Yoga for parents

Let us show you how you can enjoy yoga with your kids. 

Not! 

Step 1: hey let's all do yoga together. Yeah down dog

Step 2: this is working well. Hey kids- get out from under me

Step 3: no pulling me down just because I'm taller Haan you. No, no...

Step 4: why are u climbing on me? There is no horse pose in yoga

Step 5: good job! Now go away and let me do my yoga

Step 6: Appa but we love you so much and want to do yoga again. Ammaaaaa... We are doing yoga with appaaaaa on the purple yoga mat. 

When life gives you a lemon tree

We have a lemon tree in our new home.

With lemons waiting to be picked everyday 

And we bought a new wind wheel right beside it because we love wind wheels. Now we all sit and stare at it and exclaim, "oh the wind's blowing from that way!" ( as though it matters at all) every time it spins. 

Check out the lemons from the garden: 

Yes, the tomatoes are from our garden too: heirloom and grape tomatoes, juicy and sweet

Oh and there are some string beans and mint and thyme too, I kept the beans away to cook tomorrow. Yum!!! The mint and thyme need some TLC, which I've started giving, starting today. 

I'm going to be baking lots of apple pie soon, when these turn golden yellow:

If I get to them before the squirrels do

We also have cherry and peach trees but no fruits right now. The hummingbirds, sparrows and several local birds visit our garden multiple times, everyday. 

The  garden has flowers too, mostly hibiscus 

Apparently this one's also hibiscus:

If you look closely at it, it does look like one

Updated: My loving, intelligent sister A did some digging (no pun intended) and found that this purple flower is called Rose of Sharon.

There is another plant in the backyard that blooms a peachish-orange hibiscus but I plucked a flower this morning for the prayer/ shrine area in my kitchen (which I think would be a bit impolite to take photos of- culturally ingrained in me from several temple visits) so I don't have a pic right now.

Updated with a picture:

Any guesses to what this one's called? Wish Google had an app for that :

And this one?

Updated:
My sister A, who is turning out to be a proper sleuth, found that these white flowers with crinkly leaves are geraniums. The name reminds me of potted plants sitting by the kitchen window sill. I wonder who gets to name these flowers?

So pretty, right? As someone who dislikes artificial flowers and married to someone who dislikes plastic flowers, having the real thing right at home is the real deal indeed. 

This is what we see when we enter and leave our beautiful, ridiculously old and beat up but tremendously joyful home in the Bay Area. There's something about rustic charm in this garden that calms my senses, makes me happy and makes me wonder...

...how the heck are we going to maintain this beautiful garden when California is in the middle of a massive drought?!!!!! 

This garden reminds me so so much of my childhood home in Madras, that A and I plan to quickly acquire pairs of green thumbs and take care of all these lovelies. As a reminder of my amamma's home, I want to plant curry leaves and coriander soon. Of course, planting coconut will be the best but that might be a bit much. Besides, since it might be challenging to find legit coconut climbers in the area and I don't want coconuts falling on my head, I shall postpone this decision. 

We shall figure this gardening thing out. All in good time. Hopefully motherhood has given me some mad skills to take care of all my new babies. 

Come, visit me. I'll cook you something from my garden. 

Bumbling into Brunch in the Bay Area

Our first day in California and what better way to start our new lives than a scrumptious brunch with our dear friends? 

We visited Bumble in Los Altos, a brunch place that feels like a win-win for parents with young kids. The kids play in a fun, clean sand lot and parents chill and eat outdoors.

Isn't this such a happy color?!

The name is the best part, though. How can you NOT walk in to a place named Bumble? Adorable.

The world is a sandlot.

Spot my kids, lost in sand.

For little brunch-ers

Can't go wrong with white walls and ceiling and dark wood

For those who want to run away from kids

True indeed. Life in a hot air balloon might make u sick, though. But life AS a hot air balloon...now that sounds great

Free diapers, y'all! They have forgetful parents covered

Mmmmmm! Green juice! My husband A's fave kind

Mmmmm....crunchy granola with sweet yogurt. Everyone's fave in my home

Today was moving day

A new chapter in our lives begins tomorrow. Transition is exciting and nerve inducing. Will this be a better future? Will we grow our potential? Will our children like California better than they did Chicago? It probably makes no sense to compare but I know we will, especially as we settle into our new lives.

Today was packing and moving day. It felt harsh to say bye to our lovely home, the place we called our very own, the place where we had both our babies, the place in which we celebrated our wins and losses. Promotions, new jobs, a new book. Welcomed new friends and laughed with good old ones. Used white noise machines and cool mist humidifiers. The home in which we had the worst sleepless nights ever, waking up and caring for crying infants. The home where we had bitter fights and sweet make-up kisses. The home we proudly showed our parents as our very own. "See, mom and dad, your little kid has grown up to own her and his own place!"

Though in life, do we really ever own anything? Do things own us or do we own them? Is it better to own or better to let go? Is ownership just an illusion of security? Is it one step closer to feeling free? Or tied down?

Pictures of boxes and boxes... Thank you dear home and Chicago, for the sweet memories. 

Hereon, we look forward and surge forth to California!

Our car just moved to California!

First, the husband, now, the car! A moved to the Bay Area three weeks ago and I sent the car last week. So two members of our family are now officially in the sunny West coast.

Look it! (This is S1's latest catch phrase)- pictures of the exciting event:

Just look at that gorgeous blue sky!

Wheels on wheels...welcome to the car culture in California

Happy Daddy Day, y'all

Flowers from egg-cartons

Dearest A appa,

I made this surprise gift for you and because I was so excited about it, told you to keep it a secret yesterday itself.  Shhhhhh!!!! Don't tell yourself anything about it till it's Father's Day, ok?  but it's ok because I love you everyday. When you came home from California yesterday I was SO excited, I sent you this message from amma's phone:

🍇🍦🍡🎂🍼🍹🍸🍷🍻☕️🍺🎀🎋🎃🎄

🎊🎉🎈✨🎏❤️🎯🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎯🎨🎯🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎲🎲🎲🎨🎨🎨🎲🎲🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🚋🚋💙🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎋🎋🎈🎈🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲😘😘🎀😘🎲🎲🎲😍🎲🎲🎲🎲😍🎲

Thank you for taking me to Trader Joe's and Walgreens when I ask you, for doing thooki for me when I feel bad about something, for pushing my swing so...so high up in the park, for holding me tightly when an ambulance siren goes by, for taking me in a big plane to bombay to see all my thatha-paatis, for kissing my oww-ies when I get hurt.

You are the best. Now thooki me so I can hug and kiss you, my dear A appa!
S1

Dearest A appa,

I missed you so much everyday last week. Amma kept telling me you were in California but I knew you would come back. Everytime someone knocked on the door, I said "appa!" and ran to try and open the door. You came back yesterday and now I feel so happy with my fa-fa-mi-mi-ly-ly, as Hannah akka says. Because you are our fa-fa.
Whenever I climb a chair or a table or everything that's remotely climb-able, I hear your voice asking me to be careful, to get down slowly.
Please carry me all day and take me to restaurants that have delicious mum-mum and give me yummy paal in my bottle and read me all those amazing Dr.Seuss stories in your dramatic voice before thaachi time.

I love you and I want you to change my diaper now cos I just did my poopie again. Then amma and you, stop wasting time and take us both to the park so we can enjoy the summer outdoors, please! Here are our shoes...
S2

Sniff! Our First Home is on the Market

A and I became home owners in 2011. We thought there were three reasons to buy a place we could call our very own.

1. We were expecting our first child to arrive in April 2012. So...parents need to own homes, right?

2. We were both going to turn 30 soon and felt like owning a place was one of the things 30-somethings generally did
3. The market was good for buyers since it hadn't bounced entirely back since the 2008 recession

Now we are looking to sell our first place and I feel a bit sentimental about it. This is the home we had both our kids, their birthdays, their first steps and first words,  A and I had so many first fights, so many first kiss-and-make-ups, so many extended family and friends' reunions.

News is - we are moving to the Bay Area soon. A moved last week but I'm still working in Chicago and stayed back with the kids. I am not a winter person at all and LOVE the idea of moving to the Bay Area so feeling very positive about the impending change.

At the same time, I want to keep the images and memories of our first home together etched in my brain and heart forever.

Good news is, we have a potential buyer and are already under contract. Fingers crossed that all goes well. (A and I are desperately trying to prevent the kids from marking all the walls or making puddles of you-know-what on the carpets :-))))

Pictures! Oh and we are living clutter-free these days. No, we haven't packed away our things yet, we just live clutter free and it feels so great.

Ok...pictures!

View of our Lincoln Park building from the bus stop right across

Our living room...where the kids scribble all over with (washable) markers

Living, book-nook in left corner and dining room. Dining tables = memorable conversations

Kitchen. So many onions, garlic and coriander...

A and I's bedroom.Where the kids climb into bed with us.

Master bath

Nursery...for story time, playtime and sister pillow-fights

Kids' bath. Rubber duckies and ugh! potty training memories.

Sears or Willis tower

Lobby.

We will all miss you, dear home. Thank you for being strong, sturdy and absorbing all our emotions through these intense years.