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 :)