Now as a citizen of the United States, I have the privilege to vote. I have already made up my mind about who I would elect for our next President. There is no doubt in my mind that we need a democratic leader who is willing to bring on ‘change’ that this country really needs.
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Ashwin, Riana and I are looking forward to our trip to India next month. A lot has changed since the last time we visited our families in 2005. Mom and dad were here last year for Riana’s birth. When they left, Riana was almost six months old. My sisters are yet to meet Riana. I missed weddings of both my sisters. When my sister Soni got married, I was seven months pregnant and was restricted to travel by air. When my other sister Surekha got married, I was a consultant at my company and did not have vacation benefits. I am looking forward to meeting my brother-in-laws and other family additions. I have a sweet 6 month old nephew. I am sure Riana will have fun with him. My older sister Surekha is expecting to have a baby in Feb ‘09. There is a lot of catching up to do… and not enough time…Three weeks is just not enough. We will try to make the best out of the time we have.
The count down has begun…
A lot of you have asked me why I haven’t blogged in a little while. Life’s been too busy lately. I have however been posting on Riana’s website. I will try to keep up with my blogs too. It’s good to know that people are actually interested in reading! 
Riana turns one today and I am amazed on how fast her first year went by. I distinctly remember the day she was born and it feels like yesterday. Since then, life’s been full of joy and a lot of hard work. With each passing day, I grow fonder of her. I wish her a very happy birthday. I look forward to another year of craziness and fun. Oh yeah!
Cheers
Riana is on par with other babies of her age as far as developmental milestones are concerned. She began rolling over at 4 months, started eating solid foods at 5 months, began sitting up without support at 6.5 months, started mastering her crawling skills at 7.5 months. Now at 9 months, she can stand up and has figured out how to climb stairs. She can only climb as many as 2 or 3 steps but it is a big achievement for her. She know how to pull herself up to a standing position using various kinds of support. Some of the more interesting supports that she uses is a 2 year old kid and a small dog at her daycare! She is now starting to feed herself simple finger foods such as baby cereal and toast.
So why do I think she is a child prodigy? Well, amongst all her skills are very good computer skills. Ashwin and I have let Riana type on our computers several times. She loves the keyboards. She has done some things that have amazed both of us. She has, not once but twice, inserted date and time stamp into Notepad. That cant be a fluke… She has managed to launch the help menu and find tool in Notepad. In Firefox, she has decreased the font size without using the mouse wheel, she has opened home page in existing window, opened a new tabbed window, opened a information box indicating the window size. In Picasa, she has zoomed into a picture and deleted a picture. What’s next?
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Wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For those who celebrate Chanukah, Happy Chanukah and for others who just want to enjoy the spirit of the holiday season, wish you a very happy and bright Holiday season…
Cheers.
I think the perfect gift for Riana this season would be a baby hair trimmer. Born in March, she is only 9 months old and has already had two hair cuts at the salon; three if you want to count the one I attempted. There seems to be a big selection of baby hair clippers online but I wonder if I have the necessary skills to be a Do It Yourself mom. I gave it a try with the scissors and needless to say that I failed miserably.
On the second thought, I thought perhaps the perfect gift for her this season would be to get her some wonderful hand made hair clips. So, now Riana will get some beautiful handmade clips along with some other surprises! As far as the haircuts are concerned, I think I will save that job for the hair stylists.
My husband and I are enjoying every bit of Riana. From her messy feedings, to her dirty diapers. From her crawling around the entire house to her trying to stand up on her own. We are enjoying her frowns just as much as we enjoy her smiles. It is difficult to imagine a life withour her. She brings immense happiness and satisfaction to our lives. We didn’t know what we were missing until we had her.
As first time parents, we couldn’t ask for a happier baby. She takes after Ashwin in terms of her calm behavior.
Lately though things have been especially difficult for both Ashwin and I. She got sick with a fever of 102 degrees that would not respond to Infant Tylenol. We spent the night of Halloween in the Pediatric Urgent Care in Worcester. What was more difficult was to see my 8 month old go through the torture of various exams. The staff was not equiped to handle a baby. After three failed attempts to insert the catheter, they asked that we get the blood drawn until a more experienced nurse started her shift. They poked her several times to draw her blood. Again, after three trials, I was done with them. They somehow managed to draw a little blood from her forefinger. It was not enough to run all the tests but just enough to run some basic blood counts. Needless to say, her WBC was very high. Riana threw up that morning but other than that, she had no symptoms of cold or flu. A WBC of 27,000 is unusually high for a viral infection so they suspected it was a bacterial infection and wanted to start the appropriate treatment. Riana received two antibiotic shots that day. The next day, we visited Fallon clinic in Leominster for her followup appointment. She got two more shots that day and felt great the following day.
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Going under the knife… fear free…
I have always been afraid of surgeries. Few years ago when I was in college, I got into an accident and the doctors said that I would need about 12-15 stitches for my injuries. I chose to heal slowly and scar instead of have someone sew me with a needle. Then, when it was time for my Dental surgery to get my wisdom teeth pulled out, I was terrified. I asked them to put me under general anesthesia because I did not want to be conscious knowing that I am being operated upon, regardless of how trivial this procedure was. When I got pregnant last year, my biggest scare was what if I needed a C-section? I knew I could never get prepared for it. I was extremely anxious as my due date approached. Thankfully, I had my baby naturally and did not need a C-section after all. I felt like a winner. However, I did require a few stitches. It wasn’t as bad as I had imagined and I was pain free in a week’s time.
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Is it the quality of shows or the quality of audience that we should question
In the recent years I have noticed a marked improvement in the quality of television shows. However, it is disappointing to see a lot of nice shows like Studio 60 on Sunset Strip being canceled year after year. I moved to the US four years ago. When I first came here, I had nothing to do. So in order to keep myself entertained, I would play computer games or sit and watch television with my grandmother-in-law who would wait anxiously every afternoon to watch an episode of Matlock. My father-in-law has a vast collection of movies and TV shows of yesteryears. I began watching a lot of old shows including the Honeymooners and I love Lucy. I immediately got captivated by to these shows and I could sit there and watch it for hours. I realized that though simple, the shows from the past were really fun to watch. Then my husband introduced me to a bunch of nice shows including CSI and West Wing. He also had a collection of Sports Night which was fun to watch but I heard that it was one of the shows that only lasted a season. For comedy, I would watch Friends, Simpsons and Mad about you. I try not to restrict myself to one particular kind of show. I like variety although I am not a big fan of reality shows like the Survivor and American Idol. American Idol has it’s moments but after a while, it is saturating. Today there are over a hundred channels to watch but only a handful of them broadcast good quality shows. It is not hard to find reality TV, game shows, Hollywood shows, adult soap operas and nighttime dramas. I watch TV every evening before going to bed and among my favorite shows are 60 minutes, Cold case, CSI, Criminal Minds, House, Bones, Cane and CSI: NY. I like to watch drama and thriller. I also like to watch football especially when the Pats are playing. I watch news occasionally though the quality of news that you get from the TV is atrocious. More than 95% of the news is filled with negative information and it brings negative thoughts to our minds. Sadly, this is the kind of news our audience likes to see and hear.
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