TweetSigh. For about the third night in three weeks, it’s 3 a.m. and I’m wide awake.
Luckily, tonight, so is my husband, and we’re drinking hot cocoa (and watching Revenge). But that’s not always the case. And this is becoming a habit. One I need to break. I end up conking out at 10:30-ish with Kavya, and when she wants a random bottle  in the middle of the night, I can’t fall back asleep.
Now, I know some would say I should take advantage of the quiet time and spend it writing. …

I’ll save the run-down list for my planner. But this year, I hope to work smarter not harder, to finish what I start, and to slow down and keep in mind what’s really important.

Tweet
So it’s Kavya’s first Christmas. She’ll be 10 months old, and we’ll be in California, sans snow, sans tree. Sans celebration? Christmas has always been an odd holiday for my family. We’re not Christian, by any stretch of the imagination, yet since we got to this country when I was all of 4, we’ve celebrated. Growing up, we had a tree — fake and white, with silver accents, bought for five bucks at a garage sale — and presents and even Christmas cookies. Of course, then there was the signature masala …

TweetWhen we first booked our semi-annual trip to California a few months ago, I was worried about how baby Kavya, now 9 months old, would handle the flight. After all, it’s nine hours across country, trapped in a disease-ridden box with barely enough space to wiggle your toes. (And our return flight is a red-eye. Yikes.)
I hadn’t been thinking about the plane as a death box, though.
Now, thanks to continued controversy over whether babies should be required to have their own seat on a plane, I have been. Lovely.
My husband …

Tweet
Jack Black gets nutty on Yo Gabba Gabba. (Here, sans camel toe.)We all know TV is NOT recommended for kids under 2, right? Right? At least, that’s what the American Academy of Pediatrics has been mandating for the last few years. That doesn’t actually stop parents from letting their little ones watch TV. Heck, Kavya gets plenty of small screen exposure, given the fact that I make my living working from home in my pajamas, writing mostly about TV. It can’t be helped.
In fact, lately, at 9 months old, I’ve noticed she pays …

Tweet
Kavi and her little half-tooth grin.Last week, after months of teething, baby Kavya’s first toothfinally erupted. It’s really cute, half a tooth really, sitting primly on the bottom of her little smile.
And boy does she love to use it. To take a “bite,” she snags her cookie or other random food on it, then pulls to tear. Or she gnaws on her carrot for half an hour, really working that little tooth like she’s sharpening it for future use.
I know, now that the first tooth has arrived, the teething is only going …

Tweet
As we count down the days to Thanksgiving, one thing looms large in my mind.
It will be crazy. It always is. Literally dozens of relatives descend upon my mom’s house for her signature masala turkey and my homemade macaroni and cheese, Indian-spiced green beans, and jalapeno mashed potatoes. Cousins, aunts, uncles, even Tarun mama can be counted on to show. We’re a loud, boisterous bunch.
So Thanksgiving, well, it’s just too much. Too many people, too many commitments, too much craziness.
But I’ve realized …

TweetThis Thanksgiving, Kavi will be digging in with the rest of us.With Thanksgiving coming up, we’re all excited to give Kavya her first taste of my mom’s signature masala turkey. It’s hearty and spicy, a classic in our family — really, it makes the whole meal.
So far though, Kavi, at 9 months, hasn’t had any meat. I’ve been wondering if we should start giving her some here and there to prep for the big day.
But that got me thinking, what if my baby’s a vegetarian?
My husband, a voracious carnivore, scoffs at the very idea. …

Tweet

A few weeks ago, I was on the subway with Kavya, whose curiosity would be alarming if it weren’t so charming.
A man sat down next to us and, as she babbled in his direction, put down his book for a chat. He said he’d like to offer me one piece of parenting advice, the best he’d ever gotten. “Don’t blink,” Randy, the man, told me. “Before you know it, she’ll be all grown up.”
I didn’t realize how right he was. Even in the few weeks since that …

Tweet
How do you know when it’s time to tip the balance? You know the one I’m talking about. The one between being mommy and being yourself. The scale is always dipping one way or the other, but for the past eight months — my first few as a mother — it’s definitely been all mama, all the time.
And as fulfilling as it has been, it’s also been exhausting. So for me, it seems the time has come to balance that scale — or …