In the midst of all the madness with our new home, Thanksgiving and Ashima's first birthday came and went in a blur. Thanksgiving was relaxing at the NJ Yabut's, and Ashima enjoyed her turkey dinner.
Shortly afterward, we had a quiet day for her first birthday. It's not b/c we don't think it's important, b/c it is the most important date in our hearts. We wanted to just enjoy her company without bells and whistles everywhere. Ashima loves being social, and we know she prefers doing her favorite activities. We took her to the Kew Forest Park, where she was all smiles playing, running, and interacting with other children. Even though she cries at adult strangers, she rarely shies away from kids. Tita Myra was coming home from a business trip, and she cut Ashima's cake with us. Let's not mention they spelt her name wrong...but Ashima had her first taste of birthday cake!
We did it! After months of challenges, we are now homeowners. Scary, but exciting to tackle the new obstacles in our way. So much to do, it's all a work in progress. We are grateful for all the support of family and friends in this endeavor. It's our little patch of land and we will make it our home in time.
Funny how our perception of closing was so different than reality. You sign a bunch of different legal papers and then all of a sudden, someone says, "Congratulations". That's it. For some reason, we thought there would be some ceremonial presentation to make it official.
As for now, we will be in the Kew Gardens apt until the end of December. As posted before, we are nostalgic, but we can't live in Queens forever. There's not an affordable backyard to put a swing set or have bbq's- and we are all about that!
For some reason, Ashima greatly dislikes the vacuum. If she can hear it humming, she will cry until it is shut off. So we left it in the "dining" room where she could see it, telling her, "the vacuum does whirr" in hopes of a better outcome. Now that she discovered how fun throwing food around is, vacuuming has become a daily affair. So, it would be best if she developed a good rapport with it. At first, she ignored the vacuum, then started yelling at it, and finally started touching it. We thought she could handle hearing it on, but no...not yet. She continues to cry.
