A year older, a lot wiser :)

Posted on October 31, 2015 | 14 comments

On 28 October, I celebrated my birthday. A year seemed to just fly away so fast. It feels like it was just a few months ago that I celebrated my last birthday. It is always nice to look back on old birthday celebration posts in my blog. If you haven’t read them before here are some of the ways I celebrated my birthday in the past, 2011 ,2012, 2013 and 2014. Anyway it was my first birthday as a mum and it was just fantastic.

AS took a day off from work to spend the whole day with me so it was a lazy morning for us. We woke up late and went for a brunch to a really nice café with a cool decor and a good menu.

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AS ordered his big breakfast and I ordered Egg Benedict. I have to say the food was yummy and the coffee was good too.

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I was already full from the breakfast when AS surprised with a cake. It was a red half dome orange and chocolate cake. I was happy that AS even put a birthday message on the plate. I was one happy birthday girl for sure :).

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The best birthday gift I got that morning was from Chhori who slept through the whole brunch and some more to give me some time to spend with AS.

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In the evening, we were invited to my brother’s place for dinner.

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I got a surprise celebration there with a yummy birthday cake with my brother’s family and cousins too.


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Today, few of my friends came over with gifts and sweets to celebrate my birthday. It is really naice to be surrounded by such caring people.

I am just happy to be another year older with my love (AS) and my life (Chhori) by my side.

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I am sure I am a lot wiser too as I have become a mum this year which has taught me lots of new things in life.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Halloween.

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

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Posted in Celebrations

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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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Posted in Being Mum, Our daughter

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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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Posted in Being Mum, Our daughter

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Nepaliaustralian turns 4!

Posted on September 19, 2015 | 14 comments

On 13 September, 2015 nepaliaustralian turned 4. Being so busy with Father’s Day and Teej, I almost forgot to write the anniversary post.

Anyway better late than never. 🙂 🙂 🙂

When I first started writing, I never imagined than I would be writing a post to celebrate the 4th anniversary of my blog. So much has changed in my life since then and the biggest change is the birth of our daughter, Chhori.

Even though Chhori is taking up most of my time, I am glad to be able to write whenever I can and update everyone with what is happening in my life.

Today the blog has 824 posts, 74 pages, 8701 comments with 1,033,822 page views, 3455 followers and readers from 222 countries visiting my blog. J

So, Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!

Thank you everyone who reads and follows my blog. Thank you everyone for your comments on my posts. Thank you to those who email me with words of encouragement and making me realise that my blog has helped them in some way. I feel blessed to be in the company of all the wonderful human beings who have helped to make my blog what it is today.

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I have a virtual cake for all to hand around! Cheers!!!

P.S: To celebrate the occasion like every year, I will be opening the nominations for Nepaliaustralian’s Blog Award 2015 so watch out for my future post.

Take care everyone and Happy weekend!!!

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

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Posted in Celebrations

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Chhori’s first Nepali Father’s Day

Posted on September 13, 2015 | 1 comment

Only last week, it was Australian Father’s Day and AS was over the moon to be able to celebrate it with Chhori. Today is Kushe Aushi (Nepali Father’s Day). I made plans to make it special for AS as it is his first and I wanted to celebrate it in traditional Nepali way.

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I prepared puja, Sagun (traditionally a plate of boiled egg, smoked fish, a “bara”, fried chicken and yogurt). I also baked a cake with the wording “For the record, you are the world’s best dad; Happy Father’s Day AS” on it.

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I also baked some cupcakes. I made a special card with Chhori’s handprints and “Happy Father’s Day” written on it. I also got him some fruits, biscuits and t-shirt.

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I was so happy to see everything come together and AS was really pleased with my efforts.

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So Chhori observed her first Nepali Father’s Day with my help. First we put tika on AS forehead.

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Then we give him Sagun. After that Chhori and AS cut the cake together.

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He was pleased with the card as well and Chhori had a great time too.

I and AS also talked to our dads and send them gifts for Father’s Day. It is always so nice to see them happy. I really appreciate what they have done for us.

So if you are from Nepal and you haven’t called your dad to wish him, do give him a call and make him smile. And to all the proud dads out there, Happy Father’s Day.

Take care everyone.
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

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Posted in Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter

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