Letting Cheeky in on the little big secret

We toyed with the idea of telling Cheeky after the 3 months had passed.. but we had to visit the doctor with Cheeky in tow.. and there was all the barfing he would end up watching! Either he would “ew” it or maybe just maybe worry (who am I kidding uh?) about why his mother was trying to throw her insides out every morning! Not to mention the fact that she was always found languishing on the couch! So we decided to tell him.. and went about it all wrong!
“Cheeky guess what we are going to have a baby join our family” we said
Silence.. more silence
“Cheeky?”
“Oh No” he exclaims
“When ?” he says with such a pained look on his face I thought I was going to cry (well between my mood swings Cheeky could hardly be blamed for that)!
“It will be sometime in July 2010 Honey” say we!
“And that is going to be the worst day of my life in 2010″ says he?
“Cheeky” we say in unison in absolute horror!
He explains “But Mommy I am too young to have a baby yet!”
Sigh! “Cheeky not you, mommy is going to have the baby, you are going to have a brother or a sister”
Then he sighed.. a huge sigh of relief! The funny guy “Then let it be a brother” he beamed!
“But God will decide hon” say we and before he loses the smile ask him “So what do you think we should name it?”
“If it is a boy – Jack” he says
“And if it is a girl?”
“Lets name her Shreya” says Dad
“Or Asin or Trisha or Priya Mani” chimes Cheeky belting out the names of all tamil lead female actors! My oh my.. at 5 if he does this I wonder what he would do at 25!!

If you expect a happily ever after, think again. We sat at the doctor’s office a few days later and the doctor was busy talking to Mama. Cheeky whispers to his Dad “So you going to marry mom again?”
Dad bewildered “No why?”
“Then how do you have that second kid now?”
“Shush Cheeky lets talk about it later ok” says a red faced Dad!
And later.. Mom was posed the same question, but she was now ready and armed “We ask God Sweety and he decides when to give us the next baby”!
“Remember how you prayed to God for a brother or sister last year?” I said congratulating myself on my quick thinking...
“But then I told God not to bother and that I would like a pet instead” he says eyeing the tummy!

Despite the ultrasounds and weekly pictures from parenting website I am sure the arrival of Tootsie was what convinced Cheeky. Now Tootsie has a tough act to beat.. following the Cheeky Brat and I sure have my work cut out for the next 20 + years! So how did you break the news to your first born and how did he/ she react? Do Share ,...

(Image source: http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/16/1650/N1ZGD00Z/laura-monahan-hope-baby-hands-and-feet.jpg)
[p.s. The flip side of blogging - The out of town hubs and friends gathers updates from my blog rather than hearing my long winding tales on the phone!!! Sigh!!]

What's it with me and the flooding!

A few months back in good old Charlotte I donned my slacks and crisp shirt one morning. Packed 3 full bags - One the most important Lunch, the other what my work people forced me to lug along my laptop and the third my make up and candy stash with my wallet in my purse (quite as important I would say). I was ready to get on the commuter train to downtown and pretend to be an all important person in the corporate world! Meanwhile I had to keep my part of hte morning deal, wake Cheeky. The hubs had the harder part getting him ready for school.. As we stood 2 sleepy heads, one straight out of bed and the other all set for work but still sleepy and quite pregnant too.. We stood there in front of the sink and opened the tap and gush we were both drenched and the water kept gushing out while I watched in horror without any understanding. A pipe had burst on us.. A few precious minutes later sense prevailed and the hubs and I managed to turn off the water valves.. but the damage was done! That was quite an adventure you would say right?

But little did I know that the phrase "History repeats itself" would hold so true in my life! Last afternoon the hubs took off on a trip (carefree that he is)... and I struggled with my 2 little imps. The minute I rested my back one or the other one would pipe up!! And on one such occassion I noticed some water in the kitchen. Investigation proved the forbidden door was leaking (we have 2 forbidden doors in our tiny little apartment.. 2 forbidden doors and no storage!). This door housed the water heater which had sprung a leak. A call to maintenance later we found the heater had to replaced. That took the better part of my afternoon and I sighed and accepted a ruined rest time!

Later that evening I switched on the washer and my dad (who is visiting by the way) got ready to take an evening stroll) and lo behold he walked into a big pool of water in what used to be the kitchen! It was the washer this time. Tootsie began to scream right this instant and Cheeky thought this was splash planet and decided to play in the "big puddle" as he called it! I screamed like a banshee at the emergency maintenance call center ("We have paged maintenance ma'am there is nothing more we can do"! I am going to call 9-1-1 screamed the crazy woman!). My dad tried hard to keep the water from the carpet. And then sense prevailed. I twisted myself into a boomerang shaped spring toy while I groped in the dark behind the immovable washer for the valves. It was the wet kitchen with water steadily seeping into the carpets that bounced me back in shape.. or it would have taken an entire army to straighten me up! An hour and a half later maintenance arrived to tell me they would be back in the morning as I seemed to have everything under control. But you have seen no wrath as that of the mom of 2... "You will do no such thing.. you will clear the mess in the carpets right now" said I.. and the guy rushed to get a vaccum, rip out the carpets and run a blower to dry the place! While I settled to a night of owl-hood with my little infant!

And M is frolicking on his "business" trip! Now just you wait mister.. this aint funny!! You better have a good story!! Now what are the odds that this happen to me not once, not twice but thrice (and 2 times on the same day?) .. some one out there has some sense of humor I say!

(Img: http://www.porthuron.org)

(DISCLAIMER: THESE BLOGS COME UN-EDITED... I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISTAKES.. SIGNED FROM ZOMBIE LAND)

Introducing Tootsie the Chipmunk!

Not so long ago I talked about mid life crisis... apparently when crisis strikes you take action! And boy has my past year been eventful.. granted I have not been blogging quite as much, but I have a story I promise ya!

It all started not too long ago when I was trying to figure out the direction my life was going.. I was tired of just floating along being superfluous and drinking off the margarita cup all day while watching daytime soap operas and turning from a potato to a pumpkin! So I decided to introspect and discovered a mid life crisis!

Then I hit the gym, became a model and lived happily ever after... you wish! Oh yes I hit the gym and got back into my pre-Cheeky clothes (finally!!) and took a long vacation to recuperate from doing nothing :) Back home from my long holiday I took up creative writing as a career.. after all I spent so much time online might as well make it lucrative right? I found that the more creative I get, people did not want to pay me.. just wanted me to write for nothing. However if I wrote boring monlogues on things that I had no knowledge off, I was paid a decent sum! Go figure! So finally I bit the bullet and returned to my IT Career and was all set to become a career woman! But remember the guy up there who needs to have the last laugh! After years and years of contemplation and procrasination, I decided to take the plunge into motherhood part 2. So here I was fighting nausea and commuting to work on the local train!

But there is more, our itchy restless feet put on its act again and we did a coast to coast move in April.. About 6 months pregnant and working full time with a 5 yr old kid who has a wild independent streak, that was bound to be fun! Now I was a work at home mom and all I needed to complete the picture was a mini van. So we did that too.. bought a mini van that I could drive around to complete the mommy image! And Cheeky never fails to remind me that it is "Mommy like"

An accident with a knife, slitting open a thumb; a mini surgery on Cheeky and a grand tour of the mountains on my first drive around in the mini van (call for details... ) later I was ready to pop... 38 weeks preggers I stopped working and started fretting about getting prepared for the baby. Two days later Tootsie was born!

True to our image Cheeky the monkey is now followed by Tootsie the Chipmunk... The family like others say is complete with a boy and a girl.. but by no way regular .. so join us for our next round on the parenting roller coaster as we raise the Chipmunk and the Monkey in our role as zoo keepers :)

(pic courtesy: http://susty.com)