MTV Enjoi Shlok

Uploaded new pictures of Shlok .

Look who is naughty

Leapforword

Leap For Word is officially a Non-Profit organization.

"No risks, No rewards"

Today I had a review meeting where I presented a software design for a very large and complex project for NetApp's next release. The review meeting went really well and it seems that our design has been accepted. This was the first time I gave such a presentation to so such a varied audience consisting of Technical Directors, Senior engineers etc spanning multiple geographies and time lines.

This is the most complex project that I have ever worked on. It will really awesome if we are able to pull it off, since I was the original proposer of the project and that no one else wanted to undertake it because of the complexity.

Fall's here

It's getting cooler...And Shlok is getting cuter.

Parenting an infant

I went to the public library today to pick up "Einstein's Dreams". However on reaching the library I decided to browse some more isles to see if I could find anything else interesting. I stumbled upon the book No: Why Kids--of All Ages--Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It and thought it would be good read for Tanu and ended picking it up as well.

However on reaching home after reading "Einstein's Dreams" for a little while, I decided to give the other book a try. This idea turned to be really good and I really enjoyed reading the sixth chapter of the book regarding baby's first year. This chapter was really insightful for me and some of the highlight's from this chapter were

i) Infants need to be touched and cuddled a lot during the first year
ii) TV should be avoided completely for the first two years of a child's life to avoid attention problems when they reach the school age
iii) Developing a strong connection with your child influences his behaviour in a very positive way.
iv) It is very important to make your child feel secure during his first year (i.e. do not yell or scream at him if he makes a mistake or irritates you). There is scientific reason for this, the reason being under stressful situations our body emits cortisol which dampens the memory centre of the brain. Hence if the baby experiences stress repeatedly the constantly emitted cortisol hinders the ability of the baby to register memories effectively.
v) Reassuring experiences lay the groundwork for sense of trust and security, while frightening incidents (like scolding) leads to a sense of insecurity and mistrust.
vi) It is good to expand the circle of connection for the babies i.e. it is good to have grandparents around a lot during the first year of the baby (Fortunately this is true for Shlok)
vii) Infants tend to put most of the things in their mouth, the reason being taste is the most developed sense for infant out of the five senses. As the other senses develop this habit decreases gradually and dies of eventually.
viii) As babies grow they start playing more with food as their sense of touch develops. This is because they want to sense the texture of food.
ix) Till 18 months of age infants misbehave not deliberately but out of curiosity, hence when you say No, stay it firmly but with a gentle tone. Also it is important to support this curiosity than to kill it.