Read online…
Posted by: RS on: January 25, 2012
“And, although I’m confident that I will always think my daughter is The Greatest Thing in the Universe, I’m also all too aware that this feeling will not always be reciprocated in quite that same way or with quite that same enthusiasm that we both enjoy right now.
She won’t always run to my bed in footie jammies.
I’ll only get that particularly noisy and personalized wake-up call for a little while. And, I only get a shot at it once a day. At almost exactly 6:00 AM Pacific Time.
Then one day? I won’t get it any more. It will be gone.”
-Merlin Mann
At school…
Posted by: RS on: October 31, 2011
I saw dd today at her montessori preschool. We had a fall parent-teacher conference (for 3 year olds!) I peeked in through the window and there she was checking out her toasted bread with nutella and happily eating it. And I should have been happy seeing that sight but it somehow broke my heart. She is just 3 and there she is away from her parents for 6 hours a day, having to eat all by herself and manage her little self alone (yes, I know she is not alone but you know what I mean)…still wonder if I am doing the right thing. Does a 3 year old need to be away from her parents for so long?
Life in 120 characters.
Posted by: RS on: September 28, 2011
I figured I would just add a twitter feed here because often, that’s the amount of time I have between tasks to write, if you can call that writing! And I figure I would “write” more if it were just 120 characters. We will see. I am @iam_that_mom on twitter, catch you there and occasionally here too, I hope!
Paatu Paada Vaa
Posted by: RS on: September 7, 2010
- In: love
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dd did the cutest thing the other day during her American birthday party (Yay! This year she gets to celebrate an American and an Indian birthday party). dd, another toddler and her parents were all playing in our sand box and I asked her to sing a Tamil song. So she started singing and took a step forward and fell in the sand. She got sand over her mouth and nose and when she stood up, she continued singing the song until I lifted her and took her off to rinse her mouth. For some reason, it just broke my heart and I don’t even know why. Just watching her sing so expectantly, fall and then start singing right back just moved me to tears. Can’t stop loving her. ever.
Schedules, schedules!
Posted by: RS on: August 20, 2010
So, I met this mom in the Bay area who was refreshingly relaxed about her kids’ nap schedules. One was a few months younger than dd (19 months) and her older kid was 4 years old. Whenever I asked her if we could go sightseeing and if that would work for her kids’ naps, she would say, “Oh they will nap for a half hour in the car when we drive and that should keep them going!” For me, surrounded by moms who are super focused on baby’s naps (including me), this was a surprise. A few days spent with this mom and I realized I was doing the same thing. When dh asked me what the plan was for the day and when dd would nap, I found myself telling him, “Oh she might nap in the van. If she doesn’t, no big deal. She will sleep earlier in the night!” and it felt liberating, refreshing to say that. I was not bound by naps and schedules, at least for those few days in California. And I realized I carried a bit of that attitude when I came back home. I am not so hung up on dd’s naps and I feel good about it and I don’t miss so many events anymore planning around her nap time! Agreed that it sometimes might backfire and result in a cranky baby but it’s not something I stress about like I used to 
Now, I know why they say travel is good for you, even if it is traveling with a toddler!
Another one?!
Posted by: RS on: August 13, 2010
After dd, there have been more times that I can remember when I have thought, “I must be crazy if I want another baby. This is it!” and “I need another baby!”
Is it like this for every mom?
100 days.
Posted by: RS on: August 2, 2010
Yesterday, dd slept at 1.15 AM and got up today morning at 11.30 AM! I know we have just been back from the west coast 3-4 days back and there’s jet lag that she needs to get accustomed to etc. But 1.15?! So today, I decided she could sleep in and I would let her skip her nap so she can go to sleep at a decent time. Poor thing. At 8.30 PM, she could hardly keep her eyes open during her bath. Anyway, for fun, I calculated how long we will spend just trying to put her to sleep until the time she can go to sleep on her own. So we spend approximately an hour a day (30 mins for nap time, 30 mins for night time sleep) trying to make her sleep — singing, stories etc. Earlier it used to be rocking her and the more difficult variations of putting a baby to sleep instead of a toddler. Considering we do this until she turns 6, that means we would have spent approximately a 100 days of our lives just trying to put her to sleep. So, I was telling dh, that’s not such a big chunk of time…and he says, “That’s more than 3 months, you can do a lot in 3 months!” I guess. This whole lack of sleep training business is a love hate thing. I sometimes hear her say things just before she sleeps that she never does when she is awake but it also chips away a nice chunk of my time each day but that’s part of what parenthood is about — the amount of time and energy we spend on the smallest things for the kids.
So, if you are like me, planning to rock. swing, “story-tell” your kid to sleep, that’s approximately what you are looking at — 100 days
But then, 10 years from now, I would probably have to be begging to have her focused attention all on me, might as well enjoy it while it lasts…
The ideal drink for your kid!
Posted by: RS on: July 8, 2010
- In: drink
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So, dd gave up on milk a few months after she turned 1 and we switched to chocolate milk. She sort of likes the Horizon Organic Chocolate milk but it’s additional work to keep mixing full fat milk with the 1% fat Horizon organic milk and then it reduces the taste and she doesn’t like the mixed milk anyway. So dh has been asking me if we can give her Bournvita/Horlicks/Complan and I told him Bournvita is a no-no because it has BHT (preservative). I haven’t really looked much into the ingredients in the other milk powders but here is an interesting article I though I’d share about these powders:
Sweet songs.
Posted by: RS on: July 1, 2010
- In: cute
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Today, she sat on my lap and listened to me sing my off-tune Tamil melodies for 15 minutes. Finally, I asked her why she became so silent and she turned and gave me the sweetest smile ever
dd
