Happy Birthday Sweet Heart

Atul turned two today and I spent the day answering phone calls from near and dear ones who cared to remember. The most touching moment of the day was when Andrew, Shreyas and Sirisha came by to wish him and kissed the sleeping Atul. I watched them with tears in my eyes.

I didn’t plan a party for Atul but when you’re a mother, nothing seems enough. When few friends came down with gifts, I had to excuse myself for not having anything to give them in return. So, to begin with I decided to make some Payasam. Not all the effort in the world seems enough to celebrate the day he entered your life! Not all the words on earth can explicate the pure joy he brings to your life!! Me, Atul’s slave got around to do a bit more and that included cake and bread bondas. Now I had to party, but since it was unplanned, I just collected the kids who were playing downstairs with Adi and treated them to an informal party.They were more than happy to sing the birthday song for Atul and all of 'em dived straight into the snacks after having cleaned their mucky hands and legs leaving a muddy pool in the bathroom.Hilarious!! Finally when little Shourya - who is a month younger to Atul - came down I had little left but watching him gobble down the bondas was sheer joy.

I wish Atul knew that he has his parents wrapped around his little finger. Glad to be his slave
- A happy Momma

P.S : Daddy-the old man celebrates his birthday tommorow and Lazy Mama wished both birthdays fell on the same day.

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Atul turns two on 30th of September and ...

...whew what an year. Atul was dx with IS at 6 months and has been on 7 medicines so far. His seizures have managed to overpower them all and my dream of seizure free days are getting grim. As of now he is on 3 medicines and still having more than 30 spasms a day. There has been no upside, he is still floppy, arches his back constantly and shows no interest in his surroundings. What I am concerned about though is wondering if he will ever be able to focus or learn new skills. I realize this is very much a waiting game.

The Infantile spasms group has been a huge support for me in this journey and they have helped me cope with the situation I am in. There have been plenty positive and negative stories in that group. I noticed that kids with DS and IS or kids with MSC and IS have recovered well as compared to the irreparable idiopathic cases like Atul. Every kid with IS is different. While some have responded positively recovering to an extent of near normal kids, others have departed to be one of the angels.
While Atul’s IS cause is still a mystery, I wish there was a way out for him in this vast ocean of IS. However excluding the numerous issues with him, his medicines keep him knocked out most of the day only to lighten up with occasional laughing seizures once in a while and I have begun to enjoy that laughter even if it meant another seizure type.
This was a difficult post for me again and this blog is a place for me to vent...

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Aditya’s stories

Adi had a habit of writing stories in his kindergarten years and today as I was cleaning up old stuff, I found his class rough note book in which he had written few of 'em. Note the spellings as you read. It's comical...

Once upon a time there was a little boy and a biger girl. the boy was 3 year old, the girl was 7 year old. the boy was noty, the girl was very good. One day the boy said "I want to go to a jungle, but his sister said no. I want to goooooooooooo. Noooooo. but he went. A tiger paunst on him and he dyde.

Once upon a time there was a hunter named Andrew. One day he decided to go hunting. He vent. he saw a lion "let me shoot that lion". he said. he tride to shoot the lion but the lion escapte.
The end

Once upon a time there was a rat. one day he rat saw a cat. Ven the rat saw the cat, the rat said let us become friends. The cat said yes. They yoost to play together all the time. One day the cat forgot the friendship and chased the rat. The rat said, did you forget the friendship?. the cat said no and they lived happily ever after

I'll keep adding more as he comes up with new ones.

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The Wood Apple

Yesterday Deepa and I decided to go in for an overdue visit to the beauty parlor located in the fifth floor of Big Bazaar close to our home. However we reached a wee bit early as the bazaar is scheduled to open at 10 A.M. We were one of the first customers and the parlor wasn’t open yet. So we decided to hang around the vegetable segment of the bazaar until the time, the parlor was ready for customers. Now you know WOMEN, we never hang around when we have cash. We BUY and in the process I spotted The Wood Apple in the fruit section. It struck me that I had eaten something similar in my teen years and that pressed me to try it again. The label said Rs 6 for an apple and I bought two. Now Deepa was curious and she asked me if I had tasted it before. I told her that I vaguely remember my Dad getting this fruit for me when I was young and the taste resembled that of a pear in my mind. She took my word for it and reluctantly picked one. After shopping, we headed to the parlor and spent two hours of indulgence.
That night after dinner I stared at the wood apple longingly imagining something promising inside. For the ignorant, (that includes me) wood Apple is a whitish spherical fruit, will a hard woody pericarp and aromatic (offensive will be my term) pulp. Breaking the shell is HARD and I begged my mom to do it for me. She used a butcher’s knife for breaking it and cursed me as she did. I kept encouraging her as she broke the hard shell and as it broke into two halves, I was surprised to find something unfamiliar in there. It was seeded and as I tasted it, I was speechles (sour, felt like puking). I threw both in the dustbin and as I did that, it struck me that I had hauled deepa into the same boat. I thought it best not to call her and invite reproach and I waited and waited and waited for that CALL. Well, finally the rebuke was in the form of SMS

“ Thx 4 ur valuable advce. Wooody apple was really atrocious :p”
Saji

Uh oh, I called back for details about their experience with woody apple and here it goes “Thank you for the suggestion, Me and my husband have plasters on one of our left hand fingers. The trouble of breaking the filthy shit matched with experience of tasting the same. We will be careful not to take your advice in future”
Well! I was short of words to convince them then…
For some literature about wood apple, check this link http://www.goodhealthnyou.com/hot/teacoffee1.asp?id=1137&aid=62

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In honour of Lord Mahabali...

...we celebrated Onam with packed vigor despite my handicapped right hand. For a change Ajith was home this Onam, thanks to my hand. He inaugurated the day with a beautiful pookkalam that he laid out with immense care. Adi had to go to school as he could not afford to skip his monthly class test. However we promised him a surprise after he returns from school. The surprise as usual was a sumptuous lunch we planned earlier that day. The highlight of the day was the extravagant pot luck dinner thought-out by a couple of friends. With the help of my maid I managed to get things in order by noon. It's a custom to wear new clothes on this day and we call it Onakkodi.

Check out our get-together pics.

The Onam Sadya was quite elaborate with Parippu, Sambar, Erisseri, Pachadi, Inji-puli, Kaalan, Olan, Aviyal and two types of Payasam along with Pappadam, Pazham, Chips, Moru, Pulisseri, Pickle etc. Thanks to the efforts taken by Deepa, Prasidha, Bindu, Ajith and Me.




The Ladies in the traditional attire


The men in the traditional attire


The kids enjoying the sadya


The men's turn


The ladies final shot

The Onam celebrations at our apartment complex is scheduled for next week, which we are all eagerly looking forward to...

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THE LUMP

With a sling on my right hand and temptation to write, I just could not hold back on blogging until my hand was free from it. I didn't realize until now that typing with my left hand was this hard.

It's been over a year since I have been postponing the project lump. I noticed this little friend at the base of my right thumb a year back. What started as a peanut sized cyst soon became the size of a gooseberry when the orthopedist finally declared a deadline for eliminating it. The last time the doc asked me to get rid of it, Atul was too young to be handled by others and hence I was allowed to postpone it as long as it wasn’t posing a problem. Surprisingly, the lump did not trouble me at all and I decided to put it off indefinitely.

But all good things come to an end and so did my lump. This time it took a sprain on my leg to return to the orthopedist who promptly noticed the gooseberry on my thumb and said "GET RID OF IT". Ok ok, no more excuses! Three days later I was in the surgery room feeling sad that the little friend of mine was parting from me for GOOD! - Crippled blogger @ blogspot.com

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After a long gap...

…An old friend of mine called and as we were catching up on old times, lots of spicy news about our common friends slowly began to unfold. Well! Nothing great about that right ! but wait until you hear the gossip. We blah blahed non stop for an hour with lots of O-MY-GOD in-between. Now you guys must be prying to know what it’s all about.

Disclaimer: This post is strictly for ladies who love gossip.

Case 1:

Mr X married Miss Y two years back and got divorced 6 months back.

Reason: The two families did not get along. Nosy in-laws never missed the slightest chance in influencing even the most trivial decisions taken by the couple.

Result: A little kid who will never get to enjoy the combined love of parents.
2 cents of mine: Some things be left best to the couple especially in matters involving the two.

Case 2:

Mr X loved a girl during his college days. Unfortunately she got married to someone else in her final year of college. Mr X could not get over her and never married. But things turned in Mr X’es favour or did it?
Reason: The girl could not get along with her hubby and divorced him after two years. Mother of an 8 year old now has reunited with her teenage love. Live- in relation and unmarried type.

2 cents of mine: Why did she waste two years of her and another person’s life if she didn’t believe in it(marriage) in the first place.

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Salsa

I never considered that I would learn salsa at this point of my life. At 32, dancing to the tune of Hips Don’t Lie is like dream come true. Not that I ever dreamt of it since I never heard of salsa until my hubby told me about one crazy guy in his office who exhausted more time on salsa than on his job. I shared the same view as Ajith about this guy wasting time or rather spending time at the salsa club, when he should be coding his a$$ off. I guess I have changed my attitude now since I know what salsa can do to you. It can gobble you and your time. When an amateur like me can spend hours practicing the basic steps of salsa, I don’t blame a pro. I have been coaxing Ajith to be my partner for quiet sometime now. He is ready and is a bit more tolerant to that guy who is a salsa freak. Thank to my influence
Check out this salsa video



Check out Hips Don’t Lie for which we are rocking to.

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