School days



How can it possibly be October…already? In only 24 days Nishad will be 3 years old! In only 28 days Arun will be a 1 year old! Only 6 days after that, and I turn radiant again as it’s another older, more experienced and hopefully wiser year for me.

Ashish return home last week from SFO. He brought back the boys the most adorable cable cars. Nishad already ‘investigated’ it and took part of it apart- my little creative scientist! Arun was happy “Vrrrrrrom Vrooooming” the cable car around the house. My Love brought me back the cutest purses from Chinatown! Of course, the BEST thing Ashish brought back was himself! 🙂

Saturday I was out the door as I had a booking. We had a low key weekend as I was swamped with orders to complete and Ashish needed some recovery time (I did too for the record~ Still waiting on that! ha,ha.) The boys are just now getting back into the groove of things. Nishad kept asking if Daddy was coming home, or if he went on a plane again to California.

I bow down to single Moms. Yes, I know you have to do, what you have to do. It still doesn’t take away the fact that what they do on a daily basis is pretty incredible. For me, this week was really interesting as I choose to stay at home (as a stay-at-home Mom) with my kids, and therefore had no respite -around the clock. Between cooking, cleaning, baths, bedtimes, playing, daily rituals…who has time to think about Mom’s needs?

Arun is our little chatter box! He no longer walks- but runs. haha. He’s so funny with that big diaper on…running. With the cost of diapers increasing ($46/box yesterday!), we’ll be potty training him early- or waiting until his diaper is to his knees. haha.. Just kidding! He can hold his own with his brother now and sure lets Nishad know if he is in disagreement of a decision Nishad has made. I made the mistake of telling Arun something wih Nishad in ear shot a few days ago while changing him. For the next few hours all I heard was, “Arun, you are a poop machine!” Of course, then he would try to validate his comment by saying, “Everyone eats! Everyone poops!” As if to tell Arun, “Hey, Brother…it’s all good!”

Nishad, lover of puppets and books has now evolved into quite the creative story teller! He enjoys telling us all stories he creates, and even “reads” to us. The things he says and how he says it so nonchalant really make me appreciate this stage even more so. I picked him up from school a few days ago and he said, “Mama, a fly was in the car!” I rolled down the windows and turned around to look at him and said, “Where is it?” He replied, “It’s gone now.” I said, “Oh, it flew out?” He replied, “Yes, the fly fluttered away.”

At pick-up, his teacher escorted a very happy Nishad to our car. He had a smile filled with pride on his face and a hop and a skip in his step! He was very excited to show me the “work” he brought home. On Monday, he brought home some artwork as well. This is a treat for Dad and I as normally, Montessori students don’t bring work to show as it’s not about the product, but the process.

Since the beginning of school Nishad has been speaking about “Thomas.” Of course, this set off a red flag in my book. I thought, “Wonderful! We take the extra effort that we don’t clutter his mind with cartoons/commercialism and he goes to school and learns from his peers about it.” So, I asked him a very dumb question on my part. “Nishad, is Thomas a train?” He looked at me as though he was taken aback, “Mama, that is so silly. Thomas is my friend. He is not a choo-choo!” Well, during pick-up, I meet Thomas and his mother. They are indeed- not a family of choo-choo’s. However, they are a very nice family.

We have parent education night coming up next week, and coffee with the director of the school next week from 8am-9am. Hopefully, Arun will find the open coffee chat as interesting as I do.

On a side note, Nishad has been all a buzz over decorating for “Pumpkin Day!” He put up all the window clings by himself and found a spot for our other decorations throughout the house. Ashish and I got out the other night and put some lights up outside that Nishad picked out at the store. Purple icicles and an orange spider web.

As for me, I have yet to get out to my garden and wrap things up for the year. I feel a bit cheated as we really had a long winter and a shorter summer this year. Oh well, no control over that. I had Ashish start the lawn mower yesterday so I could finally mow the lawn. He said it needed oil. I tried to start it while he was gone to surprise him that the lawn was already mowed- no such luck. I’m looking forward to the VP debate tonight. After being bombarded by Facebook invites for the last few years (Ashish doens’t like those sites), I finally registered. Not too sure how adamant I will be at keeping that up, but it is another way to keep in touch with so many of you scattered about that I love! 🙂

SEA to SFO










We are happy to report that Daddy has made it safely to his hotel! As I type he’s already chattin’ it up with an old pal he use to work with back in the land of Obama. His friend now lives in San Jose. It’s too bad Ashish didn’t coordinate with Auntie D and Uncle J who live in Campbell as well! Next time…when we ALL go. 🙂 Ironically, Ashish was telling me about a family who are moving from Los Altos to Saint Paul. The guy accepted a director’s position in the city so they won’t sell their house back in Cali, instead they plan on renting it. He told Ashish that they found a great house in Saint Paul. So, it was good for both Ashish and their family to network about each others city, family, jobs, perks and cons.
I’m really happy with the way things are progressing with my photography and design work. It feels good to help people and offer something different that I love to do.
On Saturday we did venture out as a family for apple picking! We’re going to have Nishad and Arun’s birthday party there- so it’s under wraps for now…surprise!! I DID get the most adorable (if I might say) photos of the boys while out!
It feels so odd to have just the boys and myself in the house…We miss you, Honey! Arun just walked around repeating, “Dada!” and Nishad was extra snuggly. He’s not feeling to well either. I decided to let him rest in our bed and when I went to check on it I laid down next to him and he pulled my face close to his and kissed me. Then he said, “Dada in a hotel?” I said, “Yes Nishad.” Then he said, “Dada on a BIG plane today.” I said, “Yes, Nishad.” Then he said to me, “It’s okay, Mama. I’m feeling better. I want to sleep in my bed now.” I’m reminded of Ashish through Nishad on a daily basis- not only by his physical characteristics…but by his big heart and loving nature filled with compassion.
I do have more to add tonight, however, I’ve been on the go, go, go with the boys with hardly enough time to even rest my feet~ time to finally retire, another long day ahead.

MSP to SEA

Ashish, affectionately known as Honey and Daddy, has already departed the land of lakes to attend a conference at the city by the bay. We already miss him. We dropped him off at the airport by 5:30AM and he called us when he made it through security. As we passed the plane hangers, Nishad said, “Daddy’s going on a plane.” I reassured Nishad that Daddy would be back soon. I reminded him of how he was on a plane twice already! Once when we went to California when he was 4 1/2 months old and another time when we went to Florida when he was 18-months old. We’re following his flight online. If only we had wings! He has a stop in SEA, then on to SFO. We surely look forward to all the stories Daddy will have to share with us when he returns, but we look forward to hugging Daddy again most of all! This is the first time I’m alone with the boys. I’m sure I’ll have a busy week! Our family has a missing piece…that’s already apparent. God Bless, Daddy~ Safe and healthy travels…

Geez Bees!

Gotta love veggie bacon by Morning Star!

Cracker, Bed, An-gee (hindi), Dada, occasionally Mama, Tiger and Bhder are Mr. Arun’s latest words. Amazing how they just suddenly start talking! He loves it when I play tickle him when saying, “I’m gonna GET you!” Oh, he laughs so hard and sometimes he’ll try to run or crawl away from me fast. Ashish says when he tried to crawl fast, in the excitement of the moment, with his head bobbing back and forth, he looks like a little bull. haha! We can’t ever leave him out of any action either. No, sir! He wants to be involved in everything we or his brother does. He has quite the sense of humor too, and has already figured out how to charm us in order to get exactly what he wants.

“Baby’s walking! Baby’s walking! He’s doing it Mama. You can do it, Tiger!” Nishad still gets excited over the marvels of infancy and the transition to toddler hood. As a matter of fact, Ashish and I still marvel at the idea of it. 🙂 I think we as parents and human beings naturally compare the process from one child to another. Not in a competitive way, but a casual, learning curve of, “remember when…?” It is a lot easier to know what to expect the second time around. However, children have different personalities and needs. It’s important to remember to view every child, regardless of birth order, as gifted and unique.

Nishad really has settled in at school. I get great daily reports back from his teacher. She beats our expectations. We already had to buy new Croc shoes as he’s feet have out grown the other ones. I meet his friend Thomas and his mother, Beth the other day at pick-up. It was nice to put a face with the name.

Yesterday morning we went out for our morning walk with Krista and Lucas. This was a much longer walk, but it didn’t seem that long as it was great company. Us Mommy’s battled the bee’s together- they were crazy! After we headed down to the park to play with Laurie, Luke, Sean an Baby Sage. Baby Sage is looking cuter by the minute! Luke has gotten so tall! He’s such a big boy now! He turned 5 last August and is now in Kindergarten! Sean is so chatty! The bee’s were at the park too. Argh. I have come to really look forward to my Tuesday’s with the ladies and the kiddies. Before I could swat another bee, it was time to leave to pick up Nishad.

I have a week-night photo shoot tomorrow- Exciting! I’ve received many positive e-mails from the belly dance troupe that has made me feel not only appreciated, but happy that they like the work I did so much!

Belly Dancers

This weekend was the Otsego Festival. Though I am no longer a member of the committee, I wasn’t able to ‘volunteer’ for anything either as I had 4 photography bookings.

The weather wasn’t picturesque, but despite the rain, I did get some great shots of Dance Caravan. I really enjoyed working with this group of 12 dancers. Such troopers in the rain! I was hired for two bookings with them; one to document their live performance and another for stills.

The following day, I had two additional bookings- two wonderful families that I gave the option of re-scheduling as it was ‘really’ raining. They opted to re-schedule, so I look forward to taking their pictures in the coming weeks!

I feel blessed that I was able to turn my love of photography and deisgn into something that I could share with others and create a business from it. My love, Ashish, stayed home with the kids so I could go focus on my business and passion. I also worked on some updated brochures and I’ll need to get some more business cards soon! In a week, I’ll be promoting my Autumn package, so stay tuned!