We have tried teaching ABCs to Ishaan several times - either through the ABCD rhyme or through books. However, when we ask him to sing ABCD, he will just sing ABCD and stop. However, today morning, he was sitting in his high chair while I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden, I heard him sing "LMNOP..QRSUVW" and I was pleasantly surprised. So, it seems he knows most of his ABCs, but just doesn't sing it all the time.
He has also been able to identify the basic colors like green, blue, red, yellow, pink for over couple of weeks now (although he knows them, he often does not say it correctly when you ask him to identify some color). And he can count till 14 (only when he wants to though) and he usually starts counting at 2 instead of 1. Wonder why 14 ? Well, that's because we have 14 steps and we usually count when going up or coming down :) He is able to speak sentences that are 4-5 words long and often breaks it up in 2 parts if it is longer than that. But he is able to communicate very fluently - mostly in Gujarati though.
He is growing up too fast. While I am looking forward to that, I also like this innocent age.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Kavya and her understanding of "Promise"
Last night I was putting Kavya and Ishaan to bed. I was sleeping in the middle with one kid on each of my side. Then, Kavya wanted to drink water. I told her to go downstairs and drink some, but she was afraid to go all by herself and wanted me to go with her. Ishaan was almost ready to go to sleep and he was sleeping on my hand. So, I tried to bribe her with chocolate in her lunch box the next day if she went to get water on her own or went to bed without water. She seemed to forget about it for a minute, but then started asking for water once again. So, I promised her that I will go and get water for her after Ishaan is asleep. She liked that. While waiting for Ishaan to sleep, both of us fell asleep :).
I woke up around midnight and came down to check something in the kitchen. I remembered that Kavya wanted water and I had promised her. So, I took a glass for her. Next day, she woke up around 7:00 am and looked at me and asked "Mama, what did you promise me?". Although I knew she would remember it, I was surprised to see her wake up this early and jump right on it. I felt so glad that I woke up at midnight and remembered to get her glass. I pointed her to the glass. She took a sip, went to the restroom and went back to sleep.
This made me realize that she is really starting to understand the meaning of "Promise". She is also learning to trust others when they promise something. My little angel is growing up !!
I woke up around midnight and came down to check something in the kitchen. I remembered that Kavya wanted water and I had promised her. So, I took a glass for her. Next day, she woke up around 7:00 am and looked at me and asked "Mama, what did you promise me?". Although I knew she would remember it, I was surprised to see her wake up this early and jump right on it. I felt so glad that I woke up at midnight and remembered to get her glass. I pointed her to the glass. She took a sip, went to the restroom and went back to sleep.
This made me realize that she is really starting to understand the meaning of "Promise". She is also learning to trust others when they promise something. My little angel is growing up !!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Kavya : Can we go live in the white house ?
Last night, Kavya got a book about Presidents to read as part of her night-time routine. The book had a picture of White House on it. So, Gaurav was explaining to her that the house is called White House and it is in Washington DC which is capital of US, etc etc. Before he could tell her all the details, Kavya interrupted and asked "Can we go live in the White House ?" Gaurav and I both burst out laughing.
Gaurav responded "Sure, if you ever become President of US then you can go and live there." She probably didn't understand it much.
Innocent and funny question :)
Gaurav responded "Sure, if you ever become President of US then you can go and live there." She probably didn't understand it much.
Innocent and funny question :)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Little Kavya is not that little any more :(
I remember little Kavya when she was 2 or 3 years old.. she was so cute and filled with innocence. Now that she will be almost 5, I can totally feel that she is growing up and becoming an individual with her own temperament, thoughts, opinions and attitude.
In whatever we do, she has lots of questions and also an opinion on how and what to do. She also wants to pick her own clothes to wear with matching pins/rubber bands and socks. Sometimes, she also wants to help me pick my clothes and ear rings :)
Lately, if I ask her to get something for me, she retorts "Who needs it ? you or me? Since you want it, you go get it!"
It is also not easy any more to just make up something and convince her. She needs more reasoning and she understands it all. She gets mad if you don't listen to her and makes faces as well. Often times, she is lost in her own thoughts or action or may be just because, and does not listen or pay attention to what you are saying. Her school teacher had also mentioned this in our last meeting.
What's funny is that now she helps me to convince / threaten Ishaan by making up stuff. If Ishaan is not eating or doing some mischief, I tell him that cops will come.. and Kavya will actually pretend that she is calling cops or will knock on the door/wall suggesting that cops are here :) While that helps, I am not sure if that is good :)
The big problem is that while she understands lot of things, she does not understand or cannot interpret everything. For example, we teach her not call other names. Then other day, I was just calling her cute names... and she immediately complained to me "Mommy, you are calling me names". I tried to explain her that these are cute names, something I am using out of love. But she failed to understand.
When kids are small, we often wonder when will they grow up.Now that I see my little girl is growing up, I miss those golden days of innocence. I want my little innocent Kavya back :)
In whatever we do, she has lots of questions and also an opinion on how and what to do. She also wants to pick her own clothes to wear with matching pins/rubber bands and socks. Sometimes, she also wants to help me pick my clothes and ear rings :)
Lately, if I ask her to get something for me, she retorts "Who needs it ? you or me? Since you want it, you go get it!"
It is also not easy any more to just make up something and convince her. She needs more reasoning and she understands it all. She gets mad if you don't listen to her and makes faces as well. Often times, she is lost in her own thoughts or action or may be just because, and does not listen or pay attention to what you are saying. Her school teacher had also mentioned this in our last meeting.
What's funny is that now she helps me to convince / threaten Ishaan by making up stuff. If Ishaan is not eating or doing some mischief, I tell him that cops will come.. and Kavya will actually pretend that she is calling cops or will knock on the door/wall suggesting that cops are here :) While that helps, I am not sure if that is good :)
The big problem is that while she understands lot of things, she does not understand or cannot interpret everything. For example, we teach her not call other names. Then other day, I was just calling her cute names... and she immediately complained to me "Mommy, you are calling me names". I tried to explain her that these are cute names, something I am using out of love. But she failed to understand.
When kids are small, we often wonder when will they grow up.Now that I see my little girl is growing up, I miss those golden days of innocence. I want my little innocent Kavya back :)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Love Garbage truck - but not garbage uncle !!
There is something about garbage truck that fascinates kids. When Kavya was little, she was initially afraid of the big truck, but then she was fascinated by it and every time she would hear the noise of the truck, she will want to look out of the window and watch the truck collect garbage. Ishaan is the same way at this age. He just loves garbage truck. He has a dump truck that he calls as garbage truck and moves it along saying "Kachro leva" (Truck has come to collect garbage).
While both the kids loved garbage truck, they don't like the garbage uncle character. When Kavya was little, we used to tell her that garbage uncle will come if she didn't do xyz.. or listen to us.. and she would then listen to us. Its the same thing with Ishaan now. He thinks (or may be we might have told him) that garbage uncle will throw him with the trash. So, he is just as much afraid of garbage uncle as he is of the cops :)
It didn't work for too long with Kavya(may be couple of months). Lets see how long does the fear of garbage uncle works with Ishaan :)
While both the kids loved garbage truck, they don't like the garbage uncle character. When Kavya was little, we used to tell her that garbage uncle will come if she didn't do xyz.. or listen to us.. and she would then listen to us. Its the same thing with Ishaan now. He thinks (or may be we might have told him) that garbage uncle will throw him with the trash. So, he is just as much afraid of garbage uncle as he is of the cops :)
It didn't work for too long with Kavya(may be couple of months). Lets see how long does the fear of garbage uncle works with Ishaan :)
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Kavya has become very creative..
Lately, Kavya's creativity has increased a lot.
She builds different things with the small legos on her own. One day when she showed me something she had built, I asked her to go build a tree and I figured that would keep her busy for some time :-). However, just 3-4 mins later, she came back to me with a very nice tree made out of lego.. And I was just WOWed by it.
She is also doing a great job at drawing. She has a whole bunch of drawings put up on the wall - she just loves to stick everything she makes on the wall with a tape. Each of those drawing represent a particular item/action. She just draws them directly with crayons and then colors in it. After she finishes her drawing, she explains us what she drew and waits for us to say "Wow.. good job, Kavya !!" :)
One other thing that took us by surprise almost a month back was when she prepared a bunch of different activities on her own. She likes doing the different activities like connect the dots, find the differences, arrange in right order, etc in her books. So, one fine weekend morning, she decided to make up her own activity on a sheet of paper. The activities she drew were to figure out the right path to something, which two of the few items were same, jumbled up letters of simple words like CAT, AMI and then figuring out the correct way, something about a frog jumping on heart shaped and numbered lily pads to get to somewhere, etc.
When she showed and explained it to us, we were just, WOW. Gaurav and I looked at each other and felt really happy and proud of our little girl !!
She builds different things with the small legos on her own. One day when she showed me something she had built, I asked her to go build a tree and I figured that would keep her busy for some time :-). However, just 3-4 mins later, she came back to me with a very nice tree made out of lego.. And I was just WOWed by it.
She is also doing a great job at drawing. She has a whole bunch of drawings put up on the wall - she just loves to stick everything she makes on the wall with a tape. Each of those drawing represent a particular item/action. She just draws them directly with crayons and then colors in it. After she finishes her drawing, she explains us what she drew and waits for us to say "Wow.. good job, Kavya !!" :)
One other thing that took us by surprise almost a month back was when she prepared a bunch of different activities on her own. She likes doing the different activities like connect the dots, find the differences, arrange in right order, etc in her books. So, one fine weekend morning, she decided to make up her own activity on a sheet of paper. The activities she drew were to figure out the right path to something, which two of the few items were same, jumbled up letters of simple words like CAT, AMI and then figuring out the correct way, something about a frog jumping on heart shaped and numbered lily pads to get to somewhere, etc.
When she showed and explained it to us, we were just, WOW. Gaurav and I looked at each other and felt really happy and proud of our little girl !!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Ishaan discovered his shadow
Few days back Gaurav took Ishaan for a walk in his stroller. Half way into the walk, Ishaan seemed to be bothered by something. Gaurav realized that he was very upset with his shadow :) Gaurav explained him that the black thing that moves when he moves is called shadow and it is Ishaan's friend and it always stays with Ishaan. However, he did not like it. He wanted it to go away - he kept saying " Shadow no, Shadow no". But since it did not go away, he finally got used to it.
Since that day, whenever he sees the shadow, he shouts "Shadow, Shadow". Couple of times he seemed like he was afraid of it, but then we asked him to say "Hi Shadow" and then raise both his hands or do some action to see the shadow move and that has made Shadow his friend :-)
Since that day, whenever he sees the shadow, he shouts "Shadow, Shadow". Couple of times he seemed like he was afraid of it, but then we asked him to say "Hi Shadow" and then raise both his hands or do some action to see the shadow move and that has made Shadow his friend :-)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Babu becomes Ishaan
Ishaan has been calling himself as 'Babu' forever now. We have been trying to teach him to call himself as Ishaan, but he just didn't know how to say Ishaan till today. Today, when he called himself Babu, I told him "Nooo.. what do you call babu?", he replied "Ishaan". I was pleasantly surprised. Over the next half hour, I asked him almost 10-15 times "Taru naam shu che?" (What is your name?) and he would smile and say Ishaan :) He actually says Ichaan (ch instead of sh), but hopefully he will get it right soon..
He still calls himself babu, but when I correct him, he says Ishaan. So, hopefully, he will soon forget babu. More importantly, we need to forget it first :)
He actually did something similar with Gaurav. Instead of calling him Daddy, he used to call him Gaurav. But then we would correct him each time he said Gaurav and now he calls him Daddy most of the times.
His vocabulary is increasing and he is able to say/convey lots of things now. He is also starting to sing ABC.. He has reached till D so far. In terms of counting, he can count to 4 and then 6, 7, 8, 10 (skips 9) :) But he is learning lots of new words and things everyday. Its a fun age and it is great to watch him grow.
He still calls himself babu, but when I correct him, he says Ishaan. So, hopefully, he will soon forget babu. More importantly, we need to forget it first :)
He actually did something similar with Gaurav. Instead of calling him Daddy, he used to call him Gaurav. But then we would correct him each time he said Gaurav and now he calls him Daddy most of the times.
His vocabulary is increasing and he is able to say/convey lots of things now. He is also starting to sing ABC.. He has reached till D so far. In terms of counting, he can count to 4 and then 6, 7, 8, 10 (skips 9) :) But he is learning lots of new words and things everyday. Its a fun age and it is great to watch him grow.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Kavya (4 years and 8 months) and Ishaan (19 months)
Hello !
Here I am with updates about Kavya (4 yrs and 8 months) and Ishaan(19 months). I know its been a while since the last update, but hey - better late than never :)
Past few months have been very busy with varieties of different activities.
Kavya is growing taller and learning lots of new things. She participated in her first public speaking competition in April. She talked about the recipe for cup cakes:). She also had her first ever dance performance on the stage on the song "All Izz Well" in May. She showed us how brave and fearless she is through her first indoor flying experience at iFly. She had her first ever graduation experience (Pre-K) in June too. Besides that, we went cherry picking in June, camping @ Big Basin during July 4th weekend, Carmel beach and Children's discovery museum in August. She enjoys biking, going to parks and library. She continues bollywood dance (currently dancing on Zoobi Doobi...) and swimming and recently she also started gymnastics. She is getting better at reading and writing in straight line. She enjoys drawing and coloring, building lego structures and watching Dora :). She changed school from Bright Horizon to Stratford since end of June 2010. She is all excited for our trip tomorrow to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Ishaan is getting smarter and naughtier day by day. He has lots of teeth (new ones still on the way) - we have lost count now :) He gave up his bottle and drinks milk with a sippy cup since he was 16 months olds. He loves fruits (like his mom) and vegetables (like his dad). He is a good eater, but he continues to be in 2 to 5 percentile, but since his growth rate is fine - we are not worried. He is learning new words everyday and recently, he has also started saying 2 words together. Even though he is not saying full sentences, he manages to convey everything. He is getting better at shape identification. He doesn't get past A, B when we sing the alphabet song, however, sometimes, when we sing or count, he will say the next alphabet or number and surprise us. So, it seems like he knows and understands, but just doesn't sing/speak. His love for soft toys and dolls is now fading and he is getting more into stuff like cars and batteries :) One thing that we still can't understand is his fascination for the weight (whistle) that we put on the pressure cooker. He loves to hold it and play with pressure cooker. He also enjoys playing with the toy kitchen - may be he was a chef in his past life :) He enjoys bike rides with mommy and going to the park. He greets us every morning with a big broad smile - really great way to start the day !!
Here are few pictures :
Cheers,
Ami
Here I am with updates about Kavya (4 yrs and 8 months) and Ishaan(19 months). I know its been a while since the last update, but hey - better late than never :)
Past few months have been very busy with varieties of different activities.
Kavya is growing taller and learning lots of new things. She participated in her first public speaking competition in April. She talked about the recipe for cup cakes:). She also had her first ever dance performance on the stage on the song "All Izz Well" in May. She showed us how brave and fearless she is through her first indoor flying experience at iFly. She had her first ever graduation experience (Pre-K) in June too. Besides that, we went cherry picking in June, camping @ Big Basin during July 4th weekend, Carmel beach and Children's discovery museum in August. She enjoys biking, going to parks and library. She continues bollywood dance (currently dancing on Zoobi Doobi...) and swimming and recently she also started gymnastics. She is getting better at reading and writing in straight line. She enjoys drawing and coloring, building lego structures and watching Dora :). She changed school from Bright Horizon to Stratford since end of June 2010. She is all excited for our trip tomorrow to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Ishaan is getting smarter and naughtier day by day. He has lots of teeth (new ones still on the way) - we have lost count now :) He gave up his bottle and drinks milk with a sippy cup since he was 16 months olds. He loves fruits (like his mom) and vegetables (like his dad). He is a good eater, but he continues to be in 2 to 5 percentile, but since his growth rate is fine - we are not worried. He is learning new words everyday and recently, he has also started saying 2 words together. Even though he is not saying full sentences, he manages to convey everything. He is getting better at shape identification. He doesn't get past A, B when we sing the alphabet song, however, sometimes, when we sing or count, he will say the next alphabet or number and surprise us. So, it seems like he knows and understands, but just doesn't sing/speak. His love for soft toys and dolls is now fading and he is getting more into stuff like cars and batteries :) One thing that we still can't understand is his fascination for the weight (whistle) that we put on the pressure cooker. He loves to hold it and play with pressure cooker. He also enjoys playing with the toy kitchen - may be he was a chef in his past life :) He enjoys bike rides with mommy and going to the park. He greets us every morning with a big broad smile - really great way to start the day !!
Here are few pictures :
Cheers,
Ami
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Children's Discovery Musuem is so much fun
We visited the Children's Discovery Musuem in San Jose for the first time in February 2010. It was so much fun that we bought the annual pass hoping that we will come back often for the fun. However, it had been over 5 months since the last visit and we hadn't had a chance to visit it again.
We had read in the newsletter that they have a new section of Bob, the builder and so we had been looking forward to taking Kavya to see that. Today, Gaurav made an impromptu plan to go to the Museum. Kavya got all excited. We all got ready and decided to take the 12:26 pm Light Rail Train. Kids enjoyed the train ride and within no time, we were at the Discovery museum.
We first went to Bob, the builder section. Both Kavya and Ishaan had fun there. We then went for bubbles and water fun. After that, we explored the other areas as well. Both kids had fun. It was almost 5:00 pm and Ishaan went to sleep. Kavya didn't really want to go, but the Museum closes at 5:00. So, we headed towards the station and soon got on to the light rail and got home.
Based on this experience, even 2-4 hours can be sufficient and lots of fun at the museum. So, we need to make smaller (may it be unplanned) trips more frequently - at least while we have the annual membership :)
Here are the pictures :
We had read in the newsletter that they have a new section of Bob, the builder and so we had been looking forward to taking Kavya to see that. Today, Gaurav made an impromptu plan to go to the Museum. Kavya got all excited. We all got ready and decided to take the 12:26 pm Light Rail Train. Kids enjoyed the train ride and within no time, we were at the Discovery museum.
We first went to Bob, the builder section. Both Kavya and Ishaan had fun there. We then went for bubbles and water fun. After that, we explored the other areas as well. Both kids had fun. It was almost 5:00 pm and Ishaan went to sleep. Kavya didn't really want to go, but the Museum closes at 5:00. So, we headed towards the station and soon got on to the light rail and got home.
Based on this experience, even 2-4 hours can be sufficient and lots of fun at the museum. So, we need to make smaller (may it be unplanned) trips more frequently - at least while we have the annual membership :)
Here are the pictures :
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