Introducing: GoodieGrab

Hello Hello! Yes, it has been quite a long time. I wish I had elaborate excuses or some sort of great mystique but--alas--I simply plead laziness...!

THAT being said--if anybody who is still reading and/or checking in lives in the Bay area--I would love to let you know about a new venture my friend and I are starting called GoodieGrab.com. It's basically your one-stop shop for deals on everything you "need" as a mom (think diapers, kids' clothes, play-gym memberships...plus spas, restaurants, last minute jaunts to Mexico...!)

And, famous last words if I have ever uttered them but: Please do know and believe I will be back writing soon.

Till then, get some deals at GoodieGrab.com.

Brown Girls: Tell Me Lies

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Check out Brown Girls in India Currents

Update

Hey everyone! Thank you so so much for all the emails and comments--and sorry for my prolonged silence. I am working on some new ideas for the blog and toying around with some new formats and unfortunately it is taking me longer than I anticipated. PLEASE bear with me, great stuff is ahead!

Happy Karva Chauth to those of you who practice it--who knew the strainer had so many uses?!?

Stay Tuned...

Weekend WTF?!?

Courtesy of my cousin:  REALLY??  Indians aren't allowed at beaches in Goa?!?

Just wrong.

That being said:  Have a great weekend!

Brown Girls: "Bad News"

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Check out Brown Girls in India Currents

Monday Musings: Happy Birthday to You. And You. And You.

If you were to look at my Google calendar these days, you would think D and S are the most popular people on the planet.  1st birthday parties, 2nd birthday parties, 3rd birthday parties, "summer fun" trips to Fairyland, preschool day at the zoo, 3 1/2 birthday parties (I'm not kidding).  On and on.  And on.  I joke that I couldn't "overprogram" my kids even if I wanted to because there's no time in between the birthday parties...!

For many of us, a child's birthday party on the weekend has become like the Thursday night happy hours of college:  Ubiquitous.  And with ubiquity comes obligation.  How can we not go to Mary's birthday party when Mary came to D's, what will Mary's parents think, all that "social etiquette" that I truly thought in naive fashion I would never get bogged down by.   (Spoiler alert:  I was wrong).  And obligation just sort of takes the happy part out of happy birthday, doesn't it?  I realized recently--with more than a little bit of embarrassment--that I have stopped having fun at all these kiddie brouhahas  At a 1st birthday party yesterday, I actually found myself annoyed with D for taking too long to walk through a farm.  Annoyed at my kid for having too much fun at a birthday party.  Yikes.  Wake up call anybody?

I actually had to remind myself that--I love birthday parties (as long as they are not for me).  I love cupcakes, games, hell I even still get excited for silly goody bags with plastic loot.   I love celebrating the people who are important to me.  And I love being present for the milestones of the growing legion of children who are in my little world.   For all of those reasons and more I want to bring back the happy in happy birthday, bring back the fun.  Yesterday at the park, D and S were having a ball, running around, going up and down the slide, feeding the animals, being kids.  Sure, S inhaled a cupcake and proceeded to vomit it--but that's pretty much par for the course, right?!?  My point:  The kids are loving the party and I am going through logistics in my head, wondering how to say hello to everyone and leave in time for naps, thinking about whether S can nap in the car en route to the other birthday party we have to attend later in the afternoon.  On and on.  I didn't stop and smell the roses (or the cow manure as the case may be--the party was at a farm after all) for even a second.  And that is my loss.  

I need to reboot.   See the trail to the little pond as the magical, wonderful event that D sees it as, as opposed to the diversion that adds 10 minutes to my agenda.  And maybe I have to start saying no more.  No the party for the girl in D's school that I don't even know--and that D doesn't even know; no to the playdate with a friend of a friend of a friend; no to the gratuitous events and parties and social occasions that have made me forget how much I love events and parties and social occasions.  Because the joy of these things is more than crossing off "K's birthday party" from your check-list.  The joy is in relishing your presence in these peoples' lives.  Contemplating your good fortune for being included in such milestones. Engaging and re-engaging with the people you love.  The joy is celebrating a single day of noisiness and merriment, cake and sugar comas, knowing full well that you are building a life with these people composed of quieter moments, and the everyday nothingness that, really, is everything.