Having a bawl of a time

Rian's first ice skating class

2011-09-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Yes yes, I'm so excited to be doing another "Rian's first" post :-) Today Rian went for his first ice skating class! Daddy took him in the middle of work and school from 10am to 11am. Rian was super excited about it this morning. Daddy tells me my beta did really well in class. I'm so so so proud of him! Here's a picture of him, standing without holding, and smiling!

We have 5 more classes on Wednesdays. Tons of hugs and kisses to Daddy for making it happen in the middle of his work day!

Rian's first A+

2011-09-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a happy school day for Rian. He came home with an A+ sticker. It seems Rian did very good "reading" yesterday in class. The teachers and the class students all clapped for him and he got an A+ sticker :-)

Proud parent moment!!!

Rian's first visit to Disneyland

2011-09-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue. I wanted to pen down the memories here before they disappeared. Just before my bday this year, we took a trip to Disneyland, Rian's first trip. He was super excited before the trip, and we got a lot of things "done" from him with the lure of the trip :D Ya, we're evil sometimes :D

We researched a bit about 3 yr olds going to Disneyland, and talked a lot with each other - is this the right time, the right age, blah blah. Finally we had a plan and touch wood, everything, almost everything, worked out perfectly as we planned.

We planned to spend a weekday (Fri) and a weekend day (Sat) in Disneyland. This is a 7 hr drive from our house, and we decided to take a whole day to drive down. The plan was to take a break after 6 hrs at our friends in Simi Valley (the Vashas), and spend some playtime and dinner time at their house.

On Thursday August 25 though, we got late in leaving from home. Instead of getting on the road by 10am, we were out the door at 11:30am. Our plan of reaching by 3:30pm was definitely out the door. We were traveling at a good speed, and after our lunch break, we ran into a very bad traffic situation. A major accident on I-5 south made it a parking lot. We traveled 3 miles in 3 hrs. Even though traffic was bad and it was 100F outside, we stayed very cool as a family, and a big thanks goes to Rian. He engaged with Daddy on many games, some on the iPhone, some with his fingers. We were surprised to find out a paper plane can fly very well inside our compact BMW 325i :-)

Unfortunately Rian ended up skipping his nap. As we got closer to our friends' place though, the exhaustion caught up with him and he fell asleep at 8pm, without dinner, without his night milk. We carried him into the house, asleep, deposited him in Samyak's bed, had a wonderful yummy dinner ourselves, and left with him asleep. He had some bites on his hands and forehead, possibly mosquitoes in our house the night before. We picked up some Benadryl cream. Zankhna packed some yummy theplas for Rian and some chocolate pudding.

We did a smart thing: we booked a room in a hotel right across the street from Disneyland's pedestrian entrance. We also made sure they had breakfast in the hotel. It is very important for all 4 of us to have breakfast in the morning without hassles, and "right away" when we get ready. These decisions helped us a lot in our stay. We stayed for 3 nights and on all 3 mornings we had a good breakfast and full tummies to fight the possible crankies :-)

Right at 11pm Rian woke up and I was so stressed: when will he sleep now? Thankfully after we finished checking in, and Rian had some thepla, he asked for his milk and went to sleep by 12:30am. We were all in bed at 1am. The next day Rian woke up without efforts despite the short sleep time. He was so excited! Pictures can tell the story of how our Day 1 was spent. Things that we did right on both days:

Start with a good breakfast
Carry the stroller - lots of walking inside, and helpful to carry our bag as well
2 hr break in the afternoon - we all went back to hotel and lazed around in AC
Carried good snacks - there is no end to unhealthy temptations in a theme park, although I have to say Disneyland offered many healthy choices. We carried apples, oranges, Clif bars and lots of water

Rian did not sleep in the afternoon, and got bit tired, but he was not cranky. He kept observing and commenting and noticing and looking. Everything was new and he was soaking it in. He didn't complain about food or water or heat. When the fireworks started at 9:30 though, he was plain uninterested. I put him in my Ergo carrier and he was stuck to me. On the walk back, we put him in the stroller and for the first time in the life of the stroller, Rian fell asleep in the stroller, completely wiped out. We mainly stayed in Tomorrowland area, and covered Fantasyland too.

On Day 2 we started off nice and fresh in ToonTown meeting Mickey and Minnie. The heat started to get to us pretty quickly and we cooled off sitting in a nice theatre watching the Disney Princesses sign autographs. In this trip, we forgot to carry any of Rian's cars - surprising isn't it? We always have 2-4 stuffed away for emergencies. That's how Rian ended up with one more car from the gift store - Raoul, from Cars 2. This made him super happy. We took the opportunity and finished shopping for gifts in the downtime.

At lunch time we decided to let Aaji take care of Rian in the afternoon while we caught a few rides, just Amit n me together. I went back to the hotel room and dropped them off. Plan was for Amit to pick them up in 2 hrs. What ended up happening is after 1 hr 45 mins, Rian fell asleep :-) Mom called us to let us know and we got an extended time to go for rides. We went twice into Splash Mountain, and Amit was completely drenched on the second round as he was the front passenger. We went into the Indiana Jones ride which had some awesome decor. After some silly rail road ride, we ended up at Space Mountain, and that was our super fav ride, all in darkness! FastPass was the way to go, in all these rides. We zipped past lines and lines of people and felt so sad for them :-)

We had dinner in New Orleans part of Disneyland. Without planning, we caught a very nice show called Fantasmic. It is definitely not to be missed. Our dinner was amazing good, and we finally indulged in dessert. The triple layer chocolate cake was every bit as decadent as it looked! We saw the fireworks from here too, the best place to see them from anyways - lakefront. It was gorgeous. Rian bid a happy good bye to the place.

Breakfast was not very great, although good enough for us. I picked up a butter and honey (small 1 Tbsp packet) from one of the restaurants in Disneyland, hoping to make a difference in Rian's day 3 breakfast. Rian started off with: I don't want to eat! But for some reason he loves butter :-) I showed him how I dipped the croissant first in butter and then in honey (which was collected by the bees, buzz buzz) and he was instantly ready to try the first bite. That is the only battle I have to fight. After that the food does it's job. Rian had a full croissant and I was super duper happy!!

We set off to see the Vashas after that. We again had a delicious lunch at their place. We felt a bit bad for imposing on them twice during Paryushan, but the kids had a blast, and we got good time to catch up with them too.

All in all, an amazing trip to the world's happiest place on earth!

Tee Ni Ni

2011-09-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wingo: Hey DJ, we got ourselves a nodder.

DJ: Tee Ni Ni, Ni Ni Ni, Ni Ni Ni (Kenny G's Songbird)

Mack: Ooh, pretty music!

If you identify that, you are totally in Rian's good books! That's a scene from the Disney movie Cars that Rian is a fan of. It's been viewed more than 200 times in our home, and we have copies on all our iPhones, laptops, desktops for that "in case of emergency" situation.

Anyways, back to the point. During Rian's bedtime routine, we would play some soothing music from our vast collection. One day we thought of playing Songbird and Rian became an instant fan. Every night, I see his face light up when Songbird starts streaming on our Airport Express.

Sometimes we forget to put that single song in a loop, and another Kenny G song started after this one. Within 10 seconds of the new song starting, Rian says: Daddy, this is not Tee Ni Ni :-)

Weekend blur

2011-09-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Weekends with Rian go super fast, and life is almost a blur. I do my bit in capturing pictures, and neatly labeling and uploading them. Sometimes though it doesn'tcapture the essence of howmuch Rian's growing up. A few examples from this weekend that I wish to capture.

Saturday morning started as usual with a rush to run to Rian's gym class, and we got out of home at 8:50am. Rian had a majorly cranky morning, and was not very nice to Daddy. On the drive to the gym I tried to "talk" to him. Turns out he was crying because he thought we are going to school. I explained to him that Daddy must have felt really sad because of how Rian behaved, and we decided to tell Daddy two things when we reached home (1) Daddy, I love you (2) Thank you Daddy for the awesome massage you gave me. Gym class finished, we had our twosome cozy breakfast in the Sunnyvale city center (there are a bunch of tables and chairs outside), and on the drive home I wanted to remind him about the two things to say to Daddy. Fellow outright surprised me by remembering both points!

We got home and rushed out again to see the Mountain View Arts & Wine festival. We had a wonderful time strolling through Castro street. Rian walked most of it too. The highlight for him was the visit to the library and we were supposed to pick up the audio CD for Wiggles - Hot poppin' popcorn. He was excited when he saw the CD on hold and we leafed through the booklet of songs together. When we put the CD into the car and it started playing, in less than 30 seconds, Rian says - Mumma, is this hot poppin' popcorn? Turns out, I had another Wiggles CD on hold :-( and the fellow actually recognized it within a minute. Kudos to my little one.

We had a neighbor potluck planned in the evening, the first one in our community. There were 3 other kids of Rian's age. I'm a proud mumma to say Rian sat down and had almost 90% of his meal sitting next to me. I've stopped pushing him for quantity now, but I was just happy that he was sitting down next to me as long as he was eating. He asked for specific things, and tried 3 new things too. Rian was a very well behaved boy. He carried 5 of his toys, and shared with all the others. He didn't complain at all when one of the other Dadas snatched a toy out of his hand. My little boy is growing up. Now we just need to teach him to snatch his own toy back :-)

Rian's crazy about his new bicycle, and his new friend Ansh. Rian bicycled in the morning with Daddy and Mumma - all of us in our PJs :-)In the afternoon, the 3 of us bicycled the Los Gatos Creek Trail. In the evening, Ansh invited Rian for 10 more mins of cycling time. All in all an amazing display of interest by Rian. We bought his bicycle last weekend, and he's been riding it almost every single day. He's gotten very good at it already. After we were done cycling at Los Gatos, he sat down next to my bike and kept moving the pedals, keenly noticing what the pedals do to the chain, and how the gears are put in together. He was muttering to himself about "machine, cycle, goes round and round" and a whole bunch of cute things.

Rian's favorite thing to calm him down is his books (of course Lightning McQueen is the undefeated champion). Last weekend our shopathon, and today after our long bike ride, when Rian was super cranky, just plop open the "step into reading - level 1" books that we have and Rian is lost, turning page by page. I must give credit to his school here, they've nurtured his reading very well. He had moved into the 3 yr reading class while he was still in his 2 yr class. Mumma is super proud of Rian's reading.

A 3 yrs and 2 months, Rian has built 4 small Legos. These are not duplos, they are the Legos for 4+ years. Mumma and Daddy help Rian by reading the instruction booklet and finding the parts for him. But he puts them in himself. When we were making the first Lego more than a month back, we were all skeptical of his finger dexterity and things would slip and fall from his hands (they do occasionally even now), but he's taken such a keen interest to following exact directions - now when I tell him to hold the Lego with both hands and put in a piece, he does exactly that. I think he loves creating his vehicles by himself :-) His Legos are (1) Fire truck with a tow of tools (2) Aeroplane (3) Garbage truck (4) Luggage truck with a tow.

First flower for a girl

2011-09-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've been doing weekly play-dates on Tuesdays for Rian and Shayona. Sometimes we manage to meet only once a month, but we keep rolling. Today, on the way to Shayona's house, Rian stopped and here I was trying to rush him. I said, Rian, what are you doing? Let's go! Rian says, Mumma, I'm going to pick a flower for Shayona.

He looked around and found a good flower to pluck. We reached Shayona's door and Rian gave her the flower. Shayona took the flower and super excited ran to Mommy to show it to her :-)

May you always pick flowers for your best friends :-)

Oh btw this weekend, Rian said to me: Mumma, you are my best girl! Yes, sweetie, I will be, for a long long time, I hope.

First dentist appt

2011-09-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today Rian had his first well-baby dentist appt for teeth cleaning and examination. A friend of mine suggested a good pediatric dental practice. They have TV screens on top, and Rian was super excited when the dentist's assistant said they have Cars. Rian was all set, lying down and enjoying his favorite movie. Did I mention: he is a super huge Lightning McQueen fan!

The dentist's assistant was very good. Every new instrument that she pulled from the panel first had an explanation for Rian, then a touch and feel for Rian's hands, and only after that, it went into Rian's mouth. Rian totally felt involved and loved every bit. Rian loves being explained everything and generally behaves well if you treat him like an adult, a secret mantra that Daddy figured out ages ago. Turns out this pediatric dentistry practice too knows what they're dealing with :-)

They first cleaned Rian's teeth by brushing. Then came some suction, and water. After that, some sharp instruments cleaned out his plaque. It turns out we need more attention to "inside" and "outside" his teeth, especially towards his last tooth. There was some more brushing, and then his first ever floss! Rian behaved particularly well. We rarely complain when Lightning McQueen is in front of us anyways :-)

When the dentist's assistant's hand blocked him a couple of times, she asked him: did I block you? After that our very friendly Mr. Rian kept telling that lovely lady: don't block me, don't block me :-) Ha ha ha ... The dentist then examined his teeth, and his injury. It seems his teeth are growing up really close together. We need to watch out when the permanent teeth come in, they are wider and need more space. Let's see what the next checkup brings up on x-rays.

On January 24, 2010, Rian chipped his front tooth. Mom (me) had a hysterical reaction as I got no time to react when Rian banged his mouth on the outside tiles of our master bath tub. Dad later took him to a pediatric dentist for examination. This was Rian's first dental appt but the experience was ghastly! 18 month old Rian's head was strapped, and some pointy things held it in place :-( His hands and legs were strapped. The poor thing yelled and yelled. My nanny hated the place too. Ever since that experience, we were all scared of dentist visit for Rian and delayed it. Rian is 38 months today, 2 months after his 3rd birthday, and we finally had a good visit, touch wood.

Back to school

2011-08-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

In January this year, Rian started school, I wrote about it here. Rian went from a 1:1 ratio with the nanny to a 1:12 ratio with the teachers at his 2 yr class back then. He goes for 3 hrs, and is back home at lunch time. We had quite a few hiccups initially as Rian "settled in". Top it off with the cold season, and 2 months of continuous cold and runny nose for Rian. To say the least, we were exhausted. Rian was constantly cranky and refused food most days. It was no surprise that his weight remained the same over a period of 9 months.

Then came summer, and my mom came to visit us. She started making good yummy food for Rian, and Rian's interest in food sparked again. Summer school was in session, with fewer kids. Ratio of student to teacher was much better, although we don't know the exact ratio. We went really "easy" on Rian's schedule, and on most days Rian would reach school by 9:15-9:30. Regular drop off was 8:30 to 8:45. Rian used to miss his morning sheet work, and we were all okay with it. He was happier, and having loads of fun at school.

Fall 2011 session of school started on 22 August, and it feels like January all over again, to me. There are many more kids in school now, so the student teacher ratio is not as good as summer school. Rian complains about a Prahlad in his class who troubles him. He misses his room number 14 and his teachers Miss Angela and Miss Mandy. Now he's in room number 15 and he has new teachers. Rian cries for everything at home. His whining is a stall tactic to delay everything, and get more attention from us. A happy baby who used to finish his milk in 5 mins now takes 25 mins. He vehemently resists his night sleep routine, and blows off all his sleep. It takes him longer to fall asleep now, and he's so unhappy when he wakes up - starts with "I don't want to go to school". He takes all excuses to break into a wail. For the past 2 days he insists on Daddy giving him an oil massage when I take him for his bath. We usually give him an oil massage on the weekends, and he enjoys the happy relaxed time.

First activity in school is sheet work - every day. When students are late, they miss sheet work. Earlier in his 2 yr class, and his summer school, teachers would take Rian on the side and make up for missed sheet work during play hours. This was the 1-on-1 help that the school specializes in. But now the Principal Miss Manet told me - if Rian is consistently late, we will not give him 1-on-1 to make up for missed work. I think that is totally fair. This week though, Rian started getting empty sheets home with remarks on them: absent, came in late - please complete at home. Somehow I find this very unsettling. A 3 yr old is expected to finish his missed classwork at home? Really? I always used to think homework and all those boring things start from Kindergarten. Rian has 2 more years to get there!! I was just not mentally prepared to handle homework for my 3 yr old.

I guess the school is trying to send a message - don't make a habit of sending your child late to class every day. Sigh, I guess they are right. This is not day care. This is school - way more serious, and academically geared. This was our choice for little Rian since letters and numbers fascinated him. But the student teacher ratio was not our choice :-( I wish I can find an academically geared school for Rian with a 1:6 ratio - that would be my dream come true. For now, I have to settle with our current school and make peace with myself about our schedule. We are back to early mornings with a manic schedule. Saving grace is my mom is still here and takes care of Rian's breakfast in the mornings, and our lunch/dinners too.

6:30am - wake up, potty, brush, make coffee and milk
7am - wake Rian up, give him his 10 mins to laze, give him milk
7:20am - take Rian for potty, bath, brush
7:35am - Rian wears his clothes with Daddy
7:45am - Rian takes his breakfast with Aaji
8am - lock and load
8:25am - reach school, drop Rian off

After that, I battle a super jam packed I-280 since its pre-9am, carpool hours. A journey of 15 miles that takes me 20 mins post 9:15am takes me 35 mins in crazy traffic now. I guess the silver lining is I'm in my office at 9am.

Now that I got that out of my system, let me get to some "real work".

Rian drinking dudu, Mumma drinking dudu

2011-08-24T22:27:00.001-07:00

Lookie look, Rian drinking dudu, Mumma drinking dudu, together together.

Sob sob, my baby is growing up into a really big boy now.

Pic courtesy Aaji last weekend.

First ever big boy haircut

2011-08-24T12:15:00.001-07:00

It's a time of firsts again for Rian. Last night Rian had his first ever big boy haircut in Supercuts. Mumma was super proud as Rian did not cry at all. He sat through his entire haircut, all alone on the chair, without holding my finger. Rian listened to the hair dresser uncle and did not even flinch at the machines. In fact he smiled when the trimmer started and said Mumma, it's like a bee, buzz buzz :-) Rian loved the animal print cover around him, and commented on how the hair is falling down. Mumma of course reminded him about all things falling down due to gavity ;-) Mumma and Rian got their haircut in the same salon at the same time. Super efficient, we were out of the home and back in within 55 minutes!

Rian had his first hair cut in Little Scissors in Fremont when he was 14.5 months old. We've always gone back to Little Scissors as Rian developed a fancy to the little "cars" he got to sit in. This place was more than a 40 mile roundtrip for me, and always had to be scheduled on Saturday mornings, since week day evening travel to Fremont is beyond me, thanks to the traffic. I also tried Snip-It's in Palo Alto once, but as a parent had a horrible experience: more than an hr of wait, bad station for Rian with no TV, and let's not forget: a huge price tag.

We're so happy now, the whole family can go have haircuts at Supercuts any time!

First ever big boy hike

2011-08-22T15:12:00.001-07:00

On Sunday Rian walked his first ever big boy hike. Mommy and Daddy are super proud of him. Last year Mommy and Daddy did 5-6 hikes ranging from 3 to 6 miles, with Rian on our back in the Deuter II carrier, and one with the Ergo too. Rian loved almost all of them, and the "mountain" had become a positive memory for him. He loved drinking from our hydration packs. As he's growing up, he had already started insisting on walking. So we asked him if he will walk on the mountain and he agreed!

We started our hike post lunch, and Rian was a happy camper for a while. I think his lunch was not "enough" and he was hungry in a bit. A "stick" kept him happy all along, and all those spiderwebs. We walked very slowly, and let him be "number one" all the time. He was happy being Daddy's model. We walked for almost 2 hrs, with one big 10 min break, and a few small breaks. At one point, Rian said: I'm so tired, I need to stop now for a little bit. Mommy and Daddy were staring at each other, dumbfounded by the words we heard :-)

Aaji found some "phoo flowers" and Rian had a blast with them. Daddy had fun capturing the perfect moments with his shiny new 70-200 IS lens, his first L glass. You go Daddy!

Rian is a fan of Larabar (cashew cookie), and Mumma thinks they are the best because they only have natural ingredients. Larabar gave Rian the energy for the last 20 mins!

Camping fun

2011-08-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

Since 2004, we've gone "car camping" every year. Rian was a July 2008 baby, so when he was 9 months old, we went camping for the first time. He loved being out in the open, under the trees. When Rian was ~2 years old, he loved running around, no boundaries of the house for his play. We had a large group of friends and kids last year, and Rian enjoyed getting dirty and wading in the water the next day.

3.5 weeks back we went "car camping", like we do every year. We had a cancellation of plans this year, and this was the second camping attempt in our group. As the number of kids in our group increases, the likelihood of one of them being sick increases too :-) and that was the reason for first cancellation. On the week of camping, Rian caught a cold, and we really had him excited about camping. Plus since he's 3 already, we're a bit more easy going with him now, even when he's sick. So we decided to go camping.

We had a relaxed morning at home, went for Rian's gym class and Rian played at home after that while I packed. Amit worked for a few hours as usual since it was Saturday. Amit was very concerned how I was doing with the packing, and he came home a bit earlier than expected - thanks sweetie for that gesture. We were right on time, had lunch at home and left at 2:05pm. Our ETD was 2pm. It helped that mom was around to play with Rian while Amit and me just did the packing and loaded the car.

Rian was very excited about camping, but was also very sleepy. We explained to him that if he takes a nap in the car, by the time we reach the campground, he will be fresh and energetic to play with his friends. Surprisingly he took the advice well, and was asleep in 20 mins! The rest of the drive went by smoothly. Amit and I got a rare chance to catch up on so many things we needed to discuss, and of course our top discussion was "our kiddo is so swweeeeet" :-) We are crazy parents!

By 3:30 we both needed our java break, and luckily found a Starbucks around. Amit parked the car but kept the engine running, it was 100+F. I quietly stepped out and kept the door a bit ajar. In and out in 5 mins, Rian was still asleep :-) We had a "woohoo" moment as we realized it was a 10 min stop, with Rian remaining asleep, and we getting our Starbucks fix!! Three cheers to that.

Two out of three couples had showed up, and 2 tents were already up when we went there. We started with milk for the kids, beer for the adults, Swati made chai, and then Meher started with grilling. Amit meanwhile setup our tent. Rian was being a darling, very curious about everything and what everyone was doing. He was very safe, and loved observing. I was worried he would overheat - he was red in the face. Daddy came to rescue and made sure Rian downed a cold juice. We found Rian peeking into the tents, asking to "help" all the uncles and aunties. Amit has taught me one thing - keeping Rian busy is easy, give him a "task". I think I work that way too :-)

BBQ'ed veggies tasted awesome, I was craving them for a while. Amit was mediator between the "elder" kids: Parv, Achal, and Rian. Kids took turns in riding 2 scooters and one cycle. Meanwhile I became food mom and fed these 3 kids bbq veggies. Corn was next on the menu, followed by some kaju katri and Oreo cookies. Kids were so dirty after that, cleanup session ensued, and milk after that.

Rian was very tired after that, given his cough/cold and in his "overexcited" state. Amit wanted to take him back to the campfire for chit chat session. It was 10pm. I was very concerned that Rian had already yawned many times, scratched his ears and squinted his eyes. I didn't want him to go into the "super cranky" zone, so I decided to get into the tent and sleep with him. Rian and I missed out on smores and some chit chat with friends.

In hindsight it was good that we went to bed at 10pm. We actually slept only ~10:30-11 as Rian kept moving around. The air bed was not very stable. Our neighbors came in at 1:30 to found their air bed out of air, and then ensued some loud noises of the air pump. At 5:15am, Rian's eyes opened and he saw daylight! That was the end of his sleep. Amit gave him the iPhone in the hopes of catching a little more shut eye. By 5:45 I could no longer sleep with Rian fidgeting with the iPhone, so Rian and I decided to step out.

We took a long walk with his favorite Razor scooter of Achal dada. Since we could not locate the milk vessel, Rian and I remained super hungry. Both of us are used to our milk/coffee first thing in the morning, within 15 mins of waking up. I was surprised to see Rian engaged in the surroundings, and not one crib about milk. He even went with me and we brushed together! He was curious about everything and everyone, and kept asking all the strangers around us many many questions :-) Finally people started waking up, and we got into milk, tea, breakfast mode.

The other 3 families were heading out to water. Since Rian already had a cough/cold, we decided to skip, and drove to Sacramento to visit the train museum. Amit and me were hoping Rian will catch an early nap, but no luck. He was super excited about the museum, and did not sleep a wink in the car. Our timing was good, and we landed in Sacramento right at Rian's lunch time. We spent ~2 hrs in the museum, and Rian was going crazy at every display. Loved watching him and the experience was blissful.

Being up since 5am, Rian got very wound up and cranky. Thankfully we finished his milk on time, and as soon as we drove off, he was asleep in 5 mins. The return again was a peaceful drive, well timed. We reached home just in time for dinner.

Ready for a second one?

2011-08-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

Taking a cue from a friend's blog post, and exploring a "keeda" in my brain, I decided to see Rian's readiness for a sibling. Don't ask me why, just listen to this story as it happened 2 nights back. As I thought about it today, little tears swelled up just thinking about the emotional maturity that a 3 year old boy can have. Love you sweetheart, may you always be so welcoming of change, and family.

Me: Rian, do you remember how Parv dada has a little sister, Kriti baby?
Rian: Hmm
Me: Would you like to have a baby sister? We can go to a store where they give out little babies, and we can pick a baby boy or a baby girl for you to play with.
Rian: Mumma I want a little sister.
Me: Rian, are you sure you want a little sister? Or would you prefer a baby boy brother?
Rian: A little sister.
Me: You'll have to take care of your little sister, and you'll also have to change her diaper. Will you help Mumma with all this?
Rian: Mumma, I will change the diaper. Mumma, I will share all my toys with her.
Me: That is so nice Rian, I'm proud of you!
Rian: Mumma, I want to go to Kayaan baby's house. I want to play with him, and I want to change his diaper.
Me: (melted in a pool of love right there!)

Doctor I am three years old

2011-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had Rian's three year old check yesterday. Thanks to a very special friend of mine, we had introduced Rian to a doctor playset before he was two. He plays very often with it, and now he's a pro. He talked to the nurse like a grown up. The nurse asked him to take off his shoes, his pants, and he did all that (with some help from me). He stood on the weighing scale, and let his height be measured. He asked the nurse a LOT of questions - can I have the ruler? can I see my temperature? can I touch the red light? can I read the numbers? What does this do? The nurse was very patient, and answered each question very politely, and gave him reasons too. Amit and me were sitting in the two chairs in the room, watching this drama unfold, with a proud smile on our face. When the nurse was done with Rian, he asked him - do you want to read some books? Rian says - umm, yes, I'll read this one.

Rian picked out the Goodnight Moon book, and started flipping through it. He told us - I have the same book at home, but the one at home is a little bit dirty. I need a new one. Can I take this one Mumma? My my, we were floored :-) He kept reading the book till the doctor came in, and was chatting with her about the book. He totally engaged with the doctor, and we got full marks for communication. Doctor is very proud of Rian's speech, and lots of other things... Another proud parent moment for us. This was by far the best well baby visit we've had so far. Doctor also said - I just love this age!

He asked the doctor - where's the chalk? I want to draw. Where is the eraser? Finally doctor gave him a chalk. Rian surprised all three of us by drawing an A. Rian said - Mumma look, I made an A. Amit and me were on top of the world! Three year Rian finally got his fine motor skills tuned to draw an A. (today he made an H).

We had an eye exam for Rian. It was a bit tough to get him to sit still. He recognized all the shapes. When it came to covering one eye with the black spoon, Daddy improvised by covering with his hand. Rian just wanted to turn back and look at the original shape, instead of the mirror one after that point :-) Daddy improvised with his hanky, and told Rian - look, we are going to cry with one eye now, into this hanky :-) Rian obliged and our test flew by with flying colors ;-)

Such a cutie pie

2011-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

I really hope Rian stays the cute thing that he's turned into. My cute pumpkin is coochie poochie super cutie lovable, huggable, kissable, and kisses back!

Last week the neighbor's son dropped in for an impromptu playdate. We've always told Rian that he's Aaron "dada" and in Rian's untainted mind, "Dadas" cannot do any wrong. Well, Aaron wanted to open the patio door and step out to do some "fishing". Here are the conversations:

Aaron: Does this patio door open?
Rian: Umm, it is a little bit open.
(Both pull the door)
Rian: It is opening! It is open now.
Aaron: (tugging at the screen door) Does this open too?
Rian: Umm, it is opening.

Both pull the screen door completely open, while we watch totally astonished. Then Rian says:
Daddy, can I go out please?

Aww... how cute is that? He's asking for permission :-) People tell me this cute, compliant stage last till they turn around 5. Their personality takes over after that....

My three year old

2011-07-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's true... time flies when you're having fun. This year has been fun fun and more fun with Rian. With trips to San Diego, India, and Mexico, Rian's second year was totally "happening" travel-wise. Rian also had many Saturday classes, me being the soccer mom and driving him mostly. Two seasons of soccer, three seasons of dance lessons, and two seasons of gymnastics have Rian all pepped up and ready to mingle. Swimming is next on the agenda, with Rian making the ground-breaking declaration "Look Mumma I'm swimming like a fishie" while floating in Mexico. Rian also has a trailer bike now, and is towed by Daddy.

The biggest change in our lives has been school at 2.5 yrs. School started in winter, and Rian had his fair share of illnesses, with no weight gain for 9 straight months, but growing tall all the same. Warmer months have brought Chitra-Aaji and her yummy cooking here to make Rian appear all gol-matol again, fingers crossed. Sticking to a schedule is still something we are working on, and I'm sure we'll get it down pat to a routine by the time we get into Kindergarten ;-)

Rian's vocabulary has exploded, with 3-4 words, now going on to a non-stop all day long talkathon that makes us often think "Where is your off switch??" After the introduction of school, Rian has started speaking much faster. In the last 2 weeks, Rian has picked up the American accent, rolling his Rs :-( He knows a lot of the rhymes, at least 6-7 songs in Marathi, numbers from 1 to 100, numbers from ek to panchvis in Marathi, 12 marathi vowels, many Marathi consonants, and is a constant sponge. We are amazed at the speed with which the kiddo's picking up.

Rian has specific demands on his music. He now asks for certain CDs, and songs. His favorites are "Yo Gabba Gabba: Music is Awesome" and "Pop Go the Wiggles". My old faithful 60GB second gen iPod is totally helping me, carry all my kiddos music everywhere. The moment we sit in the car, Rian says - Mumma I want Life is a highway. Yesssir, coming right up!

This year Rian's car obsession has taken on new rails :-) and graduated to trains. Thomas is our favorite character and the Mtn View light rail station our dream destination to see Caltrains passing by.

Rian has many friends now. We've mostly had playdates with best friend Shayona, and a few more with Riddu, Moksh, Arth, Veer, Parv, Achal... We have our favorite Dadas and play mates. We are starting to strike friendships in our community, and Aaron Dada and Ansh Dada are our new playmates.

This year Rian has graduated from his toddler bed to a twin Lightning McQueen bed. He enjoys having his own space to sleep, and is very proud of his "big bed which is up".

Thanks to Cely, Mumma and Daddy had two quarters of desi dancing with the Mona Sampath Khan dance company, one with a performance too. We are hoping the memories of it make Rian get into dancing too. No such luck so far :-)

Rian had a rocking third bday party in Braly Park in Sunnyvale. Highlights of the party were a circus girl Miss Ember from Happily Ever Laughter Parties. We had Maharashtrian food catered from India Chaat Cuisine in Sunnyvale. Appetizers were sabudana wada with peanut chutney, yogurt, and kanda pohe. Main dishes were puris, batata bhaji, cauliflower bhaji, pulav with raita, papad, and gajar halwa. I also made a moong strawberry salad to go with it.

As I write this, the past three years seems like a blur. Each and every day is more amazing, with Rian learning new things. From Daddy and Mummy, many many happy returns of the day to Rian. May you have a rock star year #4!!

Marathi immersion

2011-06-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

My mom's been here for a month and a half now. Slowly and steadily, she started "immersing" Rian in Marathi. Rian was curious at first, then asked questions. Then he went silent, like a sponge. 3 days later, he says a Marathi poem. A day later, another Marathi poem. He learnt a long Marathi poem which included days of the week in Marathi. His latest is counting numbers upto 20 in Marathi :-) and Grandma is already leading him on from 21 to 30. This is fun stuff!

We've never forced Rian to learn or stay away from any language. This kid just shows his interest, and we are happy that he's eager to learn.

Here are the Marathi poems he says now:
(1) Yere yere pavsa
(2) Yega yega sari
(3) Shankarachya devlat Somwari (days of the week)

(4) Chandoba chandoba bhaglas ka
... few more I do not recollect.

Happy Birthday Aaba

2011-06-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday June 22 was Aaba's 63rd bday. Rian was very excited in the morning, and helped Daddy to fill up Aaba's bday greeting card. Daddy and Rian drew a picture of Rian and Aaba holding hands, and Rian holding a flower. Rian wrote some sweet nothings on it too.

Right after this, Rian took the card from Daddy and went into his bedroom. He was looking at the drawing for some time. Daddy spotted him and he says to Daddy: I miss Aaba. My sweet poodla had little tears in his eyes. My sweet senti baby!

Last night we called Aaba to wish him on phone. Rian sang the whole Happy Birthday song to Aaba. This is the first time Rian actually sang this song so well, and on the phone, with full attention. He now gets the concept of talking on the phone, and doesn't just want to press buttons. Thanks to Chitra Aaji for helping here, as she has been practicing Rian talking on the phone with me almost every day.

Summer and socks

2011-06-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Rian has always been a neatness freak :-) He hated the first time he was in sand, and the first time he landed in grass. Over time, and with Daddy's nudging, he gets better about it, and even enjoys it. But his first reaction is: eww. This is why I think it was easy to potty train him at 21 months!

He's crazy about wearing socks, and Mommy also nourishes his fetish for different colored socks. Our 9 month long winter is finally over, and summer is here with a freaking 95F yesterday. Last night we forced Rian to give up his socks. Through his crying he says: Mumma I could not walk on the kitchen floor because it's sticky! Ah, so now I know why you love your socks, little one :-) We'll clean out the floor tonight.

The funny gene

2011-06-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

On our way back from our recent trip to Yosemite, Rian cracked his first joke. My less-than-three-year old seems to have inherited the funny gene from Daddy. He totally "knows" he cracked a joke, he was so sure of it, and he had this patented knowing smile of his which says "I know I did it right". So here goes:

Rian: Mumma is this a pepperoni pizza?

Me: No Rian, this is a plain pizza.

Rian: (after 15 second pause) Mumma, in the plane, we eat plain pizza :-)

In our very set night routine, we introduced a play on the hugging routine. First, we used to squeeze Rian between us, and give him a "tight". Now we ask Rian if he wants to be the cheese between two breads, me and Amit. After a few nights:

Rian: Mumma, I want to be the bread

Me: And Mumma?

Rian: Mumma also be the bread. Daddy is the cheese.

(After hugging)

Rian: Now, the two breads go to the bedroom (of Rian)

... and he was all giggles for having marao'ed that dialog!!

Now this repeats every night, Daddy gets squeezed every night, and Rian wants to say his joke every night :-)

Senti baby

2011-06-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Rian is growing into a super senti baby. He can sense from us if we are angry with him, or disappointed with his behavior. He sends in immediate corrective action: comes running by, hugs us and looks into our eyes to say Mumma, I love you Mumma! Either he's a good manipulator, which kids this age are, or he's genuinely cute and caring. When either of us has a raised voice towards each other, Rian starts making loud noises to get us to lower our voices...

Yesterday Rian said to my nanny: Yeyih, I'm sad Yeyih. Why? Because I miss Mumma and Daddy when they go to office. Since Rian's school is off for two weeks, Rian is at home and the nanny has been able to come from 9 to 6. Since he had fever last weekend, and congestion/weakness after that, he has been waking up after 9am for 3 days now, so he wakes up to see us pack our bags and leave. I think he's missing us more because we spent a major part of last weekend with him, taking care of him.

Rian dictionary

2011-06-15T11:28:00.001-07:00

Ever since Rian started speaking, we've made a conscious effort to not talk in "baby talk", so Rian picked up language without any errors in speech or "bobda bolna". At almost three, he can have a conversation with the doctor and the nurse on his own. He does have trouble pronouncing R and L still, but he works on it constantly.

Here and there though, Rian has added his own words to our dictionary. Some have come and gone already, just wanted to pen down some memories and current favorites:

Nunoon: this was Rian's word for "red"

Mack: this is Rian's word for "truck", from the character Mack from the movie Cars. "Nunoon Mack" is his childhood obsession.

Kachi Pachi: This is his latest addition, he says this means "head". If we ask him "what grows on top of kachi pachi, he says: hair". Pretty consistent, this one.

Breems: This is from our trip to Yosemite NP. Breems was Rian's word for waterfalls. He knows they are waterfalls, but makes up a word, tells Daddy about it, and then continues to call them Breems throughout the two days, how cute :-)

School Meena: This has been Rian's word for "food" at school since day 1. Even though he can identify and tell us what he ate now, his first response to the question "what did you eat in school today?" is "school meena".

Entire songs: Rian knew many nursery rhymes before going to school, but now he has learnt to sign them in tune from school. He has two songs that he has made complete versions of his own. For the "ants go marching one by one", he says:

Aiku gaiki kangal gang kuga kuga
He aiku gaiki kangal gang kuga kuga
He aiku gaiki aiku gaiki...

He says it exactly like this every single time :-) It's amazing! Of course he knows the original song too in its entirety. When I went to Rian's school ending party a week back, I found out Rian sings songs loudly along with the rest of the children in his class, nice!

First late night

2011-06-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last night, Rachana had invited us over for some yummy Rajasthani dinner. Today is her birthday. We met up after ages, and had loads of gap-shap and awesome food. Kids were busy playing. Rian didn't have much food when he was offered, with Parv and Shayona, but seemed interested later on. At 9pm bang, my schedule baby says: Mumma I am sleepy! Somehow or the other he got distracted with TV, sweet malpua, and then cake. We came home after 11:30pm, and by the time we were done with Rian's milk, brushing, sleep routine, it was past midnight. IIRC this is the first time Rian has stayed up past midnight!

Today Rian woke up ~9:30am and we were pretty sure he will not sleep in the afternoon. Wonder of wonders (or thanks to Cely), Rian took his afternoon nap at 2:30pm. Back on schedule today, I hope.

Road trips

2011-06-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

We took a road trip to Yosemite NP last weekend with 35 month old Rian. The last one was to San Diego in Nov '10. I was really missing and craving road trips. Since the beginning of school this year, our life is topsy turvy and super-schedule-driven. Add to that the little daily things like groceries and menu planning, I just didn't have any energy for planning road trips. Also, the winter was rough on Rian, with the combination of starting school. He was constantly sick. The winter lasted very long too, summer just about starting to rear it's head up.

Memories from our San Diego trip were all very pleasant. Rian had enjoyed the time there, and the 8hr drive was also managed well by Amit and me. We had left early, at 5am, and Rian slept through most of the drive. We were super surprised when we reached SD before 2pm.

Yose trip topped that road trip. We were traveling with extended family: My mom was here from India and Swati (Amit's sister) also was here from NY. We decided to rent a minivan since Rian is crazy about "the car whose doors open automatically". BTW kid's a pro at identifying models of minivans and goes crazy when he spots Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. For a little extra $$ love, we got a Toyota Sienna for 3 days. On Saturday morning when Rian saw it, he was elated :-) Wish I had captured the smile on his face when he was sitting in the van. The road trip had an awesome start!

Usually Rian naps in the car, but he was so excited with the car, and Aatya, and mom and dad being with him, he blew straight through it. We didn't even attempt to put him to sleep. He was soaking in every new thing. We also missed Rian's gym and dance classes on Saturday morning. Little sacrifices I guess.

Daddy made sure Rian was "walking" in most places. Rian is very talented at melting Mumma's heart with "Mumma pick me up" and I go swoop and a hug and a kiss and kiddo's riding on me. Sigh. I just don't get enough of him, so I *need* to pick him up. But I guess at some point I need to let go so he can be a bit more independent. Parenting is so tough on you!

Road trip = junk food. We carried Veggie Straws, Chakalis from India, Masala peanuts. This time around I also carried a bunch of Cuties oranges and fresh yummy cherries from Costco. We had our fair share of junk food at the Curry Village Pizza Deck gorging on pizza for dinner, and sweet savory nothings for breakfast the next day.

Usually we manage to get a tent cabin inside curry village. This time around we were fortunate to get a dry wall cabin. This was way better than tent cabins, and we could actually sleep well. Since I was bed-sharing with Rian, my sleep was disturbed, but Rian was asleep by 9:30pm and awake at 6:40am!! On the way back though, all were very tired, and Rian managed to nap for a couple of hours. Pictures tell the rest of the story. We did a couple of under-one-mile walks, and generally had a good time. Looking fwd to the next road trip :-)

Schedule baby

2011-06-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Rian has always been a schedule baby. During the first two weeks of Rian's life, we had a 2 hr alarm clock to feed him, since he had some jaundice. After that, Rian fell into a very predictable feeding/sleeping pattern right away. I could tell within a 5 min period when his next feed would be. Planning our chores/visits outdoors was easy since I just had to stick to his schedule.

Ever since Rian started school, Amit and me had to get into a schedule too. It was a much bigger commitment required from us, to keep to a specific wake up time. Only then can we get Rian into school by 8:45am. To meet this time, everything else has to fall into place, starting with his sleep the night before. Slowly, we moved Rian's bedtime from before-school days 10pm to the current 8:45pm. He falls asleep by 9 on most days.

To do this, we need to start his night milk at 8:15pm on week nights, and follow it with a rigid sleep routine. Even a single day slip in skipping his brushing results in major battles the next day. If there's even a single battle in the morning, Rian remains cranky throughout and it carries over into his lunch, where he simply refuses to eat.

As long as we were feeding Rian ourselves, Rian was a healthy 65-75 percentile weight and height baby. In the last 9 months long winter, Rian has not gained even a single pound. He remains 32.2 pounds :-( He has grown 2 inches taller. With his school and pediatrician insisting that we let him feed himself, the quantity of food that goes into his tummy is decreasing daily. We've been trying this for 2 weeks now, and we're starting to feel Rian's bones now. We are still hoping he will come back to his regular meals, which weren't much in quantity to begin with, but double of what he's eating now. For now, the resolve is to stick to his schedule/routine and offer him regular good choices.

what mommyhood taught me

2011-05-26T17:29:00.001-07:00

Tagged by Little Finger, here are some of my rough thoughts.

Patience, strength, persistence. As a 30-smthg mom, I have way more patience than a 20-smthg DINK that I was. I used to think we were "busy" when we had no kids. Now I have a new definition of the word "busy". I can handle way more than I usually do.
Love. Some would think this is obvious. Memories of new moms holding their kids and immediately going goo-goo-gaa-gaa over the kids come to mind. Don't misunderstand me, I had my fair share of those. Rian had a rough first year though, with his acid reflux, and I switched more into "schedule manager" than "loving mom" mode. As Rian grew into a sweet little toddler though, more of that love keeps growing, coming back to me, reminding me what a special bond I share with this little human being who loves me unconditionally.
Live for someone else. Before I became a mom, 90% of the things I did were for myself. Now, 90% of the things I do are for Rian. We are literally living our life from his eyes right now, and enjoying his fresh perspectives on everything! We love having him a part of every activity and adventure.
I am important. In Rian's world, I am invincible. Mommy can do anything, Mommy can get me anything. If I'm in trouble, I can go to Mommy. I am important, and I am loved by Rian. Love that feeling of being the world to him. This feeling makes me do unbelievable things, and fight for my little one.
Be a better person. As some of you know, I lost 35 pounds in 2010 going from a forever chubby person to a normal looking BMI person. Rian has inspired this change in me, to be a better person, to be a healthier mom, so I can show him how to do it right, and be there to play hide and seek with him. I can be there do hold him on the potty, bend down and make Mumma bridge whenever he wants, and play with him till he's exhausted :-)

Conversations

2011-05-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

Conversations with Rian are super fun nowadays. There are just too many to recall. Two brilliant ones in the last 2 days:

VTA white train bus

Rian is a big fan of the VTA light rail, and from early on he'd started saying "VTA white train.. tang tang". At some point after he learnt the alphabet, he read the letters VTA written on the buses. He started calling them VTA white train bus. Recently we've started a fun fight with Rian: whenever he says VTA white train bus, we say VTA white bus, there is no train in a bus. He repeats, and we go on 5-6 times, laughing and giggling.

Yesterday Rian was particularly cranky. While putting him into the car seat, Amit tried to distract him: Look Rian, there's a VTA white train bus! Rian was totally silent for a complete 5 seconds, in the middle of his meltdown. I was impressed as usual, with Daddy's talents. Then Rian said: Mumma, Daddy said VTA white train bus :-)

Pick me up

Rian: I saw a photo, Daddy was picking up Mumma

Me: Oh really, where did you see that

Rian: On Mumma's computer

Rian: Why was Daddy picking up Mumma

Me: (Thinking)... umm, because Daddy loves Mumma

Rian: Mumma Mumma, I love you Mumma

(lots of laughter and giggles from Mumma, I love you too mera baccha!)

Sleep routine

2011-05-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

We had an elaborate sleep routine when Rian was younger. Now it's down to a few basics: finish milk, brush teeth, put on some bedtime lotion, change into nighttime pajamas, hugs to mom and dad. After this, Rian used to "switch off" Mumma and walk into his room with Daddy. Lately that has reversed, so he prefers "switching off" Daddy since Daddy does really funny antics when he's turning off :-)

After entering his room, Rian likes to see his "plastic moon" turned on, and he "blows it off" (I hide the remote). Then comes good night to his planets - he touches each one and says the name. We switch on his lullabies and I kiss him good night.

Every night Rian tries this stunt of "I want to sleep in Mumma bed". Every night Daddy tells him "it doesn't happen". Sometimes he himself will repeat this part back to us :-) Rian, like any other toddler, likes choice. To motivate him to move past the "I want to sleep in Mumma bed", Rian gets a choice every night "Do you want to switch off Mumma or switch off Daddy"? At this point he gets excited and looks forward to Daddy's antics, and chooses Daddy. Today, Rian went a step further. He says "I don't want to switch off anybody" :-) Wah beta wah, who is teaching you all these words and expressions? He got loads and loads of hugs from us today...

A sleep story

2011-04-30T10:53:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was an unusual day for us. The nanny was sick, and Amit too had signs of cold, in addition to his irritated eyes. Amit decided to WFH/take leave half day and picked up Rian as usual from school at 11:45am. Rian was so excited to know Daddy will take care of him, he refused to sleep in the afternoon. Daddy got quite a few errands done, including a trip to the doctor for his sore eyes. By evening, everyone was tired.

We discovered there was no daal at home. Eating the new cook's chapatis without daal is not possible, so I ventured into territory I've been unaccustomed to for almost 3 years: the kitchen, to make daal. Rian had "Shayona sandwich" with Daddy while mom cooked daal. I think Rian was rather full after that, and also very tired.

We had a surprise when Rian decided to play all by himself in his room while Daddy had dinner quietly, and mom talked to him. We could hear Rian for a long time, and he was playing with his cars. We were kind of thinking: wow Rian has grown up so much!! Daddy was almost done with dinner, and it was time for Rian's milk too. We could no longer hear Rian though.

We went upstairs to see Rian fast asleep, in his bed, on his pillow, with all his cars in the bed :-) It was such a cute sight!!!

We managed to give Rian half his milk, just under 4oz, in sleep. It was a miracle I could get him to pee in his half asleep state. A quick change of clothes and he was nestled in his bed again.

I've only heard stories from Amit's mom: Amit often fell asleep, without dinner, and Amit's mom had to give him milk in his sleep :-)

Nails

2011-04-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Rian is usually okay with me cutting his finger nails, once I explain and show him that they are long and sharp, and can potentially hurt him. I usually take one of his tiny fingers and run it over his long nail, and that drives the point home. Getting him to cut his toe nails is a bit harder. Especially in winter, he has socks on all the time. For some reason Rian loves his socks, and will scream bloody murder if I remove them without reason. I have to convince him to remove his beloved socks, then show him that his toe nail (specially his big toe nail) is indeed long. 10 mins and the job is usually done, and we are happy and back to play.

Last night after his milk, Rian says to me:

Mumma it's sharp, your nail is sharp. Oh look, your nails are big. You need to cut. Cut your nails mumma.
(Pulls my feet out of the comforter)
Now look, your toe nails, they are big. Cut Mumma, cut your toe nails too. We need to do it now, Mumma

We were rolling on the bed, laughing :-) Yes dear, sometimes Mumma doesn't get time to cut her nails...

Car fanatic

2011-04-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's unbelievable that I haven't written more about cars and Rian. More than 90% of Rian's wakeful hours are spent with his toy cars. The boy is obsessed, just like his Dad was as a kid. Rian's car obsession started small, and his first few cars were fairly big. My memory of his first set of hot wheels is in Austin, TX from Aanya. After that, there was no stopping. Rian's nanny Cely fueled his passion, and used cars as a way to teach Rian many things. She alone must have bought more than 60 toy cars for Rian, sometimes one every single day of the week. It's no surprise by the time Rian was 2.5 yrs old, he had more than a 100 cars. Disney Pixar's Cars became Rian's all-time favorite movie, and we owe many a lunches and dinners to this movie.

Early on when Rian started speaking, he started identifying car models. This was ~a year back in March '10. Walking through parking lots quickly became a hobby and a wonderful experience. Driving was also fun, as we started pointing to various cars: which car is the grey one, and pat would come the response. Rian loves playing this car game even today. At 25 months, Rian was a pro at identifying 90% of the car makes!

As his reading improved, he started reading car makes and models. It with the make VOLVO as this car does not have a clear symbol on the back. So Rian used to identify this as "V O L V O that's a Volvo car!". Since two weeks we were reading models like Acura MDX, Toyota RAV4, BMW M3. The other day he asked me: "Mumma, V O L V O is Volvo. What is Costco?" I explained to him "C O S T C O is Costco".

The reason for today's post: Today morning I saw a big Toyota Tacoma SUV and it did not have the Toyota symbol on the back. I generally quizzed Rian asking him "What car is that Rian?". He said "Toyota". I was surprised. I asked him "how do you know, Rian?" He said: "the letters Mumma. See T O Y O T A" :-) Amazing, simply amazing. A great start to a Monday morning...

Morning wisdom pearls

2011-04-03T08:57:00.001-07:00

Mornings have always been bright and shiny with Rian. When I used to co-sleep with him from 6am, I used to wake up to some amazing talk :-) Last night Rian woke up 5 times, coughing. Finally at 6am, he came to my bed (we blew off Tahoe plans :-( -- more later about that). When he woke up, this was our conversation.

Me: Rian, Mumma is not feeling well today. Mumma's tummy is hurting.
Rian: what's that hanging next to the calendar?
Me: That's Rian's photoframe.
Rian: Mumma got hurt by Rian's photoframe.
Me: no beta, photoframe did not hurt me.
Rian: then what hurt your tummy?
Me: beta, Mumma ate some bad food last night, some mushrooms Mumma did not cook properly.
Rian: Mumma, eat good food Mumma. Eat egg.
Me: yes beta, I'll eat good food, I'll eat egg today.

Even though my tummy hurt like hell, I had a huge smile on my face :-)

We usually kiss Rian if he falls or hurts himself. Rian is picking up on that now. He said next:

Rian: Mumma Rian wants to kiss you
Me: Oh how sweet, kiss me (and I came forward)
Rian: No mumma No. Rian wants to kiss Mumma's tummy. Then it will be alright.
Me: (melted in a pool of love by the bedside).

Shh... be careful

2011-03-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

Rian is picking up what we say, too quickly. All good and bad. Two stunning examples from today.

Rian is humming a song. I realize what he's humming, and so I ask him to say the song with words. Out come the words, promptly: My name is Sheila, Sheila ki jawani. I am totally stunned, jaw dropped wide open. Thankfully he stopped right there. He has heard this song in my car like once, just once. I think he may have seen me humming, and more importantly dancing in a very "happy" way while humming this song in the privacy of my home :-) Kids these days...

Rian loves clothes that are not tight, and hence loves his pajamas. I think they learnt about clothes in school this month.

Rian says to Daddy: I want to wear my pajamas to school.

Daddy tried to explain to him: Does Daddy wear pajamas to SpiderCloud?

Rian: No

Daddy: Does Mumma wear pajamas to VMware?

Rian: No, Mumma wears pants. Mumma wears tight pants.

Once again, stunned, totally stunned! I think he caught Amit asking me on the weekend "Aren't these pants too tight for you?" Better be very very careful what we say in front of him!

Songs

2011-03-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

Fingers crossed... Kala teeka and all that...

Music has soothed Rian from the beginning. I think babies are naturally drawn towards rhythmic soothing music. We exposed Rian to Teacher Sean's music factory class of 8 sessions and he seemed to enjoy the cacophony. Amit and me have always sung some songs to Rian to calm him down and his childhood favorites were Ba Ba Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle. It's no surprise that when he started talking, he picked up these rhymes from us. I have some super cute audio recordings of Rian when he was a 2 yr old.

As Rian started growing up, I started singing my favorite hindi songs to him. Brushing time was a challenge for us and Daddy typically had to jump and do a puppet show to get Rian to brush. During this time, I started singing "Sach mere yaar hain" from Sagar. Within 2 weeks Rian had picked up the lyrics on the sly. Once I stopped singing mid-song and he just picked up and completed the lines for me :-)

Courage bolstered, I moved on to "Aao baccho tumhe dikhaye" with an ulterior motive of getting Rian to say "Vande Mataram" in March. A week later Rian was singing the whole first stanza and he loves saying "Vande Mataram"!! Mission accomplished :-)

There is a 4-line verse his school song, and Rian used to hum it but would never say the correct words. He's become very mischievous these days. Last week he decided to bless Daddy - all 4 lines of the song, in perfect tune :-) School has made a big difference to Rian's personality.

It was not all easy though. We had a trying time with school. During that time, to give Rian something to look fwd to in the mornings, we started doing Pooja every day before leaving for school. I started singing one paragraph of Ganpati Aarti "Sukhakarta Dukhaharta". In two weeks Rian knew the whole first para :-) I'm very proud of this one. This kid loves Ganpati Bappa and Pooja and going to the temple. We were in the Indian temple last night, and I explained to him that he has to sing the Aarti for Bappa and he did it... in a soft voice. Then at the end he loudly said "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal Murti Morya, Pudhchya Varshi lavkar yaa...". Guruji was very pleased, and I was beaming with pride.

School days

2011-03-22T10:21:00.001-07:00

Almost 3 months of school is behind us now. I can safely say we have a kinda sorta routine that's working for us. Mornings are "cut-to-cut". A 5 min delay means we are late to school by 5 mins.

6:40 - We wake up, brush, make coffee. Amit picks up the cook
7:10 - We wake Rian up. If he's happy he's cooing and chatty. If not, he's super cranky!
7:15 to 7:30 - Milk time with Mumma.
7:30 to 7:45 - Bath time with Mumma, and brushing too! Daddy takes a shower in this time, and is ready to take Rian.
7:45 to 8:00 - Dry, wear clothes, clown around with Daddy, choose socks to wear. Mumma showers at this time.
8:00 to 8:15 - Breakfast time with Daddy. Mumma gets ready.
8:15 to 8:20 - Pee pee, wear shoes, load the cuddlekins into Mumma car. Mumma packs her lunch and runs to car.
8:20 to 8:40 - Drive time to school. If we are lucky we make it before 8:45am and the teachers are still outside for pickup time.
11:30am - Daddy leaves from his office to pickup the poodla.
12:10pm - Daddy duo reach home and have some masti
12:15 to 1:00 - Lunch hour with Cely
1:45 - Rian's usual poo poo time :D
2:00 - Fresh fruit yogurt time
2:30 to 5:30 - Rian's nap hours are unpredictable now. In this 3 hr window, he sleeps on most days for 2 hrs.
5:30 - Milk time with Cely
6:00 - Fruit snack time with Cely
6:45 to 7:30 - dinner time
7:30 to 8:30 - Playtime with all, video chat with grandparents, TV time, water colors time, you name it time.
8:30 to 8:45 - Milk time with Mumma
8:45 to 9:00 - sleep routine: brushing, moisturize with bedtime lotion, change into pajamas, give lots of kisses and hugs to Mumma and Daddy
9:00 - Rian is in bed if all goes well

Cely leaves by 6-6:15 on Mondays and Tuesdays, so Rian gets more time with Daddy and Mumma but eats considerably less dinner.
On Wednesdays, Daddy and Mumma go for a dance class and get back by 8:45pm. Rian is done with his dinner, milk and sleep routine and nestled in with Cely by then. Daddy and Mumma get 10-15 mins of cuddles with Rian before Rian goes to bed at 9. Mumma goes to drop Cely to her home, and dinner for Mumma and Daddy is at 9:45pm. Sigh. Win some lose some.
On Thursdays and Fridays, Cely stays for Rian's dinner and leaves at 7:15. Daddy and Mumma get maximum playtime with Rian without worrying about how much Rian has eaten.

Mumma is trying to add weekday playdates to this already packed schedule, can you imagine :-) And Mumma also tries to squeeze in groceries on Thursdays and Fridays.

On Saturday mornings, the schedule is a bit different:

7:15 - We wake up a bit later. Rian sleeps ~30 mins late on Friday night so he too wakes up late.
7:30 to 8:00 - Rian wakes up and has his milk with Daddy. Mumma is in the kitchen making coffee and tofu for Rian.
8:00 to 8:30 - Rian gets an oil massage and bath with Daddy. Daddy dresses Rian up too.
8:30 to 8:45 - We catch a quick bite.
8:45 to 9 - Mumma and Rian drive to the Mommy-n-me gym.
9 to 9:45 - Rian loves jumping, climbing, hanging onto bars. Gym time is fun time.
9:45 to 10:25 - Mumma and Rian sit in the car and eat tofu in the car. Mumma has an occasional snack.
10:25 to 10:30 - Drive to the dance class which is in the same complex.
10:30 to 11:00 - Rian's dance class.
11:00 to 11:30 - Come back home or go to some place, playdate, mall, etc. We always meet up with Daddy at lunch time (~12:30-1pm).
From 8:45 to 12:45, Daddy takes care of the house, since we leave it in a destroyed state in our hurry to get out. Daddy usually gets ~3hrs of office work and sometimes even 4hrs!!

On Sundays, Mommy and Daddy take it totally relaxed. You can see WHY :-)

Ab bas bhi karo

2011-03-03T17:52:00.000-08:00

First 2 weeks of school for Rian were his "adjustment period". Just as I was complimenting myself in my mind for my child's immunity, he got his first ear infection in mid-Jan. This was the first ever ear infection for Rian, and it sucked. Thankfully he was vocal and he could tell us about the ear ache. Rian had amoxy twice before (in his life), and this was his third time, but this time around he developed a severe rash allergy to the anti-biotic. We had to stop the amoxy in just 2 days. Thankfully the ear infection healed right after that.

Soon after his ear infection was over, Rian caught a cough. Soon, all three of us at home caught a cough. Rian was recovering and our symptoms were also mostly gone. Last Wednesday, Rian caught a cold :-( On Saturday he saw his PCP who declared it as another virus . This week he complained of ear ache again, and we are back on a different anti-biotic.

All of us are sick and tired of being sick now. I so sympathize with Seena. Ab bas bhi karo... give us a break from the viruses and infections. Is someone up there listening?? As they say, we have gone so "down" that the only way to go from here is "up"... hope things recover soon. Weekend is almost here...

Secretary

2011-02-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

... that's what I feel today.

I'm sure a lot of moms/women identify with this feeling. Now, jokes apart: Amit does help me a lot at home especially with Rian, and thank God (& Amit) for that. He also helps me when I have "roadblocks" and "decisions" to be made in the stuff that I do, and I am the final "executor". But there are just too many things that end up being on my plate. Here's a list, since I'm in "crib mode":

Groceries
Planning for every day food menu for the cook and Rian
Taking dr appts for Rian and Amit and myself (yes, it's cold season)
Appt for photo portraits
Upload all photos taken by Amit (& he's a very good photographer)
Planning for weekends: long trips like Tahoe & even short local weekend trips like hiking, park outings, plan restaurants for weekends
Plan playdates
Plan & "register" for Rian's weekend classes, take him to the weekend classes every weekend
Buying clothes for Rian
Buying trip-specific gear for Rian: swim dress, floaters, ski bibs, gloves, snow boots. Run around town or order from Amazon, pickup from Craigslist.
Planning for birthdays - be it a party or a small cake - be it Rian or my FIL or Cely
Planning food for get-togethers and potlucks, even snacks
Planning and buying gifts for parties
Remember & call people on bdays & annivs
Pay credit card bills, utility bills, school fees on time
Remember to file for FSA, VSP.
Do the occasional home refinance
Be the time keeper every day and have Rian's "schedule" and keep it on time.

Now, keep in mind: I enjoy doing these things. Totally. I love planning and executing and going out on weekends. Also it's not that I aim to satisfy myself in every task 100% coz that's just not what happens (I guess my bar is too high), so I'm okay with 80-90% efficiency. I've not added any of my "personal TODO" in this, like shopping, dr appts, car oil changes, repairs, etc. But that does "stack on" top of this list too!! Add to this, a busy schedule at work. I just don't have the time to do all of it all the time.

How do you gals manage all this? Does it make sense to drop the ball on some of the items? Which ones would you drop and why?

Today I just feel like I need a break. I need my secretary's/Mom's Day Off.

Health is wealth

2011-01-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

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!)"...

School begins

2011-01-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

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!

Rian 2010 Photo Book

2010-11-20T01:29:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Who made it?

2010-10-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Rian is in this cute stage where he must ask Who made it? for everything that he eats. He also transforms it into Who cook it? Sometimes he will ask the same question several times. Mumma has several answers like "Ila aunty cooked it" or "Mumma made it" or most recently "The chef in the restaurant cooked it".

Yesterday we were having some mango, and Rian goes Who cook it? Since Amit cut the mango, he thought it was right to say "Daddy cook it". Rian promptly replied Daddy no cook it. We bought it from the store, Sonu and Mumma. Also Daddy. He remembered that we bought the mangoes from Costco on our trip a few days back!

Night story

2010-10-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

As part of his night routine, Rian gets two stories every night: a creative, innovative, total BS story about something from Daddy, and a ghisa pita roj ka rata story from mommy. Mommy's story is completely predictable and Rian knows it by heart now. Here's how it goes:

Achal dada sleeps in his own room in his own bed with his Star Wars toys all by himself, all night long. Parv dada sleeps in his own room in his Lightning McQueen bed all by himself, all night long. Shayona sleeps in her own room in her own bed with Teddy Bear all by herself, all night long. Kayaan baby sleeps in his own room in his own bed with Ducky and lots of boovs all by himself, all night long. So now, Rian will sleep in his own bed with Tiger and lots of sea animals - Octopus, Fish, Sea horse, Star Fish, Crab, Shell Fish and Turtles. And if Rian wakes up at night, Rian should go back to sleep. When the sun comes up in the morning, Rian can wake up and say "Good morning" to Mumma.

Amit says my story is like a lawyer, water tight, and covers all holes :-) But Rian has started innovating and appending to my story in a hilarious way. Tonight we caved and burst out laughing at this:

Me: Shayona sleeps in her own room in her own bed with

Rian: Mausami mumma

Me: No, with Teddy Bear all by herself, all night long.

Me: Kayaan baby sleeps in his own room in his own bed with

Rian: Hiral mumma

Me: No, with Ducky and lots of

Rian: lots of mummas

Me: No, lots of boovs all by himself, all night long. So now, Rian will sleep in his own bed with

Rian: Mumma

Me: No, with Tiger and lots of

Rian: lots of mummas

Me: No, lots of sea animals - Octopus, Fish, Sea horse, Star Fish, Crab, Shell Fish and Turtles.

25 months

2010-08-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

(Fingers crossed, nimbu mirchi and all that)
Maybe it's time to rename Rian's blog from "bawltime" to "funtime" or "balltime" or "badbad ghanta time" :-) This month passed by like a sweet summer breeze. Rian is growing up very fast. Mommy and Daddy can hardly capture the memories that fast (ya ya, mommy's still lagging behind on the month 23 and 2 yr old posts).

Rian loves singing nursery rhymes, and listening to himself. His favorite thing with our iPhones is now to get into Voice Recorder and start recording his own voice! Using Daddy's famed parenting techniques (since Daddy's the natural parent) on how to deal with a two-year old, there is a technique to dealing with Rian now. Brushing has become a bit easier now that there is more routine to it. Mommy has discovered the conversations go this way:

Mom: Do you want to brush your teeth Rian?
Rian: No!
Mom: What does the "Good Habits" book say?
Rian: Brush your teeth twice everyday
Mom: Then let's go brush your teeth!
Rian: No!

Another approach:
Mom: Rian, in five minutes, we'll go brush your teeth.
[Five minutes later]
Mom: Rian, it's time to brush your teeth. Green brush, or blue brush?
Rian: Blue!!
Mom: Okay, let's go dear

For ~4 weeks now, Rian is bottle-free. At his 2-yr well-baby appt, his pediatrician told us to "just throw away his bottles". We started off and had a hard one week with the ceramic cup. A nice story about how we need to help Kayaan baby become a strong big baby and we need to give Rian's bottles to him in order for Rian to become Kayaan baby's "Rian dada" worked very well. We've now settled onto a sippy that Rian is very happy to drink from. No more bottle mess. Occassionally Rian also accepts a regular cup. Over time I guess as his co-ordination increases, and inclination to "pim" (spill) decreases, we'll move to a regular cup.

Rian's Mom and Dad have started major efforts towards Rian trying to eat by himself, not forcing him to eat if he doesn't want to. Dad and Rian have shared some wonderful dinners where all Rian wants to do is feed Daddy :-) and Daddy in turn gets to feed Rian! We have a major move back to the chair and dining table. I guess we have to think long term, even though Rian hates it now, and some days barely eats a bite or two for dinner, over time it will become a habit again, as he used to have all his meals on the table earlier. This has also led us to move our dinner time up to 7pm. Dinner is over by 8pm and we have an hour of exclusive playtime with Rian. I think Rian loves this time with Mommy and Daddy. Milk is at 9pm and if all goes well, Rian is sound asleep by 10pm.

Rian has his very first tent, and loves to hide in it, and do "kook" from inside. His collection of "boovs" keeps increasing, and now Mommy has become the supplier, with a new "boov" every week. (Shh, Mommy has a stock of them from her trip to Target). Our "Cars" themed boovs are increasing and we've collected so far: Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Filmore, Doc Hudson, Chick Hicks.

The highlight of this month is definitely Rian's vocal skills, and how much he loves to communicate. We had this hour of non-stop communication from Rian post-dinner :-) Daddy was heard saying "Please stop now, my ears hurt!" Rian can also identify almost 90% of the cars on the road. He says "H for Honda, L for Lexus" :-) He also knows our friends and what cars they have. You can hear him say "Meher uncle has Mercedes boov, Hiral aunty has Hyundai boov, Gunjan uncle has bangle boov - Audi boov, Maushi aunty has Honda boov, Swati aatya has Toyota boov". Now now, if you're not in this aunty-uncle list, you know what you need to do: come home and play with our talkative little tot, hang out, and tell him all about your boov! Other cars Rian loves to point on the freeway or parking lot: BMW, Acura, Mini Cooper, Infiniti, Subaru, Nissan, Mustang.

Rian has started talking a lot more in Marathi this month. At his birthday party, he saw the ball going into the lake. Now he says ball kuthe gela? Ball panyaat gela. Daddy plays a finger game with him Ithun ghoda aala aala, thambla, ithun ghoda gela kuchu kuchu. He pretty much repeats that verbatim.

Rian loves to listen to his nursery rhymes - a mix CD created by Mommy. He has mastered many rhymes now. His favorite songs are Wheels on the bus and ABCD. One day this month when Cely was taking a day off, Amit and me were both surprised by Rian saying the whole alphabet to us in order singing this song.

Rian remembers his friends (playdates) very well now. He met Moksh and Shayona a couple of times this month, and he knows Moksh's Mustang boov so well, and the "mountain" hike we had with Moksh. Mommy and Daddy need to step up on playdates (and hopefully the hikes as well!). Rian also remembers "Kayaan baby, new house, big house..." :-) where he was just running and running (and then slept for 3 straight hours, wow!!). He also remembers Navya birthday in San Francisco!!

Sigh. Fingers crossed and all that. Let this stage last forever. Mommy and Daddy feel very proud of the little one, and his achievements this month.

Some memories from this month:

2 year old Rian

2010-07-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have tears in my eyes as I think about the past month, and the past two years. Rian continues to amaze me as more and more of his personality shows. It's fascinating to see this individual develop, learn thinking models, reasoning, and a whole lot of different things. As a parent, this stage of a child's life is the most rewarding: it's like he's regurgitating everything he learnt in the last two years, now that he has the gift of almost complete speech.

Month 24:

In the true sense of the phrase Change is the only constant, this month saw one big change again for Rian. Amit's Dad, Rian's "Aaba" left for India on 27 June, just 10 days before his bday. Daddy explained to Rian at the airport that Aaba is going to India to meet Aaji. The little one, till date, has not cried for Aaba, and in fact tells us "Aaba gone India meet Aaji". I am floored, impressed! How does a 2 year old know how to handle his emotions so well?!? Or did we just get plain lucky with Rian? Large part of the credit goes to the natural parent in our home, Daddy, whom I utterly hate and love for the same reason :-)

Birthday party:

Planning Rian's birthday party was always on our TODO list, but kept being replaced by higher priority items. Aaba leaving just a week before also kind of threw our planning calendar off a bit. We also wanted to keep is really small and simple this time around. Everything worked out in the end. Cely and her hubby grabbed us two wonderful tables in Rian's fav ducky park (Memorial Park in Cupertino) and we all had a blast. Here are pictures from his bday party. He totally loved the Tow Man and Mc Queen cake, and thanks to Cely for the lovely Mc Queen t-shirt. Here are some lovely gifts Rian received in the form of poems from his closest.

Invitation poem for party from Mommy-Daddy:

A little birdie says cuckoo

Soon Rian will turn two

Our cute little toddler is growing up

A whole new person is showing up

Talk talk talk is what he does all day

You’ll love to hear what he has to say

Aunty, uncle, didi, dada, his stories go on

In a snap, this time will be long gone

So, let us capture a little bit of heaven

Soak in some sun and have some fun

On Rian’s special day, will you join us to wish him Happy Birthday?

Will July 5 or July 11 be a better day?

Poem from Hiral-Meher-Kayaan:

A two year old is so many things.

A tiny discoverer of butterfly wings.

A hugger of teddies, a sweet sleepy head.

And someone to dream for in bright years ahead.

A special new person who right from the start,

has a place in the family and a coarse in your heart.

And just when you think you've learned all the things,

that your dear son is,and the joy that he brings,

a hug or a grin comes with such a sweet surprise,

that love finds you smiling with tears in your eyes.

Two Poems from Parul-Amit-Sona-Pari:

Two years gone by,

How Time has flown

We can't believe

How Rian's grown!

He's such a joy

and much fun too,

Oh my! Rian turned two!!

What are little boys made of:

Boys are made of chuckles & grins

Tousled hair and banged-up shins

Things with wheels & frogs in pockets

Questions, baseball caps & rockets

They're joy & mischief, fun & noise -

That's how it is - boys will be boys!

Poem from Mausami-Gunjan-Shayona:

Rian Rian, such a big boy

Turning 2 is such a joy

Let's toss & turn & jump & run

Let's make this evening so much fun

Look forward to see you @ ducky park

& celebrate until its dark

Poem from Sweta-Dharmen:

Rian is now another year older
walking, talking and getting bolder
Nursery Rhymes and Stories he knows
He's on a trike..look there he goes!
...Turning 2 is so much fun
But believe you me..the fun is just begun!
Happy B'day Rian - Sweta Aunty and Dharmen uncle

Month 23

2010-05-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

These are some highlights of month 23.

We spent a whole day in SF with Ajoba:
CAS, GGNP grounds, dinner at Osha Thai. Rian saw the small letter n and says it is "u wamba". "Wamba" was Rian-speak for upside down :-) Man, these kids learn so quickly!

We got Rian a Kettler trike, and he's absolutely loving it. Within a week Rian is peddling on his own. Soon we will take the turn lock off too. Wonderfully designed trike with a parent handle. We take it with us to the parks too, it disassembles pretty neatly.

Rian saw a towing sign in our complex - reminded him of TowMan (Tow Mater from Cars).

Rian can say entire nursery rhymes now - his fav one is wheels on the bus. He can say it all, we just need to "stop" in between and he picks it up.

Month 22

2010-05-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

Once again this month we saw ups and downs. There was the three week cold that needed antibiotics. Then there were also those awesome moments we had in the parks - he learnt how to throw ball and use a bat :-) Weather has been getting better, and mommy can only think of one thing - buvva! We try to hit at least one park or play area every weekend. Amidst our busy lives, that's one commitment mommy wants to make to Rian. Add to that a changing temperament - a glimpse of the terrible twos. Couple that with an exploding vocabulary, and we have had some of most memorable events. We're done with day-time potty training and we're all happy with this for now - no pressure for the night time diapers - they can stay for a while.

Rian is trying to "sing" aa aa. Daddy says louder beta and Rian raises his volume and changes his tempo to make us giggle.

Daddy and Mummy taught Rian a bunch of rhymes, and Rian would complete few words from each of them. He's not 100% done with any of them, but he knows 20% words for 20 of them! This month though Rian loves being the joker of the family. Wonder where he gets that from ;-) When we say "ten tiny", instead of saying "turtle" he says "baby" in a cute voice and gives a wide grin and hearty laugh and that has all of us in splits!! Obviously intrigued and encouraged by this behavior, Rian is no longer saying any nursery rhymes. Everything is and wide grins after that :-) Oh well, there goes that one. He also used to read all the alphabet, but recently he's taken to looking at any and all written word and saying ABCDD. Since we giggle on that, he's not interested anymore in saying the whole alphabet! Sigh.

Rian is becoming a real person now. If someone sneezes around Rian, he says "Bless You". If he wants something really bad like pitty (pickle) or Goov (olive) and we give it to him, he says "Thank you". He once hit Daddy by mistake and Daddy got hurt. Mommy showed Rian how to say "Sorry" and do Pem Em (prem prem - wali wali) to Daddy.

This month my name was changed by Rian from Mumma to Mummy. Not sure where he got it from, maybe the nanny. He found it cute and hard to pronounce at first, but kept practicing it. Sometimes though when he's very cranky or sleepy, he comes back to mumma.

He can say the name of his favorite boov (car): McQueen. He also says names of other boovs: Tow man (Tow Mater from Cars), Van, Beetie (Beetle), Audi and his fav: mumma boov. Mumma Boov means any car that has the BMW emblem!!

Rian loves his routines. His night time routine starts with dinner, followed/along with a mandatory dose of the movie Cars. I believe we've watched it as a family more than 8 times over now, 10-15 mins every day. Towards the end of this month, as Rian's health improved, we cut down on the TV time too. Now it plays only if Rian is extremely cranky and none of the 4 adults at home as the energy/patience to deal with him.

Rian has a bunch of finger puppets, ~10-12. He knows each and every one and can say all the names: giraffe, panda, lion, elephant, you name it! Mommy is very proud of this. He knows all his animal sounds: cat meow, dog woof woof, horse neigh, frog ribbit. He learns new ones very quickly. Aaji taught him Chiu does chiu chiu chiu :-)

Rian is starting to form his silly sounds vocab. His fav one is "Bucanana" and he just keeps saying the nanana. It's too cute. He also remembers Shayona's Dhama Tapa Tappa from Florida and he completes it if we start it.

We have a bunch of magnets from our yesterdays of traveling all over. He was so fascinated by them. Like they say - you should talk to your baby - Amit and I would always point to each magnet and tell him what it is. There are 20 or so odd ones that he's allowed to touch. Not sure when, but he started picking up the names. Now he can say names of almost all of them :-) The one mommy is most proud about is "Saturn" :) Yes my baby knows a circle with a band of ribbons around it is the planet Saturn. Oh, and he knows Monet and Picasso's work too, and Frankenstein (calls it Franken), and NASA :-) it's a joy to watch him go through each one. We always applaud all his efforts, and it makes him swell with pride - you can see it on his face, the happiness of getting the quiz all right!

Rian climbs the stairs on his own now, walking upright like a big boy. He even carried his toy cars with him and went up. Now Daddy is planning to keep the gates open, so Rian can gain the freedom to practice his downward walk.

He knows all the various names that Aaji and Aaba call him: Shonta, Gunda, Gunju, Sonu. Last month when we asked Rian "What is your name?" he would say Rian. Now if you ask him, he mostly replies Sonu. Grandparents also taught Rian his last name is Butala. He cannot say it that well, but manages to say Butada. When he's in a funny mode, he keeps repeating to make it Butadadada. :-) The fun continues! He loves to hang out with Aaba and Aaji. His fav game with Aaba is peekaboo, and yes he can say that word now "peekiboo". Then Aaba needs to run and hide, then call him with "kook". And Rian is running all over the place. He also loves to sit in Aaba's lap in the family room and play with his cars on the table.

Hope one of these days Mommy can get enough time to post some recent pictures. Till then, here are pictures from our Memorial Park.

[Edit 5/12/10] Rian also reached a new milestone: he can describe how old he is :-) Ask him all this month how old he is, and he says "twenty one".

21 months old

2010-04-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

This post is way overdue. This month has been crazy busy (7 March to 6 April 2010). Aaji-Aaba got here ~end of March, and we were in Tahoe for a weekend after that. The next weekend was catch-up and then Rian's 21 month bday. The cake was Chocolate Opera Cake from Sugar Butter Flour, absolutely yummy, simply amazing, not-too-sweet, perfect balance.

Anyways, Rian has been picking up more and more Marathi this month. Highlight was surely discovering that he could now say 11 to 20 :-) Cely did a great job at teaching him numbers. Every time he climbs up or down the stairs with her, she counts! Such small things help a lot.

Rian was happy to see Aaba and Aaji. A few days before their arrival, we showed him photos and spoke about Aaji and Aaba. I'm sure he too remembers so many small things. When he last saw them, he was 13 months old. 8 months later, Rian was very happy to greet them again.

Rian has made some very good progress in potty training. I randomly started on 28 March, and by the time Rian was 21 months old (in 10 days) Rian was much day-time pee-pee trained with a few accidents here n there. Poo poo was still a challenge though and we needed diapers to go ;-)

Rian a course of antibiotics this month. This was his second one in his life. Cold lasting for ~4 weeks = sinus infection. He was then healthy for two weeks. After we got back from Tahoe, he had a full fledged cold again.

Rian loved playing in the snow. He hated wearing so many layers of clothes - "nineteen", as Daddy taught him to say. Once Daddy got him "jump-started", Rian had loads of fun. Shayona and Parv were very good company for Rian.

Other misc trivia: Rian had his fourth hair cut, and we again sobbed once those long locks were lost. Sigh. He also finished his "Movement Exploration" class and had his "first graduation". That sure was fun. Mom made samosas :-) Okay you can read that as "mom fried ready-made frozen samosas" :-) Rian's room was finally "done".

शम्भरावी पोस्ट

2010-04-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

शम्भरावी ही माझी पोस्टिंग एकदम परफेक्ट मराठी बद्दल आहे
मागच्या आठवड्यात मी रियानला मराठी शिकवायला सुरुवात केली
त्याने फार छान इंटरेस्ट दाखवला आणि भरभर बोलू लागला
रियान आता हे शब्द मराठीत बोलतो:
दादा
बाबा
आई
पाणी
गाडी
थंडी
आजी
आजोबा (बा)
आत्या (कधी कधी तात्या म्हणतो)
मामा
गागा (गाई गाई)
बाई

खूप खूप आनंद होतो त्याला मोठा होताना बघता बघता
इतक्यातच दोन वर्षाचा होइल

Rian's room

2010-03-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

We're finally done with this round of improvements for Rian's room, and we're thinking we'll keep it at this level for a while - at least till he outgrows his crib/toddler bed. So here are some pictures for archival on my blog - Rian's diary. I have to confess, there is no "theme", just a bunch of random ideas thrown together. We've made an attempt at symmetry, but frankly if there is any, it's a co-incidence :D Come on in...

This is the right side of the door, as soon as you enter the room. Rian loves his new stickers, and the new place for his fishie and bear and kuck. Small toys all go in the hangers.

Here is a closeup of his stickers:

Here is the window wall, with two more shelves for his soft toys (and later for books). The magnetic board is for his numbers. He has another one in the family room for his letters:

Special closeup of his music player shelf, and mom-dad photo:

Here is his crib wall, with "blocks" of sea animals, photo frames, and Rian's beloved moon:

Here are closeups of his photo frames and sea creatures:

Finally, here are a few photos of the little one enjoying in his room:

Bitter Sweet

2010-03-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of those bitter sweet, but makes-mommy-daddy-proud experiences. Rian has been a YES-man for a while. We were not sure if he understands the questions, and is just going with the YES reply since it makes us all happy and smiley. Last night he said "bib" pointing to the IKEA bib he got as a gift. So Amit asks "Do you want to wear the bib?" And he goes "No". And we're like - HUH?! Did he just say NO!? So we asked again, and No came the reply.

He's expressed displeasure before by using the words "na na na" but never a clear No like this before. Wow, we were happy - now he knows the questions so well, and at the same time sad. Now he knows how to say No. Sigh.

Another bitter sweet experience last night was with the bitter gourd veggie. Our cook makes this wonderful karela sabji with jaggery in it, so it is literally bitter sweet. Usually Rian loves to pour over the kitchen stove in the morning and taste the fresh fare every day. Whenever it has been karela, he's made a face. Last night Rian had finished his dinner and his yogurt, and we were watching his fav movie Cars, all three of us. Mommy and Daddy were having their dinner on the sofa in front of the TV :D Suddenly our fellow develops interest in mom's plate. Mom says "you won't like it, it is kadu". He reaches for it, and pops one in his mouth. Then goes "hmmmm...." and reaches for a second one :-) After rejecting karela five or six times, Rian has developed mommy and daddy's liking for karela... Nice!

Tech crazy

2010-03-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what exactly draws babies towards electronics, but babies have a built-in sensor to find and pursue electronic objects. Of course when they see examples of Daddy and Mommy spending every extra moment with their iPhones, it doesn't take too long for the kiddo to catch on.

Rian's early explorations began with chewing Mommy's neoprene cover literally to pieces. Mommy got a new one and decided it is not for eating. Then Rian moved on to the harder parts to eat, and both our iPhones have badges of honor to mark the time when Rian was teething.

Slowly but surely the guy kept experimenting. 6 months back we started guiding his fingers into the apps - Doodle Buddy, spelling games, counting games, shapes, etc. Silly stuff like popping bubbles used to make him giggle and helped keep him calm through diaper changes. He was majorly into photos, and first learnt how to "flick" through the photos. At 16 months, he then started popping the bubbles himself, tickling teddy to laugh. YouTube and iPhone videos kept him busy inflight. Many a tired weeknights, Mommy and Daddy have taken sahara from Rian's favorite video of all time: ek anek. That last quarter of paratha, or bowl of soup, or cup of yogurt vanish so quickly when he's hooked onto the chidiya flying away.

After we got back from Texas though, the guy got into serious business: he could unlock our iPhones with no effort. Quickly he learnt how to start the apps he wanted. With words pouring out of his mouth, he started asking for those apps, pointing to the iPhone. Now he even searches my pockets when I get home, to locate the enchanting toy :-) Reminds me of Parv looking into everyone's pockets for "Kaa kee".

He's been learning on the sly though. Rian learnt his shapes mainly from the iPhone app. Maybe his numbers and alphabets also came from there (although he has two other sets of alphabets and number toys). His fine motor skills have seen a big improvement, trying to "catch" that lion or slide that letter into its box. At 20 months, he's a pro and loves spelling out words. We've now started buying his apps though, else he keeps hitting the ads in the free games or the several prompts to "upgrade now". Paid apps keeps him less frustrated :-)

For the most part we're so thankful for this invention called the iPhone as we've made most use of it for Rian. It has truly been a savior. It is the ultimate kid-pacification device, although we try to limit iPhone time and let Rian know before his time starts, when its going to end. Our iPhones also help with TODOs, grocery lists, keeping track of my WW points, and loooots more. And yet, the one use we are most thankful for - keeping Rian busy when we need those 5-7 mins of peace.

Two words

2010-03-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 3/16, Rian hit another small milestone. Just as we were entering our garage, he pointed to my car and said "Mumma boov", then pointed to Amit's car and said "Daddy boov". For a minute, I just stood there and wondered, wow, did he just say two words together?! Yes he did :-) for the first time, and it happened just too naturally... Sometimes I suspect he must be practicing in his mind, because it came out from his mouth so perfectly...

Since then he's been going crazy about mumma boov. All his toy cars are mumma boov and daddy boov. Today he could identify my car from a bunch of ~10 cars or so. I've also been trying to teach him "I wuv you", and I thought he almost said "wuv you" together today, yet to get that magical string of three words from him.

Gotta make him a Bambaiyya boy right? So we were casually saying "Shanyaa" today, playing with him, kissing/tickling him, and pop comes from his mouth "Shanyaa" with that familiar wide grin which tells us he's so proud he's said a new word.

Oh loooooooooooove this stage of Rian's growth. He's so happy happy all the time since he can communicate what he wants now. Every day is worth those awesome 5 minutes just before bedtime when mommy and daddy just want to cuddle him and whisper sweet nothings into his ears and do naka naka with him and huggie him and kissie him, and he responds back to each and every one of them with more gusto than us... Life in those moments is perfect.

My darling

2010-03-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Rian said "darling" :-) couple of nights back. Yay, my darling said "darling"!!! I couldn't believe it, asked him to repeat it so many times, and he complied, giggling every time... It was so cute.

I've been trying to get Rian to complete my rhymes, get the last word kind of a thing. His first was:
Twinkle Twinkle Little "Star"

and he loves to say it out loud with a wide grin :D Then came the phrase:
I Love "You"

Then we graduated to:
Bumping Up and Down in my little red wagon
Bumping Up and Down in my little red wagon
Bumping Up and Down in my little red wagon
Won't you be my "Darling"

Around a month back we asked Rian casually: Rian, what's in the sky? "Moo", pat came the reply. I followed up with "what else is in the sky?" and the fellow goes "Taar" and my heart swelled with pride. Who taught him that? Neither of us or Cely did. He just figured it out on his own from the Chandoba cartoon he watched post dinner. Now, he has added on the "sun" and is also trying to say "clouds" :-) This month the "moo" sounds perfect - he can say moon very clearly now. Also the letter "N" is not "nnn" anymore, it is "en"... too good!

First hike of 2010

2010-03-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were out and about, finished our first "hike" of the year. Well, not sure how many people can call it a hike, it's more like a trail, in fact a fully paved stroller-friendly loop: the Stanford Dish trail.

The odds were pegged against us this day. Due to changes in daylight savings, we'd already lost an hr. Mommy had thrown her back on Saturday, so we were not sure how she'd feel in the morning about the hike. The morning was slow and lazy, with Rian as usual refusing to eat much breakfast. But we pushed through, and Daddy made sure we didn't change plans, that we went. Our thinking: even if we walk only for half an hr, it is still worth it.

We left from home at 12:50pm, well past Rian's lunch time. Rian was hungry, and ate a few of his favorite ginger cookies. Theplas came to the rescue. We started the hike ~1:15pm, and Rian must have been hungry, as he happily agreed to hold thepla in his hand and munch munch munch. The first 45 mins went by quickly and smoothly since Rian was busy with the thepla. He loves the outdoors, wants to point to aeroplanes, birds, everything. Squirrels kept him totally hooked, and he stayed in his stroller.

Then he got into this "pick me up" stage and didn't want to be in the stroller anymore. He settled on Dad's shoulder as a close second, after walking/running for 15 minutes. It was new and fun to walk on a hike at Rian's walking pace :-) Almost funny! He of course took many scenic detours into the "gin gaas" (green grass) chasing squirrels and birds and storks. This was arguably the best part of our hike. We agreed this is what we stay in the Bay Area for - proximity and availability of so many great trails, and of course the awesome weather. It was in the 60s, perfect spring weather.

Rian had loads of fun when the downhill parts of the hike came by. Daddy promised him a ride, and he sure as hell delivered. Off went the two of them, down the hill at full speed, with Rian in his stroller. Wow they almost went off the road and toppled over at some point, but the little one was all giggles all the time.

The first and the last few hills had mommy and daddy huffing and puffing. The middle 50% of the trail is a walk in the park. All in all, a good time to be outdoors. Rian had his lunch on the trail :-) and was much less "fussy" as he was super hungry :D Daddy and Mommy came down by 3pm and headed to a sushi restaurant. After ages, we had lunch outside, and Rian too was well behaved. I guess we're getting to that point when we should consider starting to travel again.

Oh, milord, note kiya jaye: Daddy's camera had a very nice outing too, IN IT'S BAG. The poor thing never saw the sunshine and the blue clouds. Well o well, maybe next time ;-)

Bye Bye month 20

2010-03-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

This is by far the busiest month we've had with the little one, and the most exciting one so far. Our bonus room carpet was found wet this month, and the repairs (and home refi) has increased mommy's todo list and stress levels to a new high :-) Here's a quick recap of Rian's month 20.

First time eating out: i.e. we didn't carry lunch for Rian from home. 20 Feb lunch at DeeDee's for Swati and Jigga's party
First time mac n cheese: 28 Feb lunch at IKEA. Asked for cake by name. It was amazing to see him "point" at the cake, and say "cake". The glee in his eyes was unmistakable!
Started calling Cely by name Yeyi: 2 March. Rian also calls Aatya as Tatya, Ajoba as Baa and Aaji as Jee.
Can count from 1 to 10: all the numbers :-) This one makes mommy and daddy real proud.
The alphabet is almost there too: He now can say: A B C D E F (says Fuf) G H J K L M (says mm) N (says nn) O P Q (says ku) R (says aa) S (says sss) T U V X (says eww) Y Z. So we're missing: I & W, and then comes the task of putting them in order.
Can identify 8 colors and says the name of 7: Red (says noon-noon), Blue (says Flu), Green (says Gin), Pink (says correctly!), Yellow (says correctly!), Black (can't say yet), purple (says pupple), white (says why).
A true YES man: This one is totally Daddy's genius. Daddy taught Rian how to say yes. Now ask Rian "Do you love Mommy?" YES, pat comes the reply. For a few days everything was yes :-) But now he "gets it" and a few questions get a no, for e.g. "Do you want to brush your teeth?" Nanananana ... :-)
Rian has become a true popat now. He can say many many words, and some by just observing our lips as we speak. The list of words he speaks is amazing long now :-) and we're proud of every little bit that he picks up.
Rian's room is picking up bit by bit. Now there's a shelf, and we have a CD player, but we're still not quite "sure" about the music player (such few options for what we're looking for). We have a few shelves to go, and then we'll be done with iteration one and ready to welcome the grandparents.

Rian's grandparents will be joining us soon, and will stay with us through his second birthday. Rian is very excited about his Baa and Jee coming here, and his face literally lights up when we tell him. He can identify Baa, Jee, Mumma, Daddy, Yeyi on the phone. Any other female voice is Tatya!!

19 and counting

2010-02-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that Rian is already 19 months old. It feels like it was just yesterday when we celebrated his 18 month birthday. The little guy has surely been keeping us busy, but its such an enjoyable phase that the month has flown by pretty quickly. So many things keep happening and every day I think at least once "ah, I should add this to my blog, this should be in Rian's diary", but the busy, stressful life that I'm leading leaves me with little time to visit my blog as often as I'd like. Let's hope I can at least add one entry every month, with all the major things to remember. So here's a quick recap of the last month, in an approx chrono order:

Rian had a blast at Shayona's bday party in The Jungle in San Jose. He was wary at first with the ballpit and the unstable surfaces, but Daddy got him finally started and involved. Rian and Shayona were sliding from a 3ft slide and we absolutely enjoyed the last 10 mins when they held hands and went down sliding.
Rian chipped his left front tooth. A visit to the dentist was more traumatic than the tooth chipping itself, as Rian was restrained: hands, legs and head. Fortunately Mommy wasn't there to see it, Daddy braved the visit with Cely.
We moved Rian's crib out to his own room. He's been sleeping fairly well on most nights, but it's not a smooth road. Mommy thanks Daddy for all the efforts, and continuing help.
Mommy and Daddy went to IKEA to buy stuff for Rian's room. Turned out we need to return 80% of the items we brought home :-) It's all good though, coz we got a pretty good idea about what we want to do with his room, once we got into the process of thinking about it. Rian's room now boasts an alphabet and numbers mat (waiting for its stink to go away!).

Mommy has been cooking more n more for Rian. I made dosa for the first time in my life and Rian loved it :-)
Rian started going to a class on Saturdays in the morning for an hr. It's a "mommy n me" kind of a class. He's have quite some fun seeing others his size and the indoor play is good for this season. Daddy joined us for the second class to take some pictures. 6 more classes remain, the series is of 8 classes.
Rian has been spitting out water very well now for more than a month, at brushing time. Recently though Rian has taken to spitting out everything liquid :-( It's been 4-5 days now. Hope it's a phase and it gets over quickly.
So far I've cut Rian's nails while he was asleep. Now that Rian sleeps in his own room, I don't have that luxury. I tried getting him into our bed, and cutting his nails, but he kept waking up and I wasted an hr!! Finally the next morning, with a lot of cajoling and explaining (half an hr again), I finally cut Rian's nails for the first time when Rian was wide awake! So far only did the hands, the toes still remain...
Rian has picked up more than 20 words, and his vocabulary increases every day. This weekend he said three new words (teeth, wow, baby) in addition to lots of alphabets and numbers (A, B, C, D, E, O, P, T, U, 2, 3, 4, 9) and he's catching on to "aaji" and "ajoba" too!

Wish us luck for the next new challenge: conquering the sippy cup (for milk)!

And so it begins...

2010-01-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

... A different phase of parenthood. One that involves many heartaches for the mommies and daddies.

The first few months' worries were about Rian's feeding (milk). Then came the struggle with solids, then the teething wave hit, then toddlerhood, followed again by the molars and some more hunger strikes. Now a new wave of independence is sending my little one into fits of super energy. Some of it was witnessed by us at The Jungle while celebrating Shayona's second birthday.

Along with this super energy comes the hurt. Sigh, the hurt. It's getting worse and worse now as the falls are harder, and Rian is taking more risks.

Rian chipped one of his front tooth today morning. He leaned over asking for something from the bathtub, and he was leaning on a step stool. Suddenly he lost his balance and his mouth landed on the bathtub exterior which is tiled :-( It all happened so suddenly and in an instant, there was very little that could be done about it.

The next moment, all I knew was how hard I was crying, seeing that some part of tooth had been damaged, and blood oozed from the broken lips. I quickly called Daddy and quickly tried to cool the wound with some water, in the process washing away the cracked pieces of tooth (I think there were three). My mind dreamed up lots of scary thoughts as I handed him off to Dad, since I didn't see the extent of the damage. My first responses of panic were ... Oh My God, Rian lost BOTH his front tooth! How will he eat now? His speech will be affected! He's gonna look horrible in all his photos. God... this was the worst ever I must have cried.

Turns out 15 mins later, after a good cool down from Daddy and his favorite teething rings soothing his lips, Rian was a happy camper. Mom though was still in the ditches. Finally calmed myself down to get closer to Rian to see the damage. 1/4th of his front tooth - gone. A very sharp edge remains to the tooth - this is bothering Rian's tongue and causing him to wake frequently at night. Here are the before (3 weeks back) and after pictures.

The bird has left the nest

2010-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

Sigh... Happiness and sadness, a hollow feeling takes over Dad and Mom as we moved Rian's crib today into his room. In pictures, the empty space in the master bed and the final place of the crib.

Word explosion

2010-01-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

This is so cool, I have to jot it down for my own memories. So January 1 Rian opens his word bank with three words, and it's literally an explosion so far. Here are all the words my little one can speak (some are Rian-ized variants of course!):

Bappa
Bubba (for bubble)
Moon
Star
Fish
Dirty
Boov (for car... think vroom vroom)
Buvva (for bhoor jaa... wants go out)
Mumma
Deddy (for Daddy)
Tatya (for Aatya)
Ball
Tuttle
Guava
Nana (for banana)
Dudu (Marathi word for milk)

Rian had his 18 month appt with the doctor today, and Aal Izz Well.

TT ... and it's not an Audi

2010-01-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

TT = Tantrum Time, and sadly it's not an Audi...

Since the past couple of days, Rian has started throwing tantrums. It's that time of the age, developmentally, I guess. He's able to communicate partially with his words, but I'm guessing gets so frustrated trying to piece together the rest, he bursts into tantrums. He gets really loud and shrilly, and waves his hands back n forth. His face is a sore sight and I can literally see the anger and frustration. Sigh. Poor thing.

Luckily we've been able to handle the first few fits with decent amount of patience and firmness. Affirm to him that - no, you cannot get to see the TV now, it is dinner time. It's okay if you refuse to eat. TV is after dinner, for 5 minutes.

It's not easy to distract him when he's in a tantrum, so we try to give him a few things he wants e.g. you want the belan, take it. But you won't get the knife. Let's go see the moon and maybe we can see a few birds flying, but no TV.

Wish us more power for continued patience :-) Toddlerhood is a whole different ballgame, we see now.

The 18 month mark

2010-01-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable as it is to us, Rian is 18 months old today on 6 Jan '10. A quick recap of the last few weeks to record how Tuggy keeps us continuously amazed:

Our Austin trip to the Dave home gave Rian loads of time to play with Aanya. I think Rian has picked up the nthu to talk from her, just like he seemed to have picked up the interest in eating from Shayona during our Florida trip.
Rian started the New Year with a bang and lots of words: dirty, star, fish. He added to that till date: daddy, touch, ball. He had mastered Bappa, mumma, mum-mum long time back.
On our 7th anniv yesterday Rian gave me the gift of calling me mumma :-) He had his vocabulary constantly growing and could say the word mumma for some time now but could not say the word to call me to get my attention. He would say it of I asked him to say it. Today though, 4-5 times he called out for me and looked for my response :-)
Rian did the unthinkable today: he was able to climb out of his crib to a point where he can fall and hurt himself. Note that the crib is in it's lowest position and Rian did not use the bumper to get the extra height. Mummy and Daddy are wondering what to do now since we were thinking of moving his crib to his own room! Any suggestions?!
When do these critters STTN???? Last night was better than most, slept in his crib from 9:30pm to 5am but refused to sleep from 5am to 7am :-( and that too in our bed. This is one of our roadblocks for moving Rian out to his own room. Lately Rian has taken to staying awake for an hr or so when he wakes up in the middle of the night. He loves playing with our fingers and unconsciously slapping dad and mom.
Rian has started responding to the word 'smile'. When mumma says 'smile beta smile', Rian does this cute shy smile that is unbelievably sweet. I'll try to upload a few photos if I can find them. Many of our friends have told us that Rian's smile melts their hearts, and imagine this lava at your command for disposal :-)

Rian's latest toy

2009-12-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we bought a new toy for Rian - a laptop - with ONE objective - he will no longer jump for ours :-) Working well for us so far!

Bribing Rian

2009-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

A while ago, we'd bribed Rian with 5 mins of TV time - he has one favorite DVD of Marathi songs for kids with cartoons. This worked well for us when he absolutely wouldn't have a single morsel of food. It started backfiring when Rian started pointing to the TV every night at dinner time and with his nanny Cely too. We promptly stopped any TV time at dinner.

With the advent of winter and dipping temperatures and cold/cough that Rian and nanny Cely have caught, they don't seem to go out for their morning walk which used to be an hour. Long summer evenings had Rian playing outside in our complex but winter makes it dark and cold outside at 5pm, thus ending play for Rian before it begins. Today he is so desperate to go out (bujja) that I bribed him to sleep saying if you sleep now, we will go bujja once you wake up. I'm planning to use the same one to make him eat something before we leave for the evening. Let's see how that goes!

Hello again, world!

2009-12-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

It's been more than 2 months since we're off life-support aka grandparents'-support. I can tell you for sure, it seems like its been 2 years! Life is a lot more hectic and the it literally shows: Daddy's lost a couple of inches around his midsection, and mommy's completely lost it ;-)

These last 2 months, Rian has been through some fascinating changes, and lack of time-n-energy have led to this dry spell in blogging. So here's a recap of Oct/Nov/Dec:

Running. For a while now, running is Rian's preferred mode of transportation. We mastered crawling at 9 months and walking at a year. After that, it's been "stabilizing self", and then run, run, run.
A tremendous sense of independence. This hit us when Rian wanted to eat all by himself, and that was the only way he would eat from us. Cely somehow still managed to spoon-feed him. I believe his independence stemmed from his sleep training too (more below)
Teething. Above self-feeding fancy was quickly lost due to molar eruptions. These were by far the most painful, and we finally started giving Den-Tonic to Rian. That seemed to help his pain a bit, and he was back on semi-soft stuff to eat. When the pain eased, Rian was right back on track to eating himself. BTW Rian has more than the 6 teeth that he used to sport for almost 6 months :-) but a lot of his molars are not seen, so he's still the kid with 6 teeth for the photos!
Sleep training. While the life-support was here, we never sleep trained Rian. Partly because it was easy to sleep in on weekends ;-) and partly because we were sure the kid's screams will not be ignored by the grandparents. Daddy started sleep training Rian after Aaji left, and to tell you the truth: I'm surprised how well it has gone. No crying, no fussing. All credit goes to Daddy and his patience, and his ghisa pita record of "Tiger barobar gai gai karaychi na" (we have to sleep with Tiger now). Rian's tiger was picked up the day we dropped Aaji to the airport, and when Daddy saw it, the scheme of sleep training with the soft toy took root. On the first day, Daddy spent more than an hr. On the second day, it was close to 40 mins. On the third day it was 15 mins. Most days Daddy emerges victorious from the bedroom in under 10 mins!!!! It has helped Rian's night wakings a bit. A month ago or so we took the next step: instead of moving his crib to his room (which is a non-reversible event), we moved to the guest bedroom. Mommy and Daddy get some cozy time and some conversation this way, and Rian is a scream away on the baby monitor. He still has 2-3 night wakings, but I must admit there are days I get 8 hrs of undisturbed much-needed beauty-sleep!
Floriday. Yup that's what I mistype it most of the time. Our Florida holiday. Traveling with Mausami-Gunjan-Shayona was great! Mommy and Daddy got advice and help on Rian matters :-) and Rian had company. We visited Key West, Everglades NP, and Miami. We didn't cover as much tourist ground as others cover in 6 days (+2 days for travel), but had a good time with each other and relaxed with our kids - mainly - were able to forget that work and home (with more work) exist :-) Now that's what I call a good break! Rian seems to be catching up on the talking front too, observing a loquacious Shayona :-) He's mostly babbling now, and its a lot of fun to watch him try to convey something!
Life Happens. After the break, a week was great. That was the lull before the storm though. The last 10 days have been hell. Amit had some throat irritation going. Rian then had fever and throat irritation. To treat his fever, the dumb doc actually gave him Ibuprofen that caused a flare up in his acid reflux. We were down to 0.3 ml/day of Zantac, slowly reducing the dosage since his first bday, and this caused us to go up again to 2 ml/day :-( Then, Cely fell sick with cold and cough. Rian now seems to have caught cold. Daddy had food poisoning and is down since yesterday. Mommy's body seems to be finally catching up with the sore throat and cold :-( Sigh.

Anyways, it was nice to recap all the things - good and bad - going on with us. So many more exciting things to look fwd to this year and early next year:

Holiday cards. I guess we'll see if Mommy has enough time to do holiday cards this year. Cely's taking off when Mommy has her 10 day break.
Texas vacay. The plan is to bring in the New Year with Ujjval-Sonali-Aanya.
Transition to the sippy cup. Rian was almost there, after Florida. A couple more weeks after the health returns, and we should be good to go, me thinks. My new goal is end of Jan :-) 19 months.
Move to his own room. He's almost there with the sleep training. After we get back from our next vacay, we'll move Rian's crib into his own room. Mommy needs to do some research though, on whether she wants to get Rian's room all decorated/painted/muraled. One part of it is on the way though - a 16 X 24 canvas of Rian's picture. So excited, and looking fwd to receiving it!

Co-incidence?

2009-12-02T22:20:00.001-08:00

http://rocknroli.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/lil-maestro/

I'm Yours

2009-11-05T15:29:00.001-08:00

Yes people, it's an admission. I'm in love. Quoting (and listening to) Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours"... dedicated to Rian.

Since we're talking about love, let me give this masterpiece a permanent place. The "reply" to one of the love quotes I'd collected (when I was still doing my M. Tech), written by Amit:

Original quote:

   Have you ever been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so
  vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means
  someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these
  defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can
  hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid
  person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you.
  They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you,
  or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes
  hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in
  the darkness, so a simple phrase like 'maybe we should just be
  friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working
  its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not
  just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real
  gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.

            Rose Walker, in Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaman

Amit's reply:

  aaah....then again, you're missing the flip side, aren't you? Let me
  explain....
 
  have you ever been loved? wonderful, isn't it? It makes you so _alive_.
  you go through life like a self possessed maniac, pushing aside
  everybody that stands in your way of what you call goals. then one
  stupid person wanders into your stupid life, and it's not stupid
  anymore.
 
  and she loves you without expecting to be loved back in return. she's
  let down her defences but for once you are absolutely powerless. hurt
  her?  wouldn't even dream of it. you wonder how something so nice could
  possibly fall for a moron like you.
 
  love takes hostage. you live to see that smile on her face. oh anything
  does, as long as you can make her weak in her knees. funny thing, it
  doesn't take too much effort either. you do dumb things like bring home
  a drooping flower and she treats you like you've vanquished the dragon
  of eden.
 
  [true, you didn't ask for it. then again neither would you have got it
  by asking for it. you might even say you don't want it and yet you'll do
  dumber things like kissing her]
 
  It's not imagination. It's not your mind. It breathes. its that real,
  soul-soaking, gets-inside-you-and-fills-you-up-completely feeling of
  utter bliss. i love love. couldn't dream of life without.

  -Amit Butala (circa 2001, @approx 2:00 as he waits for his code to
  compile)

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

Our Calvin with his Hobbes

For a few years now, we've always hosted a party at Halloween. Two year back, we had friends over with costumes, carved pumpkins, watched a couple of scary movies, etc. This is the second year in a row we have not had the party (second Halloween for Rian too - what a co-incidence ;-) ) I guess having a kid changes your life, your priorities, everything. I just hope and pray it does not change our friends ;-) Hope next year we can continue our Halloween tradition.

Rian says: We had an absolutely fun Halloween this year, sans the party. A week before Halloween, we got portraits of me dressed as a tiger, with my Hobbes, done from Picture People. While waiting for the portraits, I enjoyed myself in the play area, a true tiger in the wild experience. The day before Halloween, we had a party in Mummy's office at VMware, with special decorations and treats for the kids. I loved being tiger, and we got some photos with Pooh, Witch, Queen of Spiders, and ran wild in the Enchanted Forest. On Halloween Day, Mummy and Daddy had a lazy start to the day, and then took me to a real farm where we had fun in a pumpkin patch, took a tractor ride, and climbed to the top of a hay stack. Daddy took some nice pictures on the farm too. The day ended with lots of play with Shayona and Namya at Mausami aunty's house where I refused to sleep till midnight. Looked like the Spirit of Halloween had infected me, and every time Daddy tried to put me in the crib, I wailed to the top of my voice even though Hobbes was right next to me.

Runner's High

2009-10-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

Taking care of Rian by ourselves on the weekends is like running a marathon. You've gotta have the Runner's High to make it to the end of the day. Of course the journey is filled with wonderful moments and minor set backs, and at the end of the day, you feel the exhaustion as well as exhilaration, and pride that you took another day all by yourself. Rian makes it all worth it, at the end of the day.

Two weeks, and Mommy & Daddy are loving it so far. Let's hope it lasts for a very long time...

Happy Diwali 2009

2009-10-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali and best wishes for a Prosperous New Year

--Amit, Mamata & Rian.

Diwali 2008 was a quiet one at home, with 3.5 month old Rian, me coping with work + baby, having mom at home to help.

Diwali 2009 was quite the contrary. Our Diwali was lit with celebrations with friends this year. Special friends from Austin, Ujjval - Sonali - Aanya, were with us. Rian loved spending time with Aanya, and even learnt how to use the straw sippy cup from her. The highlight was definitely spending time with friends. Here's our Diwali photo album. Decorating the house has taken a back seat, so no diyas this year. Daddy did painstakingly put up lights for Mommy though, in the front and back patio.

Rian is growing up too fast. This week, he insisted on feeding mummy :) once mummy mistakenly showed him how to do it. Daddy joined the fun too. Rian is starting to doodle now, and interested in pens and papers. Gotta get him those washable crayons before the entire place gets covered in designed scrawls! He's fascinated with magnets, and has learnt some shape sorting too, some on the doodle board, and some on the toy house. Daddy finally got him to like the bubble maker, and he's a cute YouTube video.

Rian now has a table and chair, and Daddy gets him to sit on the chair readily when its time to wear his shoes. Rian also has a new tiger. Now our Calvin has a Hobbes :-) Hope at some point Rian can understand the subtleties and the infinite wisdom in the C&H series.

"Run run run" gets Rian sprinting from one room to another. Of course he loves to run in restaurants too, especially when his parents fall behind. Then again, there are those falls and bruises. Mommy is more prone to get Rian hurt :D but is glad Daddy doesn't strangle her over these. Right now Rian is sporting a bruise on his forehead (left) and has a mark from dash he made in DishDash for a table corner which happened to be coated with metal :-(

On the brighter side, Mommy and Daddy are taking it a bit easy, and even tried taking Rian out on a weeknight. Both agree it was a lot of fun! Hope and pray that fun times last in everyone's household, and all the kids remain happy n healthy.

Super Mom and Super Dad

2009-10-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

That's what me and HD have to become: super mom and super dad.

Rian's second Aaji has come and gone. Now its truly life on our own, with no grandparents coming to help us for a long time (by choice). Sincerely hope and pray that Rian will be a good baby, and help his parents get through the long days and long nights with little or no heartburn.

Mommy is taking on all of aaji's responsibilities: mainly planning Rian's meals. Delivery of those is definitely left to Cely for 3 out of 4 meals. Daddy and Mommy tackle Rian's dinner together.

A new symptom called toddlerhood is completely affecting Rian now. Two days before Aaji leaving, Rian decides: now I will eat only if I am allowed to feed myself! So mommy, daddy and aaji have to innovate, and come up with solid foods that Rian can pick up with his own hands and eat. Chicken, you have suddenly become mommy's best friend. Gone is that Rian who would gag at pieces of finger food. On Saturday we witnessed Rian gulping big pieces of pita bread and chicken - of course with some experimentation, repeated attempts, and very colorful clothing as a result. Syndromes were repeated every dinner, and mommy has now learnt how to do clean-up of the entire dinner area in less than 5 mins :-) with so much practice!

Now we're hoping he catches on to this little thing we humans call talking....

Dad's still got it

2009-10-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

Daddy is so witty and humorous, but recently mommy has not been spending either quality or quantity time with him, so mommy was happy to know Daddy's still got it ;-) Overheard at dinner with his M.S. advisor Prof and friends:

- Prof shows Rian three fingers, and Rian is filled with glee. Prof says: does he always do that? Daddy says, ya, prime numbers always get him :D hehehehe...

-Prof asks Dad: did he learn how to integrate yet? Daddy says: Not sure, but he's very good at derivatives - he can disintegrate anyone!

It was a case of hives

2009-10-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Last week Rian broke out in red patches of skin rash everywhere on Tuesday. It seemed to get worse on Wednesday and so Daddy took him in to see the doctor. Turns out this was a case of hives. It was basically an allergic reaction to something. After much investigative thinking, Daddy came up with the cause - most probably the lovely pup Eva we met at Antonio-Greg's on the previous Saturday! Rian has patted dogs before, but I believe this one got a bit too close and personal with Rian, licking him when she cornered him in the corridor. Note to self: dogs are very cute and Rian loves them, but don't let them lick Rian.

Rian had an insect bite ~a month back and had a swollen right hand, once again a sign of allergy. Maybe at some point I should get him tested for his allergies. Ah well...

The hives were significantly reduced on Day 3, and completely gone by Day 5. That was a relief, especially after knowing some cases of hives can last upto 6 months!

सव्वा वर्षाचा झाला

2009-10-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

रियान काल सव्वा वर्षाचा झाला. बघता बघता वेळ कसा जोरात पळतोय... रियान पण पळतो, खूप खूप पळतो.

रीयानच्या आजीने त्याला फुंकर मारायला शिकवलं. काल पहिल्यांदा त्याने केकची मेणबत्ती स्वतः विझवली. खूप खूष झाला आणि टाळ्या वाजवू लागला :-)

माझा बाळ मोठा होतोय लवकर लवकर.

Regressions

2009-10-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

Being a QA engineer for some time now, I am not very fond of regressions. Yet, being a mother, I've gotten very used to seeing these in Rian. Every once in a while, the little one does an about turn on a nice thing he was doing. Sigh.

A few days ago he could imitate sounds of tiger and cow, but he's lost them now. He had started to sleep from 9:30 to 6am and sometimes 7am without interruptions, but he's back to waking up at 2am now :-(

Other mothers tell me this is expected, you need to keep repeating things to them every day. If you stop doing it for two days, they forget!

On the bright side: fellow was very interested in the toothbrush today. I hit the jackpot as I casually slipped the brush into his left hand today, instead of forcing it like usual into his right one. Hon, I think we have a leftie in the family!

How low can you go?

2009-09-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

As low as the crib can go! Yes, Rian's crib is now lowered to the lowest setting. It had 4 adjustments, and now we are at the lowest. I had to bend all the way to put this little fella in, and I still dropped him the last 1 inch :D

Rian's first haircut

2009-09-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Date: Saturday, Sept 26, 09
Place: Little Scissors, Fremont, CA

Last look at Rian's curls:

Curls being chopped off while Rian is asleep:

Last few hair length being reduced:

Happy Happy Joy Joy on seeing the "doll":

Proof:

Closeup:

One of our fav C&H

2009-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

God, I wish Rian can read C&H when he grows up. This is one of our fav!

So many firsts

2009-09-12T21:33:00.001-07:00

Today was an amazing day for Rian. There are so many firsts, it
deserves a post!

- Rian napped only 30 mins today afternoon instead of the usual 2-3 hrs and still didn't want to sleep till 9:30pm.
- Rian had fun in the Valley Fair mall play area with other kids and he pushes away other kids, even big kids ;-)
- Rian got his first pair of real shoes, a pair of Pumas, lightweight and Velcro for ease of use. Mom, Dad, Granny maha pleased with it.
- Rian had farmers chicken salad sandwich with sourdough for lunch :-)
- Rian ate his first doughnut and it happened to be Mom and Dad's fav Krispy Kreme.
- Rian can find the balloons and black sheep in his books!
- Rian wore his Halloween costume and totally loved it. He didn't want to get out of it. He was running around with it on.

Time flies

2009-09-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

Just realized, Rian has now completed 14 months, and began his smooth sailing into the 15th month today. Wow, time sure flies.

Rian is growing a lot, every day. Its a sad excuse, but I just don't have the time to blog as often as I'd like to. So many things have happened since the last time I've updated this space:

We got back from NY and my mom came over for her 6-wk short visit. Rian is enjoying grandma's attention, pampering, and new foods now.
Rian loooooooooooooves to eat chicken and chicken soup. We went to San Jose downtown yesterday and Rian feasted on bbq chicken.
Rian understands many words and phrases now. "Mummy la de", "ikde ye", and many many more.
Aaji taught him to flutter his eyelids :-) Its too damn cute. When you say "dole kar", he goes flutter flutter.
His kisses are harder to come now, but he'll still occasionally kiss me. If we peep through the gate, we get a sure shot kiss!
Rian chose what he wanted to wear today :-) He picked his t-shirt from the dresser.
Ajoba and Aaji would always tell Rian "Bappa la namaskar kar" after his bath. Today he went down to the family room, then Aaji asked him, "Bappa la namaskar kela?" and off he went, up the stairs, on his own, with lightening speed, and stood there, next to Bappa, asking us to pick him up to do jai jai Bappa!
He's vocalizing a lot more now. He's found his "Pa" sound, and keeps going Pa pa pa pa.
He's showing a keen interest in eating with his own hands. We just don't have the heart/energy for a clean up of that level yet. I know the ped's not going to be happy to hear this, as Rian is yet to "master" his pincer grasp.
He loves coming into the kitchen and opening cabinets, and we sometimes let him, supervised of course.
Rian is in love with Becky, his huge teddy bear. So we gave him a small one too, Bobby. When you tell Rian "Becky barobar gai gai kar", off he goes, snoozes on top of Becky - total drama :-)
We're having a very tough time feeding Rian on weekends. It seems he's a darling with his nanny Cely and eats foods he stubbornly refuses with us. Sigh, we need help on the weekends to resolve this. It becomes especially interesting if we are outside during his meal times.
Ever since we got back from NY and Rian got over his cold, our bedtime brushing habit is gone :-( and also Rian is sleeping in a lot more with me and hubby. Since last night, we've decided to reverse both these trends. Wish us luck!

How true

2009-09-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

In a New York minute...

2009-08-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

... we were back in California again. Seriously. The trip felt "that" short. Enjoyment factor: 100%. Pain factor: well there was some, but most of it was forgotten seeing Rian having fun.

Little did we know that Rian's vomits the night before flying were actually a symptom of his cold. Ped assured us it was a bit of stomach virus and would be over in a day or so, so we continued our journey. Our fwd flight to JFK was a red-eye, and we were hoping to carry a blissfully asleep Rian through the flight with us. But Rian had totally different intentions. Mommy and Daddy didn't get even an hour of shut-eye on the 5-hr red-eye to JFK. On the way to the airport, Rian fell asleep, only to wake up moments before boarding the flight. After that, he remained cranky and oscillated between asleep and awake. That's the time when we discovered he had congestion - so this was a cold :-( and we were going to stay with a 3 year old and an 8 month old sweetheart ... sob sob.

Day 1 in NY was spent recovering from jetlag and cold. Rian was miserable, and we tried to catch up on sleep. We were ready in the evening to go to the park, then buy some milk. Day 2 was catch up day as well, and we had a short trip to a desi restaurant called Tandoor. Yummy kabobs! Day 3 was a Saturday and Aatya had come to meet Rian too. We planned our trip and were actually outside the house very early - at 5pm :D Rian saw Central Park, the Apple store in NY city, and we all had dinner in an awesome place called Sambuca.

We should have listened to Bhai and Bhabhi and taken a cab home. The gaon-wale that we were, we got stuck in the subway for 2 hrs trying to get back on a Saturday night :D when trains were not that frequent. The worst part was temperatures ~105-110F inside the subway stations, waiting for trains. The best part was seeing Rian so excited, soaking in all new things: the trains, the heat, the people, the musicians, the noise. We were exactly under Times Square for almost an hr :D stuck in the subway!

Feel sorry about Kaia who caught a cold :-( and hope she recovers in time for her immunizations. Thanks Aria for sharing your fridge magnets, Rian was in love with them. Also must mention all those doggies that made Rian go "ha ha", and towards the end, everything literally made him go "ha ha" :-) Love the city, must visit at least once a year. But for now, happy to be back home in my gaon!

Part time mother...

2009-07-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

... full-time freak?

Sometimes I feel like I'm a part time mother. Except for the first 10 weeks, when I was on maternity leave, living every second with Rian. Now I have to take care of my baby only for a few waking hours every day. Then off I go, to work. Spend 8 hours in a chair thinking sometimes about my babe at home.

The first 10 weeks of life at home with Rian were amazing. They were also the ones with the most ups and downs. Day in and day out, all I was doing was changing Rian's diaper, feeding Rian, and putting him to sleep. After the 8th week, things got a bit rewarding, when Rian started responding to our overtures with beautiful smiles. He used to play a lot in his gym. We'd started going out for park visits.

Through my baby's first year, we were lucky to have my mom and later Amit's parents around to help us. Now that we're planning to fly solo (nanny to take care of Rian), this part time mother wonders how life's going to change. Nervous and excited at the same time, taking on new challenges, bonding more closely with Rian compared to the past few months. No more sleep-ins on Saturday mornings, as we'd have to take care of Rian. Eventually late nights will be out, else we'll be napping with Rian on the weekends :-)

You are my sunshine

2009-07-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

... my only sunshine

My dear sweet Rian. You make my mornings shiny bright. Yesterday you woke up before mommy and daddy. You were sitting up, and as you saw Daddy's eyes open, you started clapping your hands with glee! Mom had turned the other side, so you climbed over mom to peek at her face, how cute! Mommy and Daddy asked for kissie, and you obliged with that wide open mouth.

Today mommy and daddy woke up before you did. You opened your eyes and felt mom's hand on you, and followed it, turned towards mom, and gave her the most precious smile. How we love when you squeal with joy, then scurry off to climb the pillow mountain and get on top to touch the wall hanging...

And now some words from U2 for you, my babe:
Baby slow down
The end is not as fun as the start
Please stay a child somewhere in your heart

Mom rules

2009-07-29T19:15:00.001-07:00

Yes yes, I rule as Mom ;-) but that aside, many times I feel compelled to write set of rules for moms. So many things learned over the the past year, experienced first-hand by making those golden mistakes... maybe some day I will learn from myself! For what its worth, here goes:

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Seems such an easy one for mom's to follow. But sometimes we're in this "let me experiment" mode. When Rian was ~3 months old, we tried to change his baby wipes on suggestions our friends gave us. Well meaning friends, of course, but all babies are different. We were using Pampers Sensitive Wipes at the time, and a friend recommended using Kirkland wipes - cheaper, stronger, and had "cotton". We also discovered they had less moisture unfortunately, and for that cute young butt, something was not right. Rian had his episode of diaper rash which unfortunately lasted for almost a week. Thanks to Boudreaux Butt Paste, he finally recovered. Yet, mommy chose to make the same mistake again. A week back all was well in brushing land. Rian was happy brushing morning and night. A friend suggested "try the tooty frooty flavor", and off went mommy again, experimenting. Our little fellow absolutely hated it for 3 days. Then it struck me - let me try my plain old toothpaste again, and here he was, a happy baby, letting mommy do brushie brushie.
Throw guilt out the window. We live in a complex world, and are always trying to overachieve. Be it lofty goals like "I will catchup with my TODO list today", or "I will spend 3 hours with Rian today", or "I will breastfeed for a year". Its great to have a goal to motivate you, but mommies, please, don't stress yourself out if you can't. Easier said than done, but try to let go and relax. Enjoy the present with your baby. There will always be dishes to do or that teether to buy online or that document you owe your manager. And it will get done when it has to get done.
Don't compare. I seriously detest comparison mommies. Many of them will go "Is Rian eating table food yet", "is he walking yet", "oh, mine calls me mummy since she was 9 months old, does yours?". If you're using these as conversation starters, sure. But don't make it the only thing you talk about. There are so many more interesting things to talk about, like what's the latest park you've been to.
Learn from your baby. Sometimes babies are just not ready to try some things. Take cues from your baby, listen to them. But babies do tend to get into their comfort spots, so when the pediatrician tells you to introduce the sippy cup, that's the time to push your tot.
You know your baby best. Even though you may spend just an hour every day with the baby, way less than the baby sitter or day time care person, trust your instincts and believe me when I say you know your baby the best. Take comfort in the fact that you have a special connection, and your baby will tell you what's wrong with him.
Dad knows best, too. Dads love to chip in. Moms need to let Dads do it their way. Help them when they ask for it, but in general, don't micromanage them. No one likes that.

Any other advice to add to the list, moms & dads?

Rian has left the building

2009-07-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

Almost... For almost a week now, Rian can open doors. His intahligant mommy taught him how to carefully open doors: stand on the side, then pull the handle down :D he he he ...

And now mommy's brain is planning to leave too, but not before a coredump -- BEEEEP -- here goes!

Rian now remembers... lots of things! He loves destroying towers of blocks we build for him. He has loads of masti up his sleeve. Check out this YouTube video of Rian and pillows on our love seat.

Rian loves exploring. He dutifully tries to open drawers in Aaji's bedroom and examines every small thing on Aaji's side table. Check out his YouTube video.

Rian sports a cute choti a few mornings, when mommy gets irritated with his long hair going into his eyes.

Rian claps when he's happy :-) It's pretty cute to see it in person. You all are invited! Aaji has taught him "ithe ithe bas re mora" and he can now point with his forefinger. This one is even cuter than Rian clapping, trust me.

2 weeks after he started walking on his own, he's now trying to run ... after geese! We discovered and fell in love with a new Park in Cupertino, Memorial Park. We went there on Saturday and Sunday evening.

Last week Rian surprised us by sleeping from 10 to 6 for a couple of nights. This week, he's back to his usual routine of waking up ~2-3am and we have to live with his kicks after that, in our bed.

Last week we tried to cut down Rian's acid reflux medicine drastically (from 1.7ml/day to 0.5ml/day) and it backfired, as usual. The poor fellow was in misery for at least 3 continuous days as food travelled back up his throat :-( We witnessed an 11pm awakening with loud wails that subsided only 15 minutes after Tylenol made it into his system. After a long time Rian threw up on Daddy's t-shirt. Sigh. Up goes Zantac, to 1.7ml/day.

Rian was up at 4am today, and didn't sleep until 5:15am, and wanted Daddy and Mommy to play with him. Since it was night #2 he was keeping us awake, off he was bundled, to grandpa and grandma. So thankful they are here now, dreading the days when we won't have that support.

Yawn. Gotta sleep now. Almost time for Rian to start doing his wakeup routine!

Chicken pox from the vaccine

2009-07-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday (16 July) when we got home, Rian was very cranky and had not had his naps properly. We had noticed some red marks on his legs the day before, and presumed them to be mosquito bites. On closer inspection this day, a random thought came into my mind. It was the 10th day of his 1 year vaccines (given on 7th), and I remember the doctor mentioned we may see a rash from the MMR. I thought this was related to measles. It completely skipped my mind that he received Varicella as well. We called PAMF after hours nurse support.

Usually the advice nurses are very good, but this time around it took forever to speak to one, she didn't have Rian's record in front of her, asked me tons of questions about this "rash", and the conversation wasn't very nice. Meanwhile Amit had given Rian some Tylenol, so baby had his dinner without incident and had seemed to calm down quite a bit. We missed the urgent care window by 10mins, and decided to monitor Rian overnight on our own. The next day was Friday and was WFH so I could monitor the little fellow and take him to urgent care if required. Since he was fine throughout the day, albeit a bit cranky, we decided to skip the visit to the pediatrician.

On Friday night though, one red spot on his leg and one on his right hand seemed to be full of "water" and the one on his leg burst. Now we were concerned, and got an appt for Saturday morning 10:30am. The doctor (Amy Henegan) was very nice to us and explained this was classic chicken pox from the vaccine, a 1 in 100 chance. She handed us some anti-biotic ointment to prevent infection of those boils. Since the virus is attenuated for the vaccine, this chicken pox does not spread to healthy people. Phew, what a relief!

Today Rian is getting much better, and the boils have reduced in size. They're still there though, and the one on his hand burst and made a big wound :-( My brave babe is taking the boo boo quite well, I should add. A few 6am wakings :-) and a few low grade fevers asides, he's my sweet little pumpkin. Get well soon, meri jaan.

Sleepwalking

2009-07-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago, I was exhausted from work and an early morning, and hit the pillow at 10:30am, alone. Rian was asleep in his crib since 9:30pm. Amit was watching TV and later working, downstairs. When Amit came upstairs at 11:30pm, he saw: Rian and me stuck to each other in bed :-) and pillows neatly stacked on Amit's side of the bed so Rian doesn't roll-off!

Till date I have no recollection of even waking up to get Rian from the crib. Even in my sleepwalking episode, I was so cautious that I stacked pillows ;-) I'm impressed with my own maternal instints.

Walking toddler

2009-07-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since Rian took those first few steps unassisted. Suddenly a day after his birthday party, Rian just decided to start walking... all by himself... 30 steps, and more. And now he's all over the place. He never once wants to crawl anymore :-) Here's a YouTube video of Rian Butala crawling.

In these two weeks, Rian has also lost almost all his baby fat :-( I can feel his bones now when I hug him. Eh my poor little sweet thing, please don't grow up so fast... slow down...

[Edit on 7/15/09]: Since Monday 7/13/09, Rian is also on a new sleep & wake-up routine: we are brushing his teeth at night after his milk, and in the morning before his breakfast. Rian does not get any milk in the middle of the night now.

Rian now has 6 pearly whites :-)

Rian's first birthday party

2009-07-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Rian's first birthday party at Las Palmas Park in Sunnyvale, on Saturday 11 July '09 with a lunch party. We booked the recreation building in the park. This park holds a special place in my heart: this is the park where Rian gave us his widest grins and smiles for the first time. A lot of our guests mentioned to us that the loved the venue. Little kids could roam around in the park and many had their food outside.

We catered food from Turmeric restaurant. They delivered it to the park in big black insulated boxes. This avoided the need for "burners" and stands for the food trays, and no "burnt" spots in the food. Personally I loved the food and was drooling for it from the day we had the menu decided. We had spinach and aloo tikki (green) and veg manchurian balls (pink) for starters. The chef threw together this excellent salad with sprouted moong beans, cherry tomatoes and strawberry pieces, with sweet chutney thrown around. Everyone was crazy about it. There was some raita and chutneys too. The main dishes were koftas in chutney gravy, spinach and corn, panchratna daal, naan, pulav with peas and almond slices.

The cake was ordered from Amia Bakery. We got a quarter sheet of Tres Leche cake with mango pieces in it. For our special friends, we also had a 6" eggless cake of the same flavor.

The evite stated 11:30am to 2:30pm but surprisingly people came in much later than we expected. We were hoping to cut the cake at 12:30pm but I think that's when we got started with appetizers. The cake was next as we wanted to finish it before Rian got cranky or sleepy. He was pretty much a happy baby except for all the crying he did just when the cake was being cut and that's how all his pictures are :-) Cely helped us a lot, mainly taking care of Rian and then later in the cleanup phase as well. Aaji Ajoba helped feed Rian. Sometimes I wonder: what exactly was I doing in the birthday party?? Daddy helped setup the place, along with our close friends who helped decorate: thanks a lot guys...

Thank you all for the wonderful wishes and the thoughtful gifts. Rian will be getting them one at a time, to avoid gift overload. FYI Rian loved pulling the wrappers off of his gifts :-)

I'm in love...

2009-07-12T22:06:00.001-07:00

...in love, with you, my babe. You give me the warm fuzzies with your wide grin and gleeful giggles. You melt my heart with the slightest frown. That trickle of tears turns me inside out. You make me so proud, you are my shining star as you tranform into a toddler and do your unstable dance. One call and mommy is all yours. I love how you go to sleep on me, your face nestled in my neck. Time, please freeze and let these moments last forever. It's as if you were waiting to hit the one year mark: Now you are speeding toward all new milestones!

Early to rise

2009-07-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Rian woke up at 4:30am for his midnight feed. I prepared the formula, Amit fed him and put him back in his crib. Typically Rian wakes up ~6-6:30am and then I drag him back to our bed, for 2 more hours of snooze time. Today Rian woke up at 6am, but by the time I went to get him from his crib, he was wide awake. Last night I came in after Rian went to bed (beauty parlor appt), and Rian was so excited to see me, he was all smiles and coos :-) cho chweet. I tried to rock him back to sleep, and I usually succeed within 5-10 mins. No such luck today.

30 minutes into rocking, lullabies, silent prayers, some cursing under my breath, and the little one was still awake and giving me the most cute and wide grins. I put him down on my chest and I was lying in bed. Once in a while, he'd pick his head up, come to my lips, pucker his lips and give me a kiss and a wide wide smile :-) Oh I was melting inside ... he he he ...

Finally I gave in to sleep, and handed Rian over to his grandparents at 6:30am for an hr and a half more of sleep. Sigh, missed out on our play time with Rian this morning. Gotta go home & make up for it!

For the record, Rian didn't go back to sleep even after his grandparents tried very hard today. I think he took a morning nap today after mommy & daddy went for work ~9:45am. Reflecting back on this, I was thinking: this is my last month of having Rian's grandparents around. After that I guess I'll be up with Rian at 6am :-) Scary thought!

Baby registry

2009-07-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

I compiled a list of all baby items for a registry for dear friend of mine. What better place to share it than here, so here goes Copy-Paste :-) from my email.

Some are TODOs:

• Cocoa butter – stretch marks prevention. Start using around now. It didn’t help me but apparently it helps quite a few people.
• Cord blood – You want to do this early. Figure out if you want to store or donate. We had planned to donate it but we were not qualified. Donate here: http://www.cryo-intl.com/
• Babies R Us: My registry is still online. That was my “shopping list”. I often went back and edited it to keep it in sync with what I bought for Rian. Anyways I have some recommendations below too. Start looking from here http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3200390. Create a registry online or in-store. I heard there are some benefits of in-store registry: some coupons & stuff. Sign up for their coupons in-store. These are different from the online coupons. Also sign up for email deals.
• Watch Happiest Baby on the Block DVD – library or Amazon
• Watch In the Womb – Nat Geo DVD – library or Amazon
• Invest in a Medela or borrow from a friend, then get it tested here: http://www.elcaminohospital.org/Womens_Hospital/Pregnancy_Childbirth/Mother_Baby_Store/. I had http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2815290, this is the newest one http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2901995 and this one required medela feeding bras which are too expy http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3214492.
• Sign up for classes for delivery and breastfeeding.
• In the first week, meet with a lactation consultant – I can’t tell you how useful it was, even though Rian had latched and my milk had come in.

Here go recommendations:

Baby Gear:

• Car seat & stroller: we had Graco Metrolite – lightest travel system that Graco has. Two cars? Get a second base if spouse will be doing some doctor visits. In reality: we used our second base maybe 10 times, but loved having the convenience. Once installed, if you don’t have LATCH in your car, the bases are a pain to re-install. Get some toy bar for car seat. I’d recommend looking into Combi. We recently bought Rian a Combi stroller and its very light weight. Heard that Combi has infant car seats that fit in this stroller too. You can do a stroller frame and an infant car seat too, but personally I found it useful to have a “cover” on the baby which the travel system gives me.
• Baby carrier: I can’t stop saying enough about this one, it’s a life saver. I’ve used it since Rian’s 5th week of life, and still use it. I did a lot of research before buying this, and I can tell you it has saved our back and a lot of pain in life. http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/. I picked it up from http://tinytots.com/ in Campbell.
• Play yard: Since we have 2 functioning levels @ home, used a Graco play yard (pack n play) with a removable bassinet and on-board changer. Used this a lot in our family room.
• Gym: Rian started using a gym for tummy time and for lying on his back and music. I had the baby Einstein one and Rian loves it. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2736587
• Bouncer: We bought this bouncer http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265002 and Rian still loves playing with it. Another alternative is an infant to toddler rocker http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3247576
• Swing: there are many types of swings but I got this one http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265072. Basically I wanted something with a removable tray. I’ve never used the tray and there are cribs for which you cannot remove the tray – that’s just bad engineering IMHO. Travel swings are an option but I knew we wouldn’t move the crib around. Plus a full swing gives you 2 motions.

Infant Care:

• 12 burp cloths & 12 bibs
• Some cloth diapers – multi-use soft cotton cloths. (get from India)
• Lap pads - (get from India)
• Nipple cream – get Lansinoh or Mother Love (whole foods)
• Breast pads
• Feeding bras – I used the $12-$15 ones from Target. I had a size change too sometime in between. Best to buy one pair for the hospital. Then you should go again in a week after the milk comes in.
• Storage for Breast milk from pumping – I got 3 packs of these containers http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2815289. Absolutely useful, BPA-free. Now I use them for Rian’s formula (pre-measured), his cereal, and soon will use for his finger food too.
• Nursing pillow – I had Boppy with a cotton cover
• Nursing wrap – I had this http://www.bebeaulait.com/ - definitely recommend this over just using cloth as it has a “stand” collar so you can see and position baby. Also makes the cloth “stand” so it does not stick to baby’s face. Rian could not tolerate any sensation of touch on his face else he’d start rooting.
• Bottles – Get BPA-free polypropelene or glass. I have 4 3.5oz glass bottles – sufficient for first 3 months. Then I bought 8oz polyprop ones. We used Dr. Brown’s. I’ve heard learning curve breastflow makes transition between breast and bottle (and back – for working moms) easier. I wish I had used these – call me for related story, too long to type. You may need premie nipples. Rian used premie nipples first 3 or 4 months, then we switched him to size 1. I guess every baby is different. Also buy Dr. Brown’s bottle cleaning brush - doesn’t matter what bottle you buy, this brush has a stand that makes the sponge dry – less bacteria breeding. Sterilization is not required – I did it like once a month if we felt like it. You can boil or use this electric one. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2970575.
• Get a booster like this http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2861764 instead of a high chair. Portable, can strap on anywhere, and can carry to restaurants. We have a rainforest one.
• High chair cover: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3436925 when you go to restaurants. Rian chews on the chairs.
• Bath tub – I used this one no problems. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10727396.
• Get 6 washcloths and 3-4 towels.
• In case you have a baby boy, get like 15-20 of these http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3504785 cheap washcloths or you can use cloth diapers – this is to cover their pee pee when you open the diaper – they squirt ?
• Johnson’s baby wash – yellow and pink. Winter baby, consider getting this http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2440135 especially if prone to dry skin.
• Few bath toys – small rubber duckies work well.
• Nail clippers – I have http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2792506.
• Hair brush – the American red cross one is very nice.
• Baby Oil – Johnson’s
• Baby massage book – http://www.amazon.com/Loving-Hands-Traditional-Baby-Massage/dp/1557043140/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
• Teethers – 3,4 different kinds
• Pacifiers – experiment, buy BPA-free
• Digital thermometer – I have something like this http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2449560. Big read out and soft tip for reading rectal temp.
• Humidifier – I have a cool mist humidifier. Also serves dual purpose of being a white noise machine. Helps baby sleep longer. Must buy for winter baby. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2266321.
• Infant Tylenol (Grape flavor), Mylicon, Little Colds Baby Rub, Trivisol (doctor will tell you this @ 2 month check if baby is breastfeeding), gripe water (from India).
• Diaper crèmes: Big 14oz dubba of Aquaphor, 16oz dubba of A+D cream – apply alternately @ diaper changes to keep rash away. In case rash happens, use Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. Keep small tubes of these in the diaper bag.
• Socks & mittens: get lots of pairs from India.
• Diapers: Pampers swaddlers from Newborn to size 2. After that, you should experiment with Huggies too, as Pampers cruisers tend to bunch up at least for baby boys.
• Wipes: I’ve always used Pampers sensitive wipes. There are wipes with “natural cotton” and Rian got a rash with those. YMMV, some people love these. After baby gets onto formula and poop isn’t sweet smelling anymore, we switched to Pampers Swipers scented wipes. You can carry one of the “refill packs” in your diaper bag, never need those travel wipes cases – they’re useless and only carry 5-6 diapers anyways.
• Diaper bags: your choice. Also get a couple from India. It may have a changing pad. Get a few changing pads from India to put all over the house.
• Diaper pail: Baby Trend Diaper Champ http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3491391. You can use the Costco liners inside these, no need to buy costly refills. Contains smell pretty well.
• Baby monitor – we have Fisher Price 900 MHz – very good. http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Long-Distance-900MHz-Monitor/dp/B000I5RF8C/ but I got it for $38 from Walmart.
• Gates – we have two of these. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2909941.
• Get CO monitors from Costco – two pack.
• Outlet covers, corner guards, egde guards as required. Depends on how mobile baby is @ 6 months.

Nursery:

• Crib: Drop-side cribs are convenient but there have been too many recalls on those. Personally I didn’t find them sturdy enough. We bought a solid wood one from Amazon in Cherry color to match our bedroom furniture http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FT7NXS. You can pick out a crib set of your choice. I had a “sea life” theme going with all my stuff.
• Changing table: we bought a changing pad with a cover and put it on top of our dresser. After 6 months babies become too mobile anyways, so we didn’t think buying a separate changing table was worth the money or space.
• Crib mobiles and toys. I have http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2299139 and old version of this http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3565464.
• You may want to invest in a rocking chair. I used my rocker/recliner a lot in early months to put baby to sleep.
• Crib mattress, mattress pad
• Receiving blankets – at least 4. You can get colorful ones from India. Also need Swaddle Me or something like that when receiving blanket swaddle does not work.
• Nursery décor
• Storage solutions. I got the 3 drawer plastic chests from Walmart. Also have some 4 drawer chest from Ikea. Also helps to have the small three drawer chest for items like nail clippers, combs, medicine syringes. Also have a 4 drawer plastic chest for socks, bibs, burp cloths, etc

Clothing and layette:

• Sets of onesies – they come in 5 packs. 0-3 months ka one pack, 3-6 months ka one pack etc. We found onesies very convenient for diaper changes. Get long handed onesies. Sometimes you get onesie and pant sets.
• Get a few body suits since its winter.
• Get a couple of wearable blankets.
• Caps, socks, mittens (socks mitten sets from India)
• Koala baby or Robeez soft soled booties http://www.amazon.com/Robeez-Infant-Toddler-Circles-Pastel/dp/B00119T5CI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=shoes&qid=1246925217&sr=8-1

Toys:

• These are subjective – pick what you like.

Doctor doctor...

2009-07-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

It was Rian's one year check up today and we were, as usual, ready with our barrage of questions. We met Dr. Harry Dennis as our pediatrician Dr. Linda Strain was on leave. Dr. Dennis was very patient and answered all our questions. Rian got 4 shots today :-( sob, sob! As usual Daddy distracted him from the pain and all was fine in wonderland after 10 mins of motorboat motorboat go so fast!

Rian's doing well and growing well. He took his first bottle of cow's whole milk today. We'll see how his tummy treats it, then go full force with whole milk, no more formula!

Rian also needs to start brushing his teeth now, twice daily. Mommy will start with Rian too :-) Oh come on, I mean about the night time brushing. Of course Mommy brushes in the morning :D

Happy first birthday, Rian

2009-07-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

It's your very first birthday, Rian,
One candle on your cake;
Proud parents stare in wonder
At each new move you make.

We join in celebration,
As this special date arrives,
For Rian has brought pleasure
Into all our lives.

We look forward now to seeing
How you progress and grow,
From the cute and tiny infant
You were one year ago.

So dig into your icing;
Enjoy your presents, too.
The reason for this day
Is a special person--you!

By Joanna Fuchs

Ready or not... Here comes Rian

2009-07-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this post from memory, almost a year later, on 7/6/09. I still remember everything that happened, leading up to Rian's birth, crystal clear in my mind.

30 June

This was my 36 week check with my nurse practitioner, and she announced to us that my cervix had completely thinned out. She warned me to wrap up all my work @ office this week, and hand over everything I had on my plate, which was totally echoed by my boss Aleksey. When I checked with Mausami, she mentioned this happened to her too, at the 36th week, but Mausami delivered Shayona in the 41st week, so I was under the impression that I had time. Per my schedule, 11 July was going to be my last working day. I had planned 2 weeks of leave before my EDD of 28 July.

4 July

My mom came from India on 1 July, and was just about getting over her jetlag. Amit and I were eager to go out somewhere as the long weekend had just started. But mom insisted that we pack the hospital bag. With tidbits of house work here and there, we managed to get the hospital bags (yes, we had two!) packed by 11pm. Then we all relaxed.

5 July

Eager to get out and have some fun, we targetted to go for a long drive along CA-1. We stopped at a couple of beaches, then finally reached Santa Cruz beach. We rested and napped in the beautiful sun, on mats. And then it was back home. Amit was experimenting with his new 50mm lens that he bought in preparation for baby's arrival, and took some super cute photos of me.

6 July

It was a lovely Sunday morning, a 3-day weekend well spent, and a whole day to rest. 9am: The moment I got up from the bed, I felt something, fluid... wet... something like a heavy period... watery... hmm... Hello maxipads, tring tring Dr. Swenson (my OB). Sweetest and most patient OB on earth, she explained to me that my water bag had broken. Since I wasn't feeling any pain, she guessed there were no contractions. This was 3 weeks and one day ahead of schedule. She advised me to go for some walks and try to see if we can get the contractions started on our own, and check in to the hospital in 3-4 hours. I was concerned as I had heard we should "rush" to the hospital if the water breaks. Delivery had to "finish" within 24 hours of water break. The hospital would make sure baby was out before 9am on 7 July by C-section if required. Amit calmed my nerves and asked me to follow along with Dr. Swenson's plan.

Mom had just woken up too. Knowing Mom, Amit had an idea that she would panic. So he just told her to get ready and have breakfast, we were going to Costco to buy some essentials. She was a bit curious, but didn't say anything about all the hurry we were in. Thankfully she had a good night's sleep the night before, and was also refreshed.

Meanwhile, I took a shower and had my breakfast. I'd started feeling nervous already. It was too soon, I wasn't ready in my mind. I hadn't painted the baby room. I had one more work week and 2 weeks of rest planned ahead. OTOH, we were well prepared:

the car seat was installed and checked,
the crib was assembled and bedding was installed,
the stroller was ready,
the hospital bag was packed,
Rian's essential clothes (and even non-essential ones) were washed and neatly folded
the bouncer was assembled,
the crib was assembled,
we had diapers, diaper cream, cloth diapers,
the bottles were washed,
we had bath essentials,
we had the dress to bring baby back home in,
we had a name for the baby that all of us were happy with.

Finally ~10am Amit gave the news to Mom. She was excited, nervous, and was panicking just like me :-) Billy and Lilly had given us a tree sampling to plant the previous Saturday on their wedding day (28 June). I knew I wouldn't have time for it after we got home, so I took Mom's help and planted the tree. Since Dr. Swenson actually wanted me to walk, off we went to Costco. An hr later, still no pain. Hence we assumed: no contractions. Amit suggested some more walking @ Shoreline Lake. The weather was perfect for a stroll. We finished with lunch at the cafe there, and started driving to the hospital.

2:30pm: We checked into the hospital and were lucky to get into a Labor & Delivery room, they had just one more remaining after checking us in. Immediately, they had all the monitors connected to my tummy. Turns out I was having contractions all the time, and they were three minutes apart! They started asking me about pain, and that's when it hit me: I had some pain in my back - nothing in my abdomen, but periodic pain in my back. Now I feel foolish to have missed it in the first place. I never thought I'd have cramps in the back instead of pain in the abdomen. The attending OB came in to see me, and it was my lucky day - Dr. Swenson, my own OB was on call. She assured me she would deliver my baby before she went off of her shift :-)

I was 3cm dialated. They checked with an ultrasound to see the baby had engaged in the pelvis and was in the correct position. I suspect his face was up and his back was down - which is why I had back labor. But the OB told me everything was "normal" and not to worry about it. They asked me about pain management, and my plan. I was open to the epi, but wanted to try IV painkillers first to see if that would help with the pain. In any case, at this point I was feeling very little pain.

They started me on Pitocin via IV since the OB wanted to increase the intensity of my contractions. The nurse asked me if I wanted some anti-vomiting medication. Since I wasn't feeling nauseous, Amit and I both decided to hold off on it. I started watching Shrek 3 on the TV screen in the room. (For the record: the movie sucked). Then the Pitocin effect kicked in and the pain mounted. We tried all the breathing techniques. Amit inflated my exercise ball and we labored on the ball for a bit.

4:30pm: I asked for the IV painkiller. In 10 mins, I was floating away in no man's land as if I'd downed an entire wine bottle. The pain sure dulled, but it didn't go away. We tried different positions, but help wasn't coming.

5:30pm: I asked to check how dialated I was. Since my water had broken, they were reluctant to check me for fear that they'd introduce infection. Anyways, they checked and I was still 3cm. I could not believe it. 3 hrs and quite some pain later I was still at 3cm. The pain was wearing down on me. I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist had just been called into another room, so I had to wait for ~25 mins. I think those were the worst 25 mins of the pain. Amit tried to distract me from the pain, Mom was being her usual sweet self too. Nausea was kicking in. Just before the anesthesiologist came in, I threw up. Now, I'd never thrown up my entire pregnancy, and here I was, epidural guy waiting behind me, and the throw up just would not stop! It was embarassing.

This was probably a resident at Stanford. I believe he had a supervisor too, overlooking his work. He started to read out all the disclaimers and possible side effects to me. I was so upset I told him "I know all these things, now can you just give me the epidural?" I'm sure he was skilled in dealing with women like me :-) He said to me in a firm voice "You may be aware of these but I am required to tell you, and as you can see I'm prepping you in parallel without wasting any time!" :-) Fine, point taken.

6:30pm: The epidural was in. I was now lying flat on the bed, oxygen mask on my nose to make my breathing easier. The pain was vanishing away. I had started to mentally and physically relax. From what I had read and heard in the classes and from my friends, 3cm to 7cm can take the longest, even upto 12 hrs. I thought of taking a nap.

7:15pm: The nurse checked on me and I was already 7cm dialated. We were all very surprised at how quick this went, from 3cm to 7cm after the epidural. The nurse told me that it could still be a while. She told me I'd reach 10cm, and then I'd feel an urge to push. She warned me NOT to push. Amit and mom had been with me for ~5hrs and they had no caffeine. So I asked Amit to go to the cafeteria and grab some coffee/tea, but keep his cell phone near him.

7:30pm: I felt it. I felt the urge to push! I panicked. Amit was out of the room. I called him back from wherever he was. This was way too soon! We paged the nurse. She came in and sternly told me NOT to push. She started prepping to deliver the baby. I couldn't believe it was going to happen. They alerted the doctor.

7:45pm: The doctor came in and gave me an okay to start pushing. The nurse helped me and encouraged me to "find" the contraction myself. There was no pain and I could feel each contraction. When I'd identify it, she would confirm from the electronic screen and then would ask me to push. 5 to 6 pushes later, it looked very promising and Rian's head could be seen. The doctor had a C-section, which she postponed - she wanted to make sure she delivered my baby first. All hands were on deck. Amit suggested we get a mirror so I'd see the head - encourage me to keep pushing. I confirmed with him: will I get grossed out, or will it truly encourage me. He said, trust me, you wouldn't want to miss looking at this. They also made me touch the head. Several pushes later, 45 mins after I'd started pushing, Rian Butala arrived in this world. 8:26pm. He weighed in at 6lb 3oz, 18.5 inches tall. I held onto Rian, the new love of our life.

It was amazing to have delivered Rian within 6 hrs. Thanks to Amit, Dr. Swenson, Mom and nurse Cecilia for all the help and encouragement. A truly memorable and life changing day for all of us.

(Written almost a year later, from memory, on 7/6/09)

Bye Bye Baby

2009-07-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

A day before his birthday, Rian amazed us with one more milestone: he waved bye bye :-) Daddy was with him, outside our tent cabin in Yosemite valley (Curry Village), and Daddy was teaching him how to wave good bye. That's when I was returning from a shower, and he waved me bye bye :-) Good job, Rian... and great job Daddy.

TODO list

2009-06-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Being a list junkie, I have lists for everything. For what it's worth, here's a list of blogs I'd like to finish in the next week, to commemorate Rian's first birthday:

5 things I love about being a mom (Tag by Richa)
The gory details about giving birth to Rian
All the things I'm thankful for, since Rian came into our lives

Well, good luck to me :-) And let me know if I should "add" to this list.

Somewhat of an "expert"

2009-06-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Being a mom has made me a store of knowledge. I've learned a LOT from Rian as a baby, and am still learning from Rian as a toddler. I'm somewhat of a research junkie, and have done a lot of research in my pregnancy and early baby days, to add to the pool. Lots of notes from classes, fav internet links, I have a store of them physically and mentally and electronically.

Lots of new mommies (work colleagues, friends) have been asking me questions and suggestions - formula, sleep problems, newborn questions. I also learn new things in the process of discussion. Its so nice to be able to share everything I've learn from Rian. I always thought I could document all these little tidbits on the blog, but life had its own agenda I guess, and I can't kept up with the blog as often as I'd like to.

Newborns are so tender and vulnerable. They want you to hold them, coz that's what they're used to, the feeling of being inside mommy's womb. The first week is pure bliss, and the second week is frustrating, with baby unable to sleep, nursing problems, jaundice and blah. Swaddling baby was my solution to make baby feel cozy. We swaddled Rian for a month and a half for all sleep and naps. Later, mom gave up the swaddle for his naps, and we kept it for his night sleep till he was almost 4 months old. In retrospect, I should have given up the swaddle ~3 months. I kept it for a month more for personal sanity and more sleep ;-) as it took some time to get Rian used to sleeping without swaddling.

I'd highly recommend getting the DVD "Happiest baby on the block" from your nearest public library and watching it. The 5 S principles are good tools to have in your toolbelt. "Loving Hands: The Traditional Art of Baby Massage" was the book I turned to for Indian massage with full page pictures, written by a western author. It was very helpful as my mom too had no idea how to massage the baby. The "swaddle me" products from Kiddopotamus were helpful for us when Rian fought the manual swaddle I'd make with receiving blankets. Swaddling helped Rian sleep better with his reflux too.

I still remember our run to the ER on day 12. I thought Rian wasn't breathing well, and the nurse on the phone counted more than 60 breaths. Textbook and "procedure" had her directing us to the nearest ER. Stanford ER was probably overstaffed :D and they just would not let us go. We ended up spending 3am to 7am in the ER, terrified. Now I look back and laugh at the incident. Had I know newborns try to adjust their breathing patterns in the second week, I may have reacted differently.

If/when we have the second baby, it'll be so easy :-) no more long "lists" to prepare for baby, I'll know what we need like the back of my hand.

Rian's first steps

2009-06-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Rian started walking! Unassisted! He took 5 steps today without holding on :-) It just happened out of the blue. Rian was playing in the family room and me, hubby and FIL were looking on. He cruises from the sofa to the center table to his bouncer, holding on. This time around, he went from the center table to the bouncer, NO HANDS! 3 separate, very confident steps!

We could not believe what we saw, none of us spoke for a few seconds. It seems I broke the silence and said "Did Rian just walk on his own?" :-) And that was that... celebrations galore. Daddy was "walkie walkie" all the time, and he'd hold Rian with one hand, then let go as Rian came closer to mommy. Rian walked to mommy - 5 steps - on his own - at least three separate times...

We're calling it :-) Rian's officially started walking. He surprised his Aaji with this gift on her birthday (29 June '09).

Get up, stand up

2009-06-24T21:43:00.001-07:00

Rian has been pulling up to a stand since a week after he learnt how to crawl. That was right around 8.5-9 months timeframe. Since then Rian has gotten more and more mobile and creative: cruises around the family room, goes up the stairs, brings down all our DVDs :-) etc

Lately Rian has taken to walking with support. If you want a grin from this little fellow, just give him one finger in each hand, and he literally walks all over the house, tirelessly, from dawn till dusk, leading you. Now he even wants to climb up stairs like mommy and daddy, one foot on a stair and push up! Now Aaji is experimenting giving him just one finger instead of two!

Today was a sort of a milestone, and experienced by Dad. Rian was playing with Dad and was sitting. Out of nowhere, he got on his fours and magically managed to stand up without support! He was standing for 30-40 seconds at least. I think it's safe to say now that "Rian can stand on his own" :-)