"The soul is healed by being with children."

Magic

"Children see magic because they look for it."

-Christopher Moore

I celebrate.

Today I celebrate the anniversary of my sweet baby's birth.

I celebrate one year of life and blessed motherhood. Of experiencing a love I never knew possible, and finally learning what a full life consists of.

I celebrate the joys, the laughter, smiles, cuddles, kisses, milestones met, and challenges overcome.

I also celebrate the tears, frustrations, struggles, confusion, sleepless nights, and endless dirty diapers.

As I think about the past year with my little girl there are an extraordinary amount of feelings and thoughts that come to my heart and my mind. Gratefulness, happiness, beautiful memories, joy, LOVE, LOVE, so much incredible love.

And yet at the same time there is always that one overwhelming feeling that will never leave my being. The knowledge that I am completely unworthy of such a beautiful, precious and angelic gift that I get to call my daughter. I am overcome with more love, delight and wonder that I could have ever dreamt when I look into her beautiful brown eyes.

All the while I know that no single explanation nor eloquence of words could ever describe the sorcery of beauty that connects a parent to their child.

When I rest in stillness with my little one after a full day of pure and exhausting fun, I observe her breath as she sleeps, watch her chest rise and fall, brush her hair out of her eyes, I sit in awe of her perfection...all I can whisper is thank you, thank you, thank you.

I celebrate that unexplainable, ungraspable perfection of my underserved blessing; my daughter.

Rainy Day Play

It is a rare occasion that we have an overcast, wet day. Penelope isn't used to the sounds of raindrops and the lack of sunshine through the windows. Not able to go outside and play today; still, its a nice change from the extreme heat of summer. 

Playing around with a little photo editing in between study breaks and baby girl's nap time.

The Austin Zoo

With an upcoming deployment, we have been trying to take as many small vacations together as possible, squeezing them in the cracks of Abhi's somewhat demanding work schedule. We had a nice little family outing around Austin with a visit to the Austin Zoo along with a little sightseeing and plenty of shopping this weekend.

I've been to a good amount of zoos in the States and the Austin Zoo is quite different than your typical zoo. Its actually a non-profit animal sanctuary for rescued and abandoned animals, which I love. Many of the animals had suffered from injuries or abandonment in the past. The Austin Zoo was small in size, but we didn't mind because staying outside in the summer heat for long periods of time isn't really an option for us with little Penelope.

Reaching for her furry friend.

Penelope loved the animals; she wanted to touch everything.

On a funny note, while we were observing the primates a group of about 8 zooworkers ran out with their nets searching for one of their animals that escaped! We're guessing it was a monkey because they were searching high in the trees, and the rest of the monkeys seemed to get riled up in excitement that one of their friends was on the loose.

Cheering on his escaped comrade.

11 Months of Sweetness

One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days that just straight-up suck?

You know, one of those days where pretty much everything that can go wrong does go wrong? Heck, even the things that can't go wrong still end up in shambles!

When you feel like everything in your life must be conspiring against you like some kind of big cosmic practical joke.

Yesterday was one of those days, here's a little glimpse...

In the morning the toilet clogged BIG TIME.While attempting to unclog said toilet I managed to spray sewage water all over the bathroom, myself, my husband...i'll just say household items got ruined.

We've been fighting a diaper rash with Penelope so I've been letting her move around without a diaper for periods throughout the day. Well she ended up peeing in the middle of the kitchen floor while I was cooking lunch...ok, we got this, quick and easy cleanup and then i'll throw her diaper on. While I'm cleaning her piddle puddle she moved across the room and decided to do number 2. Yes, I said it. She crapped on the floor. Do I have a puppy or a baby? Sometimes I get confused. On to the next mess.

Not much later, Abhi ran down the street to buy a plunger at Home Depot, thinking I was upstairs when I was actually outside walking to the dumpster. I got locked out of the house (while cooking the same lunch) with the burner and pressure cooker on whistling in the kitchen....ummm yeah...can someone say burnt lentils?

Sometimes you just need to take a moment. Not even a whole minute. Just a moment to breathe. Pardon my French but this calm little reminder to breathe in the good shit, breathe out the bullshit was just too real for me yesterday. Aaaahhh. Better?

There were a lot of other little doh! moments throughout the day that had me thinking that I was stuck in a bad infomercial,"but wait, there's more!"... but I think we get the gist here. And besides, that's not the point. The point is, what do we do with days like these? Moan, groan, and trudge your way through it so that we can live to write a blog post about it? Sure. ORR...we could try a different approach.

Be thankful.

When I'm down in the pits over everything that has gone wrong, what helps me to snap out of my woe-is-me stupor is to remind myself of all that is GOOD in my life. I remember that my family and I are healthy, we have everything we could possibly need. I see my husband laugh, or my baby full of wonder as she discovers something new and I'm reminded that these precious moments trump all the crap that went on minutes before. God has given me everything I could need to live a joyous, healthy, fruitful life.

The perfect life doesn't come without bumps, bruises and pee puddles. Instead it accepts the messes for what they are, cleans them up, and says thank you for the Lysol wipes.

Proud Mommy Moment

I was finally able to snap a video of this! Penelope just started to pull herself up to standing position on her own and I had been chasing her around trying to get her to perform her new trick for the camera so I could send it to Abhi at work. ;) hehe. I realize this is just one of many small milestones, but its the little moments of growth like this that should be celebrated!

Lessons From A 10-Month Old

A couple of my own observations as we went about our daily business...

1) Sometimes we have to bump our head once, twice...even a thousand times before we realize how to maneuver ourselves, how to know our bodies, or how to make a change.

Penelope is crawling all over the place and continues to hit her head on all kinds of objects again and again; the same table, the same wall, same corner. Finally today I saw her observe her own surroundings and move her head around the corner of the table. I don't know what it is that finally 'clicked' but sometimes it takes a good few mistakes to finally move in the right direction.

2) Stretch,reach, kick and wiggle your way to what you want. Within reason (no, I'm not saying to kick and scream your way to the Twistee Treat just becaue you want ice cream right now...but if you must go, please get me a gorilla cone).

Often times Penelope will be sitting contently in my arms and will suddenly spot something she needs to have. Right away. This little girl will reach out, bend over, lay flat, kick her little legs until she gets whatever silly object she was going for. Leaving me barely able to hang on to her while her body dangles in the air. But Penelope isn't looking at the floor, she's looking at her goal.

3) Observe and be amazed.

I love catching Penelope when she's in a state of wonder. To her, everything is a miracle. She will lay on her back and be entertained by the movement and grasping of her own fingers. She will grab a handful of dirt from our planters and then stare at her closed fist full of soil, looking at it, see it in her hand, feeling it between her fingers and let it go. Then do it all over again with the same amazement.

4) Move to the Rhythm. Which rhythm? Any rhythm you darn well please!

Penelope is a serious mover and shaker. She is always dancing! Whether people are watching her or not, she bounces her little body and shakes her head to the beat of the music. Even if there's no music, she finds a beat and goes with it; whether its the sound of a nail file moving back and forth or even the sound of a skipping rope hitting the floor again and again, I catch her bouncing away with a silly little smile-she really doesn't care where and how she dances, she just does what feels right.

The point is, don't be afraid  of the things that make you weird, if that's what makes you happy; Penelope and I like to sing out loud, even if there aren't words, just silly screeching sounds-make your own heart happy.

“A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.” -Paulo Coelho

Someone Give That Baby A Name

Its called Naamkaran, the ceremony that takes place in which a baby receives his or her name from a Hindu priest. Naam means name and Karan means celebration, or something of that nature. We went to be a part of the naming of the baby of Abhinav's aunt. He was born April 7th and just now received his name on May 25th, a month and a half later. In the U.S. we would find this strange that a baby doesn't have a real name for almost two months. How can he have a birth certificate made without a name? What would everyone call him for the time being? And why wait for so long, you've had nine months to consider your options?

According to Hindu religion every person has specific astrological attributes according to the time of their birth. In the case of names, the priest must determine the star constellation in which the moon is placed during the baby's time of birth. According to this, their are some options for the baby's name. Usually the priest will give the first letter or beginning sound that fits with the zodiac and then the family can choose a name that goes with the given first letter.

Unfortunately, we ended up being a little late for part of the ceremony and then a gigantic storm came through that postponed a lot of the fun, food and dancing. But we did get to be there to celebrate and meet the precious little boy....everyone meet Ekaksh.

Mother-In-Law holding Ekaksh...check out how much hair he has! 

Me holding the baby. 

And here he is :) 

--Note: the black dot on the side of his forehead is not a big mole. Its black makeup put there to keep away evil spirits (the evil eye)...more about this later. And the red dot is a tikka, or type of blessing.