Me, myself and Anu

I just had a birthday..I turned a year older..yay! Whoz counting anyways..age is just a # after all. But I did something to remember this one by..I got my nose pierced, a fun way to celebrate by getting poked. Now if only I can figure out how to keep V from getting his hands on my nose :)

On days that V is asleep when I leave, it is easy to pick Aapice..
On days that he is awake, looks at me sleepy eyed, yawns and gives a half smile (well if it is any smile, it is different) a smile that melts my heart, hands that call out to me to be held and eyes that haunt me every sec..it is Home 100%!

On days that I have success working on a project and feel useful, it is Aapice;
On days that V tries and struggles to achieve milestones like successfully biting into my face, slobbering kisses on my cheek, crawling to come to me hearing my voice, scrambling all over K trying to stand, successfully opening every door, pulling every wire, trashing every toy, eating EVERYTHING in sight, it is Home again :)

On days I get my paycheck, it is Aapice of course;
On days I begin to wonder if I would trade all my money for time with V, it is home most definitely!

On days I am respected for who I am and what I contribute to, it could be Aapice;
But on days that V hugs me with his tiny hands, rests his adorable head on my chest/shoulder and looks at me with his questioning eyes..everything goes out the door to be at Home.

On days that I think of this blasted economy, it is Aapice with thanks to God; But then again on days that I think of the hundreds of childless couples..I think if I am doing the right thing after all ?!

It is everyday that I am thankful for what I have; don't get me wrong, but unfortunately it does little to ease the pain and torture of seperation from this little someone who owns my time and my life now. I hope someday it is all worth it!

Is it any wonder I love you so?
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2009/apr/20slide9-sizzling-cover-girls.htm

3 1/2 sleepy hours of prepartion apparently were not enough to pass Oregon's Knowledge based driving test, I failed unfortunately :( My first failure ever in life, too bad it had to happen now.

The worst was not failing the test but the response it met from my family. My dad says " Now do you know how hard it is to study when you have a child?". I don't think that preparing for this counted as studying necessarily. My sister " So did you fail in TN also when you took your driver's license test?", the overachiever scored a 99%..who cares really..a pass is a pass. And K had to open his big mouth and say "Was it really that hard, really Anu..you should have done better." At this time I remembered a certain friend of mine who managed to fail his test not once, not twice, but 5 times. At least I have not hit rock bottom yet.

Ah..the humiliation of it all, I am amazed I am even alive today. But the good news is I took it again yesterday and passed with a decent 85%. Not bad for a working mother I should say :P

P.S. I also leaked the questions to K who managed to score a just pass of 80%, humpf!

Late Friday nights and later Saturday mornings are things I treasured and have now become things of the past. It has been nine months and 18 days since V was born and I am yet to have one night of sleep, let alone one night...I am yet to have four hours straight sleep...sigh! For someone who just cannot give up sleep, I myself don't know how I am surviving. I read recently that being sleep deprived makes you forget that you are sleep deprived, I think that is what has happened to me. This kid just does not sleep and does just fine. I wish I did the same :(

I don't mind that he wakes up during the night, I get to look at that face one more time, I get to admire those lips and those tiny hands and legs and feel that soft skin and that pleasant breath against my face. (BTW he does not smell at all for someone who did not brush their teeth or gums for the first seven months of his life!) I don't have the heart to let him be, after all like someone very close to me said "If you think about it, they are children only once!". How true, I cannot get back the first eight months of his life no matter what. What the heck, I can't get yesterday back :)

So I think the only way for me to survive as he grows is to teach him that on weekends Daddy is the one who should be woken up first - ALWAYS!!

If you have not already tried it, you should try the Aveeno bodywash for babies. If you don't have a baby, well then try it on yourself! V smells so wonderful after I have ditched johnson and johnson for this. It actually reminds me of the sambangi flower frangrance in India. So subtle yet so divine.

Black Friday changed to Black Sunday- What's going on? I am talking about a sale at IKEA that I had the misfortune of being interested in and the stupidity of actually going to. I like cooking and I like vessels even more :) So when I got the flyer that IKEA was selling their 11 qt stockpot for $10 (originally $34.99) http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00101160, I was mildly interested (Remember: only one per family and that was already bothering me). However one week of constantly looking at it and god bless my mother in law for her praise of how I would use the vessel and all the dishes that I could cook in it, I was hooked :P And a trip to the store and a feel of that stainless steel in my hand and knowing I could be having this in my kitchen for $10 was pure heaven!

So came the D day and IKEA opened at 10 am, if you wanted free breakfast you had to come at 9:30 am though. Who cared for bacon strips really, so I dragged my husband and father in law and showed up at the store at 10. And did I have the shock of my life! People were walking out of the store with not one stockpot per family, but two per person, one in the right hand and one in the left, and some even had three ! And the worst part of it all was there was a queue outside the store, worse than what I have seen during the Thanksgiving Black Friday sale. I was actually dumb enough to be hopeful when I was standing in the line. My joy was short lived though, 10 min later and 400 steps to the store entrance told me that they were out of the stockpots. They had 850 of them and ALL GONE and it was only 10:10 am, can you believe that? Who says that the economy is going down, who says people don’t have money..I want to talk to these people some!!

Needless to say, we went to the store and bought some junk that we probably did not need and saw too many more people with the pots that I thought at some point my heart would burst with sadness. K had to hold on to my hand to prevent me from grabbing onto the pots or hitting some other ladies there. I know, I know but but I was so angry and disappointed, why me, sigh!

Lesson of the day: Sale at IKEA $10, Experience at IKEA: priceless