How many things?

First, thanks for the NaBloPoMo Survivor's Badge goes to Mrs. Fussypants.

Monkey in a Suit has tagged me for an 8 Things Post and I just cannot resist that crazy bitch. The meme, not Monkey, of course.

8 passions in my life:
X and my kids (the Core of my pathetic existence)
Languages
Reading books, magazines, cereal boxes, graffiti, blogs, the written word (wherever it may exist)
Collecting books
Antiques/Old Things of Interest (e.g. does need to have monetary value)
Traveling/Road Trips (Dude - driving to Wichita is exciting to me. The Flint Hills are absolutely stunning.)
Gadgets/Technology
Being Outside (seriously. Just sitting in my front yard is good enough.)

8 things to do before I die:
Go to India. Specifically to Kottyam, Kerala where X was born.
Read everything Jane Austen has ever written.
Skydive.
See Mount Everest (NOT climb it - just see it. I am utterly fascinated with the folks in Kathmandu who live in its "shadow")
Learn a 2nd language FLUENTLY
Learn how to play Chopin's Funeral Marche in full.
Read all the Harry Potter books with my children.
Go on a proper African safari. No touristy shit.

8 things I often say:
Um, yeah.
Oh shit.
Dude.
Do you want to watch Diego?
Get out of her face. NOW.
One more time and you are in time-out.
What the fuck?
You sexy thang. (Note: poor X. Feel pity for him. I know not what overcomes me.)

8 books I read recently
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Nurture the Nature: Understanding Your Child's Core Personality by Michael Gurian
Bookends by Jane Green
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

8 songs that mean something to me:
I Deserve It by Madonna
Hips Don't Lie by Shakira
Nothing Fails by Madonna
In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel
The Captain by Kasey Chambers
Bike by Pink Floyd
You by Bonnie Raitt
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

I tag Mojavi, Mamma Sarah, Brit, Marilyn, Rita, Stephanie, Goofy Girl, and finally.......Chocolate Covered Susan.

And yes, there is not a link for Miss Susan of the Chocolate Covered Pistachios fame. You see, Miss Susan has been all High n' Mighty about this here thing we call the Blogosphere. This is my attempt to call her shit out.

I suspect that Mojavi will support me in this.

Comparing or Sharing?

First, thank you for the all the great tips about Curly Hair Care! I should note that I do use Suave for Arun's hair and I love that product for his hair. It is also super cheap, which is a bonus. The thing with Anjali is two-fold - she has curly hair AND sensitive skin. We have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist to see if eczema is an issue. We do not think it is, but we need to rule it out. In the meantime, I am careful with what I use.

Anyway.........The other day, I posted about Arun recognizing the word "zoo". After publishing, I felt sheepish that perhaps I was bragging so I decided to cut the paragraph out of which basically amounted to a Boast Post. However, Jenny had commented on it so it seemed silly to have her comment out there which made no sense. So, I added the paragraph back in. I hated the perception of being a braggart, but truly - I am so damned excited about the prospect of my kids reading. I have been collecting children's books for years in the fervent hope that I would someday get to share them. Last week, when Arun recognized the word "zoo", my stomach did little flips because I was so thrilled. It makes me tingle to think that in a few years, we will be reading books together.

I try to be conscientious about bragging - I feel so lucky that I have Mojavi and Chocolate Covered Susan with whom I can talk about these little things and feel okay that they know I am not trying to be competitive. Besides, I care for their daughters deeply, have seen both of them grow up since newborns and I love hearing about their accomplishments, too. In fact, over the past 2 years, Susan and I have watched our children hop scotch past each other with all the milestones. Back and forth....back and forth...... back and forth..... We have been able to see firsthand how unique a child can be in his/her development. We know that in the end, most kids wind up at the same point eventually so it does not matter who "did it first".

There was a short time in the beginning of our playgroup's life where we had a Competitive Mom in our midst- and oh God, it was miserable. There is such a fine, thin, teeny line between "comparing" and "sharing" - that mother constantly crossed the line and often hurt our feelings in the process. It was a good lesson for Susan and I - as such, we are very frank with each other now about such things. I would be utterly horrified if she ever thought I was trying to make her feel bad by my talking about something that Arun has done that maybe her daughter has not done yet.

The same applies to the Innernets. I want to use this space to share my excitement about my kids, but rest assured, my intent is to never, ever make someone feel bad if their kid had not reached the same milestone yet. I love reading about all of your kids' accomplishments. I hope you feel the same.

What do I like?

First, Zoot had some good points today about pimping products and why she does not normally do much pimpage. I should be clear about my own pimpage - I am only talking about stuff on which I have spent my own cash. It is merely stuff that I have happened across - some through trial and error. And truly, I mention things because I want to hear what you have to say back. For example, I talked about lip balms last week and several of you mentioned Burt's Bees. I then remembered I had some laying around - the lip shimmery stuff. I pulled it out and realized that Hey! I do like this stuff particularly now that I am getting used to wearing lip balm. Besides, with our budget this year, Burt's Bees fits in quite nicely as opposed to Aveda which is best saved for the plumper wallet. And I have you folks to thank for reminding me of the Burt's Bees (X would probably like to thank all of you, as well.) Anyway..... I could go and on about all the stuff I have discovered because others mentioned it. In the 3 years I have been blogging, I have posted about 2 thing I received for free - one book about stress and the Mama Knows Breast book. Am I done with full disclosure? Did that cover it? Zoot had some good points.

So....Today, I am raving about two products that are totally stylin' my baby girl's curly locks. It is an odd combination, but it is working for her. As a Straight Hair girl, I am utterly and completely fascinated with Anjali's hair. It has taken me awhile to figure out what works because it is a careful combination of scalp and hair. And most importantly - NO BRUSHES. Maybe, a comb, very lightly, before I apply everything. Overall, a light picking with my fingertips works best. If she ends up being a Curly Girl for Life and ever wants to straighten her hair on an ironing board with an iron, I may have a heart attack.

I hate my heavy, straight hair that resisted even a spiral perm. The thought that my girl may not ever have to suffer straight hair makes my heart sing with joy. And yes, I am fully aware that if she does end up with Curly Hair she will despise that. I think it is every woman's destiny to hate her hair. However, my goal in life is to teach her how to properly care for her particular type of hair and maybe, perhaps, possibly as an adult, she will grow to appreciate her hair for whatever it turns out to be, curly or not.

I use Cetaphil for variety of things. I use it for my face cleanser in the morning - it truly is gentle and moisturizing. I also use it as a diaper rash prevention. The moment a butt in my house turns pink, I begin applying it. It forms a light, non-greasy barrier to moisture (bonus: it does not get gross when on clothes). With Arun, I have rarely had to use diaper cream in his 2 years so far. EVER. Anyway, this is what I use to wash Anjali's hair. Johnson's and Johnson's is a soap and with her curly hair, it seems best to just not wash it with anything soapy. Except that her teeny scalp needs to be washed and it gets flaky and needs to be combed while wet. Cetaphil to the rescue. It does the trick without drying out her hair to a frizz.

It cracks me up that I am already buying expensive product for my girl's hair, but seriously. This stuff does the trick. I wash Anjali's hair with the Cetaphil maybe once a week - I comb her hair while wet with the cleanser - I comb every which way to work her scalp out a bit. About every other day, I wet her hair down a bit and apply the California Baby leave-in conditioner, then I let it dry. Then, I pick it out with my fingers. I never, EVER brush it with a baby brush, once it is dry. Well, only when I want to get Crazy Hair Pictures.

Okay - I open the floor to you regarding baby hair care......

Does Arun eat hay?

Updated to add a paragraph that Jenny referred to - I had deleted it, but she caught me.
Lately, I have been playing a game with Arun that I call Silly Questions. I suspect mothers have been playing it for ages, so I cannot claim to have invented it. I ask Arun a series of questions and he answers "yes" or "no". Does Arun eat cheese? Does Arun eat hay? Does the kitty eat yogurt? Does Mama drive the car? Does Anju Baby drive the car? You can guess the answers and which ones make him giggle the most. Anyway....

Arun is so much FUN these days. We still struggle mightily with sleeping and napping - the new bed lasted about two whole weeks. We now use it for hanging out on while we read books. In fact, we have a crib and twin bed in a room in which neither of my children sleep. X and I have totally invested in this co-sleeping thing at this point. Which we are all totally fine with because we are sleeping. Which is a fairly important activity in my life, this thing called "sleeping". Anyway, it is worth the struggles with sleep because other than that, things have been going fairly smooth.

This morning, we had our meeting our Parents as Teachers Educator, R. We both had a moment of "Oh. Hmmm...". At our last visit, I had mentioned that he knew most of his ABCs. This visit, I mentioned that he knows nearly all of them now, but sometimes spaces on the Q and confuses X with K sometimes. R thought on the last visit that I was talking about recitation, not reading. The most exciting thing lately is that he is also able to recognize a few words now - his name, Anju's name, zoo, and DVD (although, does DVD even count as a word? Is it not an acronym?). Anyway, he is totally on his way to Chechov, Dickens, Twain. Right? No? Whatever. It was nice to know that he is on track with that stuff at least because until recently, he had not been Rockin' the Talkin' very much.

Last night, I put the Christmas tree up sans ornaments but with the lights to get him used to it.

Me: Look! Arun, it's a Christmas tree.
Arun: No! Da green tree! GREEN tree.

The kid calls 'em like he see 'em. I am an idiot, apparently.

Where am I?

....immersed in a black, black vortex known as "Food Sites and Blogs". Today is a bit out of control so I am going to throw out some snaps of the kids and call it a NaBloPoMo Day. A cheater post to be sure, but still not so terrible in the way of content.

Although, I suppose it could be perceived that I am prejudiced in favor of the subject matter. Whatever.

Simian Snaps

Co-sleeping co-conspirators

Foodie

Monkey See, Monkey Do