Loving Old Fashioned Way

I am now taking a break from my HTC Wildfire touch phone, and embraced back my good old Sony Ericsson W850i from the walkman series. My HTC has not been amusing recently with some frequent hang up and reboot issues, plus I am not getting the latest Froyo update yet. Decided to get it admitted for special care at the service center, while it is under warranty.

Once I turned the W850i power on from herbination, I realised how wonderful it is to once again have an actual keypad back! I can now type sms and make calls without looking at the keypad while multitasking (driving and all). This is something that I could never do with the touch phone.

And why is the touch revolution good again? I guess it is just the sleek look and the whole touch feature where you can drag and drop and do all kinds of wonders with just the tip of your fingers. Blame the iphone craze!

What I miss in my touchphone?

• The one touch power & application buttons - Did not have to navigate through the whole menu just to find calendar or something
• The Handcent SMS application
  

What I don't miss in my touchphone?

• The wi-fi - Didn't know this was possible, but I don't mind not having it now
  
• Touch screen keypad
• Flat bulkiness - The W850i fits my pocket perfectly
  

While the Wildfire is away, the Walkman will play!

And He Turns One

This is a very much delayed post, thanks to the four-letter-word issue and the very frustrating laptop repair ordeal that lasted for 3 months. The latter deserves a whole post of its own, I shall get on to it when I am in the mood for another ranting.

But hey, my son turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago, and is now officially a toddler. It is now legal for him to drink (fresh cow's milk, dont get ideas) and eat (whole egg), which have been tested (sounds like lab mouse) and certified good-to-go based on the 4-day rule! And why is mom so happy on the eating and drinking part? Well I guess I am just looking forward to the change of routine and habits in cooking... With him taking more chunkier food, I am excited that I can now cook for all of us, and let him have it (sans the salt, chilli).

We planned a small celebration at home with family, relatives and friends, which turned out not so small in the end. My favourite part of it, was the birthday cake. We choose a football themed cake for the little football enthusiast.

You might wonder why is the field red in colour. Papa requested it so that it would match Sanju's birthday vest... so fashion forward little fella. The cake of a whopping 3.9kg was american chocolate in the inside, and was so totally irresistable! Thankfully we had a good amount balance for us to savour once the celebration was over.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy on his birthday eve, he loves wearing kohl (kajal) just like his mom and mausis (maternal aunty), posing with his mother's headband. Sanju is a handsome toddler with a pretty girly face, don't you think?

Chick Pea Curry

I was just scratching my head for something to cook that can cater for Sanju's meal, as well as for me to bring to work for lunch. Few days ago I brought some leftover black pepper mix vegs for lunch, and I loved it. Thinking it might be a good idea to have home cooked food for lunch more frequently.

Finally it came to me, I could make kichdi or some mild curry that I can take out for Sanju before I put the salt in. This is what I tried last night:

Chick Pea Curry
Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic and some ginger (crushed, you could chop them too but crushing gives better aroma)
1 tsp fennel powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp tumeric powder
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup milk
50g chick peas
1 large potato
1 tomato
some cooking oil
some capsicum, diced

Steps:
1) Soak the chick peas for a couple of hours.
2) Cook the chick peas and peeled potatoes in pressure cooker for 10-15mins
3) In a pan, sautee the garlic and ginger. Add all the spice powders, some water and cook for 5 mins.
4) Add the tomatoes and milk and cook a little more.
5) Finally add in the cooked chick peas, potatoes and capcisum, cooking for 10 mins more. Crush the peas with your ladle.

And yeah, some salt to taste, once you have separated it for your baby.

I kinda tasted some of the unsalted food, and my god, it tasted bland. How Sanju endures it, I don't know, but I am glad he does. I even had to add some chilli powder in mine for extra kick. And to further curb the blandness, I packed it for lunch with some yogurt and chopped onions (keep some mint handy alright).

No pictures for now, but will upload it soon!

The Four Letter Word

I am not the swearing type, unless it gets really frustrating. Life's been busy enough with my baby graduating to toddlerhood, and on top of that, I have this four-letter word to deal with for the last 1 month.

The word is actually NISplus, it might not be a four letter word, but written most commonly, NIS+, it does make up into 4 letters. Then again, one might argue, it is 3 letters and 1 special character. It stands for Network Information Services which is more secure as far as authentication and encryption is concerned. And yea, it is NIS/NYS compatible.

I have zero idea and knowledge on it, and during numerous troubleshooting occasions I have successfully messed up plenty of the settings and features. The bomb has exploded, now waiting for post mortem and the aftermath. You'd think that after 1 month of extensive troubleshooting I am probably now an expert... in fact very far from that. It is not my fault that our workstations are all using OS of ancient legacies and different versions. By the time I read up one, I realise it does not work for the other.

Why kill you with the technicalities I have already been killing myself softly with? Just thought of using my blog to rant and vent my feelings on this four-letter word. The moral of the story, if its broken, let it be. Till then, have a nice time while I continue firefighting.

For your reading (dis)pleasure, info on NIS+ here.

The Encounter

It was the Zee Cine Awards that my mom bumped into Aishwarya Rai. She asked to carry Sanju and bring him over to her father and mother in law, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, and yeah, Abhi(shek) was there too. They played quite a bit with Sanju while Aishwarya dashed away to grab some change (she owed some money to my mom). I was worried that she might just kidnap my handsome little boy, considering the amount of time they spent with him.

And suddenly my mom was awakened by my calls to make tea for breakfast, that she realised she was dreaming all the while. Dream encounter, but it was, an encounter my mother would not forget. Mistake not, mom is not an Aishwarya fan, neither of Zee Cine Awards. I guess it was the constant advertisement on Zee abt the awards that did it. And who can deny, my baby is so cute that everyone would want to play with him!

Baby Milestones

Gone are the days of monthly milestones, now Sanju is reaching his 1st birthday, and would soon be on annual milestones, where did the time fly to? I still remember the night I started having contractions and knowing something was about to happen, I warned the (busy and tired) hubby not to put his phone on silent, and lookout for calls from me that night. My better-half actually packed his bags, sat in the hall watching TV, waiting for my call, for he had to make a fast drive down to JB once I give the green light. I went home 1 month prior to due date to pamper (and stuff) myself with mom's TLC (and homecooked food).

Thinking back, its been a sweet journey of ups and downs of different magnitude, vector and degree. Here are some of developments and experiences of my sweet 1 year-old-to-be:

• drinks water from a straw cup since 11mo (sometimes sips too much that he sort of drowns LOL)

• Crawls, stands with and without support since 10 mo. Can walk a few steps on his own

• Claps, dances to songs, waves goodbye, shakes hand and raises his hands for a hi-5

• Says mamam, mama (sorry papa, but I am coaching him for you)

• Plays hide and seek, in English, Hindi and Tamil

• Understands 'take' and 'give'

• Can bite, chew/gum on papaya, banana, grapes

• Loves chocolate - yea we broke some rules and gave him chocolates whenever his chocoholic papa was having it

• Climbs up and down the 3inch step between our hall & kitchen (done with supervision)

• I have witnessed him climb 3 steps of the stairs, no joke, again, with supervision
  

• Is off the pacifier

• Spent 3 days 2 nights at the hospital like a brave boy
  

• LOVES AND ABSOLUTELY LOVES watching the football TV ads since like 5mo

Well this is just the beginning, more sweet memories to come while this boy grows into a handsome little chap, potentially a football player. While at that, hubby is pretty convinced that he will start breaking hearts at 14 years of age. Till then, lets count more and more birthdays, yeah, mine too, but I gotta remain a hot mama for a hot baby.

Its been a while...

Its been a while since I blogged.. ok just one week, but I can't help feeling the withdrawal symptoms. So much has happened over the week that kept me busy and very much occupied.

Just as we started planning for Sanju's upcoming 1st birthday, he got down with flu and chesty cough. He was admitted to the hospital for 2 nights, for frequent sessions of nebulizer gas. My champ is doing very much better now, and after much pressure and persuasion from hubby and mom, I have decided to stop giving him fruits (apparently causes phlegm) to him for a while. Which means, no more mashed fruit preparation for the mother... I will miss it for a while.

This is like the 2nd time his cough has been so bad, and this time we decided to go ahead with the hospitalization. How do you protect your little one from getting such bad cough?

And yeah, I turned a year older than before, and a year younger than the next year. Here's hoping for a great year ahead!

Baby Oh Baby!

Inspired by ClothDiaperMalaysia's post on the similar topic here, I thought I'd share my baby experience. I can't believe the little devil is about to reach 12 months in a few week's time. I can still remember same time last year I was busy shopping for baby stuff, and getting lotsa walking to ease the delivery.

5 Baby Things I Can't Live Without:

1. Baby Oil - Mom has this practice of massaging baby with oil before bath time. It helps to keep the water off and dry the body better, as well as provide excellent stimulant and skin to skin contact to soothe baby. Amazingly, apart from his first few massage sessions, Sanju grew to like his massage sessions, even now he'd happily turn to his stomach while I lather him with oil.
2. Fisher Price NB-to-toddlerhood Rocker - This was a present from my brother, and how useful! Came in very handy when I needed to put him for him much needed nap, or just keep him occupied with the mobile while I dash off to attend to something. But one thing I never understood, Sanju never liked the vibration mode.
3. Cloth Diapers - Need I say more? CDs were like god-sent. Made my life much better, especially with those revolutionary (to put it simple, thick and absorbant) night diapers. No more diaper change in the middle of the night!
4. Baby Sleep Routine - After 2 months of age, I finally managed to put Sanju in a sleep routine. It helped him to sleep more (if not throughout) at night. Also the discipline got him familiar with the ambience of sleep time, does not take much time to get him dozed off during his routine timings.
5. Pacifier - Well this happened to become an essential in times of desperate needs. I just happened to blog about it here a few days ago. And the good news is, he is finally weaned off. As Rancho would say, ALL IZZ WELL!

Thinking back, there are some things that I wish I could have done differently. For one thing, I would want to breastfeed till at least 1 year old, but it did not work out with Sanju due to many reasons. For another, I wish I went for babaywearing to soothe him during his fussy day, rather than using the pacifier. Buy hey, there is always a next time, isnt it?

Weaning off the Pacifier

Sanju has been on the pacifier since he was 1 month old. We resorted to the pacifier because he used to nurse to sleep, and would immediately wake up once I put him down to sleep. Also, it came in handy when at nights that he woke up, cried refused to sleep. The pacifier helped to soothe him, while us parents got some sanity, and sleep. Since then, Sanju was on the pacifier strictly during naps and sleep time. Sucking on the pacifier helps him to fall asleep easily, and believe me, it is a bliss when he can sleep or nap when needed for his much needed rest and development, and for some break time for myself. I had planned to wean him off, but never knew when or how to start.

It was last week that my babysitter revealed to me that she did not use pacifier for Sanju's nap times for the last 1 week due to moulding on the pacifier after her 1 month leave. I read somewhere that it takes only 3 days to break or create a routine for baby. It then occurred to me, if he can do it at day time, I should start weaning him off at night time as well.

As the parents, there are 3 basic rules to follow:
1) Be patient, and do not stress, otherwise your baby will sense it and get stressed as well
2) Do not give up
3) Do not break rule #1 & #2

Here is how it progressed:
Day 1: Sanju drank his milk. Both ma and papa tried to put him to sleep by carrying, rocking, singing, patting, etc. For a while he nearly slept, but got excited by sudden movement from papa, and poof, he is awake! Gave up (yes, kick me), gave him the pacifier and my little angel slept nicely. Note: Papa=playtime. Papa to be away from bedroom on next few days try.

Day 2: Sanju drank his milk, and was pretty drowsy. Slept off after some patting.

Day 3: Sanju drank his milk, but was restless. Tossing and turning. Put him on my tummy and rocked him to sleep.

Day 4: Sanju drank his milk, was at in-law's place. New place, and he was a little restless. Took 5-10 mins of tossing and turning, but he fell asleep eventually.

Day 5: Sanju drank his milk, and by no means was sleepy yet. Carried and rocked him, sang song, but he was too alert. Took him back to the bed, and was asleep in 5 mins.

4 days without the pacifier and going strong! Of course his bedtime now involves a lot of singing, rocking, patting and hugging, but hey, he is a big boy now... Will only progress better!