It feels complete

I keep calling her my baby, my munchkin, my coochie coo and all the terms of endearment that mean 'cutesy baby'

She reminds me politely  (most of the times) and generally with shrugged shoulders: I am not a baby anymore.

She thinks she is a Big Girl.

In all due honesty, with all her achievements in the past few months, she is a matured 5 year old. If I could say the two things in one line.

In the past few months, she has flown to and back from India ON HER OWN as an unaccompanied minor. She relaxed in her summer vacation of 6 weeks sans her parents in the amazing and nurturing company of her naana- naani. She has travelled through India meeting people, going to parties of my parents, playing with neighbors kids in the park, speaking in Hindi, learning Marwari, forming even more opinions and basically doing all this ON HER OWN.

And yes, I cannot say this enough 'I am proud of her'. The pilot on her return flight approached me in the arrivals lounge and said: "You have a wonderful daughter. She was so well behaved and fun to talk to. She had a good flight"

I was in tears- Happy Tears

She has been back a week and I still gush. I still go and give a peck on her cheek just because. I still manage to raise my voice on an unfinished glass of milk, to realize, gosh I missed this commotion. Her incessant 'Mummy why, mummy this, mummy that' feels like the new normal. And I say-  Gosh, I missed this.

I could see coloring books and pens strewn around the house. I could  see her stuffed animals left on our bed. I could see some hair-eating, I could see some tantrums. I could hear her non stop questions. I could hear the foot stomping when things are not going her way. I could see her being her!

But I dont.

I see a house lived in. I see a 5 year old who is wise beyond years but reminds me every other minute, I am still a five year old.

I see a family.  

But yes, I could use 5 minutes of silence from 'Mummy why?'

Story of the brown bagged colorful lunch

Now that I am doing better with my 'Must do 10K steps on weekdays' rule, a thing to compensate that was taking lunches from home.

In spirit of full disclosure, i hate carrying lunch from home. Let me put it another way, I love eating out. Or maybe, I like being away from my desk when I eat just to get the  break. Or yet, with so many options here, why bother with same old same old home cooked lunch!

You get the idea!

On his recent grocery trip, Sumit got 'loads and loads' of vegetables and fruits. It took both of us over an hour to arrange and re-arrange everything in the fridge! His reasoning, they looked so fresh.

I said more lunches, salads, fruit custards, fruit smoothies!

So one of these mornings, I tossed myself this delish salad- Let’s call it '7 min. salad'

Ingredients: All finely chopped:

- Lettuce leaves-4 to 5

- Baby Carrots- 7 or 8

- Cucumber - Half

- Peach - 1

- Raspberry - Handful

- Minced Ginger - 1/4 tea spoon

- Pickled Ginger - 6 or 7 (I used the one which you get along with Sushi!)

Process: Take all of the above and toss them in a big box to carry for lunch! Done!

Dressing:

1 sachet of Black Pepper

1 tsp of Spicy Sauce, yes you read that right, again Sumit's idea! 

The lunch was delicious, the fruits and the spicy sauce compensate each other beautifully. The ginger adds a zing to it and the lack of any salad dressing makes the salad feel lighter and more fresher.

 It really reminded me of this Perfect Salad I had in London a while ago

I wish I had some walnuts or almonds to make it 'nutty'

All in all, this was one delicious brown bagged lunch with loads of color!

Tch Tch- This Lazy Business is bad!

I should keep up: Well for both, blogging and secondly and more importantly for my 'Getting Fit' business and its reporting!

Its been exactly a month, since I bought the 'Fit Bit'.

The journey has been 'up and down' and sadly 'more down than up'. Ok, let me elaborate.

The first two weeks, the novelty of it was awesome. I was keeping up with it, increased my target to 10000 steps and doing good. I didn’t meet it every day, but met it 5 out of 7 days. Yay!

But in the past two weeks, I have been BAD. Last week, I met my target of 10K steps only ONE day. Yes NOT GOOD.

And on top of it, I relished food way too much and in my case it SHOWS, everywhere and more importantly my jeans are more snug than I want them to be.

So another Monday, another resolution!

Well. My aim for this week is simple- I want to meet my target EVERY SINGLE WEEK DAY!

That's it.

Just meet my target and I promise come next week, I will 'display' my weekly report that Fit Bit sends me and puts me to shape.

 Sumit bought a Fit Bit for himself as well. So its two of us now. Our cousins, who introduced us to this, have been insisting we join them for 'Group Tracking' and I am not up for that YET. So the struggle continues.

I think the best and the worst part of Fit Bit is- It really shows how LAZY your day to day life is. If we cant do 10K steps in a day at the age we are, the future looks a bit well 'podgy'. Yes my initial target was 8K which I meet comfortably, but I want to push myself, just a little at a time.

So wish me luck> I want my 10K badges!!

Why do people have kids?

Recently I was chatting with a friend about this and that and kids and this and that and kids.

She then point blank asked me: 'Honestly, tell me why people have kids, it sounds like a lot of work!'

I paused, thought and responded: 'They want to, that’s why'

I loved the point blank honesty of the question. I don’t think my answer got any points with her!

And then as we spoke a bit more, I heard myself talk. I did have my kids because I wanted to. Sumit and I knew we wanted to be parents.  For us, it may be because Sumit and I decided to start early on the 'parenting' band wagon. We really didn’t analyze too much. We both wanted kids at some point and in all honesty, earlier felt better. We grew up with V and enjoyed  her childhood innocence immensely. With Little Lady again, we really didn’t want to over-analyze, is now a good time? Is next year? It felt right and we went for it.

We are blessed with V and Little Lady who are AWESOME kids! Yes they are a LOT of work, but they are a LOT of fun. An evening gets colorful with the un-ending chatter box V. A trip to the park becomes a bit more exciting as I swing along my preschooler. A trip to the mall becomes oh so cute, as I browse the infant section with the cutest onesies possible.

But behind all the smiles and giggles, there is a LOT of work, pain, tears (generally mine!), scheduling nightmare, expenses etc etc. But I had my kids for us and its an added advantage that  they are a lot of fun.

She asked me again: 'Do you find them fulfilling?'

Hmm, no, I think my life is pretty fulfilling as it was prior to having V and Little Lady. I was very content with my life even prior to marriage. But with the three important part of my life now, they all make it 'fun'. There is no better way to describe it than that: Fun. Plain and Simple.

I say again, it’s a lot of work, sacrifices, adjustment. But it’s a lot about your own perspective.

Things are no longer, pack your bags and let's make a trip. It's make a list, pack your stuff, re pack, carry all types of first aid things, then pack some more. And then may be make a trip.

Things are no longer, lets catch a movie tonight. They are more like: Schedule a sitter, bribe a friend to baby sit, then find the right movie time after the kids sleep time, run for the movie, come home and sleep if you didnt manage to sleep in the movie since it was too loud.

Work is no longer the continuous hours until it’s done. Its work, come home, do evening chores, and then may be with a big cup of joe, work some more to finish off the work.

EVERYTHING takes twice as long as before!

BUT and a VERY IMPORTANT BUT

I love being a mom, I love the fun and smiles it adds to my life. For me, its de-stressing. You really cannot be angry/tired all the time with kids around. They observe. I really have learned to compartmentalize work and home much better.

Plus when it gets really tiring, there are date nights, movie nights, girls nights, holidays and vacations. And when it gets really long hours, there are extended visits to grandparents!

Sorry babes, I could not answer your question: I don’t know why people have kids! I know why we had ours- They are FUN! What about you, why would you/ did you have kids?

But in spirit of full disclosure. I love the post 7:30 pm bliss, when the kids are sleeping and I am relaxing- just my kind of fun!