I love Library

I love public library and my relationship started with it 8 years back when I first came to this country. The first view of Boston where I landed was full of construction machines and dirt (project Big Dig was going on at that time and all that rubble and dirt marred my vision of land of free and the home of the brave). Visiting the giant sized stores and massive malls did not really help make my life even remotely as exciting as it was back in India. It was a Huge change. Change from one culture to another (watching the white picket fences of this dream country or looking at the  glitz of Times Square in English movies and listening to Madonna and back street boys is one thing and living in it is another - Oh yes it was a dream come true except that I was a bit unsettled after waking up), change from being a working girl to being a homemaker , change from being someone who used to have two credit cards in her name to someone who had no credit history , could not have one because social security number is not given on H4 visa, change from  someone savvy  to someone who needed to learn a lot of ropes. Well, this piece about change deserves some serious writing , today I want to use it in context of my love with library only.

When Anurag saw me going nearly crazy with boredom, he suggested visiting library. I got my card and we started our friendship. Anurag would drop me off after lunch and I would spend next four or so hours over there connecting to the world. I wrote long emails to friends telling them about my new experiences, took printouts of the letters to send home ,read newspapers, magazines & books, borrowed DVD's. I also observed the new culture around me - parents, children, teenagers, old people. Sometimes I walked to the park behind it and watched kids and other people. I appreciated what library had to offer and to me it also meant learning about this country and  its way of life 

When we moved to Milwaukee ,I spent hours studying at the library for my PHR Certification. This library was lovely , a 3 story gorgeous building complete with a coffee shop and a gift store. I enjoyed  their vast collection as much as I savored every sip of coffee in their coffee shop in the cold afternoons.

Then I became a Mom and we moved to Lancaster, OH. A small town with a big library. I appreciated the activities of library even more as I started taking Avi for story time and borrowing board books for him. In a mid western small town where it was not easy to find many activities to entertain Avi and the park was mostly packed with snow, the library came to my rescue. We made friends and scheduled play-dates , had lunch and good times. 

Now we've moved to California and have access to a lot of libraries within driving distance but I love my 5 minutes drive to the closest one (just get me started on the gas prices :). Today we kicked off summer program at our local library with the performance by Melissa Green. She sang some beautiful songs from Eric Carle's books and kids had a great time. Neev shook some booty too watching Avi who loved doing the freeze dance. Every Tuesday afternoon is going to be full of different activities thru' summer and we have marked our calendar.

Hot...Hot....Hot weekend

We had some record high temperatures for June this past weekend. By 1.00 Pm the house felt like it would turn into a furnace soon so we cooled off by turning on air conditioning. Sitting all cooped up in a 2 bedroom apartment with its blinds and curtains drawn is not exactly a fun way of spending weekend for kids and for me. Earlier I had signed up for campfire at Adventure Playground but it did not seem like a great idea to be anywhere near fire in already so………sultry weather even if it meant the chance to eat s’mores. But I’d already told Avi about the activity so it was hard to throw water on his excitement of roasting marshmallows on open fire. Finally Mr. Golden Sun decided to call it a Day even though it seemed like the slowest pace ever , we decided to go for campfire. Since this was the only time we got out this weekend, I was hoping this would turn out to be our fun zing thing we look forward to doing all week. Sadly it wasn’t all that great and Avi, when asked if he had any fun, replied, a ‘little bit’. 
Highlight of my otherwise not so great weekend – when in the morning I accidently hurt the back of my foot from the fence gate , Avi quipped and said this whole sentence in one breath, “Oh Man, what a shame…I don’t want my mother to get hurt, now I have to call emergency just like the fire chief said, dial 911 if something happened to her”. I just looked at him and started laughing. He started laughing too and said, “looks like you’re not hurting any more Mommy”.

Raspberry competition

The other day in the car, Neev started blowing raspberries. It was so cute that I had to turn back(I was not driving) and flash him a big smile. Encouraged , he did it again. This time, Avi responded to him by doing a brr......brr.........sound by thundering his lips. Neev answered with some more zest in his bubbles . That was enough to get Avi started his engines and soon we had a full blown froth oozing competition. Neev was so determined to keep up with Avi that it was actually impressive to see a baby put all his energy into blowing raspberries . Yes, it was gross, but also insanely cute. Anurag and I just sat, listened to their brr........s   and did not use the 'No' word even once :)

Father's day

We celebrated father's day at home, listening and shaking to some music on our home theater system (our splurge last year on a set of Harman Kardon and even though it took Anurag a long time to convince me for it, I totally have fallen in love with music all over again listening on this great set up), taking a dip in the pool ,relaxing in the hot tub and walking 3 minutes to order a take-out - just the way 'Daddy' likes it. Laid back and quiet (okay not so quiet as he would really love but well, you can''t celebrate father's day without its fringe benefits :)) ! 

So here's to my wonderful husband and father of my children- there is nothing more I enjoy than catching him  with expressions of love and adoration when he is spending time with kids. Happy Father's day Love !

Wonderfully Chaotic

Yep, that the chaos can be wonderful, I only learnt from my children and it's become my favorite answer to the question I get from people ,'so how is it going with 2 little ones'. I say its wonderfully chaotic. I am sure all moms get it but for my own record some of it sounds like this -

When as a newborn , Neev needed a diaper change at midnight or in wee hours of the morning, he would cry. That would wake Avi up and he would cry too because he could not take his lil brother creating a ruckus. Not exactly knowing what to do when you have a house full of children's shrieks in the middle of night, Anurag and I would take charge of each one of them and exchange looks between us which said ,'its hard but we are blessed in ways we can only feel....and if it wakes the neighbors ...........well......so be it'.

When the situation reversed after a few months and while running in the park Avi fell and scraped his knee, it was his turn to cry in a pitch which would give an opera singer competition. But wait ..there was Neev, we did not need any singer. Scared by his big bro's crying, he immediately followed it. And this time I was alone and had nobody to exchange glance with, except for a few people staring and thinking God knows what. Rocking Neev on my knees ,consoling Avi and trying to find a bandage in my purse.........all of it at the same time.....well, nothing short of wonderful chaos.

Those hectic evenings when kids are tired & grumpy, house looks like it could win a makeover in parenting magazine's messiest living room to live contest, dinner is yet to be made and I realize that we are out of milk or something I needed to fix a quick meal................all wonderfully chaotic. 

I know that they will grow in a blink of an eye and then my heart will yearn for these adventurous little situations. Until then, I am just trying to live and enjoy my wonderful world of chaos. 

Serene Saturday

We started our Saturday early . Finishing with breakfast and showers at 9.30 is remarkably early in this household where everyone loves being nocturnal and likes to sleep in on weekends. I took Avi and Neev for a walk and ran into a neighbor who told me about the 20th Anniversary of signing of Irvine's historic Open Space Initiative. It was being celebrated at Bommer Canyon which is not too far from our place. This city has the most amazing green space, hike and bike trails and native & created open spaces to enjoy passive or active recreational opportunities (I prefer passive ) . It did not take me time to decide that we would all enjoy going there. By the time we got back from our walk , Neev began to get fussy (he woke up early and needed a nap). Anurag (my husband) graciously agreed to baby sit and asked us to go ahead. It proved to be a perfect chance for Avi and I to have some one on one time. We drove to Bommer Canyon to discover the 'wild' side of our city. As I was driving on the dessert dirt road , Avi recognized the cacti on the side and said excitedly 'I saw that in the book we borrowed from the library'. Proud of my son's memory as any mom would be, I lowered the window glasses and savored the fragrant smells of native plants and flowers. It was a wonderful event - they had guided hiking tours , live music for kids (Avi's favorite - old Mcdonald had a farm ee...i..ee..i...o), crafts and also a sumptuous lunch sponsored by the city. Avi liked touching the footprints molds (made from latex) of animals found in the open space and he recognized frog's footprints too. He also loved stamping the animal shapes on paper. We made binoculars out of empty toilet paper rolls and decorated it with stickers, even though Avi decided later that those were for small kids since the holes were sticking too close. He told me that I should think about getting him some big boys binoculars , not the pretend ones. That was fresh, coming from my little king of his own imaginary word where everything is make believe. The highlight of his day was to shake hands with the Fire Chief , getting a badge and the fire fighter's hat.
We enjoyed a short stroll and meandered through the open space while collecting some pine cones and pebbles (to show it to Daddy). I appreciated the beauty of these urban open space lands, majestic vistas and beautiful birds and above all ,my son walking along side enjoying it just as much.
Driving back we looked at the bright blue sky and the hills surrounded by it. I inhaled a deep breath .........it was all so tranquil.

Avi and Bandages

It all started when Avi was about 18 months old. An enthusiast toddler , excited by wonders of life around him ,ran to catch a bird and fell on the ground. It was nothing really , just a minor scrape but it was his first one and I was hurting more than him. So I picked him up, hurried home, washed it with an antiseptic and covered his boo-boo with a bandage. Don't know what made him feel better, my endless kisses, his lovey or the bandage but he calmed down. Since then Avi and bandages have become friends. Any little scrape or a cut, even the tiniest one which is invisible to my eyes has to be covered with a bandage or Avi's screams would make my neighbors think that I may be torturing him. I mean seriously, more than the hurt my denying of a bandage can drive this child to such pain that manifests into shrieks of highest degrees. So I learnt my lesson and instead of trying to make him a 'man' by shrugging his boo-boo off, I stocked up on bandages, all kinds of them (who knew there were different shapes and sizes and all kinds of cartoon characters) because I go thru' them just as quickly as milk in my house. Quite honestly I don't mind the placebo effect it has. It saves me from lecturing him on how he should be 'tough" because really I don't want to waste in on scrapes and cuts.

There.........

Neev's been babbling for a long time now and the latest in his vocabulary is pointing his forefinger in the air and saying 'there'. He probably wants me to take him flying . For some reason the finger is never pointing straight or any sideways, always in the air. We don't watch any TV with kids so I wonder where did he see Hilary or Obama making speeches :)

The other funny thing this cute lil man does is a fake laugh which is totally funny . Seriously, its a devil's laugh and goes like ha...ha...ha..ha.... My husband calls him 'Sherkhan' (lion in hindi) when he laughs like that. Usually it happens when there are other people laughing and I think he wants to tell us that he too got the joke. Ofcourse whenever we try to record any of this, he behaves like he is auditioning for a silent movie. Avi on the other hand behaves like we are trying to shoot a car chase. He wants us to record all of his moves which include Aikido, Yoga, Pilates all at once. And yes, whenever there is time to get a family picture, he somehow thinks that his mouth is worth modeling for a dentist's office :)

I never thought that I would take this  much pleasure in describing a journey to tonsils or of a roaring laugh but kids - they do that to you. They have the keys to our hearts and the ability to expose us to feelings of such degrees that you don't think you have until you become a mother. What a blessing !