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 :)