A daughter may outgrow your lap......

but she will never outgrow your heart.


Remembering my mother, the woman who made me the woman I am today, who taught me everything I know, who spent countless sleepless nights worrying about me, caring for me, who put my dreams in front of every single one of hers, and expected only one thing in return - that I be a daugher who loves her.

Althought mother, you are no longer in this world, but I can feel your presence and continue to be your daughter in more profound ways. Mother, we love you and will alaways do. I just hope that I can be a good mother myself.

Gauri honey, I want you to know your Nani (mother's mother) as the most amazing woman you would have known, a woman with a heart so big, that she had place in her heart for every single person who crossed their path with hers. She was a wonderful guide a child could have the best friend a girl could ask for.

Love is in the air

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day yesterday. Gauri and I tried to keep ourselves busy and made the best of it; missing baba so much that she was calling this other kid’s dad – baba and embarrassed me, was telling Gauri “that's not baba, baba is going to be home soon…” Poor kid, I felt sorry for her, but who can we blame? Let me think, humm… well nobody; OK on a second thought baba’s job that takes him away from us so often and just like last year – on Valentines Day also. But hey, who said you’ll always be dealt all Aces in life??

Anyway, I know I am late for wishing everyone Happy Valentines day, but better late than never. I wanted to write this post yesterday but just was too tired last night from baking and decorating the previous night. This was the first year Gauri was going to celebrate Valentines Day with her friends at daycare and I had no idea how to make it special. I had thought of making Valentines Day cookies for her to take to the day care but when I saw heart shaped cookies everywhere in the supermarkets, I didn’t feel it was worth making them at home. So I decided to make mini cupcakes. We made several different types of cupcakes (I mean in shape and decoration) some heart shaped and some same ol round. Thank God, the recipe I followed was great, they came out just perfect though some of them oozed out of the cupcake liners, but I made plenty to chuck away some.

In the morning Gauri work up early and both she and I had fun time decorating them. I had already bought plenty of things to decorate (of course I had no idea what it takes to decorate them) When it comes to baking I am the worst and I will not lie, but that evening the thought of just buying some from the super market did cross my mind, but every time I was reminded of my mom and how special we felt when she would bake us a cake for our birthday etc. Of course she was the BEST cook in the entire world and I am not exaggerating this, some of you will concur with me on this since you have had a chance to taste her cooking, everything she made was simply amazing.
Anyway, the cupcakes looked cute and when we took them to the day care, Gauri’s teachers we very appreciative. In the evening we had a note from some teachers that they were really yummy and of course there were none left in the tray. This morning someone asked me for the recipe of yesterday’s cup cakes and that felt like a true compliment. Oh did I mention they had real strawberries in them – why not, our little Boo loves strawberries. And by the way I don’t have many pictures from yesterday, will post them here soon. And the name Boo was given to Gauri yesterday by her teacher since she thought Gauri reminded her of Boo in Monster Inc.

And before I end, here’s a beautiful quote I once read somewhere:

~~~~~~"Trip over love, you can get up.~~~~~
~~~~~~Fall in love and you fall forever."~~~~

First swim in the big pool

As promised in my last , here's a peak into our fun date with daddy on Gauri's 15th Month Birthday. Dad is going to be away on the valentines day, so we thought of an early celebration and it coincided with Gauri's 15th Mo. B'day also. We all had a lot of fun at the Red Door Spa, and then daddy decided to treat us to a 'slice of heaven' - the name of the famous Mystic Pizza. Now that Gauri and I are back on normal diet with no Soy or Dairy restrictions - that slice of pizza did really taste like a slice of Heaven. Gauri was extremely tired of playing in the water (and so were we) but she enjoyed some spaghetti-marinara, well at least it was fun throwing and flying it all over the table (Thanks to Super-Sunday, there was hardly anyone except us at the restaurant, oh and yes thanks to daddy for giving up his Sunday game to treat us - we love you baba) Some pictures now -

15 months old - Time flies

Gauri, turned 15 months yesterday. I still cant believe where time is flying away. She is growing way too fast for her mum….. I wish I could get more of her….I wish I could capture every single moment in a box and re-live it again when she is all grown up.
Of course she is no more an infant, she is a lil kid for sure, doing everything that a 15 month old does….and more....
She has a vocabulary that consists of "Mama", “mumma”, “ma” and "Dada", “papa”, “baba”, “nana”, “buba”, “meme” plus some other words, such as “Hello” (only when she has a phone in her hand), "Turtle” (thanks to her animal book, I wonder how she learned the most difficult animal….)She is also saying "More" and a word from hindi language “dede” dede meaning “give me”. The lasted development has been that at the very sight of a dog, its picture in a book, on TV ,she would immediately say “bhu-hu”, that sounds so funny when she says that!! Last couple of days, her daily activity report card from the Day care states “Gauri has been very talkative today”
She can also follow simple commands, such as "Not that drawer – that’s daddy’s" or "Put it back" or “come here”…. “Please give mum a kiss”. She very well understands the phrase "No," but must of the time she decides to ignore. She is definitely having a lot of fun talking and of course I am having more fun watching her talk.

She days are not very active – full of running around in the house (not walking – just running), hiding behind the doors, climbing (and falling) on the step up stool, pushing things around and making sure nothing stay where mum left it. I believe she is trying to redecorate the house, why not, she has her mum’s genes lol. I cant believe where these little ones get all this energy from, oh and I remember one of the dad’s (of one of Gauri’s little friend) we meet a couple of days ago said “they don’t get it from anywhere, they just drain it from us” hahahahaha…..how true. Now I know why I am dead tired and ready to go to bed at 8 PM (Well, if I get to go down that early or not that another question).

Gauri is also very keenly observing everything I do, its funny to find her imitating my hair drying process, applying lip guard on the lips….pretty much everything. Its so hilarious when she starts doing exactly how I do something. Oh gosh, it’s a full time entertainment channel just watching this little monkey copy us. On her 15th month Birthday, we took Gauri to the Pet store to look at some of the cute animals. She loved the birds and the mouse though I am not sure what she thought of the fishes (she wasn’t much interested) her favorite though was the dog, one of the pet owners had brought in the store. I think we might have to get her a pet sometime (not sure how will we manage that during our month long vacations to India). We also took Gauri for her first swim in the big swimming pool at the Red Door Spa and she loved it. We three had a great time celebrating her 15th month Birthday.

Happy 15th month birthday honey – we love you and you make our world a fun place to be in.
Everyone, have a great week.