Just because.

kissing her "puppy"

posing for the birdie

A borrowed tag :)

Yeah, I decided this would be good blog fodder because I can't think of anything much to put up here right now. So I whacked this from Loca. See it's not that I can't think of anything at all, it's just that when I'm ready to put thought into words, they just evaporate. I can clearly remember that there were a ton of things about Bonbon that I wanted to post about but can't, for the life of me, remember :( Maybe I should make a list of that too..I thrive on lists. I'm the quintessential makes-lists-for-lists person *grin*. Here goes:

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? Dear God, I'm so FAT!
2. How much cash do you have in your wallet right now? about 100 CHF
3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR? Umm...four.
4. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone? The spouse
5. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone? I don't do ringtones...it's on vibra right now. But if it weren't it would be a basic "ring, ring' (go ahead and say it - BOOOORINNGG, I know you want to)
6. What are you wearing right now? red shorts and white tee
7. Do you label yourself? Yep. All the time.
8. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently own? Reebok, Nike, Adidas and Bata :D
9.Bright or Dark Room? Bright
10. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you? Smart, Witty, A great frend, a Wonderful lady.
11. What does your watch look like? Blue and Neon Orange sports watch (what?!! I like bright colors)
12. What were you doing at midnight last night? Arguing with N about who should get BB's nightly fix of milk.
13. What did your last text message you received on your cell say? Some gibberish in Italian. I'm assuming it was about some slimming center.
14. What’s a word that you say a lot? NO....as in No, Bonbon!
15. Who told you he/she loved you last? The spouse.
16. Last furry thing you touched? One of BB's stuffed toys, a furry bear with glasses...very cuddly!
17. Favourite age you have been so far? The early and mid-20's rocked.
18. What was the last thing you said to someone? "Shall we have a bath now?"
19.The last song you listened to? I'm so tempted to lie but I won't....Old Mcdonald had a farm.
20. Where did you live in 1987? Bangalore
21. Are you jealous of anyone? Everyone with a high metabolisms.
22. Is anyone jealous of you? No clue but I hope not!
23. Name three things that you have on you at all times? A hair clip, all three ear piercings and my wedding band.
24. What’s your favourite town/city? Bangalore, Zurich, Rome.
25. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it? When I was in school to my BFF who moved to Mysore.
26. Can you change the oil on a car? No but it's something I want to learn.
27. Your first love/big crush: what is the last thing you heard about him/her? This guy in high school...no clue what happened to him after I left school though.
28. Does anything hurt on your body right now? My back.
29.What is your current desktop picture? Nothing. Just the lame blue background for XP.
30. Have you been burnt by love? Nope.

The Pact and a video too!

N and I have a mixed marriage. Not the way you're thinking though. N's a herbivore and I'm a carnivore. Yes, I mean that kind of mixing. I think there ought to a be a law about people stamping themselves as to whether they belong to the former clan or the latter. All ye trolls and miscellaneous nasty elements, I don't give a rat's derriere what you say, I think it should be so because it would save a lot of people a lot of heartache. What heartache..well that's what's going to be in this post, hon! So read on :D

Anyhoo, being from different clans was mildly irritating to both of us. Nothing that good old love couldn't conquer. Or a healthy dose of batting eyelashes and promises of more! So I was allowed to be my carnivore self and on my part I avoided being carnivorous, as much as I possibly could, around N. We had three very happy years during which we got to a point where it didn't even register with either of us. And then we had a baby.

N was adamant that she be raised herbivore and I was equally adamant she be a carnivore. He had his usual it's-murder argument and I had my it'll-give-her-better-survival-chances-should-she-land-in-China one. So we argued, bribed, threatened, scowled, cold-shouldered our way into an agreement, also know as The Pact. The baby would get to eat fish.....ONLY. (Eggs are alright because the spouse says they're not fertilized so technically it's not alive and yadda, when in reality the man loves them and couldn't give them up for anything in the world.) If the baby chose to become vegetarian when she was older then I wouldn't interfere (this bit was forcibly added by N - hope everlasting!). I'm ok with this though. Fish is a great protein source, it's easy to chew with her sole set of molars and there are tons of yummy things to be made from it so she won't lack variety. So we were back to harmony again. When BB saw me eating a perfectly delicious piece of grilled chicken.

I guess I'm to blame for this part but I still maintain that people ought to announce their nutrition clan. Humph. Getting back to the point, she wanted a bite of it just like she has a bite of everything I'm eating. It's something I've always done, give her everything and anything I eat (except booze and caffeine) so she'd learn to eat pretty much everything right from the beginning. Anyhoo, when I refused (I do take The Pact seriously, I'm a rule follower - unfortunately) she dug her heels in and in true toddler fashion wanted to taste it no matter what. Since then she's been going on about eating chicken. She pretend plays it and is often found asking her grandparents for chicken on the phone.

If you're wondering if the heartache part will ever put in an appearance, rest assured it will. Right about here. N has given up and says we should just feed her some chicken and be done with it. His argument, a very sensible and loigcal one at that, is that if she's eating fish already chicken is just a natural progression. I'm more resilient though. I want to give it some time. No, I haven't undergone a change of heart. I just feel that it's not fair to N that this whole pact is swinging in my favor. This is something he feels very strongly about so I really want some of this to go in his favor. A small part of me actually hopes that BB will grow up and become a certified herbivore like her Dadda. Why? Beacause it would make N glow with happiness. Sigh.

So I sneak around and eat chicken or avoid it all together. Heartache, I tell you - pure, unadulerated heartache :(

Btw, here's a video of the Gruyeres from our trip last weekend. This one's taken on the way to the castle. The place is gob-smacking beautiful!

Bonbon Rechristened

It all began this way. With our post-breakfast dose of jumping and bouncing on the bed. I think it's time we bought the child a trampoline so we'll still have a bed standing at the end of the day. I don't want to be sleeping on the floor in my old age. But, I digress. So we're on the bed bouncing, actually BB is and I'm just sitting by the side and keeping an eye so she doesn't hurt herself. And as I tend to so often these days, I lapsed into a reverie, which is indicated by glassy-eyed stare.

BB: *sharply* Mama!
Me: *starts guiltily* Yes, baby?
BB: Mama, look at BB. (her way of saying "pay attention, there are important things happening here!")
Me: *meekly* Ok. Sorry.
BB: Ok. Mama and BB will sing Lambert the Sheepish lion.
So BB and Mama proceed to lustily sing the song (Check out the video, it really is a cute Disney toon!)
Once done, Mama takes a breather and BB runs in circles on the bed and collapses when she's dizzy. She's up in a minute and orders :

BB: Mama sing Hakuna Natata [she never, ever says Matata despite being told a kazillion times. Really bothers my old OCD soul :(] and BB will dance like Pumba and Timon.

Mama proceeds to sing and BB does her jig. I want to add here that the child has two left feet inherited from her father. Such a pity. She suddenly stops and gives me a quick inspection to check that I haven't gone off into my reverie again. Satisfied that I'm still in Bonbon-land she pipes up :

BB: Mama, BB's name is not BB anymore.

Me: Oh really? So what is your name?

BB: It's Pumba *grins proudly to have done better than her parents*

Mama: *seriously* OK, BB.

BB: No Mama, not BB. Pumba-BB.

Me: Ok, Pumba-BB.

So we horse around for a bit more and she announces that "Pumba-BB" is hungry. We proceed to lunch and all is forgotten about the rechristening until N lands home in the evening and she's watching her dose of evening Youtube. As we all, rechristenings aren't official till both parents have heard the announcement so Pumba-BB proceeds to have the entire conversation with her father who isn't very good at hiding his amusement. This leads to a minor tantrum that is doused with some grapes that are promptly squished onto clothes, hair and sofa. All is now well in Bonbon-land.

The proud mommy leaves you with Pumba-BB's first every drawing (which will sell for a few crores in the coming years). For those of you with poor eyesight, it's a herd of elephants ;) Actually it started off as one but the artist decided that one would be lonely and added some company.

A trip, some doubts and introspection

I just replied to akamonica who was wondering why I was MIA. I'm losing my inclination to blog but I'm going to hang in here for a while longer and see if I can recapture the old spark ;)

So. Over the long Easter weekend, we went to Paris. Since it coincided with BB's 2nd birthday, we decided to take her to Disneyland on the big day. She had fun watching her fav characters (Mickey, Donald, Pumba, Pooh but we just missed Dumbo!). We were hoping she could meet her fav character and do some birthday cake cutting there but they didn't have any such thing. All they offered was a birthday cake for 20 euros, which we thought wasn't worth it if she wouldn't get to meet her fav character. So we just hung around the place and saw a wonderful "Wish upon a Dream" parade featuring Disney's popular characters. The witch form snow white had such a blast scaring Bonbon :D N and I were thoroughly entertained too. It made the child in me come out and I just went berserk. All in all, a very nice way to have spent BB's birthday.

During the week we spent in Paris we popped over to N's friend's house, which was a stone's throw from our hotel. He has a 18 month old son who made a good playmate for BB. The evening before we were to leave, they offered to take us to a supermarket to buy some baby food for our long journey the next day. On our way back from the supermarket, BB was sleepy and promptly put her thumb in her mouth. N's friend's wife, L, took one look and pointedly asked me "Oh, does she have a thumbsucking habit?" I gave her a droll look and said yes when what i really wanted to say was "No, she has cannibalistic tendencies and is actually chewing her thumb off, but not to worry it will regenerate by tomorrow".

That put a small shadow on our otherwise nice trip and a little black mark against an otherwise nice woman. She might have just mentioned it as some people have a habit of mentioning the obvious but it hit a raw spot. I'm touchy about BB's thumbsucking habit. Since coming to Switzerland I'm a little better with it because it's no big deal here. Lots of kids suck their thumbs and most of them are about 7-8 years old. Nobody give her a second glance when she's doing it. In India, however, I had numerous occasions where people would ask me or point it out to me. All for what? I have no idea. Myabe that she's insecure, doesn't get enough love, and whatever other psycho crap that is associated with it. I'd just give them all a scathing retort in my head while politely saying yes with my mouth but deep down it makes me wonder if this is indeed true.

Maybe I'm not giving her enough attention. Maybe she feels unloved, although God knows we're doing our best. But is it enough? Maybe I should do more. Maybe if I hadn't gone bck to work when she was months this might not have happened. She started the thumbsucking at 3 months but maybe I was doing something wrong even earlier. Maybe I suck. Maybe I'm the worst mother out there. I don't know but it's eating into me everyday. I'm doing the best I can but I should probably be doing more. Sigh. I can go on this track and end up in tears so I'm going to stop here.

Here' a pic of BB at the Louvre. It's my fav pic from our trip. She stood there admiring the lions for a full 5 minutes!!

The pregnancy tag!

Just as I was contemplating shutting shop on this blog because I simply don't have anything to post on most days, Mama Mia tagged me with the pregnancy tag. I've seen this one doing the rounds and it's a super fun tag to do. So here goes....

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
Nope. We have contraceptive malfunction to thank for this :D On really bad days, I swear I wanna go sue them butts off!

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
Oh, yeah! And thinking that we were not ready to have a baby yet. But whaddyaknow!

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
Me: Oh, f**k!! F**k. F**k. F**k.
N: OH, F**K! F**K. F**K. F**K.
Thankfully, we had 9 months to get accustomed to this ;)

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
Nope. We weren't that scared either!

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
26.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
My period was late and that NEVER happens. I had a strong feeling I was "with child" and finally N and I got a home test kit. I almost fainted when I saw that second line appearing.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
N, of course. Then my parents.

8. DUE DATE?
2nd May 2007.

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
More like afternoon sickness. I barely ate lunch in the first trimester and the sight of the cafeteria would make me want to throw up...and don't even get me started on the water at work. Oh god, I still cringe to think of that phase!!!

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Food, food and more food!! fruit salad, masala dosa, idli, biryani, bread, chicken. I spent a whole week having masala dosa thrice a day :D Ahhh, the good times!

11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
The fact that I had to change my whole lifestyle. ( I don't take kindly to change in my life, I really am a creature of habit.) No more riding bikes, autos, yadda. Since I can't drive, I had to ferryed around...that was a blow! Getting hit on was another nightmare.

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD’S SEX?
A girl!!

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
Nope. If I had to have a baby, I figured I'd fare a female child had more chance of surviving my motherly minstrations than a male :D

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
13kgs. (I'm also a metric person!)

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
Yep. One that my mom and MIL arranged for me. I felt so awful. There I was - a beached whale and there was a ton of people gushing at me.

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
I knew.

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
Apart from the cord around BB's neck in the last trimester, none at all. BB apparently was saving all the grief for her terrible twos!

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Bangalore.

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
12, but just the last 2-3 hours were excruciating!

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL/BIRTH CENTER?
N, the husband!!

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Lemme see now. There were 2 nurses, my gynaec, two junior doctors, two peds. That's the lot! N was too squeamish to be there.H claims he came in during the actually birthing and saw so much blood that he thought it would be better all around if he stayed away!

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
Natural.

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
Nope. It really wasn't all that bad, except for the last 2-3 hours where I wanted to rip N apart for even touching me!

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
2.4 kgs. She was 3 week premature!

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
10th April 2007.

26. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN THE DOCTOR ANNOUNCED THE SEX OF THE BABY?
Thank god, the darn labour is over. Now I wish someone would gimme something to knock me out for a coupla hours. Oh yeah, I wanna see what my baby looks like!!!

27. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION ON SEEING THE BABY?
Acutally it was a while before I saw her. My eyesight was all blurred for half an hour after the delivery. I thought I had gone blind and was too freaked to hold her, lest I drop her! But when I did see her I thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world, and also the most tiny :)

28. DID YOU CRY?
Nope. I was in awe of the whole thing. This little mite must of had a rough time coming out too and there she was curiously looking up at me. I wondered if she knew who I was.

29. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
Bonbon :)

30. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY
She's 1 year, 11 months and 2 days old :)

Like Mama mia, I wanted to post some pics here but they're all in my home PC in India :( FWIW, my facebook profile photo is of me a couple of weeks pregnant, I just dindn't know it then. Fb also has a pic of me 8 months pregnant. Those of you who know me there, pls to go and check them out.

Thanks so much Mama mia, I had such fun doing this. Like you, these were the best 9 months of my life!!