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 :)