Gangnam Style episode

Our kids heard about the viral Gangnam Style video and wanted to see it. They heard the song and saw the video a couple of times and really liked the tune. Kavya wanted to hear the song again and again in the car. Even Ishaan also picked up on some of the lyrics - he liked to say "Gangnam style" and eventually he also picked up "ehhhhh sexy lady eh". We repeatedly asked him not to say that since its bad words. Kavya would question " "Sexy means beautiful, then why is it bad word?" :) How do you make a 7 yr old understand why she and her not-even-4-yet brother cannot use the word "sexy" ?

Today evening, we went to the Bath & Body Works store. I was checking out the items we bought while Gaurav was standing behind me with the kids. Just then, Ishaan went around and behind a girl in the line and randomly started singing "Ehhhh sexy lady eh" in the Gangnam tune. The girl was surprised and laughed. We felt embarrassed and tried to explain that its the Gangnam style song that the kids have picked up.

Oh boy.. What else will this age of internet and so much exposure to so many things at a young age would bring ?

"Boys are lucky" says Kavya

Yesterday night, all of a sudden, Kavya came to me and said "Boys are lucky, I wish I was a boy". I was surprised by her statement. I asked her what made her think that. She explained to me "Girls grow up to be mommy and boys grow up to be daddy. Mommies have to work so hard - they have to cook and do all the work in the house .. where as daddies get to have all the fun" :) I was so surprised at her response. Gaurav does quite a bit of chores around the house - so I don't know where she got this from. May be because I do most of the cooking and spend good amount of time in the kitchen and in cleaning ... In any case, I am glad she has noticed that her mommy is working hard .. I am sure, Gaurav may not be as pleased with this statement though :)

Ishaan's love for writing

For past week or two, Ishaan has started writing lots of different alphabets letters. Earlier, he liked to trace, but he wasn't comfortable in writing on his own. Although, he is more comfortable at writing the letters with straight lines, he is also trying to learn the letters with curved lines. Every day in the evening, he loves to write the entire alphabet with little help from us or Kavya. He also loves it when we clap or smile at his achievement. Its a win-win situation !! Looking forward to see him write more and more on his own !!

New schools brings lot of new "things" for everyone

Kavya started 1st grade at our neighborhood public school on August 15th and Ishaan started preschool at Challenger on August 20th. New school for both kids brings lot of changes for us as well as kids.

New schools mean new friends, new environment, new schedule, new rules, new expectations as well as new challenges. So, we were skeptical on how well the kids (as well as us) will like the new schools. But to our surprise, we all like the new schools and everything else that comes with it.

Kavya took a couple of days to make friends and settle down. Her class teacher is great. She loves CDC - which is the extended care facility on Graystone campus (Most of the days, going to CDC is the favorite part of her day - primarily because of all the art work she gets to do there). Since she went to a private school before, she is a little ahead in Maths and Reading. So, that gives her as well as us a little relief when it comes to homework and tests. In less than 2 weeks, she is used to the school rules, routine and environment. We have also settled on a weekly carpool arrangement with one of our neighbors !! Her school is close by which makes it easier for us. The only thing I would change if I could, would be to have uniform (although Kavya is not fussy about what to wear, it just makes it easy). Also, something that we will have to keep a closer eye on going forward is the company she is in (her friends in class, during recess and at CDC). Overall, things are looking good so far.

Ishaan had been excited to go to Challenger and we are glad that he was not disappointed. He is happy to go to school and is very cheerful at school. He never cried or hesitated since day 1. All his teachers have told us that he is always smiling. The school is less than a mile which is a big big plus as compared to his previous school. There is also more structure and academic focus and we are glad Ishaan is happy in this environment. Although I did not like the fact that he had uniform for 2 days (Monday and Tuesday) since he is just in preschool, but after seeing him in the uniform, I think he looks cute and smart. So, now I wouldn't mind if he had to wear it all 5 days :)

So far, there are more pluses and less challenges. Will have to see how it holds up !

Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!

Today evening, we went out for a walk while the kids rode their bikes. A few minutes into the bike ride, Kavya called out "Look, I can ride with one hand off the bike." We were impressed since she rides without the training wheels - so it meant that she was getting better at balancing. Ishaan was right behind her and wanted to copy what Kavya just did. So, he immediately took one hand off his bike (with training wheels) and was happy to report that he can also ride with one hand off the bike :). A minute later, Ishaan tried taking off both his hands off his bike and shouted "Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!". He felt proud for this accomplishment.

No wonder he could do that because he had the training wheels on :) Gaurav and I just laughed looking at each other and encouraged Ishaan for his efforts and accomplishment :)

"Spiderman is not strong enough", says Ishaan

Ishaan has started liking superheroes now. His current favorite is Spiderman. He pretends to be a Spiderman and does silly things.

Today, Kavya was intentionally hanging upside down from the sofa such that her head was touching the ground. Ishaan was playing Spiderman at that time. So, Kavya started shouting, "Spiderman, spiderman , help me , help me". Ishaan rushed to help her. He tried to lift her head off of the ground, but it was heavy and so he couldn't. So, he immediately announced "Spiderman is not strong enough" and walked away. Gaurav and I burst out laughing :)

Ishaan likes finding his way through a maze

Last year, I ordered an Easy Mazes book for Kavya, but when it arrived, I realized Kavya was too big for those mazes - she was already doing more complex mazes. So, I decided to save it for Ishaan.

Today evening, after coming home from school, I was thinking of some activity for Ishaan and remembered that book. So, I decided to introduce it to Ishaan. Ishaan immediately got the hang of it and wanted to do more and more and more. He already completed lots of mazes.

Then something interesting happened. For every maze, there was an arrow suggesting where to start and a star suggesting where to end. So, I would tell Ishaan to look for arrow to start and then draw his way to the star. When we came across a maze in the shape of a fox, the arrow and the star were relatively close to each other. So, instead of navigating through the maze, Ishaan conveniently drew a line from the arrow to the star outside of the maze and started laughing. I also couldn't resist laughing on seeing his clever or innocent (?) trick :)

Kavya wins the Talent Show to become Stratford Idol

Little over 3 weeks back we had received a letter suggesting there was going to be a Talent Show in Kavya's school. That made me think what talent can Kavya showcase there ? I asked Kavya if she wanted to participate and if so what would she do ? She wanted to participate (good thing because I also wanted her to participate - just for the experience) and her talent ideas were Magic show (using a kids magic kit that I had bought for her over a year ago) or play "Happy Birthday" on piano. I immediately discarded those and told her that I will teach her some dance steps on a bollywood song. So, she should do dancing instead. Unwillingly, she agreed.

3 weeks passed by without any further action from either her or my end on practicing for the talent show. Finally, it was Sunday afternoon (just the day before the show) and I was trying to teach her some dance steps on her favorite song "Kajra re..". She showed me some random steps on her own, but didn't want to learn anything else. She finally announced "I am going to do magic instead."

Gaurav was also watching and we decided it's best to let her do whatever she wanted. In our minds, we actually thought that in either case, it was participation that was important and not the winning. So, why put up a last-minute fight and cause stress for everyone ?

So, she got her Magic Kit and we explained her what and how to say and how to show the tricks. She practiced 3-4 times and was all set.

Finally, yesterday was the talent show in her class. The kids had to show their talent to the entire class and then all the kids get to vote to select the class winner. 2 kids with highest number of votes would then participate in "Stratford Idol" today where they would show their talent to the entire school.

I dropped Kavya off to school yesterday morning with her Magic Kit and wished her luck. When I went to pick her up in the afternoon, her class teacher, Mrs. Hayes, walked up to my car and my heart started to beat faster in anticipation. To my surprise, she told me that Kavya won the talent show and that all the kids loved the magic tricks. She went on to add that she has never seen any kid get as many votes as Kavya did ! She said almost every vote they opened up had Kavya's name :) I was happy and excited. Shortly, Kavya came out and was all smiles. She was like "See mamma, I told you Magic Show would be more fun and you wanted me to dance" :) I was like "Yeah, good thing you decided to do magic". Other kids in her class played some songs on the piano, sang a song or danced or did some gymnastic moves.. but there was only 1 magician !

Then today, she had to perform in Stratford Idol. She didn't have any magician robe or hat for the class performance. Mrs. Hayes offered her a black hat for the Stratford Idol and I decided to go to few stores to see if I can find magician costume. We went home and Binduben was there. She said she might have something at her home. So, after he reached her home, she asked us to come by to see what she had. She had a black robe from a witch costume which seemed like it would work as a magician's robe too. So, Kavya was all set.

Today morning, I dressed Kavya up and went to the Stratford Idol. The entire auditorium was full of kids and their parents.  Kavya and Nathan were selected from the Room 12 Kindergarten class. Kavya's class had made a sign saying "We love Kavya" to encourage her. Soon, the performances started. There were few kids ahead of Kavya. Finally, it was Kavya's turn.

She was looking like a real magician. However, I could feel that she was little nervous. She spoke very softly, so I couldn't hear her very well in the back, but the kids in the front enjoyed. She didn't exactly deliver the dialogues as we had practiced at home, but the important thing is that she had the courage and confidence to go up on stage and perform for the entire school. What more can one expect from a 6 year old ?

We are very proud of our little magician :)

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 !!