayers goes like this – with her eyes half closed half peeking she says “Krishna please eat this food ….please please please….” And sometimes she commands “Krishna eat ALL my food”, she looks so cute when she says that).

Every year we both observe fast the entire day and only eat/ drink after the birth of the Lord at midnight. Only milk and milk products are consumed, as these were the favorites of Lord Krishna (and mine too). We usually have a big celebration at our house and we invite lots of friends and family for the evening Puja, Abhishek and Prasadum. We also have some Krishna Games to add some fun to Krishna’s Birthday party but this year we choose to keep it small since both Neel and Gauri were super exited and it didnt seem feasible to cook that lavish Prasadum, decorate our Deities with wew clothing, jewelery and flowers and I knew its would be too tempting for Neel (now crawling) to leave ‘Baal-Gopal” on his alter. Last year we had a mini-accident when Gauir burnt her palm in an attempt to grab the light Inscent stick; we knew it would be best to keep the celebration very small this time. But we still had lots of fun and while Mani and I were singing our favorite Bhajans, Gauri declared “where is Krishna’s Elmo cake?” and “we need to sing Happy Birthday to Krishna” and “Krishna says he wants Balloons” – I wasn’t surprised at her demands – she was right, that’s the minimum we need to do for a birthday. Sorry Gauri – I’ll remember the Cake and the Balloons next year. Both Gauri and Neel dressed in traditional Indian clothes and boy did they ever look cuter!!

Happy Janmashtami to All – Hari Bool!!

Ok, so if you have been wondering where are we and what is Gauri up to these days here is a little update on Gauri (Neel's to follow shortly). This summer has probably been the most wonderful summer for me. I am having a blast with Gauri and Neel (of course sometimes they both do drive me crazy and I do feel that my IQ level, my vocab, my music repertoire are now that of a 2 year old, but still I don't remember having this much fun ever).

Gauri is a very energetic little girl and she does keep me on my toes. I need to keep her busy with challenging stuff otherwise she get very weepy and irritated. She has a never quenching thirst for books, and so we do visit the library VERY often. She loves to pick up new books from there and meet her friends from the "story time" program. I have to say, she loves to play with most of them but she prefers to play with older kids and read with them rather than the younger or even same age as her (I think that's the trait she picked from her dad, at least that's what Mani tells me).

Another interesting thing right now is the "pretend games" we play these days. Gauri is super super imaginative and is always coming up with new pretend games, her most favorite one is to play "Amma-dadu" (Grandma-Grandpa). She will mostly put a scarf around her neck just like her Amma (Amma wearing Salwar-Kameez) and pretend being amma and I will have to paint a mustache on my face and pretend to be dadu and she can play this game for hours all together.... another one of her favorite pretend games is playing Doctor-patient and I am always the patient and she is always the Doctor, She loves being the Dr. (ah, how I wish that she actually becomes one.....and yes I do remember that my Favorite toy as a little girl was always a stethoscope - hah what a coincidence)!!

Apart from that she has been dancing dancing and dancing on all sorts of songs since she was only about 20 months and this summer she showed great interest in ballet, so I finally did find a ballet school for her. She was super excited when she heard that we would be going for ballet class, we bought her ballet attire and she couldn't keep her hands, rather feet off those Ballet shoes....
She loves it there and keeps asking every day "do we have ballet class today?". She is probably the youngest of all in that class but definitely not least intimidated, fluttering around like a butterfly and chatting nonstop like a lil' monkey and looking so so so graceful, super cute I mean.

Here is a sneak-peek of her class.

We plan to continue ballet into fall and if possible Gauri might be able to perform next summer. I am super excited that she is learning dance (as some of you already know, I learned classing Indian dance growing up and was always performing as a little girl and I still love dance, oh and I still remember my first dance teacher's name - Ms. Krapa, and boy she was so strict and such disciplinarian that I almost hated her at that time) and I so wish that Gauri does embrace this form of art, it is very relaxing, uplifting, graceful and teaches self-discipline.

Apart from this we are also taking ice-skating for several weeks, and although Gauri can walk with those skates on, she still has days when she would not skate atall, but she loves being on the ice when it is scorching 90 degrees outside. I dont have any pictures from that but I'll soon post some.

And the most wonderful thing of all - Both Gauri and Neel are playing together very nicely. I have to give credit to Gauri for being super nice with Neel and although she has her moments of not wanting to share "her" toys with him but she will soon find something that she is willing to let Neel have. And they do have a blast whenever they are in the water together. I am so proud of her, being a baby herself yet acting such a nice big sister. May their love continue to grow like this forever.

All this and much more keeps Ms. curious somewhat busy otherwise, I was beginning to believe that "terrible twos" is truly terrible, now I think its "terrific"!!

Our visit to the ER

For those of you who are wondering what’s going on at our end, I am sorry I have been slacking at providing updates. I will soon post detailed updates on Gauri and Neel – I promise. But for now I’ll just say – we had the most scary evening this past Thursday. Gauri was out with Nanu for their evening walk, Neel and I were home, having our one-on-one time alone when Mani came back rather early from his racket ball game. I was surprised as well as happy that he was back soon. But within a few moments I realized that he was actually choking, barely able to talk, coughing vigorously and unable to breathe. I realized that this was his allergies, but this time it was worse. When he just couldn’t breathe, he signed me to quickly rush him to the ER (emergency Room). Fortunately, papa was back with Gauri and I only said “I am taking him to the ER, Neel’s with me, you take care of Gauri, and I’ll call…” We left in a panic and Manish kept insisting that I jump those one million traffic lights each one of which was Red this time, I was trying to keep my head straight while driving a screaming baby and chocking husband. As soon as we reached the ER the ER staff realized that his condition was rather critical because he was complaining of inability to breathe and therefore they asked me to register him while they already took him in. As we (Neel and I) registered him, my head was running in all directions, “Is he OK ? does he need me right now? He doesn't have a cell home with him? What about Gauri – would she be crying at home? Should I call papa – Damn no cell phone signal here. Neel’s crying, he is hungry, what can I give him, Jeez, he just pooped…oh shoot I forgot the Diaper bag in the car, cant go back to the parking lot now….” My brain’s CPU was running at 100% and was ready to hang, when the nurse asked me if I wanted to go see my husband. “Yes, ofcourse”. Ok so things were only going to get worse – they (hospital staff) couldn’t find him in any of their rooms!! “Sorry we cant seems to find your husband here” said the nurse. “Ok let me ask someone”, “ I am surprised where did they take him”…..I was almost about to have a panic attack, because only they worst possibilities were coming in my head at that time. Thanks goodness they finally found him. But those 15 minutes seemed like forever to me. I was relieved to see that he was able to breathe now. With a million monitors on him, and IV and what now and a zillion other drugs already injected in my poor hubby, “the situation is under control now” the nurse said. We were informed that it could take several hours before a doctor would be able to see him. The Doctor saw him at around 10:30 and reported that it was definitely a result of one of his severe food allergies (in this instance the culprit was nuts in the laddoo he ate before heading out for the game that evening). With a long list of antihistamines and other Allergy drugs , we finally got home by 11. Thank God, everything was Ok with him, Gauri was super excited to accompany me to the hospital to bring baba home. “I missed you baba” were her exact words as he entered the car when I picked him up at the ER door. We have see an allergist now, to figure things out and understand the dos and the don’ts regards to his eating. For now, I am putting away ALL Indian sweets out of his sight.

Let's celebrate Mothers

Happy Mothers Day to all the amazing women whose nick name is any of the following:

“Ma, Mother, Mummy, Mommy, Mom, Mum…” basically, “mother” in any language. You are all fabulous, doing a great job and know that you mean the world to your children.

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs I have ever had, since the payment is abundance of - pure love. And after being a full time mommy myself, I truly believe that all mothers are “working mothers" and their job does not end ever – not even after the kids go to bed or when they are away from her because a mother never quite leaves her children at home/ daycare/ babysitter - even when she doesn't take them along she is still always thinking about them. So here’s to all the mothers and mother like figures who have worked so so so very hard every day (and night) of their life to serve (their children) unconditionally!! Cheers to you all!!

I read this wonderful Quote by a writer named Rajneesh -

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new."

How very true – I believe it’s a God’s blessing to be a mother. As a woman I would have never realized the pleasure of loving someone unconditionally; never realized that I had the strength to sleep only couple of hours (if even that) every night and still have the sanity to care for an infant day and night; I would have never realized that nothing can warm my heart like when my child smiles back at me, that most precious birthday present is not another diamond but opening my eyes to the soft sound of my child singing “happy Birthday” to me. So here’s to our children who made us mothers and made us COMPLETE – Cheers!!

And last but not the least, here’s to MY MOM –

She was a petite woman (as some of you already know) but she had a heart so large that everybody's joys found welcoming abode in it, every ones sorrows found a hospitable accommodation in it .

Ma, I miss you every day of my life, your image is the deepest impression on my heart and your voice still resounds in me. You are like a never ending song of comfort, happiness and belonging-ness in my heart; the words of which I may sometimes forget but I always remember the tune.

Special thanks to hubby dear, for giving up their wife to be a mother first, for living with a woman who the kids sometimes (or should I say almost all the time) driving absolutely insane and crazy and far from being perfect and most of all accepting the new woman that emerges from sleeplessness, screaming kids, no time to shower, seen mostly in sweat-pants, cooking meals with either too much salt or too little sugar, who either sings a lullaby or yells or talks in sarcasm - basically a woman they didn't marry!! So to you dear hubby for accepting us with all our imperfections.

Big Day - Big Realization

So this past Sunday we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Gosh!! does time fly any quicker? I still remember very vividly the hot summer afternoon of April 19th when the temperatures were soaring the usual 100 degree F and the lu (the hot wind that blows in the Northern part of India) had started early morning at around 9:30 AM when we were doing the pre-wedding ceremonies (Eechh- Baan) in the courtyard of our old ancestral house (Peeli Kothi - as it used to be popularly known as in those days). I was trying to get out of the house to go to the “Beauty Parlor” for getting ready with makeup and wedding dress and I got late in reaching there; I will never forget that the woman beautician actually shouted at me and got me in to tears for being late and not bringing the flowers that she thought she had informed me to bring with me for my Hair decoration…..of course it was a very busy day for her, she said she had 8 other brides to get ready for the same time!! But it was My Wedding day too and wasn’t I suppose to be special (at least I thought so in my mind) how dare she be so rude to me, now that I think of it, I guess I was under too much pressure back then at that particular time to get ready and be out on time so I bursted into tears and holy cow did my eyes ever swell that bad!! But anyway, long story short, the events of that Special day are still as fresh as yesterday’s in my mind. Here are a couple of pictures that could dig out (our wedding album is in India) of both of us 9 years ago :o) This year we didn’t do much on our anniversary; I was Super tired of being awake almost the entire 3 nights in a row, plus we were in Boston and it’s a significant enough change for the kids, No nap in last 2 -3 days, we were doing late night eating out/ party (my cousin’s birthday Celebration), so all I wanted was a “normal” day. Yes, I have to admit, with so much going on, we hadn’t planned anything special for the day. But my dear brother, the wonderful gracious host, the young enthusiastic and let’s-make-things-special kind-a-guy that he is, decided to treat us every which way possible. But when I turned down all his offers and he saw that the entire day had “just” gone by, he convinced us to go out for an early dinner at this Fancy Cambodian Restaurant next to his place on Harvard Sq. Wonderful ambiance, excellent location, beautiful people all around, the place was definitely special. Neel was asleep so I was quite hopeful that we will have a wonderful meal finally. BUT - Even before the dinner was served, both Gauri and Neel were out of control because it was past their bedtimes and they are not used to so much noise/ stimulation and I was feeling like everyone was staring at us (Me). The food, whatever I was able to taste, was awesome, but to tell the truth, I was feeling out of place. This place was not meant for parents of infants/ toddlers, it was too classy for Mommy-me. Although, Mani did love the experience and I too liked the food but I had to run out(literally) with Neel, in the middle of the dinner (of course, frustrated somewhat) because his crying was getting louder and louder and I wasn’t able to swallow even a single bite anymore. So the weekend was a big realization that we do NEED to change our lifestyle - no more late night parties, socializing, eating out with the kids. I have accepted this change ever since Gauri came into our lives and more so after having Neel but I think it will take its own time for Daddy to give-in. I sincerely feel too bad for Mani since he is such a social being and loves to socialize/ entertain specially on weekends. But I do know that this is a temporary situation and only in a couple of years we will again be ready for more adventure, more celebrations!!

Too Sexy for any hair!!

The little man now has a new hair style officially – “Baldy”!!

On April 8 2009, Neel had his "Mundan" ceremony – Baba was the official Barber (Naai) and I have to say he did a wonderful job. Neel sat in his lap the entire time and credit also goes to my little darling for being extremely patient the entire time – not a single tear, no fuss and baba did and excellent job – not a single cut!! So where was I during this time? Oh welll, I was holding Ms. Gauri and keeping her busy with camera and the camcorder since he was very fascinated with the clipper and absolutely amused with Neel’s new hair style.

Holding the Tripod - our designated photographer for the occasion.

Neel’s newly shaved head made him look SUPER cute and I have to admit that I am totally loving his clean shaved head…No hair and a big smile -makes me crazy(er) about him.

Gauri says “Neo looks funny” "Neo is Ganju Pateel"…..hahahaha…..Oh but I think she doesnt really like the idea of head-shave because she woke up one night crying and calling her baba, murmering "baba, no cut Gauri hair like Neo's". I felt really bad that what impact did this have on her. Next day morning I talked to her and tried to explain that we will never cut her hair like "neos" but that little babies get thicker nicer hair after Mundan, we even showed her the pcitures of her mundan and how cute she looked in those. She is OK now.

I remember, Gauri was born with such thick hair and they grew thicker and longer so quickly that it almost broke my heart to do her mundan. Gauri - 3 days old.

I had spent hours on internet trying to find reasons why “mundane” is such a big deal and why is it necessary and if there really is a logic in this….and I did find some interesting information. In Hindu culture it is believed that the hair from birth is associated with undesirable traits from past lives (Hindus believe in re-birth). Thus at the time of the mundan, the child is freshly shaven to signify freedom from the past and moving into the future. The rite is performed as a special ceremony in most homes, for young children and then the hair are offered to the holy river (Ganga). We have also saved Neel’s hair to take with us to India of offering in the Ganges. So we had finally decided to shave off our little darling but my tears were shedding at the same speed at which her hair was falling. It was probably the hardest thing for me (to see her bald after being used to seeing her with full head of gorgeous hair).

Gauri after her Mundan

But either that Neel had much less hair to being with, or that I had become somewhat conditioned to this or probably because My little man looks all the more handsome with shaved head – no tears were shed by mum this time !!

Welcome Spring - Holi hai...

You miss something when u don’t get it. All those years when I used to hide in my room to avoid colors, I now remember fondly and make efforts to re-live them (कोई लौटादे मेरे बीते हुए दिन …). I recall fondly the good old days when I used to play Holi….sweet Gujjiyas, the lip-smacking जलजीरा (cool-mint-drink), राइ का पानी, ठंडाई और भांग (almond-flavored-milk), chaant-pakore, abiir and gulal (dry colors), टेसू के फूल (yellow flowers used for coloring water), पानी के गुब्बारे (water balloons) and those रंग भरी पिचकारी (water sprinklers)… holi-ka-jalana (Holi-bon-fire) and nani ke ghar holi ka khaana (food at grandma's)…..ah those were the days!!

Now after almost 10 years of having nobody throwing colors on me here in the US, I am missing them all the more...

After having Gauri and Neel the significance of festivals has changed. Now I try to learn and understand how each of our festivals are celebrated in India (in our family – of course I never paid much attention to those details while growing up. Of course all those details I would arrogantly call as “un-necessary rituals, and of course I took so much for granted because mummy-papa would take care of all these details and we would simply be required to do very little and just enjoy the fun and the food…..)

I really want Neel and Gauri to know all our Indian traditions, the old tales of dadi-ma and the love people have for each other and how us Indians love to party and celebrate and know how to have a great time. I don’t want them to miss anything even if they are so so so far away from India.

So This year I planned a traditional holi party at our house, inviting friends and family. We had the traditional food and played with gulaal and wet (kids-friendly) colors. Gauri had so much fun, she keeps asking every now and then, when can she once again paint everyone’s faces with colors.

We had a wonderful time, thanks to all our friend and family and it was great way of welcoming the Spring finally.

Here’s a video from one of Hindi Movie’s, giving an idea of how we play Holi in India and specially Uttar Pradesh.

Love Before First Sight

I have to admit that I was SO busy raising a toddler (Gauri) that I had absolutely zero time to think about my pregnancy with Neel and about the new baby. When I was pregnant with Gauri, the love hormone oxytocin was hitting me so hard that I was practically swimming in love, I was definitely in love with that baby growing inside me even before seeing that baby. But with Neel, I was always tired and exhausted running after Gauri all day so I didn’t feel that connected initially but when I finally got to hold him (well, its worth mentioning here, when he was born he wouldn’t let go of the umbilical cord, he was holding it real tight) , my brain finally broke through the exhaustion and pain of labor and gave me a feeling of euphoria and intense love.

It was like love at first sight! I, once again fell in love like never before. The feeling of adoration hit as soon as I saw Neel. It was like I wasn't even living before I looked at my baby the first time

One thing I realized after giving birth to two wonderful babies is that the bond between parent and child is one of the strongest connections in nature. Romances come and go, but once you've bonded with your baby you're probably hooked for life, and not because you enjoy the prospect of changing thousands of diapers but because the love you feel for your child is the strongest bond, and your child is equally ready to connect with you.

Now that Neel already smiles and coos at me and his eyes follows me even if he is in anybody else’s arms, my heart just fills up with pride and love so intense, that I feel like I am falling in love every day.

On the other hand I have Gauri, who is not ready to “share” me with anybody – nobody. She is so attached to me that she wants me a 100% of the time. Even at night she wakes up and calls for me Sometimes I feel like she should be able to do her own things or atleast take help from baba or her amma, but when I think about how she feels, I feel like waking her up from her sleep and giving her a big hug and a big kiss and letting her know that she makes me feel VERY SPECIAL.

Both Gauri and Neel have made me realize that I am the most important person for someone and that I am need by them all the time. I cant think of even a single moment that I want to be away from them. I am in love and I am hooked to this feeling for life.

Cupid or (love) Bandit?

I’ll take MY love bandit any day.

Years ago, in fact over a decade ago (OK, now I feel old ), when cupid hit us, Mani and I fell in love and we will ever be so grateful to Dear Cupid for sending love in our lives and for arranging us to meet our soul-mates in this huge world.

And now while Mani found a NEW Sweet heart (whom I love like crazy too), I have my very own Love Bandit too, to celebrate this very special Valentines day with.

We had a fun filled day and although we didn’t go out on a dinner date or a romantic getaway or anything cliché like that, we still ended up having the BEST Valentine’s day ever.

Gauri and her Baba had a very special play date the eve of Valentine’s day and she was super excited and very happy to go out with just Baba (who is usually too busy to be able to spend some alone time with Miss. Bansal). “We had Fun” – said Gauri when they returned back.

“I want to look Beautiful Mumma”, “Baba wear this” were her other big comments that evening while getting ready for their Date. I was so happy to see her so happy.

I had some surprise flowers delivered – how sweet was that!! Thanks so much Jijaji, you are simply wonderful.I also got a bag full of thoughtful selection of Old Romantic classics like – “When Harry Meet Sally” and some beautiful music among other things like Chocos and flower.

Gauri and Neel gave presents to Amma and Baba and boy did they ever look cuter!!

Happy Valentines Day everyone, hope you all had fun with your special ones.