The dishwasher safe..what?

I got an email from Hammacher saying there is a new dishwasher-safe-wallet. I said to Subhash, wow, so now even if you leave your wallet in the trouser and forget, it won't be....what?! Dishwasher safe? Why would I put his trousers in a dishwasher? I would much rather have a washing-machine-safe wallet...so much for innovation...

Dishwasher Safe Wallet

ELC toys

I find that ELC toys are quite innovative and make for a lot of fun learning. Plus the attention to detail is amazing. 

We bought two toys for Rohan, one a buggy ride which you can attach to the pushchair which makes it a car ;) And the other, a letter lion. (Subhash is a retail genius, comes with profession, and has the eye to pick out great stuff like this, I confess I didn't even notice them) The lion opens up and has alphabet pockets which have one toy depicting that alphabet (ambulance toy for a, banana toy for b and so on). It also has a height chart)

What I love about the lion (besides its cute face that is) is that you can hang it to anything by means of tie ropes given. This means you can move it around the house easily without having to bore nails everywhere. This is the kind of attention to detail I'm talking about. A standard loop would've had me looking for where to drill a nail, but now I just did this:

Yeah, my lithographic print frame finally came in useful!!

We have a passport now

Rohan's passport is here! It arrived today by mail. Considering that it was applied for on the 6th, I am impressed that its taken just 21 days for the whole process. Of course, he is a minor and didn't need police verification etc, but still :)

The day he turned four months, he has a passport. My, my, generation gaps!!

Mile sure again?

I've read a lot of blog reviews on the new Mile Sur video. Most have been disappointed. The best one I read so far came from Deepak. I am yet to read KrishAshok's.

The worst part of the video for me is not even Deepika Padukone, but the Abhi-Ash pair which according to AB junior, he was delighted because he could appear with his wife. Man, is your wife your only identity in life?

God!

Anyways, for all the other who were disappointed, I just have this to say:

What do you expect from a Times of India piece? Eh?

4 months!!

Happy Birthday Rohan!! You are practically a little man now!!!

What a beauty!

We have three hibiscus plants. One white, one delicate pink (which my mom planted in September and its already grown into a formidable plant) and one thick red one.

Today I noticed this in one of the flowers, thanks to cross-pollination. What a beautiful thing nature is!

A nice scheme!

I recently befriended two elderly aunties in the colony. And I found something remarkably common between them. Their grandchildren partly live with them!!

The first aunty, he daughter moved closer to their home, her grandkid goes to school from his house, comes back to aunty's house in the evening and parents pick him up on the way home from work at night.

I thought wow! How nice! It is really a win-win arrangement since aunty also gets bored at home during the day, at least her evenings are occupied with the kid.

The second aunty also had the same arrangement. She has a grand daughter and in her case it way they that moved closer to the daughter's home.

I wonder, this is so convenient. Both our parents live in Hyd and I feel it is most unfair to expect them to keep coming here at the drop of a hat. They have their lives, their friends, their activities. They come here and invariably they are bored. I feel really sorry whenever that happens. If not for my job we would've moved to Hyd and then we could have lived close to either parents and things would have been so much easier. Well, life presents one with a set of choices and you make the most of what you get I suppose!

Boys!

For the past week, my boys have been having lots of fun together. First Subhash took over Rohan's bathing duties the entire week while I finished my morning walk which in turn saved me loads of time. From the oil massage to the bathing to the towel drying to putting on his clothes, both dad and son chat and sing and coo and make merry!

Then weekend I took the liberty of going to my regular salon. Since I am pumping now, its a little easy to leave the baby and get out for sometime. Subhash and he had the morning to themselves and apparently the guy was too good and slept most of the time. If only he would do that more often during my working hours! ;)


Well, anyways, its good to be the only "girl" in the house for now. You can keep your place of exclusivity of "ghar ki lakshmi" :D :D I always wanted to have a girl since I thought boys were not that much fun to bring up, but I confess now, I'm rather enjoying my only-girl-in-the-house status ;)

Tut tut

I just realized I never acknowledged the one person who probably gave me the most nutritious benefit when I was expecting a baby. My colleague K, who, never once failed to buy me a fruit bowl from our cafeteria and bring it to my desk. She and R used to go for breakfast and I used to ask her to pick up a fruit bowl for me on her way back since she used to sit right across my desk. There were days when I was not going to work, but would completely forget it, and she would actually call to find out if I needed one :)

Now since I am not yet going to campus, Subhash has taken over the job. He religiously brings home a fruit bowl every day :) :)

Lucky me? Yeah, you bet!

BTW, the hair has started falling in clumps. If I wasn't mentally prepared for a postpartum hair loss bonanza, I should have gotten the shocker of a lifetime. Barely 10 strands through 8 months and then the dam opens :))

Street games

At a time when I thought kids have lost all innocence and do not indulge in normal games anymore, here was a fresh breath of air.

I found this scribbled on our street:

The blue thingy is Rohan's buggy BTW.

So anyways, I think I can rest assured. We are in a safe place. Did I ever mention that this colony has lots of kids around 2-3 years of age? In the evenings I can see a lot of age group kids. Some play badminton on the street (the colony is really an 8 shaped limited families one, and is surrounded by army area all around so its a dead end, and therefore not too much traffic), some playing hopping games like this, some going for walks in prams, yeah all age groups. I think there will be lots of friends for Rohan when he grows a little older.

For his first birthday I think we can invite everyone home so we can start new friendships. Already for his Bhogi pallu I invited a few folks in the colony. Increasing social circles you see, because I have a feeling we will live in this house for a long time to come ;)

Dr Kini - Really depends on if he is for you.

Prelogue - This post has been almost 3 months in the making. Thinking about the exact facts and things to say.

Well, read on.

We were referred to Dr. Prakash Kini by Sm (who was referred to by Sa) and both had come back and told us he was one of the best Ob/Gyn around. Very old-fashioned, doesn't worry you too much, doesn't push for a C-Sec just because its easier (and more profitable) and so on.

When we began we were completely clueless (not that when it ended we had better ideas, but still) and so we just went with the flow and called Cradle for an appointment.

When we went to him first, we were not even sure if I was, in fact, pregnant. We asked him if he can ascertain and he said that if the home pregnancy test showed even a slight bar then that was it. And gave us a probable due date. I was shocked. No blood tests? No confirmation? Please, something to put me out of my nervousness of knowing and not knowing. He said no. He prescribed the Folic Acid and the multivitamin and decided the due date and asked us to come back for the Nuchal scan at 11 weeks.

I went home even more perplexed than before. I went to Cradle hoping to ascertain whether or not we were expecting and came back with a due date in hand. Of course till we went for the scan I didn't quite believe it, but that is a separate matter.

So this pretty much sums up my experience. With Dr. Kini you get a highly technical, no-nonsense, no-silly-talk, no chit-chat, extremely knowledgeable doctor. Who minds his business and minds it well.

But does that mean he is right for you?

The answer is, like all things in life, it depends (god! I am using this way too often.)

You can be a to-be parent looking for some assurances, some smiles, some chit chat etc. Or you can be a to-be parent content to know that everything is normal and get on with life.

If you are the former, he is a strict no-no for you. If you are the latter or in that range, he is perfect.

He checks all the vital stuff every visit, tells you if you are normal or not. If you are normal, he will encourage you to be more so, and go about your routine. The only thing he ever recommended to us was to eat vegetables and fruit. I remember every visit he used to say no smoking but you can have a glass of wine every now and then and I used to tell him every time that I am a teetotaler, and that I don't drink at all. Then he will ask you if you have any more questions. Quickly answer them and send you on your way. We used to travel 45 minutes (one way), wait for about 15 minutes for our turn, sit in the coffee shop (Barista) after the consultation for about 30 minutes. All for the 2 minutes with the doc!!

For me he worked really well because I fall in the latter extreme. I sometimes even used to suddenly realize I was pregnant.


So much so that even a doctor like Kini used to ask us every time if we had questions and he would be the more surprised that we have none, And I used to be really guilty of not having any questions and would frantically try to make up some questions on our long 45 min journey to Cradle once every three weeks :)

All in all, except for the fact that I was supremely disappointed at having to have a C-Sec after a perfectly normal pregnancy, I don't think I regret anything. And the C-Sec I guess he could little help. He did wait for a week for Rohan to come out on his own. And I was too low on the Bishop's score to be induced apparently so I guess he couldn't have done anymore than that. The son was simply reluctant to leave mommy and come out.

Post partum too he was really matter of fact. Made me climb four floors about 4 hours after the C-Sec saying I have to do it if I have to heal properly without pain killers. It did me a world of good as I realized well within a month. All that walking I did. I took a max of 6 low dose pain killers over that month, that too for only 3 or 4 days here and there when Rohan was extremely cranky and my pain particularly severe.

Also, any questions you have you can call him on his mobile, he will answer but he will keep it short (I don't think he can do it any other way when he is seeing 30 patients every day and all of them have his mobile number). I once had high fever and called him and he said just take Crocin three times, three days and you will be fine. Its normal common sense advice but it was very re-assuring as most often his advice is. One other time I was doubtful since my stitches were paining (within 15 days of C-Sec) and I called him and he said its normal. (Now I know better but then I was that ignorant yeah, I was expecting it to heal within a week ;) )

So there,

Advice

We have been planning to acknowledge some real good advice we got, on the blog for a long time now. So here goes, thanks to the advisors ;)

Buy lots of swaddling blankets - Sm
Buy lots of burp cloths - Sm
Buy the Fisher Price Rocker/Bouncer - Sa and Sm
Buy the scissors type nail clippers - Sm
Invest in a good comfortable rocking chair - Immensely helps feeding and soothes those sore neck muscles when you are trying to get used to the whole process for first time moms - Self ;)
Get a good diaper/duffel bag which will be able to hold bottles, nappies. Get one which has the nappy changing mat bundled with it and has loads of pockets - Sm

So many thanks to Sm and Sa :)

Will post any more as and when I can think of it.

Some important things

Things are getting smoother on managing front :) Work has fallen back to natural rythm and I am quite able to do both work and babycare :) Maid has started coming again which means no housework! :) This week is hiring week and looks like I will have to talk to at least four people for screening. Hmm..interviewing is quite boring actually :P

One important thing that happened which I quite forgot to jot down was that in the week before Sankranti the census guys had come and Rohan is now officially contributing to the Indian population numbers along with his parents and paternal grand parents :))

His passport has been applied for :)

The polio drops guys had cme home to ask if we had any kids less than 5 years. We had just finished his immunization that weekend where the doc also gave him polio drops and so I told them that. But I was quite impressed. We think our government is so bad that we tend to overlook all the little good things it does :)

Yesterday all day whenever I kept looking at the date, I was reminded of that near-death-but-miraculously-little-bruises accident I was in exactly six years ago on I-94 just after Waukegan.. Wow its already been SIX years!!!!! Truly the time is flying..

Back to the grind

My mom and Subhash's parents left yesterday and today after a whole month and a half its back to me and the kiddo, home alone.

Not a problem.

Except that I have to work full time as well :(

So somehow managing with typing with one hand while feeding, playing while answering technical questions over chat and so on, you get the drift. Plus the maid was supposed to come back today after a 2-day holiday and she never showed up, so in addition to the cleaning and sterlizing and cooking that I haven't yet outsourced, there are all those 100 nitty gritties which I have to get done around the house, maid or no maid.

Plus blogging :)

All in all, an interesting day and I am hoping certainly not the shape of things to come.

Finally, today after a long long time I got to do some technical thinking and application to a problem which has lifted my spirits greatly and so has enabled this blog post :)

Yay!! for one's passions.

My god!

Some days just turn everything upside down. Yesterday was one such, and its continuing into today :((

Two things happened which forced Subhash and me to finally draw some concrete plans as to what we do to manage with the baby when I start going to work.

One, I will need to take in engineering reports much earlier than I had hoped. I actually like this since I want to get started but that means I will need to start going to work physically much sooner than I was planning for. Second, the day care at Cisco apparently is far from ready :( So instead of the day care overlapping with my WFH, they have now become mutually exclusive sets :((  And from what I hear even if I use up all my leave I still won't be able to bridge the gap between now and daycare inauguration.

Tomorrow is Bhogi. We have his first "Bhogi Pallu". We got all the stuff that we need, now I need to find time to arrange everything. Need to call and invite a few more people in the colony. 

One more thing weighing heavily on the mind is parents' health. In the same 24h period I heard from my Dad saying he feels his health is failing and he is tired of medication. And Subhash's mom is not keeping well, doesn't feel up to going to the doc and she also says she is tired of medications. I feel so helpless, cannot help anything except offer verbal support :( And to keep in mind the value of good health.

On the brighter side, my mom is going to make it here tomorrow!!! She is always a pillar of strength so I think I will soon be feeling much better :)

ToI and its reporting

One knows that ToI is so not to be trusted on its news. They hang more on the sensationalism side than on the facts. But this is what the headlines read today:

"PM announces that NRIs may get voting rights"

What the??? We all know NRIs HAVE voting rights (unless of course you have given up your citizenship, in which case you are technically not an NR"I" anyways and this context doesn't address you). What the PM hopes to do by the next General Election is to try and get the NRIs to EXERCISE the voting rights they already HAVE. Duh!

So much for news reporting!

This and that

*Sincere thanks to everyone who stops by this blog. Considering that I just ramble on and on about my life here and it really doesn't make for much entertaining reading except for a few one-offs, I am highly indebted. Indiblogger gave me a ranking of 76 which is apparently very good (it is like scoring 75 runs in their own words). Here is hoping I reach 80s and 90s. But this is being over-ambitious :))

*I wrote a while back about Telangana and how people fighting for it treat Hyd as if it is their baap ka maal. I had to clarify later that I said it in response to KCRs statements a while back saying he won't let Andhra people stay in Hyd and what not. Most pro-Telangana commentors gave general gyan that it was the naive KCR making instigating statements, that it is India and everyone is free to live where they want and so on. After the high level of ugliness displayed by Telangana leaders (the worst being that is you went out to Andhra for Sankranthi they wouldn't let you back in Hyd), I'd dearly love to hear if anyone is still pro-Telangana. If you really want to commit your region in hands of goons like this, I wish you well. God save you. This whole drama is becoming more and more unbelievable with every passing day. There is some lull now thankfully.

*Overnight damage to Reliance stores across AP. Reason YSR's death is suspected to be Reliance's foul play. Yeah, now that the ugliness of politics has gone into the private sector I really hope that the Ambani guys pull some strings and set some political morons straight while they are at fixing their "rivals" whom they suspect in this case.

*Social interactions are improving by leaps and bounds. Mainly due to the son. And in no less measure because of Subhash's parents being around. Yesterday we were visited by one of their oldest friends and it was great. Aunty was telling me about how they welcomed Subhash home when his mom brought him back home from her mother's place and how she always compared all babies' eyes with Subhash's ;) I love to have people over and like I said I am nearly dying of guilt since I am rarely visiting anyone. All in due course of time. All in time..

*I was reading the review of Sherlock Holmes on ToI. I would always double check anything that ToI publishes so here is a request to people who have watched it. Do they really show Irene Adler as Sherlock Holmes' girlfriend? If so, this is highly abominable. I respect taking a few liberties with inventing crime cases that he solved and all but anyone who is an ardent follower of Holmes knows that he was averse to having any kind of relationship and he referred to Adler as "The Woman" only because she was one of the very very few people to give him the slip and run. To transform her into a romantic interest is so not done. Grrrrrrrr..

The first party!

One of Subhash's IIM batchmates was hosting her daughter's first birthday party. They decided to have it on Jan 1st so everyone gets another occasion to party.

We had to go in traditional dress and so Rohan was dressed in his white salwar kurta. Both Dad and son looked even more alike what with their matching dresses ;)