Officially Moved

Yesterday was our first night at our new house. Technically, it was our second night as we had stayed the night of House Blessing or 'Havan' ceremony, but that was just us, without any of our stuff. Almost all of the furniture has been moved, with the exception of a side table, some decoration items, etc. Both the houses are currently looking as disaster areas, as is to be expected.

Lower Level

Girish assembled the Entertainment Unit that is in the Family Room. With some rearrangement of furniture there, that room will be done. I started setting the Kitchen, Refrigerator and that's all looking good too. In the Dining Room, the China Cabinet has been moved to it's proper place, inbetween the two east side windows. The table needs to be assembled. We couldn't find the drill bits for the electronic drill, or it would have been done yesterday! Manual process takes much more time LOL We don't have any furniture in the Living Room currently, as in our Townhouse, we had combined Living/Family Rooms. The Home Office furniture needs to be assembled back too.

Upper Level

Total disaster. Master and Guest Bedroom furniture need to assembled. Clothes are all over the place. I started setting our clothes in the Walk In Closet this morning. Mehul's clothes are all in a big pile. Finding a uniform for him to wear to Creme was interesting. I kept coming up with single socks from many pairs LOL

Transitioning

Mehul seems to be very happily settled in the house. He calls this 'Townhouse'. Apparantly, we did so much house talk in front of him, he picked this word up and had been using it for a long time before we realized what he was saying! He was running all over the place last night, and even went to sleep peacefully. He still sleeps with us, though. He never got used to sleeping in the crib except for naps. That's ok, we like it that way :)

As far as his transitioning to the Big Boy Room, today it's 2 hours, not 1 as they mentioned in the papers they sent home. Mehul and another kid from his class are starting there today. Atleast he has someone with him! He would also (probably) recognize some older kids from his class there. Hoping that he doesn't cry! He was a little clingy this morning as he has come back after a 3 day break.

Other

Today is KarwaChauth. I am fasting today. No food or drink before Moonrise! Please, Moon, come out early tonight!

In the middle of Packing

Most of the stuff has already moved, I am packing up the kitchen now. Just taking a short break. Girish had to go to work today, Mehul and I are home. I am also cooking a couple of meals now, so that we wouldn't have to worry about unpacking the kitchen right after moving, or eat out (like last time LOL).

I have done a couple of layouts that I'm not finding the time to upload here. You can browse my gallery at DST if you're so inclined. I have also made a card for Mehul's daycare teachers. I haven't posted that one, but I will post it after giving them to the teachers.

Speaking of that, Mehul will start transitioning over to the 2 Year Old room tomorrow. They ease them into the routine, so, tomorrow he'd be there for 1 hour in the morning. Next day, he'll be there till the afternoon but will come back for lunch in his toddler room. The next day, he'll do lunch and afternoon nap there, and so on. They take a full week to do the transitioning. I hope it all goes well. Since we're also moving today, it's a lot of change for him. From his perspective, his whole world is changing. Sigh.

Well, I have to get back to packing and preparing meals.

Quick Post

I just returned back from work. Yes, on a Saturday. My life sucks LOL. I had to do a software upgrade at a client site. Since it was Production system, the only available timeframe was weekends. This is a long weekend here (Columbus Day), so I still get 2 days off, and I will take the next Friday off and make that a Long weekend. Someone ask them, where is it written in my job duties that I'd be expected to do upgrades/installs. I am the only Documentum 5 person they have, and they're milking it! Grump.

House News

We got our Refrigerator today. Girish got it installed. I haven't seen it in the kitchen yet. I'm totally excited. We're just heading to the house now to start moving stuff over. The movers are coming tomorrow. This is it! The next two weeks will be absolute chaos LOL

On the down side, we will lose our high speed internet connection. The community is brand new and they don't have the transmitter (or whatever else they need) set up. The wires are laid, but that's about it. It will be a long time before they start providing access. So, we'll be on dialup for a while. I hope it's not a looong while.

Well, I gotta run...

Erin tagged me last week. I'm a teeny bit late, but I hadn't forgotten. Here it is.

The Rules
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

I'm going to change it up a bit (when did I ever play by rules ;)) I'm going to list what are my all time favorites, as I don't really get a chance to listen to music on a daily basis nowadays. I listen to fast beat songs while I workout, but they're not what I really like at other times. I enjoy listening to Ghazals and old Hindi Movie songs. Slower the better! So, here they are, in no particular order.

1. Woh Kagaz Ki Kashti, Woh Barish Ka Pani (Jagjit Singh)
2. Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho (Jagjit Singh)
3. Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye (Movie: Qurbani)
4. Baahon Mein Chale Aaoo (Movie: Anamika)
5. Woh Shaam Kuch Ajeeb Thi (Movie: Khamoshi (from 1969))
6. Tujhse Naraaz Nahin Zindagi (Movie: Masoom)
7. Aaj Dil Pe Koi Zor Chalta Nahin

There are many many more but I can't list them all here! I have to load these up in my MP3 player in a different playlist. I only have the fast ones rightnow, and I'm bored of those too. Time to change them.

I'm not going to tag anyone, mainly since I don't think I have 7 readers :p If you're reading this, and want to play, please feel free!

Let's rewind

I'm so pooped today. Yesterday, I had to do a lot of running around to get all the things ready for his party. We had gotten most of the stuff beforehand, but had to pick up the balloons (can't do that in advance, right), and the cupcakes. I got off work at lunchtime. The cupcakes were specially prepared for us (by Wegmen's; their staff is so helpful) with Red and Yellow icing. Did I mention the two stores are at the opposite ends from my house? Anyhow, I picked both up and went home to relax a bit and have lunch. Prepared a salad quickly. I was going to eat cake later in the day so didn't have a big lunch.
Girish was stuck in a meeting at the last moment, but thankfully it ended right on time. He came home around 2:25. When we reached the daycare, our little angel was fast asleep, along with a lot of other little angels. I took a picture, ofcourse. The kids had already started waking up. I set the table and put the food out.
Miss O. had to wake Mehul up, as it was around 2:45 and he had already napped for more than 2.5 hours. He opened his eyes, looked at me and Daddy. We totally expected he'd scream with joy and say Mamma and come running to me. Nope. He said "Emmo" looking at the balloons. Completely ignored us. Nice to know he remembers Elmo.
One of the kids has a lot of allergies, so he couldn't have anything we brought. Poor C. He was looking at the other kids, sitting at a different table. I felt so bad for him. Miss J. said sorry to him twice while serving him his food :(

The kids in the other class were peeking in. They were so excited to see the balloons. A lot of them started singing Happy Birthday!

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun to see all the kids. They sang Happy Birthday, ate and had a great time. I took a lot of pictures. Still have to resize them. We also took pictures of the house at daytime. Maybe I'll make one huge post with them.

We also did a quiet little cake and candle party at home. Mehul and I decorated a cheesecake (yep). Then, he was given his gifts. He was so excited about the first one, he didn't open the rest Hehe. It is the Elmo's Workbench as seen on Gina's Blog. It's the best thing. He was quite the carpenter last night! I literally had to peel him off the floor to go to bed. This morning, he was at it again. We'll open the rest of the presents today!

Happy Birthday, Mehul

We were scheduled for an induction for October 4th, 2004. We were supposed to show up at the hospital, at 8PM the night before, to get us to settle in and start induction. I had Gestational Diabetes and the danger of going over the due date was that of having an extremely big baby. The ultrasound I had at around 36 months put your weight at around 6 lb, not huge by any measure, but these things aren't accurate!

The hospital called us and let us know that there wasn't a bed available yet, so we wouldn't get to go just yet. We waited and waited. Finally, we decided to go to sleep around 10PM. At 11:15, they called and asked if we wanted to come in now, or in the morning at 7. We decided to go. We were ready, bags were packed (for the last couple of weeks actually). The wait was finally over, we were going to the hospital and we would finally get to meet you!

At the hospital, they hooked me up with the monitors and started IV fluids. Told me to relax and take a nap. The induction process was started, and the nurse switched off the lights and went away. I was asleep for I don't know how much time and woke up with weird cramping. Your daddy was asleep on the couch, he was tired and I didn't want to wake him up! After some time when it didn't stop, I decided to not wait any longer and woke him and called for the nurse. She came and checked the monitors, both of our heartbeats were getting lower. She showed some awesomely fast moves, put the breathing mask on me, got all the wires disconnected, and wheeled me very quickly to the Operation Theatre! She told me that your heartrate is going down and we're going to have to do an emergency C-section. Also, that your daddy will not be allowed in the room with me, because that's hospital protocol. I was scared like anything. Here we were, nicely relaxing and not expecting you until the next day, and I was about to end up with an Emergancy C. My OB/GYN, Dr. M wasn't on duty that night so she was paged. A scruffy looking Indian lady doctor was attending that night. In a couple of minutes of us reaching the OR, your heartbeat went stable. They monitored me for about 10 minutes in the OR and when things seemed fine, we were wheeled back! Phew!

Dr. M reached after some time, and visited me at the room. The nurse (and I) explained her what happened. It was probably a reaction to the medicine they'd given me. After this, the night was quite eventless. I woke up in the morning, walked around, watched TV. My blood sugar was being monitored every hour, because of the GD. It was staying stable. I wasn't allowed any food, but was allowed to drink water and munch on ice-chips. Fun.

It was a long day. 16 hours of labor and nothing to show for it. Finally, at 6PM, Dr. M asked how long we wanted to wait. We said if nothing happens in a couple of hours, we're ready for a C. We just wanted to meet you, in good health. That's all that mattered. At 8:12, Dr. M delivered you via C-section.

The first thing I heard was your faint cry. Then, the nurses and doctor started saying "Look at those eyes. The Eyelashes" "All that hair" "The head is big that's why labor wasn't progressing" (Nice) Then, I saw you. You were this teeny tiny thing, in a diaper. I don't know when they put that diaper on you! You were the cutest little baby I had ever seen. No lie. The Cutest Baby Ever. I cried. Your daddy, concerned as he was about my well being, asked if I was hurting or these were happy tears! Yes, he was clueless as always :)

I remember asking a doctor (not Dr. M) about your Apgar Score! I don't know why. It was 8 or 9, yes, that's what the doctor said. He gave me a very surprised look for some reason. Whatever. I wasn't paying attention in my drug-induced haze.

Your Stats: 18 inches long, 5lb 9oz weight.

I have rambled enough so I'll stop now. Happy Birthday, my 2 year old! We are coming to your daycare with cupcakes at 2:30, and you have NO idea :D

Your first day

Your first few weeks

Secret's Out

About our new house, that is. I thought several times about posting about the house that was being built, but didn't. We had kept it a surpise from mine and DH's family. Didn't want to ruin their surprise at the off chance they visit this blog. I know MIL does, sometimes. My sister does too.
We own a townhouse already, which we bought in 2004, just before DS was born. It was only 2 years old, and everything was in great shape. What it lacked was a back yard, and the extra storage space. We always wanted to move into a bigger house, but didn't have a specific time in mind. This year, we casually started looking at single family houses. It had to be a new construction, for sure. I wanted to specify what I wanted in the house, and see it take shape. We saw the plan we absolutely loved, and after *much* discussion, we signed up. It's a dream come true!

An unfinished post from my other neglected blog, that has been kept in draft...I wrote this 2 days after we signed the contract to build this home.


"Sunday, March 5th, we signed the contract for our new home. It's going to take some time for me to get used to the fact. It's our dream home. In a great location. It's going to be perfect. The house is not built yet, so we have about an year before we have to move. But...

I'm already having trouble thinking of parting with our current home. DS was born in this home. We just moved here 1 1/2 years ago. I love this place. Slowly we have been making it our own. I'm happy about the new place but don't want to let go of this one. I know that when we sell this place, the new owners will want to change it, and that thought is scary to me. I painted the home office downstairs just 2 months ago..."

The townhouse has been rented out. The housing market in our area has taken a nose dive this year. Hence, the lowered rate for the new house. We plan on selling the townhouse in a couple of years time.

Pictures will follow soon. Rightnow, I only have the in-construction ones, and not a final one. There's a lot going on with the birthday approaching, the move, house warming party, etc. I also plan to put up before-after pictures as we personalize this home. The first project is the main level powder room. We've already ordered the stuff for this!