Find your tribe, love them hard.

Hey mamas, here is to you !

Here is to you natural birthing, no epidural, breastfeeding, cloth diapering mama. Here is to you c-section, formula feeding, disposal diapering mama. Here is to you all organic, baby wearing mama. Here is to you jar food and pouches mama. Here is to you who is just like me.

I am a mama who breastfed my babies for 18 and 22 months.  I am a mama who co-slept with both my girls. I am a mama who believed in feeding mainly homemade food for my babies. But does any of  that really make me better than any of you? Absolutely  not!

We all are doing our best at this motherhood gig. All that truly matters is that mom and baby are safe and healthy, that there is an abundance of love and we are giving this life our best.

Being a mother is hard enough, why divide ourselves? Why compare? There are days I struggle to get out of bed, stay in my pjs, yell and maybe even scream at my children all day and order pizza for dinner. There are days I put make up on, get my hair done, get dressed and feel like I can take on the world…until about lunchtime I realize, this stuff is hard, when is nap time. We are all just taking it day by day . The notion of being perfect in every single aspect of life is nonexistent to me.Why do we strive for something that is not even remotely possible?Is it the society who puts so much pressure on all of us? Or is it us who do that to ourselves?

We definitely cannot be the same person who have the cleanest house, with the smartest kids, traveled the world, seen things more than others have, maintains the perfect circle of friends, look amazing and flawless all the time, plan the perfect dinner parties yet succeed at work like a boss?We all can do our best and try to be good at one or more of these but you cannot master all this while raising a human being. If you can then you must be a super human being 🙂 . But most of us are far from it. I know I try my best to do good on some of these things but there is no way I am trying to be a perfectionist, it is not realistic to me. I have messy floors because I have children, not because I am lazy. I try as hard as the next person to pick up after them but some days I cannot keep up with them. As a mom I let a lot of things slide.

So instead of being so hard on ourselves, by diving ourselves into categories can we all form a tribe? Can we call motherhood a union of friendship, honesty and a common ground to come and lift each others up? Being a mother is SO hard but if you have the right people to share this with, you have yourself a village and it does truly take a village to raise a human being.

Can we just lift each others up and not compete? Let’s form a tribe and love them hard. We all know there is not a greater joy than being a mom but also it is the most challenging job there is. In order for us to succeed we need to find our tribe. A tribe is our circle who have the similar struggles and is always there to share their stories and lift each other up. I know in my circle of friends we share a lot of our stories, good and bad. We have our own unique connection. We cheer on each other and we also sympathize with the struggles. Can we all be better at uplifting each others? Absolutely! But I take this support and friendship any day  over standing alone and doing this motherhood job alone all by myself.

So do you have a tribe? A village that you lean on? If you do, do not let them go and love them deep!

XoXo,

PJ

And this is why we travel !

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Probably one of my favorites, if not, my absolute favorite ever. It is a simple quote with such a powerful message. Us , human beings have been defying nature since the origin of time. We have been doing things that is not necessarily “normal”. That’s how we grew, we civilized and we learned. This behavior seems to simple yet it is so complicated.  So why stop now? This is the question I have been asking myself a lot lately and really trying to put things into perspective.

Having two kids so close in age, back to back took a toll on our overall well-being. It was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting . But one thing we both promised ourselves is we will not stop to live our lives. It is so easy to get lost in their daily schedules and our own struggles but we refuse to do that. Yes, we are a normal parents who have to work hard and earn their way of life but we are also the parents who are healthy (so far) and physically capable of doing what we put our minds into. We may not have unlimited resources of anything but what we have is our willpower and our curiosity. We want to do things not because we have to but also because we want to. We want to see the world through our children as much as we can.

That is why we travel!

A lot of people have asked us if we have “lost our minds” when we travel with two kids in a tow. Yes it is not easy to travel with two little kids , yes it is not easy to set up a eating and sleeping schedule when your time zones are completely different from home but it is also not easy to stay at one place and not experience things. We may not be perfect but we want to get out and about and travel the world one country, one city and one continent at a time. We are not traveling family , actually quite far from it but we want out children to grow up thinking my parents did something right. They showed us the world even when we did not remember. I want them to say thank god we were introduced to various cultures and people and places which we can’t remember but somehow helped us shape the human being that we are today. That is what we want them to say. Also, travel does not have to be extravagant or expensive, you could just play tourist in your own city and explore as well. There are so many hidden gems around you, you just have to look. People think children thrive on routine, but we beg to differ. Not saying routine is bad, but for our family we do not believe in a lot of formal routine. Everything has been on-demand and spontaneous since they were little kids. So either it is good or bad, we still do it that way. Things may change when they grow a bit older but for now we will try and will try really hard to live an interesting life for them.

For your children, you are the most important people in their lives so why not include them on everything , if not , in most things that you do.

A lot of families have different priorities, they want to be more settled and explore when the kids are a bit older and that is also okay. I am not saying what we are doing is okay. I am only saying we do this because we feel like it fits our lifestyle and our kids’ personalities. I know a few of you have texted, emailed and messaged me on Facebook saying thank you for sharing our travel experiences with them and also asked for some tips and tricks. You know what? Those comments completely flatter me. I am so humbled to even give an ounce of encouragement to anyone who is struggling to muster up the courage to travel or do things differently than the norm.

We all need to remember WE are the grown up here, WE make the choices and WE make it happen. So let’s not wait for the right time to do anything, let’s just do it.

As I Mark Twain said in his quote above, you will probably regret NOT doing things in your old age than you actually did when you were young and able. For us it is travel and for you it may be something else. But let’s just do it and make it happen and let’s excite our children!

Heads up about www.pjmomblog.com and pjmomblog.wordpress.com

Hello Friends-

Quick note- my domain http://www.pjmomblog.com is down currently but http://www.pjmomblog.wordpress.com is active and running. Reason being, my auto renewal of the domain failed (old CC) so I have to wait for a while to renew it without paying and arm and a leg. In the meantime I still have http://www.pjmomblog.wordpress.com fully functional, and since it is free they will not shut it down 😉 . So bear with me until that happens. I will send a quick note again.

For now you can use the wordpress site http://www.pjmomblog.wordpress.com to see my posts and such. Talking about posts, a new one coming up soon 😉 . Stay put!

Love you!

XoXo

PJ

My Wish for you!

Motherhood you have wrecked me so beautifully well. What I’d give to turn back the hands of last few years and redo it all over again. Not because we did something wrong but we did everything so right.

Read something similar somewhere and it couldnt be more fit today as I write this.

‘

Bringing a baby into the world is a big deal. We too jumped in the bandwagon and did it anyway. The first year was hard but we survived. Just when we though we got a hang of it, we did it again. We decided to bring a second baby into our lives. Very unsure of our decision we were still waiting patiently for our second baby girl. Then came little Mila into the world on Feb 15th 2015. What a day that was!

I cried my eyeballs out when I saw her first, probably cried more than when I did with my first born. I do not know why I did though. Maybe it was the mom guilt on me that I now have to share my love between these two girls or maybe it was just her sweet little face that dug deep into my chest the minute I held her. But I cried! We were nervous about introducing Mila to Asha (her big sister, her soon to be best friend). We just did not know what to expect. But from the minute Asha laid her eyes on Mila, Mila became hers. She became her pride and joy, her ultimate possession that she wanted to share with the world. The union couldn’t be any more perfect.

My little Mila is graced with so much beauty and sweetness that even a stranger will walk upon to say hi to her. Batting of her big bold eye lashes are sure to win and break a million hearts. This sweet girl of mine is the most content baby in the world. She is her big sister’s shadow! She is her confidant! She is her life long best friend! Little M is sweeter than honey but is so courageous. Bless her little heart, she is never scared to take risks. Some days we feel like we did not do justice to her by not doing things we did for her sister like hovering over her 24/7 and others. But you know what, that is what made her what she is today at a tender age of two. She is confident and she is very friendly and she is just mellow. Her personality is so charming that we cannot even get mad at her antics for more than a mere second. She is amazing in every single way!

So for my wish to you today baby girl, may you achieve every single goal you will ever have in your heart. May you get the most perfect sunrise and sunsets every single day of your life. May you always remain the best baby sister in the world. May you always have that special someone to look up to whether it is us or your big sister. May you never have to feel alone. My little Mila Lena, may you get the very best the world has to offer. Even when your daddy and I are not around, may you still lean in on your sister for support.

I am SO grateful to call this girl mine. It makes me a little sad every time I think how fast she is growing up. But I am looking forward to seeing her personality come out more and looking forward to loving her more.

I may not be the best mom in the world but you my darling you sure are the one of our best creations. You are our pride and joy and  we lucked out having you as our daughter. My wish for you today is that may you have the best birthdays year after year. I love you Mila!

Happy Birthday Asha!

Dear 2017- welcome!

And now let me apologize for not posting for the longest time. I was getting caught up with life. So many things have happened in the past few months that I need to write a few posts on those. Stay tuned for a few backlogged posts those are long overdue. Today however I decided to pick up my pen err open my blog to wish my first born a very happy fourth birthday! My little A who is not so little anymore turned four today. Where did the time go?

The whole reason I started this blog on the first place was to document my journey of motherhood. As soon as A was born I felt like I needed to pour my thoughts down somewhere so this blog was discovered. So in honor of her birthday I decided to revisit and post something for you all.

A is my first born. The witty one, the sweet one, the super sensitive one. She is stubborn and very determined but she is so sensible and nurturing that we are always in awe with her antics. This is the girl who stayed in my tummy for almost two extra weeks. This is the girl who did not want to leave my belly and had to be evicted (I say that with utmost love). This is the girl who taught me to put someone else’s needs and wants before putting my own. This is the girl who made me a MOTHER. I am forever grateful to be called “mama” by this little girl and her even little-er sister. My little A is four today. It is incredible to see how far we have come around. From not knowing how to hold a baby to being a mom of two and to have carried two babies back to back, gave birth back to back and breastfed my babies well over 18 months, I think I now have this motherhood thing pat down (if only). Joking aside this little girl has taught me so much in the past 4 years, I am humbled and proud at the same time to be her mother.

A is very determined and also super compromising. She teaches us a lot about perseverance and not to give up- ever! This girl loves her sister more than anything and calls herself M’s best friend forever (melts my heart). A taught me how to be patient (working on that still) and how to be a protective mama bear. Our life is so colorful because of our girls. A is truly an adventurer. This little girl started traveling when she was only 8 months old (first trip Cancun, Mexico). Since then she has about a dozen trips under her belt. She is the happiest when she sits in the plane and go explore new places and new faces. This girl loves to just be out and about. This girl even took on a trip to Dubai (14 hours flight each way) like a piece of cake. No complains, no fuss! Hats off to this explorer. We will try our best to fulfill your life with as much adventures as we can my dear daughter. You deserve nothing but the very best life has to offer. You, my child, are one in a million and we are smitten over you. We love you so much and we wish you a very happy fourth birthday! Love you always!

 

The recent happenings

Hello world-

What have you been up to? It sure is a beautiful day out isn’t it?  Is it the “momtitude” on me that makes everything look so splendid that happens around me. I have heard about how being a mom changes your whole perspective on how you see things around you but did not believe too much of it but i am realizing the world around me is changing. Most things are changing for the better, but some of course are not. I may not have this positive attitude all the time due  to sheer exhaustion of raising two toddlers but I sure get this wave of appreciation for things around me every once in a while. So read on 🙂 .

Being a mom means you now have a whole lot of responsibility period! You also don’t know what self less love feels like until you have become a mom. You now have this tiny little person that you need to care for. Days become longer but years become shorter. It is just fun being a parent.

Of course, I don’t have a minute to myself. I don’t have a Pinterest perfect home. I don’t cook culinary delights anymore. My days/months are spent planning for their birthdays, their outfits for their school photos , heck their everyday outfits. I run around the house like a headless chicken trying to feed everyone and myself.  All I can say is it has been one heck of a ride (being a mom that is) and I wouldn’t change this for anything in the world.

I know it has been over a few months that I wrote a blog post. I just have had too many things going on. We just recently moved into a new house so talk about packing,unpacking, decorating, purging hit all at once and top it off with two toddlers and a dog (don’t forget my full time traveling husband). A has started to go to a Montessori school. I am especially excited about this as I wanted to see her prosper and thrive into a Montessori environment (hopefully). M has started to babble and talk up a storm and her favorite word? You guessed it- its NO!

Kids are doing great, Bella is still very much a puppy and growing healthy . Life has gotten a whole lot sweeter.

This post didn’t really have a solid weight behind this but I wanted to just fire off something at you all wonderful people since you haven’t heard from me in a while. So with one more promise to be frequent I am going to stop typing. Feel free to send me feedback and messages regarding anything you would like to read or see on my blog. For now, enjoy my insta feed- it sure is colorful there @pjmomblog 🙂 .

See you there!

XoXo

PJ

 

 

Birthday, Work and Instagram!

Hello my Dear Friends,

I am SO over the winter blues and very ready for the nice and warm sunny rays. Aren’t we all though? Luckily, this week I will be able to enjoy some 60 degrees weather (close to 70s actually) and I am not complaining.

So what is new with me? We recently celebrated baby M’s first birthday. I know we all say it but seriously where did the year go? Just with a blink of an eye miss M is ONE year old and big sis A is now THREE! My girls are getting big and I cannot believe I actually did survive the first year of the second baby while going through the terrible twos of Miss A. I guess that would be my super power lol. What is yours?

My work has gotten super busy. I worked from home 100% for the past 3.5 years (yep, super lucky there) and now I have just started to go to work 3 days a week and that has been a BIG adjustment for me and my family. I know I am still lucky enough to be able to work from home two days a week and when needed but I almost forgot how much work it is to actually get up at 6 am, take shower, style my hair (styling means blow drying and flat ironing ), to put on makeup, to pick professional clothes, pack some snacks for the road and so on. Phew. Oh the snack packing brings me to my most interesting point, my commute! From zero commute to now one way 50 miles commute is not fun, at all! Yep 50 miles each way. That is a whole lot of gas and mileage on my car and if you know the Capital Beltway, it is not the fun-nest road to drive on 😉 . Anyways- I have been trying to make that commute as my “me” time. I snack on some dry fruits and Kind bars, listen to the Kane show and gather my thoughts. I make ALL my big plans while I drive these days lol. It’s funny you actually start to enjoy the long drive some days (some days).

The other new thing that I have is I have started to use Instagram a LOT lately lol. I mean at least one post a day , which is a BIG deal in my books. I am trying to stay active on social media by putting more pics on IG that way I am still keeping in touch with you all. What? You haven’t followed me on IG yet? You have got to! My IG name is pjmomblog , simple 🙂 . Please follow me as I capture my cuties behind the iphone lenses. I have been trying to use a lot of hash tags to for the sake of visibility in the world of IG as well. So if you are up for keeping up with my babies’ shenanigans follow me right now.

Rest all is well, I will post Miss M’s birthday pics soon. Until then see you on IG.

XoXo

PJ

 

Baby’s Breakfast

So I know I used to post a lot about A’s food when she was little but then life happened and I got busier and never did I ever post miss M’s food. Today I am going to post the most popular food that we cook in our house – good old oatmeal. We all know how good oatmeal is for everyone. It is great for your heart and cholesterol and it is SO comforting in winter that there is nothing that beats it when it comes down to eating breakfast.

We cook a BIG batch of oatmeal in our house almost 7 days a week. It is Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oats from Costco. The way It is cooked in our household is super easy-  literally I cook it in 2% milk for about 10 mins and cover it so it gets soft. I add cinnamon sticks along with the oats so we get that yummy spice flavor and smell. That’s it! When it is cooked sometimes I add fruits, nuts, dried foods or sometime just eat it without any toppings. Oatmeal is SO versatile that you can make it as interesting or as bland as you want to.

The reason it is popular in our house is my toddler A has been eating it almost every single day since she started eating solids and now miss M who is almost 1 also eats it every single day. I have stopped pureeing food for M since she was 7 month old. She was toothless for the longest time and has sported 4 teeth just now, she still managed to gum up all kinds of food. This little girl is a piggy- she LOVES her food. She  eats oatmeal in the morning. Again, the very same oatmeal that gets cooked for all of us in our household. It gives me a comfort knowing that both kiddos are starting their day with a hearty breakfast which is amazing for them and they love it. It is our breakfast “default” in our household. Here is a picture of M’s breakfast bowl from this morning:

It may not look the prettiest but it is SO good. I also add raisins on them sometimes- I let it soak in the milk for a bit before feeding them to M since it could be a choking hazard for younger babies.

Anyways- just wanted to post a great breakfast idea for not just a baby but for the whole family. Hope some of you will give Oatmeal a shot, I know most people are not very fond of it . But the benefits outweighs the taste (at least for me it does) 🙂 .

Enjoy!

XoXo

PJ

Snow is coming ..

Be safe everyone ! The much anticipated snow storm Jonas is hitting the DC metro area amongst several other states ( northeastern region) . Stay warm, be safe and have fun playing out in the snow. Hopefully we will not lose power.
My kids are excited for making a snowman ( well A is ) . I am looking forward to hopefully baking some sugary goodness. Wanted to make an effort to post a blog before the snow storm .
Will write more later !

Xoxo
PJ

The year 2016 .

Every year I make some resolutions for the new year- some I keep (loosely) and some I don’t. Without fail each year my goal has been (like many of yours’) to stay healthy and fit and may be lose a few pounds while I am at it.Well, I still have that goal and a few others. This year my primary focus is “organization”. For the past three years I have been so preoccupied with raising kids and working full time I have let go of a lot of things and things have really “messy”. When I say messy I am not only talking about my house. My house obviously probably will never be Pinterest perfect and clean (with two kids and a dog) but I am finally going to make an effort to take time to get my life a little bit less messy and a whole lot cleaner and organized.

Organized not necessarily mean the clutter in the house but in my life too. My crazy life will stay crazy for a while I am sure but I have decided I am not going to let that control my life. I am going to start prioritizing and following some sort of schedule and pattern for things. I am going to be the me that was before kids. I was much more organized and had time to take care of myself and my hubby. But having kids have taken a toll on me so I am going to work on some of these things.

I want to  try to focus on things that really matters to me. I am not going to wait for the perfect moment instead I will create a perfect moment myself. My focus will be my home, my family and me 🙂 . So I am going to try to stay on top of things. For example: this blog! I wasn’t very active in the last year but my goal is to get back on it and try to post as much as possible. The reason why I started this blog on the first place was to write. This was going to be my escape and somehow I didn’t do that last year. But going forward I want to make an effort of be very active on it.It definitely deserves some loving. So help me achieve that.

Since I just finished talking about my goals , I want to know about yours. What are your 2016 goals?