The EVIL Bed Magnet

Its the source of my workout woes..winter for me is the hardest time to force myself out of the bed for my workouts and off late its magnetic pull is getting stronger and stronger and my will to resist is turning into mush...

MUST GET BACK TO THE DRILLS AND LOOSE ALL THE JIGGLES..

Back to reality!

Praveen, Rosie and Elisha left for New Jersey...its back to reality...Work, School, Home work, chores....Ughh...Such is life...

Birthday Party!

Rhea is 3!! Yipee!!

She wanted a Dora party so i went all out. we had it at lifetiome fitness...we were also thrilled that Elisha was here all the way from sydney to join in the fun.




Maybe since we had people from the other end of the world...there was such a poor turnover from her class...but the important thing is Rhea had a blast and that made us all happy!







I made her a dora birthday cake.





Happy 3rd birthday my princess!!!

Family Time

This week pavi and fly came to visit us...it was a short visit and since this was their first pit stop...they were tired and jetlagged. By the time it was ready to go Elisha was her ususal self...but fun was had by all ...the kids got to bond with their cousin.



Praveen got to meet his tennis mate from 10 years ago. Sunita's daughter and Sean go Tennis class together.


he also met another friend of his...only his nickname comes to mind and i dont think i want to refer to him by that :)

TEAM WORK

Last week we enjoyed some good weather and the kids ventured out to play on the deck. And as always they started fighting over the same bike even there are 2 other options they could choose. But after a feww minutes of push, pull, cry (wwhich i stayed away from ) i heard laughter. i was curious how moods can change so fast. But as i peeked out the kitchen window this is what i saw. And it brought the biggest smile on my face.



After all the fighting they figured out that they could ride the bike together and have more fun than their solo rides!

That's what I call TEAM WORK!

If only they would use the strategy more often..

Rhea is 3 !!

Our Tweety pie is 3! Wow, how fast time flies!



So today morning we wished Happy Birthday and the first question she asks - Where's my gift! I guess by now she has gone to enough birthdays to understand the relation between birthdays and gifts.

I'm so glad i picked up her gift the previous evening. So we gave her the doll house which was of course still in the box. She was beyond excited!! She kept saying 'my present!, my present!' and wanted to open it right away. We were able to distract her with her new dress and she was ready in no time raring to go to school to share her birthday with her friends.

Rhea with her doll house - All SMILES!
I had made pretty flower cup cakes for her to take to school.


Flower Cupcakes
That evening after we got back from school, i worked on icing the chocolate cake while the TV babysat the kids. Daddy got back only around 8:30 but both of them waited patiently. We cut the cake after dinner and they both enjoyed a big hunk of the chocolate cake!


Rhea had her 3 year Dr appt early in the week. She is still a peanut but is followwing her growth chart and has it all the milestones for her age. She told the dr, colors and shapes in spanish (and i was wondering why she said circulo instead of circle. Thank god Dr Howell knowws spanish!) So no shots this time and she is at the 8 percentile for weight and 44 percentile for height. I know she is petite but i'd rather have her lean and tall than be on the other end of the spectrum. i've een there and would not wish that hell for anyone..

Rhea, i have a special message for you...i will post that here soon ..

Slumdog wins the Oscar!

And what a sweep it was!!

I knew it would win for music and I was planning to make some dessert to celebrate but I fell sick that day and watched the historic moment on the couch barely keeping my eyes open as I was sedated with Sudafed. So fast forward a week and half later - I returned to the world of the living and decided to still make that dessert honouring SM.

I made the chocolate cup filled with vanilla pudding and a dash of cocoa powder.


So let me explain the inspiration behind this mouth watering yumminess of a dessert(if i may say so myself) - the chocolate cup and the cocoa powder is reminiscent of the slums, the dirt, the poverty and everything sad. The yellow vanilla pudding represents all the glory, it reminded me of the golden oscar statue and everything good about the movie, the triumph of the human spirit, the riches the pratogonist in the movie acheives by winning the love of his life and becoming a millionaire!!



So whether you like it or not - this is my culinary interpretation of the amazing movie - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

Happy Valentines Day!

Had a great valentines day! I made valentine cookies for the kids to take to school for their friends. They were so excited!



Aji gave me this fantastic gift which was a complete surprise and hence even more special. I'll post a picture soon. I made a heart shaped cake which the kids devoured.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Well, yesterday was superbowl sunday. We had a ton of errands to run and started off with mass at 10:45. By the time wwe got back it was 3:30. Sean and Aji stepped out again to get his pictures for passport renewal and couple more errands. Rhea took a nap and I had decided to do start on the dinner. Since it was superbowl and all and the wweather was pretty nice we had initially thought of grilling. I had planned on an appetizer and desert both of which i hadn't even done any prep work. Add to that I also had to make the Oatmeal and the lunches for the week. It got dark outside pretty quickly, aji went downstairs for a jog and i started on the Asparagus and Hummus Tart and then marinated the chicken to grill. That didn't take much time and i knew that it was going to be a appetizer and dessert night. So i put away the chicken that as marinating back in the fridge.


Asparagus and Hummus Tart

The game was on and the kids and aji settled with their drinks. Beer for dad and sparkling cider for the kiddos. I started on the desert in between watching snippets of the game. The game got pretty interesting after half time especially the 4th quarter. Anishchayan would call whenever there was a touch down. Sean also got interested in the game and he was backing the steelers. Since the Redskins hadn't made it (no surprises there), aji and I ususally support the underdog, in this case the Cardinals. It was a pretty close game and of course the steelers took it away with just 40 secs remaining.

In between the game, dessert was ready and Sean had slept off in front off the TV. I tried waking him up since he was most excited about the dessert. But he was so sound asleep.





I wanted to cut the tart in the morning with Sean but father and daughter would have none of it. both of them wanted it rightaway. Since i was outnumbered we went ahaed and indulged. It was awesome. Rhea enjoyed the fruits and the custard the most!



We went to bed, way too late for a sunday night and I woke up late and missed my workout today morning :(

Life's simple pleasures!

Friday night we let the kids stay up later than their usual bed time and this week they had a surprise late night treat - Ice cream! Rhea thoroughly enjoyed hers to the last lick...watch for yourself!

Favorite Things

I just realized today that i have never noted a list of Sean or Rhea's favorite things at any given time. Granted that they tend to change over time I think I should do it atleast once in a while. it will be fun to look back at what they loved at different stages of their growing years :)

SEAN,

Family - He is such a family man already. He loves loves loves his lil sister and calls her bebe or lil baby. Loves to play wwith her but also knows t0 push her buttons and get her irritated. He will occasinaly come and give me and aji a kiss and a hug. If i make something different he is very vocal and will say - Thank you mommy for making this. I just love that about him!

Food

His current favorite is breakfast. Pancake with a dollop of butter, maple syrup and breakfast sausages. he loves it so much, we had it both days this weekend. His other favorites - Poori, Poot (puttu), Flat eggs (bulls eye), baked eggs, egg and cheese sandwich, Cereal(mix of cheerios, cinnamon toast, frosted flakes, honey bunches)


He also loves chicken nuggets and tater tots, mashed potatoes, pesto chicken sandwich, pizza, chirros, ICECREAM (MINT, COTTON CANDY with gummy bears mixed in, CHOCOLATE, VANILLA)

Entertainment - He loves everything STAR WARS. He has watched the movies so many times that he has memorized a few dialogues :) He loves his light saber and is looking forward to soccer in spring. He is slowly beginning to enjoy his swim lessons.

Fav quote- yeah Babe! (in different tones depending on when he is happy, sad or angry)


RHEA

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.