Yes, it is Croup. The pediatrician said we were already doing what she was going to suggest - give him steam, keep the humidifier going to help with the symptoms. We gave a treatment or two of Xopenex via nebulizer to help open up his airways. It's mainly used for lungs but does help with the throat in a pinch. He had immediate relief from the treatment. Thankfully, we already had some Xopenex at home. She wrote another prescription as well. He is doing better today but I kept him home for another day.

Karwachowth yesterday was awesome (except the headache from dehydration and caffeine withdrawal LOL!) The three of us (neighbors) who are really close wore saris and did evening puja together. Then we hung around in Monika's place until moon-rise and meanwhile put our husbands and kids on Spot_The_Moon duty. Moonrise was at 8:55 PM yesterday but we didn't see it until 9:30. We cooked together and had tea (an exception I made due to the headache. I normally don't have anything until after moonrise). I spotted the moon from the Kitchen window through the blinds. We are supposed to see the moon for the first time through a sieve and it was funny how I spotted it through the blinds. After performing the rites, we all had dinner together and left around 10:30.

Few picture DH took at home. There are some in Ira's camera but I don't have them yet.

Croup? and KarwaChowth

Mehul had a low grade fever and trouble breathing last night. His voice became horse and his cough sounded very strange. My instant thought was croup. After some reading this morning, it's almost confirmed. We will take him to the doctor tomorrow as our pediatricians office is closed today. Sadly, there isn't much we can do about it other than try to fix the symptoms. We tried giving him steam but that didn't go very well. He is acting fine and eating well so it can wait till tomorrow.
I wasn't well yesterday either. The house is a mess. I don't need anymore illnesses around here, please!

Tomorrow is my day-long fast of KarwaChowth. I blogged about this last year. This time there are many Indian neighbors who will be keeping the fast as well, so this should be fun! Last year, when DH took me out looking for the moon, an oncoming car killed a Skunk right in front of us! Please, no smelly killings this time around!

Blog Musings

It's all her fault :) She asked me to look over her new blog before the debut. I had been contemplating a blog re-do for my best friend Sene but just didn't hadn't sat down to do it. Well, after looking over Erin's Awesome Blog, I started searching for a new template for Sene. Have you looked recently? OMG! There are so many cool new templates for Blogger available now that weren't when I last looked. I just finished Sene's blog update - take a look at the result if you would like. She asked for pink and she sure got it LOL! Hope you like it, Sene!

And I have also started a new Food blog - Ginger and Garlic Blog. Why Ginger and Garlic? Because I don't know how to cook without them LOL. It's going to be my daily kitchen diary. Hope I will be able to keep up with the 2 blogs. I like the simple template for that. The template is in Spanish (which I don't know at all). Regardless of the strangers sometimes trying to talk to *me* in Spanish. So I can't customize it much. The Search feature is really cool, though.

I want to thank my readers and those who comment. It brightens up my day to get a comment, and I don't say thanks always so I wanted to take a moment. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.

Pictures!

Let's get right to it.

You've already seen my first scarf ever.

My second scarf. Look how messy my edges are. They are improving now :)

Pattern:
Knit 4 rows
K3 *(K2tog Yo K) repeat from * K3

Mom made this one. It's plain garter stitch.


Same pattern as the one above. Only wider.
The picture in the background is a Paint-by-Number done by my sister!


I like this one the most. This is in Mehul's school colors and my most recent finish. Love it. Excuse the pillow fibers please! They shed more than my hair. LOL!

Pattern:
K3 *(K2P1) repeat K3
Knit next row

The bootie! A bit tight for Mehul but I love it. I'll be making the other one soon. Ran out of the gray yarn.

Pattern : here (pdf). I didn't add the straps because I am having issues with doing them. Still need to make the other one.

Dishcloths. Both started by me and finished by Mom. LOL! I don't like the cotton yarn much.

Pattern: Feather and Fan.


Can't remember what this pattern is called.

I started the Black and White striped scarf today after much frustration yesterday with it. I got some wonderful advice on the Wagon. It's looking nice:)

Anyone need a scarf?

Parents are gone. We had a 4 day weekend (no holiday, just vacation time). I have been knitting. A lot. DH is very bored and missing *my* parents more than I am. Does anyone else think there is something wrong with that? Besides me.

So, in order to distract myself from the emptiness of the house after my parents left on Friday, I started a scarf for Mehul. And this morning, I put the last stitches (knits/purls?) into it. It's the best one yet. Wait till you see it :D Pictures coming soon. There might be a booty in there as well :D

I was watching a hindi movie (Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna) and started noticing the scarves the actors were wearing. Instantly, I opened photoshop and noted a lot of the ideas. And came up with a bunch of new ones. Now I'm definitely a knitter, right? Because I'm coming up with scarf ideas :) I have plans to make vertical striped scarf and a boxy scarf. And a black and white very stripy scarf. We'll see how far I get. I usually have grand ideas, not so grand execution.

What else is new? I got wallpaper for the Library. Yes, wallpaper! Sometime in near future, we'll be putting it up. Hubby refused to co-operate last night or we'd have a nicely done wall by now. The plan is to do only one wall first, see if we like it, then finish the remaining 2.5 walls. Wish us luck with this one! If this goes well, we plan on putting wallpaper in Mehul's room and possibly the dining room as well.

Nooo!!!!

Their flight is tomorrow and not Monday!! That's 3 days early than we were thinking. Their travel agent changed the dates and never informed them back! I know they were trying to change the dates BEFORE they ever came here but were told that it can't be done. Arghhh! We only came to know when DH called today to confirm and to set meal choices for them :(

Thanks for the wishes! The party went well. We had to move indoors as it was just too hot out. But other than that, everything went as planned. Everyone loved the food, the kids enjoyed a lot, the adults enjoyed too. Mehul's playroom was the main playground for the kids and by the evening it looked like a tornado had gone through! LOL In the evening as the guests started leaving, the neighbor's kids came right back outside and played on the bouncy. I was so happy to see it getting used as well.

I have so many pictures to post but no time this week. Mummy papa are leaving on Monday - 15th October. Yes, Already!! We are going to miss them but Mehul will miss them the most. It will be hard on him for a while. He looks for papa first thing in the morning. It doesn't help that he is supposed to be transitioned to the next class (Gard 3) starting tuesday. We're going to talk with the Director tomorrow when we go to drop him and try to delay the transitioning. Normally we wouldn't do that but seeing that he hasn't been regular in the daycare for almost 2 months and starting to be fussy when we do leave him there, it's necessary.

We have taken Friday and Monday off to do something fun with them. We might get to some of the touristy places still left to visit or might just stay and spend the last days with them at home. Sunday, we have a block party in the neighborhood - the first one in this new community so we have to be there as well. I think I signed up for salad and trash bags. Hopefully this will be our last busy weekend for a while. I miss my stitching and scrapping.

A Day Late

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy! He is 3 as of yesterday! And he got a big boy bicycle.

I have started layouts for his first year album. Here is what I have so far..


Credits: Papers from Michelle Coleman, Alpha from Gina Miller, Brushes & Stars from Michelle Coleman, Staple from Jenn Patrick

Credits: Papers, Elements from Michelle Coleman, Alpha and Swirl from Miki Ferkul

And a recent picture -


I know I've cheated and chosen the picture that had my first scarf finish hehe. I loved the colors in this yarn and Mehul named all the colors the first time he saw this. I actually liked another yarn with girlish colors that Jenni very wisely steered me away from LOL! Mehul loves his scarf. Speaking of her, she and I met today for lunch and she taught me baby booties! I can't wait to make a start on those. I am surrounded by pregnant women at the moment and would love to be able to make booties for them. Hopefully. We'll see.

I gotta run. I'm making the chutney for his birthday. Lots to do before the party..

Amazing how days are flying..

Another weekend gone! Now we just have Mummy papa for 2 more weekends here. This weekend was entirely too busy. Friday was dinner at a friend's place. Visited another friend on Saturday and brunch at yet another friend's on Sunday.

I finalized the details of the party this weekend. And gave a test run to a new Jeera Chicken recipe. It's easy, quick and yum (from those who ate it. I don't do chicken.) Somehow the discussion that started with "All food will be catered. Don't Make Anything." ended with "I'm making everything but one dish". LOL!! DH is not talking to me.

I finished the purple scarf. So now I have done 3 scarves and mom has done 2. That's too many scarves! I need to learn something else. Jenni and I are meeting for lunch so she can hopefully teach me something else. I'm useless without a teacher.