Category Archives: Being Mum

Gym and childcare

Posted on November 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

As I have mentioned in my post a while ago, I had joined a gym and was working out 3-4 times a week. I was feeling great and my body was enjoying the benefits but after a while I could not go as often as I liked and then I did not go for 6 weeks.

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To go to the gym I had to wake up at 5:30 am, feed Chhori and get ready by 6:00 am to start gym by 6:30 am. I need to be back home by 8:00 am so AS could leave for work. It was a good arrangement and AS could look after Chhori while I am gone.

But the morning after the nights Chhori woke me up more often, it was really hard for me to get up so early. There were days when it was hard for me to get up so early but I would have time the whole day but there was no one to look after Chhori for even a few hours while went to the gym thus I couldn’t enjoy working out.

But the problem was solved when I discovered a gym with childcare. Yes it was such a blessing to find one near me as well. We have a Fitness First gym near us where they have childcare facility. You need to pay $5 a day for this service which is a fair amount for the help you are getting. You can leave your baby for 90 minutes a day while you work out. They open from 9am till midday and it is just perfect for me.

So I joined this gym and I am happy to report I am exercising again after a 6 week gap. I am so excited at the thought that I will get back to my normal self again. They also have a swimming pool which is great for the hot weather.

I was a bit worried about Chhori and how she would adjust in the childcare as I am her primary carer since her birth. The only person who has looked after her beside me is my husband, that also not more than 2 hours at a time.

But I am so relieved to see her doing well at childcare. The girls there are great and very friendly and Chhori is well looked after. There are so many toys there that she easily gets distracted when I leave her there. It is only for 90 minutes so I don’t feel too guilty either.

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In that 90 minutes I manage to either run, do some cardio, zumba or swim depending on the day. I am just loving my new routine. I wake up in the morning at the same time with AS. We all have breakfast together and then AS goes to work while Chhori and I go to the gym. Perfect as it can be.

Hope this new routine will get me into shape and I will be a healthier and happier person again.

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If you are in a similar boat like me and your new bundle of joy is stopping you from exercising, this is the perfect solution. I am sure you will find something similar around you and believe me it will be an effort worth making at the end of the day.

Happy exercising everyone.
Take care,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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Chhori’s first time in pool

Posted on October 24, 2015 | 15 comments

As it is very hot this spring, we decided that it would be a good time for Chhori to start going swimming. Of course, she won’t swim but I wanted her to get used to water.

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Normally when she has her bath she loves it so we thought it was a good sign. I bought a few swim suits for her even before she was born. The excitement of having a baby girl took me shopping many times while I was pregnant and on one of those trips I bought a beautiful one piece suit.

To make it easy for her, we went and bought floaters so we don’t need to hold her all the time and she too will be free to enjoy the water.

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We got her ready at home with her swimming nappy and the new swimming custom. She seemed excited already.

At the pool I took her into the water so she could get used to it before getting her into the floater. She was a pro, playing and kicking with excitement. The only bad thing was she wanted to drink the water and kept taking her tongue out. 🙂

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After a while, we put her in her floater and we swam while she enjoyed floating around. She was thrilled to be in the water and her expression was priceless.

We plan to take her to swim classes soon but in the mean time we just want her to get used to the water so she will learn how to swim quicker when the time comes.

Just a quick question for everyone with kids; what is a good age to send kids to swimming class? And when did your bub start swimming on their own?

Take care everyone till the next post.
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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White skin and blonde hair

Posted on September 23, 2015 | 32 comments

As I am 0n maternity leave these days, I try to fill my days visiting friends and family. Chhori loves it when we go out and meet people. It keeps her happy and makes my days pass quicker.

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On one of these visits, I decided to visit one of my friends as I hadn’t seen her for a while. She and her husband are both from Nepal and have two daughters, 4 years and 2 years so it was a perfect play time for Chhori. We planned to catch up at her place so I drove there with Chhori.

I was having a great day with the girls as they were excited to play with Chhori and they had a million questions about her, which was too cute. I was seeing Chhori’s future in them. Both the girls were happy to share their toys and food with Chhori.

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As it was afternoon, the younger of the girls was sleepy so my friend took her inside for nap. I was left with her 4 years old and Chhori and we were playing and talking when the following conversation stopped my heart for a while. Let me call the 4 year old Maiya for this post.

Me: “I love your long hair, so pretty, who braided it?” (I was just trying to make small talk)

Maiya: “I don’t like my black hair and I don’t like my skin either. I love Rosie and she is my best friend because she has white skin and blonde hair.”

Thinking it was just a conversation, I continued,

Me: “I actually like your skin, so soft and nice and also like your hair too as it is black and long like mine, your mums and Chhori’s too. Look at us we all look so similar because of our black hair.”

Maiya: “No aunty, blonde hair and white skin are beautiful and I am going to have them too. I want to be a beautiful princess.“

Me: “You are already beautiful my darling and you are a princess.“

Maiya: “But all my favourite princesses have blonde hair and white skin. Also all my favourite people in the world have them too like Rosie, S aunty (her mum’s SIL who is Swedish).”

I really had no reply her comments because she seemed to have them deeply carved in her mind. We live in Sydney where there are lots of white folks with blonde hair, we give her toys with similar features and she also watches cartoons and reads book where most of the time beautiful princess are white with blonde hair.

Later I spoke to my friend and she said that is her normal conversation. Maiya loves white skin so much that she asks her mum every day when she will be white like Rosie. She is not even dark, she is fair with big beautiful eyes and long black hair. But for her, beauty is not in black hair or brown skin.

I am sure I will be facing similar situations once Chhori grows up and I don’t know how to deal with it. I am sure all of you out there have faced similar situations with your own kids, please share how you deal with it. At times I am scared of the future when we have to deal with so many questions from Chhori and we will be lost for answers.

Thanks everyone in advance and see you soon with another post.

Take care,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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Pasni party for Chhori

Posted on September 11, 2015 | 3 comments

After the pasni puja was over, the next big day was the party day.

Chhori is so blessed to have so many loved one come to visit her after her birth. So I wanted to invite everyone for the celebration and to share the day with us.

As with other celebrations, I had many ideas that I wanted to execute for her special day.

So I started planning for the big day months in advance. I wanted a big enough venue that served good food and had great ambiance. After a very tiring search, we finally found it.

The next part was to find a good baker to bake a special cake for Chhori and a photographer who could capture the special moments. Once everyone was booked, I started on the entertainment. I wanted to put on a few performances so I asked few of my friends and they agreed to dance and sing on the day. Altogether, there were going to be 5 dances and a song and I was performing a dance with my sister in law as well.

I always liked dancing but I haven’t performed since high school so I was excited and scared at the same time. We practiced for almost a month every other day and though we were not very good in the beginning as the days passed and we practiced more, we got better and better. I was really happy with where we were headed.

In the meantime, we also designed place cards and arranged the table sitting. It took a while but when everything were done, I was super excited for the day.

On the day of party, I went to the beauty parlour to do my hair and makeup. It took almost 2 hours to get ready and I was happy with the result. I had ordered a special lehenga saree and that was what I was wearing. AS was also looking really handsome in his new suit and bow tie.

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Chhori also had a special dress made for her in a boutique in Nepal by her grand ma which I loved a lot. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

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Once we were all ready, we went to the venue. It was decorated, nicely.

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The cake was also already delivered. We placed all the place cards in the right places and were set for the evening.

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It was early and the photographer was there as well so we spent an hour taking photos before the guests arrived. He took great photos of us as well as with my parents and brother.

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As the guests arrived, the place stared to fill up and food and drinks were served.

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It was so much fun catching up with friends and family after a while. Chhori was an absolute angel and was behaved so well.

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After a while Chhori was bit tired and I let her sleep for a while so she would be fresh and happy for the cake cutting.

As to our schedule, it was time for some entertainment and first up was me and my SIL. I felt nervous like as if it was my first time on the stage but once the music started the fun took over the fear. We both were more relaxed and started our performance.

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Before we knew it, the songs came to an end and I was glad that everyone enjoyed it too. We were showered with applause when we left the stage. I am so glad we captured the performance on video.

After our dance there were more performances that evening by my friends. I am so grateful that I have such a great family and friends who invested their time and energy to make Chhori’s pasni such a memorable evening.

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As I looked around, everyone was enjoying the evening and I could see that the guests were relaxed and mingling well.

While the performance was on, entree was served and after the performance, it was time to cut the cake. Chhori woke up just in time for that.

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The baker did a great job with the cake. It was what I had imagined and looked amazing. I, AS and Chhori cut the cake together. Amazingly, when we gave Chhori a piece of cake, she loved it so much that she started munching on it and we were pleasantly surprised. She loved the sweetness and she looked so cute with cake all over her face.

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After the cake, the dance floor was opened and every one joined us on the dance floor for hours to enjoy the evening. It was so much fun for all of us.

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In the meantime, dinner was served and everyone enjoyed the food and the dance and before I knew it, it was close to midnight and party was coming to an end.

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I am so happy the evening went as we planned and everyone enjoyed it. They told us that they had an amazing time and loved our organized celebration.

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We got some beautiful photos and videos from the day so when Chhori grows up, she too can enjoy watching her Pasni ceremony.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and the post as much as we did the occasion.

Take care everyone,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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Posted in Being Mum, Celebrations, Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter

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Pasni Puja for Chhori

Posted on September 4, 2015 | 8 comments

There are many milestones once you have a child and Pasni is one of those big milestones in Nepalese culture. It was one I and AS, were really looking forward to once we had Chhori.

I read somewhere that you just need to have kids and they will grow up so fast and that seemed to be very true in our case already. Time has flown by and Chhori is already over 5 months and ready for her Pasni ceremony.

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The Pasni ceremony is also known as the rice feeding ceremony or Weaning Ceremony. I tis also called Annaprashan in Sanskrit which literally means grain initiation. It is the first time the baby is fed solid food. In Newari it is called Macha Junko.

AS parents sent us the sait, the auspicious day and time, for the pasni after consulting with an astrologer in Nepal. Once we knew the date, both of us were busy preparing for it for the next few weeks until the ceremony. As we are in Australia, everything needed to be arranged by AS and me and it kept us busy. If we were in Nepal, there would have been other family members who could have lent a hand.

I am just glad that we could buy everything we needed for the ceremony easily in Sydney. We also book the same priest who performed Chhori’s Nwaran.

Finally the big day arrived. I woke up early that morning and got ready in my red dupatta sari. The last time I had worn the dupatta sari was during our wedding so I was feeling special already. In the meantime AS got Chhori ready in her new clothes and we waited for the priest. My mum also made sagun. apungo and halwa for the puja.

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At 8am, the priest arrived and stared drawing mandap for the puja. He began the puja with AS sitting at the mandap and after a while asked me to join as well. Then Chhori joined us later, sitting on my lap and the puja continued.

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The first step was to worship Lord Ganesh and the sukunda and all the gods. He chanted mantras and blessed Chhori’s puja outfit and ornaments. The outfit was made of red silk (Taas) embroidered with golden threads and there were gold ornaments like a chain, earrings, bangles (with gold dragon on the ends) and silver anklets (kalli) to keep the bad omens at bay. Some of the ornaments were from my parents and some from AS parents.

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We then changed Chhori into her new outfit and put the kalli and bracelets on her and the ceremony continued.

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Next it was time to give Chhori the tray which had a book (symbolising learning), jewels (wealth), a pen (wisdom), clay (property), food items (a love for food) as well as a mobile phone (after instruction from priest) symbolising a computer genius 🙂 to Chhori.

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It is believed that the first thing the baby touches determines her future path and career. In our case, Chhori first grabbed the book and then the mobile phone so we are hoping she will like computers like her parents.

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After that, it was time for the big moment, Chhori’s first solid food. Normally in Newari culture, we have Thya Bu (a big plate with rice, eggs, yogurt, wine, fruits, roti, meat, fish, vegetables and much more) as the first meal but as we were here, it was near impossible to follow that tradition so we used Kheer (rice pudding) instead.

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My mum made a special kheer for Chhori with lots of milk boiled longer to make it softer. Everyone fed small portions to Chhori using a sliver bowl and a gold coin. She seemed to like the sweetness and kept asking for more; enjoying her first solid food.

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Then the priest blessed the baby and the puja was over but there was still more to come.

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The next step was to take the baby to a nearby temple, which for us was round a thirty minutes’ drive. We all hopped into the car and went to the temple in time for the aarti ceremony.

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After the aarti, the priest blessed the baby and then, my brother who is the mama (maternal uncle in Nepali) took the baby and went around the temple following tradition.pasni (18)

Chhori was so happy to be out seeing all the lights in the temple.

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Once we returned home, it was time for Sagun. My mum had prepared all the necessary items and I am so grateful that she was here with us. I can’t imagine what we would have done without her.

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First my parents put tika on the foreheads of AS, me and Chhori. Then they gave us clothes, fruits, rotis and other gifts.

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It was followed by Sagun to us and everyone present. This concluded the morning ceremony for the pasni.

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For rest of the day, we had our close friends and family coming over to bless Chhori and to celebrate the day. By the time everyone left that day, it was almost midnight.

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It was great day for us to see our daughter growing up and starting to eat sold food. My parents were really pleased to witness their granddaughter’s big day.

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In the next post I will write about the party we had for Chhori’s pasni celebration.

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Till then take care everyone.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Posted in Being Mum, Celebrations, Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter

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