Ishaan does not understand difference between English and Gujarati

Ishaan has been picking up lot of English from school and Kavya. It has got to a point where he is often choosing to express his thoughts in English.

To make sure that he still speaks Gujarati, we often ask him to repeat an English sentence in Gujarati. However, when we do that, he just repeats the same sentence in English - which makes me and Gaurav wonder if he really understands that he is speaking 2 different languages - English and Gujarati and which words/vocabulary belong to which language. It seems like he doesn't.

So, now we have started teaching him that by saying the same sentence in 2 different languages and explaining that one is Gujarati and one is English.

Not sure how this happened, because with Kavya, the distinction was always clear.

Is Santa Claus real ?

Before Christmas, Kavya told me that Santa Claus is not real and that parents put the gifts under the Christmas tree, not Santa Claus. I was surprised and happy that the girl knows it all. She even said that tooth fairy is not real and that parents put the money/gift under the pillow.

Come Christmas day, the kids woke up bright and early to open up their presents and are all happy. Then, Kavya took 2 stockings and hung them on her and Ishaan's bed telling me that Santa will come and put gifts in the stockings that night.

I was surprised. I thought she was kidding. I told her they already got the gifts. She responded that parents gave those gifts. Now, Santa will put more gifts in the stocking if she leaves them overnight.

I still thought she was joking. However, today morning she was sad that the stocking was empty. She came to us and said Santa skipped our house.. there is nothing in the stocking..

I felt like laughing.. but I told her that may be Santa ran out of time or may be since she and Ishaan were fighting, they got on to Santa's naughty list :)

She forgot about it all little later.. but it does make me think if she really knows that Santa Claus is not real ?

Mom's dilemma : To feed OR not to feed

Kavya has been a healthy/chubby kid since beginning. She weighs between 45 and 50 lbs now when is close to 6 year old. While she is not really fat, she is getting there. She loves junk food and has a sweet tooth. Once she starts eating something that she likes, she just cannot stop and keeps asking for more and more.

So, as a mom, I am faced with a very hard task : How to tell her that its enough and that she is not getting any more ?

When she was little, I used to struggle to feed her - because she wouldn't want to eat. Now, the problem is exactly opposite - how do I get her to stop ? I want her to be healthy, but not fat/obese.

So, I try and explain her to control.. and often, even scold/shout if she doesn't stop.

It's even harder because Ishaan is relatively skinny and I want to make sure he eats enough.. So, I have one kid whom I need to feed, feed and feed and I have other kid whom I need to ask to eat less.

The other day, I prepared 2 snacks : one for Ishaan and one for Kavya. I put some Amul cheese for Ishaan, but not for Kavya. When Ishaan was eating his snack, Kavya noticed that he had some Amul Cheese. So, she immediately complained : "It's not fair that Ishaan gets cheese and I don't".

I know it's not fair - but how do I explain her ?
Some people say that as she grows up she will get more conscious of her looks on her own and will learn to control and diet. I really hope she does..

And my dear Kavya - if you ever read this in the future, mommy is sorry for not letting you eat too much of your favorite things - but please know that it is for your own good. Love you very much !!

Bought new house - hopefully its a good thing

We have been going back and forth for over a year - trying to decide if we should buy a new house and if so, in which area. We had agreed that it makes more sense for us to be in the south due to proximity to my work. We had also agreed that if we move, it wouldn't be just for the school, but also for a better life style - so the house should have a nice back yard and we should really like it. So, the choices mainly were Evergreen, Almaden and Los Gatos. Evergreen was our primary consideration since it had newer houses that one would easily like - however the hesitation there was that the high school was not that good. So, we would be in a similar boat 10 years later. Also, we had the impression that most of the houses in Almaden were old. So we were only checking out houses in Evergreen. However, after seeing Kamal-Vandana's new house as well as few other open houses in Almaden, we kinda started liking Almaden. Gaurav had run into an agent in one of the open houses and he was good at following up. So, we started seeing houses in Almaden. 2-3 weeks of open houses and we liked a house that we were willing to put an offer on.

Made the official offer on 7/31/2011. Then went back-and-forth on the terms/price and entered into official contract on 8/4/2011.

We had planned a 2 week vacation to NY/Toronto in the last 2 weeks. So, we were bit stressed with all the inspections, removal of contingencies and loan process that was ahead of us..

But by God's grace, everything fell in place. We enjoyed our 2 weeks of break and then ended up closing on 9/7/2011.

We did the "Ghado mukvano" ceremony on 9/8 and then moved in on 9/9/2011.

The next 2-3 weeks were spent in unpacking and setting up the new place. We were also tryin to rent out our old place ASAP at the same time. Fortunately, we found renters who were willing to start renting on 9/21/2011. So, it all worked out well.

We also tried to enroll Kavya in the neighborhood Greystone Elementary School for KG, however, since we were late in enrollment, all spaces in Greystone as well as other nearby good schools were full and they were offering us Allen Steinback as a fall-back school which we didn't like. So, while we had withdrawn Kavya's admission to Stratford, we had to re-enroll her. **Sigh** Felt bad spending the money for private school after spending so much on the house.. We were upset for few days, but then moved on. On the positive side a consolation was that she was building a stronger base that will help her in the long run.

That's what has been keeping us busy for past couple of months and hence the decrease in blogging activity.

Hopefully, Kavya will get into the neighborhood school latest by 1st grade and we will all live happily ever after in this new house :) If not ever after, at least for another 16 years (till Ishaan completes high school) Time will tell..

Ishaan's first month at school

After seeing Ishaan play happily for 1 hour for the first 2-3 days at his new school (Montessori Way), we were hoping that Ishaan would have no problem when he starts full time. June 27 thru July 1st ( 9 to 3) was his first full week at school. I decided to work from home that week since the school is very near our place - so, in case there were any issues, I can go and pick-up Ishaan very quickly.

Our hopes were soon shattered. The first day I go to drop off Ishaan, he didn't want to let go of me. He cried. I stayed there for some time, but then on teacher's suggestion I left. I felt very bad, but hoped he would stop crying as the activities resume and he got busy. I called a couple of hours later and he was still crying.
I picked him up around 3:00. He was happy to see me, but he was in bad shape due to lot of crying. He had fallen asleep due to weariness from crying, but didn't really eat well or do anything else.

Communication was also a big issue since Ishaan only spoke and understood Gujarati. The teachers at Montessori Way asked me for translation of few words and sentences so that it would help them in communication. Despite their effort, the crying continued.

The same thing continued the 2nd day. Infact, he had now started resisting at home while getting ready too.

Since I was picking him up around 3:00, I had told Ishaan that I will come to pick him up right after he wakes up. So, then he wanted to go to sleep by 10:00 am so that I would pick him up sooner. On the 3rd day, the teacher let him sleep early and then I got a call around 1:00 asking to pick him up since he had woken up from sleep and was crying and disturbing other kids who were sleeping. I really didn't like that approach since I wondered why can't the teacher just take him to other room or outside - but I think they were understaffed that day.

The next day they tried to keep him awake till 11:00 am but because of crying, he was tried and so almost falling asleep while eating.

The struggle continued for the entire week. Ishaan also started waking up in the middle of the night and crying in his sleep uncontrollably - nothing could calm him for quite some time (in fact he did that when we went camping over the july 4th long weekend and woke everyone up at 2:00 am). We didn't really know how to deal with this.

We had started thinking of other options - either I take a leave of absence for few months (although we would be in a similar situation after few months) OR try out Bright Horizon or ask Binduben if she could help.

At the end of first week, I asked his teacher what she thought - if we should continue or withdraw. She said she hasn't seen any kid who has cried so much - so much that he doesn't even stop .. So, its hard for them as well to focus with a kid crying all the time - but she was hopeful and suggested that we try out for few more days. She said it will be the same thing elsewhere and the moving around is not good for the kid either.

Ishaan loves cars. So, I bought some hot wheels die-cast cars and gave it to the teacher and asked her to give 1 to Ishaan everyday as a bribe, hoping that it would help him to like/adjust to the new environment. The teacher did that. While Ishaan liked getting the car and it would calm him down temporarily, the struggle continued for most part in the 2nd week as well.

Here are few incidents from next couple of weeks as I remember them :

One of our friend (Shilpi Desai) used to drop off her son in the same school at 9:00 and pick him up at noon. So, I would call her at noon to ask if Ishaan was crying. Somedays, he was crying, other days he was not, but still sad.

One day when Shilpi went to pick up Rishaan, the teachers requested if she could talk to him in Gujarati and ask him to eat his lunch. So, Shilpi told him in Gujarati that if he doesn't eat his lunch, they will give it to the other kids. Ishaan didn't like the idea of giving away his food to other kids - so he started eating :)

One day he was resisting and crying really hard when I was walking him from car to this school building. One of the parents actually came to help and they carried Ishaan to the class door for me. Then while I waited outside to see if he had calmed down, I almost cried, but the parent advised that it was not a good idea to wait outside and that she had been through that as well.

One of the later days, when Shilpi was picking up Rishaan, Ishaan went to her and asked why is my mumma not coming to pick me up early ? It broke my heart when I heard that - making it seem more likely that I might take some time off to spend with Ishaan.

However, 3 weeks later, his resistance starting slowing down. While he wasn't very happy when I left him at school, he wasn't crying.

After almost 1 month of trying, Ishaan was feeling comfortable in school. He wasn't crying or resisting. He had also started picking up some English. His sleep crying at night had also become rare (and we had found a way to calm him down by asking some questions that he could answer and get distracted). We were happy and relieved that we survived the 1 month struggle period.

Now my fear is that we will be taking 2 week vacation to go to NY and Toronto in later half of August. Will Ishaan be able to adjust after we get back? I am keeping my fingers crossed.

...And Kavya lost her first tooth already !!

Friday evening, all of a sudden, Kavya came running to me with something in her hand and screaming, "Mommy, look, look". I took a closer look and realized that she was showing me her tooth that just fell off. She was so happy and excited. She was waiting for this day.

Gaurav and I took pictures of her remaining teeth to show the space in between.
We then put the teeth in a ziploc bag to put under her pillow along with the note she had written for the tooth fairy.

We noticed that the new teeth is already coming out, but it is slightly on the inside - so most likely she would need braces when she grows up to align her teeth.

That night, Kavya forgot to put the note with the teeth and I had the 10 mile run on Saturday morning. So, we forgot to put some goodie in place of her tooth. She was a bit upset when she woke up in the morning (sorry dear !!), but then Gaurav explained to her that the tooth fairy must be very busy and that she also didn't put the note for tooth fairy.

So, she remembered put the note and teeth under her pillow last night .. and she was very happy this morning to find $10 in place of them. She didn't really have much interest in the money, but she was happy to know that the tooth fairy had come. Although she has asked us a couple of times already if the tooth fairy is actually real :)

One tooth down, 19 more to go over the next 2-3 years.

Kavya's first tooth is loose !

We went camping with lots of friends (there were 38 of us including 13 kids, 6 parents and rest young adults :) ) to Brannan Island State Park in Sacramento County yesterday. Soon after we had set up and kids had started playing, Kavya came up to me and said her lower middle teeth was moving. She was so excited !! So far, she had only heard about baby teeth falling off and getting a special gift from tooth fairy. But now it was actually happening to her. She showed it to everyone and kept on moving the teeth.

When we got home from camping earlier today, she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy making a request for a special gift (princess slate to play pictionary).

Later in the evening, we met other friends at Ruchir-Sheel's place and she showed her loose teeth to everyone there. Anusha actually pointed out that the new teeth is already showing.

My little princess is growing up! Its scary and exciting at the same time.

Ishaan's first week at school

After seeing Ishaan play happily for 1 hour for the first 2-3 days at his new school (Montessori Way), we were hoping that Ishaan would have no problem when he starts full time. June 27 thru July 1st was his first full week (reduced hours) at school. I decided to work from home that week since the school is very near our place - so, in case there were any issues, I can go and pick-up Ishaan very quickly. I would drop Ishaan around 8:30 to 9:00 am and pick him up at 2:30 pm.

Overall, the first week was very hard on Ishaan. He kept crying the entire time. He terribly misses his Jyotsna ba and Koki ba. Due to the 1-hour trial days, he got used to being picked up in relatively small amount of time while he was playing outside. However, now that he had to have lunch at school and also take a nap there, he was upset. As per the teacher, nothing they would do or say would calm him. He cried almost all the time he was awake. He would get so tired from crying that he would get sleepy by 10:30 am. On Wednesday, they actually called me at 1:30 saying that Ishaan just woke up from sleep and he is not calming down - so if I could pick him up early it will help other kids who were still napping. He even did not eat properly at school during that week. I would feed him his lunch and snack after I pick him up.

If I ask Ishaan why he was crying, he would say because mommy wasn't there (Mumma nohti). We tried to explain him that Mommy-daddy have to go to work and that Jyotsna ba has gone to London and Koki ba has gone to India. Also, tried to bribe him that if he did not cry at school, then I will take him to toysrus and buy his favorite toy. But nothing really worked. Later in the week, he also started waking up crying in the middle of night - and when he did that, we could not even touch him or hug him - he would just be very violent for 5-10 mins.

I feel bad for him.. This change seems to be really hard for him.. but then he has to learn this some day.
The school is off during the July 4th week - So, Gaurav and I are going to taking turns at staying at home with Ishaan. So, when he goes back to school on Monday, 7/11, its going to be all over again. I hope he adjusts soon. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Kavya can ride a bike without training wheels

Kavya has been riding bike for almost 3 years now with training wheels. We had made few unsuccessful attempts in the past few months to teach her to ride without training wheels. Finally, our attempt recently was successful. The motivation for us as well as Kavya came from our community kids who would gather in one of the alleys in the evening and have fun either playing something or riding their bikes/scooters and most of the kids there (some even younger than Kavya) rode without the training wheels.

So, almost a month back, we took off one of her training wheels. Then she started leaning heavily on the other side. So, we took off the other training wheel as well. She got little frustrated since she didn't know how to balance yet and gave up that day. Few days later, she tried again and she did a better job this time. Finally, on June 8th, she was able to ride in our alley on her own. She still needed help to get started. However, once she started to paddle, she could continue till she put down her feet. With some more practice later that day, it seemed like she got the hang of it.

We did not get a chance to practice for almost 10 days in between. Finally, when she tried again yesterday (June 19th), she had regressed a little and did not have confidence to ride on her own. We did not force her then. Today, we went for a walk and asked her to ride her bike along. She was ready. Initial few minutes were little difficult, but once she got to ride on relatively straight patch few times, she got her confidence back. She biked really well today and was also able to get started on her own. She also learnt how to use her brakes. Really awesome job by Kavya today. We were so proud of her and she was very happy too !!

She now needs to learn to slow down at each turn and use her brakes more than her legs to stop.

Finally, Ishaan calls out Kavya's name correctly

We never intended Ishaan to address Kavya as 'didi'. We always wanted him to call her by name. However, somehow he started calling her 'didi'. When asked what is didi's name, he would respond 'Kayva' (notice y and v are reversed). We always tried to correct him and hoped that he would get her name right one day.

One of Kavya's friend's name is Divya and I noticed that Ishaan would say that name properly. So, I tried to use that to teach him to say Kavya - I would tell him to say "Divya", "Davya", "Navya", "Kavya" - But someone he would say all names except Kavya correctly. May be he was doing it intentionally :)

But finally today, he magically got it right. He started calling her Kavya and enjoys it when we acknowledge the correction.

Ishaan's first day at school

Since Jyotsna masi is leaving for London/India on June 27th, we had to find a good/near by school for Ishaan. After visiting few schools and reading some reviews, we decided to go for Montessori Way. Priyank-Shilpi's son, Rishaan, has been going there for few months now and I got good reviews from Shilpi too. I also liked the teacher, the classroom and the fees were also reasonable. AND best of all, it was less than a mile from our place.

Ishaan will start full time school on Monday, June 27th, but just to get him used to the idea of school, I decided to put him for an hour today (June 16th) and couple of days next week when I will be working from home. We all had been mentally prepping him for school by telling him about the school and teacher and all the fun stuff. Also, I had taken with him with me to see his school when I went to turn in the enrollment paperwork - he really liked the school and the different toys there and didn't want to leave then. So, I was hoping that the one hour on first day of school won't be too bad.


He got ready early because we told him he had to go to school. When I reached his class, one of the helper teachers (Armeena) came over and took him away. She then gave him a toy and he happily started playing with it. I called him to say bye-bye and he merrily waved. I was very relieved.

Little over an hour later, when I went to pick him up, he was on the playground riding in a car. He saw me, but didn't want to leave :) He went around in his car for some more time and then he was ready to leave. He waived good-bye to everyone and came home with me.


I asked him if he had fun at school.. and he said yes! So, I asked him if he had little fun or lot of fun (gujarati version) and he said lot of fun :)

I am a happy mom. Will see how he does next week and the week after when he actually starts full time. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Ishaan is a cute chatterbox

Ishaan has become a constant chatterbox lately.
He keeps talking and asking questions like where, why, what happened ALL the time.

Yesterday, at 10:00 pm, I was tired and he was still very playful and kept on talking and talking. Finally, I asked him to stop talking because my head was hurting. He didn't understand the connection between his talking and my head hurting, but he understood that my head was hurting. So, he immediately responded "mumma, tu dava lai le" ("Mommy, you take some medicine" :)

We all burst out laughing :)

Don't wrap me, I am not a present, Daddy !

Ishaan is very cute and funny.

Today, after giving him a bath, Gaurav told him " Ahiya aav, hu tane towel ma wrap kari dau" ("Come here, I will wrap you in this towel").

Ishaan's immediate response was "na daddy, mane wrap na karta, hu present nathi" (No daddy, don't wrap me, I am not a present" :)

I guess lately we have been going to too many bday parties and so he has seen us wrapping lot of gifts :)

Ishaan is potty trained !!

I still cannot believe it, but its true that Ishaan got potty trained in less than 1 week ! Its a miracle :)

We have actually been trying to get him to sit on the potty for a while, but initially, he wouldn't sit and then he wanted to sit on it after pee/poop was done and his diaper was changed. So, basically, he would sit on it with all his clothes on - just for fun.. but at least that got the fear of potty out to some extent.

Then, 2 weeks back, I got some Thomas underwear for him - and he loves Thomas. So, that got him very excited. I washed them and he would just go around with the Thomas underwears in his hand :) So, I took advantage of this.

On Sunday, 3/13, I started the real potty training exercise. I took off his diapers and put on the Thomas underwear. He was very happy. I would take him to the potty every half an hour, but he was a bit reluctant to pee/poop on the potty. He had a couple of accidents that day and then later we had to go out, so we put him in diaper again. I asked his nanny to continue the training on Monday, but by Monday night he complained of some pain and wouldn't even sit on the potty. I assumed this was because he was holding pee due to potty fear. So, I asked his nanny to let go of the training for couple of days. His love for Thomas continued though. He would hold them in his hand and go to sleep :)

Later that week, the nanny was going to be out on Friday (3/18) and Monday (3/21). Since I was going to be with him for 4 continuous days, I decided to try it again. I put on Thomas underwear again and took him to potty seat every half an hour and MAGIC !! He started peeing properly on the toilet seat and he understood that he cannot get Thomas dirty !! :) I also gave him the incentive of chocolate - every time he peed on the toilet, I would give him an M&M and then if he pooped, he got a bigger chocolate - and he loved it. No accidents in those 4 days. When he went to sleep or outside, I would put on a pull-ups which has the Woody character from Toy Story. So, we call the pull-up as "Woody" and he understands that he cannot pee/poop in Woody either. Since then, except for 1-2 accidents, he has been religiously going to potty for both pee/poop. He actually tells us when he has to go ! And best of all, he wakes up at night to pee !!

I still cannot believe this, but I am a happy MOM. His love for Thomas and cleanliness, his understanding and my persistence has paid off :)

Now, he only wants to be in Thomas all the time. We have a hard time trying to convince him to wear "Woody" even at night :)

Ishaan is learning English !!

Ishaan has been able to fluently talk and explain everything in Gujarati, but lately, he has started picking up English too. He says sentences like "I can do it", "I want it", "Hold this", "Look Mommy, Look Daddy", "Here, mommy", etc.

At first, when we heard them, they sounded very cute. Sometimes, he even tries to say things that he does not really understand. For example, about 3 weeks back, Gaurav was feeding him some tomato soup. After he ate all the soup, Gaurav asked him "Are you done ke biju joiye che?". Basically, the first half was in English and the 2nd half was in Gujarati. He did not understand what the English part meant, but he understood that the second part meant if he wants more. He did not want any more.. So, he immediately responded with the first part "Are you done!" :) and we burst out laughing. He was smiling too :)

Then another incident happened yesterday. Gaurav was driving back home from Gymboree with Ishaan. Ishaan wanted something to eat. So, he told Gaurav in Gujarati couple of times to give him something to eat. For some reason, Gaurav couldn't understand what he wanted. So, Ishaan burst out "I am hungry, daddy" :) Gaurav laughed and told me about this incident when he got home.

My little boy is growing up fast and is learning lots of new things and words every day. I am really enjoying this phase of his childhood !!

Kids transition to bunk bed after 5 long years..

By now, we have tried lot of different sleep combinations with kids.

When Kavya was born, she would sleep in her crib which was in our bedroom. But half of the nights, when she would wake up at night, she would come sleep with me/us in our bed. Initially, while I was on maternity leave, Gaurav would sleep in a different room so that at least one of us could sleep well at night and then I would catch up on my sleep during day time. But once I started going to work, we used to take turns - The first half of the night was my duty and the second half was Gaurav's duty. This went on for few months. We had heard stories from other parents where their kids would co-sleep with them till they are 6 or even 8 years old. In order to avoid that situation, we put Kavya in her own room on a queen futon mattress when she was 9 months old. Even in that situation, either Gaurav or I, whoever put her to bed would most likely end up sleeping with her. But at least Kavya got into a habit of sleeping in her own room. This arrangement went on for quite some time.

The winter during late 2008/early 2009 was really bad for Kavya since it was her first winter in school and thereby being exposed to lot of different viruses. So, she would get cold, cough and fever too often. And when she was sick, she would want to sleep with us. Since I was pregnant with Ishaan, she would end up sleeping with Gaurav in a different room. And once Ishaan was here, I would sleep in our bedroom with Ishaan while Gaurav would sleep in the guest bedroom with Kavya. We tried to put Ishaan to sleep in his crib in our bed room, but on most nights, he would end up sleeping in the bed with me after the night feeding (partly because it was a king size bed and I was too lazy to get up and put him in his crib :).

To encourage Kavya to sleep in her room, we bought a bunk bed during early Feb 2009. Kavya loved the bunk bed and was excited to sleep on the top or sometimes at the bottom. However, it was not consistent. Depending on her mood/health, she would either sleep in the bunk bed or with Gaurav in the guest bedroom. Even when she would sleep on the bunk bed, she would want one of us to either sleep with her or be in the room with her while she felt asleep.

This sleep combination went on for few months and then we got little ambitious (and also tired of sleeping in different rooms). We connected the crib to the king size bed and decided that all 4 of us could sleep together with either Kavya or Ishaan sleeping in the crib and the other kid in the bed with us. That went on for few days but with Ishaan still waking up and rotating 360 degrees, it didn't last very long. Also, we had the bed bug problem around that time - so we disposed the crib and the bed frame.

Around the same time, Kavya was starting to prefer to sleep in her bunk bed. So, either Gaurav or I would put her to bed there, while the other person would put Ishaan to bed in our bedroom and we would take turns at sleeping with Ishaan (while the other person slept in guest bedroom) so that both of us would not be disturbed by Ishaan's waking up in the middle of night. Then there was also a phase where I would put both the kids to bed in our bedroom so that both of us didn't have to spend over 30 mins in putting kids to bed. After lot of different trial/error, I thought it was about time to try putting Ishaan in bunk bed with Kavya. Kavya preferred to sleep at the bottom. So, Ishaan would have to be on the top. I started doing that since Jan 13th 2011. I would climb up and sleep with Ishaan till he slept off while Gaurav will sleep with Kavya till she slept. We also got a special turtle that would project moon and starts on the ceiling to make the sleep routine more exciting. And so far its been working our pretty well. Ishaan loves to sleep in the bunk bed. Infact, if we try to put him to bed somewhere else, he cries saying he wants to go to didi's room. The only 2 problems with this setup are that Ishaan still wakes up in the middle of some nights and it becomes difficult to pacify him since he is on the top. Also, he makes lot of noise and takes a long time to go to bed - so Kavya gets bothered by that. But the hope is that these small issues will resolve soon.

Its good to finally be sleeping in our bedroom together and without being kicked by kids after almost 5 years :)

Ishaan thinks Goody means chocolate :)

Whenever something happens that Ishaan does not like, he cries and says "Didi gandi". Didi means sister (referring to Kavya) and gandi means dirty. Not sure how/where he learnt that from, but he says that whether or not Kavya had anything to do with whatever upset him.

One night, he woke up from sleep, shouting and crying "Didi gandi, didi gandi". Not sure if it was a bad dream or what. We have been trying to explain him not to say that, but he just doesn't understand. And what makes it worse is that often times Kavya also reciprocates saying "Ishaan gando". So, that instigates him even more.
In an effort to redirect, I asked him to say "didi goody" instead of "didi gandi". I figured it will be at least something nice. And the next minute, he said just that "Didi goody". But soon after that he said "Didi chocolate wali". It took me a while to realize that he substituted goody with chocolate because he thinks goody means chocolate :). I think that is mainly because when we tell him that we will give him some goody for being nice, we end up giving him an M&M.

Few days have gone by.. He still hasn't given up saying "didi gandi".. but when I remind him to say "Didi goody" instead, he most definitely follows it with "Didi chocolate wali" :)

Funny Ishaan !!

Kavya's understanding of her teacher's life

Today, we went to Picture People in Oakridge Mall to get a family picture. There we met Kavya's Spanish teacher, Ms. Lily. Ms. Lily was very friendly and complimented Kavya on her dress. She was trying hard to make her not feel odd about running into her teacher outside of school. In an effort to do that, she said "I know you think it's odd to see your teacher outside of school, but you know what ? Teachers don't live in school". That surprised me and I asked Kavya if she thought that teachers live in school. And she said 'Yes' :)

Very interesting and very funny. I never thought that kids assumed that teachers just lived in school.

On way back, I was trying to explain Kavya that teacher's have a family and house and life, just like us. They go to school to teach, because its their job, just like mommy and daddy go to work. But she was still not understanding. She told me that when she grows as big as mommy, then the teachers can go to work :) She basically thought that teachers have to go to school and teach only as long as she goes to school. Once she is old enough, then the teachers will be free and will be able to go to their job :)

Funny and cute thinking :)

Ishaan knows his ABCs

We have tried teaching ABCs to Ishaan several times - either through the ABCD rhyme or through books. However, when we ask him to sing ABCD, he will just sing ABCD and stop. However, today morning, he was sitting in his high chair while I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden, I heard him sing "LMNOP..QRSUVW" and I was pleasantly surprised. So, it seems he knows most of his ABCs, but just doesn't sing it all the time.

He has also been able to identify the basic colors like green, blue, red, yellow, pink for over couple of weeks now (although he knows them, he often does not say it correctly when you ask him to identify some color). And he can count till 14 (only when he wants to though) and he usually starts counting at 2 instead of 1. Wonder why 14 ? Well, that's because we have 14 steps and we usually count when going up or coming down :) He is able to speak sentences that are 4-5 words long and often breaks it up in 2 parts if it is longer than that. But he is able to communicate very fluently - mostly in Gujarati though.

He is growing up too fast. While I am looking forward to that, I also like this innocent age.

Kavya and her understanding of "Promise"

Last night I was putting Kavya and Ishaan to bed. I was sleeping in the middle with one kid on each of my side. Then, Kavya wanted to drink water. I told her to go downstairs and drink some, but she was afraid to go all by herself and wanted me to go with her. Ishaan was almost ready to go to sleep and he was sleeping on my hand. So, I tried to bribe her with chocolate in her lunch box the next day if she went to get water on her own or went to bed without water. She seemed to forget about it for a minute, but then started asking for water once again. So, I promised her that I will go and get water for her after Ishaan is asleep. She liked that. While waiting for Ishaan to sleep, both of us fell asleep :).
I woke up around midnight and came down to check something in the kitchen. I remembered that Kavya wanted water and I had promised her. So, I took a glass for her. Next day, she woke up around 7:00 am and looked at me and asked "Mama, what did you promise me?". Although I knew she would remember it, I was surprised to see her wake up this early and jump right on it. I felt so glad that I woke up at midnight and remembered to get her glass. I pointed her to the glass. She took a sip, went to the restroom and went back to sleep.

This made me realize that she is really starting to understand the meaning of "Promise". She is also learning to trust others when they promise something. My little angel is growing up !!