Ishaan is learning the 'sh' sound

Ever since Ishaan started talking, he would always say 's' instead of 'sh'. So, if you asked him his name, he would say "Isaan" instead of "Ishaan". Gaurav and I did not like that he was not even saying his name right.. and were wondering if he would ever learn the 'sh' sound.

Every morning, while driving him to school, Gaurav would practice with him to say the 'sh' sound.
Gradually, he started getting the hang of it. Few days back, once in a while, he would say "Ishaan" instead of "Isaan".. so we knew he was learning/trying.

And then yesterday, he started saying "Ishaan" consistently :) Both Gaurav and I were happy :)
Now we need to teach him to use 's' and 'sh' sounds correctly at the appropriate places..

Kavya and her school play - Mary Poppins

Almost 1.5 months ago, we got information in Kavya's homework folder about their spring program. They were going to do a musical on Mary Poppins. While we had heard about Mary Poppins, we did not know any details about the character. Based on the information we got from school, we gathered that Kavya was going to play the role of Mrs. Banks and that Mary Poppins was a nanny. Kavya had 6-7 dialogues for her role. She was excited and so were we. She quickly memorized all her dialogues and read over the script to see who was playing what and what were their dialogues.

Few days passed and they had started rehearsing. She was learning all the songs and singing them all the time. We all learnt a new word "Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious" which was very catchy. Then I got a note for her teacher regarding costume. I needed an adult/mature looking dress for the Mrs. Banks character. The dresses I had for Kavya did not fit that requirement. So, over the next 2 weeks, I asked few friends and got some dresses from them. We also saw the original Mary Poppins movie (made in 1964) on one of the Friday nights. Kavya tried out the dresses that I had borrowed from friends and I took pictures of her in those dresses. I showed those pictures to the teacher and we finalized on one dress (borrowed from Keya) with my purple hat.

On May 8th, they had a dress rehearsal. Parents could go to it if they wanted. Kavya really wanted me to go. I told her I would try and I was planning to go, but then I had a meeting around the same time. So, I couldn't go. When I picked her up that day, she said she was upset, because I didn't go. I asked her and found that very few parents had come. I promised I would go to the spring program.

Couple of days before May 21st, I reminded Gaurav about the program and he wasn't sure if he would be able to leave work that early since the program was at 1:45 pm on a Monday afternoon. But Kavya really wanted him to come. So, he said he would try. If he couldn't make it, we all agreed that we would watch the recording at night.

Finally, Monday, May 21st was almost here. Kavya remembered on Sunday night that her spring program was next day and got all excited. They had rehearsed lot of times and I was very confident of my little girl. I just had to remind her to speak loud and clear.

I reached few mins before the play and went to her class to see if they needed any help. I combed her hair a little and put on some lipstick for her. She was excited. Gaurav also made it to the play. We took our spots to record the play and take some pictures. Finally, the long awaited moment was here.. The play was wonderful. All the kids did a fabulous job. There was a celebration party in class after the play. The kids had some cookies and donuts and other sweet treats.

Our little Mrs. Banks was happy and content and so were we !!

Bribing starts at an early age

In today's busy world, we all try to bribe kids with their favorite things when we want them to do certain things our way and fast. After trying that and telling stories and making plans, we were still having hard time getting the kids to wake up early on week day mornings and brush at night. So, Gaurav and I were discussing how to get them to do the daily things without any struggle - and then I came up with the coin system.

In early April, we announced that they would get money (coins) for different daily tasks. At the end of each month, we will go and celebrate with whatever money they have earned. So, the deal was like this :

Prompt wake up in the morning : 5 cents
Brush and shower                     : 5 cents
Brush at night                            : 5 cents
Nail biting                                 : -1 cent
Being good / helping out            : BONUS !!

We were little skeptical if this would work, but to our surprise it worked like magic.
We gave them their own piggybanks where they could put coins in everyday.. and we started giving out the coins every morning and night. Once they got the hang of it, the morning and night struggles went away. We even rewarded them with bonus coins when they did something nice.

In early May, we counted the coins.. both of them had about 4$ each and they chose to go Chuck E Cheese to celebrate.So, we went to Chuck E Cheese today (figured weekday would be easier than weekend) and we all had a blast. The kids exchanged their money for tokens and had fun. We then had pizza and then wrapped up the evening by exchanging the tickets with goodies (Kavya got cotton candy and Ishaan got smarties).

I hope the charm of coins continues for some more time..

Ishaan wants to bring moon and stars for.....

Ishaan has a very good friend at his school - Shriya. Both of them look so cute together and they also get along very well.

Often times, Ishaan wants to take things to school for Shriya. If he or Kavya makes some art work or necklace at home, Ishaan will be quick to say "I want to take that to school for Shriya" Or sometimes he asks me to give him 2 cookies - one for him and one for Shriya.

Few nights back, when I was putting him to bed, he asked me very innocently "Mommy, when will I get big and tall ?". I told him that if he eats his fruits and vegetables, he will become big very soon. He then announced "I want to be tall and reach the sky and get moon for Shriya" :) I tried hard to control my laughter. I asked him "Why Shriya ? Won't you get moon for mommy ?". He was quick to answer " I will get a star for you and Kavya and daddy" :)

In bollywood movies, the hero often tells the heroine "Mein tere liye chaand aur sitare tod launga".. and here my little hero Ishaan is also wanting to do the same for his little sweet friend, Shriya :)

You don't cook Tostada, you only decorate it :)

Both of my kids love Tostadas. We have it for dinner at least once a week.

Today, when Ishaan was giving us a hard time getting ready for school, I told him that we are having Tostada for dinner. He smiled and his face lit up !He quickly announced that you don't cook Tostada, you only decorate it :)

Funny how he came up with that.. He understands that you just put different things (beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives, corn, guacamole, etc) on top of the tostada shell.. and he calls that as decorating the Tostada :)

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 :)

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.