Baby Legs

Checkout my new blog

2010-08-15T01:52:00.000-04:00

Finally, having battled with SEO, I am putting my thoughts together in this new blog. Hopefully I will have the time and energy and the prodding of few smart people to keep it going here :).

If you are in the Atlanta area, call on my brother's new Handyman biz

2010-08-15T01:37:00.001-04:00

Especially if you are commercial - a hotel, office, building or industrial enterprise needing facility management maintenance work, he is offering some really good deals to sign you up as customer at this point. The company - Crisis Solutions of Georgia has a good deal of experience in this kind of maintenance work. Especially pools, large scale equipment etc. If you own a home and have regular handyman work, you may want to give Crisis Solutions of Georgia a shot as well. Tell them I sent you there and get a discount!

A review of Paramount Kings Dominion

2008-06-30T12:54:00.001-04:00

This weekend we visited Paramount's esteemed theme park in Doswell, Virginia (near Richmond) and had some very interesting experiences I wanted to talk about and tell all the readers. First as a disclaimer, I should mention, we could not have picked a worse day in three years since this was one of the most crowded days in the park (the park sold tickets at half price on this day which turned out to be Bank of America day!). We planned to do only the kid rides this time, which formed about 30-40% of the rides so the long lines (sometimes an hour's wait) did not pose a big problem for us. We arrived at 11:30 AM and finished all the rides by 7:30 which was great. BTW, Paramount's website disallows all outside food and drinks inside the park which turned out to be a false alarm - I wish we would have taken some more drinks and snacks to make our movements inside the park much quicker.

On arriving, we started in Kidsville and soon decided that the level 1 rides there were not "thrilling" enough for a visit to a theme park. However these rides were fun and provide a lot of magic moments of fun for the family. Kids can go into these rides all on their own unlike the thrill rides. For a 36''-40'' toddler, the best rides in Kidsville were Taxi Jam, TOPCAT, Clipper, Airfield and Boulder Bumpers. Our second stop was Congo and the only ride do-able there was the the Scrambler - a level 3 ride. This was a pretty good ride as well. By far the best ride was in the Old Virginia section and our son loved it - Lumber Company roller coaster (where we picked up our fun photos as well to memorize the trip). Another interesting ride in this section was Flying Eagles. The last section we visited was the Waterpark and the ride we did there was the "Lazy Rider" - a fun family ride through a long and winded water stream.

That was it. We finished up with a few rides we skipped in Kidsville. Overall the trip was fun and we really had a good time. Kings Dominion was our favorite and value for money.

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Social Networking for Parents and Kids

2008-06-23T13:18:00.001-04:00

A lot of social networking sites have been designed around kids and parents and somehow or other they prove to be a challenge to monetize and grow. More recently, I found three new services in this space and thought it would be a good idea to try them out a bit:

1) Totspot: This helps parents create a private page for their kid and share it with people they trust like family members and friends.

2. Bundlo: Bundlo seems very similar to totspot.

3. Babyspot: Babyspot seems to be a superset of what Totspot and Bundlo have at this point or are trying to be. It combines a private social network with an opportunity to discuss issues with other moms and dads out there. It has chat rooms, meetups etc. However the site appears new and way behind that of Totspot or Bundlo.

Try them out and let us all know!

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Safe Internet Browsing for Kids

2008-06-23T12:43:00.001-04:00

Recently I tried out two products meant to allow safe browsing for kids. My kids are not old enough yet to start browsing so not sure if I was able to do a fair and complete evaluation. So I would ask visitors reading this for feedback as well:

Glubble: This is a firefox add-on which creates tabs for parents and kids on the same browser. I must say I found this very inconvenient and a lot of time it accidentally closed all windows on my browser. I had to turn this add-on off and I am scared to turn it back on when I am doing something important (like writing this blog :).

Kidzui: this is a complete browser by itself. This is a "freemium" service - ie., a free and a paid model (pay for reports and more control). Kidzui also comes with a social network.

I think both of them do a good job as far as managing the sites the kids can access. However, as a parent I felt like a control freak - almost like Marlin in "Finding Nemo". Personally I would keep looking and hope there is something better available by the time my kids are ready. I am sure other parents out there have a different opinion and maybe these apps provide what is much needed.

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Planning for a Kids destination for Memorial Day?

2008-05-20T16:25:00.004-04:00

If you are planning a vacation or get away this memorial day, you may want to look in your backyard! Its expected that fewer Americans will drive far this memorial day amidst high gas prices and the economy on the rocks. I have already been getting fliers and booklets from my local state tourism department telling me about what's local and interesting.

Anyway, I live in Maryland and my two year old is fond of animals and getting near water. I took him to the DC National Zoo last weekend and he wouldn't stop gazing at the water streams and ponds there. Same at Reston Zoo, which is another great place for kids this age.

This memorial day I am planning to go to the Natural Bridge area in Virginia. Nestled somewhere in Blue Ridge mountains near Roanoke and about 2 hours drive from Luray Caverns, it offers quite a few interesting things. I haven't been there, but if you haven't finalized your plans yet, you may want to take a look at it. For 2-3 year olds, the Virgina Safari Park appears to be very interesting. Prof Cline's haunted monster museum and Dino Kingdom appear to be interesting as well. There is also a Natural Bridge Zoo in case you don't get tired of all those animals ;) I have been to Natural Bridge and the night show there and that is pretty decent as well. If you don't know, its one of the natural wonders of the world.

Another interesting destination for kids is Luray Caverns, but it has lesser attractions and the caverns themselves may be interesting for bigger kids.

If you want to browse the full set of attractions, click here.

I also found the following two sites extremely useful in planning the trip:

TripAdvisor and Wyndham Rewards Booking site for Hotels. TripAdvisor's reviews were very helpful in terms of picking attractions and the Wyndham Rewards site had the lowest hotel rates (lower than Orbitz and Hotels.com).

Checkout this latest report on Childrens Reading

2008-05-05T23:03:00.003-04:00

This was on Radio today and all over the internet. What is the most amazing thing? It seems children read Dr Seuss till almost the third grade! I also found that the Horton series of Books (Horton hears a Who or Horton hatches an egg) are not as popular as Green Eggs and Ham. Checkout the full report here.

Cole Bros Circus

2008-04-30T22:33:00.002-04:00

Last week we took Rohan to Circus. I must say my husband and me were also excited as well. This was the first time we were attending a circus in the states. This was a Cole Bros Circus and I am not sure how many of you have been to one. I must say I had mixed feelings coming out of the show and Rohan also only partially enjoyed it. The show started with a bike stunt which was pretty impressive I must say - three bikers were going round in circles inside a hollow sphere. Thereafter things went downhill. The clowns were pretty boring and the audio sounded like internet voice over modem lines - that's the best description my hubby came up with! I look forward to the Ringling Circus in metro downtown next which I hope is much better quality and content.

The Non Eater

2008-01-31T06:20:00.000-05:00

"I do not want to eat it. I do not like it, I don want it!" he quipped.

I was trying to get a quick nap this afternoon and I heard these so very familiar words. I looked and saw Rohan in his bed, practicing his dinner time epilogues.

Rohan is such a fussy eater. We have tried so many techniques on him but he will eat only when he wants to and what he wants to. We tried giving him incentives -watch tv, play with cars,go to library etc but with an expert negotiator like him, we were ending up with too much of tv time and way too many cars!.We reluctantly tried the - letting him go hungry method too. But this kid is like Duracell battery - keeps on going! Would not eat the whole day.All this for a kid whose favorites are The Hungry Caterpillar and The Giant Jam Sandwich.

He is getting better as he is growing up watching other kids eat. But it is very tricky to get a fussy eater to get all the nutrients that he needs in his daily routine.

Here is a recipe of one of my easy staple dinner time meal when Rohan was very fussy about eating...(photo coming soon)

1/4 cup rice
2 tablespoons lentils(I prefer yellow ones)
1/2 cup of chopped vegetables and chicken (carrots,spinach,peas,green pepper,tomato)
salt and pepper to taste
butter (as much as you want ;o) !)

Take all this and put it in pressure cooker and give one/two whistles.
If you do not have a pressure cooke r, switch off the computer and get one right away.
Its the working mom's best friend!( a slow cooker could also work.)

What's with the second wheel?

2008-01-28T23:24:00.000-05:00

My son like all other toddler boys out there has infatuation about wheels. Whether it be Lego blocks or dump trucks or the grocery cart, he spends hours examining how the wheels turn around. Last week he saw a traffic speed alert on the road mounted on a pair of wheels and turned around and asked me - "Where is the second wheel". After a minute I responded - "Its broken. We will fix it tomorrow". Next day - "Papa - Fix the second wheel" :)

This happens every day. His favorite movie is Cars and he cannpt go to sleep nor eat without his McQueen. On Christmas we gave him a Cars cardboard puzzle and he quickly put together McQueen and Sally and then stopped. The rest of the puzzle was too boring for him.

I have seen that cars and trucks are easy way to make him learn almost anything. For example, he wouldn't touch the Lego blocks if I didnt have the wheel parts in it or he couldn't put together a simple car using few blocks.

If you have had similar interesting stories, do post them here or give me a pointer!

Don't Cry Papa!

2008-01-25T11:34:00.000-05:00

I was in a pharmacy last and just happened to give a casual kiss on the cheek to Rohan. He exclaimed loudly - "No kissing Papa. No kissing...!". I looked around at everybody, embarassed and then made a crying face at Rohan as though I was annoyed when he uttered - "No crying Papa! No crying...". And then he gave me a small kiss. That was beautiful...!

What works as a cold remedy

2008-01-22T22:45:00.000-05:00

I guess there is enough awareness being built right now on how cough and cold medicines don't work well on younger kids. Its true that the effects of these medicines on adults and older kids is also questionable, but the reason awareness is being built for younger kids is because of overdose issues. My suggestion is be careful when you give any medicine to the child. Do not engage in any risky behavior since at low body weight the body is very reactive to overdosage. Overdosage is even more important when you are mixing medicines - like Tylenol, Motrin or other cold medicines. Try not to do that for cold medicines unless you are using those for fever control.

So what works for me? Whenever Rohan gets sick, the first two days are usually the hardest. We focus on making sure (1) he is hydrated and is drinking lots of water and juice (2) we also reduce milk intake at this time since milk seems to increase congestion in the body, more chances of ear infections and some sort of stomach upset at times of sickness (3) Simply Saline is the best. The spray bottles for saline solutions work like a charm. (4) Vicks vaporub at the time of sleeping is great for a sound sleep (5) Steam with Vicks in the hot cup at least 2-3 times a day for at least 15 minutes in a single shot. (6) Keeping the diet light. This means less of the heavy stuff like butter and fried things. This usually helps recover quickly from any cold related sickness.

Oh! The woes of working mom ...

2008-01-22T21:09:00.000-05:00

This is really odd. I sort of have a question on my own blog... Well let me just post it while I think through it. We have been watching Rohan all day and he has been cruising fine through the first day of fever. Slight cold it seems. Now I wonder if both me and my husband (who generally takes off when Rohan is sick) have stuff to do tomorrow or meetings or have to go out, what would we do?

I can think of several options here: baby sitter at home, family or close friends. And I have even heard of sick childcare centers. I want to poll people on the blog what the prefer if all options are available. For some unlucky ones who don't have family local and the babysitter cannot be found or is an expensive proposition for the whole day, the solution is simple: one of the parents will need to take off. Afterall baby is the highest priority. Any other ideas?

There is Baby talk and then there is .....

2008-01-21T22:36:00.001-05:00

Rohan is getting very smart these days.
You tell him - 'Rohan stop shouting' he goes 'I not shouting, I screeeeeeeeeeeeeaaming!'.

We have always felt that he has a level of understanding everything we were talking about even when he was a little baby. These days we have to be ultra careful of what we talk and what we 'preach' to him.From time to time, he will remind us ; 'no shouting' or 'quite papa! I watching TV'.

Potty Training - Day 2

2008-01-21T10:54:00.001-05:00

Well, Day 2 was not good. Rohan got fever. Yesterday night was the coldest of the season and I think accidents last evening during potty training may have been the culprits here.

Anyway, slight cold and fever. Nothing major. Lesson learnt - take proper care and watch the clothes getting wet. We will continue next week again!

Repeat after me...

2008-01-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

Who said you have to tell this to a toddler? Not to mine...

Here is a funny thing, which happened today. I was in bed early morning today when Rohan ran over to us from his room with his favorite cars in his hand. He quickly climbed over my comforter and into our bed where lay down and took a tiny peep at me and smiled. I smiled back and dozed off until I heard my husband nudging me to get up and get ready. Pop came the reply from my sweetheart - "Papa - Get up! Go make Pancakes".
My husband and I looked at each other and burst into laughter...

Its Potty Time - Day 1

2008-01-20T17:33:00.000-05:00

We started Rohans potty training this weekend. It was too cold to go out and get him 'car' or 'Thomas' undies, so we started with what we had.Also, I got some of his old cotton shorts out from last year.We put on his undies and gave him the big boy speech about doing pee pee in the big potty ...

Accident 1 : A few min after morning breakfast, I noticed a few drops on the carpet. I told Rohan it was ok and next time he should tell mommy when he wants to go pee pee.

Accident 2 : After a few hours I again noticed that his pants were wet but he was still playing with his truck. This time we tried to find where the accident happened but could not ....

Accident 3: He came to me and told me that he wanted to go pee pee but before I could take him , oops happened.

Accident 4: After dinner we saw his pants were wet again, and my husband asked him why his pants were wet, Rohan in his most innocent way said he wanted to go pee pee. As soon as we heard that we took positions, his pants down, he was on big potty in 2 seconds. We both standing in front of bathroom door in anticipation.... after 10 minutes of playing with toilet paper when nothing happened , we called it a day and put his night pull ups and put him to bed.

Tomorrow is another day ....

Potty Training: Act 1

2008-01-20T17:32:00.000-05:00

Ah.. We started Rohan's potty training. Did I forget to mention - "Again... ". I won't start from the very beginning of our own potty training manual, but rather something interesting we started today to start off on Chapter 2 - as some would say. In particular we met a friend in the library who warmly encouraged us with an interesting idea. The only requirement was that there are two to three days of holidays to play around with the idea. It was a three day weekend with MLK day and I was off, so here it goes.

Where we are: Rohan is already trained to sit, do his potty and tell us when he wants to go. But he doesn't do this consistently. He is not pee-pee trained at all, so we still use diapers till now.

The idea Bria's mom (our friend) gave us was to put on Rohan's underpants, remove his diaper and keep him well liquidated. If the liquids do their job, Rohan would soon feel the discomfort of the wet underpants if he fails to tell us in time.

So we are trying it out. Seems to be working. I will keep you posted!

Home Daycare or Daycare Centers

2008-01-13T21:26:00.001-05:00

My friend - a new mom of a 5 month old was very upset. Her daycare center had been giving the wrong formula to her baby! When she complained they blamed the mom for not marking the bottles even though all her bottles were very unique and different from anyone else! She had just changed to this daycare 2 weeks back! She was furious.

Choosing a daycare for your precious one is very much like a home search! You have to mark down a few basic things you really want in your daycare like location, limings and whether you wish your child to go in a home daycare or a daycare center. If its a home daycare, should it be licensed or not. Then you have to visit the daycare and interview the teacher/caregiver. Ask the parents for their reviews. Visit the daycare unannounced to see how they work. When you see the right one , you will know...!

We should have "caretors" (like realtors) for finding daycares ! But till then you could use word of mouth(friends 'n family), your local government agency(e.g LOCATE in MD) 'n newspaper and even craigslist! I found my current daycare through craigslist, and I could not be happier with my daycare.

For the first year we put Rohan in a home daycare which had around 4-5 children. After he was one, we felt he needed more company and a schedule. Left to us, he was seemingly out of control ;). After scanning the area for all kinds of options starting from just bigger daycares to things like Kindercare, we got confused and disappointed since we didn't find anything we liked for Rohan's age.

Finally, after five months of search, my hubby found an ad in craigslist from a parent who posted an opening in their kids daycare - Bobbies daycare. We visited the daycare and within few minutes we knew this was the one ! It was definitely out of our way but anything for Rohan! And after 1.5 years, even Rohan can say, "I love Bobbie Aunty !" Its a learning center with home daycare setting. So not only Rohan gets lots of love but also has proper routine and "Education" !

What do you say ?

What is it about Rainbow Fish ?

2008-01-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

Everyday at bedtime, I ask Rohan, "what book do you want to read today ?" and everyday I get the same answer - "I read Rainbow fish! - Yeeeeeeeeah!"

For lack of time, I had picked up a book from library display shelf. Little did I know, I would be issuing it and reissuing it again and again!

This book is about a very beautiful rainbow fish who is very proud of his beautiful shiny scales. He looses all his friends and admirers because of his snotty behavior. He becomes the loneliest and saddest fish in the whole ocean despite being so beautiful.He goes to a wise octopus for advice.In the end, the rainbow fish must choose between friendship and his most prized possession - his shiny scales. Finally, the rainbow fish discovers that the real happiness is in sharing and not external beauty.

The book has beautiful metallic fins that sparkle at night(under the blanket!) and there are colorful illustrations of the ocean world.

After this book became the staple in our bedtime stories, I researched and found that it was a prize winning book by Marcus Pfister. But with big controversies. I can tell you one thing - all kids love the book and most adults don't ! Many feel that the fact that the rainbow fish was ignored because he did not give his scales to other fish and had to give away his special scales in order to get friends is not a lesson for young kids.

What do you think ?

The Arrival

2008-01-08T19:47:00.001-05:00

We were the King and Queen of our Kingdom - Late nights and late mornings, parties, movies and shopping sprees and when we had nothing to do -TV. All that disappeared when little Rohan walked in our life.
There was a new king in the jungle.....Our life changed completely when we had our first baby. The first year was a roller coaster.It flew by changing diapers, worrying about the milestones and the weight, late night doctor visits.

I am starting this blog to share my wonderful life as a mommy with other mothers out there. Join me in my journey and share your experiences with me...