Happy First Brithday to you Mommolde :)

Its been a long time indeed and what better excuse do you need - it was Mommolde's first birthday . The star birthday was on 31st, but I had to be at work on that day, eventhough it was a saturday!!
And on his DOB, the husband was away in Beijing, on a 5 day tour!!! So we decided to celebrate on 14th , Valentines' day.
Achulde's First b'day was a gala affair, we'd even roped in an event manager, who managed the whole show for us including getting the return gifts, caps and blowers and all things nice. We had asked for a live cartoon character(in attire ofcourse) (Winnie the Pooh, as that was the theme for the party)- that was the anti-climax of the whole show, the guy was so thin, he looked awfully thin even in the Pooh attire :), now all that brings a smile to one's face.
We wanted Mommolde's b'rthday to be equally good.We had Pooh as the theme, this time too. Out here in TVM, they've event managers doing weddings etc on a large scale, but nothing on a small scale. We'd booked Travancore Hall of South Park, we but we had to do most of the arrangements ourselves, with the help of the Hotel boys. This time we were not planning on a large scale anyways, just family . And we didnt have much of friends in TVM anyways.
We'd purchased party poppers and snowflake spray, when we went shopping for the return gifts , and I gave clear instructions to a couple of hotel boys on how to just twist it to pop it and to spray on a certain height so that it would snow down beautifully. All was set. The cake cutting was set for 7 in the evening and all the folks arrived on time. Though we had party caps and eye masks, most of the kids refused the eye masks and opted for the cap only.
Achu and Mommo were sporting Offwhite Sherwani'is and both the kids for a change, didnt resist self''s attempt to dress them up in this attire, that by itself was a major achievement for self. :)
And at 7, we 4 got together to this side of the table and the crowd assembled on the other side and all started singing the Happy Birthday song.I was trying hard to get Mommolde to touch the knife atleast. Achulde was already blowing the candle and then suddenly the Hotel boys made their way into the crowd . The one with the spray had atleast forgotten half my instructions, for he was spraying the snow at just his level, the spray didnt have time to turn to snowflake, so it decided to just stay as lather on the guests' head. Same is the case with the popper man - he was miles away from the party scene, pop goes the contents into air!!!:) My attention wandered from the cake cutting and I couldn't control my laughter and I noticed that the whole crowd 's attention was in that direction, all laughing loud and running away from the scene. Then the "Snow Man", decided to focus on us and all of us were like ' Run for your lives'. The husband was like' M, focus here, we should be cutting the cake, not looking elsewhere!!!' etc.
Finally off went the boy and we returned to our second attempt at cake cutting. By then a naughty lil friend of Achu's(Kanna Baby) decided to join our side of the table. Kanna baby for a change had decided to wear the eye mask!!! He walked over from the other side in style sporting the Cap and eye masks and Mommolde got all curious as well a lil worried at the same time( He was seeing someone in a mask for the first time in his life).This lil fellow decided to position himself by my right side, a lil behind me and Mommolde who was on my left arm took a sprint and landed on my right arm and started climbing over my shoulder, trying to take a good look at Kanna Baby,with his back towards the cake and the crowd, there was no way we could get him to look at the cake , let alone making him cut the cake!!!
It was so funny, this time for a change, we were quiet relaxed and laughed our hearts out.
Finally, the husband somehow managed to get Mommolde to look our way and all of us cut the cake together :)
Achulde was really happy as he got to play for a long long time with all his friends. And we had a nice time with family and very close friends.
Man, Mommolde is already One, one year just whizzed by!!!

Broken

Scroll to left, and then to rite, scroll up and down’ was my New Year’s resolution!! Before you jump into conclusion that this mite be a new form exercise that I plan to start practicing this year, let me clarify,
No ,no, I did not mean scrolling in person, but ‘scrolling throught the recipient list of my compose mail window, before I click “ the sacred” send button !!!
Don’t believe that? Well , that’s just a subset !
My being absentminded is not by design, I’ve resigned to the fact that I am just designed that way!!! So my resolution for the new year was the latest in the series of the futile attempts at trying not to be very absentminded and careless atleast during workhours.
Checking recipient list was included in my mental checklist, after I caught myself just in time before clicking on the ‘post’ button after composing a weekly status report’. Now ‘post’ sounded unfamiliar, where’s the ‘send’ I normallyclick! That’s when I realized, I was about to post in BB (my company's Bulletin Board) my project status report!!! Heights of carelessness and that was when the mental checklist was revisited , re-vamped and re-introduced!!
All was well in my world, until today, when I got a mail from ‘A’, my team member , cc-ing my supervisor ‘B’, citing reasons on why he needs a release from the project and asking me to commit on a specific release date that he had in mind. Now,the project is in a very crucial phase and he is one of the key personnel in the team. I could not commit to any certain date, until the KT was complete and the new TM has scaled up well. But the same time, I did not want to discount that fact that the person had a genuine reason for the release. I decided to draft a mail noting down all points and send out a mail to my supervisor and once I was done with the composing, instead of saving , I clicked on ‘ send’ and went on about my activities. It being an exceptionally busy day, I had //commented the mental checklist process for the day.
The very next moment I get a ping from A, “I got your mail, you sent the mail to me, not to B!!!
Jaws dropped, I didn’t plan to send it at all ,rite-away in the first place, wasn’t it still in my drafts?!!
I cross checked my drafts and sent, no surprises here, it was in ‘SENT’ and not in ‘DRAFT’.
Ms. ‘Carelessness Personified’ had ’ replied ‘ instead of intended ‘forward’.
‘No problem, I’ll forward him,myself’ stuttered the embarrassed self .
’ I’ve done that for you’—he pings!!!
Then comes his reply, just a oneliner “‘ Looping in ‘ B’”!!!!
I ran to my supervisor’s desk and updated him, before he could sit down and read the mail himself,and he, who by now is so used to my “speaking on ‘mute’ during conference calls‘ and ‘moving files to wrong folders’ syndrome couldn’t contain himself and laughed out loud.
I was back at my desk, embarrassed, trying hard to contain it all, realizing how I’d royally broken my ‘New Year’s resolution’
Can it get better than this?
Stupendous Achievement , even before first month of 2009 is over!!! :)

The effect of my Nazar

My amma always says that we should never talk or even think that our kids look healthy now or thats its been sometime since the last infection. The moment you think/say, your baby is bound to fall sick the next day. The beginning of this week, I couldn't help noticing that its been atleast a couple of months since Achulde's last tryst with antibiotics , though Mommolde has been very regular with the attendance!!! And I even went to the extent of admiring his chubby cheeks!!! The very next day, got a call from his day care at noon. A call from the day care is something I am yet to learn to take with minimum composure. The moment I see the caller ID , I panick and I dont even bother to say Hello, its always ' What happened?" This time, its fever and I couldn't believe my ears, he was bsolutely alrite, in the morning. We took him to the Doc. He did try his best to behave and when the doc took out the thermometer, i could see him trying so hard to control the outburst, he managed not to cry for the first 1 or 2 mts and then , started out full volume. Then it was 3 of us holding him, while the doc examined, and Achulde as usual was in top form!!!
It turned out to be a middle ear infection, and that happened thanks to me , alone. Achulde had a mild cold last week and a running nose. So the good old very knowledgeable self, did the good act of making him blow his nose forcefully, very well knowing that , it mite lead to ear infection!!! As always, I thought that its just for the books!!!
Now he's on antibiotics, and we are all plotting new dramas and trying old tricks, to get him to take his medicines.

Happy B'day to you Happy Nuyea

Achulde thinks 'Happy Nuyea' is something similar to 'Happy Birthday'.
Once he noticed people wishing each other a Happy New Year, he also started doing the same. He even went one step ahead. He wished Happy new Year a Happy Birthday.
When one of his Appuppas called us to wish , he grabbed the phone from me and started singing.
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you Dear Happy Nuyea
Happy Birthday to you!!!
:)
His 'Teecha' at the day care was telling me that one whole day, he was going on abt saying ' 'Achulde Happy Nuyea' 'Achulde Happy Nuyea' :)

Mommolde

Extremely unfair, not to have a post on Mommolde, you'd think.
Lil Mommolde has started taking baby steps. He'll turn one next month. His star birthday is on 31st, but I have to be at work that day, we have a major deployment on that day. He turns one on 10th Feb. Maybe we'll celebrate it on the following weekend.
I'm sure I'll have a tough time, convincing Achulde that its not his b'day and Mommolde would have to be given the privilege of cutting the cake.
From a practical PoV, it would be better to let Achulde do the honor,lil Mommolde wont mind this time.He can just initiate the process and leave it to Achulde to take care of the rest of the matter

Kochu Poochan

Did I hear it right? ' Kochu Poochan , Kochu Poochan' ,(meaning Lil' Kitten) Achulde was chasing a cat, all excited and I could see that the not so 'Kochu' Cat was running for its life. We'd gone to J. Ngr, visiting my ammumma and thats one of the visits Achulde loves. He has a lot of fans in there and he loves being the centre of attraction. Its like his stage over there and he just starts performing, the moment he reaches there, songs and dance and all masti stuff.
Plus, since we live in an apt, going to J. Ngr is a diff exp. for him. And the added attraction is this cat, that visits our home , once in a while. Achulde has learnt this malayalam rhyme 'Kochu poocha kunjinu' from Manjadi. So whenever he sees the cat, he thinks its Kochu Poochan ( I dont know how this Poochan replaced Poocha, though!!!)
On a general note, I must say his vocabulary has improved and he can repeat full sentences now.

The URL of my blog

Its indeed been ages, since I even visited this page, let alone thinking of scribbling something. I was so sure I'd not be able to type in the URL correctly.I even came up with this very clever idea of going to UL's blog and taking my link from her 'friends' list'!!!! :)

The promise that I thought I’ll be able to keep, that I’ll post a note atleast once in a week has been broken and in what way!!Have not posted in the last 3 months!!!
So what excuse do I have for myself. Shall I blame my employer this time? The company that I work for has mandated that all the employees should take two certifications an year, one from the technical stream and one from the process or domain stream. If you don’t clear that , your ratings get affected and that affects the pay package. And worse is, these exams get carried over to the next year and one would have to take four certifications the next yr!!!

Last year, which was my first year in the company, I’d thought that I don’t have to go through the grind , as I’d joined sometime in June, but the rule was relaxed for people joining from July onwards and I came to know of that only in Dec!!! 2 certifications in two weeks time –looks tough enough for a full time student. And I had a toddler on toes and was in the last trimester of my pregnancy, had my regular project work and the last thing I wanted to do was study like in college days!!! But that’s what I found myself doing, the husband, poor guy was doing the cooking and managing lil’ Achulde and there I was going through oodles of books and even walking to and from in the room, with the laptop on my hand , trying to recollect stuff and memorize stuff!!!

I managed to clear both the certs and I remember buying a book, as treat for myself ' The Hindi Bindi Club', dont remember much of the book, other than that it had lots of recipes in it.

This year also, I've managed to clear the certifications by Nov itself and I've not got a treat for self. Is there any book that you would recommend?