Category Archives: Our daughter

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

3 Comments

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

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Happy Father’s Day AS

Posted on September 6, 2015 | 10 comments

Today is Father’s day in Australia. It is AS first Father’s day and he is over the moon to have our little angle with us.

AS and Chhori

That is the photo I took when Chhori was small and here is the one from today.

AS and Chhori

“Happy first Father’s Day daddy. I love you a lot. Lots of Love, Kisses & Hugs” : Chhori ❤ ❤ ❤

Thank you AS for being such a wonderful father and helping me raise our beautiful daughter.

Wishing all the fathers out there a wonderful Father’s Day. Hope you all are enjoying your time with your little bundle of joy.

Take care everyone.
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

10 Comments

Posted in Baby food, Celebrations, 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

8 Comments

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

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Chhori, my best friend

Posted on August 29, 2015 | 13 comments

I am a social being, an extrovert who always wants to be in the company of others. For me nothing is worse than staying home doing nothing. I never understand how people can stay home for weeks without meeting anyone. I guess each to their own but for me contact with another human being is really important.

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When my parents were here, I never had to think about being alone or lonely. They were always around to help, look after Chhori and make me smile. I really miss not living with family because after more than a decade I again felt the love of living with family. I had almost forgotten how it felt to have your loved ones around who love you unconditionally.

Then the D day arrived and my parents left for Nepal. It was going to be just me and Chhori for five days a week while AS was at work. I know I am very lucky to have so much time off work to look after Chhori because in Australia, we can take up to two years unpaid maternity leave. If you are very lucky, your work will pay you for a few months and the government will also pay 18 weeks minimum pay during the maternity leave. Most women choose to take a year off as financially going without income for more is too hard. One year is a good time as the baby is then old enough to go to childcare without too many problems.

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Anyway so it has been only me and Chhori for almost a month now. I have to admit I was very scared initially. I wasn’t sure how I was going to take care of her. How would she react to being with me alone when she has been so used to my mum being here? What will I do if something goes wrong? I had millions of questions in my mind but after a month I have to admit I feel more confident taking care of Chhori and we are a great duo now :).

I have slowly got into a routine with her so we have meal times, play times, sleep times and rest times. She loves to go out so I try to do different activities with her and she loves it. We visit friends and family and she loves all the attention that she gets.

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A few days a week, we stay home and we love it. Only me and her. Slowly she has become my best friend and I don’t feel lonely or alone when staying home with her.

We talk, we sing, we dance (okay I dance for her and she loves to watch 🙂 ), we have baths and we watch TV together. She loves when I play with her and talk to her. She loves when I take her photos and these days she has started smiling a lot.

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I know they say  “A daughter is a mother’s best friend.” I am so close to my mum and I always wished to have the same beautiful bond with Chhori. It is amazing that the beautiful bond has already started and I am so happy for both of us.

I now understand her different types of cry and act quickly to keep her happy. We talk baby talk even though the words have no meaning. I know it sounds silly but anyone who has kids know how cute these talks are :). Also it is a big part of their development.

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Now I no longer feel the need to meet someone every day as I feel Chhori is always here for me and she keeps me happy, my life feels complete by her presence.

I am no longer scared to be alone with her as she is my best friend and we are lucky to spend so much time together. We love each other and know how to make each other laugh. She has so many tricks up her sleeves to keep me amused that no days feel the same and I look forward to each new day.

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These days, she tries to grab whatever she can get hold of and put it in her mouth. So I giver her my cheeks and she kisses them. That definitely melts my heart every time. I guess I could write about our beautiful bond forever but I need to stop here for this post.

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I am sure, every child has a beautiful bond with their parents and being a first time mum I’m discovering that slowly. Please share the  early memories of your child and you which brings a smile to your lips even now. I hope to read heaps of heart warming events from all of you.

Take care everyone and have a great weekend.
M form nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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Posted in Being Mum, Our daughter

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Product review : 4Baby Bath & Change table

Posted on August 27, 2015 | 6 comments

Like probably every new parents, we google and research a lot before we buy any products for our baby. As there are millions of products out there, it is easy to get confused and online reviews are so helpful at such times. I can’t imagine what people did before the internet. If not for these reviews, I am sure we would be lost when deciding to buy a product and the reviews are especially helpful with baby products.

I think the manufactures of baby products are very clever and they know how to play with the emotions of mums and dads. If not for generous parents sparing time to write reviews about different products online, I am sure we would have bought some not too good quality products which we would have regretted.

I think it is only fair for me to contribute to this great community which has helped me so much so I am going to review all the baby products I am using for Chhori so it will be helpful for others.

Growing up in Nepal, we didn’t have lots of baby stuffs those days. My mum never used change table, high chairs, bassinets, walkers for both her kids and I don’t know anyone in Nepal who had one while I was there. I guess it was considered luxury items only rich people could afford.

But it is a different story here. Everyone around me suggested lots of baby items to buy when I was pregnant and one of the items that kept coming up was a change table. A changing table is a stand-alone piece of furniture, usually kept in your baby’s room. The top is a table that’s just the right size for a changing mat. Below are shelves or drawers which can be used for storing nappies, baby wipes and other changing accessories.

Initially I was not too sure if I really needed one. Like my parents, I believed I could go without it as it is bulky and I didn’t know where I would keep it. In my mind, I was thinking, every single baby product seems necessary if you think about it but there are many we can go without. Most of my friends around me had gone without it even here in Australia so I was thinking to do the same.

While I was talking to my friends and colleagues, one of them suggested to buy Bath & Change table instead of just a Change table to get more use out of it. That was the first time I considered even slightly about getting it as it seemed like a great idea to use it as a baby bath too. I had heard mothers complaining about their knees and back due to bending to change and bathe the baby so I thought might be a good idea to get a Bath & Change table save mine.

We stared researching about it and there were so many different brands around. Both of us were still not sure as we were just thinking about it at that stage.

Then Chhori decided to come a bit early than expected. If you haven’t read about her arrival, please do read this post. As you know by now that I had a c-section so it was hard for me to bend down. It was impossible for me to change her on the floor so the day I came home from hospital, AS decided to go and buy a Bath & Change table for me.

He bought a white 4Baby Bath & Change table. It has wheels as well so it’s easy to move it from the nursery to the bathroom. The wheels are lockable and the baby bath has a plug and drain. It also has handy storage shelves, easy clean change pad and a storage mesh bag.

I have to say, it is one of the most useful baby products we have bought. It’s quicker to change the baby where everything is already organised and it’s much easier than on the floor or sofa and we are also saving our back.

On top of that Chhori loves it. I am not sure if it is the height or something else, but she know now that if we put her on there, we will clean her up so she stops crying once on the table if she has a dirty nappy.

A bad thing I have found with this unit is that the change pad stains even though we clean it regularly. It cleans well but it is not as white as it was when it was new. Another is that it doesn’t have a belt to strap the baby in when changing. Chhori is starting to roll over now and a belt would have been good on the change pad.

We have had it for 6 months now and there have been no problems and hope it will last for another year or so until Chhori is toilet trained.

Hope this review helps anyone who is looking to get 4Baby Bath & Change table or a similar product.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

6 Comments

Posted in Being Mum, Our daughter, Product Review

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