Happy New year 2011

Wishing my readers

" A very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New year 2011".

Listen to this beautiful  poem written by great tamil poet Bharathiyar that consolidates  my new year wish every year since childhood.  Especially this year where we need  extra strength  and patience to deal with all challenges ahead with peace and prayers.

Manathil uruthi vendum song sung by K.J.Yesudoss in the movie Sindhu Bhairavi.

Translation of the poem " Manathil uruthi Vendum"  in english ( Source: http://audiopoetry.wordpress.com/2006/01/18/manathil-urudhi-vendum)

Let the mind be firm
Let the speech be sweet
Let the thoughts be noble
Let one attain what’s dear
Let all dreams come true
And quickly, too
Let there be wealth and happiness
And fame in this world
Let the eyes be open
Let one be determined in achieving one’s goals
Let the women attain freedom
Let God protect us all
Let the land be fertile
Let us feel the heaven here
Let the Truth prevail
Om Om Om Om

And I am grateful to know the Tamil language to understand appreciate this great poet's words.

PS: I know that a few people from my family and handful of friends read this blog regularly .  If you are a reader of this blog who doesn't come under family and friends group , can you please delurk and say hello.  Getting a "hello" from new blog  friends would be a fantastic way to welcome 2011.

2010 Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a quite thanksgiving weekend and NR took over CB and owned him for the five days.  I get a warm and special feeling seeing NR hug and kiss his dad with absolute love and affection.

 The first-born kids are the luckiest one to get the full attention of their parents. Sometimes it lasts way beyond their childhood well into their forties. My elder sister always pretended that she is the only child of my parents. And even now in her forties acts the same.

 Before NR's birth, we went twice for the early bird Thanksgiving shopping specials. A group of friends (well guys for that sake) would sort out a plan for shopping with list of things to buy. I reluctantly accompanied my husband twice and I did not like the mayhem. When everybody ran to pick out the stuff, I froze seeing frenzied people all around me. It was worse than rush for metro water in Chennai during peak summer.  CB and I are notoriously famous for skipping such shopping for a good sleep on our warm bed.

 This year CB went for the early bird special to replace the Garmin GPS that went to Good will.  He is the one who took the stuff to Good will stores including the GPS. I made breakfast for us and decided to go for Christmas shopping in the mall to buy gifts for family and friends. I have never gone for shopping without CB and hesitated a bit.  I passed the mall daily during my commute to office but never once went there alone. CB forced me to go out since I can do shopping peacefully without having to worry about returning home for NR’s lunch and nap.  

For the first time I went thru the ads from previous day paper and chose things I wanted to get. And I took the ads with me which made shopping a breeze. Within three hours, I was back home and it was a successful trip except for the long line at the counter. I bought entire winter wardrobe for NR. He is getting taller by the day and I had to replace his wardrobe every three to 4 months. But in between shopping we have no way but to make him wear his 3/4th height Jeans/pants like MGR . I wish my younger sister who loves to shop for NR is here with me.

Though it ‘s personally boring to shop for boys , it's also quick and easy with  limited choice of colors (black, blue, khaki, grey, brown, few more shades of khaki ) and prints (checked, stripes, or solid).  Most of the time, I go the girls section and drool at the collection. Sigh ……

While driving back I realized this might be the new reality that I ‘ll have to go shopping alone during the thanksgiving sales in future too,  having two guys who are happy to do their stuff instead of shopping with me.  I don’t envision NR and his dad waiting patiently while I picked their wardrobe.

 

Back to normal programming

After 12 miserable days of NR having  terrible cough, sore throat, Ear infection, 102 degree fever along with unbearable teething pain (thanks to 4 molars coming one after another) , Appa and Amma getting flu-like fever and symptoms , normalcy has returned .   

We visited ped twice before this episode and he dismissed all the symptoms and send us home like usual without any medication. NR came down with 101 +  fever the very next day .  On fourth day he cried inconsolably and  I know something was not right. We took him to the immediate care and the dr there confirmed his ear infection and chest congestion.

This is the first ear infection for NR and dr prescribed antibiotics,steroids and some antihistamine.  Along with his Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen dosage every three hours to bring down his fever, he had to take antibiotics thrice a day , steroids and antihistamine once a day. 

We woke  NR  every three hours for the first three days to check his temp and to give fever medication. The boy woke up from his sleep every three hours and thanks to IPAD took his medication happily without crying like it's was a sweet syrup. He royally browsed all his "You tube" videos and played his fave apps on IPAD while taking his medications. And for the first time he drank his water without spitting . 

NR behaves well (no crying) during his hair cut once a month(I give him haircut every month), Dr visits, birthday parties and in every situation imaginable thanks to IPAD .   They drew blood from his tiny arm three months back for almost ten - 13 minutes. He cried a bit but IPAD was such a great distraction. The dr and nurses at our clinic are amazed at the way he uses his spelling app.  

He had high fever and it was so cold and rainy outside  when we took him to immediate care. He was so quiet and behaved well (with his teething pain) because he played his fave spelling app. The dr at the Urgent Care admired NR's IPAD skills and said he sees  bright future for NR.   Little did they know,  how IPAD has taken the stress out of dr visit for his parents.  We remember well how our dr visits used to go without IPAD.  And for this I want to hug and kiss every member of the IPAD team at apple. So are millions of people benefiting from this technology. As a couple who work in leading technologies,  we know how technology is helping /reaching out to kids with special needs.  They have beautiful and cool apps for art, music for toddlers which also helps kids with Sensory Integration disorder who are not interested to use finger paints .

And he uses IPAD like a pro . No I did not teach him even once how to get into you tube or navigate the list up down or horizontally or close the songs. The only thing he  hasn't figured out is how to power on the IPAD unlike his toys . Whenever I  played devotional songs on IPAD  YouTube app, before nap or bed time, I hid my hand movements because I don't want to lose yet another gadget to my 2 year old son.  Only once I showed him how to use one his favorite spelling app on IPAD. He is bloody quick in learning stuff which interests him  and all I have to do is just show him once that's it. But he has no interest  to do normal everyday stuff like eating on his own or drinking water like a civilised baby without shooting it out every single time or communicating his needs. I am waiting patiently for the day when he will start talking again. Emm, And I thought I had immense patience before NR's birth .  He is making me a "ZEN mama".

During day time, we had Diego and Dora film festival for all those 12 days . The boy who is allowed to watch TV for half an hour for lunch and dinner had a field day. Well, even when the whole family is  sick somebody has to make meals, feed and do the everyday chores right.? I can hold the whiny sick baby or do chores.When both needs my attention, TV saves me.  It takes a village to raise a kid and we seek TV's help when he is sick . And as a parent we  have no problem with it. And this is the fourth time we had this non stop running of Diego and Dora episodes this year.  Please God, let this be the last Diego and Dora film festival for this year and I wouldn't  mind skipping the film festival entirely for next year.  For a kid with febrile seizure fever episodes are nightmare for the parents. And we wish to skip that altogether. New year wish from NR and NR's desperate parents.