It will be my 10 year anniversary in Durham this august. I can’t believe this has been my home for nearly a decade now. One of the things I fell in love with when I first moved to Durham, were the Magnolia trees. Magnolia blooms are spectacular and they are all over Durham. This photo was taken on one of Bun and my walks around our neighborhood park. Isn’t it lovely?
This summer is going to be hot and humid with ferocious afternoon thunderstorms and it will be filled with Magnolias
..is bittersweet. All the sunshine and the flowers-intoxicating. A sweet distraction from the big changes that are happening in our lives. The first half of 2014 is almost over and I feel like I am just waking up and seeing all the changes that are still yet to come. Durham suddenly feels a little less like home.has been bittersweet.Our favorite family in Durham had to move away. They are now an ocean away and although I am looking forward to visiting them, Durham feels a little empty. Bun also just finished his last day at Greenwood School which was a huge part of our lives for the last year and a half. Soon there will be new schedules, new camps and new Pre-K. We’ll have to find new buddies at the park and step outside our comfort zone to make new playdates. June will different. Thats the meaning of May The photos are from a recent visit to the American Tobacco Campus in Downtown Durham 
Bun never expressed an interest in taking photos earlier, unlike other kids. But this Sunday, he very politely (unusual) asked to take a picture of a cloud, a tree and of J and I. Of course I said yes. Like aproud parent, I present Bun’s first photo set.
Photos are taken at Sam’s Bottle Shop in South Durham. All photos are by ADK and unedited
Photo by the awesome J
As much as I adore spending time with my toddler and also as much as I like having the Parents around to hang out, it is so nice to have weekends that are filled with friends. This weekend we got to catch up with most of our good friends around town, being grown ups and still taking the toddler along.
Saturday, we spent our afternoon at Fullsteam Brewery a place I’ve mentioned before because its one of our favorite places in Durham, and I think it does a great job of capturing Durham’s current scene. We met up with our friends and their kids. The kids socialized, the grown ups socialized, beer was consumed, tacos and samosas sampled from the food trucks parked nearby and an overall sense of saturday-ness prevailed. Bonus: I dressed up and got out of my mom summer uniform of capri/shorts and tee.
Sunday, we got to see mor friends and watch football (Yaaay Cowboys!!! Booo Panthers), make slime with the kids, eat pizza on a friends deck and enjoy the slight chill thats been hanging in air at dusk lately.
My stink eye for Bratty Bun
My only gripe with sunday was that my kid was being a total S%$&head. I think we are entering a new era of toddlerhood- there was hitting, grabbing and all around unpleasantness from Avi when it came to playing with the other kids. I wonder what happened to my sweet little boy who was never grabby about toys and would walk away from a conflic? I hope its something he and I can work through because it is absolutely horrible to be that kid’s mom. But I’m hopeful, that these are just some growing pains that we’ll have to both go through. I don’t want to completely crush his spirit but Hitting and grabbing are not ok in my book of discipline
I’m linking this up with Mandy from The Haps, Stepping Out Saturday Linky, since I was so happy for dressing up!
In January, when the weather is 65 degrees and clear and the afternoon sun is shining on the playground down the street, it is absolutely necessary to spend the afternoon at the sandbox with dump truck. So it has always been and so it will always be.
Photos from my iphone
Yesterday felt like the last warm day of 2011. Today is cold and gloomy and Bun and I were cooped up inside almost all day.
I’m glad we made the most of it yesterday. Since it was Fire Safety Month, we toured our local fire station and then after nap time we explored a brand new park in our area.
Besides, I had to test out my iPhone 4S. It is so much cooler than my old clunky blackberry. I absolutely adore the flipview camera feature.
I was unsure if Bun would have fun, since we were in a group of slightly older kids, but he absolutely loved the fire station or as he calls it – Fire Truck House.
I also downloaded instagram on my iPhone. I am hooked!
mmm
Missing from pictures was the Fire Station’s Ambulance- Or Bun’s new love. He has been talking about the fire station non stop today, especially the Ambulance (Bun word- Adumance)
The Park
I read about Old Chapel Hill Park on this great website for Durham Moms and after nap time drove out to check it out with the Bun. It had cool modern equipment that I haven’t seen in any other park in our area.
mm
I don’t know if it was the time of day, but we didn’t really see too many kids Bun’s age, they were all older, so we mostly played by ourselves. But we had a great time anyway.
When we drove home, Bun didn’t want to go inside so we headed out to the trail behind our house for some leaf stomping fun.
Because iphone uploads the photo on iPhoto on my mac, I played around in iPhoto for the first time today. I don’t care for it too much- I still prefer Picasa and Photoshop, but it was fun to play around.
Hence the overload of filters and effects.
This is the last post for Adventuroo’s Week in My Life Project. I’m going to keep this post short, not because I didn’t get enough pictures like Friday and Saturday, but because I got too many! And yesterday was such a fantastic, busy day where I was out and about and hanging out with friends that I haven’t had time to go through and sort the photos yet.
I want to do a separate post for our Pumpkin Patch visit so I’ll post more pictures under that.
Sunday morning J, Bun and I had a Thomas the Train party in our bed. Bun watched Thomas on my laptop and J and I tried to sneak in some more sleep.
We also had a mini dance party afterwards in our jammies to my new favorite dance song- Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. Wish I had my camera for that but it was a fun impromptu moment that I’m going to cherish
The rest of the day can be summed up from my Facebook Status yesterday
The pumpkin patch was so much fun and so was football! The Cowboys lost, but it was still a fun afternoon with friends and the toddlers out partied us all!
And Week in My Life is done! I was really apprehensive about doing this challenge, but, I’m so glad that I did.
Sitting and going through photos at the end of the day was a such a meditative moment for me. It helped me focus and take in all the bits and pieces that make up my life. Who knows what my future holds, Next week can totally suck, but my Now is filled with happy moments – big and small and these are moments that I could never ever have imagined for myself.
You thought I gave up didn’t you? But I didn’t I have been recording and taking photos, just not posting. But in my head if I blog about 7 days of my life it fits Adventuroo’s Week in My Life Challenge. Do not tell me otherwise.
Anyway, Thursday afternoon Bun and I went to Duke Gardens. It was one of J and my favorite spots when we lived near campus but for some reason it seems really far to me from SW Durham and we have only taken Bun a handful of times, and that was when he was an itty bitty baby.
This time though, I timed it and it took exactly 14 mins- Not bad at all. And we had such a great time that I think we will be going to Duke Gardens a lot more in the near future
And now photos:
We entered through the Japanese Gardens and spent most of our time in this section. I love how lush and green everything looks in this photo. It was a cloudy day and the green leaves just popped against the grey skies.
We went and visited the Ducks that live in the “Ocean” as Bun called the little canal/pond. We had some bread with us and fed them. Bun was happy to perch on a rock ledge and just look. He is not into throwing bread at ducks, it seems.
We walked around the Japanese section some more and Bun was absolutely mesmerized with the waterfalls and the Koi pond but he was a little scared and insisted on holding my hand the entire time, so I wasn’t able to get any good photos of him and the waterfalls.
As we were walking back to our car, we took a detour through the area where they do weddings and spotted a really cute bridge and a Lily pond and Bun loved running across the bridge.
J was supposed to meet up with us but he ended up having to work late, so we made our way back home for regular dinner and bedtime.
But I plan on visiting it a lot more in these upcoming fall afternoons.
I’m sticking to the plan- post #3 of consecutive 7 posts! This is a part of Adventuroo’s A Week in My Life Project.
This is going to be picture heavy. Photos from by blackberry and P&S- all unedited, since none of the photos seemed inspired enough to edit (ETA- I did crop and storyboard a few)
Wednesday morning was rainy and humid and Bun and I decided to go to Durham Main Library’s story time with Miss Jessica. She does a great story time and also has the toddlers do a craft (In our case, I do the craft, since Bun is still a little too small).
This week’s theme was Owls! The toddlers had Owl name tags and made a owl puppet!
After storytime, I decided to stop by our favorite used book store Nice Price Books near 9th street in Durham and we scored two fun books! Bun loved exploring the “aisles” and looking at the books. And then we were off to lunch.
We had lunch at Dee and Babu’s house (my parents). Bun had scrambled eggs and toast with Jam and yogurt. I had some yummy chicken kebabs.
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He was really upset about having to go home from Dee and Babu’s and insisted on splashing in puddles. So we did!!!! Splashing is his favorite outside activity these days. He also call them “Pretty Puddles”
After naptime- I napped yesterday afternoon too, I was tired from not having slept very well the night before- we went outside to play and the dog ran away. So we spent a lot of time chasing Layla Blue. I think Layla would have come home sooner if Bun wasn’t in such hot pursuit.
The mosquitos and the humidity were unbearable so we came inside to play with trains and our activity cube. I’m surprised he chose to play with it, since he generally ignores that toy.
I didn’t document dinner because J was late coming home and I was tired and cranky by then as was Bun and I just chose to skip documenting dinner. Thankfully J got home right as we were getting done, so I was able to run upstairs and get clean sheets on Bun’s crib and run the bath.
And then it was the usual routine- Bath, dancing in front of the mirror, Playing “House” (where Bun puts a towel over his head and calls it his house), books and cuddle time.
We read The Fathers Are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown. Bun’s Shirt is handmade by my dear dear friend Jessica from Happier Still. Isn’t she talented? She gave it to us for Christmas last year and its a little small for him now but still super soft and comfy so he wears it all the time.
Did “Habush” – Brushed Bun’s Hair.
We finished our Bedtime by reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
And then J and I spent the rest of the evening on the couch drinking wine and watching Breaking Bad
Last spring was not a good time for my family. Its not something that I want to talk about on my blog but I was depressed enough that I didn’t really blog about a lot of big events last year. Anyway, I have been thinking about Mothers Day a lot this year and I thought that I had better post the only picture i have from Mother’s Day last year that has both Avi and I in it. And in spite of everything that was going on at that time, I did end up having a fabulous mother’s day with my little family.
Avi and I last year on Mother’s Day 2010 at Alivia’s in Downtown Durham. We went there for an early dinner with my parents. Bun is 4.5 months old in this pic and still had the very worried expression he has now.
This is when Bun was still Husib and lived in my belly, so I guess he is technically still in the picture. This was J and my 1/2 mother’s day celebration. We went to play mini golf and arcade games. I was 7 weeks pregnant and I was giddy, scared and so happy. My 7 week pregnancy blog post is here
Orange You Grape 