Burn her! Burn her!

In these times of hate mongering by Palin, this classic video from Monty Python takes on a new relevance...

He walked!

Since Saturday, Kuttipa has been walking a few steps at a time. I am so thrilled!!!

How to lose friends and alienate people

I've not seen this movie yet but would like to. Catchy title. 'Could apply to you', my husband said. Why? Because of my comments on the LLL in my previous post. But, I wasn't being sarcastic! Really, I truly, sincerely believe that the LLL is populated with noble selfless wonderful ladies. They've given me tons and tons of help and support when I needed it the most and I enjoy attending their meetings. I really wouldn't dream of being sarcastic about them. Seriously.

'You still have a knack of saying the wrong things to the wrong people' my hubby says. Maybe he has a point. Maybe I do antagonize people. Even my own cousin thinks I am a terrible person. I mean I spoke with her a few days ago and here is snippet of our conversation.

She: How is the baby doing?
Me: Great! He turned a year old a couple of days ago.
She: Wow! Convey my kisses and birthday wishes to him.
Me: Sure will.
She: So, how did you celebrate?
Me: Nothing much. I baked a cake and we went to the temple in the evening.
She: That's nice
Me: Yeah. We're planning on performing the Aayush Homam on the 23rd. And then on the 25th, we're having a party.
She: (very astonished) A party??? You have friends???

Now, I happen to know that she is in general a sweet person without a sarcastic bone in her body. She seemed genuinely surprised that I would have friends. So what can this mean? Of course, it just confirms that I am a terrible person! If I weren't a terrible person, would I posting this conversation here at all? ;-)

Chief nourisher in life's feast

Shakespeare certainly knew what he was talking about when he referred to sleep that way. Sleep nourishes you and helps you enjoy your wakeful hours so much better! I've wanted to write about sleep for a while now - Our lack of it, my growing obsession with it and my failed attempts to impose some kind of schedule on Kuttipa.

Before I launch into my sleep diatribe though, let me tell you about something cute that Kuttipa did recently. We were at the library for a Mother Goose story and rhyme session for babies recently. Midway during the program they serve snacks to the babies - this time it was Cheerios in a small paper cup, the kind you drink water from. As soon as Kuttipa sees the cup he opens his mouth and tips his head back and tries to drink from it. So whats the big deal? I actually thought it was pretty smart of him - he associated a cup with drinking. I know....I know...just a mother's pride in silly little things - but I cant help feeling happy when I notice things like that.

Now onto sleep. I happened to see a bit of Oprah the other day and the doc there was talking about how pregnancy shrinks a woman's brain by about 9% (ouch!). The good news is that it grows post delivery back to its original size but there are two things to do to enable that growth - eat plenty of Omega 3s and sleep a lot. Apparently the growth hormone is secreted in sleep and so being sleep deprived is going to kind of fry your brain. Oh, so that explains it all! But how are you supposed to sleep with a newborn on your hands? No one expects you to. But by the time your baby is 6 months old, they expect you to start catching up on those Zzzz s.

Excuse me, but I have a one year old baby here who clearly missed the bulletin sent out about sleeping through the night at 6 months. He wakes up every couple of hours - sometimes every hour and even worse, at times will stay awake for a couple of hours sometime in the night.

Stop whining! The problem is the cosleeping and breastfeeding. Stop both. Wean him and move him to his own crib in his own room. Sure he'll cry up a storm initially but watch how fast he learns to sleep on his own. Both of you will be feeling much better. This is advice I get constantly from friends, from the public health nurses and from even random people on the street.

Hmm.. Tempting. Tempting. Especially since I see all the non-nursing independently sleeping babies around his age sleep 10 or 11 hours straight and also take 2 hour naps at daytime. But I chose this lifestyle for a reason didn't I? Besides, am I strong enough to watch him cry for hours on end? Erm...maybe not...('Sucker!' my friends hiss)

So whats a co-sleeping breastfeeding mother to do? Why don't you night wean him, my husband asks. What a great idea! I think I'll ask for tips at the next LLL meeting. And so I do. They all look a bit shocked. "How old is your baby again?" one lady asks. Another says "It seems a bit early to be night weaning. The optimal age is 22 months." TWENTY TWO months? Clearly LLL is filled with stalwarts of selflessness who have no trouble waking every half hour if needed. But I am clearly not one of them.

Frenzied googling on the subject yielded a very promising link.
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp
Dr.Gordon, I've not heard of you before but you give me such hope with your words. So I've decided to give this nightweaning a try. Wish me luck and then some more!

Remembering the details

This time last year, I was in my final stages of labour. The nurses and doctors were scrambling to get ready since I'd come to the hospital almost ready to push the baby out...Well, not almost but then they did make me wait for an hour in the corridor since all the rooms were full. I was practically passing out from the pain but paradoxically the pain also kept me conscious. I was screaming my lungs out after having put up with it all quietly for more than 10 hours. At that stage I was beyond caring. I didn't care if my screaming annoyed anyone; I didn't care how it would appear; I didn't care if I could be heard beyond the hospital. I just screamed because it felt good to scream.

And then suddenly - very suddenly, it was all over. The doctor plopped the sticky slimy slippery baby atop my tummy. I know this is supposed to be a beautiful moment, the happiest moment ever and all that - but really I just felt strange and disconnected. If I could have talked I'd have probably said 'What's this?'. I was too weak to talk and totally out of things. Someone - a doctor or nurse whisked the baby away to be cleaned and examined. I didn't take an epidural or drugs (by choice) but I was still feeling distant and foggy (I was losing blood). I heard Kuttipa crying and crying and suddenly quietening down as soon as my husband spoke to him. And so for the next hour my husband kept talking to him while the doctors were bustling around me. Things started looking up after we left the delivery room and were moved to a recovery room. The nurses were awesome and very supportive. My husband and my parents were there. Kuttipa was right with me, asleep on my chest and I savoured the delight of becoming a mother.

A year later I can look back and say this has been a crazy year, a happy year, a beautiful year - what a trip! And my darling babe, my precious one, my love, my life, my dearest kuttipa, happy birthday to you! Wishing you health and happiness and lots and lots of birthdays!

Aromatherapy

Apparently sniffing vanilla can slim you down. The theory here is that the smell of vanilla gives you the satisfaction of having eaten a baked goodie without actually having done so. I should give it a try! On the other hand, I do remember using my friend's vanilla scented hand soap and feeling distinctly hungry every time I used it! Why does hand soap need to smell of vanilla anyway? Or raspberry? Or melon? Do they(manufacturers) want people to start eating their hands? Did my friend owe her wonderful figure to the vanilla hand soap? Did she ever try biting her hand? If used continually, would it actually work the way it says? Will Elizabeth May win even one seat in this election? (I liked her best in the debate tonight, but I can't vote!) So many questions....

Meanwhile if you're interested in the smell theory, check out the link below.
http://www.quickandsimple.com/diet-weight-loss/be-happy-stress-relief/scents-moods

Changes

Am going to experiment with some of the blogger settings and gadgets. Don't be surprised to see a couple of changes in the coming days - mostly temporary ones!

My sister stole my man!

Sounds pretty sensational eh? Yeah? Maybe?
Well, I don't have a sister and my man remains unstolen. So no sleazy story of mine to be told here..

A couple of days ago I happened to read a post by someone who said that her boyfriend married her sister. She was all cut up about it (understandably) and accused her sister of being a man-stealer. It was sad. It also reminded me of the movie/play Chicago where Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones) is in Jail for murdering her sister and her husband upon catching them together in bed. "My sister is now unfortunately deceased!" Too funny!

Now I know that there is stuff like that on TV shows all the time with people confessing all over the place and resorting to curses and blows while the audience cheers on. I don't watch them though. It's almost as distasteful as watching someone go to the bathroom or something...

I do wonder how that must really feel like though. Husband stealing by sister I mean. How could the other sister do it? Feelings for the sleazeball of a guy are more powerful than any feelings for dear sis? I don't get it! Thankfully, I will never have to!

Another fall photo

A walk along the river in the Northwest offers some spectacular views. A photo cannot do justice to the experience of being there, seeing the shimmering water, enjoying the gorgeous (hot) weather and seeing those splendid trees with yellow leaves. Nevertheless, here it is - a photo from today.

'And they wither with the wind...'

We went to North Glenmore park this Saturday. It was so beautiful there! It's that time of the year again.

I wonder...

Both my husband and I love to eat. We also love to sleep! So how did we end up with a Kuttipa that doesn't like either? I wonder...

On a different topic - I was driving back this morning after dropping my husband off at his bus stop. The radio wasn't on and Kuttipa was unusually quiet in the backseat leaving me alone with my thoughts. I started thinking about all the fledgling friendships I've made in the recent times and some of the not-so fledgling friendships. Why is it that friendship among women is so complicated? There are layers and layers of feelings and stuff (for the lack of a better word) regardless of how superficial or deep your friendship is...Being friends with a guy is far less complicated (unless there are romantic feelings involved). On the other hand, there is less potential for the deep meaningful emotional connection that is possible among women...Is it worth all the complexity though? I wonder...

Yet another topic - Why is such a big deal being made about the layout changes to Facebook?I thought it actually made things look less cluttered. Is that such a bad thing? I wonder...

At the baby show I attended a couple of weeks ago (Yes, I bought the teething necklace. No, I am not sure how it works yet) I was given a couple of issues of Mompreneur magazine. I'd never read it before or even heard of it. I was flipping through one of the issues and came across an interview with a really inspiring woman - Kim Lavine. She is a woman who has built a successful business with a product that's not very remarkable through sheer hard work and persistence. She has also written a book about it called the Mommy Millionaire. I might read her book one of these days. Meanwhile I'll find inspiration from the following words in her interview

'I tell people in my book that it's easy to be negative in this world; what's hard is being positive. Every successful entrepreneur I've ever met has been optimistic and positive. You need to consciously get up every morning and make the choice to be positive; it's amazing magic that will transform your life.'

A kutti update

Kuttipa has a cold and a fever. With a stuffy nose, its difficult for him to eat or nurse and we keep trying to clear it using saline drops. He hates that of course and any attempts to wipe his nose and clean his face etc. are met with howls. But in general he is cheerful and keeps trying to stand up again and again. Since Saturday, he has been able to stand up by himself without holding onto something for support! So that's the new thing he is trying these days. And its good that he is cheerful because that tells me he is not seriously ill. Now if only I could be as cheerful..

Kozhakattais

Considering that 'Vinayakane Vinay Theerpavane' has somehow led a couple of people to my site, I have to wonder if they were searching for a kozhakattai recipe. The one I used is simple enough and by no means my original creation. I got it from Tarla Dalal's website since I subscribe to her newsletter. Here is a link in case you're looking for it. Having tried it, I assure you it works well.

The first party

Photo taken yesterday at the common birthday party held for all the babies from my prenatal class from last year. They're all turning one year old soon, starting from tomorrow. It was a good party and Kuttipa had a lot of fun scampering on the grass and destroying the cake. He ate quite a bit of it too! The weather was awesome and there was plenty of food and conversation. And there were tons of other babies though I didn't want to post a pic with the other babies. I mean, what if I get sued for loss of privacy or something?
I almost didn't go because my husband hadn't been feeling well for over four days and I was a bit under the weather too. I am glad I did go though!

Hazelwood

Kuttipa is teething, I think. He seems to be having all the classic symptoms and is also incredibly cranky. He has 6 teeth so far and I think the 7th broke ut today although I am not sure about it.
Just over a couple of months ago he had no teeth and I was getting flak about not giving him enough calcium or something (which is not true btw. He had enough calcium. Also, the teeth are already there; they just need to come out. So its unrelated to calcium.)

I am hoping to go to the Calgary Baby Show being held in the Stampede Grounds this weekend and buy him a hazelwood teething necklace. When we went to Golden a couple of months ago, we stayed at a B&B whose owners had an 8 month old daughter. At that time I think Kuttipa was getting his second tooth. The baby there was wearing one of these necklaces and her mom told me that it seemed to be really effective. I tried to buy one there but somehow circumstances intervened. I hope they don't intervene tomorrow and that I do get to buy one. I am really really curious about them..

I tried googling info about them and I saw many sites which promised that hazelwood necklaces were the cure to everything right from teething pains to colic to migraines. I was excited initially and started checking every bulletin board I came across which had a reference to hazelwood necklaces. Then I saw that the same post was being posted by one 'momof3cuties' in a wide range of bulletinboards totuing the benefits of these necklaces and saying how her child's eczema was cured because of them. Er okay, was she so happy with them that she felt the need to spread the word far and wide? Well, it turns out that she owns a company that distributes them but she doesn't really say this when she posts about the benefits of these necklaces! So much for free advertising!

Well, I'll get to see if these things really work I guess... though I'll be fifteen bucks poorer.

A tad depressed

I was in New Haven four years ago, when Dubya was re-elected. I left for Calgary within a couple of weeks of his reelection. The timing was just a coincidence but it felt good nevertheless to tell my republican coworkers that I was leaving the country because I couldn't stand Bush! And I couldn't stand him is the truth.

I cannot believe its been 4 years already so soon! And over these years I've watched Bush f**k up the country and the world repeatedly. Well, that just makes things easy for the Democrats right? Wrong! If people were logical, Bush wouldn't have been re-elected. I wish the average voter in the US knew how much power he had - power that will influence not just his country but will influence events in th entire world! Some voters will probably realize that and will vote 'Democrat' but the rest will just bleat the same old same old and vote Republican. Why is 'evolution vs creation' so much more important than actual people or lives? Why does invading another country make people feel safer? So many questions.

And now there is this woman Palin. I think many women will be voting for her simply because she is a woman! So much for women's lib! If the purpose is to show that men and women are equal, shouldn't Palin be judged as a person and not as a 'woman'?

After such a disastrous rule, will the country still vote Republican? Have they turned into a nation of cows? I hope not, but the possibility is depressing.

Oh and speaking of cows, I found this post amusing. Check it out!

Kuttipa update

Kuttipa has been standing up by grabbing onto things for about a week now. He is becoming increasingly persistent about it - like waking up at 3am and deciding to practice his skills by grabbing onto our sleeping (now awake) bodies and using it to support himself. Its cute when he does that during daytime but not so cute at night...

He has become more temperamental of late. Eating, sleeping, everything is a more difficult than it used to be. But it makes his smiles and laughter that much more precious and adorable.

Vinayakane vinay theerpavane

Today was Vinayaka Chaturthi - one of my favorite festivals from my childhood. What I probably loved best about it were the Kozhakattais or Kaduvus depending on which grandmother I spoke with. My mother's mother made absolutely awesome kozhakattais. Soft and white filled with a delicious coconut-jaggery mixture. I just need to close my eyes and I can almost taste them... ahh..

I do remember trying to help her make the shells from rice flour a couple of times when I was a child but alas, I never did learn her recipe. I didn't learn any of her recipes for that matter and she was such an awesome cook! Now she is confined mostly to her bed and can neither walk nor talk. I could have even asked her for some of her recipes as recently as a couple of years ago when she was able to communicate in bits and pieces. Life is full of such regrets but strangely once the initial pang passes we don't seem to learn much from them. At least, I don't seem to...

A few years ago a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly. She was young and full of life and close to my heart. I kept in touch with her in random intervals when she wrote an email from someplace or another. I always intended to write to her more and maybe call her up 'one of these days'. All of a sudden I got an email from her mother saying that she had passed away after an accident. That was such a shock! I realized that I couldn't take anyone's presence for granted and made an effort to stay in touch with anyone I knew, anyone who mattered.

Its been 6 years since that happened. And I am back to my old ways. I don't call my friends regularly. I don't write regularly. I don't send photos of Kuttipa regularly. Heck, I think a few friends of mine may not even know Kuttipa exists. Sure there are countless reasons - such as my not having enough time or enough sleep. The fact remains that I take their presence for granted. Somehow I think 20 years from now or whenever it is that I find the time, they'll still be around and interested in what I have to say. Have I learned anything?

Somehow this became a morbid post. My original intention was to brag about how well my kozhakattais turned out today. I made both kinds - salted and sweet. On that note, I'll end this post. Good night!

The photos are from Chestermere Lake where we went last Saturday. So, yes, we made it to one of the lakes after all! Our original plan was to go to Eagle Lake in Strathmore. Upon driving there and finding it not very happening (kind of boring actually), we stopped on our way back at this lake. It seemed to be a nice place and it was a nice day too. There was a paved walkway there with people sitting on deck chairs, lounging and looking at the lake. Plenty of seagulls flying around hoping for some of the snacks that people might have brought with them. There were people like us with babies in their strollers, out for a leisurely stroll along the lake. There were people motorboating and jetskiing and getting their thrills from the water.

However, no one was sailing or swimming or kayaking or pedal boating or in any way exerting themselves and their muscles. Oh, and every house we passed by had an RV parked on their driveway.