Thinking of you and your creativity my child...

I am making new discoveries in you almost every day these days but just haven't had a chance to actually pen it all down. Here is what you have been upto over the last few months:

You graduated from pre-nursery (playschool) in March 2010. After which you've had 2 months of summer break during which you enjoyed visits from your Nana-Nani in April and your Aabu-Amma-Bua in May. With Nana and Nani, we went to ISKCON temple, Vidhan Soudha and Lalbagh garden in Bangalore. And with Aabu, Aama and Bua we went to Lalbagh garden again where you enjoyed long walks with your papa.

This was also the phase where you had taken to your Doodle-Pro and enjoyed scribbling, doodling and drawing on it. I think that was due to your previous nanny Pooja didi whom you like the most amongst all the nannies you've had to date. She used to enjoy drawing and I think got you hooked onto it as well. I remember discovering how in early April you were trying to copy strokes to actually draw something (instead of just doodling). One day mommy and papa showed you how to draw a fish and the next day, we saw you drawing it all by yourself! Here are your attempts:

A few weeks later, you were into completing some aspects of pics we would draw. For example, if I drew a face, you would draw the ears, bindi, eyes, mouth, even hair - basically whatever was missing. Until one day in May you drew a girl all by yourself! Oh how excited we all were...especially your Aabu and Bua since they are the most artistic ones in our family! Here is how your little doll's drawing looked:

And then you joined your new Montessori in early June. It has barely been 2 months since you joined but you seem to be learning so many things already that it is hard to keep up! Singing new songs, doing new dances is a norm these days. But what got the most oohs and aahs from me most recently is when you recognized certain alphabets and numbers all of a sudden just in the midst of playing. Like the other day, you were playing with an old foam alphabet-and-numbers puzzle that you've played with a million times now. But never before have you actually identified what you are fixing. So I did not think anything might have changed even now until I heard you asking "Where is number 1" this time. I started looking for the piece with number 1 on it and came across the letter I. I thought I can pass it off to you to calm you down but you actually shouted back exclaiming "This is not 1 mamma. This is I!!!" Took my breath away I tell ya!

Then the other day, we went to your cousin baby Aditya's naming ceremony over this last weekend (July 25 to be precise). At the end of that function, you were given lots of balloons to take home to play with. But guess what you did with them this time? That night at home, you asked for a pen and said I want to paint on the balloons mamma. I double checked asking you mean you want to draw/paint with a pen on this book? And you said no - you wanted to draw and paint on the balloon! And when I handed you a black sketch pen, you actually spent almost an hour drawing away on the balloon! You enjoyed it so thoroughly that you had your back towards the TV all the while when mommy and daddy enjoyed a noise free TV time - our first in ages! And when the sketchpen squeaked on the balloon, you remarked how it was making "choik choik" sound! Heehee! The session ended with the balloon bursting and you growing angry at it for bursting off and throwing the sketch pen under the couch :-) That didn't deter you though coz you had 8 more balloons in the house. So the next day you asked for the pen again and spent a good chunk of the afternoon "painting" not one but a bunch of 5 balloons tied together! By the end of each session you had black ink all over you but the joy I got trying to see your imagination at work was precious. You kept telling me what you were drawing...you kept your fingers and tried to sketch around them, drawing a smiley face on the balloon, just drawing a huge circle and coloring it within...all on the poor balloons :-) Here are some pics:

New Gen Kids

Kids say the funniest things. Listen to a conversation between 2 three-year-olds in our apartment complex. Let me quickly give you the context. The center of this incident is the little girl S (she is 3 years old) whose parents are friends of ours and who, like us, have moved back from the US a couple of years ago. S's daddy has traveled to the US for work a few times since moving back to India.

S (to her mom) : I want that stroller that baby A has (referring to a toy stroller with lights on the wheels)

Mom: I don't know where you get it S. Ask your friend A where she got it.

S (toA): Where did you get this baby stroller with lights?

A: I think Poona.

S (looking very disappointed): Oh. Do you get this in America?

A: I don't know, you may get it. Why?

S: No...if you get it in America, my daddy can buy it for me. Poona...I don't know.

ROFL!!! I was so amazed and amused at the same time when S's mom narrated this to me! See how our kids are turning out? To them, US seems more approachable from Bangalore than Poona :-)

Of viral infections and such...

We've had the worst few days in a while. Poor baby had to go through a new kind of viral infection in which her throat got badly inflamed and she had viral blisters under her tongue. So bad so that she could not even comprehend putting anything in her mouth due to the extreme pain she was in. Her favorite chocolates, cakes, chips, candy, soup, etc. were offered to her - not once but multiple times...and all she could do was stare at it for a bit and then fold and keep it away. My heart broke at a small child going through so much pain that she would want to eat her favorite things and ask for them but then would cry saying "chhaala" or "fever" and point to her mouth or throat and put it back. It started on Wednesday night and by Thursday afternoon when the fever refused to subside with Crocin syrup, I called the pediatrician. He advised administering 6ml of Ibugesic Plus every 8 hours for the fever and throat pain she was complaining of and wait it for a day or two before bringing her in. But by Friday, things just did not seem to be improving and with her not eating or even drinking anything, I took her to the pediatrician for an examination.

He checked and declared that no antibiotics will help as it is a viral infection. The first thing I remember him asking me is "What are you most worried about". Coz if anything, he asked me to be prepared for it to get worse before it gets better. He said to leave her alone if she does not eat or drink too much, don't force anything except offer warm liquids often (such as warm water, soup, dal, rice water, etc.) and keep administering Ibugesic Plus every 8 hours to help in her pain and fever. If needed, we can supplement with Crocin after 4 hours or so as well. But he prepared me mentally to say she will be worst when she wakes up coz her throat will be like sandpaper. She will probably have body ache, headache or eyes will hurt etc. She will lose weight and be ill for a week. Gosh my jaw dropped when I heard that there was nothing we could do to ease her pain or reduce the misery. It had to take its course. When we went home, she just got worse by evening as a new blister under her tongue that I had not seen before was really really troubling her. She could not bear the pain and cried constantly holding her mouth. Poor thing didn't know what it was and kept referring to it as "chhilka" (instead of chhala). That Friday evening was the worst as I had 2 meetings that I could not get out of and one of them was my 1:1 with the boss. When he heard me talking on the phone with her crying in my lap, he was instantly so supportive and first of all joked about it saying "Whoa! How many participants do we have on the call today" And when I explained she was ill, he sympathized and asked "Do you think we can talk"? I said we could until she let us which was long enough for us to have a meaningful conversation. So that was good. But later that night, she just got worse with the pain in her chhala. The fact that she kept complaining of the pain and wouldn't do anything but hold her mouth and cry, we applied the Smyle gel on it thinking it will help her (obviously after consulting with the ped). But that seemed to hurt her even more and she started kicking her legs and throwing her hands in pain! Gosh - I have never seen the poor child in so much pain ever! We panicked thinking why is she acting abnormal and worriedly called the doc to ask which hospital should we rush her to. But thankfully, after I made her rinse her mouth and get rid of the gel, she calmed down a little. Still didn't eat or drink but atleast stopped writhing in pain. Poor child did not sleep a wink that entire night! She just sat with me and watched Dora on TV or wanted to play or read books, etc. Whenever she saw anyone on TV or in the books eating anything, she would ask for the same thing. And when I offered it to her, she would just cry saying "fever hai" or "chhilka". Worst was when she asked for a chocolate (which in good health is the last thing she would resist) and when I gave an entire bar of Dairy Milk to her, she just opened it, started at it for a long time and then wrapped it up and gave it back to me with tears in her eyes. That was my worst moment ever when she wanted to eat stuff she loves and couldn't gather up the courage to coz of the immense pain. Even with water, she was thirsty but when given water, she could not even take a sip. Would just keep bringing the glass to her mouth and then stop. She would take me to the kitchen repeatedly that night, ask for water, and hold the glass and cry. She would not be able to lie down horizontal on the bed and sleep coz even that would aggravate her pain. So finally at 6:30am I somehow convinced her to go inside and slept sitting up holding her onto me. Thankfully she woke up a little more cheerful at around 10am and things started getting better on Saturday with her being able to eat very tiny bites of food and sip on warm water. We started giving her warm water with GluconD so that she can atleast start regaining some energy in her system. By Sunday it was thankfully much better. Thankfully Friday night was the worst of it and it didn't get any worse as we feared. Oh Thank God!!! Touchwood! It is always painful to see your child in pain but to see her heartbroken along with it coz she could not eat or drink even though she wanted to was just double the trauma for me. I remember explaining to her that night about how God gives pain to everyone in life. It is a part of life so that we learn the value of happiness and learn how to bear pain and come out stronger. I told her how mommy also had pain ("boo") when she was a little baby and how her mommy was so worried about her. The child just sat and listened amidst her tears that night but she did narrate some of it back the next morning so hopefully she did understand what I was trying to explain to her.

BTW that night also reminded me of the long sleepless nights we had when she was just born and somehow made me wonder whether I am ready to do this all over again :-) I guess I am...if not for anything, for her own sake. I would like her to have a sibling in life. Ah...maybe someday...For now, I just hope I get your share of pain and misery my child and may you never have to go through such agony again.

Oh and I just realized that I have written about another time when she had had

a viral infection but she was a lot younger then. Seems like the docs in the US and

here in India had nothing too different to advise, which is very reassuring in a

strange kind of way :-) I will post about her recent battle with bladder infection

too at some point so that I remember the details and can help other moms or kids

going through it. That was traumatic coz for the longest time, we did not have a

diagnosis of her pain so it was quite frustrating for us to see her go through the

pain without knowing whats wrong and how to treat it.