The adjustment period...First Week in new house.

Ok, so we have one whole week under our belt. Everyone is experiencing adjustments. The first night Shraddha was asking if she could go home. But we are all having comfort in each others presence. Heck, even the cats are all getting along and smooshing next to me. Dogs sleep and fart at my feet, and Shraddha is cuddling with me all night long. She laughs as I get ready for bed, she sings and teases... "I am on your side of the bed!"

Not really sure what to call this blog now... as we are not Woodland Foothill folks anymore. We are officially living in the suburbs. And it is nice. I am so glad that so many people pressured me to move even though I wasn't sure it was what I wanted to do. As a new found single mom. Yes officially posted as of now..... Life is much easier here in the City.

I am thankful for my sabbatical up in the foothills far from civilization. I had much meditation and time with nature and many conversations with the earth in which I learned so much about myself and grew stronger for it. Stronger emotionally and physically. It is quite jarring moving back into the real world. But I am ready and enjoying it. I love being closer to friends and that my commute has been cut from 60 min to 5 minutes. This has been much like a birthing process.... not easy...very painful... yet somehow all so worth it and I feel so much stronger knowing I made it through. So I hold on to my daughter and smile in our ability to be strong enough to make it through this process and flexible enough not to break when the heavy winds blow.

Many thanks to all my supportive friends and family! For you, I am forever grateful!

What are we up to?

Well it seems it is 11:51 and I am still very much awake. Why would that be? Could it be the GINORMOUS Pepsi I had at 5:30 this evening? Yeah, I thought I was cutting out caffine from my diet? So besides that I am working and Tweeting and Stumbling and Mothering Miss Shraddha.

Seems she might be spending too much time at Beckie's house because on the drive home she insited that her last name was Gist. ****sigh**** She is sooooo funny. But look at how much fun she has been having! at TOT SCHOOL. She loves spending time with Beckie and family. She is so excited in the morning when she asks where are we going, and I say to Beckies!

Shraddha asks, "To see Jack?" yep "He is my friend."

"and Danielle?" Yes Baby and Danielle "YAYYYY!"

"and Dean?" Yes "He brings me rice and beans."

"And Beckie?" LOL yes, and Beckie, of course! "She loves me and I love her too"

I have to blog this as a Blessing because we are so blessed to be able to have such good friends to hang out with and to play with Shraddha when I am at work. The hardest thing in the world for me is to not be with her and have to be at work. It is so much easier for me knowing she loves to hang out with you Beckie.

I do very much love my job/career/calling as a physical therapist. I love helping people, but if not for financial reasons people... don't make me choose. Seriously, I almost walked away from my house because it is not worth more to me than time with her. Mortgage companies are nice right now though, helping me to modify my loan and have smaller payments. I may hang out here for a little while until I can sell. Still up in the air though.

It's nice having a house, way out here with a forest across the street and a waterfall and creek. Lots of place to play and have chickens and dogs. Tons of butterflies to catch and flowers to watch grow... Beautiful sunsets and sunrises all of which I can see from my dining room table while I have breakfast and dinner with the light in my life.

At the same time the drive, the maintence, the expense... just isnt what I planned on when I moved here. I never planned on needing to work more than 1-2 days a week and the plan was only for a little while.

The stupidest things I said this week.

I'm still not one that is big on Memes but this one just happened all on its own.

The top 5 stupidest things I have said this week....

5. "I'll just eat one Rice Krispies Treat." Fixed some yummy no gelatin RKTs after dinner today. So much for staying on track today.

4. Shraddha asks for her favorite Flinstone's vitamin at dinner time tonite, but we already had vitamins with breakfast. She insists over and over "I want a vitamin!". "Shraddha the vitamins are in your veggies!" Shraddha almost cries because she digs and digs in her veggies and can't find the vitamins.

3. "Ok, Shraddha, FINE. You can wear your nice shirt while you paint today, because the paints are washable." Can someone please tell me what they mean by washable? It sure doesn't mean stain free!

2. "Madhava, would you like to paint on the easel or the floor today?"
"Oh I like the floor!" Madhava says very eagerly.
"Great, I will be right back." I walk away to get his paper and come back to find Madhava painting the linoleum orange.
"You said I could paint on the floor!"

1. It's the day after Thanksgiving. I'm alone, the kids are with Daddy on the way home. There is a BIG sale, and a BIG coupon. I am really needing some Mommy time.... and I say to Roger,
"I'm just going to run into Michael's for a minute to get paint." What was I thinking?


TaDa List for today....

1. I could see the bottom of the sink all day!
2. Picked up all the toys.
3. Washed more laundry to add to the huge clean laundry pile.
4. Vacuumed, treated stains, and steam cleaned the entire front room.
5. Spent quality time doing arts and crafts with Shraddha.
6. Made a healthy dinner and Rice Krispies Treats for desert.

YAY Shraddha!

Warning... the following post has content that might be too much for sensitive viewers. This blog post is made by the proud mother of a potty training toddler. Be appreciative that I don't post pictures.

Today Shraddha was having some Daddy time while I was at work. She told him that she was getting sleepy and it was time for a nap. He helped her over to the couch and she slept for 2 hrs! Then when she woke up she told him, "Come on Daddy, it's time to go potty!"

He took her to the public restroom. Without hesitation, Shraddha let Daddy put her on the BIG potty and she peed!

I just didn't believe it. I am always asking her to use the baby or the big potty at home and she ALWAYS says "no!" That must be the difference. He waits for her to ask and I ask too many times.

In disbelief, I asked if she wanted to go to the restroom with Mommy. And not only did she say yes but she very cooperatively sat alone on the potty! And for the greatest kicker.... she POOPED! Dry... Clean... Diaper alll day long!

Funniest things I heard this week..

10. "I'll call you back just as soon as I am done cleaning house"

9. "Excuse me parents, my eye is sweating!" Madhava says after some dirt gets flicked into it.

8. Be healthy, Drink Pomegranate Sake!

7. "Angela, call and let me know what weekends you want to work" Allison - looking for Physical Therapist to cover weekend time at the hospital.

6. " I saw the picture you had of Daddy in his panties on the blog. That is just wrong!" Madhava

5. Shraddha telling me about the scenery on the way to town,

" The baby birdy eats the bugs."

"That is right Shraddha!" Mama says proudly.

"And the cow eats the ducks"

"Huh?" thinking I just didn't quite get the last word...

"Ducks Mama! You know..... quack quack!"

4. Shraddha passes gas quite loudly... looks around and says, "Mommy did it!"

3. "Fried cheese is the shiznits!", Kimmiesue on Twitter.com

2. "You need to put the new diaper on before he sticks his finger in his butt!" Beckie coaching her parental units on proper Jack-jack diapering.

1. Tiffiny says last night during desert, "I never eat the end of the Banana, that the Bananus!"

It looks slimy yet satisfying, but really it is a vegetarian roll. NO, its not made with real vegetarians!

Las Chicas

Happy Birthday Beckie!

Remembering summertime

October 2007

Reminiscing about the lovely summer we had while we were off on our summer sabbatical. (Ok so I just didn’t get to blogging almost all summer!)

Lots of lazy summer days playing in the sprinklers and mud.
Tons of tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant and watermelon were eaten.
Much more to come from the looks of the garden!

We even made some nice getaway day trips to the coast, and to Avocado Lake.
Enjoyed some festivities during 4th of July and played and played and played outside!
So many good times with our friends!

We stayed cool inside eating Basil tomato sandwiches and fresh fruit smoothies and drinking chocolate mint tea all from our garden. We tried to keep the watermelon eating to picnics in the shade but that is what got us in the whole watermelon gardening mess in the first place! Stray seeds landing in my flowerbeds, grew faster then the flowers and weeds!
They would probably grow right on the cement if we didn’t wash them off our walkways!

And Zucchini! Let’s just say…. Don’t leave your car unlocked or I will stuff a bag of monster sized zucs in your backseat!

One of my favorite memories was resting back on the driveway with Shraddha, watching the clouds passing by and enjoying the summer breezes. We didn’t even need to say a word other than, “wow!”,while we soaked in all the summer sensations. We could smell the flowers, feel the wind, hear the leaves in the trees blowing, and just watch all the beauty all around us up on the top of the hill….. pure bliss.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day May 13th, 2007
I haven't had a chance to post about my Mother's Day until now. After a nice French Toast breakfast by Roger, we all went outside to play. Ok well, Roger went out to bring our property up to fire code by doing some bushwackin' while Shraddha and I picked wildflower bouquets.

The weeds were so high and thick that we couldn't get to the flowers until a path was cut down at least not without stepping on any snakes! Shraddha was so excited to see the flowers... there were so many that the surrounding hillsides looked purple.

She was even more excited to get a chance to cut the flowers herself.


We broke out the Playdough and our new Mr. Playdough Head parts. One of the best toys we have ever bought! This is serious playtime as you can see, it goes on for almost an hour! The novelty still hasn't worn out she plays with it everyday that we are home.

Shraddha had to try the nose on herself just to make sure it was going to be a good fit.

Mother's Day Orchids!

Good Job Shraddha!

Shraddha pooped in the potty! Whoo HOOOO! I will spare you the pictures on this one.
But if you could just see how proud she was and her beaming smile. Funny how poop can make a mom's day a little brighter!

I gave her a big hug and two stickers. Where did she stick the stickers? Right on her diaper of course.

Family Time!

I just finally uploaded my pictures to the computer. I had this post saved as a draft since Monday!

Another Big Family Weekend!
May 5 & 6, 2007
Saturday:

Roger cleared out some high grass and made room to get the truck out and room to plant some trees! The grass was so thick and so high that you couldn't see if there were snakes. So it was totally inaccessable to us. And I have had enough of chopping up rattlesnakes for this month!

We purchased some trees that we have been wanting since we moved here!

Fuji Apple, Asian pear (Apple-Pear), Almond, Pomegranet, Cherry and Apricot. Redwood for the front yard.

I still have a bunch of herbs and strawberries to plant and even have some sunflowers starting to pop out of the dirt. I was just thinking it was getting late and I really wanted to get some basil planted when I noticed that all the little weeds where the basil was last year are actually basil seedlings YEAH! I have a TON!

We also went to a carnival for Centerville. I met a friend I haven't seen in 4 years! And remembered why it had been 4 years. Somthing about her husband being my ex's best friend. That is a little hard on a friendship. I think I was the one that just let it go. Plus she abruptly ended the conversation with a patronizing pat on my shoulder when she asked if I was working and I said that I was only working a few hours a week b/c I really wanted to be home with my baby. It is amazing to me how you can be so close to someone and have many of the same values and common interests - until you have children and go in opposite directions.

I am very lucky and happy to have the opportunity to surround myself with moms and friends that are supportive and that have the same parenting ideals that I have.

Sunday:

We went to play at a garden center and purchased some more plants and gofer bate. Blueberry Misty and Thompson seedless grapes YEAH! and chocolate mint YUM!

We decided we want a tree for shading the roof and the front yard but haven't picked it out yet.
Chinese Pistachio, Liquid amber? Ginko, Aspen? Silverdoller eucolyptus? maybe something that flowers? or a ornamental purple red plum? - ah maybe not by the front door. And we want a kumkwat tree and a meyer lemon! roses, jasmine, and gardinia.

I just could barely get the laundry clean and hung out to dry and all the meals (but breakfast) and all the dishes cleaned as well as watering the plants. between all that and babytime and time at the nursery.... I still didnt get the laundry folded. and I am stealing my sleeping time to get caught up on emails some peaceful time alone and blogging.

Shraddha's World

I found Shraddha busy nursing Elmo while watching Caillou and Rosie. I wasn't sure at first until she asked if he wanted the other side LOL!

She is on my lap nursing at the moment but let go to sing Elmo's world with her word for nurse. "me-me meme me-me meme Shraddha's world."

Here is the belt I crocheted for Shraddha in Gumdrop from Peaches & Cream

Ok, I think I'm done blogging today. Gotta eat, fold and wash, and other mommy and baby things to catch up on.

Back to work

Just started back to work on Monday. I'm only working 8 hours or so a week. And Shraddha is enjoying her time with Beckie and playing with Danielle and Jack-Jack. She was giving Beckie hugs yesterday, and believe me.... not everyone gets hugs! She tries to say Danielle and Jack-jack.

The otherday I was at Beckie's house and Shraddha was asking "Mama? Mama? I want Danielle."

Work is kinda weird for me right now. I am trying to figure out what MY role is... or what will be important to me. In the past case management has been very important to me. I would even stay late to make sure everything was taken care of before I left. Now, Mothering my children is most important and I am leaving exactly on time.

I have very much enjoyed getting back intouch with a friend of mine. It seems I am replacing her as she is out on maternity. I really love her theory on being a per dium PT at a SNF. Usually (as case managers) we are pressured into seeing what the patient can do for us. No significant progress.... means no reimbursement... which means no further PT. But Kyndra's thoughts are, "What can I do for the patient?" That's IT! That is the exact reason I became a P.T. Not to be the intrument for the contracting company(AKA PT Pimps) or the SNF. I realized THAT is the very reason I have turned down so many other great paying jobs in this field. This is the theory that we use at our office but it feels good figuring how to apply it to inpatients too.

Sleepless in Squaw Valley

Shraddha was soooo tired when we got home last night and so was I so we went to bed relatively early. She was in a light sleep....THEN Daddy came home LOL. She got her second wind and in an attempt to compensate for how tired she was she went WACKO! Running around screaming and laughing. I was still in bed when I could hear Roger pleading with Shraddha to come to bed.

After 20 min or so of me being exhausted and Shraddha doing nursing aerobics and jumping back and forth over me to be with Daddy then to nurse(with Mommy LOL) then beat on Daddy then sleep on Mommy's head.... I gave up and gave in. "Hey Baby....You wanna watch Elmo?" It worked like a charm. She watched Elmo and Mommy slept. When it was over she came back to bed and went to sleep somewhere around midnight.

So I'm still tired and so is Roger. Only he is far more tired because he gave up at the same time I did and went to sleep in Madhava's room. And then Madhava woke up around 4:30 am. I have to laugh... this is like some sort of torcher test right?...like for the CIA? Is it passwords that you want? My cell phone # for telemarketers? Whatever it is I will give it up just let me SLEEEEEEEEP. I'm so weak LOL.

Tonite I was just thinking about watching a little bit of ANYTHING BUT ELMO before I went to bed. But how can I resist....Mama Mama? Mo-Mo Mo-Mo? PEEEEAAAASE? with her head cocked to the side and leaning forward looking into my eyes with the perfect pleading expression on her face? Where did she learn that? NO FAIR.....

La la la la La la la la Elmo's World....

Blue Butterflies on the Basal and other "B" things from this fall.

Our Basal plants (which almost froze last night) were full of bees and these little blue butterflies. They were so much fun to watch this summer and fall. Shraddha added bees and butterflies to her vocabulary.


Shraddha (16 months here) very much enjoys playing at the beach. She would have a blast playing just in the sand and not even notice the water! But once she did notice the water she made a B-line to it! And would stay in the water until her lips were blue!

BAD Sadie...
Many people this fall were raking up leaves, not me. I was busy raking up bits of foam from a cushion that Sadie enjoyed tearing up. There was so much foam that it filled up a 55 gallon trash can!








Began kindergarten!
This fall Madhava was selected from his preschool class to start kindergarten early. He is doing a great job learning to read and to say all kinds of colorful words.

Bouldering with Bubba! We love spending time climbing on and around the big boulders!




Birdie watching and chasing at the beach. This is one of Shraddha's signs for bird.

Blogging baby pic and blast from the past

Shraddha insists on blogging with me tonight. I have been trying to wait for her to fall asleep but so far it isn't happening before I am too exhausted. I got this cute pic and now I wish I had taken it in a higher resolution because it is such a good pic!

She was so upset when I wasn't home after tucking Madhava into bed and singing night-night songs. Roger says she went to the door and cried Mama Mama Mama for a while before she settled down to watch TV with Daddy. Apparently she was just fine when they all went to Red Robin for dinner. Wonder if she got to have her own bowl of mac & cheese or if she was eating her brother's instead? Last week Madhava was having to share his macaroni and cheese and was sad watching Baby eat it all....., "Oh, I hope she leaves some for me!"

I was having fun rocking out on the drive home. My ears are still ringing from blasting, "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" by Offspring. You know this song was released 12 years ago?! Man, seems like yesterday I was just blasting this in my dorm room. Way back when WWW didn't really exist and I was typing on a word processor, not a computer. When I was really buff and would roll my eyes at guys asking if I needed help carrying my bike up 3 flights of steps, "Do I look like I need help?" Yes, my bike slept in my dorm-room with me. Way back when I was exhausted trying to keep up with all my reading and homework.... dreaming of the day when there was no more homework. HA HA HA HA!

Now, I'm blogging while nursing my baby, surrounded by piles of homework. At least this isn't the kind of homework that someone else gets credit for after all my hard research. Now I would LOVE if someone noticed that I needed help and offered to help me. My baby sleeps next to me instead of the bike and I enjoy shopping for cloth diapers online. If anyone ever tried to tell me that this is what my life would be like I would have laughed. And I still laugh now knowing that I wouldn't want it any other way.

ahhhh silence

Sleep deprived and oh so tired but not as tortured as Tina is now or Tyren for that matter (poor baby). Way too tired to sleep. Just awake enough to jot some incoherent thoughts down until my mind catches up with the rest of my body and goes to sleep.

But who could sleep when Halloween and autumn (my favorite time of the year) are so near? There is so much to do.

Shraddha and Madhava both slept for 4 hrs today... the exact same 4 hrs! Is this the Twilight Zone? No no no... this must be a dream LOL!

I have so much to post but not tonight. Just a bunch of complete nothingness. I seem to all of a sudden become enormously busy. Scouts, Communication Seminar, Halloween Party, and I am sure there is something Babyfest that I could/should be working on. Oh I forgot that I was gonna drop the should's. Usborne is also on the list. Nothing immediate happening with that but it continues to take up RAM in my brain.

My house is demonstrating the state of my mind at the moment. Of course it doesn't help that Shraddha prefers to throw all the clean laundry out of the basket (folded or not) onto the floor. What is it with the books? Leave all of her 40 books on the floor and there they stay where she left them..... for days even. But if I dare to put them neatly back in the bookcase.... they only stay there for mere moments.

Ok all systems seem to be equalizing now.... off to bed.




Before you speak, THINK
Is it necessary?
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Will it hurt anyone?
Will it improve on the silence?
Sathya Sai Baba

I have to laugh because I am sure glad this post wasn't taking up precious silence.

I did however very much enjoy all the great laughs at the communication class. Thanks Beckie you crack me up!

Shraddha's first hair cut

Mama went wacko with the scissors and chopped my bangs. Good thing I have curly hair! I'm 15 months old and I am glad that I can see now without my hair poking into my eyes. - Shraddha's thoughts.

I got to catch a couple of extra zzzzz's this morning after I plugged Shraddha into the TV. But now I can't seem to get Barney's voice out of my head LOL! "A circle shape is round, a circle shape is round. A circle shape is like a wheel that is round and goes rolling on the ground." UGH! Barney! Who is more annoying Barney or Elmo? I have to say they are both like music to my ears compared to whining and screaming --- ha ha ha.

YAY! I am back online!

I am so happy that I can be back online posting again! So, I will get right to it.

Summer is over and I am ready for cooler weather. It's a nice 67 degrees out now (but then it is also fairly late at night.) I will take whatever I can get for now LOL!

I saw the first tarantula a couple of days ago. It was crawing back into its nest only 5 feet from my back door. I also found a 4 ft long garter or racer snake. It noticed me LONG before I notice him. Needless to say, I am no longer walking around the property in the evening or at night to toss the trash or hang/get laundry. I get the creepy crawlies whenever I think about it... it isn't even October yet! I think I will be ok if they just not come in the house like the scorpians do. Haven't found any scorpions under the sheets for a while but I won't climb into bed until I check everything...even under the pillow. But I always wonder, if they climb in there when we aren't there.... then what keeps them out when we are in the bed?

Madhava started kindergarten this week at 4.5 yrs old. He is starting a year earlier than we planned and it may just be for fun for now. He is just loving it though. His favorite thing is share day, when everyone gets to bring in a favorite toy to share with each other. I want to get some pictures up but can't figure out how to upload them from the camera right now. I will try again tomorrow.

Right now he is very into robots. He loves to watch movies but Jumungi and Zathura are his favorites right now. I still think they are just too scary for him but he keeps asking his dad if he can watch it again and again. He can write his name when we give him an example. He can spell his name when asked. And he can write almost the whole alphabet as well as come up with words for the different sounds. I just started working on site words with him and "the" is the first one we are working on. He finds it on signs when we are out and about. He is still working on understanding the time of day, and past and future tense. I spent quite a bit of time explaining what yesterday and tomorrow means. He still thinks it is morning time when he wakes up from his nap ~ but if I slept for 4 or 5 hours in the middle of the day, I would be a bit disoriented too. I'm just happy to be sleeping that long without being woken up at night. He also just loves playing with Sadie and Shraddha. It is so fun to see Shraddha screaming with glee while Madhava runs around saying ,"You can't get me, baby!"

Shraddha, now 14 months is learning ASL along with the rest of us. She knows: eat, dada, thirsty, drink, water, bath, diaper, banana, mama, nurse, car, bird, tree, elephant, cat, dog, duck, flower, dirty, cracker, cheese, peach, ball, book, more, music, hat, shoes, bread, apple, cereal, bed, toothbrush, hot, cold, all done, down, cow, night, moon, stars, fan. 42 signs. She is a sponge... asking me "what's dat ?!!" and watching to see if I will teach her the sign for what ever she just noticed She is also making up her own signs. She saw a picture of a pterodactyl and signed elephant-bird.

Her speech is coming along too. She says, mama, dadda, daddy, bubba, Elmo, meme, mooo, book, up p p p , dadoo for thank you, adie for sadie, itty for kitty, mmmmm for yummy and flower while she signs flower, iaper for diaper, apple. She is also demonstrating great understanding. I will tell her to go give daddy a kiss and off she goes to plant a big hug and kiss on daddy. She understands brush your teeth, feed the kitty, where is...., go outside, time to go to sleep/bed, watch a movie.

Shraddha loves watching her Signing Times and Baby Einstein and Elmo movies. She also loves to pull out anything new she can find in the cupboards, LOVES reading books and just can't get enough of that. SCREAMING for fun, especially to chase the cat or bubba. Our cats and dog get plenty of hugs and kisses from Shraddha. She also loves watering the plants, smelling the flowers, looking for birds and of course.... waking bubba up from his nap.

So much for getting caught up on dishes, laundry, and sleep LOL! I don't even know what that is like. Does that ever happen? If it wasn't for Roger's help, I don't think I would ever see the bottom of my sink.

Shraddha crawling in the meadow

April 24, 2006 10 months
Shraddha is entertaining herself while mama hunts for wildflowers. It's funny how long I spend searching for the best wildflower when the most beautiful one of all is crawling at my feet.