...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 !!