The End of An Amazing Year!

New Year's Eve! I cannot believe that tomorrow is New Year's Eve! And, as always, we have no babysitter. ;) We would only leave Devika with someone that she knew extremely well, and we don't have anyone like that yet. Not a problem - a friend of ours is throwing a child-friendly party that begins at 4 pm. Yes, that is when our partying begins. And will probably end for us by 7 pm. Sigh. We will have to leave ourselves a nice bottle of champagne at home so that Aj and I can actually toast the new year. I wonder if he will be awake at midnight? I might be toasting by myself. Maybe I'll call someone at midnight so that they can toast with me. Or - we could have a big 'virtual' toast. See you tomorrow night! haha.. hopefully no one else is looking forward to this lame of a celebration. ;)
But in all seriousness, this was quite a year! 2008 was our 'Year of Anticipation'.. but all is well that ends well. Our family really does 'feel' complete. Nothing feels better than saying '.. my girls ..'. :)
Which leads us quite nicely to the letter 'O'...



Ornery.







Well, they LOOK innocent enough..













Somehow I think that if you have to wear it on your hat.. you might be struggling between Santa's lists! ;)









Pacifier. Maya, since our India trip when we brought pacifiers in case Devika used one, has been obsessed with 'binkies'. On Xmas Eve, we were sitting in my mom's living room. She has a kid-friendly 'Veggie Tales' nativity set set right at Maya's eye level. Maya suddenly noticed the nativity set, grabbed the baby Jesus, and exclaimed, "Mom! Where is Jesus' binky??"




Queen. Ajay tried to use his line 'In my country, you would be queen!' on me the night we first met. If I recall correctly (and of course I do), he was trying to lure me into his rooftop hot-tub.
Sometimes I can't quite remember what possessed me to agree to our first date. ;) That first night that we met - at his friend's (and a coworker of mine) party - was 10 years ago next month. WOW.



Road trip!
Well, we survived our Xmas road trip! 16 hours each way, though we broke it into 2 days. It really wasn't bad, all things considered. On the way home we were smarter - we left earlier and drove only during daylight hours. Devika starts screaming when the sun goes down, and nothing makes her feel better. Maya was like that as a baby also.. so I wasn't surprised. On the way TO Indiana, we spent 2 hours each day listening to screaming b/c we weren't prepared.
On the way home, we had no problem. PHEW. Maya is a fantastic traveler - she was great. As was our lab, Tasha.
It was great to spend time with the family. I hate to see how thin my mom is - she needs to bulk up!! She kept apologizing for being so tired, but I thought she held up very well. Holidays, guests, etc. are very tiring for anyone - and she really kept up with it.
Everyone else was fun also.. we loved visiting Chicago and introducing Devika to some aunties, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family. The photo above shows Devika with her Grandpa (Papa) - meeting Grandma Nanny (MY Grandma, who is 92). Devika did sooo well! So many new people, new accomodations, etc.. and she was very happy and personable. Maya was in heaven - she looooooooved the attention from her aunties and uncles and grandparents! I think she is suffering withdrawal now. This was really the first visit where she was loving and huggy to everyone.. and not attached to mommy. It was so fun to see how much fun she was having! And she definitely enjoyed Santa this year!
The next two photos: Middle : Sr Mary Joseph (Maya's 'Spiritual Godmother'), Devika, Andrew (Maya's cousin and partner-in-crime), Sr Marie (aka Auntie Mary-Toot), and Maya. Right: Maya entertains Grandma and Uncle Mike.


Stretching. You would think 'oh, 16 hours in a car - no movement - feel like a slug.'.
You would be so very wrong.
If you have 2 small children (and a dog) in an SUV so packed that there is NO space for sitting next to the kids or even placing your feet flat on the floor, you might want to warm up prior to the drive and prepare for some serious stretching exercises. I was quite surprised to find myself in a sort of mini work-out throughout our long drive this week. There was no sitting still. At ~10 minute intervals, something was always needed. One of the kids needed food or a DVD change or a new toy or.. blahblahblah. So I came up with some exercise names:
'Feed-Baby-the-Bottle Arm Extensions'
'Baby-Food-Administration Repetitive Shoulder Rotations'
'DVD-Swap Abdominal Twists'
and my favorite.. the 'Find-The-Misplaced-Bear Leg, Arm, and Upper Body Extensions/Rotations'

So.. 7 letters left for the last day of the year. Might have to get creative on a few of them. Maybe I'll blog post-champagne. That outta do it eh?
Hope all of you have a very fun and SAFE celebration tomorrow night! {or mid-day, depending on your situation - ha!}