Shh... be careful

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

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

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

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

... 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":

1. Groceries
2. Planning for every day food menu for the cook and Rian
3. Taking dr appts for Rian and Amit and myself (yes, it's cold season)
4. Appt for photo portraits
5. Upload all photos taken by Amit (& he's a very good photographer)
6. Planning for weekends: long trips like Tahoe & even short local weekend trips like hiking, park outings, plan restaurants for weekends
7. Plan playdates
8. Plan & "register" for Rian's weekend classes, take him to the weekend classes every weekend
   
9. Buying clothes for Rian
10. Buying trip-specific gear for Rian: swim dress, floaters, ski bibs, gloves, snow boots. Run around town or order from Amazon, pickup from Craigslist.
    
11. Planning for birthdays - be it a party or a small cake - be it Rian or my FIL or Cely
12. Planning food for get-togethers and potlucks, even snacks
13. Planning and buying gifts for parties
    
14. Remember & call people on bdays & annivs
15. Pay credit card bills, utility bills, school fees on time
16. Remember to file for FSA, VSP.
17. Do the occasional home refinance
    
18. 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

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

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!