Friday, May 30, 2014

Done with one, on to the next!

Today is Rohan's last day at Cisco's daycare. Its been a very emotional week for me. Today I can even find myself choking with emotion, the poignant last day. I still remember nervously bringing a 13 month old strapped in his car seat and leaving him here, worrying (almost obsessing) over what he is eating, whether his diapers are being changed, what sicknesses he is picking up, where he is falling and getting hurt and what not. And all fears did come true in different stages, he fell regularly sick, lost a lot of weight in the first year, picked up a lot of diaper rashes, had his chin gashed very deep once besides a lot of other minor injuries etc. But through it all, it has been a very memorable journey.

And my little brave man did it all for me! It was getting very stressful managing coming to work, shuttling times between mine and Subhash's (I used to come to work 8 to 12 and once I got home he would go to work), then taking calls and handling escalations from home while feeling horribly guilty about not giving an infant all attention that is due to him.

Was waiting for the day care to start and once it did, off he went from day ONE. He never cried, never threw a fit and never complained. But then he has been my perfect boy always, and made me enormously proud - always. There were mishaps, yes, but I think he bore them well.

Of course, he learnt a lot too, and I have to thank each and everyone of his teachers for all that he has built over the past 3 years.

Thanks to my employer and the excellent facility they build on campus, I was able to come back to work full time, focus on my work for a few hours everyday, get my career back on track and also manage logistics very easily, take him with me and bring him back with me. Cisco has that way been an amazing company to work for. Giving back in many more ways than just a monthly (or bi-weekly) paycheck.

He is one of the very few kids (probably less than five) who were around right from the beginning of the center, till they are forced to graduate out finally now :)

Incidentally my younger one will be exactly the same age in a week as when Rohan started going to the daycare. So his duration at this centre is exactly the same as the difference between him and his younger brother in age! The younger one has the luxury of three doting grandparents being around him all the time in the comfort of home. Plus a mom who isn't as obsessive as when she was with the older one. Thanks to a lot of learning between then and now ;) Again a shout-out to my parents and father in law. But for them, I would have to go on a lengthy guilt-trip again, putting the younger one in the daycare and feeling awful about it. Really, having parents around is such an awesome blessing in so many ways!

Also, I start going back to Cisco transport from next month. After nearly five years! I stopped just before I went off on my first maternity leave :) No more compulsion to drive to work and have a car on hand since the son is not connected with Cisco anymore. And so I can give up on driving after 3.8 years finally!  Till the younger one needs to be ferried back and forth. I am looking forward to it!

Here is a shout out to my boy today as he finishes a major phase and enters into a bigger one. I am actually nervous about two things - he is very shy and he still doesn't eat well and definitely not on his own. But all in good time I hope. School-bus, regular school, books, bags, shoes and what not. Here is wishing him a happy and fulfilling childhood, not too academically burdened and hope he has a lot of fun learning life's lessons.


Monday, May 12, 2014

Five months later, a weekend

Since we started remodeling our house nearly six months ago, there hasn't been a single relaxed weekend - thanks to us not being able to spend anytime together at the said house during weekdays. If it were not for parents around, especially mom, it would have been a disaster of epic proportions what with two kids and us having to be out on the streets/at site almost all of Saturday and Sunday.

But its nearly done now. Even since we moved in a month ago, its been a myriad set of workers coming in everyday, making the place a royal mess by evening and the younger one getting all dirty and dusty at the end of the day. Weekends continued to be spent setting up the place, shopping, cleaning and what not.

Finally this past weekend we were able to sit back a bit. First half of Saturday and Sunday were both relaxed. Saturday evening of course, again there was workers and mess and what not, but morning was just lazy which I loved. Sunday morning we also managed to go swimming. Thanks to Bangalore's climate-controlled climate, water in the pool was deliciously cool, not cold, not warm, the same temperature as the air and so very comfortable to get in and out. The younger one enjoyed splashing around in the water and the older one finally got into the pool and walked around. He always used to sit at the edge of the water, never once stepping inside all these years!

The weekend ended with the most unexpected surprise shoe purchase I have ever made in my life, so all is well :)

This evening, despite being a workday evening where I usually never step out, I took the older one to a local fair. He sees that every day on our way to work/school and back and yesterday we were running out of time for our dinner out so I promised him I'd take him today so off we went. He had his first real rides like the break dance one where the cars zip zap in every direction suddenly and I think he took it fairly well. Here is hoping he becomes a dare-devil where amusement park rides are concerned! :)

Overall, been back to a regular gym routine since my first one was born nearly five years ago. All these years, it was ad hoc workouts, aerobics, Kinect sports - whatever I could do. When I started going to the gym once we moved here, at the clubhouse, I felt the joy surging through me - I never realized I was missing a proper gym workout regime so much all along! That is a 14 year love affair one can hardly get out of the system I guess ;)

Finally, the satisfaction of seeing the house shape up (ever so slowly but still, shape up). With every passing day, it is more joyous to be living here and I am beginning to enjoy the house, it is like a slow and steady love, much like when you have kids! The happiness of having taken something and transformed it into something we wanted, how we wanted and just the way we wanted, while working within the challenges of an existing structure, and yet pushing the boundaries is really inexplicable :) This is the second time we've remodeled our house, and I think we are slowly getting to be pros at it ;) From the last time to now, we have seen how our tastes have refined, gotten better hopefully, but evolved for sure. Overall, a very satisfying experience, although it has drained us out completely - it is going to take at least a couple of months to recover I guess!