Our car just moved to California!

First, the husband, now, the car! A moved to the Bay Area three weeks ago and I sent the car last week. So two members of our family are now officially in the sunny West coast.

Look it! (This is S1's latest catch phrase)- pictures of the exciting event:

Just look at that gorgeous blue sky!

Wheels on wheels...welcome to the car culture in California

Happy Daddy Day, y'all

Flowers from egg-cartons

Dearest A appa,

I made this surprise gift for you and because I was so excited about it, told you to keep it a secret yesterday itself.  Shhhhhh!!!! Don't tell yourself anything about it till it's Father's Day, ok?  but it's ok because I love you everyday. When you came home from California yesterday I was SO excited, I sent you this message from amma's phone:

🍇🍦🍡🎂🍼🍹🍸🍷🍻☕️🍺🎀🎋🎃🎄

🎊🎉🎈✨🎏❤️🎯🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎯🎨🎯🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎲🎲🎲🎨🎨🎨🎲🎲🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🚋🚋💙🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎋🎋🎈🎈🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎋🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲😘😘🎀😘🎲🎲🎲😍🎲🎲🎲🎲😍🎲

Thank you for taking me to Trader Joe's and Walgreens when I ask you, for doing thooki for me when I feel bad about something, for pushing my swing so...so high up in the park, for holding me tightly when an ambulance siren goes by, for taking me in a big plane to bombay to see all my thatha-paatis, for kissing my oww-ies when I get hurt.

You are the best. Now thooki me so I can hug and kiss you, my dear A appa!
S1

Dearest A appa,

I missed you so much everyday last week. Amma kept telling me you were in California but I knew you would come back. Everytime someone knocked on the door, I said "appa!" and ran to try and open the door. You came back yesterday and now I feel so happy with my fa-fa-mi-mi-ly-ly, as Hannah akka says. Because you are our fa-fa.
Whenever I climb a chair or a table or everything that's remotely climb-able, I hear your voice asking me to be careful, to get down slowly.
Please carry me all day and take me to restaurants that have delicious mum-mum and give me yummy paal in my bottle and read me all those amazing Dr.Seuss stories in your dramatic voice before thaachi time.

I love you and I want you to change my diaper now cos I just did my poopie again. Then amma and you, stop wasting time and take us both to the park so we can enjoy the summer outdoors, please! Here are our shoes...
S2

Sniff! Our First Home is on the Market

A and I became home owners in 2011. We thought there were three reasons to buy a place we could call our very own.

1. We were expecting our first child to arrive in April 2012. So...parents need to own homes, right?

2. We were both going to turn 30 soon and felt like owning a place was one of the things 30-somethings generally did
3. The market was good for buyers since it hadn't bounced entirely back since the 2008 recession

Now we are looking to sell our first place and I feel a bit sentimental about it. This is the home we had both our kids, their birthdays, their first steps and first words,  A and I had so many first fights, so many first kiss-and-make-ups, so many extended family and friends' reunions.

News is - we are moving to the Bay Area soon. A moved last week but I'm still working in Chicago and stayed back with the kids. I am not a winter person at all and LOVE the idea of moving to the Bay Area so feeling very positive about the impending change.

At the same time, I want to keep the images and memories of our first home together etched in my brain and heart forever.

Good news is, we have a potential buyer and are already under contract. Fingers crossed that all goes well. (A and I are desperately trying to prevent the kids from marking all the walls or making puddles of you-know-what on the carpets :-))))

Pictures! Oh and we are living clutter-free these days. No, we haven't packed away our things yet, we just live clutter free and it feels so great.

Ok...pictures!

View of our Lincoln Park building from the bus stop right across

Our living room...where the kids scribble all over with (washable) markers

Living, book-nook in left corner and dining room. Dining tables = memorable conversations

Kitchen. So many onions, garlic and coriander...

A and I's bedroom.Where the kids climb into bed with us.

Master bath

Nursery...for story time, playtime and sister pillow-fights

Kids' bath. Rubber duckies and ugh! potty training memories.

Sears or Willis tower

Lobby.

We will all miss you, dear home. Thank you for being strong, sturdy and absorbing all our emotions through these intense years.

We had a Jackson Pollock Splatter-Art Birthday Party

S1 turned three in April and since she loves art and colors (and we didn't want to clean up after the kids for once in our lives), we had an Art Party for her.

Wow, wow, what super fun it was! The kids went wild for the (washable, supposedly harmless) color and painted everything in sight. 

Artists are encouraged to start by painting away the intimidating white canvas ...no creative block here!

Everyone painted in purple...just happens to still be S1's fave color

S1 was an intense artist creating magic and little S2 was engrossed, painting her legs

The delicious rainbow cake was white outside and colorfully yummy inside