My little princess turns 7 today !

Happy 7th Birthday to my little princess, Kavya ! I still remember the day she was born.

We had a nice small celebration at our house with few of Kavya's friends today. We did a bake and decorate themed party where we baked and decorated teddy bear shaped cookie pops, baked rainbow cupcakes and decorated chocolate cake pops. I also baked a surprise rainbow cake for her birthday. I think the girls had fun. I definitely enjoyed the planning and interacting with the girls.

Here are some of the pictures from her birthday : https://plus.google.com/photos/114562332300579308736/albums/5822788222370220561?authkey=CIrHt_7Oy-qpWg

How do you write thirty ?

Ishaan is learning the 2 digit numbers lately. His teacher said that he gets stuck with some of the numbers, so we are trying to practice writing and reading numbers at home with him.

For numbers above 20, Gaurav taught him how to identify the 2 digits in the number. For example, for 23, since you say "twenty" first, you write 2 and then you say "three", so you write 3 : 23. Ishaan seemed to gradually understand that.

Today, I asked him to write thirty. So, he said "Thir" and wrote 3 and then said "ty" and wrote t : 3t instead of 30. He started laughing realizing that he had done something funny :)

Ishaan and his Gujarati !

Before Ishaan started going to preschool in July 2011, he could only talk in Gujarati. He had a tough time the first month in school because he couldn't communicate. After few months, all he spoke was English. He could understand Gujarati, but he communicated in English (often broken) for most part. The change is understandable since he spent most of his day at school and playing with Kavya and all that communication would happen in English.

Over the past year, we have continued to speak to him in Gujarati and he understands it all, but he replies back in English. Sometimes, we ask him to repeat whatever we say in Gujarati. If the sentence has more than 4-5 words, he says "Its too hard." :) His Gujarati accent is also funny sometimes. And we recently discovered that he cannot say "kh" properly. Here is how we found out.

Ishaan told me that his principal, Ms. Geeta also knows Gujarati. I asked him how he knew that. So, he replied "Because Ms. Geeta says 'caw' at lunch time.. Not the cow in farm, but 'caw' means to eat" :)
He meant to say "Khaw" which means to eat in Gujarati, but it seems that he doesn't speak or understand the letter "Kh" :)

He has been going to the Gujarati class at temple for past couple of months. Hopefully, that will help a little along with some more push from our side to keep the Gujarati language alive in him :)

Gangnam Style episode

Our kids heard about the viral Gangnam Style video and wanted to see it. They heard the song and saw the video a couple of times and really liked the tune. Kavya wanted to hear the song again and again in the car. Even Ishaan also picked up on some of the lyrics - he liked to say "Gangnam style" and eventually he also picked up "ehhhhh sexy lady eh". We repeatedly asked him not to say that since its bad words. Kavya would question " "Sexy means beautiful, then why is it bad word?" :) How do you make a 7 yr old understand why she and her not-even-4-yet brother cannot use the word "sexy" ?

Today evening, we went to the Bath & Body Works store. I was checking out the items we bought while Gaurav was standing behind me with the kids. Just then, Ishaan went around and behind a girl in the line and randomly started singing "Ehhhh sexy lady eh" in the Gangnam tune. The girl was surprised and laughed. We felt embarrassed and tried to explain that its the Gangnam style song that the kids have picked up.

Oh boy.. What else will this age of internet and so much exposure to so many things at a young age would bring ?

"Boys are lucky" says Kavya

Yesterday night, all of a sudden, Kavya came to me and said "Boys are lucky, I wish I was a boy". I was surprised by her statement. I asked her what made her think that. She explained to me "Girls grow up to be mommy and boys grow up to be daddy. Mommies have to work so hard - they have to cook and do all the work in the house .. where as daddies get to have all the fun" :) I was so surprised at her response. Gaurav does quite a bit of chores around the house - so I don't know where she got this from. May be because I do most of the cooking and spend good amount of time in the kitchen and in cleaning ... In any case, I am glad she has noticed that her mommy is working hard .. I am sure, Gaurav may not be as pleased with this statement though :)

Ishaan's love for writing

For past week or two, Ishaan has started writing lots of different alphabets letters. Earlier, he liked to trace, but he wasn't comfortable in writing on his own. Although, he is more comfortable at writing the letters with straight lines, he is also trying to learn the letters with curved lines. Every day in the evening, he loves to write the entire alphabet with little help from us or Kavya. He also loves it when we clap or smile at his achievement. Its a win-win situation !! Looking forward to see him write more and more on his own !!

New schools brings lot of new "things" for everyone

Kavya started 1st grade at our neighborhood public school on August 15th and Ishaan started preschool at Challenger on August 20th. New school for both kids brings lot of changes for us as well as kids.

New schools mean new friends, new environment, new schedule, new rules, new expectations as well as new challenges. So, we were skeptical on how well the kids (as well as us) will like the new schools. But to our surprise, we all like the new schools and everything else that comes with it.

Kavya took a couple of days to make friends and settle down. Her class teacher is great. She loves CDC - which is the extended care facility on Graystone campus (Most of the days, going to CDC is the favorite part of her day - primarily because of all the art work she gets to do there). Since she went to a private school before, she is a little ahead in Maths and Reading. So, that gives her as well as us a little relief when it comes to homework and tests. In less than 2 weeks, she is used to the school rules, routine and environment. We have also settled on a weekly carpool arrangement with one of our neighbors !! Her school is close by which makes it easier for us. The only thing I would change if I could, would be to have uniform (although Kavya is not fussy about what to wear, it just makes it easy). Also, something that we will have to keep a closer eye on going forward is the company she is in (her friends in class, during recess and at CDC). Overall, things are looking good so far.

Ishaan had been excited to go to Challenger and we are glad that he was not disappointed. He is happy to go to school and is very cheerful at school. He never cried or hesitated since day 1. All his teachers have told us that he is always smiling. The school is less than a mile which is a big big plus as compared to his previous school. There is also more structure and academic focus and we are glad Ishaan is happy in this environment. Although I did not like the fact that he had uniform for 2 days (Monday and Tuesday) since he is just in preschool, but after seeing him in the uniform, I think he looks cute and smart. So, now I wouldn't mind if he had to wear it all 5 days :)

So far, there are more pluses and less challenges. Will have to see how it holds up !

Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!

Today evening, we went out for a walk while the kids rode their bikes. A few minutes into the bike ride, Kavya called out "Look, I can ride with one hand off the bike." We were impressed since she rides without the training wheels - so it meant that she was getting better at balancing. Ishaan was right behind her and wanted to copy what Kavya just did. So, he immediately took one hand off his bike (with training wheels) and was happy to report that he can also ride with one hand off the bike :). A minute later, Ishaan tried taking off both his hands off his bike and shouted "Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!". He felt proud for this accomplishment.

No wonder he could do that because he had the training wheels on :) Gaurav and I just laughed looking at each other and encouraged Ishaan for his efforts and accomplishment :)

"Spiderman is not strong enough", says Ishaan

Ishaan has started liking superheroes now. His current favorite is Spiderman. He pretends to be a Spiderman and does silly things.

Today, Kavya was intentionally hanging upside down from the sofa such that her head was touching the ground. Ishaan was playing Spiderman at that time. So, Kavya started shouting, "Spiderman, spiderman , help me , help me". Ishaan rushed to help her. He tried to lift her head off of the ground, but it was heavy and so he couldn't. So, he immediately announced "Spiderman is not strong enough" and walked away. Gaurav and I burst out laughing :)

Ishaan likes finding his way through a maze

Last year, I ordered an Easy Mazes book for Kavya, but when it arrived, I realized Kavya was too big for those mazes - she was already doing more complex mazes. So, I decided to save it for Ishaan.

Today evening, after coming home from school, I was thinking of some activity for Ishaan and remembered that book. So, I decided to introduce it to Ishaan. Ishaan immediately got the hang of it and wanted to do more and more and more. He already completed lots of mazes.

Then something interesting happened. For every maze, there was an arrow suggesting where to start and a star suggesting where to end. So, I would tell Ishaan to look for arrow to start and then draw his way to the star. When we came across a maze in the shape of a fox, the arrow and the star were relatively close to each other. So, instead of navigating through the maze, Ishaan conveniently drew a line from the arrow to the star outside of the maze and started laughing. I also couldn't resist laughing on seeing his clever or innocent (?) trick :)

Kavya wins the Talent Show to become Stratford Idol

Little over 3 weeks back we had received a letter suggesting there was going to be a Talent Show in Kavya's school. That made me think what talent can Kavya showcase there ? I asked Kavya if she wanted to participate and if so what would she do ? She wanted to participate (good thing because I also wanted her to participate - just for the experience) and her talent ideas were Magic show (using a kids magic kit that I had bought for her over a year ago) or play "Happy Birthday" on piano. I immediately discarded those and told her that I will teach her some dance steps on a bollywood song. So, she should do dancing instead. Unwillingly, she agreed.

3 weeks passed by without any further action from either her or my end on practicing for the talent show. Finally, it was Sunday afternoon (just the day before the show) and I was trying to teach her some dance steps on her favorite song "Kajra re..". She showed me some random steps on her own, but didn't want to learn anything else. She finally announced "I am going to do magic instead."

Gaurav was also watching and we decided it's best to let her do whatever she wanted. In our minds, we actually thought that in either case, it was participation that was important and not the winning. So, why put up a last-minute fight and cause stress for everyone ?

So, she got her Magic Kit and we explained her what and how to say and how to show the tricks. She practiced 3-4 times and was all set.

Finally, yesterday was the talent show in her class. The kids had to show their talent to the entire class and then all the kids get to vote to select the class winner. 2 kids with highest number of votes would then participate in "Stratford Idol" today where they would show their talent to the entire school.

I dropped Kavya off to school yesterday morning with her Magic Kit and wished her luck. When I went to pick her up in the afternoon, her class teacher, Mrs. Hayes, walked up to my car and my heart started to beat faster in anticipation. To my surprise, she told me that Kavya won the talent show and that all the kids loved the magic tricks. She went on to add that she has never seen any kid get as many votes as Kavya did ! She said almost every vote they opened up had Kavya's name :) I was happy and excited. Shortly, Kavya came out and was all smiles. She was like "See mamma, I told you Magic Show would be more fun and you wanted me to dance" :) I was like "Yeah, good thing you decided to do magic". Other kids in her class played some songs on the piano, sang a song or danced or did some gymnastic moves.. but there was only 1 magician !

Then today, she had to perform in Stratford Idol. She didn't have any magician robe or hat for the class performance. Mrs. Hayes offered her a black hat for the Stratford Idol and I decided to go to few stores to see if I can find magician costume. We went home and Binduben was there. She said she might have something at her home. So, after he reached her home, she asked us to come by to see what she had. She had a black robe from a witch costume which seemed like it would work as a magician's robe too. So, Kavya was all set.

Today morning, I dressed Kavya up and went to the Stratford Idol. The entire auditorium was full of kids and their parents.  Kavya and Nathan were selected from the Room 12 Kindergarten class. Kavya's class had made a sign saying "We love Kavya" to encourage her. Soon, the performances started. There were few kids ahead of Kavya. Finally, it was Kavya's turn.

She was looking like a real magician. However, I could feel that she was little nervous. She spoke very softly, so I couldn't hear her very well in the back, but the kids in the front enjoyed. She didn't exactly deliver the dialogues as we had practiced at home, but the important thing is that she had the courage and confidence to go up on stage and perform for the entire school. What more can one expect from a 6 year old ?

We are very proud of our little magician :)

Ishaan is learning the 'sh' sound

Ever since Ishaan started talking, he would always say 's' instead of 'sh'. So, if you asked him his name, he would say "Isaan" instead of "Ishaan". Gaurav and I did not like that he was not even saying his name right.. and were wondering if he would ever learn the 'sh' sound.

Every morning, while driving him to school, Gaurav would practice with him to say the 'sh' sound.
Gradually, he started getting the hang of it. Few days back, once in a while, he would say "Ishaan" instead of "Isaan".. so we knew he was learning/trying.

And then yesterday, he started saying "Ishaan" consistently :) Both Gaurav and I were happy :)
Now we need to teach him to use 's' and 'sh' sounds correctly at the appropriate places..

Kavya and her school play - Mary Poppins

Almost 1.5 months ago, we got information in Kavya's homework folder about their spring program. They were going to do a musical on Mary Poppins. While we had heard about Mary Poppins, we did not know any details about the character. Based on the information we got from school, we gathered that Kavya was going to play the role of Mrs. Banks and that Mary Poppins was a nanny. Kavya had 6-7 dialogues for her role. She was excited and so were we. She quickly memorized all her dialogues and read over the script to see who was playing what and what were their dialogues.

Few days passed and they had started rehearsing. She was learning all the songs and singing them all the time. We all learnt a new word "Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious" which was very catchy. Then I got a note for her teacher regarding costume. I needed an adult/mature looking dress for the Mrs. Banks character. The dresses I had for Kavya did not fit that requirement. So, over the next 2 weeks, I asked few friends and got some dresses from them. We also saw the original Mary Poppins movie (made in 1964) on one of the Friday nights. Kavya tried out the dresses that I had borrowed from friends and I took pictures of her in those dresses. I showed those pictures to the teacher and we finalized on one dress (borrowed from Keya) with my purple hat.

On May 8th, they had a dress rehearsal. Parents could go to it if they wanted. Kavya really wanted me to go. I told her I would try and I was planning to go, but then I had a meeting around the same time. So, I couldn't go. When I picked her up that day, she said she was upset, because I didn't go. I asked her and found that very few parents had come. I promised I would go to the spring program.

Couple of days before May 21st, I reminded Gaurav about the program and he wasn't sure if he would be able to leave work that early since the program was at 1:45 pm on a Monday afternoon. But Kavya really wanted him to come. So, he said he would try. If he couldn't make it, we all agreed that we would watch the recording at night.

Finally, Monday, May 21st was almost here. Kavya remembered on Sunday night that her spring program was next day and got all excited. They had rehearsed lot of times and I was very confident of my little girl. I just had to remind her to speak loud and clear.

I reached few mins before the play and went to her class to see if they needed any help. I combed her hair a little and put on some lipstick for her. She was excited. Gaurav also made it to the play. We took our spots to record the play and take some pictures. Finally, the long awaited moment was here.. The play was wonderful. All the kids did a fabulous job. There was a celebration party in class after the play. The kids had some cookies and donuts and other sweet treats.

Our little Mrs. Banks was happy and content and so were we !!

Bribing starts at an early age

In today's busy world, we all try to bribe kids with their favorite things when we want them to do certain things our way and fast. After trying that and telling stories and making plans, we were still having hard time getting the kids to wake up early on week day mornings and brush at night. So, Gaurav and I were discussing how to get them to do the daily things without any struggle - and then I came up with the coin system.

In early April, we announced that they would get money (coins) for different daily tasks. At the end of each month, we will go and celebrate with whatever money they have earned. So, the deal was like this :

Prompt wake up in the morning : 5 cents
Brush and shower                     : 5 cents
Brush at night                            : 5 cents
Nail biting                                 : -1 cent
Being good / helping out            : BONUS !!

We were little skeptical if this would work, but to our surprise it worked like magic.
We gave them their own piggybanks where they could put coins in everyday.. and we started giving out the coins every morning and night. Once they got the hang of it, the morning and night struggles went away. We even rewarded them with bonus coins when they did something nice.

In early May, we counted the coins.. both of them had about 4$ each and they chose to go Chuck E Cheese to celebrate.So, we went to Chuck E Cheese today (figured weekday would be easier than weekend) and we all had a blast. The kids exchanged their money for tokens and had fun. We then had pizza and then wrapped up the evening by exchanging the tickets with goodies (Kavya got cotton candy and Ishaan got smarties).

I hope the charm of coins continues for some more time..

Ishaan wants to bring moon and stars for.....

Ishaan has a very good friend at his school - Shriya. Both of them look so cute together and they also get along very well.

Often times, Ishaan wants to take things to school for Shriya. If he or Kavya makes some art work or necklace at home, Ishaan will be quick to say "I want to take that to school for Shriya" Or sometimes he asks me to give him 2 cookies - one for him and one for Shriya.

Few nights back, when I was putting him to bed, he asked me very innocently "Mommy, when will I get big and tall ?". I told him that if he eats his fruits and vegetables, he will become big very soon. He then announced "I want to be tall and reach the sky and get moon for Shriya" :) I tried hard to control my laughter. I asked him "Why Shriya ? Won't you get moon for mommy ?". He was quick to answer " I will get a star for you and Kavya and daddy" :)

In bollywood movies, the hero often tells the heroine "Mein tere liye chaand aur sitare tod launga".. and here my little hero Ishaan is also wanting to do the same for his little sweet friend, Shriya :)

You don't cook Tostada, you only decorate it :)

Both of my kids love Tostadas. We have it for dinner at least once a week.

Today, when Ishaan was giving us a hard time getting ready for school, I told him that we are having Tostada for dinner. He smiled and his face lit up !He quickly announced that you don't cook Tostada, you only decorate it :)

Funny how he came up with that.. He understands that you just put different things (beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives, corn, guacamole, etc) on top of the tostada shell.. and he calls that as decorating the Tostada :)

Finally, Ishaan brushes with tooth paste

Ishaan has been allowing us to brush his teeth for quite some time now - however, he didn't like tooth paste.

Our first attempt was with kids toothpaste that has Thomas on it. He liked the tooth paste and wanted to hold it because of Thomas, but didn't want to brush with it. Then few months later, I got a cars tooth paste - but he still continued to say "I don't like tooth paste".

Late last year (Oct-Nov 2011), we tried to force him to brush with tooth paste, by holding his hands, but he would cry. We thought that if we tried that for a week or so, he would get used to it .. but his crying continued and so finally, we gave up.

As he had started eating almost everything, I was getting worried that his teeth would start decaying. Since he didn't want to brush with tooth paste, I got him some mouth wash hoping that we would at least gargle with it. But he didn't buy into that either.

We had been telling him that he is still a baby since he doesn't brush with toothpaste. Even Kavya has been helping by telling him stories and drawing some pictures to make him understand the importance of tooth paste, but he had been adamant.

Finally, yesterday at night, he himself suggested that he wants to brush with toothpaste. Gaurav was surprised and immediately called me. We were all so happy. He actually did brush with toothpaste. We danced and sang songs. We also promised him that if he continues this for the entire week then we will go and celebrate during the weekend.

He continued to brush with tooth paste this morning as well as at night. I think the "I don't like tooth paste" phase is now behind us. I am a happy mommy - ready for the next challenge :)

EDIT 3/15 : Brushing with tooth paste lasted only for couple of days. Now he says he does not like this tooth paste. So, now I need to try couple of other tooth pastes for him to see if he would like even one of them :(

EDIT 4/5 : I got Thomas and Strawberry toothpaste. However, he still did not want to brush with toothpaste. Gradually, he gave in to Thomas , but not strawberry. And once we started the coin system, he readily brushes with both (half and half) now.. Although he doesn't really enjoy :(

Kavya likes hula hoop and jump rope

Kavya has been trying to getting better at hula hoop for couple of months now and we are seeing some improvement every time he tries. She is able to keep the hula hoop going on her waist for about 15-20 seconds now. I am sure with some more practice, she will soon become an expert.

Her lastest passion has been jump rope. They have a "Jump Rope for Heart" event organized by the American Heart Association in school and so she had been learning and practicing. I showed her different types of jumps (cross legs, one leg, both legs at the same time) that I used to do as a kid and she has been trying to learn them all. She is getting pretty good at it. She has been able to do about 30 jumps with both legs and she has gone as far as 85 with a cycle-like jump. She also learnt a side-ways jump on her own. Every time she gets some free time, she just wants to jump rope now.

I like it because she is learning something new and it also keeps her stay fit.

Ishaan is getting into puzzles

Ishaan has been fond of puzzles since he was 2 years old, but he wasn't able to put an entire puzzle together on his own until today.

When he was 2, Jyostna masi would do the puzzles with him - however, he would mostly watch and would try to put few pieces on his own. He gradually continued to build his puzzle-making skills by contributing more and more to any puzzle that we would do with him and finally, today he was able to do this 60 piece puzzle on his own.

Since Gaurav and I like puzzles, I am happy to see that both of our kids like puzzle too. I see some interesting and fun puzzle making times ahead :)

Kavya is becoming independent

Kavya is 6 years old now and is becoming independent in lot of things. While that is what I have been looking forward to, its also making me sad thinking that my little girl will soon not need mommy as much:(

Gaurav and I usually sleep with Ishaan and Kavya when putting them to bed. Often times it takes them over half an hour to fall asleep and during that time, we have to try hard not to fall asleep so that we can do something after they are asleep. So, I have been thinking and telling kids when will they start sleeping on their own ? 2 days this week, Kavya said she is going to sleep by herself. One of those days, she was not feeling much sleepy. So, after Ishaan slept off, I went and hugged her and tried to put her to bed.. and she just shrugged me off saying "Mommy, I will sleep on my own".

While this gave me more time for myself, I felt sad :(
No wonder that parents of grown-up kids always say "Enjoy your kids at every stage.."

Yesterday, she changed her school dress and got dressed for her art class all by herself. While she had been doing this before, yesterday was different because she wore a nice dress with a T-shirt underneath and stockings too. She even folded her long sleeves to fit her just right. She came down and was so proud. She told me that she wore the stockings all by herself too. I hugged her.. Felt good that she was able to do that, but also felt sad again thinking that she doesn't need me for a lot of things now.

Its funny how you want your kids to grow up, but still you want to feel like they need you.

"Can I have my own cell phone?" asks 6 yr old Kavya

Kavya loves playing games on my and Gaurav's phone.. but she doesn't like to talk to people on the phone. If you ask her to talk to someone, she will either ignore you or come for a minute, say few words and then hand the phone back.

Today, while driving home from school, she said "Can I have my own cell phone, mommy?". I was surprised and laughingly asked her "Do you know at what age mommy got her first cell phone". She replied "I don't know.. may be 11". And I told her that I got my first phone when I was 25. And she started laughing that at 25, you get married.. And I was like "yeah .. I got my cell phone when I got married".

She also added that she has thought of her phone number too.. So, it seems that she thinks she can pick and have whatever number she wants.

Kids these days are so fast about asking for anything and everything. It almost seems like they don't realize that everything costs money.. and that money does not grow on trees.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ishaan !

Ishaan turns 3 today. What a nice milestone !!

We got him a Lighting McQueen laptop as his birthday present. He loves cars and he often wants to play with Kavya's princess carriage laptop. So, figured it would work out well. Although he is little young to figure out all the operations, I could see that he was delighted to have it.

Gaurav and I discussed if we want to throw a big party for this milestone and we decided against it. However, we felt that it would be unfair to Ishaan if we didn't do anything. So, we decided to have a very small celebration - with just 3 of his school friends at Bouncy Land in Oakridge mall. Small enough to not have to prepare a whole lot and big enough to call it a birthday party and make Ishaan happy.

I look back at last 3 years and see how much he has grown from just being a little baby to a full-of-energy 3-year old !! At the same time, I also cannot help but compare him to 3 year old Kavya and feel that Kavya was much more matured when she was 3. I had Ishaan when she was 3 and she definitely was more "grown up" than Ishaan at this age. I can honestly say that it will take Ishaan at least 6-12 months to get to the maturity level that Kavya demonstrated at 3 - may be that is the difference between a boy and girl.

Ishaan is a cute boy.. always smiling, loving and full of energy. He loves fruits, cars and thomas. He hates tooth paste, soap and shampoo :) He is very stubborn and so far we haven't found a way to get him to do what we want/need - counting or scolding/shouting just doesn't work with him. But he is a good boy most of the times :)

Lots of love and blessings to my little big boy.
In his own words "I am growing up, mommy" :)

Ishaan's clever (?) idea for not losing his teeth

Ishaan does not like tooth-paste. We have tried getting him different tooth-pastes with his favorite characters on it, but he just doesn't like them. I think he has a mental block since he is not even ready to try them.

We have been trying to explain him lot of times that tooth-paste is good for his teeth. But it doesn't make a difference to him. Then today, we told him that if he doesn't brush with tooth-paste, then all his teeth will fall out. He immediately closed his mouth and sealed it. I asked him what he was doing and he responded "I am going to close my mouth.. so the teeth will not fall out."

We burst out laughing. I smilingly responded "If you keep your mouth closed, then the teeth will still fall, but instead of falling out, they will go to your tummy and then a teeth tree will grow in there". He just smiled :)

Silly (or smart ?) Ishaan. He is trying to figure out ways to keep his teeth from falling, but is still not convinced that he needs to use the tooth-paste.

Is Kavya really just 6 years old ?

Today morning, Kavya was trying to call out all the words that end with 'ell'. She went on .. fell, bell, smell, cell, spell, hell .. and then I asked her if she knew what hell meant?

She didn't. So, I explained here that there are 2 places - hell and heaven. If we be good, then we go to heaven when we die and there are all good things in heaven. But if we be mean and do bad things, then we go to hell when we die and there are devils who harass you there.

And then I went on to explain that God is always watching each and every one of us and he knows if we have been good or bad. He even knows what we are thinking and doing - even if you hide and do something.

She responded "Yes, God makes us do whatever we do. We are like robots for him and he controls us."

I was shocked for a minute when I heard that. It just seemed so deep and thoughtful and it made me wonder if that was really her thought or did someone else mention it to her..and if it was indeed her thought, is she really just 6 years old ?

Ishaan can hop on one foot

When I picked up Ishaan from school today, he was very excited and was jumping on one foot. He had been doing that for couple of days now, but it seemed like he had become more confident today.

His teacher told me that he also went to her earlier during the day and showed her how he could hop on one foot.

He then hopped on and off all the way to the car. I asked him to try out hopping on one foot alternatively with both his feet, but he is more comfortable in hopping on his left foot at this time.

If you ask him who taught him to hop on one foot, he smiles and says "Shriya". I am not sure if that is true or not, but he really likes Shriya - she is his very good friend at school :)