peppercornjournal

oh the new house shit starts again

2011-02-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Sooo, finally we have a new place. we put up with crazy brokers trying to convince me a glimmer of the bwsl is a sea-view justifying 5cr for a crummy apaprtment in prabhadevi EAST!!! the whole bloody sea-view is thanks to my 20/20 vision which is thanks to being on a strict watermelon martini diet anyway!!
so many polite denials later, and crummy houses and head-shaking of brokers assistants, sub-broker assistant and helpers later (i swear this one time i went to marathon omega - repeat visit sometime in september and there were 6 brokers accompanying me, selling me vitures of fully furnished apartment madoo style - velvet dark brown printed sofa with stainless steel legs anyone???)
wouldnt you know it - the last place we saw was the one we agreed on - well, not really!!! i sort of bull-dozed husband into it, because seriously - i need a life that doesnt include being tailed by six brokers, sub-brokers and sundry assistants.

then there was the crazy seller to deal with, but we will not talk about those wretched wretched days. better to gaze into your embpty beer mug, and say here - i need a refill!
So on 22nd dece,mber i sold my lovely flat in sangeeta to minal, got a bit teary eyed at the impending seperation from my treehouse gang, and made the joint purchase with husband of the LRT place on 31st dec. happy new year everybpdy... may the new year bring lots of mood-boards, wallpaper dreams and plumbing tiffs to you too. muah

apartment hunting

2010-06-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

so i've been looking at new places - and its depressing!!! not just the prices involved. but just what passes off for aesthetics these days. I went to this new building marathon era, in a lane behind shenoy chawl in lower parel and am expected to be awed by circular balconies and wierd aluminium pipes that threaten to stab me if i lean out too much. maybe i have an old soul living as i do with an old man!!! but what would make me happy was high ceilings, huge compounds, lots of wardrobe spaces. A view of the upcoming shangri-la not cutting it. And then there are my mixed feelings about uprooting myself once again. seems like i just settle down in a place, establish a gym routine - now i have my very own mommy-toddler group (inurface, hopping bunnies) and i'll have to hunt around for a new one.
and so the hunt continues - sigh!!!

birthday and the aftermath

2010-04-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

So Amelia turned 3 about two weeks ago - now there's a whole bunch of things she's promised me that she will do after she attains this ripe, adult age - chiefly give up the milk bottle, sleep byherself - without me rocking her in my lap and going through the entire class rolecall and speculating who's asleep and whose mothers are asleep. And learning swimming.
So the negotiations started last week - this is the conversation
NC (While holding milk bottle in hand at 10pm): Amelia how old are you now?
AC: three years old mama
NC: So what are you supposed to do?
AC: stop drinking from dudu bottle, only in glass! sleep by myself! start swimming!!
NC: So can i give this milk in the glass
(all the while resigned to the fact that i am so not winning this round when the threat of no dudu bottle cannot be made, since said dud bottle is already in hand and very visible to the 3yr old)
AC: but i think i'm not 3 yet mama, i am only 2 and a half. i will become three
NC: so which birthday did we celebrate 2 days ago?
AC (after a brief thought): but mama, there were only two cakes!!!
There - she wins. Now i know why i never got good prices. i suck at negotiations!

orange orange everywhere

2010-02-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

Amelia learnt all her colours very young - and has decided her favourite colour is orange. And she tells us all about it a gazillion times a day. I am shown orange water-tanker, sena flags, traffic signals and orange traces in just about every CMYK image there is. And havinga bit of Adu in her, she is now a song-writer and composer. Amelia has madeup a song, inspired by the shiv sena new found zeal to recapture the heart of the marathi manoos by stringing bloody orange flags across the trees in yari road. it goes like this:
Orange orange everywhere,
here and there here and there
The sky is blue everywhere
I see orange here and there
Sometimes there is yellow here and there
but orange orange everywhere!!!

birthday prep

2010-02-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

You know the problem with having a super-well adjusted social butterfly toddler - other toddler birthday parties! And the concept that if its a party there must be cake. So was trying to drag amelia away from this drop-dead boring (and by that i mean trying to surf on my bb and not getting reception since party was in basement) family get-together at 10pm, waaay past her bedtime and she says Mama, there is cake. we have to wait! for CAKE! PINK CAKE!! dude, this child is like hypnotised by the cake much as one would imagine being in kaa's coils.

But that's not the tough part. It's when we are headed home after gorging on pink cake - when we talk about when Amelia will be 3 and there will be a big birthday party and we do the guestlist - which varies based on who shared their toys in the playground and the cake, based on the latest cartoons. So far we've debated merits of pretty princess cake versus mickey-mouse cake, and have settled on humpty-dumpty cake. So far!!! two more months to go. I've also been instructed that there must not be magic show, since my PETA child doesnt like the mistreatment of white mice and doves (father's genes - except for you know when he has to eat mutton. Then its ok to kill the animals to serve the higher purpose of his stomach)
And no puppet show because it distracts from the cake cutting - dancing and games is allowed provided the song list is desi girl, sexy bitch and singh is king. The twisted concepts this kid is growing up with.

Home delivery

2009-05-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Isnt Bombay just great!! I mean I moan and bitch about the ditches and the little bits of what used to be roads all over the city, but especially in Versova. But clever clever vendors have figured that out already by the sight of my lips sying f***er bmc. So Mohamed need not go to the mountain - the mountains they be coming to me!!!

This morning Knock Knock - who's there. Hair. Hair Who? I yem here for your haircut madam. I mean isnt that just plain super - lazy me, who ignores all the dire warnings of the stylists who say, please come in for a cut every six weeks with big ruppee signs where their pupils should be, has managed to get hold of a cool hairstylist who will come over!!

So, today he came and I didnt have the spritzer and he didnt have a spritzer, so he gave me a spiel about my hair having soft lovely texture and not needing a spritzer. I was a bit sceptical, having never had a spritz free haircut before. But off he went, snip snip snip, and mini snips while Amelia in background is screaming mama, no haircut. And There, before you could say bomble+bumble, I had swishy shoulder length hair. Having lost quite a bit of weight, hehehehe, but not to feel too pleased, because at the rate I am compensating my body for its 6weeks of starvation, it will probably all come back soon, but not just yet, I am quite willing to show off my shoulders and neck and loving this clean, hippie hair look. I'm already having visions of playing with the tec ball amd creating textured spiky hair one day and a smooth sophisticated blow out, for cocktails.

But since cocktails and edgy looks dont play a prominent role in my watch baber the elephant every evening life, i'm thinking wash and wear will be most frequented look.

But I love it for now, and I love the home delivery service especially. How cupcakes!! my next mountain.

transistions

2009-05-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if everybody feels like their whole life is a life lived in transitions - I have this fantasy of when I grow up, this is the house I will have - but I cant because I have the cats I didnt plan and the child i wanted but imagined would be more disciplined. So, the house in tonal white, with splashes of colour? More like Dark wood that is sooo over, for me atleast but I have to live with, since it disguises the damages of the cats and the baby tornado.

But I'm getting used to it - and having friends in the building, other mothers I bond with over thela chinese and budweisers, while the gazillion toys amelia got as birthday loot keep her and playmates occupied.

And now the husband wants to move to south Bombay - I dont know who thinks this will solve all our problems. So, we've been going apartment viewing and while I have seen one abslutoly gorgeous one, you know where I start planning where my fantasy eames lounger will go and my dining table with the ghost dining chairs. And though I know that will never happen, I trudge behind the husband asking pretend well-thought out realty questions, hating the thought of having to start all over again. And getting angst from the father as well on the thought of his precious grand-daughter moving far far away from him.

working again

2009-05-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

So my story is now when everybody asks so, are you working - erm no!!

It's not that its reall hard to work around a two year old's schedule, it's like I've slowed down. I cant remeber what age I am anymore - like the sales rep at TRue Fitness the hot yoga fellow smirked at when I got all flustered over this question.

And I crave a bit of a snooze on my stylish but not super comfortable sofa every afternoon at 3pm. I wait for 7pm, so i can meet up with the other superbored mommies in my building (again God's way of getting back at me for laughing at other mommies who did this when I thought I was so cool in my golds gym in the evenings before a drink at purple haze days).

And I am in a hate/ need relationship with my baby nanny of all people - never been driven to tears by somebody else's whims and moods before - aaaaaaaaaargh!!
So all these things need to be sorted out before I can even think about employment.

Can not allow myself to become those scary mothers who live through their children and get very annoyed when the bacchas stymie their ambitions.

Amelia is two

2009-04-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

I think I was waaay more excited planning for Amelia's second birthday than I ever felt for mine. But typical virgo that I am, i kind of enjoyed the whole planning more than the actual event - probably was trying to hold my breath in at all times, balancing on high heels for four hours and making sure everybody had a good time. But the amazing bit was how much Amelia enjoyed her own party - I've heard loads of stories of kids getting cranky and clingy on their birthdays what with all the loud noise and the strange faces - but Amelia had a big grin for all those who came bearing presents. And once the games started she was diong little thumbkin and desi girl with all the older kids.
I'm in such a constant state of awe and pride about Amelia, its a wonder my chest isnt any bigger. But sadly with dr dawre diet, there's not much action going on there. Makes me seriously wonder where the loaded skinny bitch at my gym shops for her workout bras.
16th April was Amelia's last day at school, and the husband finally came to the school for open house. We of course firmly belive we've given birth to a genius, so husband kept trying to ster the conversation towards how we can encourage more giftedness type behavious while I have my fingers crossed, since any such mind games will mean more time spent on it by moi. The husband ably directing from far - luckily the principle kept repeating that all children develop different skills at different levels and could only commit to Amelia being a sweet, obedient, generous child. Which makes me suspicious about whether we have a split personality here. She can be abslutoley infruriating at home with the terrible two tantrums and manipulitaveness.
Oh well, here's to many more joyful years of parenting. Cheers!!! this is my cue to get a strong drink.

happy holi

2009-03-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

I know its belated - but its the procrastination bit that makes me a non-anal virgo, so deal.
I debated running off to delhi, to play holi in the much heard but never experienced north indian style. But my little baby discovered she lurved getting drenched with a pichkari, after two pre-evenings filled with water play with other toddlers in the building. And many trips to the store to get just the right pichkari.
Come Holi day, Amelia saw that one pat of colour, rubbed on by a formerly hostile, now suspiciously friendly neighbour and wailed 'dirty'. Who would have thought! This is a girl who revels in falling and crawling all through the compound.
Well, anyway, that put an end to that holi bonding with my daughter fantasy, so put her to sleep and went off with the husband to join Adu's crazy gang in their holi revelry.
What do I love most about holi, is that it is such a great equalizer - like now my aforementioned neighbour and I are saying hi to each other, instead of just walkbys in the building compound (though I will get to the bottom of why she's suddenly being friendly, I will I will) and how the building big kids gang, that I have always yelled at to not play football around the toddler group and I had a bit of throw buckets of blue water game for ten minutes before Amelia panicked again, and how maids and memsahebs all played holi to the not yet cliched, though you'd think it had log surpassed its lifespan 'rang barse'.
And the best part - my never indulgent, always so tightly controlled puritan husband, downing 4 glasses of bhang laced thandai and then giggling like a four year old, spraying the fire extinguisher on us not so high, due to an experienced stronger mind souls. And explaining that fire extinguishers put out fire to each of the dogs in turn, who just gave him a very baffled look, before curling up and sleeping.
The not so good part, him being violently sick and swearing off the bhaang for another year. But I live with that memory.
Happy Holi everybody. May life always be giggly happy.

Jai Ho!

2009-02-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

Isnt it incredible that when we are finally honoroued on an international stage, the rest of us are trying to pull these people down? I mean its ok for Roberto Benini to jump over people's heads but not ok for Anil Kapoor to shake hands with Jolie!! petty petty. IT's such a crab mentality which reminds me of Trishna, and the fact that this dawre means i cant go there for another two months, but I digress.

Slumdog had its moments of disbelief, but for once the popular vote won. And it was an incredible moment when Rahman got on stage and sang Jai Ho - dude, I still have goosebumps. And it has helped further the global career of Freida Pinto who is all over the place. And to all the quibblers and chatter that India's poverty was only appreciated in a movie made by a British director - lets face it we are the labour, not the brians or creativity. When the world needs new innovations, its Apple or Nokia, not Infosys right? So, there is no way an Indian would have been able to show the shit and squalor withpout also plonking in a moralistic tale somewhere thus taking out all the exhiliration and sheer joy of watching the underdog win. I'm just incredibly proud of the film for what it is - a showcase for talent, indian and international.

Love, poverty or the weekend that was

2009-02-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

Do you learn about love from the movies? Not the running around the trees, letters in blood and death before parents seperate us garden variety love that has thankfully died a quiet death in the face of the multiplex public.

I'm talking about love for where we are - I saw that in two back to back movies I watched last week. Zoya Akhtar's 'Luck by Chance' and Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Extensive media coverage means that I know by now that Akhtar's movie took seven long years to put out. May I please compare her to the potter who'll pateinetly churn her wheel, molding clay over and over again till she makes the perfect piece. The movie is a charming jewel - all facets perfect. The casting of established stars playing caricatures they themselves are very familiar with - the gentle superstitious producer and the star mother mixed up with modern stars playing themselves - Kareena Kapoor and KJo!! The movie is about a world that Akhtar grew up in, has seen the brutalities and the glamour up close and is finally ready to let us in on. But it's never a sly outsider's opinion like say Madhur Bhandarkar's take on various industries (who strikes me very much as the boy who was picked last for the cricket team everytime in his childhood) It's affectionate realistic look at her world.

The second movie I watched was Slumdog Millionaire. The hype kept me away for two weeks - that is my standard period to test any movie really in the multiplexes. And blown away from the very first scene of police station torture, to the beautiful 'Jai Ho' dance at VT station. It took an outsider to come here and show us something we know happens everyday, just a little down the road from where my comfortable apartment with its broadband connectivity and espresso machine is, and lock away in the part of our mind with all the other gory bits that we don't want to face or talk about. We'll talk about the three olympic medallists who've finally given us a reason to hold our heads somewhat level (not high just yet) but not about the circumstances they worked in. We'll trumpet the number of billionaires India is steadily churning, but not about the million starving people. Danny Boyle has dared to show this, and though it hurts I know he loves us. He loves us like you love your spouse - you know all the little warts and the bits we protect from the outsie world and think are ours to deal with and complain about, but noone else can criticise. It's these bits he clips and polishes and says it's ok - because after all there's a lot of misery but there's still hope, there's still the truth and there'll always be love.

Amelia's first field trip

2009-02-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

This is supposed to be about Amelia's experiences on planet earth hehe so lets get back to that shall we? Last week Amelia went on her first field trip - organised by her playschool to the local park. This meant her very first bus ride and learning to queue and not insist to the other toddler's that the swing is baby's. Yes, Amelia refers to herself in the third person like royalty - is it my fault her moniker is Rani Saheb. Then it was off to the sand-pit where Amelia discovered well, sand.
Then she held hands with another toddler and started pointing out to her the sky, trees and crows while toddler Yshmera was insistent on dragging Amelia along designated path to be first in line. I'm so glad I went along - I definelty see the world differently when I'm with her. So different from my father in law trying to get me out of bed at 5am in Gangktok to see the sun-rise over the Kanchenjunga when i borrowed frther into my razai and said yes the sun rises it sets - it doesnt need me. With Amelia, I am forced to see everyday wonders for what they are - little miracles - pigeons bathing, butterflies flitting about!!

Now of course, everytime we pass a bus, I'm told 'mama bus, baby wants to go in bus'. And I have to be all 'no, amelia, the bus doesnt go where we want to'. Which leads to a big philosophical discussion spoken entirely in gibberish.

But Alarmingly, I notice all my anecdotes have been about which kid is settling into school, and who's planning their next baby and what are child-friendly places in the city (very few you'll find). I need a job and fast. Cant belive i'm doing what i used to laugh at other women for. sigh!!!

Boogie Woogie nightmare

2009-01-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

So, I'm flipping channels lazily on TV the other day and I start watching Children's Boogie Woogie - where pre-pubescent kids, some I believe as young as five are dressed up in glittery clothes and dancing to the latest hindi film songs with parents and the crowd cheering them on. Is it just me who finds this trend deeply disturbing? Isn't this overt sexualisation of our children a bit too early. Because let's stop for a minute and not pretend this is innocent fun and that I'm a prude.
Dance is a beautiful, life affriming activity, something that comes to all of us naturally, and I love doing a little jump and jig with my two year old to my favourite 80's pop hits. I'm not degrading the foot-tapping music of Bollywood here - god knows I love doing my little booty-shaking number too, when called upon.
So, lets look at all the ways in which the public display of this energy and talent is wrong - for one, it builds up too much pressure on young bodies and minds with parents goading their children into this competitve arena. The dance competition judges often play to the galleries with their harsh comments and criticism, which can be devastating to an adult so imagine a pre-adolescent with self-esteem that is purely dependent on adult approval. I read in one newsreport, about a dance competition, on a Bengali television channel where the judge's comments led to a young participant committing suicide.
Two - Our children are not safe anywhere - when I read newspaper articles about child abuse prevention and to teach them to distinguish between good touch and bad touch; about seven year girls being raped, is it really best to make mini clones of our highly sexual Bollywood starlets with make-up and tight shimmery dance costumes? I mean, how do you know that every member of the audience is there to encourage these enthusiastic children and not preying on young bodies, how can we be sure that the gaze is friendly, not lecherous? The most common defence for rapists have been to say the woman led him on - with a provocative glance, with her clothes, with her walk. These children are ironically doing all that with no awareness of the sexuality on display, laying themselves wide open to abuse.
Three - this is a sheer diversion of energy. At the risk of sounding super-ancient, when I was in school, we wore our tomboy badges with pride, we played sport the minute school was out and dropped into bed exhausted after a good game of football or tennis. Diverting children into dance, means there is not enogh focus on sport which in itself is a shaming sign of our times and that we are too lazy to make the effort to get out and play for the joy of it; sport teaches us so much more than just how to play a game. About team-work, about healthy competition, about being outdoors and in nature, everything a dance competition is not.
So, while I know that Amelia likes to bop her head to 'desi girl', I'm not enrolling her in Irfan's Bollywood kid's club anytime soon.

wedgewood gone

2009-01-06T00:33:00.000-08:00

I obsessively love wedgewood - the pottery company that makes that famours blue and white glazed pottery pieces. I didnt collect as much as decide that my late grand father-in-law would have loved for me to have the few pieces in his collection and righteously sneaked them away in the middle of the night ( well, more like mid-afternoon on a quiet weekday) when we were told we had to leave the house.
I proudly serve tea in the funky purple and turquoise ringed tea-set even though its chipped a tad from the inside and has seen better days. So i'm very upset to learn that the company is folding over.

Maybe now is a good time to pick up more pieces. They'll be collectors items very soon.

new friends

2008-12-28T02:43:00.000-08:00

My frienships are very important to me, which is probably why I've still sticking close to the ones I made 20 years ago.
The girls I went to school with and giggled over New Kids on The Block in the fifth grade, are also the same ones that I went to bars with for free shooters on girls nights in college, and are the same ones who share my illicit passion for Mr. Jimmy Choo. With them by my side, I never felt the need to expand my girlfriend network - we stuck close for a long time. Literally, we lived two blocks away from each other all our growing up years and while the physical space widened, the mental connections didnt falter.

Marriage, relocation and motherhood has however made it not so easy to keep popping up unannounced in each other's vision. So, I slowly found myself at 30, a new mother in a new suburb, kid of abandoned - well, just a teensy-weensy bit, and the word is not abandonment - its more like everybody else is moving along and I'm still on the treadmill of life, running in the same place. Being very diffident about meeting new people, and abhoring the word 'net-working' makes it doubly hard to put myself out there.
When I do meet someone, I want to rush the getting to know each other phase, so we can cut the whole acquaintance coffee evenings and start the heavy drinking together asap. Which means I often put the girls through the Versova Inquisition - how did you come to live here? What borderline eating disorder do you have? Polka dots - subversive or regressive?

Lately its been better though with baby A, the social butterfly of Versova being my excuse to chat up other mothers - and while motherhood itself can provide endless source of ohmygods, suddenly somebody will mention a joint sneaked in while the baby's asleep and my ears perk up. Hmmm....... there is potential here. Versova is not such a wasteland after all.

genes

2008-12-09T23:38:00.000-08:00

So, alongwith the husband's athletic genes Amelia seems to have inherited the allergic rhinitis as well - I just didnt know what I was in for did I, with my secret wish for a baby boy like Vikram. Damn cute baby pix!!

The allergic rhinitis translated into plain english is cold and runny noses pretty much all the time. Which translates into poor appetite, crankiness and sleepless nights for me and the nanny 30%of the time. I know there are sicker children out there but Amelia's dinner embargo, and waking up starving at 4am is leaving me slightly unamused with life right now.

Mumbai daze

2008-12-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking that Amelia will never know the city I grew up in - Shivaji park, with its big open spaces - that i learnt to cycle, and swim, and play tennis (badly) and run. Because there are no parks around where I live!!
And safety - I never thought twice before strolling down to G's place for a stayover at 9pm in my jammies - well, maybe I should have - that way I'd probably have avoided the jungle jungle mowgli song. But you know, I'm a breed of paranoid mothers who atleast right now thinks that her daughter is going to have a chauffered car at her disposal 24hours, because our roads arent safe anymore.
And oh, as I grew up and went partying with crazy abandon - well, she wont have the staying up till 4am and driving back with the milkvan, trying to shush hysterical giggles sneaking in to the house. Because everything shuts by 12.30am, now.
And those fantasies about making wasabi her first fancy meal - it was mine, is gone now. With so much else - the innocence of our city dies with the 92 riots...but we still had other virtues - tolerance, fortitude. Now we're just mad - and I dont want her to grow up mad and cynical.
I dont want her to know about crazed gun toting men, who belive that a community will get its due because they killed a few hundred people and had us frozen in our tracks. I dont want her to think this is what different people do to each other - it should be about biryanis and sufi songs traded with ganpati modaks and diwali mithai. What am I going to tell her? I'm still shaking

mother toddler

2008-09-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

I started taking Amelia to mother toddler school shortly after her first birthday, when she had started walking... and most kids in her class werent. Which basically meant she stomped all over the class while all the other babies crawled behind her - I can see leadership qualities I told myself with glee... which lasted exactly 10 mintues because the teacher insisted the children learn discipline and focus from now and that mothers should MAKE their kids obey! Erm, this was my kid. so obey? Did I have to start the discipline business like from NOW??? Couldnt it wait like a year, when I could just pay a nanny to do it, while I was hopefully safely working somewhere out of the house?

Sigh... no apparently which meant secret pride replaced a very public mortification every time Amelia upended the fevicol box on another baby's hair, or snatched the ball away from a toddler or blew raspberries at the teacher. Also a strong craving for a morning vodka shot!

But anyway, the notorious Amelia seems to have settled down, and today she actualy wants to do this inane dingle dangle scarecrow song... So I guess its paying off. Now, playschool is my next demon.

back

2008-07-29T04:51:00.000-07:00

has it really been so long since i last recorded what amelia did? There is a verbal disbursal of her wonders almost everyday and to everyone. whatto do - i am a stay at home mother. Initially out of a forced choice, since i sold away my business, something I was not super succesful at anyway, might as well admit it - but now increasingly out of a twinned inertia and a vaguue dread of leaving Amelia for too long with justthe maid.
All of the husband's naggings about young children with maids seems to have left a permanent impression on my frontal lobe - not enough to get me to stop going for girly lunches at Royal China but just so I wontactually make a resume that could take me towards a 9-to-5 gainful occupation. I think I'm just waiting around for something to serendipitiously fall into my lap - my first choice would be to work at a glam fashion mag, but I do think my shoes just arent nice enough. Second would be to be a fashion buyer - but what exactly would i say my skills are? Running my own garment production factory has left me hopelessly ill-equipped to be at the receiving end of a boss's demands. And watching the devil wears prada and several semi-drunken conversations (post-baby, I've only been seriously drunk once, one more of my habits i had to let go) with other women in the business is not enough prep I think. Now I can only indulge in wishful thinking.

Amelia's fourth play-date

2008-03-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

Before becominga mother - even now, the term doesnt quite seem to go with my crazy disorganised, procrastinating persona - I kinda thought play dates were when we went to the video parlour for a few rounds of road rash and had a cold coffee later with whoever crush of the moment was.

Anywaaaaaaaaaay, Amelia now has play dates. Where she acts like she';s playig road rash around somebody's innocent coffeetable and I have the cold coffee with other mummies, more organised than me. I even invited somebody on a play-date last week and procrastinated just before it took off - ah, well. Motherhood wasnt built in a day.

Playdate No.1 - Namrata's massive juhu lawns. Amelia grabs mekhala's lobvely loopy curls, screams her head off at Zian, and gets shoved by Vihaan. Meltdown in car on way home.
Playdate no 2. - Gayatri's toddler room - Amelia grab's Mekhala's lovely loopy curls, screams her head off at Zian, gets shoved by Vihaan, and grabs dolly from Kiara - progress.
Paydate no 3 - Lulu's place - Amelia thought she'd get the screaming out of the way and progress to the shoving. She woke Ruhi up with her trademark screech and then it was downhill all the way - Ruhi did all the pushing, shoving and screaming. dont think we are going back for a while now.

straight up

2008-03-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

all these weddings out of town has meant lugging my hair drier and straightening rod and then finally abandoning it all for a hetic spray spray spray of Body Shop bilberry detangler and a quick brush through while dashing to stop amelia from pulling down the television from the stand. Ah, motherhood.

So, I finally decided to clean up my act and get my hair straightened - I had done it before for the great Oberoi wedding - for which may I add, I spent more on clothes shoes and general turniung into something neat and presentable than my own wedding.

Anyway, modern times - Last week, I called my hair dresser Geeta at Agile Fingers, Bandra and made an appointment - I had to colour my hair first a nice global soft glossy brown to cover the straw like highlights that were dyeing a slow painful death in my messy curls. Then after four days, I went back at 9.30 am while two women, washed and coated and ironed and boarded my hair for five straight hours.

Then they were all like, while you are waiting, why not get a pedicure - yes, I lurve having my feet examined for deformities by strange men. And I sat in the pedicure chair, while the pedicurist gingerly looks at my super dry soles and sighs, when did you last get a pedicure. It was a good thre months ago, again for somebody's wedding or baby shower, I'm sure. I take the words occasional pedi a bit too seriously. So he also went to work and scrubbed, and scraped and clipped and cleaned for one hour. Seriously there was a whole lot of dead skin from the diving and the weather changes and the serious neglect of my feet by me. I was his everest - the man needed a serious restorative when he was done.

But now I have swishy hair again - with gorgeous graded bangs too - I'm looking all over so elegant, I need to now get my watch fixed and bag cleaned and wear cleaner non-parleG smeared jeans. This maintainence thing never stops does it?

Education blues

2008-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

I was totally psyched to enrol Amelia in this fancy-pants frenchie sounding play-school called L' ecole montessori - it is right in Laxmi Industrial Estate.
And I promised the two main teachers I would be back on the weekend when they had open house. But it never happened - the husband got this cloudy expression and went off into his school-was-such-a-waste-of-time rant, that I have heard time and time again and was very upset that I had intentions of feeding his preccious daughter to the bowels of the education system. So, there you have it - while other infants are going to music appreciation classes and being 'invited' to play school, my daughter says only tatatataa, and makes piggy faces.

Today I kept trying to get her to say mama - but she kept waving good-bye and babbled tatatata, a subtle hint that she wants to go for her first of many walks/ drives of the day. How do people manage little babies - nobody prepared me for this energetic bundle - I'm exhausted from running around her all day. And unlike her, I cannot just fall asleep on my play mat. Sigh, i have to supervise the bloody water-proofing work going on.

Limbo

2008-01-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

The Webster's dictionary has a rather unsatisfactory definition for the word Limbo; but the limbo as explained in Catholic thelogy suits my state of mind better.

The root meaning of limbo is "boundary". While "limbo" is often popularly understood to be a "place where souls go", the term also describes and reflects theological uncertainty.

Amelia is now nine months complete - and I find myself stuck. For the first time in six years, I have nothing to do. I mean, besides raising a infant and domesticating. I sold my business at what looks like an opportune time, in hindsight. The bottom just fell off the garment export market, with the USD depreciating, margins are squuzed and spare part imports and maintainence costlier.

Now I have a big open space in my career house - and it can swing many ways. When Amelia was a nameless or rather a this name or that name one month infant, I felt the deep itch to start some business again. I even interviewed for collabrative ventures in event management and maternity clothing line. But then she got bigger and contrary to my expectation, much more work. Though nobody else was surprised when I called and said 'guess what, I cant work with a two month old on hand'.
But now I really am ready - I'm slightly envious of people putting on their suit-boot and striding off to achieve big big things in the corporate world, though not the commute on the way to corporate world so much. I actually feel like a six year old again, when I could be anything I wanted to be - a dancer, a teacher, a actor, a writer... though not so much a teacher now, nor really an actor.. and dancer, me??? So I'm thinking, thinking...

Official Church teaching remains that the status of these souls (who don't seem to deserve hell, yet cannot follow the divinely-revealed path to heaven) is in limbo -- in other words, their fate cannot be determined.

And then my physical state of being - I am dealing with the post-natal weight everyday. Working out and watching my diet as much as possible if it wasnt for those damned girly lunches and those bitty (Beer-kitty) parties I have to attend.
So yes, finally the pregnancy clothes hang on me, and I had a great time purging my wardrobe of them. But none of my old stuff fits yet. So after the Great Wardrobe Purge of last week, I have a sum total of 5kurtis and 5t-shirts to wear. And I'm so reluctant to buy anything expensive that will hopefully be really loose in a couple of months, that I must hit clothesrack again.

If heaven is a state of happiness and a union with God, and hell is a state of torture and a separation from God, then (many eminent Catholic theologians have speculated) limbo is a neutral state, in which souls are denied the beatific vision, but saved from the torment of hell.

I alwaysa felt my life was a constant waiting - for a permanent home, a full-fledged family with baby, a sofa- set. Now I have it all, except for the sofa set, and its now upto me how I want to move ahead. I'm free and the thought is a little scary.

2008-01-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

There is a new study out that says humans crave violence, like we crave sex.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080117/sc_livescience/humanscraveviolencejustlikesex

To quote the article:
Aggression is highly conserved in vertebrates in general and particularly in mammals," Kennedy told LiveScience. "Almost all mammals are aggressive in some way or another."
He added, "It serves a really useful evolutionary role probably, which is you defend territory; you defend your mate; if you're a female, you defend your offspring."
Even though it served a purpose for other animals, in modern human societies, Kennedy said, a propensity toward aggression is not beneficial and can be a problem
So, Gengis Khan good, Seung Hoi Cho, bad.

I'm sure this research was sponsored by the makers of HALO - it was always amazing to me why boys would want to play shoot-em-up games, but now I know. Its becos they cant get laid.

She's crawling, she's standing, she's altogether stormy

2008-01-19T05:32:00.000-08:00

... aaah, the joys of motherhood - I discovered a new one the last month - a permanent contraction of my left bicep from lugging Amelia all-over while feeding her with my righthand.
... and it's not so much a crawl as it is baby on tummy scooting forward, arm1,arm2, bottom wiggle and REPEAT. She gets everywhere and the chairs I have been planning to order so everyone will have some sort of place to rest their butts when they come over seems, again a distant possibility.
.... I visited this new pre-scool thats opened up in Laxmi Ind Estate, called L'ecole montssori - it seems really exciting but need to take husband so he can approve before I book Amelia into it to start in october. I'm already having visions of me in my hot-mamma jeans (by then, i hope) dropping her off, before I finally start work again. YAY!!

Bharat Ratna

2008-01-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

And I shall also throw my hat in the ring and nominate my maid Indumasi for the Bharat-Ratna - for putting up with Amelia the infantwith the mostest!!! She has not had a full night's sleep in thelast 9 months... and she still dishes out poha with a big black-toothed smile every morning. plus she thinks i'm at my target weight already. How award-worthy is that!!

Amelia is now crawling and chasing chappals and dust-balls for the last three days and I've been chasing her before she eats the contents of the dust-bin... if this doesnt help me lose weight I'm joining an ashram with Madonna. We'll invite John also and discuss PETA.

I have a cheese tooth, not a sweet tooth - unless its cheesecake - a win-win situation - I went with the husband to HYPER last weekend and in my Jamie-Olivered frenzy bought six different types of cheese - goat, flavored gouda, mozarella, parmesan. I wanted to attempt to make ricotta gnocchi, but ricotta was unavailable and the alternative potato is a carby-no-no-item in this household, so the cheese are in the freezer. Till I saw Bourne Ultimatum where the bad guy orders heart healthy omlet with goat cheese - so I've been sneaking goat cheese into my brekky each morning. I mean its heart healthy right? And i have probably been stressing out my heart with all the running.

losing it

2007-10-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

I'm trying sooo hard to be good and stick to this whole dieting thing and work out everyday - but this is what I've realised - in polite society we must not acknowledge that we do anything in the struggling types to stay in shape - had wild and by wild i mean pre-baby sunday brunch with my favorite peeps - Varshu and Rash. Went to Shiro, wasnt let in becos of private party went to hard rock cafe, sawed really nice baby t-shirt but my baby too small for it and i'm too large (would not have been a problem in pre-baby days, when most stuff i had would be purchased from the 6year old size rack. So anyway, then I was asking someone else how they lost a whole bunch of weight (This is obsessivly on my mind, since I dont have too much to occupy it right now) and She was like oh, its no big deal - just stop eating....and anyway your breat feeding will take care of it. No it wont damn it - how ironic that she has no kids at all - wtf does she know. And I'm hungry damnit.

Anyway, had awesome girly lunch today - and plan to skip dinner...only the tummy - it rumblth!!!

Turn turn turn

2007-10-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

Amelia is finally turning - YAY... we crossed another milestone all in good time.

She does the whole leg swinging thing, then she goes grunt grunt and swings her arm over.... then since she cant quite get her below arm out from under her, she hangs out on her side, 3/4 turned over tra-la-la-la, and sucks her fingers of the free hand. Then she starts sucking fingers of her other hand. and finally, when I think I should swoop in and release her arm pinned under her, she kind of shakes it out from under her like thats what she wanted to do all along,. but couldnt really be bothered when there was the verry important biznez of finger sucking to attend to.

Another milestone is we have finally moved her Mothercare cot here - and she is super excited - she's doing the whole matrix thing just now, where she propels herself by moving her feet through the railings sideways... My little superbaby.

art collecting

2007-09-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

now i really really have to start writing again - It was my birthday nearly a month ago and I'd been pestering the husband for an important gifty - first i thought i wanted the cartier tank - and its still not completely ruled out. Husband got me the Nokia 76 in cherry red, because i;ve been going to Croma and drooled all over the showcase glass. But that has kind of cut into the gifty budget. and then i decided i must start collecting Art - so i called Jasmine and she recommended a artist called soumen das. And so we bought a watercolour by hime of lake pichola - very nice. i collect it next weekend and then go hunting for a carpenter to drill holes in the wall to put that as well as the babu xavier up.

And then husband, Jasmine and I went for a really nice meal at Tiffin - I love Tiffin. The food is so clean and clever - I had a ginger marinated butterfly prawns satay with peanut sauce and nasi goreng rice. The prawns came on their own little luve barbeque so had to keep turning them and dipping them in the lovely peanut sauce. yummmm - i'm so glad i didnt have any dal in afternoon and violate pooja makija's tenet of not having both veggie and animal protein in the same day.

husband had the usual - a large platter of the house sushi and sashimi which i raided heha hahaah (evil laugh). i was supremely tempted to have the vanilla bean ice-cream. but i resisted, since i had downed a delish caramel eclair at the art gallery.

american mothering

2007-07-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

I was a total amreekan mother today - IM wented on one day chutti (dont know who's going to cry more when she leaves - me or the baby - she's been there ever since i came back from hospital and she's a wonder...yes, she gets on my nerves sometimes with all her sighing that doctors dont know that much, blah blah and complete refusal to use my modern mothercare gadgetry like the changing mat - leading to several accidents on sofa, bed, etc etc. But she's adorable how she makes me yummy snackies from water and a tea- towel, hee) and the whole threatning baby that i was not goingf to pay attention to her every whimper so she better behave didnt work.

Amelia behaved of course, but her nap didnt last as long as it should have - meaning i didnt get to nap at all.......... and she got trapped in her playgym, becos she lifts her butt and does this whole double leg swing at 90degrees to her torso. Only this time, she swung them into the vertical arc part of the play gym, and got stuck - poor baby.
and now i've finally gotten her to sleep. yay!!!

finally

2007-07-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

i managed to get toshi home,... and also figured out how to get the internet working - all by myself!!! proves i can do more than grow a baby.

so now i''ve gone overboard in my glee to catch up on all my book review reading and checking out the new bags, art and other blogs and its like 1am. goingf to be soo dead when little amelia wakes up for a 4am feed. it serves me right for feeling so smug that she had started sleeping thru the night. I always thought this whole system of not praising ones child or talking about her achievements (ok, in my case it was just avoidance of diaper rash and sleeping thru the nite, not acing the GRE - but still) would give najar. i didnt really encourage the whole hideous kajal dot and the other bit where they come and circle salt or chili over the baby's head to utaro najar. But i guess there must be something to it after all!!! becos i did feel smug about the whole unbroken night sleep and bang, Amelia has started waking up at 4 am again. Which is not so terrible really, since i adore the whole wake up mommy, feed me i'm cute smiles she gives me.

i'm also dead sure she's trying to say HI. i saw hi and she goes all haa- ee ina breathy sighy way with a big smile on her face. its 1 am and i just want to go wake her up and give her beeeg kisses just for one more smile but not quite. Because she just may start screaming bloody murder instead. She's almost doubled her body weight and the hair is still defying gravity. My ferpect little baby!!!

Shamak

2007-07-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I joined shamak in i realise now vain hopes of losing some of the jigglyness factor... my doctor needs to be sat down and told what a bigfat liar he is cos he promised a flat stomach for me within 6 weeks... well it'll be three months tomorrow and no flat tum in sight.

Anyway, so i join shamak and they asked us to pick a song and all these 16year old boys - boys who when asked to do a groove that everyone stands around ina circle and copies come center stage and start making jerky ass-swinging motions and SLAP THEIR ASS!!!! IN PUBLIC!!!! i should have admitted then that it is next to impossible for me to groove around 16year old boys unless its in a dark, smoky, crowded bar with blaring music and i have had sufficient levels of alcohol in my system. This was none of that - the place is called DALJIT gymko - and has a picture of a overgrown baby doing dead lifts in diapers.

So the song they pick is Husn hai suhana, from coolie no 1 - now this movie is from when i was 16 and i was all oooooh, cool, retro and all the now 16year olds were like say what??? well, they were 4 back then na, and not like the 4year olds these days who go kajra re, instead of jack and jill (which i realised is a pretty morbid nursery rhyme and not something i particularly want to sing to Amelia - alongwith rockabye baby - hello, the baby falls down from the tree, jack breaks his head, the insy weensy spider gets wet - who said life in nursery rhymes was sweet??)

so, the new song we have is Soni di Nakhre from the new govinda movie PARTNER. pretty neat - but the whole remebering the steps is not that easy - its fun and exciting and i'm hoping to lose some baby weight along the way too

tight t-shirts

2007-06-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

you know how when you are poregnant and wear a tight t-shirt and stick your bump and its all sexy in a very i'm a mommy-to-be way.

And now, the same bloody t-shirt is stretched over a BUMPY!!!! not sexy at all............ joining shamak davar tomorrow - jump around with boys in tights. that is the dress code - boys in tights.

Two months and two days

2007-06-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping the baby does not inherit husband's infamous procrastination trait - its hard because a lot of it has rubbed off on to me.... like i meant to write about chotu becoming two months old and its already two days late... that's like 10%late.

So, now she does more than just sticks her tongue out at the world. She also smiles a lot, especially when we change her out of a wet diaper, or give her a massage, or a god burping preceded by a verrrrrry good feed.
When she wants to be picked up, she does this whole flirtatious tilt head to a side, give a big toothless grin and be like i'm so cute, pick me up and find out for yourself!!!!
Of course, she has also learnt to throw tantrums from hell if her meals are not right when she wants it. She cant be kept waiting for even a minute - now I KNOW this impatience is from me, heh!!

The thing about being a mother and this whole feeding bit - I kind of got used to the fact that there is zero privace when people keep barging in without an excuse me while feeding - but why is everybody obsessed with the breast milk - today one annoying auntyji was all like so, is your milk enough for baby and i soooo wanted to be like why??? do u want some too??? WTF! though i was warned about all this by my adorable obgyn, who i swear i love even though i had to wait an hour to see him at every check up. I've never had a doctor so practical and calm before. My preggerhood was a breeze thanks to him.

And while a month ago, i actually waited for the day to end, so i could grab some shut eye since chotu doesnt sleep at all during the day (completely disregarding our agreement in-utero, how very chinmulgund of her) now its more regular, i dont stress over boob versus bottle and ignore all the annoying girlfreinds who insist i should feel nothing but overwhelming lurve at this time. So, this motherhood thing is growing on me and i love it more and more with every naughty smile my chotu gives. And i also love the whole not going to work bit and stressing abouit yarn deliveries and shipment schedules too. HEH!!

how to get skinny again

2007-06-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

so you know how everybody was buzzing about how Heidi Klum, lost all her weight and got into diamond encrusted thong 3 months after she had a baby??? So i went to this website called the skinny website which has all these celeb mothers who give their weight loss secrets and Gwynth paltrow said breast feeding melts away the pounds and she lost 1 lb a day breast feeding - and i'm like ummmm, was that between hour 3 and hour4 of your workout. becos no, breast feeding making you lose weight is like an urban legend. unless i'm doing it wrong!!!!!!!!

i actually feel fatter oh wait no, its just becos my tummy is smaller (marginally)and i can finally see my big fat hips!!!!!!!! so we 'glow' during our pregnancy and are just plain fat afterwards and dont let no celebrities tell u otherwise.

i've been hitting the treadmill and asking husband am i any thinner? huh? huh? every evening and he's like erm, since when? morning - no, no improvement.

Sigh

2007-06-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

Sleep deprivation i can deal with........ its the alcohol deprivation thats hard.

I dont think alcohol should be banned - it would make two-month old's howling temper tantrums a lot more bearable... and enough alcohol would also help make those memmories blurry enough.

Its raining maids!!!

2007-06-07T01:45:00.000-07:00

so, finally i intend to move out of the warm, dog-drool, dog-hair, dog-tick infested nest of my maternal home and into my apartment - which is still littered with cartons that the catties are freaking over because they play hide and seek. except they all want to hidem, nobody wants to seek - which leads to a lot of heads popping out of cartons simultaneously going, now why isnt anybody trying to find me??? miaow????

And this move is possible because i finally have a day-maid - YAY!!! and i convinced the night maid to stay for the day also - double YAY!!!! stupid americans who want to wing it by themselves and then they wonder why they have PPD and not wonderful long deep-friend chinese lunches with their girlfrends. with honey noodle and ice-cream afterwards!!!

so, i shall move - today chotu has been surprisingly sleepy. its 2 in the afternoon - mst days i've already have narrowed eyes and steaming ears trying to get her to sleep - but she's asleep all by herself, with no beer-infected breast-milk either (thats my plan B). curiouser and curiouser.

The Name is here!!!

2007-06-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

We finally have a name - baby chotu chinmulgund is now Amelia. Name provided by fartface's girlfriend. (fartface being my lovable and loving brother Adoo).

It was a nightmare of a one and a half months thinking of a name becos i loved Ananya and husband hated it - i think this whole baby thing has made me soft, becos i would never have given in to him earlier. And he said he would spell it Ununya - and fartface said oh, she'll be called Uno the card game in school. Then i came up with Soraiya but firstly her maid didnt get it and called her simi!!!!!!!! eck!! and everyone went oh, its so muslimy and it reminds them of a nasal black and white movie singer. the movies are black and white, not the singer - i think singer is a nice wheatish, like the rest of us. I wouldnt know, because i never watched black and white hindi movies. I just watched Pirates of the Carribean, and it is in colour and it rocks. except of course for the whole bloom knitley romance bit which has no place in a apirates movie i think.

soooooo, anyway Amelia seems most pretty and invoking neutral reactions. Of course my mother is slightly upset because she was rootring for samika - shall get her Biba kurti as consolation prize in also-ran category of names i think.

sweet dreams

2007-05-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

the other night i had this very real dream, i'm in nyc at vaisu's apartment - its sunday evening and i can see the flatiron building which is strange cos vaisu lives near central park, but not sooo strange if u consider that i was watching tv and i saw the flatiron building on it...actually thats probably the reason i was dreaming of manhattan.

so, to get back to lovely dream - its sunday evening, we're going to blue ribbon sushi... plan to stop and have cup-cakes at magnolia.... we've just made a lunch reservation at asia de cuba for monday and and.... chotu starts crying!!!!

i has a baaad mommy moment for 15seconds!!!

6 weeks and counting

2007-05-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

chotu (that is new work in progress name - we've moved on from peppercorn) is nearly 6 weeks old. and i'm finally holding her like a real baby and not a ticking time bomb by which i mean with a firm but casual grip like i've been popping out babies since i was 15. and not gingerly and watching my feet to make sure i wont trip and then watching her simultaneously to make sure i wont squeeze her and then looking straight ahead also simultaneously to make sure i wont bump into someone.

and i think chotu somehow read south beach diet for infants - because she firmly belives in very very small meals every 40 minutes. which leaves me exhausted and with a very numb bottom - which is good, becos it takes away feeling from the beeegest part of me just now.

and chotu's other name in progrss is mohawk jerry - becos she has a major mohawk to compensate for the male balding pattern whorl on her head. and jerry from tom and jerry becos she looks like she would want to do something bratty if only she could get up and move about without giant hands swwoping in to do that for her.

i loved the name ananya - which means unique but husband thinks it will become anu and anu is a dumb girl's name, i would love to argue but i kind of think anu is a dumb girls name too. but what is wrong with that - when being smart has only landed me with a big ass and a very badly dented naughty boyu instead of a giant e-class merc???
so, we think it will be soraiya which means princess in farsi!!

pre-natal classes

2007-03-02T03:03:00.000-08:00

I've been going for these pre-natal classes, and they are totally wierd - we are supposed to do these exercises to strengthn our pelvic floor.... now when the lady doctor in a roomfull of very pregnant ladies gets all coy about defining the pelvis, am i not supposed to roll my eyes and grin?

New girl (that would be me): so, what is the pelvic floor
Doctor: umm, where your baby comes out from - the hammock supporting your baby, blah blah
me: so, you mean the vagina right
Doctor: ummm, yes

i'm thinking hello - atleast hald a dozen nurses, technicians and doctor are going to be seeing my woo-woo when peppercorn makes his entrance (yes, i think its a boy, i'm sorrry my darling feminist friends but all the kicking and general bad behavious during ultrasounds has convinced me we have a mini-bratty vikram in-utero) so why cant this doctor say it and take the guesswork out of figuring out what we need to tighten???

not like i could - i never get this whole raising the pelvic floor right!! and my squats arent correct either. and apparently my exhalation and inhalation during mock-labour is not even.... i'm failing pre-natal class - how dumb am i!!!

issues

2007-02-18T23:38:00.000-08:00

So, i go for my ultrasound thingy to check on baby and we have to fill up this form.
and there is a space which says do u have any issues???

And i'm like Hell, yea - why do you not have any parking huh? huh? And why cant your security hatao all those annoying rickshawallas?
And the receptionist is like madam errr we meant issues as in progeny?

you say tomato, i say bloody mary - see the difference!!

cravings

2007-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

So, went for quiet dinner on friday night with husband's frends amit & jasmine and artist Shruti Nelson.... and conversation is like this:

Shruti: So, do you have any cravings??
Me: Yes, a tall chilled beer
Amit: But, you arent allowed to drink right?
Me: Yes, exactly why i'm craving it.

at which point i think they abandoneded the lets humour pregnant woman conversation track.

Electro!!! or Electra!!!

2007-02-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

So, I'm in the shower, empathising with how hard it must be for really large animals like elephants to really get thier feet clean (which is actually wierd becuase i dont think elephants want their feet clean) and i go to turn off the shower and BZZZT!!! i get elector-shocked. I'm like OK... then i go to brush my teeth and BZZZZZZZTTTTTT!! I get electro-schoked again.

but otherwise, i'm ok so i go get dresses and get ready to swipe my card for another day of work.
And then peppercorn, who generally enjoys having me slave away at the computer and gives delicious kicks in my ribs and kidneys is velly velly quite. which gets me worried and combined with the whole arm getting numb and tingly due to electro-shockingness makes me super-worried and i dash off to doctors.

turns out everything is fine but now i'm hoping the baby will get some super-powers - like i dont know - pointing at annoying contractors and zapping them little electrical shocks, or touching the bulb and giving me free electricty? HA - that'll confuse the idiots at relaince.

as of now - peppercorn's coming out into real world name is electro or electra.

Status so Far

2007-01-30T23:29:00.000-08:00

This is the status so far
ME: Week 30 - fat, clothes not fitting, waddling, sleepy all the time, wanting to dig nose all the time since become super stuffy but resisting to maintain image of beautific madonna with child.
PEPPERCORN: swishing, kicking in ribs, still taking blame for all my triple and quadraple helpings at dinner table
Apartment: 90%ready - last stretch going painfully slow
Husband: 90%ready - last stretch going painfully slow
Mother: 90%ready - last stretch painfully slow
Cats: not ready at all - think no need for baby, since they gaurantee lifetime of having to share space in bed, closet and throw-up and potty cleaning. Why have baby???

Week 9-week10

2006-09-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

Its really hard to keep working right now - though what else would I do??? I have no idea how to be a lady of leisure... I am finding that now that i not party every weekend, and instead sit at home and get excited about watching Oprah prime time, i dont have that much to say to ppl who are not pregnant or not just had a babay - finally understanding what the JOsh went thru - feel slightly bad i thought she ws so focussed on her womb. god almighty thats all everyone wants u to think about anyway - anyway, week 9 is quite bad - i didnt eat for the whole week - lived on horlicks and guava juice.. which is what i do even now... but also eating - the husband is also sympathy eating and i've gained a 1.5kg and he's gained 2 i think.

week 10 is much better, i had a pretty restful time with the husband away on biznez trip in spore and me chilling at prashanti.
off to france, tho cant have wine:( blue cheese:( pate:( sausages:( ham:( waaaaaaaaaaaaah - peppercorn!!!!!

ramblings in week 8

2006-08-31T02:50:00.000-07:00

its official - we're having a baby... yay
but it feels like hell - which is a good thing according to the amreeekan websites on pregnancy. Went to see the doc on 14th
no scan or anything - he was all basically oh wonderful wonderful - come back in 3weeks.

So, its now week 8 - and I am in hell - i'm burping like crazy which is wierd becos i barely eat. but it's supposed to get better - serves me right for being smug and sying oh, i have no nausea blah blah.... got extra supplies of doxinate.

Calling little lizard inside peppercorn, because it was that size when i first started reading up on all that.
the baaast friend goes into labour tomorrow - so excited - wish her a happy bouncy baby.