That's Rhea!

That was what Rhea exclaimed as I was showing Aji the video from today morning. She kept screaming, That's Rhea!! That's Rhea and laughing loud....It was so sweet to hear her happy giggles...moments like these make being a mom truly special and rewarding!

Learning the fun way!

It is always easy to remember when you have learned something the fun way. Rhea's class has been doing just that. They learnt the spanish numbers (1 thru 10) in a song and also the days of the week (in english of course)in a song. She has been singing it at home for the past few days and I thought I should capture it before she moves onto something else. These are her current favorites and if you notice in the video she loves to repeat the same song over and over again until we tactfully get her to move on to the next one :)

So Ladies and Gentlemen,Boys and Girls, put your hands together for Rhea - singing the Uno Dos Tres Amigo and The Days of the week!


Rhea Singing from PreethsJ on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Ice Ice Baby

Yes, that's the story here today. So much so that county schools are closed again. Luckily winwood is open so Sean and Rhea were dropped off even through they were reluctant. Aji and I are working from home since the roads seem to be slippery and makes for a hazardous commute. Yesterday aji cleared the driveway in the morning but by evening as I was driving in, it again had a few inches of snow and Shirley our neighbor with whom we share the drive way was clearing it out again. Justin their 9 year old was having fun in the snow. Because of my tendonitis, i dont even attempt to take the shovel out.

Deck today afternoon. You can see the ice on the chair and the table


View of our side yard from the garage

Anways, fast forward to today morning I hear the grating sound of the shovel on the drive way. Ed (shirley's husband) was out again and he cleared the entire drive way. Aji was in a conf call so he couldnt step out. Thanks Ed!

Clean Driveway!
Usually the two of them work on it together. I was thinking that maybe I should take a few of the muffins i baked yesterday as a 'thank you' to them.

Mmm Mmm Muffins!

Sean has been asking me for blueberry muffins from Saturday. I was planning on making some banana muffins over the weekend but he said he wanted blueberry ones. Since they are not in season, I asked Aji to get some frozen blueberry's. I didn't get to make them over the weekend but today we got our homework out of our way slightly early. And since Aji was home, he played with the kids afterward. So I had just enough time and all the ingredients to whip up a batch of blueberry muffins.

The kids were in the basement when I started on them and came up as I was getting done with the batter and Oh my! the look on their faces :)


They were so excited wanting to eat the batter rightaway. I always let them have a lick or two of the spatula/spoons.


Rhea licking the spoon clean!


Mmm..Warm muffins with gooey blueberry's inside. Yummo!

It was getting a bit late for bed time but i let them stay a little late for the hot muffins. Here they are enjoying the late night snack!




They absolutely loved it and downed a muffin each :)

Snow Day!

Today was our first reasonable snow day of this season. We got about 4 inches of snow. It started around 5:00 and went on and off for almost the rest of the day.I left for work at 8:00, the community roads were not even treated by then. The ride to work took me about 45 mins. Lots of accidents reported on the radio. County svhools were closed but Sean and Rhea's were open. So AJi dropped them off and worked from home. They were very excited about the snow and wanted to play but it didnt happen in the morning since they were rushing to school. They wore their snoww boots to school. Rhea's class was planning on stepping out for awhile but Aji asked that she be kept inside since we didnt wwant her cough to aggravate. Will probably let them play for some time tomorrow morning.



View from our deck at 8:00pm


Of course by the time i headed home, the snow had already turned into sleet and freezing rain. Not fun, since the roads woul get slippery soon. I managed to get the kids and get home without trouble. Tonight they are expecting more ice and freezing rain, an accumulation of 1 inch of ice expected by tomorrow morning. This means tomorrow schools will be closed and i may have to stay home with the kids. Hopefully I will be able to atleast work part of the time.

Doctor Visit

Last week Rhea came down with the same virus that Sean had the week before. She was down with very high fever. So Tuesday and Wednesday Aji and I took turns staying at home. It looked like she was beginning to get better but then Friday night she came home exhausted and true enough high fever again. We put her back on Motrin and she seemed better on Saturday but Sunday rolled in and she woke up again with fever and a wicked cough. Uggh…this is getting old, and I started to think that maybe she has a chest or ear infection since the fever kept coming back. So I took her in to the Dr.’s office Monday morning. She is very excited to go to the Dr.s office. Nurse Kayla absolutely loves Rhea and she of course loves all the attention. We were waiting for Dr. Cruise in the Spiderman room. Every waiting room has a theme and as soon as she saw the spiderman,

Rhea says – Seany loves pider man
Me: What about you? Do you like Spiderman?
Rhea: Noooo. I like Dora. Me not like piderman.
Me: Oh Ok.
Rhea: Seany likes pider man
Me?: What else does Seany like? Does he like Star wars?
Rhea: Nodding her head – Jhea! Seany likes star wars!

The two of them are so close..they love each other so much and also fight for the same toys a lot of times…I guess that’s what brings siblings close..all the fighting, the laughing and the crying…it used to be similar with pavi and I. It was amazing for me to realize how Rhea was thinking of Sean even when he wasn’t around in the things that he really loved.

Anyways Dr Cruise checked her and her ears and lungs were clear so she gave me the go ahead to send her to school. Rhea picked a Dora sticker for herself and also reminded me to get a Spiderman sticker for Seany.

Sunday Night's Tasty Travel to New Orleans

Today's dinner was a tasty travel to New Orleans without the hassle of actual traveling...well our taste buds took a travel down south to the land of Mardi Gras..

What was on the menu you ask...Shrimp Etouffe and it was absolutely fantastic, even the kids gobbled it up..Here's a picture...



It had a nice kick to it and was perfect with a glass of bubbly!




BAM! BAM! BAM!

Sweetie Pie..

Today morning...rhea held my face in her tiny little arms gave me a big kiss and called me 'Sweetie Pie'...its was so funny and sweet at the same time!

Winter Party 2009

My Project's winter party was this past saturday. All of us were excited to go but then Sean woke from his nap with high fever. I decided to still go since we missed last year's party alsoa nd i had made a coconut cake for this year. here is a picture.


It was a fun party but i really wished for Aji and the kids to be there.

What's for Dinner?

Since aji is away..I realy dont have to worry about real food or variety etc. I made a big pot of roasted eggplant soup- yummo. That should safely get me through 3-4 days. I also have some left overs frfom the work party from the weekend. So no real cooking for me this week...

Solo Parenting..

Yes, i'm at it again...thanks to aji's training this week again in Chicago. To add to the trouble Sean was down with very high fever from saturday night..the week can only get better from here on right...thats what i think and that's what i really hope. I worked from home today...hopefully sean wwill be better enough to go to school tomorrow...let's see what tomorrow has in store..

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

Happy New Year! Another year passes by...a new one rolls in..wonder what we have in store this coming year. Whatever it is we pray that the almighty give us the courage and the strength for all the surprises he has in store for us..

A Grand Vacation...

We had a fun filled 2 weeks off. We did a lot of fun things as a family...Pictures coming soon..


The kids by the X'mas tree

Family Portrait taken at home



Visit to Museum of Natural History

We also went to china town for some authentic chinese fare. Sean wwanted to have crabs and they had fresh ones in a tank that they picked when we ordered, brought it to our table to show us the 'chosen one' and brought it 10 minutes later fried in a spiced up batter. Sean devoured it.

Aji ventured into the litchen and made some really good chinese soup one night.

We went snow tubing with Sanjiv and family. Rhea could only go to the baby slopes, so Aji and I took turns and Purvi and Sanjiv watched the kids so wwe could some together also. It was great fun and Sean was getting more and more adventurous as the day passed. Parth and Prashant also joined us and it was fun to watch these kids from ages 12 - 2 interacting and playing and having a great time.

The weekend that whizzed by..

Last weekend went by so quickly. Let me try to remember and recap what we did..

First off, Sean scored another 100% on his spell test and an 'Excellent' note from his teacher. Way to go Seany! By doing so he earned his 'Happy Meal' from Mc Donalds for dinner on Friday. We did a drive through since Aji's flight was landing at 6:30 and we had just about an hour to get started. So we went home and after the kids had dinner, we left around 6:20pm. Aji's flight landed on time and we picked him up around 6:50 and headed home. The look on both the kids faces when they saw aji was priceless! They were all over daddy that night.

Day 5 - Daddy is coming today.

It's friday - Yipee!!! Aji is coming back today. I spoke to him yesterday and he said that he is planning to catch an earlier flight that will bring him here at 6:3o pm instead of 10:00pm. I luv it, we can have dinner together :) The kids are so excited Sean woke up saying - Daddy is coming today YAY!

Today we were extremely late. But I managed to give Sean one final mock test and he did well. Hopefully it will all come together. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and oatmeal. Sean was not very excited about the eggs and I told him they are going to help him remember all his words rigt for the test. He wiped his plate clean. I just love him...he is so willing to go that extra mile and is motivated that he gets to have a happy meal is he scores 100% on his test. He also got his report card yesterday. He is doing pretty well, I do need to talk to Ms Jackson on the rating she has given him for performing simple addition. All of his appers I have seen has him getting 100% and yet he has a rating of 3 out of 4. Maybe she can help me understand the reason.

Can't wait for evening..

Day 4

Late entry for Thursday. Wednesday night we had frozen pizza for dinner. It was a good change and the kids loved it. They were the individual sized ones and I had one vegetable and one meat ball pizza in the freezer. Rhea and Sean each had half of the meatball one and I had the vegetable pizza. I also baked the store bought apple pie. We were short on ice cream. We had like 2 scoops of the chocolate icecream that the kids ate and I helped myself to the apple pie.Mmmm it was delicious.I'm developing a sweet tooth and its scaring the heck out of me.

Thursday morning we woke up only by 7:45, I made egg and sausage sandwiches for the kids. Sean enjoyed it. Rhea did not eat the egg but to just have her eat one full sausage sandwich itself was a huge accomplishment. I got to work by 9:20 - a little late. The day went by quickly. We have been practicing Sean's words for the test and he has been getting them all correct. Hopefully it will all stick when he takes the test in class. Yesterday for dinner I told them I'll make a quick fried rice but sean wanted to eat mashed potatoes. We had some left overs from tuesday so we had a repeat of the same dinner - popcorn chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.

I started working on the holiday cookies. Yesterday night after the kids went to bed I made the first one, its almost doone just needs a drizzle of white choclate on top which I'll do later. I also baked the cakes for my class. I have to prepare the icing. We did not do any video recordings yesterday. I did 2 mock tests for Sean and he got 100% on both so then I excused him from math and he watched some TV before hitting the bed.

Christmas Carols

Today instead of recording a video message for dad, I did the recording of them singing X'mas carols. They have been singing them in the van for a couple of days and i thought it would be neat idea to capture it on tape. Ofcourse I will do an official recording with them all dressed up but consider this as a warm up round..

Rhea is singing 'I want to wish you a Merry X'mas' and Sean is singing 'Jingle Bells'. Of course they dont know all the lyrics and we hope to brush up on it in the coming days..


Rhea and Sean singing X'mas Carols from PreethsJ on Vimeo.

Day 3

We're hanging in there. Actually i think we have a set routine now and the wheels are finally beginning to move smoothly. Yesterday by the time I picked them up, it was 6:00pm. I had a last minute meeting at work which ran over till 5:10. Both kids were happy and cheerful, which in itself was a huge mood stabilizer :)

We got home and while they snacked on Wheat thins, I made some mashed potatoes (from scratch). I heated up some pop corn chicken, thawed some corn from the freezer, warmed some out of the bottle turkey gravy and cooked rice. Sean loves mashed potatoes so he thoroughly enjoyed the chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. He did not eat a single piece of corn. No surprises there. Rhea ate couple of pieces of chicken and had a tall cup of milk. We did the homework, Sean practicing his words for the test on Friday. He is still working on 'dock' and 'dash'. The blend words are still confusing him. Hopefully he will get it all by friday. Sean was in a mood for a bubble bath and demanded one so both of them were bathed, brushed and tucked into bed by 8:30. I then veged out in front of the idiot box, spoke to Aji couple of times and then hit the sack at 11:00 after having round 2 of dinner. I can't seem to control my food binges lately and it is showing. Today morning the weather was much warmer and I wore the skirt i bought 2 months ago. It was a little loose then and fit me at the hip - today it was snug at the waist. I'm so mad at mytself and can't wait to get back to my workout sessions from Monday..

Day 2 of Solo Parenting..

Yesterday evening was not too bad. I left work at 5:00 and had to make a quick stop at Giant to pick something for dinner. So by the time I picked them up it was almost 5:40 and really dark outside. Sean got new words for his test this Friday. There are two 4 letter words and we will need to practice them a lot. We got home and gave them dinner right away. They had sausage, eggs and tatertots. It was my first time trying tatertots and I loved them. Of course anything carb is golden in my food vocabulary 

Aji called and the kids spoke to him and of course Rhea had a big meltdown because she wanted to talk to him on the cell phone not the landline. After all that commotion and the quick chat Sean and I did home work – practiced the words and also did addition while Rhea watched TV. Sean got a ‘Star’ and ‘Super’ for his addition in school yesterday since he got all of them right. I’m glad the evening homework’s are paying off. It definitely makes the effort more meaningful and motivating.

I let Sean watch some more TV after his homework and it was almost 8:00pm at this point. Where did the time go? I had picked up Oreo cookies, so both of them had a couple of those before we went up to get ready for bed. Those are so difficult to get off the teeth, I had to literally strain my neck to brush them and get all of the Oreos out of their teeth. Not fun at all. Sean was really tired and slept in couple of minutes; Rhea on the other hand was just tossing and turning. Asking for daddy, water, her watch to be removed, and her dolly. After I gave her the dolly she said she doesn’t want it. So after 5-10 mins of that I walked out the door and then she launched into her big screaming cry…I waited for couple of mins went beck held her for a few mins and put her back. She went down like a lamb. I think she is really missing aji. Poor little darling. Of course in the middle of the night Sean starts his migration to our room and I guess lost his way and turned on lights woke up Rhea…total mayhem. By then I was beginning to lose it, I got both of them to the master bedroom and as soon as I lay down, Rhea wakes up asking for water. I dragged myself knowing she will not be quiet until she gets her water. I gave her a few mouthfuls from the bathroom. I was too lazy to go down. After that all of us conked out and woke up at 7:15am. They had oatmeal for breakfast, did a little recording for aji, got changed and were able to get out the door by 8:37. Few minutes later than yesterday but I got into work at the same time. Rhea cried at drop off today also, she did not want to go to school and kept saying that. I tried to distract her as much as I could. I think its also because I usually don’t do drop offs and it’s a difficult for her and also Aji not being around. She just doesn’t get it because we tell her to say hi to daddy on the camcorder and she does not understand when we say daddy will be back on Friday. Poor thing…I’m sure it is utter chaos in her little mind right now…I wish Friday would be here sooner.

Message to Daddy from today

Message to Daddy on Tuesday from PreethsJ on Vimeo.

Day 1 of Solo parenting...

Not sure how this week is going to be since Aji is away and I have to do morning and evening gig with the kids. Yesterday was fun, we just relaxed and played and watched some Tv. Spoke to aji couple of times. I put the kids to bed at their usual time. I must have been really tired because I didn't even know (until morning)that Sean came to my room at night. He had asked and made sure that I will be sleeping in the Master bedroom so he does not have to go searching for me in the middle of the night. Rhea woke up by 7:15 which gave me just enough time to freshen up and I went down with her to get my Java and get started on their breakfast. Sean woke up by 7:30.I decided to make some french toast in the hopes of feeding them a good breakfast. They ate reasonably well, over Higgly Town Heroes and Little Einsteins while I fork-fed(is that a word?) them. Miraculously they did not complain much when i called them up to get dressed. We even managed to do a quick video recording for Aji and were out the door by 8:30.

Sean was behaving so much like a grown up while Aji is away. As we were leaving he said 'Mom, let me check the doors to make sure its locked'. My little boy is growing up so fast. After he was done with his inspection I asked him 'So, are we good?' and he said 'Yes, everything is locked. We can go now!'

It was a perfect morning...hopefully the rest of the week will be somewhat close. I know that my patience might start to wear off as the days pass and by the time friday rolls in I might be pulling my hair out. But for now I would like to think that everyday will be like today..I will certainly strive for it. I'm so much more relaxed as I start my work day/week.

Here's the kids video to daddy from the morning..

Message to Daddy in Chicago on Monday from PreethsJ on Vimeo.

Spoke to aji in the morning on my way to work. He was on his way to class. I asked him what he had for breakfast since I had just had my coffee and decided to have a banana muffin(yummy!) on my drive to work. Aji's breakfast - Waffles, Hashbrowns and Eggs. Not sure if that was all or he just stopped at that so as to not make feel bad about his fantastic start to the day. Anyways, it sure beats my breakfast by a long margin. Someone is enjoying his stay and FOOD in the windy city!