A beautiful morning and Earthquake

My day started off pretty well. Gymnastics class for Avi and a trip to Yogurt Land afterwards. Avi chose mint chocolate flavor with chocolate sprinkles and I got my favorite mango with fresh blueberries toppings. Neev was happy to share mine. We sat next to the water fountain and enjoyed our yogurt while watching a duck bathing herself in the stream water. After finishing our delicious snack we got up to go but half way thru' to the car Neev's discontent blathering and pointing to the fountain made me decide to turn away and spend a bit more time duck-watching (there was just one duck but she did not seem lonely, as I guessed from all the fun she was having splashing water on herself). It was a beautiful mid -morning afterall and I wanted us to enjoy it.  While the kids entertained themselves , I found the 'massage specials' brochure from the Chinese spa in the complex and imagined a day in spa with a friend followed by a cup of tea at Lollicup Tea Zone next door  (it would entice any tired mom the way these businesses have set their locations in that complex - spa, tea shop, beauty supply boutique......). As I day dreamed about my spa and chai session with friends, Avi noticed that the duck was missing in the stream. 'Where do you think she went', I asked and his version was ' I think she is taken to the rocky mountains and she is being chased by bats and spiders in a cave. Hurry, Mommy , we are animal rescuers and we have to save her'. You have to give me a bit of genetic credit for his amazing imagination. Afterall we both have fantasies (if you forgot I was woolgathering too just a moment ago ) :) . I suggested that we rescue the duck by going around on the wooden bridge and the fountain, pretending it was his cave. Finally we found the duck hiding behind some rocks in the stream and 'Avi saved the day' by rescuing him from bats and spiders. Our 'mission' was over and we headed back home. 

Around 11.40 A.M. I put Neev in high chair and just as I finished strapping him, I felt dizzy, like the ground under me was moving. At the same time the windows in the living room started rattling.  Its amazing at what speed your brain thinks ...at first I thought there must be some fixing work going on upstairs but when my T.V. started to shake and I felt some more vibrations under and around me, and the windows kept rattling , it hit me.........................it's an earthquake !  I've lived in California for over two years now and we've had a couple of earthquakes since. I did not feel them since they were during the night (imagine how bushed I must have been that even an earthquake could not wake me). Anurag felt them both the times and not that I wished for it but I was kind of curious how it felt. And now I know ! When it struck my mind that it was indeed an earthquake that I was experiencing, I was totally out of my balance (figuratively). I panicked. All I remembered was Gujarat Earthquake in India in 2001. My mind was racing about how to get my kids to safety. Because I survived to blog about it, you may laugh at me at my crazy thoughts but in that instance how was I supposed to know what was to follow.....another one may be, aftershocks? Who knew? Geologists have been predicting a big one which would wipe half of Northern California, well, may be they just forgot researching Southern California's plates because of all the attention it already gets with its wild fire and all. I mean just last August we survived a mandatory evacuation due to wild fire by just a couple of miles, And now this earthquake ! I seem to be living in an attractive place even to all possible natural calamities. Back to my reaction- I got Neev out of the high chair, held Avi's hands and ran outside bare feet. Avi  who also felt strange kept saying ,"Mommy , I need my shoes". I met other people who also got out and when some of them who've been in this 'earthquake zone' for long told me this was just a baby one. I felt kind of sheepish with our feet sans shoes and sorta dislodged demeanor. So, we returned back home. Visibly I was shaken up but took comfort in Avi's almost anodynic offering,'don't worry Mommy, next time I am going to shoo the earthquake with my magic wand'. My imaginative child did not know how much that calmed my nerves. I called Anurag and of course he was not at his desk. Moments later he called back and my fist sentence was,'did you feel that?". Sure enough every one from L.A. to San Diego did. 

Its everywhere in the news but I would like to mention that the earthquake was measured 5.4 on Richter scale (Gujarat was 8.2) and was termed 'moderate'. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 35 miles from us. No reports of any serious damage or injuries so far. 

So this was my day - a beautiful morning shaken by an earthquake later !

I took the car for a wash after lunch thinking that would be the light time of the day. Turned out there were atleast 10 more cars lined up before me. Since this was the hand wash and a line operation , I decided to wait up , hoping it won't be too long. When my car was being vacuumed, a whiff of stink alarmed me that there was code yellow (as my husband and I call it when Neev goes number two). I realized that diaper bag was in the car and the car was yet to be soaped, rinsed, dried and waxed . Did'nt I know better what is expected after lunch ....I asked myself and then wondered if I could survive the aromatherapy for another 20-25 minutes. I hoped for it not be a volcano and decided to sit in the lounge (sitting outside at 1 PM with no shade was simply not an option) which was already packed with people, people buying magazines, snacks, coffee, paying for gas and wash, people working on their notebooks, black berries, people bantering on their cellphones, people waiting for their cars to be washed...........Meanwhile Neev was getting uncomfortable . Avi decided to come to his rescue by entertaining him and as he came to bury his head in Neev's tummy to tickle him, he turned away and said as loudly as he could 'Yuck mommy, Neev has gone lot of poo-poo and it smells so bad'. From the corner of my eyes I could feel everyone's glances . Some people probably smiled too on Avi's blooper  (those must have been parents). Not sure what I wanted to do with all the attention ,all I said to Avi was,'yes , let's go , change him' and we left. Sometimes that's all you can do (and later blog about it :)

Highlights

So this is the sequel to the story of haircut. As planned, I did go for the highlights last week. I told Anurag that my haircut post got the most comments so far (3 ???? my friends, if you are reading my blog , I love to hear from you so please add comments and keep adding) and my blog fans are looking forward to read my highlights story and he should not disappoint them. Anurag could reason with me but was not ready to argue with my fans so he graciously agreed to watch the kids while I discussed the shades, tones, pigments , heavy/light weave-in and other analytics of highlights with my color consultant at Studio C (They better send me a gift card or make my next trip complementary .... I can't seem to mention them). Since my hair cut is so short now , it was difficult to get highlights on the sides or back so I chose to put some red on my crown and bangs and color rest of my hair black - close to my natural color. Sitting there, I did think of going wild with purple and pink but a glance on my cellphone screen ,which has pictures of my kids (this time I put my cellphone right in front of me ) quickly reminded me that I could not pull that off. In that moment I also decided to go deep red from bright red. I sipped some tea while my consultant went off to mix some volumes of these shades. After spending a few minutes under processor my foil flowered head was ready to rock and roll. Finally when it was washed and dried, I could not tell if I had any highlights at all . Pretty sure that they were there somewhere I tried to tell myself that I will be able to see it in daylight. So I checked my hair the first thing in the morning and surely I got 'em. My friends told me that it looks good. I think its ridiculous that I am even writing about the hair cut and highlights but actually it was a lot of fun and I totally enjoyed my time at the salon. I am trying to add the picture here (hopefully it will attach...I have not done this before...) so you can check the 'new me' out and people, please.............only positive comments :)

Hair Cut

Ok, so everyone has had a bad hair day or a week or so. In my case it had been a bad hair phase for quite some time now. Frizzy hair, no shape hair, untamed hair, tousled hair, rumpled hair, ruffled hair...............find the synonym of these in thesaurus and chances are I've lived with it all ..and wait till you say 'who hasn't' because in my case every day has been a bad hair day for last few weeks. So I decided to do something about it. I decided to cut it short, a really really short bob. I've had very short hair style before and then for some time layers and then they they just grew out ......no style for the longest time. Grass is always greener on the other side so with long hair I felt that the short is the cutest chic thing and with short hair I felt that long hair is so feminine and beautiful and you can do much with them....and anyone who has been back and forth between the 2 styles knows how frustrating the in-between phase can be when your hair are neither short nor long .......... hence the long wait for me to decide what I wanted. When I set my mind for a short one, I made appointment with a fancy Salon (Studio C). When I first came to States, I went to JC Penny salon and after that its been Super cuts or Great clips.This time neither one of them were going to do it.  I wanted a drastic change and I wanted a lil fuss over my hair. Besides , I haven't had a hair cut in a year and my locks (a very apt description of my hair as they looked completely so)totally deserved pampering (Hello....think about saving money for four cuts in Great clips in a year and then add some .............don't you agree it was in order). So yesterday I went to Studio C and the hair consultant (as they call themselves) went over a couple of books with me and I picked a style which I thought was great . She thought it was cute but wanted to check the texture of my hair (I think) and decided to shampoo and condition my hair before the cut (I already did that at home but who was I to complain if someone was going to run fingers thru' my hair and bathe them). So I changed and let her do her thing. I almost felt asleep listening to music while my crown was getting a bubble bath with warm water and her fingers were massaging conditioner on my scalp. Heavenly I tell you...............You will understand when the only treatment your hair receive is being pulled by your one year old or if he is not doing it, there are many situations when you feel like pulling them yourself. Back to the pampering - my hair were wrapped in a warm towel and I was stationed to get the cut. I was offered wine/tea/coffee (I thought even crossing legs caused angle change of head during a cut  , how was I supposed to hold a wine glass and not mess up the symmetry). Anyways, she ran her fingers thru' my hair again , gently shaking them, looked at the style I had chosen, divided my hair in four sections and looked at the style again. This time may be she thought differently because she took the clippers out and did the sectioning again. The cut finally began and I could not wait to see all that hair gone. After the cut she blow dried and put some Aveda paste to give my style textured look just the way in the book. I liked what I saw and then I left. When I looked at the watch in the car, it had been more than 2 hours at the salon. My cellphone had 3 missed calls from home. I called Anurag back and the only thing he said, 'just come home'. 

When I reached home, he certainly did not have the reaction I had hoped. Turns out he had been through very bad 3 hours. Avi had a stomach ache and he would not stop crying for me. Neev obviously was very empathetic to his big brother and gave him company thru' out. Anurag was like 'how long does it take to get a hair cut and why won't you answer your cellphone (I did not hear it since it was buried at the bottom of my over sized purse. A dose of Mylicon, lots of caressing of tummy and a dozen book later Avi felt better and dozed off. Finally Anurag took notice of my hair and nodded - a good one after a long time. I told him,'glad you noticed, next week I am going to get some highlights done and usually coloring takes longer than the cuts'. You should have seen his expression - priceless.

I love my hair right now, its just that I am going to wear only dresses (and earrings if I can get Neev to be interested in something more fascinating while carrying him) to offset the look I have above my shoulders.  Those of you who are curious to see my new style, wait until I get the highlights ...........I am really going next week :)

Week July 7th to 13th

Since this blog is going to help me reminisce when I am older, I have to record all things we've enjoyed doing last week. 

Let's see .....Monday -gymnastics, Tuesday -water day at Mariner's, Wednesday - puppet show, Thursady -water day again, Friday - playdate with friends. Pictures will help me remind the details so I will skip the narration. 

What I want to mention is that when the other day after Neev went to bed, Avi and I lay down together in his big boy's bed and just snuggled . Running my fingers thru' his hair I said softly,'don't grow up so fast Avi' and he said in the very same tone,'No more milk Mommy'. 

Also Dora's sneaky fox Swiper's line 'Oh Man' has become his Mantra now a days. I say ,'we can't go to blockbuster to rent your DVD today and he goes ,'Oh Man' . I say, 'its 3'o clock and too hot to swim right now', he goes, 'Oh Man' . I have to find another phrase to help him express his disappointments. 

Tunes of heart

Anurag bought this new MP3 player and after downloading all our collection from 'My Music' on our notebook , he hooked it up with our home theater system. Some upbeat hindi tunes got Avi and Neev shaking their legs on Bollywood's balle balle. And then in between this other song started playing which I recall from 'Sangeet ceremony' of my wedding. Its hard to describe what burst of emotions some tunes can bring. With me it has always been very emotional listening to Hindi songs (of my time in India ) in this country. I still remember when I first unpacked my bags in United States and stacked a few cassettes and music CD's that I brought with me. That evening when Anurag got back from work and we sat in bed listening to some of those, I started missing home terribly, tears rolling and wetting my arms which I folded on my tucked knees. It was snowing outside and I couldn't say it was pretty. After I could take it no longer, I got up and turned it off. I was new here but not newly away from my family. I left home to study at the age of 16 yrs. and I recognized homesickness. This was different..........more intense. I couldn't say if it was the distance or the dark which set at mere 4'o clock every afternoon but I stopped listening to Hindi songs after that. After a few months/years, I heard some new ones (thanks to Sundeep and Poonam who always made the CD's for us), and it did not feel so bad. Given my penchant for dancing, I love catchy dance numbers and now my two music lover boys give me company so I have an okay collection of those. But the tunes of my age and of my heart still quaver the strings within. They are the flash-backs of my life about the people I love, the moments which shaped me, events that permutated me........................and more!

4th of July weekend

We celebrated 4th of july with friends and Indian Picnic Dinner at Turtle Rock Park. Avi had a great time with friends and getting dirty in sand . Neev enjoyed watching his friend Tanisha toddling and they had some great swinging time together. I brought a huge flask of 'chai' to picnic which was a hit (none was left at the end) and if my friends are reading this - I'd be very glad to bring it the next time ...so let's meet up again :)

Later in the evening, we watched the fireworks from Sandhya and Charan's place and it was a very decent show in exchange for finding the parking one mile away, walking with 2 kids and worst, the return rush. We beat it all and enjoyed the lights sitting on couches. 

Next 2 days, we played soccer , went to the pool and had a family movie night. All else was good fun except the movie night. I was so excited about it and we all went to blockbuster to rent one movie for each of us. My pick was 'Enchanted'. Some of it was my over expectation from the movie and some of it was the buddy time Avi and Neev started having, and some of it was Anurag's "I told you it wasn't going to be great shakes' kinda commentary that I was left not so enchanted.  But the rest of the week - well, close ! 

So, you are a Mom......and what else?

Recently one of my best friends who is also a mother, candidly confessed to me about her feelings in the role of a mom. She loves her kids to death and cares for them impeccably but often feels that she has lost herself somewhere between changing diapers and feedings. Sounds familiar.........? Her confession left me delving into my own heart and it took me back to the day I found out that I was pregnant with Avi. Only a few days in my whole life matched the excitement and joy I felt that day. A lot of other emotions also followed in the next 40 weeks- panic, nervousness among others. Finally, when Avi arrived after 24 hrs. of labor, I went thru' every emotion known to a new mother, predominantly love. We roomed in together but in the night the nurse offered to take him to the nursery so I could sleep 4 hrs at a stretch. Knowing he was in good hands, I tried resting my body which felt like it had gone thru' a hurricane in the last few hours. After 3 nights at the hospital we brought Avi home in a stormy evening. It was partially the time of the day and the bad weather, but mostly it was the realization of being on our own with Avi that I felt a sense of panic. Surrounded by sure and experienced staff at the hospital, the warm feeling I had looking at my 6 pounds bundle of joy,"how much work a tiny baby like him who wriggles from even the snug fit of car seat belt can be" was replaced with,"oh my God, how am I going to take care of him without all those nurses".Well, even though we both survived the first night without the staff and the nights that followed,it sure would have been a whole lot easier if I had one nurse by my side. Someone who could change the diaper and rock him to sleep in those hours when I needed to sleep too. As much as it gave me a chance to bond with my precious, I know that it would not have been lessened by extra help. In the weeks to follow, when I felt better physically and started getting hang of baby related work, I tried to be super human being, doing it all by myself and doing it all. There had been many situations when I felt proud of myself and many more when I felt like I had lost control over everything, when I felt like falling apart and when I felt like I wasn't doing a good job. Despite my wonderful husband's assurance of me being fabulous at everything, it was hard convincing myself of the same thing. I felt, looked,thought as all those women I never thought I would turn into. And I mean deeper issues than not tweezing eyebrows for months, roots showing for weeks before finding time to color them, putting shirt inside-out, leaving toenails without polish until there is an occassion and the list goes on.........Slowly I settled, made peace with a few changes and took charge of the others,until Neev arrived. They say, two times the children, ten times the work (but they forgot to add, hundred times the joy)! This time I am less anxious and I am not in a hurry for anything . Also, this time I am a 30 something woman, struggling with identity issues - do I just want to be Avi and Neev's mom or do I want my life to count for something else as well. I don't know yet......In time I hope to figure it out but until then I am going to try to be content being me.... as a mother. And I hope this for all my friends who are all dedicated moms , who sometimes feel its selfish to think that there needs to be something else to their wonderful self other than being a mom. I think its as normal as it is to feel the overwhelming love for your children. And its perfectly okay !

Lounge Theater and Beach Trip

This Saturday We went to Bommer Canyon open space. Its only about 5 miles from our place and you feel like you are in wild. There are a few houses on the hills as we enter and the architecture is very similar to my Indian hometown. Open roofs and design of the railings remind me of my childhood evenings when one of my favorite pastime used to be standing on our big roof and watching people coming from both side of the street as far as I could see.

Back on track – we had a little picnic there and enjoyed ‘The Bee Movie” lounge chair theater style. When it got dark, it REALLY got dark. I could not believe we were only 5 minutes away from city lights. Despite the big screen and the big speakers, I could feel the quiet of dessert. They are having a camp-out in a few weeks and I am not sure if I want to go. When Neev started to get fussy, we headed back to the car. After he was settled, we parked behind all the people and in front of the gate (nobody seemed to mind) and enjoyed the rest of the movie drive-in style. It was fun.

On Sunday, finally we made it to the beach. Its funny how Avi,a mid-west born had his first beach vacation at 7 months and Neev, a Californian took a year to get his first taste of sand (literally). He does not really like to put anything in the mouth, especially edibles but with sand it was a different story. He licked it, ate it and bathed in it. It was precious to see sand shining on his eyelashes like tiny golden beads. I am glad I was able to take a picture before hurrying up to shake it off. He mostly enjoyed watching his big brother who had a great time digging up the sand and covering his friends with it. The most favorite part of Avi’s day was to jump on waves and splash on Daddy……………so was mine.