Riddle-me-Ree, Who can she be?

Greetings wonderful MTBs!!!

and good work to all of you!

For having solved the riddle before

I give you all this clue.

This time its not a letter

nor is it a number clue

This time its just a good old blank

which means no clue for you!

Booooo! you say with spirit..

Yaaay! we say in throng!

For it is part of the thrill of the chase

which leads to the next little song!

“A pair of them little uns to regale

She's the one being called a whale

She'll seek if they hide

She's on the roller coaster ride

Hazel, pine, pecans or macademia, they're a pack

And pieces of their growing years, she doeth track

Who is she?”

Solve it and you get your lead

Misguess, and you lose your speed

Solve it slow but solve it now

And before you go, take a little bow

Go to 'Comments' and leave me a clue

Tell me which blog you are off to.

Good luck! Good luck! Be on your way.

You have your work, cut out for the day!

Hmm.. What is happening?

I am really so worried about Nikki these days. I do not know if it is my ability to find something to worry about if there is nothing to worry, but I have kind of become a chronic worrier. Whether he will grow (he is small for his age, not even 20 pounds), whether he will grow teeth(he has only 2), whether he will walk(he walked in India for couple of days, completely went back to crawling when we came here, has started walking again but just sporadically when he feels like it). And he is getting obstinate day by day, especially with matters related to eating.

He talks, his vocaublary is unbelieavable. He tries to repeat whatever we say. He succeeds sometimes but makes reasonable attempts everytime. Sample : DH calls him "Bayanthaankolli butchu" (meaning timid butchu, butchu is one of his nick names), he will say "Bayandhee buu". He does not like to wear socks, shoes, jacket, hat, etc. When I force him into shoes, he would say "shee kaltu" (remove shoes). The same goes for anything that he wants to be removed : ox (socks), cheen(chain), beit(car seat belt, high chair belt). "Chaapa"(for eating), baahunda(telegu for are you doing good), takkaayee(tomato), thanni(water), ethu(lift me in telegu), indha(take it), kanom(if he is not able to find something), diipaa (diaper). The one I love is "baati" or "baatil" meaning he wants bottle. He asks for bottle when he gets up from bed. If he is not that hungry then it will be "daddy" (sometimes called "diddy"). He has become his father's son these days (he already was one, but it is growing in exponential proportions). There was an intense "anti-amma" phase in the past week and it is becoming better.

The one that I miss most in the past month is him losing his baby face. He now has the boyish look, facial hair(along side his temples) and thick eyebrows. He is a clone of his father, more so everyday. I sometimes would think, when Nikki grows up, will DH and Nikki look like the father/son pair in the Tamil movies where the hero(sarath kumar/vijay kanth) plays dual role. I crack up laughing at the thought of it.

And he finally has got adjusted to day care. He still cries, but stops the moment I leave the room. He has a girl friend Kayla whom he chases around all day. He doesn't starve there. He has yogurt and munches some rice puffs for lunch.

And I am not going to talk about his eating habits now. It warrants a separate post by itself and I will need all/any wisdom that you guys have to help me find a way through this. I dread his mealtimes more than him. It drains me both physically and mentally. I don't know what went wrong. See I am starting to ramble. Got some errands to do. Will come back and do a post on it.

Am Back!

Landed here in the US of A, 3 weeks back. For the first time in the past 15 months, it is just me DH and Nikki in our home. We are on our own. It is nice in a way, but I do miss my mom. 3 loads of laundry (DH did not do laundry for the 1 month he was without us here), 7 packed bags waiting to be unloaded, handling Nikki completely on my own, cooking at least 2 meals a day, my hands are really full. I have been lurking around in all the mommy blogs, lot of exciting announcements happening (Congrats Poppin's mom, Moppet's mom, Lavs, Kodi's mom and Boo), new mommies, missed birthdays, there was a whole lot to catch up. It was fun reading all of your blogs. Thanks mnamma, it was your post that prompted me to write this update.

Big news from us(no no, not what you are thinking :-)) : Nikki started going to day care. It is 2.5 weeks now since he started and he is still crying, crying and crying. And refuses to eat anything there, he just starves and come home. Picked up cold there during the 2nd week and shuns food at home too. And guess where he is on the percentile chart?? He dropped out of it :-((((((. I simply am at a loss about how to feed this child. I feel miserable, incapable, inadequate,..., ... because my child is underweight. More about our eating struggles in the next post.

The trip was good and bad. ILs started quarreling from day 5, and it spoilt the entire mood of my vacation. I did not contact any of my friends, one friend contacted me knowing that I was here through one of my relatives. I do not want to delve into details, for I am trying to forget what happened. The relationship will not work. period. I do not know why they hate us so much. For now, I have decided to stop talking to them, it does not make sense and I am sure they do not wish to speak to me. You need efforts from 2 sides in order to make a relationship work. I can be at peace with myself, I did my best to make things work and if they are not taken in the right sense, I cannot help it.

One of the following 2 things should be true :

1. They are insane

OR

2. They are such greedy ego-maniacs who are incapable of love (not towards 3rd parties, even towards their own son, DIL and grandson).

Nikki and V(my cutest, sweetest niece whom I am meeting for the first time) & some retail therapy were the antidote to all these depressive things that were happening. It was so nice to see them both interact, Nikki calling V akka and she calling him Thambi, the duo would melt anybody's heart (as though one is not enough). I wish I could just package V into a suitcase and get her here.

Nikki's mottai function(he cried and cried and cried and cried till he couldn't cry anymore, I felt so bad for him) went on well with minor glitches(ILs sitting in the temple bad-mouthing me & our family, telling all nonsense to anyone who was willing to lend them their ears, I really wonder how I kept my calm).

Nikki got his first pair of pearlies during the trip and along with the mottai, he is looking utterly butterly cute. I will be home for the next 2 weeks, before I join my new job(oh yeah, more abt it later) and hopefully everything falls into routine by then.

Quick updates

The last 3 weeks have been extremely busy at Nikki’s household. What with 2 birthday parties (1 on the real birthday and a BIG one on the Saturday following his birthday), painting of the guest room, cleaning up house, shopping for India trip, I still haven’t been able to breathe normally. One GREAT thing that happened because of all this, I am out of my gloomy mood, the party planning and execution really cheered me up and I am my usual self now. Will do a detailed birthday post once I reach India. I absolutely have no time right now.

My mind is clear. How am I going to deal with ILs? By keeping calm, that’s it. They cannot quarrel with me, you need 2 sides to quarrel. I did the mistake once, will not repeat it again. I am sure they will come up with something because I am going to spend more time with my family & friends, at least until DH comes to India. And then it is upto DH where he wants to spend his time.

Two main resolutions that I am planning to follow this year:

1. Give up – Judging others & “Better than thou” attitude. I have stopped being critical about myself. Fights between me & DH have reached record proportions, I am leading a life that I vowed I will never let happen to me. I certainly do not want Nikki grow up seeing us like this. Both DH & I blame each other for not doing x, y, z’s we have forgotten that we have not done our a, b, c’s right. “Better than thou” is causing lot of inter-personal conflicts not only between DH & I, but also with others. DH is not willing to see his shortcomings, I will take the first couple of steps and I am sure he will see reason and follow suit.

2. Take back – calmness : I will not let my mind lose it’s calm because somebody else has lost theirs. It is not very tough, that is how I used to be, I can get back there, just by being mindful of every action / word that comes from me. Should not get so emotional for trivial things.

There many other small resolutions that I make every year: losing weight (this year add 5 month pregnant tummy to it), learn something new(take a course at the community college), do something to reduce my impatience (I think it is in my personality, the day I overcome this, I have become a saint) that never seem to happen. Let me see how things work out this year.

I have been reading all of your blogs, lurking around mostly because of lack of time, wanted to comment on lot of posts(DotMom’s concern about Chip liking pink, mnamma’s post, Kiran’s post on Krish’s new scooty, Tharini’s posts on Thambi & homemade kanji (you are awesome Tharini), CeeKay’s posts, Boo’s post on sledging, Parul’s posts, & whole load of others where I usually lurk around …). I do not know if I will have time. Will catch you all next weekend from India. Meanwhile, those of you believers, please pray that we have an uneventful trip and Nikki takes well to the flight travel.

HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR to ALL OF YOU. May all of us have the strength to keep up our resolutions!