Shaking it like Shammi...

Parenting is exhausting for sure, but then let's just say it comes with its share of sometimes not so obvious 'perks'. More often than not, at the end of the day, once Raya is off to bed, and I finally have a chance to reflect on the day's happenings, there are way too many 'toddler' incidents and situations that bring smiles, to my face, than scowls!!

Of course, toddler tantrums abound. This blog post contains  some tid bits about the entertaining portions of my 'toddler parenting days'...incidents and situations that keep me grounded and happy, when toddler 'parenting' blues threaten to engulf me.

As of now (yes as of Feb, 2014), 'Mamma' is Raya's 'fav' parent. That translates to shouts for "I want only mamma. I want only mamma" and 'mamma' being essentially needed to do all the hard work (bathing her, dressing her up, potty time, teeth brushing, putting her to sleep, reading time ...you get the gist) while 'Baba' dear gets to do all the fun stuff...play time...puzzle time...lego time...choo choo train time...tv time...not too bad a deal for not being the 'fav' parent of the moment, I guess...but oh well, loyalties keep changing fast as far as a 2.5 year old is concerned :). Let me relate a recent incident to prove this point of ever shifting loyalties. It made 'D' and I literally ROFL.

The way our usual morning looks like is this:
Raya wobbles her way from her room to our bed at around 4:30-5:00 am with her entourage of 'ninny's' (aka blankies, an entourage of exactly 4 blankies, she cannot do without, at sleep time). She comes to my side of the bed, climbs over my body onto the bed, slumps and goes off to sleep for another couple of hours. Thereafter 'D' is officially the first one to wake up in the morning. He gets Raya's cup of milk to the bed. She drinks her milk and from then on, it's 'only mamma' time. Brushing teeth..'only mamma'...help with the potty...'only mamma'...dressing her up....'only mamma'...brushing her hair...'only mamma'....dropping off to Toucans(her classroom)...that's for baba, but only after I answer in the affirmative to her question, 'You pick me from Toucans, mamma?!!'. Oh well, I am 'loving' the love while it lasts!! :)

Coming back to the tale of shifting loyalties, so on one such morning, after the 'only mamma' sessions, 'D' (he had an overnight work trip planned for that day), was about to head out of the home with Raya and was saying to her,"Raya...I am going to Richmond today for work. I will not come back this evening. I will see you tomorrow. Don't trouble mama." A second later, pat comes Raya's reply, "No baba, don't go to 'Richmound'"..."I want only you"..."I want only you"..."I don't want mamma"...LOL...now you know what I mean about quick  shifts in loyalties among 2.5 year olds:) That evening, in D's absence, started with whimpers of 'Where is Baba?','Where is Baba'.'I want Baba'. But we managed. DD came back the next evening from his tour, and after the usual exchange of hugs, kisses, huddles and cuddles between father and daughter, while they were playing with lego blocks, 'D' started troubling Raya again. I don't remember what exactly the issue was , but I think he was hiding and not giving her the blocks she was asking for. First Raya started with, 'Give me red block, Baba'...'Give me red block, Baba'...When 'D' didn't pay heed, she started complaining to me..."Mamma, Baba not listen to me"..."Mamma, Baba not listen to me"...and that was followed by..."Go back to 'Richmound', Baba!"....ha ha ha ha...another one that brought on rolls of laughter.

So that's that. Other than that, the Das household these days is in constant chatter mode!

Here are some tidbits of conversations that have lingered on in my mind and will be best remembered if captured in writing.

Scene 1:

I fill my water bottle with a few ice cubes and water and am drinking from it. Raya notices it and of course, starts saying, "I want ice, mamma"...
"I want ice in my 'bouttle'" (Oh toddlers and their obsession with ice).  Of course, I refuse to give her any. She gets really annoyed and in a raised voice says, "Mammaaa...I want ice in my 'bouttle'". I refuse again. Now she is really annoyed, on the verge of crying, but still putting up the fight , and in a slightly more raised tone of voice , "Mammaaaaa...you have ten ice...give me one ice in my 'bouttle' please"!!! The 'please' kind of trumped me. Did I have a choice but to give in!

Scene 2:

We were having the usual conversation about whether Raya resembles 'D' or I with some friends. So I was saying, Raya has 'D's eyes. 'D' then said to Raya, "So Raya, do you have my eyes?". Pat comes her reply,"No baba, you have my eyes!" LOL.

Scene 3:

Over the weekend, we had a few friends visiting from out of town. They have a daughter,'A' (Aanya) . Raya and 'A' bonded well over the period of the first day, after some initial hiccups. In the evening, Raya had to go to another friend's birthday party and 'A' was at home. I, of course, had to run around Raya throughout the party(she being more than her usual bundle of energy) and by the end of it, I was exhausted. Post the party, as I slumped into the seat in the car after strapping Raya up in her car seat, I hear Raya taking out stuff from her goody bag and then she says, "Mama, where is 'Aanya's' goody bag. I want to take goody bag for 'Aanya'". For all the exhaustion that parenting brings on, all the the prep talk about 'sharing' and 'caring', and for all the times, when asking her to share with kids of the same age, proves a struggle, moments like these make it all worthwhile!

Leaving you with a video of Raya 'Shaking it like Shammi'. Happy parenting !

Random musings...

My posts have become few and far between in the past months...it's not for the dearth of things to write about though... it's just that words don't seem to come very easily to me anymore...so here I am, trying to get back into the groove of writing again :-)

It's been a cold, cold winter for all of us living in the Washington, DC region...snow, snow and more snow :-)...total snow accumulation in the two and half months of winter we've seen so far is supposed to be more than 60 odd inches...apparently more than what upstate New York and Boston put together have seen this season...and to think of it, winter hasn't ended yet...As I looked out of the window this morning , I was elated to see the sun shining down in the area after a really long, long time...this, after I have proclaimed my undying love for snow many a time earlier :-)!!!

The first flurries and showers of snow every winter always give me a big , big ‘rush’ ;-)…the white snow covered grounds, rooftops and the flora glistening in the moonlight add a fairy tailish zing to life and it’s that time of the year when I can just spend hours staring out of the window ,feeling completely in sync with William Henry Davies eloquent words on life...”What is this world , if not full of care…we have no time to stand and stare”...

It’s the aftermath of a snow storm that is difficult to deal with and tends to make me weary...specially with all the “cares” of the real world notoriously glaring down at us...shoveling the driveway, uncanny fears of the roof caving in or the deck collapsing under the weight of pounds of snow transformed to ice, hazards of driving to work and ‘n’ other , often unnecessary ,worries (not that I need any specific reason to get stressed about :-))...and when you have two back to back huge snow storms in an area , not used to being pounded by extensive snow storms, it just makes dealing with the aftermath all the more worse...

Thanks to some lovely friends and neighbors, D and I spent both snow storms, snowed in but partying in the company of some lovely people...

The snow storm over the Super bowl weekend was particularly memorable, less for the havoc it created and more for the fun all of us had...the initial plan was to have an informal get together at home on Super bowl Sunday, watching the game with some friends...but then with the weather forecast turning very gloomy for the weekend, with heavy snow fall predicted on both Friday and Saturday, D decided to turn the weekend into an impromptu ‘Super bowl shoveling’ party...so all weekend we were ten of us at home, making merry ,chit chatting, drinking , eating delicious home cooked food (everyone was an expert on one form of cuisine or another...so we had these whole variety of dishes laid out over the weekend), playing poker and board games, reveling in good music ,hogging on hookah and of course shoveling( we sure had to stick to the theme of the weekend party :-))...so now gambling, in the form of poker, has been added to my ever growing list of vices...nothing to be proud about, I agree...but I believe in living life to the fullest, while I still can:)...anyways, the Super bowl weekend ended on a high note with my team, the New Orleans Saints winning ...not that all of a sudden I love football any more than I used to (all of you have heard me cribbing enough about how neglected I feel due to D’s overwhelming love for the sport :-)), but in the spirit of the Superbowl party and the beautiful town of New Orleans, I was supporting the underdog...and so was happy seeing the Saints win!

Speaking of poker, after winning my first big hand this past weekend, I think I am just getting more addicted to it...it was funny how the guys would hold back on betting each time one of us, girls, bet aggressively...apparently girls are known to be conservative gamblers...and hence whenever they bet aggressively, it’s supposed to indicate they have really, really good cards in hand...talk about
stereotyping:-)!! Folks better be prepared for a fair share of surprises from us girls, on the poker table, in the months to come...

What else...watched "My Name is Khan"...movie totally sucked...Karan Johar should definitely stop trying to be different...and inspite of all my love for SRK, I was left totally disappointed...I had somehow managed to garner enough support to lure folks to the theatre for “Kurbaan”...most of my friends hated the movie...folks were lured in for ‘MNIK’ again, fortunately I was not the initiator of the plan this time...and folks hated ‘MNIK’ more than ‘Kurbaan’...this means I surely have to come up with some innovative bait to lure people to the theatre for the next Hindi flick I want to watch...so called four/five star reviews by Times of India and Rediff will definitely not do the trick next time around :-)

Some gloomy news as well...talks of more friends moving out of the area, taking cue from some dear friends who already moved out last year to make new beginnings in new places...that’s always depressing...it’s so difficult to find people with whom wavelengths match...and when you do find some, you really don’t want to let go...but then that’s what life is about, I guess...it’s never stagnant...people move on...you make new beginnings and life goes on, as one continues strengthening bonds and making memories with old friends and new...

The good news is that my brother is moving to New York City in a couple of weeks...so am really excited about that...I really have missed having family nearby...

So that’s about it really...no life changing events in the past month...just some memorable, snowy times...yes times and memories that make me sit back and smile, whenever life is not too full of ‘care’ and I have the time to stand and stare...