This year, I thought my birthday and anniversary would suck and my anniversary kind of did. Even if you take the position that our wedding anniversary isn't reflective of how long we've been together it still doesn't feel right when your husband is (allegedly) working his butt off in Vegas and you're at home Alone. 

My cousin (a loose description of our relationship) was staying with me on her way to Iowa, the Pinnedo's stayed with me on their way to Disney World (they didn't know it was my birthday and I didn't tell them and they left very early morning anyway). It made me feel very old/boring to have guests over but not have any plans for my birthday. 

Aditi and Akshaya (my cousin) were sitting on the sofa when Akshaya called out, Hey Beks there's a surprise for you at the front door! I opened the door to Betty, Jini, baby Shaun, a german chocolate cake, a breakfast of bagels and the biggest cupcake balloon :)

I don't know what I'm doing with my face, probably trying to smile as I eat cake but this was the first time I'd ever had a surprise party and I cannot tell you how it made my year. This year is going to be good. I can tell.

I'm in my 33rd week now and it was weird when I realised that in another month, by Feb 22nd, I'll be considered full term. My due date is still March 12th.

I was wrong about not having enough friends - when push comes to shove, one solid gold friend is all you need.

I was worried about college, but apparently it starts in preschool

On Monday I took Aditi to Montessori to register her for the New Year. We stopped by her class for 15 minutes, so I could chat with her teacher and she could play for a bit. You could tell she had fun.
On Tuesday we attended the full two hours. I sat in a corner and watched her play. She came over a couple of times to show me something cool but she was pretty busy. She'd look up and wave every now and then. She called me to play with her  a couple of time but when I didn't, she was fine. I sat there for two hours just watching her play and surprisingly I wasn't even bored. She didn't want to leave exactly when the time came but she didn't make a fuss either.
On Wednesday it's a 3 hours session. I dropped her off, washed her hands and said, Hey Aditi, Amma's got to do some shopping. I'll see you later. She didn't even look up from the toy sink where she was busy washing dishes. She said, bye, see you! When I came back to pick her up, she was playing catch with another little boy and she wasn't waiting for me or anything. When she saw me, she came and gave me a hug and was happy enough to leave but when we got home, she wanted to go back and play with her friends. I had to bribe her out of the car and into the house.
She is so independent and social and I cannot believe she's my daughter. I hope she will always enjoy school and friends in the same way she does now.
On the other hand, I think I'm suffering a little bit from empty nest syndrome, even though I really enjoyed my time alone. Such is parenthood right?

On a lighter note,

Treat yo' self to:
Yesterday - Downton Abbey extravaganza!
Today - Speculoos from Trader Joe's on toast. It's the new Nutella.

I tried to pull together a year end recap but looking back through all my old posts, I noticed that I'd mostly put up picture post and there wasn't much writing going on. It made me realise that while 2011 didn't suck, in fact 2011 had some really, really great moments - it just wasn't my year.

Ever since family and friends have started reading this blog, I've hard a hard time really expressing myself  fully on this blog. I've tried starting other blogs unsuccessfully but this one is the one I feel the most myself with; not to mention, the expectation of family waiting for updates. I like this and I like this side of the blog, an easy answer to the question of what have you been up to? The downside of this is that I don't particularly care to write about the times when I feel frustrated, tired, bored, boring. I hate it when someone reads something on the blog and then calls me to ask me more about it. I hate it even more when people don't. I realised this is a lose-lose situation and so I stopped posting negative stuff here. The upshot is that I have a year of pictures to commemorate the good times and almost nothing posted about times I found trying, which judging by the gaps in posts were numerous.

The truth is that 2011 had its ups and downs like any year - the ups were mostly Aditi related. She started sleeping better, talking more and just being a delightful, quicksilver little girl whose smile made even bad days not so bad. I am constantly in awe of what a lovely person she is, so affectionate, so funny and so smart. I know she's not perfect but I find it easy to forget that.

Other highlights were having family here and showing them around and having them enjoy being here. I loved spending time with Chech and Robs after ages and it was great to see all the cousins hang out like we all did when we were kids under the aegis of their grandkids.

Our holiday in Mexico was pretty great. It was a real eye opener for Ro and me as to who we are as opposed to what we thought we want. It also made us feel freer than we've felt in a long time.

It was great to have Rej come and be pregnant with me for a week :) and pig out on Indian food and talk to, which sort of segues in to the way 2011 sucked.

There was only one major problem with 2011 - it was the year of no friends. After 2.5 years in Arlington Heights I think I have only 2, maybe 3 friends in the Chicago area who I'd care to call or hang out with and neither of them live close by. I'm hoping this year will be different after Aditi starts going to school (today was her first day btw and she was great) but honestly I don't have high hopes. (Not because of anything else except, well, I can't talk about it.)  No friends makes everything more difficult - fights with Ro, sleepless nights with Aditi, sheer boredom, all of these are compounded by the fact that often the next days simply looks like more of the same. Also only you care about it. Being pregnant hasn't been all that awful because Rej and I are due just a week apart and it's been nice to have a sort of back and forth going even though we are cities apart.

Somehow I feel like I disappeared in 2011. 2012 doesn't exactly seem like the year to carpe diem, because after all nothing makes you vanish more than a new baby but as I announced  on FB this is the year of Treat Yo' Self and I am going to do my best to make this a good year instead of waiting and seeing how things go.

Getting off to a good start

As part of my New Years resolution to read more, I ordered the first four books of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones. They will arrive on my birthday, or so Amazon promises which will be cool, because Rohit is travelling this year on my birthday and our anniversary. I also ordered I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss for Aditi. Partly to qualify for free shipping and partly because I remember it fondly from my holidays in Kottayam.
What are your toddlers reading? What are the books you remember loving as a kid? I loved The Little Mermaid, we had a Ladybird read-it-yourself version of the Hans Christian Anderson story and I loved the part when she turned into a daughter of the air, so sad but still with hope. (I must have been five or older though) Also do you have any must read recommendations from last year?