Gender Inequality

I came across this Indian advertisement for laundry on my Facebook feed and it brought me to tears. It brings home a fact that is so true... Women do a lot more of the housework and childcare than men do. And when a man does do housework, he is greatly appreciated and lauded for that.

My husband and I both work full-time. My husband enjoys cooking more than I do and does majority though not all of the cooking in our house and recently has started doing his own laundry as well. But I still do 95% of the childcare in the house and 95% of the cleaning and my laundry and the kids laundry. I however consider myself better off than a lot of other Indian women - my husband does more work than they do. But it's not equal.

I read this article on the New York Times and according to the article, in India, men spend about 0.9 hours per day on cooking, cleaning and childcare whereas women spend about 5.9 hours per day on the same. Talk about being unbalanced.

July Goals Update

July was a busy month mostly spent with family and some travel to NYC & NJ. I didn't get a lot done but was still a fun month with spending lots of time with family. My sister and her kids are visiting us for last 3 weeks and it's been great having them here. We did a road trip to NYC and NJ and visited family. It was hectic but fun. We also spent a significant amount of time planning for my daughter's birthday party which was so much fun!

1. Lose 12 lbs: *sigh* This goal has gone completely to pieces. I'm 140 pounds now - I've put on weight since my parents are here visiting me. Over the next 5 months, I'm going to have to try harder to lose weight. 
2. Learn swimming: On hold for now
3. Read 12 books this year:  Got a little more light reading done this month - Read the  "The Heir - Windham Book 1" and "The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy". 
4. Do 12 craft or knitting activities this year: Went for a Girls' Afternoon Out with my friends to a graffiti paint bar, which was a fun experience and something I would definitely do again. 
5. Introduce a new experience to AGirl once a month: We went to NYC and NJ and saw the Statue Of Liberty. That was fun! And she had loads of fun playing with her cousins!

Parenting Goals:

1. Potty Training: This has been going well and over the next few days, I'm planning to start pushing it just a bit more. 
2. Teach her to recognize ABCs: Not much progress on this.
3. Drinking milk from a cup: Not much progress on this. 

How has your progress been on your goals?

NY and NJ Trip

My sister and her kids are currently visiting us and we took them on a trip to NY & NJ along with my parents. I have some family in the NJ area and after visiting them, decided to go do some sightseeing.

It was a very hot and humid day - one of the worst days so far. Also, very cloudy and thunderstorm-y.

We parked in the Liberty State Park to visit the Statue of Liberty. We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and had a lot of fun on the top level of the ferry. There was a nice breeze which really helped with the heat. Unfortunately, we didn't get tickets to go to the pedestal or the crown. So we just saw Lady Liberty from the bottom and walked around a bit. I loved the view of the NY Skyline from the boat.

We ate a picnic lunch on some benches in Liberty State Park and took the ferry to NYC to the Boardwalk Ferry Station near the 9/11 Memorial. Earlier in the day, on the way to Liberty State Park, we were all sharing our memories of where we were and what we were doing when 9/11 attack happened.

My niece, who is 9 years old, was asking what does a terrorist attack mean and what does 9/11 mean? My sister explained the history of the terrorist attack, what it means and what exactly happened that day. We walked to the 9/11 memorial. The memorial is built beautifully and so differently. I loved the waterfalls and the engravings of the firefighters' names all around the memorial.

We tried to take a taxi to Times Square and that was when the nightmare started - first, we could not find a taxi, my daughter was too exhausted and fell asleep and she needed a diaper change ASAP. There was no place we could do a diaper change nearby and I finally ended up doing it on a park bench nearby as she was sleeping.

Then we waited for a cab and went to TimesSquare. We could barely move in TimesSquare - it was so crowded. Apparently, President Obama was in the area and that caused crowds to go up along with security blocking off some roads. We just went to the ToysRUs in Times Square and got out and tried to get a cab. We could not get a cab for 20 mins - finally we found an Uber Taxi but gave him the wrong direction and we ended up walking for almost 30-40 mins to get to our ferry station to catch the ferry back. We just made it in time with 2 mins to spare before the ferry was at the station.

We were all exhausted by this time. But we all went to dinner to a really nice Indian restaurant, Sapthagiri and the food was really good. They have an awesome Cashew Curry and the Dosas were tasty. My favorite was the Papdi Chaat. It was awesome and so yummy!

14 Tips for Visiting Disney World

While we had a great Disney World vacation, there were certain things we did right and some things we did wrong.

What To DO:

1. Buy groceries online: We saved on time and money by order groceries from GardenGrocer and had it delivered to the Disney resort before we arrived. We bought plenty of water, milk, eggs, bread, jam and yoghurt. The prices were expensive and there's a minimum order of $40 but it was worth the time savings in getting a taxi & going to a grocery store and coming back. 
2. Take a portable induction cooktop: Our daughter's very picky and doesn't eat anything available at restaurants. So we brought an induction cooktop with us in our luggage and used it to make pasta, heat milk, make boiled eggs for her - I don't know what we would have done if not for this. 
3. Eat lunch early by 11:30am: We ate lunch on all days well before the crowd hit. We had no lines for lunch and were able to hit some attractions without FP+ during those times. 
4. Take a nap if possible: We went back to the resolrt for a nap on days when possible. On days where we could not do this, it turned out to be a disaster as my daughter could not handle it. Even though she napped in the stroller, she needed a break from the sensory overload and the heat. 
5. Get Gatorade Powder: One of the best things we did was to buy a box of gatorade powder and mixed it with bottled water to make bottles of gatorade. We would take 2-4 bottles of these to the parks and it really helped us to not dehydrate.
6. Wear good shoes: We walked a LOT!
7. Take snacks: We took snacks for my daughter so she could munch while waiting or walking around the parks.
8. MyDisneyExperience App: Download the MyDisneyExperience App and use it. It was great for FastPass+ and organizing our trip around the park and for information about various attractions and rides. We also used the DisneyWorld wait times app to get approximate wait times before walking to the ride.
9. Get there early: If possible, be there before the park opens. The shortest lines were from 9-10:30. 
10. Use Rolling FP+: We used the Rolling FastPass to get into attractions at Magic Kingdom and cut down on wait times - especially Pirates of the Carribean. 

What NOT To Do:

1. Make Stroller Recognizable: Attach something bright and unique to the stroller to be able to pick it out easily from the sea of strollers. Cast members kept moving strollers around - couple of times we thought for sure we'd lost the stroller.
2. Clip-on Fan: Take a clip-on stroller fan. It was HOT down there!
3. Ponchos: We did not take ponchos and had to buy ponchos for the three of us. Thankfully, I did have a rain cover for the stroller which really helped
4. Magic Kingdom Visit on First Day of Trip: We visited Magic Kingdom on the 3rd day and made a mistake as AGirl had started to get overstimulated at that point and tired with the previous day's visits to the parks. We should have gone to Magic Kingdom the first day after we landed in Orlando and gone there when we had the most energy

Visit to Acton Children's Museum

On Friday, I took AGirl to the Acton Children's Museum. They are free for the public the first friday of every month from 4:30-8:30 pm. Though they have a Discovery Museum and Science Museum, we only explored the Discovery Museum. From the outside of the building, it looked very small and you wouldn't think that they would have as many exhibits as they did.

There were kids of all ages in there - from a 6-month-old baby to middle school kids.

AGirl had a blast - she kept running from one exhibit to the other. The pirate ship exhibit and the kitchen exhibit were her favorites. This is AGirl trying to climb the ropes (sails) of the pirate ship.

Unfortunately, it was so crowded that I couldn't take pictures. Plus, I was busy chasing after AGirl! But I will definitely go again and will try to take more pictures that time.

What I've Been Reading Lately

15 Secrets To Saving Money on Amazon :- I shop at Amazon a lot and am an Amazon Prime member. I was familiar with a lot of these secrets but there were a few I hadn't heard of - Amazon Warehouse and Amazon Outlet.

An Easy Lowtech way to limit screentime :- This is a cool idea - only charge your device once every 2-3 days; this means the kids have to budget their screen time or they are not going to get till you recharge next. This is also a great way of teaching them to budget time like money.

Kitchen Tool School: Everything About The Cast Iron Skillet :-  I bought a cast iron skillet recently and just seasoned it following the directions here. This should be useful as I start using this skillet.