Ear Piercing

Daph called me yesterday from Walmart to check if she could pierce C's ear. I had resisted this proposal for a long time. And once in a while, strangers ask about C whether she was a boy. Sometimes, when we look at her in pants and t shirts, she looked lil bit like a boy baby, because she looks a lot like me!
So I said yes and daph got C's ears pierced. It seems, the walmart lady first marked it with ink and they just used something similar to a stapler to accomplish the job. I was afraid that C would try to take / push this extraneous thing off her ear and in turn might hurt herself. Incidentally, C does not even like the sweater that comes with a hood. She pushes off the hood almost always. However, because of a topical anesthetic, C didnt have any issue till 9 pm. Later, she slowly started fiddling with the earring and we tried to taught her to leave it alone.
She looks pretty, as always, and nice.

Waking at Midnight

C has acquired this habit of waking in the middle of the night. She gets up and sits and expects us to play with her. In order for that to happen, she has to wake us up. She pats, and pinches Daph's nose to achieve that.
Yesterday she woke up and was sitting with her eyes wide open. I made the mistake of : 1. Waking up; 2. Moving my position and 3. Making an eye contact with C.
C became very elated to find me awake and started jumping in the bed, with her shrieking laugh and tried to play hide and seek. I tried to pat her to sleep. She would not. She was smiling incessantly expecting me to join her in her game. While patting her, I went to sleep and that was the end of that!!
After some time, I woke up again, to see Daph rocking C on her lap. I didnt want to disturb the mother and child moment and promptly went back to sleep.
D has been very patient with C. Even though Daph is very tired, and sleepy, Daph makes it a point to rock C to sleep before herself going to sleep.

Vaa vaa

As of today, C utters the following words:
appa,
amma,
Oh-oh,
vaa vaa,
tha,
tha tha,
Hi.
We are not sure, how many of them she actually understands. She still cannot figure out, if we point something to her. While pointing, she just looks at the finger, and NOT at the objects being pointed to.
Even though C started saying "appa", long time back, D has successfully made C forget that word and instead taught her "amma". C also says mummy sometimes, and we dont know where she learnt it from.
Whenever we picked her up, we said, "Vaa". So, the meaning for vaa for her is to pick up and she would come to us, put up her hands in the air, and say "vaa vaa".

Walking on the ramp

Last sunday, D was putting up the snow-light-tree in our frontyard, which we had bought on after-xmas-sale last year. C was coming into the way all time while we tried to assemble the tree. C would pull the leg of the tree, and then the light and if we dont look would take the scissors that D used to unpack the tree. After repeated "orders" that she stop fiddling around, C managed to hurt her palm with the tree leg and started wailing. We told her that that was the reason we were telling her not to fiddle. She stopped crying in 2 minutes, and started her fiddling again.
The weather was quite pleasant, and I let C be in the Sun and walk around in the front driveway while we were erecting the tree outside in our front yard. C was quite elated with her new found freedom and the open air, et al, and started running here and there. As long she was running perpendicular to the drive way ramp, she was fine, but when she started trying that along the drive way, she didnt calculate the slope and made adjustment to it. C came tumbling down, and did a roll - like a slip fielder - and in a quick instant, I went around and behind her line of movement, so that, I could atleast stop her from keep rolling down. (We had seen people falling off or rolling off snow and ice the day before on the Discovery Channel!) But C managed to stop herself with just one roll. Luckily, she didnt have any scratch (from the concrete drive way!) and was fine.

xmas day

Daph made mutton biriyani and chicken today. It turned out nice. She also made very good Christmas Cake.
In the evening, we went to Abraham's house for a gettogather. Lots of people were there. C got used to the crowd and started playing with the other kids. When Dr Retnaraj's girls picked up C, she started crying. I thought the girls should give $50 for every 5 minutes of petting C!
C likes to take off our Air conditioning / Heating duct register grilles at home. The grilles at our house is not fixed, and so, it could be easily taken off - and in C's case - could be thrown away in the garbage bin or could be safely tucked behind the sofa. At Abraham's house, the grilles were not removable, but C was trying to take them off anyway, and later, started to cry because it wont come off!!!
WE came home around 11 pm and C was jumping around the bed for a long time, before she went to sleep.

Xmas Eve

Since D was making the breakfast in the morning, I was keeping C downstairs with the computer. we were playing some christmas carols on the computer. When the Holy night song started playing, I sang along in a high pitch, close to C's ears. C didnt respond for sometime. When I was going, "oh....oh..." C started crying very loudly and would not stop for some more time! I could not figure out whether she cried because of the high decibel sound or because of my singing! One of these days, we have to videograph her crying. She stretches her mouth to its fullest and makes her lips / jaw do lots of funny stuff while crying.
In the afternoon, we went to buy clothes for daph. In the evening we went to the Grace Church. They had a very good performance of the Little Drummer boy. During the cresendo, the sound was too much and I thought C would start crying but surprisingly she didnt but was dancing and clapping hands. C seemed to enjoy the show quite a bit, and was trying to play with the girl, who was sitting in the front. That girl was complaining to her mom, that the baby was "touching" her hair!
C also accosted the people who were sitting next to us, and said Hi and came back. When C tried to take a peek into their bags, we pulled C back.

Sitting

C likes to sit on the stuff that are small but look like her seats. Like the first step of the stair. Recently her favorite seat is the pedal of our exercise machine. It suits her almost perfectly, and she goes towards the machine, and turns back and sits on the pedal. She does the same thing, if we are sitting / lying on the floor, she would come towards us, turn her back towards us, and then sit.
Her other favorite spot is the base of the fireplace in our Drawing room. Eventhough, we are both sitting on the sofa, C would make it a point, to go away from us, towards the fireplace and sit on its base.
Some weeks back, she would be able to climb up the base, but would not be able to get down. During those moments she would cry to make her mother help her down.

Fall from bed

C like to take all the stuff on our bedroom sill and throw it on the floor. Typically she cannot reach the sill, but whenever she is on the bed, she could. Two days back, she was on the bed and throwing stuff to the floor. I was sitting next to her and I had put my arms around her, so that she would not fall down.
Amidst throwing stuff to the floor, suddenly, C jumped over my arms and landed on the floor. It must have really hurt. She was crying uncontrollably for sometime. She almost landed on her head and in the last minute landed on her palm. Daph was worried that C must have dislocated her shoulders.
But in five mins, C stopped crying and started smiling. Daph thinks C fell because of my mistake.

Tamil Xmas Celeb

Chantel was one of the angels in the Tamil Xmas celebration drama. She was dressed in white and have wings tied to her back. Before the drama, C was walking around in her angelic charm. When she had to go on stage tho, she didnt like it and looked at D on stage, singing, started to cry. Jasmine tried to pacify C, but she would not have it.
Her third tooth cameout during the weekend. But, I guess, the fourth one is about to make its appearance and that made C cry the whole night yesterday.

The Third Tooth

Daph calls to say that C might be getting another tooth. She has been crying lately for the past 3 days. I checked her upper gum 2 days back, but could not find anything. At night, she gets up and sits upright, and keeps crying. Since, I am usually in deep slumber, I sometimes get up but promptly go back to sleep. Daph has to sit with her through the night.
Today we thought we should call the docs and find. But D said that the docs told her that the vaccinations we gave C last week would kick in after a week (?) and might induce light fever. C also had some fever. So, we thought that was it. But D caught C today trying to chew the laptop and checked her gums to see the white film like thing. So, it looks like she might be getting another tooth. Lets see.
C has been roaming around with 2 teeth all these days, but would not shy away from putting the whole paireecham pazham or the whole fish piece or the whole jilabi (which D tried to make the other day!)

Last dose of Antibiotics

Yesterday was C's last dose of antibiotics. When she started taking the medicine, she would create a lot of fuss. I had to hold her arms and head and daph had to hold her legs in one hand and the medicine syringe in the other to push it down C's throat. Giving it in a syringe made it very easy.
First we just held her arms and legs, but she would sway her head so much, the medicine flew all over the room. Slowly we learnt to hold her steady. C also got a bit, wise and would start crying whenever we went towards her with the syringe. At one point we were giving her juice / medicine and water thro the syringe.
The St Louis doctor had given a strong dose and made it strawberry flavour. So, even though C liked the taste of the medicine, she would still cry and make a fuss, most probably because of being manhandled. We didnt want to let her go easy, because she likes to spit with a sprrrrr sound and laugh after doing this. She has demonstrated this very clearly and very often while drinking this nutrimilk. Instead of sucking throught the straw, she would blow and laugh at the sound and the bubbles made by the fluid.
However, day by day C got used to the medicine and yesterday when I gave her, I didnt hold her at all, but she was actually sucking from the syringe and was actually wanting more. Sorry, yesterday was the last day of the medicine and we have to chuck it today!

Christmas Decorations

D thought C would be delighted to see the xmas decorations this year. She putup the xmas tree single handedly and also decorated it with ornaments and lights. I scavenged last years serial lights and put it up last week. C is quite excited with the lights. She points to it and says something all the time. I tried to teach her "light". She is yet to learn that.
In the mean time D has taught her "amma" quite methodically, which made C forget "appa" which, C had mastered over a long period of time. I am trying to teach her appa again.
We also putup some lights outside and the star. C stares at these lights quite intently. Since I have connected the outside lights with a remote, C likes to see the lights being switched on and off.
C is also afraid of any moving toys. We had to deactivate the any "moving" toys and make it stationery so that she can enjoy. D had bought a dancing santa and a shaking Reindeer toy. When we switch it on, C seems to be interested in the beginning, but when Santa is in the middle of the handwave, she starts crying. She would take her eyes away from Santa, and then look at it again, and start crying.

Kids, Brooms and Car seats

C gets quite excited whenever she sees another kid. Somehow she understands the other baby / kid is not a toy but has something in common with herself. Typically, in a walmart situation, she makes a shrieking laugh when she sees a baby and points to them.
C is also grooming herself, after her mom, in the art of brooming. She understands the broom, and eventhough this broom is taller than her, she picks it up and holds it in the correct orientation and tries to sweep the floor. She also tries to wipe the floor clean with any rag cloth she could find. Apart from these nice gestures, she pulls off all the stuff from the cabinets, fridge, dish washer and the shelf. She particularly likes the trash bin too. Since then D keeps the trash on top of the chair.
Also, C got resigned to the idea of the car seat and does not cry much when we put her on it. When we leave the house, she might be quite happy thinking that "these guys eventually found some time to get out of the couch and actually are about to leave the stuffy house" and does not cry. On the way back, she is almost always very tired, and does not care where she sits.

ER again - St Louis

Dec 2 Saturday night
i caught Chantel playing with a toy that had these small battery cells. One of the battery cells was missing. We had around 4 such toys. and I knew that we had lost one battery cell from one of the toys in las vegas. Was this the same lost toy? I searched the las vegas suitcase for the other toys to check. But could not locate all the 4 toys.
Daph got lil uncomfortable. She was feeding rice to C.
C ate some rice. After sometime C put her hands into her mouth and vomitted all the rice she had been eating. I searched for the battery in the vomit. But it was not to be found. D got really uncomfortable. But C was eager to eat again and Daph fed her again. C was fine for sometime. But after 5 mins, C did the same thing. This time both of us got really scared. I searched for the battery again. Could not find it. So, we picked up our jackets and left for the ER. Again. I had asked D to sit at the back and not to let C go to sleep. I didnt know the relevance of this thing, but in movies, they never let a person go to sleep under these dire circumstances. So, eventhough, "not letting C go to sleep" might not be medically necessary, D was very particular and did a good job.
This ST Louis ER seemed to be quite different than the one in Las Vegas. They asked us to fill a form. After 5 mins the triage nurse took us in. She said C was breathing fine and so, she might not have actually swallowed the cell. She also told us that sometimes the throat could hurt because of an ear infection. That was a relief. We told her about the ear infection and the past one week of C's life. The nurse alloted us a room and with no time wasted we were taken there. We waited for sometime.
The nurse came and told us that she has ordered an xray. C didnt like it when the nurse tried to get her temperature. After sometime, we were taken to the xray room. Wore heavy gowns. Daph was ordered to hold C as she was wailing. I was asked to stay near the techinician behind the glass partition. The actual xray happened in a split second, and was digital and I could see whole of C's bone structure. Metallic parts like Daph's watch strap was visible but luckily no battery cell. It was sure that C didnt gulp the battery, after all. But the techinician would not tell us anything one way or other and said that the Doctor would brief us. May be some legal requirement, or something.
Doctor came after sometime and told that C didnt eat the cell. She also checked C's ear and prescribed a stronger antibiotics. We had to give this only once a day. That was good.
The Dr also told me that she liked the Fish theme for the interior design of the ER (which our firm had recently completed for the hospital)
We came in around 10 and left around 1145pm.

1 Year Vaccination

Wednesday Dec 6, 2006
Daph took C alone to the hospital for C's vaccination. We also wanted to show the doc and tell him about C's ear infection. This is the first time D is driving to the hospital alone.
D called me from the hospital. They were waiting for the doctor to come and take a look at C. The nurse had told D that C needed to take 4 separate shots of vaccinations and another bonus one for the flu!! There was a definite chance of the nurse running out of a spot to poke the needle. I could hear C laughing and playing in the background without realising the forthcoming pricks.
In the evening I saw chantel's thighs covered with playful band aids! She was running around, so it is ok. After some time she started peeling off the bandaids and started chewing on them. We had to take off the aids and trash them.

Snow storm

Dec 1 night
When we arrived in STL it was covered with ice. The snow storm had changed to ice storm and all the trees, house, everything had got a coating of ice. This ice made the branches heavy and there were lots of fallen trees. Santosh picked us up. Luckily the road were are ploughed and no problem.

Dec 2 Saturday
Luckily we had power, and so internet and phone.
Around 10 am, C had some fever and started crying. Daph called the nurse and the nurse said that if we could make it to the hospital in 15 minutes, they would check C. So, we did. C started crying the moment the doc put her stethescope on her. The doc said that C still had ear infection and changed the antibiotics.
We are very fortunate. When we drove around the town in the evening we saw lots of houses without power. We took some pics of the ice. I took chantel to feel the snow and she was very eager to touch it, but withdrew her hands away quickly because of its chilliness. We bought medicine for chantel and some other stuff and came back home.

ER - Las Vegas

Nov 27 Monday
C didnt eat properly. she still had some croup left in her. we left for las vegas in the afternoon. The flight was eventless. C seemed to be comfortable. She didnt have croup but cough and runny nose. She started crying intermittently at night. We called jones at night and he said that she might be little dehydrated and asked us to give her pedialyte. We tried but C would not drink much. We gave her more tylenol.
After an initial hiccup with the hotel reservation, we were alloted rooms at the Venetian. The hotel room was really big with a separate seating area and a big bathroom suite. The view towards North Las vegas blvd was amazing.

Nov 28 Tuesday
C didnt eat properly again. She kept crying intermittently. but looked a little better during the day. So we thought things were improving. But again at night, she started crying and would never stop. She would just nibble the sippy cup but would not suck it and so didnt eat anything. Even food, she would take it in the mouth but would not swallow.

Nov 29 Wednesday
Morning we thought it was good to take her to the ER. She had not eaten much and was very weak and losing weight.
The Sunrise Hospital is for children (lucky) It was the closest from the hotel we stayed in. We waited for sometime at the reception. They alloted a room for chantel and did some tests. We were thinking that C has some throat infection and could not swallow. The doc said that she had some ear infection and asked us if C was trying to grab her ear often. No. C started crying heavily whenever a nurse / doctor came by. The doc decided to give drips and do xrays. The nurses could not find any veins on C. After a lot of rubbing, patting the nurses brought out a light. They put the light beneath C's right palm and were trying to figure out the veins in vain. The senior nurse took a risk and and tried above the knuckles but could not locate it. Later she tried it in C's right arm. For more than 10 mins. C was too tired to cry and went to sleep only to be awaken again by the needling. It was really painful. When they finally got hold of a vein, the nurse was not ready with her syringey thingy and had to put pressure on C's vein for 5 seconds, but by then, the blood clotted and they could not take any blood.
They tried on her other arm again and luckily, found a vein. This time too they were not prepared, and I had to unwrap and pass them the small plastic blood collecting tube. After this they started giving C her drips. Daph was not happy with the speed of the "drips" and wanted it to be faster for some reason!
The nurses said that they can only discharge C if her intake of water stabilizes. But C was not willing to take anything. She took two strands of noodles and little apple juice. The nurses gave us a syringe and asked us to force feed C. C didnt like it at all but had to drink the juice w pedialyte, which actually tasted real bad.
The xrays came out ok. But the doc suggested they took a CT scan too. Later they took us to the CT room and gave us heavy vest to wear. Surprisingly C didnt cry too much. May be she liked the sliding moving in and out movement of the CT scan. CT scans are also turned out ok.
They put her on amoxycillin (?) and motrin.

Nov 30 Thursday
C started improving and started eating food. Daph took her to show the Venetian Queen and the song show on Christmas etc. I got busy with the seminars. C started getting excited about the view and smiling. We were hoping that the ear infection goes away before our flight to STL. Daph said in the evening that STL has a huge snow storm and flights might get delayed tomorrow.

Dec 1 Friday
Last day of the seminar. I checked online to see about the flight status. Fortunately the flights are on time. AFter the morning class, we started to the airport. There was a huge line at the taxi stand. We had less than one hour when we left for the airport from the hotel. C seemed to be ok. We gave her motrin and antibiotics. There was a long line at the airport too. We arrived 15 minutes before departure time and got into the flight. Flight back was fine. C didnt cry much. C was playing hide and seek with the backseat guy. She was generally bubbly and laughing.

Thanksgiving + 1st Bday - Phoenix

November 23 Thanksgiving
We were planning to go to Los Angeles but decided to go to Phoenix to be with Jones and family. Chantel behaved very well along the long queue for the flight and in the airplane. At the phoenix airport, Bill and Judy saw her and said that she has the family "eyes".
C started playing with Jeya and Jeevan. Jeya was quite excited.

November 24
Kelly made Turkey today. Could not buy anything reasonable at the Black Friday sales. C wanted to climb their stairs all the time. She would run from the dining and start climbing the stairs. The stairs are carpeted and have two landings. But still Daph would not let C climb the steps. Jeya though wanted C to climb and manage to let her climb at least two times to the top!
Evening we celebrated C birthday. Daph bought funny caps for all the kids. Daph and Kelly filled the balloons. The kids had lots of fun with the balloons. Jeya was more excited with C's bday and wanted to buy the biggest cake. We settled for a medium size one in the end.
C also had this lovely dress from India based on a design from the US?
The day went well.

Nov 25 Saturday
Went to Sedona. Amazing rock formations. Chantel was asleep during most of the ride. Jeya, Chantel and myself were sitting in the backseat of the new Sienna. Jeya was sharing chexmix with C. Jeya also wanted to sit next to C. C had cold and running nose!

Nov 26 Sunday
C woke up in the morning with some deadly sounding cough. Jones said it was croup. Webmd said it was not serious but that it sounded serious. More running nose and coughing. Went to the IKEA store and the Zoo. C was not too excited.