Big Brother, Busy Bee : Achulde

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Chweety pie : Mommolde

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Achulde turns 3


Achulde turned 3 years old on 28th. Man, time flies!!! He wanted Mickey Mouse cake for his b'day. We'd placed the order at Ambrosia and they were okay with delivering on the b'day morning directly at school. But on the previous nite, we heard rumours about a hartal in the offing. Well this is the land of bandhs and hartals , that too lightning ones, that just gets called on and off at some political party's whim and fancy!!!So we thought it would be a good idea to bring and keep the cake in our refrigerator itself , so that we can avoid unnecessary worries. So we went and brought the came from there and guess what, very soon found that the cake was too huge to fit into our refrigerator, We took it out of the cardboard case and tried to place it inside, but still it refused to go in. Do I need anything more to worry abt and in the huzzlebuzzle that followed, the side of the cake that I was holding , slipped from my hand and while trying to catch, my fingers wen right into Mickey's throat!!! I was in tears. There was only minimal damage, but that was enough. How would Achulde take a damaged one to school?! I mustered all my courage and called the cake guys up. Although it was closing time, they were good enough to wait till I took the cake back and then corrected the damage and offered to safekeep for me and deliver the next day despite the hartaal!!! We have the baddie, the bandh and hartaal guys and then we have such nice ppl also around too, for a change :)


PN: Achulde's b'day celebrations went well too :)

Monday, May 25, 2009

Hospital time


Normally its Mommolde who marks his calendar regularly every month for a hospital visit.Achulde would be the culprit though, bringing in the cold n' cough without fail every month. But he doesn't fall sick really. He gets just a minor version of it, but he loyally passes it onto Mommolde who ends up in hospital most of the time.Once we switched the doctor, we were able to contain with just visits and no admissions. So this time around, when Achulde fell sick,I thought it would be like every other time. But his fever spiked by Friday evening and it was well past the Doc's private consultation hours,so we had to take him to the OP.And I knew what was on store for me. They almost invariably manage to get the child admitted, based on my previous experience, but when your child has fever around 103-104, you stop worrying about all that, don't you. My main concern was that, I was so sure, I wouldn't be able to make Achulde stay in the hospital, he would be scared and restless for sure and he would cry out so loud that he would turn the whole place upside down. I was hoping that we'd get a single room.But like I knew already, there were no rooms available and they admitted him in the Paediatric ICU. He placed himself in their hall of fame, when they attempted to have the cannula on his wrist for giving antibiotics, by producing the highest decibel voice in the known history of the hospital!!!I was there in the room, so the Nurse aunties asked me to wait outside and 3 of them managed to hold him and took the blood for all the tests and inserted the needle for the cannula as well. Inside the ICU also, only one of us could be with him and he created quite a tantrum by calling out for Me when I was outside and for the hubby when he was outside. We both knew he just had a fever out of this chest infection , but that was not the case with some other children who were admitted there. Some of them were really unwell and the last thing those parents would want in the vicinity would be an impatient toddler crying away to glory and showing tantrums.He just refused to sleep on the bed and wanted the cannula to be removed and wanted to go home. After a couple of hours he fell asleep on my shoulders and that's when I finally managed to put him on the bed after so many hours.In the morning, he was running all over the place with a couple of balloons and trying to make friends with the other kids prompting one doctor to think loudly ' whether the hosp admits healthy kids also these days?!!!' I was worried for him ,as he mite catch infections from other kids and worried for the other kids due to the kinds of disturbance that he was causing. We were just waiting for our doc to come, so that we would be discharged from the hosp, but that was not to be. Since the fever was persisting, they decided to discharge him only on Sunday. But luckily for us we got a room just in time, so the next 24 hours were much better.I was just hoping that fever would be completely gone by Sunday, the last thing I wanted was Mommolde catching this infection.Moreover Mommolde was pretty upset that all 3 of us were missing from home all on a sudden.Reached back home by Sunday evening, and by Monday morning, lil Mommolde was running a high temperature!!!But luckily it subsided well in 2 days time and we didn't have to get him admitted. I was esp worried as it was Achulde b'day on 28th.
But these hospital visits are humbling experiences indeed.

Friday, May 1, 2009

The City of school seasons

I think Trivandrum is one city that revolves around school and academics year round. While you know places,where you see activities/happenings based on seasons or events or maybe festivals etc, i think I can rightly state that this city has everything running based on school activites and timings alone.Maybe this has something to do with the fact, that majority of the population would have moved in and settled here 'coz of the govt jobs and the sole focus of the middle class has always been education of their children.But they get way too focussed and I think, most of the parents dont have anythingelse in their mind other than the education of kids till 12th and professional degree course after that.Its all about school classes and then the tuition classes before school hours and then tuition classes after school hours. You often see huge crowds gathered in front of houses at odd times- 7:30 - 8:00 in the morning or 7:300- 8:00 in the nite, which would be anxious parents waiting to pick their kids after the tuitions.Am indeed skeptical about being sucked into this vacuum.

Every person I meet has this standard question to ask me already ' Are you trying for Loyola admission?'I think its a tmatter of time before I succumb to the pressure , maybe. Cant help wondering how tough it would be on the kids as well.Can't help feeling sorry for them. I dont know whether I'd want my kids to join Loyola. No doubts abt the fact that its one of the best schools. But then you are getting the best of the best, you are just bound to do well. But I dont know really whether they aim at developing all facets of the childs personality, finding out what he is good at and encouraging that, I dont really know abt that. And here you cant ask any directly either, am not sure whether they would understand what I mean to ask. I've heard that Loyola takes admission during UKG and in 2nd standard, and if you dont qualify in their UKG exam, you cannot attempt the 2nd standard entrance exam. And that based on the academic performance they move kids to ICSE , CBSE and state syllabus etc. I dont know how the kids can take this sort of pressure at this young age. I heard that there are people who even conduct coaching classes for the Loyola entrance!!! But the school must be really good, 'coz I've not seen a single loyoloitw who doesnt beam with pride while mentioning abt their school.The one that Achulde goes to currenty is the Early Learning Center of Trivandrum International School. Achulde loves going there and I must admit, if there is one thing that I dont regret on for moving to Trivandrum, it is the school that Achulde has been going to.From whatever I have seen, its based on how they do schooling abroad, its all theme based and the kids get to actually try their hands on the things that they are learning. The cute pieces of work that Achulde brings from his arts classes , the joy and pride on his face , as he shows off all these to us. The other day, he brought this cute cutting of a boy in blue sleeping on a hay stack. They were learning the rhyme ' Little Boy Blue'. But they say, this kind of schooling would not help the child in this competitive world. They quote the results of this school with the results of the city's best schools.So the experts think its best to have the kids in this school for their overall grooming and then move them to where they'd be ready to face this competitive world!!!The sad part is that they have only the ELC in the city, and from LKG onwards, if you plan to continue in this school, my kids would have to travel a good 40 kms every dayby bus.(The main school is almost in Attingal, you could say!!!)

I guess it would be the same scenario everywhere, be it Bangalore or Cochin!!!Maybe not to this extent, I hope.