Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thankful to have such wonderful kids and a great family, showing off another piece of art from my elder one :)

Thanksgiving Turkey craft

The Budding Artist!

So it's been an experiment for the last month and a half. No idiot box for my three year old! We thought it would be a painstakingly one, considering she would see an hour of TV everyday ever since she's been two, but circumstances (no, I am not revealing the reason why we stopped TV, in case she see this blog twenty years later...lol!).
Looking at the positive side of things, it has yielded great results....now she is much more active (Daddy's teaching her biking, skating, etc.), she's reading her books, solving puzzles, joining dots and also trying to write a few letters and I am a more satisfied mom as she is enjoying what she does. She is not glued to the TV anymore and the transition was pretty quick.

As a socially active mom, I looked up a few places where she would get more exposure to her newly found hobby for art, cutting, pasting, etc. (we're trying to improve her focus and concentration) and we got some pretty good free classes - Home Depot, Lowe's, The School Box, Michaels to name a few. And more if you keep your social eyes open - the holidays have a lot to offer!

Thumbprint Turkey at The School Box

Opposites attract

So we are teaching our three-year old the art of expression. She's the quiet kinds, needs to be directed, asks a lot of questions before she puts them into action, thinks a lot before she commits - someone, a little more mature than a three and a half year old. The pregnancy made me overlook a few things on her side and I want to get back in action as her mom once again and help her flower and bloom with her individuality.
Our two month old is exactly the opposite, very expressive even at this young age. Makes his presence felt. Very assertive and aggressive - yes, even as a baby I can see the difference. Takes a while to calm his frisky personality. I wonder how I will deal with his personality when he'll be three years old.

Juggling between two personalities is very demanding ...and also needs dedication. But it is fun to watch the extremities and even experience them at their demanding best. I am also lucky to experience both genders. Both have a unique sense of existence, even as babies - so different from each other. It's amazing how your mind can/wants to adapt to these individual sensitivities and react separately with each developing personality.
It's great having the two of them and see their dynamics together - she adores him and loves him to death and he can't takes his eyes off her ....hmmm....for the moment. As my mom says, "Enjoy it - these innocent days never come back again!"

Patience and its rewards

I typed this a fortnight before my second one was born -
So we have a situation here. Our little one is getting impatient and waking up at four in the morning wondering when her little sibling will be born and she can enjoy bathtime with the little one! She does not understand the concept of time. So from the last two weeks, we've been trying to make her understand the days in the week. Before that was even tough as you would tell her about a birthday party on Saturday (this would happen on a Wednesday) and that would start the string of questions every day, every hour  about how we're not at the party yet!
Talking about patience myself, I feel a lot like her these days with only two more weeks remaining. Are we there yet? Is it time yet? When will this baby be here?!? How will we cope?
Gauging time is the biggest factor now - especially when people look at you and say, "Hey, you not in the hospital as yet?"

And here I am six weeks post delivery, multitasking, multi-thinking and now wondering about how much time I really had before delivery and how much fun that was...lol
It's fun being a second time parent, except that now your attention is divided among the two of them. We both do a good job spending time with her and she does a good one too helping us with our infant. I see a maturity in her, I had never noticed before. She always had that serene, nurturing nature and time has played a great part in helping her enhance it.

Time played her part very well there.
Hope my next post does not take too much time from this one.  :)

My second, asleep :)

The BIG One!

Being pregnant really puts you in a flashback mode. I try to keep remembering the first few memories with my first one and some stand out more prominent than the others. One of the big ones were her first birthday celebration. Never was as excited for any of her birthdays like this one, the first year - a birthday a celebration more for me, a realization of being a great parent and have survived the most difficult part - the first year. I did celebrate her each month but this was even more special! The theme, the invitations, the decorations, the food, the custom goody bags - I had a great time planning the fun event at home...even the thank you cards! Sharing some decoration pics of the Spring theme birthday!

The goody bags!

The decorations for the Spring Theme.

The Easter candy eggs.

The paper-art fireplace aquarium with fishes.

The view of the Sun on the ceiling with handmade streamer rays from the den.

The different colored flowers out of popsicle sticks and stars.

Each goody bag was customized for the family invited!

The Sun in layers of yellow, orange and red.

The kitchen window adorned with  more spring flowers and bugs.

Shrikhand (Indian milk dessert)

I don't know how long it has been since I love Shrikhand. Since I was born...maybe!
I attempt to recreate my food based on my childhood memories and how my mom would use dessert to make each occasion memorable. Now don't get me wrong. I don't have memories of fond motherly cooking here. But Aai (my mom) is very creative on making small moments special with these sweet treats. Maybe a good grade, an unexpected but welcome visitor would trigger a Shrikhand-puri and our day would be made.

My dad would like the variations, the Aamrakhand (mango version), the pista-badam (pistachio-almond) and even the strawberry version (which came so much later in the game). I like the luscious feel of shrikhand - the rich, thick but creamy and malleable. It has to be just the right consistency. My love for velchi (cardamom) is also responsible for loving this Maharashtrian dessert to eternity.

Shrikhand puri, modak and carrot yogurt for Ganesh Chaturthi 2010

Coming from that childhood memory to making one with my three year old. We introduced her to Shrikhand a while back, but she got the love and liking for it recently. I love it when she so sweetly calls it, "Shleekandh please Aai!". I know that dessert love is for life.
My mom never made till later in my twenties so never really got the recipe from. Once in the US, I searched my way out for Konkani and other recipes liked and Aayi's recipes, maybe 5 years back.
Here is her recipe which I use as the basic recipe for Shrikhand.
But my version is slightly different.

• I use a combination of  Greek and Indian yogurt. It gives the hung yogurt a thicker consistency and does not thin down easily with time like the other yogurts too.
• I add less sugar than her's (I am not the sweet tooth kinds - just enough is perfect!) and no sour cream for me, either.
• I grind the cardamom myself (Totally my take, but you can differ - gives a better taste with ground cardamom)
• I also add some charolis (you would get these in the Indian store), ground pistachios and ground almonds in the yogurt to give that extra crunch, color and texture to my Shrikhand.

Pista (Pistachio)-Badam (Almond)-Kesar (Saffron) Shrikhand in its full glory!

And yes, I can lick this one to the last lick! Just like my daughter does!

Milestones

I have been updating Facebook at different times in the last two and a half years with my daughter's milestones. Its funny how you tend to remember the most unusual things about your baby!
Here are some of them:
July 4th, 2011 - She now uses 3-letter and one letter alphabet flashcards very well!!
June 20th, 2011  -She actually made up her own little story about her little sibling which made people in her school think that we delivered the baby and got the baby home!
June 1st, 2011 - We started reading her real storybooks - making up stories with imagination!
Mar 7th, 2011 - We shared the news with her about her little to-be sibling!
Oct 15th, 2010 - Her first potty success!
Oct 4th, 2010: Still can't get over the fact that my girl wrote her first few letters (V, U, O) on her blackboard and also identified them correctly...time goes way too fast for a two and a half year old!
April 19, 2009: She actually walked from chair to chair without support! And she does this when Dad's just about to leave for in International MBA colloquium to Chile and Argentina!
June 15th, 2010: Her first word was Dadaaa (which meant Daddy) but she was calling everyone that!!!
Here favorite color has been blue (she started calling it "booo")
Here first distinction between similar sounding words came when she told me the difference between "eye", "I" and "Aai" (in our language it means mom) and it took her almost four months to explain me that in her baby language!!! She still calls her gummies "num-num"!
I wonder how we make meaning of certain words, names, things and places. My dad told me for some reason I would call our home radio, "echo" :)
Sweet childhood memories indeed!

Heeaww!!

Paavachi Usal (baked)

Paavachi usal is a dry stir-fry of pieces of bread - goes well as an afternoon snack with Indian tea.Very popular in Mumbai - in the essentially middle-class Maharashtrian family, it is associated as a great Sunday brunch (comfort family food). My mom would make this snack with utter perfection and it brings back great memories, my mom would know the way to her family's heart and mine with this snack. Life was much different then, you were more active, you walked more and this snack would not affect you due to your metabolic activity. With a more sedentary lifestyle, pouring my eyes into a bright laptop, with one toddler and another one on the way - it makes it hard to make it with the kind of ingredients my mom would make. So I chose to modify it a bit and voila - it turned out better than the original - but that is totally me and my taste. What made it different was the crispy texture the baked version gave. To some, the idea of  the drenched oil-soaked bread, tastes delicious but mine is much lighter, crisper and most importantly healthier!

All you need is some whole grain bread, some finely cut red onion (and tomatoes - lesser by the quantity if you want the tart taste, I use some light ketchup), some also use finely chopped potato (but that upto you as to how hungry you are!! I use it sometimes, sometimes I don't). i also add some finely chopped jalapeño for some kick. For the stir-fry you need the usual - some mustard seeds and cumin seeds, turmeric powder and if you like it spicy, some red chilli powder. for the dressing you need some fresh squeezed lime/lemon (that also adds to the tang) and some chopped cilantro.

Now that you have the ingredients, time for the challenging part...how do you know how well to bake the bread? You have to do the trial-an-error game a few times till you know how crispy or soft you want it. I usually make small pieces of the bread, spread them on an aluminium foil/bake-ware in the oven at 350F and spray some oil. Then garnish with a little oil and some chilli powder/maybe even a cajun spice! For me, it get slightly more brown than it is already but I check the crispiness after every 10-15 mins, the minute I feel it's done, it's out of the oven. the you take a shallow pan (something that can hold all the bread and leave you some room to stir the ingredients in!). If I add potato, I also bake it with some salt and spice. Crackle the cumin and mustard seeds over 1tbsp of oil, add the turmeric and the jalapeño and stir in the chopped red onion. After the onion is cooked midway add some salt. Then add the tomato/ketchup (1 tsp.) to taste. Make sure the onion is nice and soft and if the tomato is added, the juice mixes in nicely. Stir in the bread pieces slowly till everything mixes in and also the potato. add some lime juice (or lemon) and stir it in. I keep it covered for say, 15 mins for the bread to soak it all in. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro (and some sev for that extra crunch!) while serving....yummm!

Paavachi usal with some freshly squeezed grapefruit-orange-mint cocktail!

Thanks to Skillet stories on Facebook to revive me and blog back on track!