By the 2-year Mark

What I need to work on for Chetan by the two-year mark:

1. Get him to happily brush his teeth.

2. Get him to not wake up at night.

3. Get him to sleep separately.

4. Get him to fall asleep by himself- without one of us being around.

5. Get him to drink milk in a glass, not in a bottle.

6. Get him to sit in one place while he eats all his meals.

7. Get him to eat all his meals.

8. Get him to pee and poop in the bathroom potty and tell when he wants to do these things.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Lord have mercy.

MY Priority and what I am learning about God

I think that one way Satan's been attacking me lately is by making me feel that because I'm a stay at home mom, I'm not as good as the mom's who are working or who are earning degrees. I very often feel like I'm behind others, that the world is moving on and I'm left with nothing great to show for it. So, because I listened to this lie, last week I frantically searched for schools where I could do my B.Ed. I searched a lot and the Lord closed each and every door. For all distance learning degrees, you must be an in-service teacher. Hello! How can I leave my child, go get a job in a school and then study in the evenings for my B.Ed? Impossible! No, it's possible but at the cost of neglecting my child, my husband, my self and my house.

I read today that we as mom's need to reserve our time for the best things, not the good things. It may be good for me to get my B.Ed. but it is best for me to stay at home for my child.

Over our weekend in Allahabad, I was reminded by God and my friend Delicia that my most important priority in this season of my life is Chetan. The most important things right now are to teach him, deal with his naughtiness, give him attention and shower him with love. What a gift God has given me! Here is a poem that really touched my heart by Doran Richards. It reminds me of how important my Little Sunshine is:

Gift from God

I give thanks to You alone
Who sits on the throne
To loan me this precious gift
And to call it my own.

May I always see, Lord
In every waking hour,
Your majesty and grace
In this delicate flower.

Help me, O God,
To guide and preserve,
This wonderful blessing,
To love and to serve.

To move on, Chetan has been getting very scared lately of fire crackers. I'm noticing that whenever he gets scared, he runs and clings to me. He actually has perfect faith that his mommy will protect him and won't let any harm come to him. If a child can have such faith in a weak, imperfect being, how much faith should we have when it comes to our perfect God. Not only is He God, but He has proven himself to be trustworthy over and over again. Why not cling to him when worry and shadows come in life? Why not cling to him as a child clings to his mother? Why not have faith just like a child? After all, we have a perfect God!

Monday Shine

Do you ever get the feeling that everyone else is better than you? Does it ever seem that others have lives more put together than yourself? Lately I've been combatting immense self esteem battles. It seems to me that Chetan is far behind than other kids in areas where his mommy should have already trained him in. Here are a few:
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1. He's still not sleeping through the night.
2. He still cannot sleep on his own. We have to be around and sometimes even have to walk him around until he sleeps.
3. He still sleeps in our bed with us.
4. He's still drinking milk from a bottle.
5. He's still messing his diapers. He refuses to tell us that he wants to go to the bathroom.
6. He won't sit in his chair to eat food nor does he eat food without being very messy.

These are major areas for me. I want my sleep at night. I want my bed for Samir and I only. I just don't know how to train him. To add to this we have to battle intensely with heat and mosquitoes. Chetan sometimes insists on my getting out of bed to walk him resulting in us getting bitten and M's entering into the net, thereby spoiling our already (ruined) much needed rest.

TO add to this more, Samir can't tolerate Chetan screaming away at night and he needs his rest in order to not be so stressed out so I'm really at a loss because if I'm going to train Chetan to sleep through the night, there will be a lot of screaming going on. Speaking of screaming, the Little Rascal is doing it all the time these days for everything that he doesn't get. He's driving me nuts and then I have to try to keep him quiet in order to not disturb the downstairs office people. God help me. Please pray for me to work out some solutions and have a clear head.

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On a positive note, there are some things to be thankful about and proof that God is hearing me:
1. Chetan has started speaking. I was real anxious over this and I was beginning to think he's going to speak Really Late but Praise God- he's now repeating just about anything we tell him. Though why he still screams for things instead of just saying their names is something we can't understand.

2. Chetan is eating real good. Again a real matter of prayer for me and God has answered it by increasing his appetite. Our Child is eating just about anything and everything we give him.

3. Something to pat ourselves on the back about is that 90% of the food that Chetan gets is healthy. He's not fussy about eating veggies and fruits. We rarely allow Sodas and sweets in our house.

4. After a disturbed night, I am a thousand times grateful that Chetan takes a 3 hour long nap every day. Praise God.
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Other 'going-on's' in our life right now is that Mom and Dad are gone to Sharjah for the next 10 days. I'm so glad they get to go but I miss them terribly and I wish to talk to mom like I'm used to doing everyday. Thank you God for parents!

I am praying that either Baylor or Christ College will work out for Abhi and that God would come through for him in a Real Special Way.

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I am looking forward to getting 2 packages this week (please God let them arrive). One from my sister and one from Scarlett. Both for my immense benefits.

I need to think of an healthier way to ward off mosquitoes.

Chetan has started to say Amen after prayer. The other day since Samir's prayer was getting too long, so Chetan said Amen before it was over. I guess it was his way of telling us that enough is enough.

Some Girl names that I like: 1.Sanaa- Praise be to God.
2. Sahela
3. Nisar
4. Eden

We hope to one day adopt a girl by the way. Hopefully she'll be close to Chetan in age. Either a year younger or a year older.

There's another baby coming in the Mukha family as Samir's brother and Sowmya are expecting a baby in July. Hooray!

Arundhati Roy has been an inspiration for me lately. Why? After reading her latest Essay, "Listening to the Grasshoppers", I learned this about her:
1. She is an amazing writer.
2. She is using her popularity and writing skill to show people how injustice, hatred is ruining India.
3. She is brilliantly intelligent.
4. She is fearless. She calls a spade a spade.
5. She practices what she preaches. She stands up for the rights of the poor.
6. She is helping to make India a better country.

Inheritance

There are some things I hope will form the character of my son as he grows into an adult. There are some things I hope he emulates from me.

I hope that Chetan will be a:

1. Man of Integrity and Truth
2. Man who is passionate about Jesus.
3. Man who loves the Word of God.
4. Man who loves life with abandon.
5. Man who has a sense of humour and who loves to laugh.
6. Man who will look beyond traditions and norms in his marriage and in raising his children. Ex. That he will help his wife in cooking, keeping the house and raising their children without thinking that it's only a woman's job.
7. Man who has a broad, open mind.
8. Man who loves nature and has an exploring spirit.
9. Man who has genuine humility.
10. Man who thinks and aspires for knowledge.
11. Man who is easily correctible.
12. Man who does not think too much of what others think of him.

Photos Photos Everywhere

Some pictures of Chetan at "play time" for my family to enjoy and for Chetan to see when he's old enough to comprehend.