One Month to Go

Since my last post, a lot has happened. Elsie has finally settled into preschool. This past week was one of a handful of times that she went in happily without crying and ran out laughing. She brings home fun arts and crafts every week, which I have saved in a drawer until I figure out what to do with them.

Elsie has changed so much. She talks NON-STOP. Not all of the words she uses are completely distinguishable, but her mouth is always moving. She has also started singing songs. Her current favorites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sheep, The ABCs and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She loves to be outside and has figured out how to climb the rock wall at the playground. She also loves the swing and the slide. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

On a sad note, I lost my beloved Aunt Jani to breast cancer in October and still have weekly if not daily moments of missing her. She was such a wonderful woman and this world just isn't the same without her. A new mantra of mine is "what would Jani do" if I am feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or lazy, because Aunt Jani was always happy to do anything for anyone, nothing was ever too hard and she always kept busy.

Probably the biggest (happy) change that we are anticipating is a new member of the family, due to arrive in April. We have decided to name her in honor of Aunt Jani, however I am not ready to have a new Jani. Instead we are going with Jane and I am going to call her Janie.

While we are excited to welcome Jane, we are definitely enjoying the last month or so of having one child. Elsie has no idea what is coming, but I think she will be a great big sister. She loves babies and is very loving. She will have someone else to practice her songs on and I think Jane will be her biggest fan.

As a last hoorah, this weekend is set to be an exciting one. A BFF of mine, Jamie, has turned 30 and to celebrate we are taking a trip to the beach for a spa weekend. I can't wait! Stay tuned for some good stories from the trip....

Elsie's First Day of School

Elsie started preschool today! Well, it isn't quite PRE-SCHOOL. It is called Mother's Morning Out and it is only one day a week. We thought it would be good to get her used to being away from home and she could get some time to play with other kids. I was sure she was going to cry when I left, but when we arrived she immediately started playing. I kissed her cheek and said goodbye and she barely noticed. She just kept on playing with her new friends. I left the room expecting to hear her start bawling, but nothing! As I left I was the one who teared up! What an independent little lady I have on my hands. Little Miss Social Butterfly. Man do I love that kid. Now that I am home without her I don't know what to do with myself. I have already straightened up and put in a load of laundry. Now what? I can't wait to go pick her up!

Spring

Spring has sprung! That is a great thing about living in the south. It springs about a month before it springs up north. Woohoo. In honor of spring I thought it would be good to make a list of all the wonderful things spring brings (especially since I have a wicked case of writer's block and I've got nothing):

1. Blue Skies

2. Tulips, Daffodils, and other lovely flowers.

3. Capris

4. Happy faces and relief from seasonal depression.

5. Open Sun Roofs

6. A rejuvenated real estate market.

7. Picnics

8. Bubbles

9. Afternoon Strolls

10. Iced Coffee

11. BBQs

12. Summer thoughts and vacation planning

13. Fresh cut grass

14. Vegetable gardens

15. Prom dress shopping

16. Easter dresses, hats, and baskets

17. Egg dying and hunts

18. Scalloped potatoes

19. A breath of fresh air

20. Trips to the park

Socks

Socks are pesky. They somehow always end up missing. Every time I do laundry I come up a few socks short. My sock drawer is a sanctuary for lonely matchless socks. My dog doesn't help the situation either. As soon as a sock hits the floor it mysteriously disappears as a blur of white fur races under the bed to add to his collection. Last time we moved, when it was time to load the bed into the moving truck, many of the poor lonely fellows living in my sock drawer suddenly were joined with their long lost partners.

Today was another beautiful day in North Carolina. I can see where they get the term "Carolina Blue". From the color of the sky day after day, even as my hometown is dumped upon with snow. Although it was a bit chilly, we decided to go for an evening stroll before dinner. Our bouncing baby rode on her daddy's shoulders as we trekked around the lake behind our house and I, feeling chipper from the beautiful weather, gabbed on and on about the trees and the lake and the deer tracks and about who knows what else. Whatever the topic, it distracted us enough to get halfway around the lake before we realized that our sweet angel had abandoned her sock somewhere along the way. Not wanting to add yet another friendless sock to the pile, we turned around and retraced our steps.

We searched for the little guy, as we walked back the way we came, noticing quite a few things that looked like socks along the trail. A piece of paper, a plastic bag, a crushed paper cup. It began to seem like we were not going to reclaim the sock that had left our tot's tootsy chilled. Maybe it had fallen off in the house? Maybe an animal had gotten to it first? We had almost completely retraced our steps and were just about home when I felt our pooch tug at his leash. Then I noticed the treasure he had discovered. A new sock for his under the bed collection.

Renting

Why is it the place you are living doesn't seem so bad until you have a new place to live? I guess it is all the high hopes of your new place make your current one seem like a dump. Every little thing that goes wrong seems like the HUGEST deal, even though, if the same thing happened 6 months ago, or in your new house, it wouldn't be so bad. Well actually, that is not true, I have hated this house since the day we moved in. All because of a faucet knob.

A new house has such potential. You can get rid of your old clutter and start fresh. Everything starts out organized and clean. Well, sometimes. In our situation, it didn't happen quite that way. In May, after two years of searching, my husband finally got a job, actually he got two. The first one was in Pennsylvania and we were all set to move in with my mom and step-dad and we put in our 60 day notice to our apartment complex. But of course when it rains it pours and a few weeks before our departure, he ended up with a second job right here in NC. Our apartment had already been rented, so the mad scramble to find a place to live began. We looked at quite a few homes, and in the end, this place seemed easy because it belonged to a friend of ours which seemed to make things easier. Perfect right? Wrong. Since she knew us, I guess she didn't think she needed to put in too much effort. The carpets were horrible, but since we had a dog, she decided she wouldn't have them replaced (but she still demanded a pet fee). Well, fine, at least we wouldn't have to worry about Ollie's poor bladder control, but, we asked if she could at least have them cleaned. Our lease was up on the 15th so we needed to move in on the 14th but she didn't want to move out until the 14th, oh and could she stay over night the night before? Hmm, we guessed it was ok, but would she have all of her stuff out before we were ready to move in?

Moving day arrived and as we pulled our moving truck in front of our house, we realized hers was still there. Inside, the place was semi-cleaned. A couple of the rooms had the carpets cleaned but not all of them. Oh well, let's not be picky, we have a new home and we don't have to share any walls! After waiting to get our moving truck in the driveway and getting everything moved in we were in need of some freshening up. Time to check out our new master bath. That is when it all began. I tried to turn on the hot water, but the knob just spun in a circle. It had been fixed, but unfortunately the person who fixed it had majored in business, and not home improvements. She had purchased the wrong size knob. But why, when she saw that the water couldn't be adjusted didn't she take it back and buy a different one? It just got under my skin. She hadn't had the carpets cleaned like she promised, she hadn't cleaned the house completely, and now she didn't even have the decency to fix the sink properly? Call me petty, but I just couldn't get over it.

After that, any other thing that went wrong, be it big or small, became such a huge deal. The shower head broke, the sliding glass door handle, cabinet knobs, shower curtain rods, floor boards, the water heater, and the water heater again, and the water heater again. They weren't things that we couldn't live with, but every time something broke, I thought about that faucet knob.

I shouldn't complain. There are millions of homeless people who would be so grateful to live in this house. It would seem like a castle to them, I bet. But I just can seem to get past that first day and that stupid broken faucet. Everyday I count down the days until we move out of this lemon and into our new house. And while I am sure our new house will have its fair share of problems and things needing fixing, it will be ours, which will make it feel that much more like home. And hopefully the faucets will all work perfectly.

Making Baby Food

What a wonderful and loving concept. Unfortunately, my sweet, adorable baby, does not realize this.

Because I am nursing, I have become very aware of what has been going into my sweet angel's body. Non-manufactured, all natural, good old-fashioned milk. By the time the day came to introduce solids, I had transformed into a bit of a tree-hugging, preservative hating, organic food loving, freak (when it came to her. I still had no qualms cruising through the drive-through of Chick-Fil-A for myself). Of COURSE I would make my own baby food. How could I put anything else into my precious gem's body?

I was gifted a baby food maker for Christmas and so my quest to make all natural food began. At first it was smooth sailing. I purchased only organic fruits and veggies and pureed them into delicious meals for my hungry tot. She gobbled them down with no hesitation. UNTIL I ventured into the GREEN territory. That is when she decided to go on strike.

It began with peas. Since they weren't in season I guiltily bought the non-organic FROZEN ones. How could I??? Grown with pesticides AND not fresh. I felt like a failure, but ah well, I tried it anyway. I am not sure which it was. That these peas were grown pest free, or that they were a green vegetable, but whatever the case, they were rejected. This is when I had my first experience with wasting time and money. I had not only taken the time to steam and puree the peas, but I had created baby-sized portions by freezing them in an ice cube tray and storing them in a freezer bag. How easy it was supposed to be. Take out a cube, defrost it in the baby food maker (because the microwave depletes the vitamins!) and serve it up to the hungry little mouth. But when the mouth tastes the vitamin packed spoonful, gags and then refuses to open again, you begin wondering if it was really that easy. As easy as buying a jar of peas at the grocery store? Not really.

Well, MAYBE I could BUY some baby food, just for when we went out to dinner. HA! Buying baby food was so EASY and it was a bit addicting. I could just take a jar out of the pantry, open it up and poof, dinner was ready. And if she didn't like it, I had only wasted 50 cents and about 3 seconds. Not to mention the millions of coupons I HAD to use that the grocery store check out kept printing out! Oh yeah, and when I checked the label, guess what ingredients went into that JUNK! Veggies and water...and if you buy the ORGANIC baby food it was ORGANIC veggies and water.

And so I have returned to my old self again. As long as it is healthy and not going to harm her, I think I might buy baby food now, but still make it SOME of the time, just to feel like a good mom.

Sunday Funday

My sister gave me the idea to create a blog. Her and Julie, from Julie and Julia. I am currently a "stay at home mom" to my 7 month old daughter, and while it is the most wonderful thing I have ever done and I am the happiest I have ever been, I feel like my mind might start turning to mush if I don't use it more than singing my daily 10 rounds of The Itsy Bitsy Spider. So here I am, Becky Gupta (Neil's Becky, not Sanjay's), reporter, editor and photographer of The Gupta Gazette. I will add more staff as the need arises.

Sunday FUNday. It is amazing what good weather does to people. It wakes them up! Today, after a whopping 4 hours straight of sleep (GO BABY!) I woke up feeling motivated enough to go to church. Haven't been in a few weeks and I felt like I needed to get back. Not out of guilt, but out of necessity. I feel myself start to become judgmental and ungrateful after being away for too long (let me be honest, I am regularly those things, but it begins to get a bit out of control after an extended churchless stint). After church, the fam decided to head out on the town to a local university baseball game. Surprisingly I had fun! I am not normally a sports lover, but the lovely weather and the pleasant company made it very enjoyable. My sweet baby was a huge fan and smiled, shouted, and giggled the whole time. Of course the game had to be cut short to accommodate nap time, so we trekked back home for the punkin's slumber. Instead of planting ourselves on the couch, as per usual, to recharge, we sat out on the deck in the beautiful sunshine. We didn't even really talk. He read a magazine and I online window shopped, but we enjoyed being together and stopped every now and then to say a thing or two. It was really quite nice. When the wonderful baby finally woke up, we decided to go out for dinner to a place near the mall. Double score for me! Not only did I not have to figure out something to make for dinner (which is the worst part. I love the cooking part), I got to squeeze in a little shopping. And, yay, I got a staple item for my wardrobe, a black cardigan, ON SALE! Now, after a little video chatting, a bathed and bedded baby, and a lovely chat with my best girlfriend, I am having some couch time with my bestest buddy. And even though we are watching hockey, BORING, I am still enjoying my Sunday FUNday. Ahh, what a great day.