Odds & Ends

I've been spending the last week enjoying being at home with Mr. Mustard. He took an extra week off work after the holidays, and our days have been filled with spending time together and spending time with Paprika. We've been catching up on all of our missed episodes of Battlestar Galactica. We rented Seasons 1 and 2 awhile back, and have been hooked ever since.

In the past few weeks, Paprika has been showing off some new skills. Her favorite game to play is what we call "The Paci Game." Basically, Mr. Mustard will put the pacifier in his mouth, and Paprika will pull out the pacifier and put it in her mouth. She's gotten really good at it, and most of the time the pacifier makes it into her mouth- although sometimes it goes in backwards!

We are pretty sure Paprika is going to be right-handed. Every time she plays The Paci Game, she reaches for it with her right hand. If you hold down her right hand, she won't even try to get it with her left hand until you help her out. Eventually, with help, she will use her left hand but only reluctantly. Mr. Mustard is left-handed and so is my mom, so we thought she may end up being left-handed, but it turns out she takes after me (and most other people in the world) in terms of her handed-ness.

We have decided to move back into our townhouse in Pasadena. Renting a house just didn't make sense financially, because we would be paying significantly more in rent for a smaller place than the one we own. We gave our tenants 60 days notice yesterday, and we talked to our building managers at our current apartment about the possibility of us staying longer, until we can move back into Pasadena.

We are really excited about moving back to our home in Pasadena because there are so many wonderful opportunities for family-centered fun, it is really really just lovely there, and our neighborhood is outstanding. I've already been put in touch with several mom's groups in Pasadena. The parks are fantastic and there are even two dog parks within a 5 to 10 minute's drive from our townhouse. Also, our townhouse has almost three times the square footage of our current apartment, Paprika will have her own bedroom, we will have a garage for our cars (much more convenient for carrying groceries, etc.), and we will have our very own washer and dryer. Hallelujah!

The only real snag came this morning when our tenants emailed us back to tell us that they are planning on moving to the East Coast in June, so it would be really inconvenient for them to move out now, only to move into a new place and have to move again in June. I really don't know what to do about that. On one hand, I want to be fair to them. They have been great tenants and are very nice people. On the other hand, I am going crazy in our apartment and we are desperate for more space and a nicer living environment. So, we're still thinking about what to do. At a minimum, we will be in Pasadena by June, which is comforting to me.

We are up in Santa Barbara right now visiting Mr. Mustard's mom. She babysat Paprika last night after Paprika went to bed. Mr. Mustard and I went out to dinner and then went to see a movie called Children of Men (his pick). The movie was a little dark for me, but it was so nice to have a date with Mr. Mustard that I didn't really mind.

Today we went and test drove two new cars. We took the Jeep in to be serviced last week because of a recurrent problem it's been having. Basically, it just stops running sometimes- completely cuts out. It happens when you're going 65 miles/hour on the freeway, or when you're just driving down the street to the grocery store. The Jeep is the only car we have that holds the car seat (the Saturn is too small), so basically I haven't been able to drive since the problem started a month or so ago.

We had three repairs made to the Jeep, all fairly expensive, at a shop that specializes in Jeeps. We were assured that the problem was fixed, but then last night when we were driving home from the movie the Jeep stalled on three separate occasions. Ugh. So, we don't know what to do. We don't want to get a new car until we move back to Pasadena since we don't currently have a garage and I don't want to park a new car on the mean streets of LA, but on the other hand, we need to get a new one unless I'm to be house-bound for the next 6 months.

We'll figure it all out- for now, we are happy to have eachother and to have spent so much time together these past few weeks. Mr. Mustard goes back to work tomorrow (Sunday), so it will be a big dose of reality (no pun intended- ha!) for us all as we settle back into our old routine. It has been a wonderful Christmas break for us and we've managed to stretch the vacation long past the point most people can, and for that I'm grateful!