"Bringing up Bebe"

I decided to start an evening book club so that I have another excuse to have a night out:) The first book we read was "Bringing up Bebe" by Pamela Druckerman. My friend Laine had high praises of this book and I was particularly drawn to it because it's about a New Yorker who married a Brit and they moved to Paris to raise a family.

It was definitely cool to read about an ex-pat family raising a child for the first time abroad. And since the French style of parenting is so unique, I enjoyed gaining some insight into their methods. Did you know that even as babies they eat 4 course meals for lunch and dinner? Did you know that if a toddler doesn't say "Bonjour" to another adult, it's socially unacceptable? And did you know that they don't teach the alphabet or count until the children go to elementary school? Rather they focus on teaching them how to communicate and socialize in those early years instead of shoving letters and numbers down their throat. It was very cool to learn the ins and outs of parenting abroad when they are different customs at play.

I sometimes feel like a fish out of water raising Riya. We're American, yes, but we're also Indian. And we live in a melting pot city raising a child without any influences around us. Turns out I have employed some of the French parenting philosophies without even knowing it. I'm impressed with myself :)

If I could sum up the book (and my biggest take away) in one line, the author says it perfectly, "I want my kids to be self-reliant, resilient, and happy. I just don't want to let go of their hands."

Looking forward to one of many more book clubs to come! Our next book is called "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women" by Geraldine Brooks. Can't wait to delve in!

It's October?!

October signifies the beginning of fall to me. But over here in the land of 100 degree weather, pretty hard to enjoy that pumpkin spice latte but I am happy that Starbucks decided to offer it this year (though I prefer making my own, healthier version. Click here for the yummy recipe.) I cannot wait to start making all my favorite pumpkin recipes!

This past weekend was a holiday weekend for us. It was Eid Al Adha. This is the second of two Eids that Muslim religion celebrates every year. Once again, we never know in advance how many days off Ram will get, so it's impossible to plan anything. He ended up getting two days off which was really nice. We kicked off the weekend celebrating his big 3-4, with breakfast at Baker & Spice, a place we've been wanting to try, and dinner at an Claw BBQ, an American themed restaurant with our American friends:)

Now that's a margarita!!! It was delicious btw

Oh, and I decided to chop off my hair to mark the occasion. Ram, you officially have a wife that looks like she's in her 20's. You're welcome :)

The next day Ram grilled us some yummy burgers and hotdogs, which Riya got a taste of for the first time. I didn't get to snap any pics, but she wasn't complaining :) Baby girl will eat anything you give her as long as she can feed it to herself. She has a firm "No Spoon" policy.

The next day we toyed with the idea of doing a day trip but as usual, we opted against it. There's just nothing worth the drive, in our opinion, in the nearby Emirates. This is one major inherent flaw I find with this part of the world; they are so into developing new and modern cities that there is no history or nature left to marvel at. It's not a very inspiring region. Very sad for the youth that grows up here.

Anyway, we ended up taking Riya to a new soft play area Sunday afternoon and then geared up for the Texans game. The next day, Ram and I both woke up very sick:( It's bad enough both of us were sick at the same time, but tell that to your one year old who is a ball of energy! We had to sleep in shifts (though I snuck in more shut eye than Ram- thanks babe) and it was just plain awful. So hard to be sick as a mother. Mother's don't get sick days!

Although I'm still having nightmarish flashbacks of Riya's not sleeping while we were in Houston, I am itching to do a family vacay in December. Eeeek. What to do, what to do...