Category: Love

Family, Holidays, Life, Love, Mommyhood, Toddler

Sickie Valentine!

nainadg

This is not the Valentine’s day I had planned for. No hearts anywhere. I tried making Bun a heart shaped egg but he rejected it like he has been rejecting most food. We are sick, Bun, J and I so all three of us are spending the day indoors sniffling and bundled up and watching way too much tv

We are not going out to dinner, we are not exchanging valentine’s and I had to cancel Bun’s valentine’s day party. But its okay, because, there will be dinner this weekend and a cupcake for Bun tomorrow and many more parties to come. Because I’m lucky enough that I get much more than valentine’s and hearts from these two boys of mine. Today, and everyday.

Happy Valentine’s Day. May yours be less snot filled than ours

Love

4th Wedding Anniversary

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Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary to us.

This photo is from 2009 when I was 7 months pregnant. Can you see my baby belly? and my extra chubby cheeks? But don’t we look happy?

2 years later, I am just as happy.

We are not celebrating today- J is feeling under the weather and we don’t have  a sitter, but we are planning on doing something fun to celebrate this weekend.

 

Bun365, Love, Mommyhood, Toddler

True Love

nainadg

Seven AM. I hear babbling from the Bun’s room. J, is already up and checking his email downstairs. Still groggy, rubbing my eyes, I wander in to let the little boy out of his crib. He gives me a big grin, he is still lying down and not standing up as usual, ready to burst out of the crib. I sit down on the floor next to the crib and start talking to him about our day. He sits up, reaches through the bars, strokes my hair and says – “Mumma Peety (Pretty)”

Jaw on the floor. Heart melted and in a puddle on the floor.

Hello Charmer!

Life, Love

Thirty

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30. 3.0. Wow! I did it, I turned 30 and have now been successfully alive for 12 days since then. Nothing to worry about anymore. Well there are new worries, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

When I was 16- 17, something like that, can’t really remember, but a long time ago anyhow. My friend Jessica {from the most rocking blog- Happier Still} and another friend Katie M were returning from an MUN conference.-We were cool like that, going to Model United Nation Conferences and all but anyway, on this trip-  I told them that I was going to die at 30. They laughed at me and said I wouldn’t die at thirty, but I kept insisting, I was so sure that I was going to die at thirty that if it didn’t happen on its own, I would be more than happy to do the deed myself. I was very morbid and I guess had a flair for the dramatic. Both Jessica and Katie told me that I’d be married and have kids and wouldnt’ want to die and you know what they were right they were oh so so very right.

Because I dont’ want to die. At thirty, my life is filled with so much love and craziness and laughter and life that now I really truly fear the thought of dying and leaving my peeps.

But enough with death and dying and turning thirty and all that. I had a wonderful birthday. I woke up to a big box of Godiva chocolates from J and when I went to go get the Bun from his crib he started singing Happy Birthday and I conveniently chose to ignore the fact that it is his favorite song and he sings it all the time and requests everyone to sing it all the time, so it really wasn’t for me.

For my birthday lunch my mom, Bun and I tried out this new Indian restaurant called Saffron and had some delicious Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer , Lamb Nargisi, Seekh Kabob, Basil Naan and Mango Lassi. My mom and I went to the mall where my mom surprised me with a Pandora Charm bracelet and let me pick out two charms to get it started.

Bun’s face in this photo is priceless!

 

In the evening, we celebrated with cake and candles and more singing on “Happy Birthday.” This time Bun even added in Happy Birthday Mama, which was very sweet. After Cake and photos , J and I went out on our birthday date. We went out for dinner and a  movie, a real movie, still in theaters!!! This was very exciting because we have seen exactly two movies in theaters since Bun was born- Avatar and Inception. Its something I miss a lot- Going to big summer blockbusters was one of J and my favorite activities back in the pre baby days.

J picked a great new Sushi restaurant and I picked Harry Potter as our movie because it was in Imax and 3d. When you only see one movie every 10 months, it better have all the bells and whistles.  Our dinner was fantastic- Shiki Sushi was a new place for us and it did not disappoint. We indulged ourselves with Sushi and sushi and sushi and round after round of cocktails! We ate so much that we were worried we wouldn’t be able to stay up for the movie. The movie started at 9:15 and my bedtime is 10, but we drank some caffeine and very much enjoyed the 3d extravaganza. It was especially sweet of J to go to all out and celebrate my special night because he had to leave for a work trip at 6 am the next morning.

It was such a wonderful birthday and the best part was yet to come- a few days later I left on a birthday trip to Philadelphia with Bun and my parents!

The Big 30 was given its proper due. And I say bring on a 30 more because now I know that I have a lot more living left to do.

 

 

Holidays, Love, Toddler

Oh What Fun

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The last week has just flown by in a flurry of very very happy moments. J, Bun and I have been busy participating in easter activities and hanging out with family and friends and I have not had a moment to capture it all for my blog.  Bun got to visit the Easter Bunny, we dyed eggs, went on a Easter Egg hunt, played at the park and had a cookout. Some of these were so fun that they need their own posts.

Bun365, Love, Mommyhood, Toddler

Because

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Some afternoons are just magical.  Simply because its spring. Because there is sunshine. Because I’m outside with my little family.  Because my boys are looking so handsome. And because they are smiling at the camera at the same time. Because a little boy is playing with a ball with his daddy. Because sometimes you don’t need a reason to be happy.

Because This picture of Bun and J looking at each other makes my heart feel all squishy

Because This picture of him looking at me makes my heart feel double squishy.

Because its impossible to not be happy while playing with a bouncy blue ball

Because these guys make it so easy to be happy

Bun365, Food and Drinks, Love, Mommyhood, Toddler

Parks and Recreation

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Is one of my favorite comedy Sitcoms on TV right now.

And also the only title I could come up with for this entry. I ‘m terrible at titles. We have had fabulous weather in these parts (Up until today of course, its now cold and cloudy as I write this) and we had the added bonus of J not having to put in any work hours this weekend. Family time ensued. We grilled, went to the park twice, checked out Kidzu on Franklin Street. It was mellow, relaxing and lovely.

We kicked off the weekend on Friday afternoon with a play date at one of my favorite parks in Durham. Morreene Road park is a small park and most of the park is taken up by the large sprawling play structure and there are foam mats underneath. There are also large ramps that are wide and low to the ground- perfect for toddlers to run on. Also there is one big slide and 3 or 4 small ones, again perfect for toddlers. The swing set too is very baby friendly. As an added bonus, there is a tennis court right next door and Bun just loves to run over and watch the balls flying the air. The fence is pretty high so I don’t really worry about the balls hitting him.

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This is pretty much what we played with the entire time on Friday afternoon. The boy loves wheels.

He was finally persuaded to swing a little bit right before we left the park.

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Friday for dinner we had awesome grilled chicken kebabs in a greek marinade thanks to my very talented grill master – J and his trusty assistant. Bun even agreed to eat two whole chunks. I’m amazed every time he eats chicken.

Saturday was a little bit colder but we decided to head back out to Morreene Road park again because J wanted to check it out for himself. This time there were lots of kids running around and Bun just wanted to watch them. When he finally felt like he was ready to play, he went on the big slide with Dada

He also went down the slide on his own for the first time- We taught him to lie down on his back and slide down and of course we were right there to catch him. And of course we had him go down the littlest one.

Hair Static!

Bun wasn’t really as impressed with this concave window thingie as I thought he would be.

And finally, it was time to head home and J was very upset about having to leave the playground.

Finally, On Sunday we went to check out Kidzu the children’s museum in Chapel Hill but I committed a double sin and left my camera and phone at home so we have no pictures. I’ll just have to take Bun back there again and do a blog post then.

 

Baby, Baby Boy, Bun365, Life, Love, Mommyhood

Us!

nainadg

This week I’ve had the blues about how I don’t have a perfect, fairy tale life where everything goes smoothly all the time. But then I come across this and knowing that I had this moment, I’m willing to deal with any number of imperfections for a few moments of perfect joy.

*Us, Circa 2010*

P.S He now has two new teef!!!

Baby, Life, Love, Mommyhood

Top That June Cleaver

nainadg

J and Bun and I are lucky enough that we get to spend time together as a family and do fun family activities, and eat dinner together and take strolls. But on a day to day basis, our lives are somewhat chaotic: we have crazy weeks, where we try to balance schedules and coordinate pick up times and try our best to stuff food down our face while the Bun is distracted and trying to pull the dog’s tail.

Not that I’m complaining, I know I have it so much easier than other people, I have a lot of help from my parents and we have a great support network of friends but every once in a while we have a day where the planets are so perfectly aligned and we have one of those sitcom family days. And since I bitch and moan about all the bad, its nice to blog the good.

Yesterday was a perfect day, it was so perfect that it felt like it was happening to someone else.  J went to work early enough so that he could find a free parking spot and so I didn’t have to drive him to work. The Bun ate breakfast and napped right on schedule. After nap time I managed to make it into two grocery stores and my mom’s apt without him fussing, crying or throwing a fit.

There was a blissful 1 hour nap for both mommy and baby. And right at 5:30, just when I was getting ready to take dinner off the stove and Avi was finishing up the last of his dinner, J walked in and said “Honey,I’m home” and planted a kiss on me while dipping me dangerously and then smacking my ass. It was straight out of a 1950’s TV shows . OK so he didn’t really dip me.

He played with the baby and dogs while I finished dinner and then we actually* gasp* ate dinner together while the Bun happily played at our feet. (I know its like an alternate universe right?)

The Bun went down right at 8pm and slept all the way until midnight  giving J and I  a chance to ummm…indulge in…ummm… relations and cuddle and I actually went to bed before midnight! Woo hoo!

My takeaway from all this is- It must be nice living this life all the time. I wonder what I can do to make days like this happen more.The only dark cloud on my day was that Angelo didn’t win Top Chef, but hey a girl can’t have everything.

Life, Love, Uncategorized

Always September

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I was sitting here trying to think of all the major milestones that have happened in my life recently so that I could update my blog when it dawned on me that September has been a very big month for J and I

Here’s why-

Sep 2002 – J told me loved me and kablam we were in a relationship after nearly 2 years of just “being close friends”

Sep 2004- J and I broke up for a week after having lived together for 3 weeks. Yep it was that hard, but I’m glad we got back together again

Sep 2007- J and I got married for the first time (1 of 3) in the Durham Courthouse

And this year…

Sep 2010 – J got his PhD, something he has been working on for the last 5 years. Go J.

I guess mission Durham is complete.

We now have a whole crop of new challenges ahead of us though, mainly, what happens next. We both really really want to stay here and not move but with the economy being in recession, it might not be in our hands.