2014 Year end

25-Dec to 29-Dec-14

This was long weekend and without any travel plans (well, travel! When will I be able to?). That means just chilling out with Shubhang the whole day every day. This can also mean bouts of de-energizing, and shouting to stop him from his mischiefs that roll over and over.

However, playing with tiny set of cars (several with broken wheels etc.). He will sit on the carpet (I ask him to…but he sits just on the floor instead) and pushes all of them towards me (read away from me). I catch them and arrange them in line. Once all cars are on my side, he comes and gets them all.

Ragi cheri is back and is now only an option when the breakfast is not cooked or the cooked breakfast should not be fed (read spicy!) to him.

We took him to Gopalan mall on 25-Dec, and to mine and my wife’s surprise it was unusually less crowded. We got the car parking without any wait and at the entrance of the mall. The kids play area was again had fewer kids. Straightaway gotten in there and allowed him to play the star attraction there…slide with balls. He enjoyed playing there and with his experience from visiting the park often, he was able to climb the slide the same side where one will slide he was able to do this as many times and fall in the heap of balls. He also played in the bouncing area, and the little car. By end of designated one hour, he was still energetic to go for another one hour I suppose but fearing he might suffer from leg pain later, we had to force him out of the area. We searched to buy a cake without success, went in to Taco Bell and ate some snacks and fed him the potato balls, which he seemed to have liked.

We came back straight to home on time for his dinner.

On 26-Dec, Preethi wanted to visit her parents along with plan to run some errands. He was sleeping in the afternoon and as soon as he woke up, I took him to the Happy Valley park. Park was deserted and surprisingly he didn’t like it that way. He slid customarily and was very happy when few kids started arriving. Challenging part here is making him not to imitate what older kids do. They do all sorts of things that shouldn’t be done on slides, swings. I helped him climb the slide deck through the mountain climbing blocks. He enjoyed climbing that way though still there is a long way for him to master it. Preethi will have tough time next time when she takes him there!

After coming back home, I washed his hands, legs clean and fed him some fruits. While we resumed playing with his car collections, his mother arrived with two new toys, a helicopter and a tractor that were bought by her sister as gift to him. He was elated and now expects that each time his mother is out in the afternoon, she will bring new toys for him when she comes back in the evening. Since Preethi had applied mehndi on her hands, I fed him his dinner and Preethi felt he made it lot easier for me than what she undergoes each day.

On Saturday, we went out for lunch. We picked a nearby restaurant and went after Shubhang’s lunch. So, no worries on his schedules. Lunch was sumptuous, delicious and everyone liked it. As far Shubhang, he was sleepy and ate samples of starters. Once back in home, he slept immediately.

On Sunday, my sister and younger niece visited us. We were expecting them since morning and they arrived only by 3PM. Shubhang was asleep but as soon as he woke up, he started playing with them. In the evening, we went out for paani puri to BEML layout. It was a pleasant evening full of lively conversations.

First post...Flash backs...

It's such a shame on me, that in spite of a being a technology buff, I didn't create a blog of my son's raising.
I never seem to take anything seriously than my work from the past several years. No personal projects!
So, here I am, after Shubhang is two year old, starting to write my experiences raising him.
I always believed my memories over the last two years are as vivid as todays. I may be wrong, I am human, getting little old and might have forgotten several small things worth sharing/penning here.
Still I will try to do my best, writing everything in flashback. This is the only way I can do to overcome the shame.

Oct 2012 to Jan 2013
After 10 years of being childless, my wife and I are ready to welcome our first child. It was an epic moment.
It was on 8-Oct-2012, on a sunny afternoon, Shubhang was born.
It was on 15-Oct-2012, I joined Cenduit, leaving Sonata Software where I worked for 12 years.

Life is changed for ever (such a cliche...but pardon me..I didn't find a better phrase).

Feb 2013 to Apr 2013
I had to travel to Switzerland on work. While this was very happy moment for me, at the same time, I felt bad leaving Shubhang even if it was for only three days.

Shubhang can now recognize his mother very clearly, me and my mother. He can now turn himself and sleep on his tummy. Everyday, in the morning, he would wake up at 6 am or so. He usually wakes up smiling and I don't recall a messy morning. After having milk, he would be awake for about two to three hours before he will start sleepy by 9am or so.
I developed a routine of taking care of him during the morning hours. And, when he should sleep, I sang couple of songs. One was 'Hey Krishna...mukunda ...murari...'. This is a very old telugu movie song but devotional one sung by Ghantasala. My father's favorite and mine too. <link to actual song>
Also, sung by me was a Bharthrihari's Subhashita 'Keyurani na bhushayanthi purusham...', as heard from All India Radio. AIR used to play this with beautiful rendering of a female voice. I could not find it on YouTube to provide you a link!

May-2013 to Jul-2013

This is when we started to provide Cerelac also to him apart from Lactogen. Dr Nagesh actually advised us to feed home made 'Ragi Cheri'. We temporarily started with Cerelac before we find the best way to prepare Ragi Cheri at home. We bought readymade ragi cheri from Subbamma Store in Gandhi Bazaar and tried as well.

Shubhang seems to have liked this change (from Lactogen to solid food) nevertheless. 

He now can craws on his knees. He will do that tireless covering every inch of our house. We tried to avoid a lot by keeping obstructions 

One thing we noticed a lot was, he puts his fingers in to his mouth when he smiles. He also will stop smiling almost immediately and returns to his normal expression. The instantaneous expression changes always made us surprising. See the video.

It was during May, we did his Namakaranam (Naming Ceremony). Also, as the purohit suggested, we did ayushya homa in Subramanya mutt the following day.

During June, an incident occurred. Early in the night just after few minutes of his sleep, he woke up and started crying. We were clueless. He would stop for brief moments and again cry. After almost half an hour, we got ready and rushed to see the doctor. Dr. Nagesh usually shuts at 10 or 10:30PM. It was almost 11:15PM. We had actually planned to go to Cloud Nine in Jayanagar, but saw his clinic open and went in. He said its probably tummy ache and prescribed Meftal Spas drops as we told him we already gave him Colicaid but didn't help.

Doctor also assured there cannot be any major issue as he didn't see any symptoms. We thanked and came out and were searching for medical shop to buy the drops. We were unsuccessful in finding a single shop open, and even those opened didn't had this medicine. Shubhang was crying intermittently through out. We even visited BGS Hospitals near Kengeri without getting the prescription.

At almost 3AM he fell asleep, occasionally waking and crying. In the morning he woke up at 7AM or so, not crying intensely. He wanted either me or Preethi to carry him and didn't wanted to sit/stay in one place. I started to examine his body from top to toe. (or was it toe to top?). I immediately found that his right great toe was swollen with puss behind the nail. I understood the pain he might have suffered in the last night. We again took the appointment and consulted Dr. Nagesh. He gave a painkiller and taking the same he had become a little normal. Uff...poor Shubby. :(

Dr. Nagesh referred us to a child surgeon and we went to him where he cleaned the toe and removed the puss and tied a bandage. Again it was pain time, I was near tears.

He became normal and wound was healed in three days.

I still remember when he was out of the KR Hospital, I was holding him as Preethi was starting the car. He looked out curiously at few kids running past the car talking loudly. In spite of the painful ordeal he went through in the last 24 hours, he was still the same curious cutie kid.That frame is still fresh in my memory.