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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Health is wealth

This is so true. The more I think about it, the more I agree. Although sometimes having wealth can make you have health when you can see a personal trainer ;-) Rian is battling with his health right now. An ear infection took him down on Friday, he had high fever (103/104) on the weekend, and we started antibiotics on Saturday night. On Monday night Rian developed a rash on his body and doctor says it's an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. Let's hope the Benadryl can take care of it soon.

Anyways, thoughts back to Rian:
For the past 6 months or so, we've been lucky with Rian's health. Touch wood he has had only his usual share of colds. The first two weeks of this year were also spent being in "good health". Sometimes when things are going rough with Rian, we tend to forget that we spend more than 90% of the time in good health. So, for those times, this is a reminder post for me, that good times rule, and good times exist every year for a long time. I need to dwell on the good more than I dwell on the bad. We've been blessed with a wonderful boy, and I thank God for everything that has gone right with him.

Change is constant in our lives though. May it be jetlag, planning for a trip, packing, unpacking, settling into school, juggling weekend vs weekday schedule - his sleep affects us at every point. Every parent goes through this. As my gym instructor said, I just need to "suck it up and give me 8 more (and then 8 more!)"...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

School begins

We came back from India completely refreshed and desperately missing Rian's grandparents. There was a look in his eye (my interpretation of course) that said I want more people to play with. The timing was right, and we started Rian's school on 3 Jan, 3 days short of his two-and-a-half year bday. He's going for 3 hrs in the morning, from 8:45am to 11:45am. Drop-off is at 8:30am.

The first day, kids were shuttled away from us without a chance to say Goodbye, so there were no tears, just surprise and wonder about this new place called "school" which Rian always wanted to go to. Part of this build up of anticipation about school was his fascination with school buses. Everywhere Rian saw a yellow school bus, even in India, he'd scream out "You see big big yellow school bus". He was under the impression that going to school means getting a wonderful ride in the yellow bus WITH MOMMY AND DADDY or atleast WITH CELY. Although Amit prepared Rian for school with the facts that mommy and daddy will not be there, Rian had no clue what to expect. I have no idea how his first day was, except I know he had cried. He was very happy to be back home and started a new slogan of "Rian does not want to go to school. School is bad".

Day 2, 3, and 4 were the worst times. Rian cried at home from the moment he woke up, with the knowledge that he will be shuttled off to school soon, and wouldn't stop crying till we reached school. The teachers had to tear him away from me and he'd be sobbing as they carried him in. Teachers told me he settled down quickly once inside though, so that was a relief. Lots of positive encouragement from Amit, good friendly teachers, and sending reminders of school work home (his painting and crayon work), and having a bribe for him waiting after school (his toy cars from India, given out one a day) did the trick slowly for Rian. Thursday was the worst with Rian throwing up everything he had eaten, just before we loaded him into the car. All clothes had to be changed, and DADDY'S clothes also had to be changed. Friday improved things though, and Rian actually said "Good morning" to the teacher.

First few days, Rian refused to talk about what happens in school. Now a few of our questions get answered by the kid who's turning into a joker:

Q. What did you drink in school?
A. School juice
Q. What did you eat in school?
A. School meena
Q. Was school meena big?
A. Small
Q. Did you eat "school meena" with your hands or with a fork?
A. With a fork

Who knows what is true :-) but we enjoy asking him about his "school meena" all the same. Into the second week now, I'm trying to balance my morning schedule. The weekend seems to have left me with a half an hr lag, and we've been reaching at 9am instead of 8:30am now. Hope practice makes perfect. Rian's also started a bit of defiant behavior wrt food and water in the morning. Hope he eats his "home meena" properly. Let's see how that goes now. Wish us luck!