Two indian guys in a bar

My husband who is from India recently told me about this Indian comedian Russell Peters, so I checked him out of YouTube. He is really funny. I think my favorite clip by far is this one above where he talks about Indian accents and then toward the end Canadian accents. The whole conversion he talks about in the bar reminds me of what my husband and his friend who is also Indian might have said right before we met. My husband doesn’t quite have what I would consider a typical Indian accent, but when we first met he said some things so different it was really cute. So in a way I guess Russ is wrong because my husband asked me out in a bar and I said yes partly because I found his accent sexy.


Other funny clips are the one where he talks about Indian and Chinese and everyone mixing. (“You can run from us now…” Too funny!) and Indian movies, and the difference between Indians and terrorists.

The walls have ears

My mom came to visit the weekend before MLK day, so she could get some Hayley time and I could get some me time. It was the typical weekend of her indulging Hayley’s every whim and Hayley just loving every minute of it. The morning after my Mom left Hayley went to Grammy’s room aka the Guest room, calling excitedly “Grammy!” ready for another day of fun. I felt so bad for her when she discovered my mom wasn’t there. Anyway, over the course of the weekend my Grandmother who lives with my parents called to say that she standing on a stool organizing the top shelf of her closet when she fell and hit her head pretty bad. My dad said he heard the crash all way in the basement with a whole level of house in-between. Luckily she was okay except for a bump. My Mom and I talked about I guess when Hayley was around, wondering why a 84 year old woman would get up on a stool to organize anything.

Cut to yesterday when our nanny and Hayley were playing in Hayley’s room and our nanny noticed Hayley’s new aqua blue comforter on the bed. She said something to Hayley about “Oh what a nice bed!” to which Hayley replied “Yes, my Daddy cleans my bed!”, because just yesterday her Daddy took off all the bedding including the new comforter that Hayley had gotten wet due to a nap time accident, (we are working on potty training through naps now, and eventually all night, this was the first time in weeks she didn’t make it, too bad for the new comforter), washed the bedding and put it all back on in time for her to go to bed for the night.

“What does your mommy do?” our nanny asked

“She gets Hayley milk!”

“What does Popie (my dad) do?”

“He gives Hayley hugs!”

What does Grammy do?”

“She plays soccer with Hayley!” (It’s actually a pink basketball that they toss and kick around the den because it’s too cold to go outside)

“What does Gi-Gi do (great grandma)?”

In a sad tone Hayley replied, “She falls down and bumps her head”

We didn’t realize she was listening. It turns out she listens to everything, even things you don’t even think would interest her, even when you thing she’s watching her favorite Curious George episode. It’s a ruse; she’s out there taking it all in. I’m sure she’ll have lots of stories to tell when she starts school this fall. I just gotta make sure they are not too colorful…sigh.

not a bug

This morning my mother-in-law got up with Hayley, allowing my husband and I to sleep way too much this morning. It felt good, but I was a little groggy as I walked down the stairs to our living room and saw my mother-in-law and Hayley running all around chasing something with sticks. It was a fly that had gotten in the house. Hayley really hates bugs; she is seriously frightened of them. To her any crawling, flying thing is a bug except ants. Ants are ants and they are okay with her. Anyway my mother-in-law was trying to make light of this fly being in the house because it was freaking Hayley out, so all morning as my husband and I slept peacefully she was telling Hayley “Don’t worry Hayley it’s not a bug; it’s a fly” So things has calmed down a bit as I stumbled around the kitchen trying to make some coffee as Hayley sat on the sofa on bug look out, but then they fly came buzzing around me and I screamed “Hayley a bug! It’s going to get me!” Yeah I know we aren’t exactly helping her over come her fear of bugs. To this reaction Hayley calmly replied “Don’t worry mama it’s not a bug, it’s a fly”. And when my husband came down a bit later she told him the same thing. Just so we were all clear. Flies are not bugs. But they are really annoying because it is still buzzing around our house. That’s what we get for leaving the door to the deck open. Well at least Hayley is okay with it now.

hey there

As I was tossing and turning last night in and out of sleep because my daughter Hayley came to my side of the bed at 3 am so she climbed in with me and went back to sleep on my arm forcing me to sleep on my back which I really can't do, I kept singing this new order song in my head that I heard on the radio this past weekend, which I think was a mistake because they were doing an 80's retro weekend and this song is actually from 1993. Anyway I kept singing these lines:

"I was upset you see
Almost all the time
You used to be a stranger
Now you are mine"

I liked New Order back in the day and hearing the song again I realized I should go back and listen to some of that old stuff. Another song they played over the 80's retro weekend was The Call 'Let the Day begin" and ever since then I find myself singing this out loud:

"Here's to you my little love

With blessings from above

Now let the day begin

Let the day begin

The day START"

When I sing the Call song I think of my daughter and I think I have to use that for one of her scrapbook pages. When I sing the New Order song I think of my husband. It's true for most couples I guess that they meet as strangers and then become something more. I met my husband a year or so after that song came out. As I was taking a shower I was still singing it in my head as my daughter played in the shower spray (yes she likes to watch me shower, I think because it's opportunity to get wet.), and I was thinking from meeting at a grad student crab feast to this beautiful little girl, wow! How amazing!" We've been together almost 13 years, married for almost 6; our anniversary is this August. We've had our ups and downs like most I guess. Usually I'm doing something stupid or he is doing something annoying. But he still can surprise me with little things. When we first dating he had gotten me an ice scraper out of the blue because he noticed that I didn't have one. I know it seems silly to think that is romantic, but is was the fact that he was out at some auto store doing an errand and he thought of me and that I couldn't scrape ice off my car if I had to and he got me the ice scraper. It's sweet. Today I was on the metro going into work for maybe a minute, he had just dropped me off, and he called me on my cell phone. I answered a little worried wondering what had happened that he needed to call me so quickly after we had just seen each other.

"I just wanted to tell that I have done a complete 180" he said.

"On what babe?" I asked still concerned.

"I really do like that Delilah song now"

All week he had complained about how that 'Hey there Delilah" song by the plain whites T's was a nothing song and he didn't like it all. I happened to like the song.

"Anyway" he continued" "I just wanted to tell you that"

After all these years of knowing each other he still calls to tell me stuff like that. Pretty sweet huh? Maybe I can forgive him for not doing a thing with the house this past weekend when I took Hayley to see my parents. I mean geez he had all weekend! What did he do? Well he didn't fold any laundry I can tell you that!

"I was upset you see
Almost all the time
You used to be a stranger
Now you are mine"

"Oh it's what you do to me…"

Okay yeah he's still pretty sweet.

Photofriday topic "The Country": old red barn

It was about 3 in the afternoon, our beautiful daughter was down for her nap and we had just finished watching our second “Pimp my ride” episode when I announce to my husband that I’m going out to walk around the neighbor and take photos of trees.

“No seriously” he replied, because outdoorsy folk we are not.

Usually about this time I take a nap too, but since it was Earth day and it was beautiful outside I just felt like it really would be a waste not to take some photos. Recently I had discovered this fun trick for making photos look like old time sketches in Photoshop and I thought it would be fun to experiment with it using some photos of trees. I thought the spring green color of the new leaves next to these purple-y sort of trees we have around our neighborhood would be really great together in a colorized looking “sketch”. Okay I know, I’m off on a boring tangent here.

Well anyway, I did go out. Yay me! I took lots of photos of trees and flowers and experimented with the photos later that night when my daughter had gone to bed. The tree photos came out okay, although they were so much cooler in my head, but the photo I really liked best transformed in my sketch method was this photo (above) of this old red barn.

It was quite a surprise to come across an old red barn in a Washington DC suburb. I’m not sure if it really qualifies for the Photofriday “The country” topic, since it really wasn’t in the country. I guess at one time my neighborhood was the country. There was just this lone house with a barn and acres of land around it. Then in the early 90’s they built townhouses. I went a home owners meeting where we met our mayor and was talking to a guy there and he asked where I lived. When I told him he replied “I thought that was a farm!”

“Not anymore”

Things change and things surprise you, like I went out to take photos of trees and found an old barn was my best shot. Heck I’m just proud that I got out in the first place, although a nap would have been nice.

kill me now

One of Hayley's favorite games is for someone to chase her around the house. To start the game all I have to do is stomp my foot and her give her a look that says” The chase is on!” and she would giggle with glee and run off. Her usual path is to run around the kitchen island then dart into the living room and wedge herself between the recliner and our bay window. It’s a great spot for her because I can’t maneuver fast enough between the recliner and the end table to get to window before she has darted off past the other side of the recliner which is free of end table. And it doesn’t do me any good to try to go at her from the free side because she is small enough to slip between the end table and the recliner. So either way she is free to rush off into the family room/kitchen area and tumble on the futon, where she will usually wait for me to catch up with her and tickle her for awhile before she ready for the next round of chasing. I’m usually worn out by 5 times or so and no matter how many times I chase her around she always seems disappointed when I call and end to the game unless I suggest she watch a “Bob Bob” show, i.e. SpongeBob, and I feel really bad for suggesting my child watch mindless TV so I can catch my breath.

Since she loves to be chased this becomes a problem when she happens to grab something that she shouldn’t. Usually it’s my glasses or my cell phone and she’ll run around her standard route which ends in tumbling on the futon and I’m able to retrieve my items without too much fuss, but the other day Hayley grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter. Not just any knife a very sharp knife that my husband used to cut up some steak for dinner earlier.

We easily forget now how tall Hayley is and well she can reach things on the counter. It used to be that if we left something just a an inch or so from the edge it would be out of her reach, but now it seems they have be a good foot from the edge. So my husband and I are eating our steak dinners while watching American idol and Hayley runs in giggling with this very sharp knife in hand. We immediately got up and yelled “Hayley no!”, but she took this to mean the chase was on and did her usual recliner dodge trick and ran off into the kitchen. My mind was flashing all kinds of horror, mostly she is going trip and fall right on the knife or she going o slice off a finger. “Ohmygod she is going hurt herself so badly! Please no!” We followed her to the kitchen slowly to try to discourage her running away from us, she ran around the kitchen island, my husband followed as I went to head her off at the pass in the other direction. Laughing happily she ran right toward me with the knife pointed out.

As I bent down to grab her I thought “kill me now”

“I don’t care if that knife plunges into me I just want it away from her!” Some how as I grabbed her she lowered the knife and it just went through my pants and grazed my leg. After we got the knife away from her I checked her all over for any cuts asking her over and over “Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!” Finally she let out a frustrated “I’m okay Mama” Like she really meant to say. “Geez Woman get off me! Leave me alone it was just a chase…ugh!” Then another horror flash in my brain that this is not the last time she will scare us like this or become annoyed when we try to protect her. No this is only the beginning of nightmares to come. It’s very much like the quote I admire from Elizabeth Stone about the decision to have a child “is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”. That is so true. Sigh.

Kill me now.

opening day

I thought since I live in the Washington DC area that the best way to celebrate the Nats opening day would be with my own blog opening day. Actually I thought yesterday Aprils fools day was the more appropriate day for me to start a blog, because I must be a fool for doing this, but as always life got in the way of me doing what I really wanted to do. As a working mother of a 2 year old, I don’t have a lot of time for dealing with my thoughts. I have a husband who helps out, but still I feel that most of the burden of doing everything falls on me. I have definite “must do it all” syndrome. I spent most of the day yesterday doing laundry, folding laundry and getting our townhouse in some order because the woman who cleans our house was coming early this morning. And in order for her to clean the house, she has to actually be able to get around the house without tripping on numerous toys, books, newspapers, and unfolded laundry. The trick is to do all this while my two year naps or after she has gone to bed for the day. Then we had to quickly leave the house this morning before she had a chance to undo all the cleanup we had accomplished. We got out this morning with the house still in pretty could shape. So today when I come home the house will be all clean. I love coming home to a nice clean house. It will probably only stay nice and clean for about a week and the lady who cleans our house only comes once a month, so I enjoy it while I can. Like this blog, I’m going to enjoy it while I can. I’m not sure where I’m going with this thing, but here goes nuthin’.