His First A+

OK, so it is his blood type, but you cant blame a father for being proud. If I were to truly embrace my Indian parenting roots, I should have had a talk with Junior after he scored a 9 out of 10 on the APGAR scale immediately after birth. The APGAR score is some random scale they use to determine, color, responsiveness and some other stuff right after the baby is born, that now that we are out the hospital, is useless information to me. But nonetheless, if I had gotten a 9 out of 10 you can be damned sure my dad would be asking me, why I didnt get 10 out of 10, and if there was any extra credit I could do to make up for it.

I of course want my child to be the best he can be and to reach his potential. But I dont want to be the psycho over the top Indian parent that seems to be prevalent in society from my parent's generation. For reference see the parent in "Spellbound" who seems to psuh his son to an unreal level. Granted I got a small portion of what that kid's life is like, but the part I saw, seemed to be the exact opposite of what I would want for my son. Maybe I will change my mind when Shaan gets older and I see how competitive the world is for children these days, but for now, I dont want that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va08QGl2X58

We did get some very good news from the Dr. today. Shaan is growing at a nice steady rate. He is up to 5 lbs., 5 oz., having gained 9 oz. in one week, which is over the ounce per day average and also over his birth weight of 4lbs. 13 oz. After his birth we were so concerned about the lack of weight gain and the actual weight loss, that this tells us we might be doing something right. No matter what people tell you (they grow so fast, he's going to be fine, etc.) there is nothing that can take away the daily worrying over the child. Especially when you kid is small and see all the other chidlren of the same age so much bigger. Also, when you have little control over how much he wants to eat.

Now if I can just push him to gain 10 oz. per week, I will be the perfect Indian parent.

Next time: Why I keep doing this next time thing, even though I dont actually write about it in the next e-mail. Alright I stole it from Arrested Development, so sue me.