Arya's Artwork

Arya loves doing artwork. About a year ago, when she started bringing home lots of art projects from preschool, she decided to make her own art gallery. :) She asked if we could make it in the basement, where she would have lots of space to hang her projects. She even made a sign and carefully wrote "Arya's Museum of Art" all by herself. (I told her the letters, but she made the sign on her own.)

In her free time, she loves to color, paint, and do any other kind of art that she can! Even her teacher, Mrs. Sterrett, has noticed and commented to me about how much Arya loves art.

I wish I could keep all of her artwork, but there sadly isn't enough room! I wanted to scan a couple of pictures that she has done lately just to remember what her drawings look like at this point. These are from the last couple of days.

The picture above is of a jungle scene. From left to right, you'll see a moose (with antlers), an orange fox (with a white tipped tail), a squirrel, a bunny (with long ears peeking out from behind a bush, and a monkey (in the tree). I was also surprised to see that one of the trees is drawn to look like it is behind the moose...without going through it! Way to creating depth, Arya!


The second picture is Arya's idea of the cow jumping over the moon. Hama drew the star outlines for her, but she did everything else in both of the drawings. I love seeing her come up with ideas and making pictures to show us what she is imagining!!

They only had horses back then, right?

We have had to have a lot of dental work done lately. Arya made her first trip to the dentist, only to find out that even though she brushes every day (often with our supervision too!), doesn't drink much juice or eat much candy, she has multiple cavities. It seems to me that it must be at least partly a genetic thing. :(

Meanwhile, I had an infection above the tooth where I had a root canal in 2007 and I had to have an apicoectomy a couple of weeks ago where they go in through your gum and remove the infection. Awesome.

All of this talk about teeth has led to various discussions lately, including one last week which involved Arya asking about root canals. She asked me about why I had to get a root canal and I told her I'd had one on the tooth that broke off while I was still in the hospital after she was born, and the other on the tooth that I knocked loose in a bike wreck when I was 9.

Arya has been learning to ride her bike this month (and really wanting to try without training wheels), so I think that the bike story intrigued her. She wanted to know more. I explained that I had fallen off my bike and hit my tooth on the road. She looked surprised and the following conversation took place:

Arya: [surprised and worried] Were there cars coming when you fell on the road??!!
Me: No, fortunately, there weren't any cars on the road.
Arya: Oh, good!! Oh, yeah, they only had horses back then, right?
Me: [Unable to hold back the laughter!!] No! We had cars back then!! I'm not that old!!
Arya: Oh, didn't you grow up in Nepal? They don't have cars there. Only horses.

I had to explain several things, including the fact that
1) I didn't grow up in Nepal.
2) They do have cars in Nepal, not just horses!!
3) We had cars, even when I was a little girl.

Oh, it was too funny!

I love you!

Over about the last month, Alex has really been trying to repeat so many things that we say. Here is a video that I took on the day that he turned 17 months (August 31, 2010). He was copying me when I was saying, "I love you" and I grabbed the camera to record this quick video!! It was the first time he had tried to say this, and I was so glad to have this quick moment documented!! I love you, Alex!

Where to sleep...

Rajeev was in California this week for work, and just returned tonight. Arya waited up to see him when he got home. (Alex was too tired.) As she was getting ready to go to bed, this is what Arya said to me:

"Mommy, if Daddy is going to stay up all night working, then I'll sleep in your bed with you." (Can you tell that I let the kids sleep with me all week?) She continued, "If Daddy is going to go to bed, then I will just move my whole bed into your room next to your bed so that we can all just hold hands."

Adorable. :)

Indianapolis Zoo - August 23

We have a membership to the Indianapolis Zoo this year, and we have had so much fun on the 3 visits we have had there so far. On August 23, Rajeev and I took the kids along with his parents and sister to the zoo. We had a great time.


We all enjoyed our picnic lunch. The kids got to pet an elephant and the dog sharks, and Arya took her first ride on a pony. (When Baba asked if she wanted to go a second time, she said "No, thanks." I guess it was a little bumpy for her taste!) We also got to see the dolphin show and ride the carousel and we let the kids play in the mini water park area. (Well, Arya played in the water, while Alex mostly watched!!)





Arya enjoyed running with a cheetah...well, sort of running with a cheetah. You're supposed to run to see how fast you can go, but when Arya realized that there was a cheetah right next to her, she got a little startled!! Here is a video of the moment:



We are excited to continue visiting the zoo on a regular basis!! We have all enjoyed it so much!

Mother's Day

I just have to take this time, on Mother's Day, to say how much I love my sweet kids and how special they made Mother's Day for me.

It started on Thursday with Mother's Tea at Arya's preschool. She had been so excited about me coming and hearing the song that she had been learning. They had such a nice event planned for us. When we arrived, we went into the art room, which had tables set with tissue paper flowers as centerpieces, place cards for each child and their mom, along with brownies (that the kids had made) and pink lemonade.

Mrs. Foley called each child up, one by one, and read what they had said about why they love their mommy. Arya said, "I love my mommy because...she plays with me. She takes me to the frog pond. She made me a Pablo cake." It was so sweet. :)

Next the class sang a song for us. Here is a video of the song:



Since I didn't get the very beginning and since it is a little hard to hear, here are the words:

Mommy, Mommy, let me say,
I love you in every way.
I love you for all you do.
I love you for being you.
Mommy, Mommy, let me say,
Have a happy Mother's Day!

(The other night she sang the song for Grandma Carol and Grandma Ruthie too, and just changed the words to "Grandma, Grandma, let me say...")

Anyway, since Thursday, Arya has been so excited for the real Mother's Day to come. She made me a beautiful card with flowers, butterflies, and kitties. She also picked me lots of flowers from the yard. She made a special craft that she saw on a Caillou cartoon. She cut flower shapes out of different colored papers and put pipe cleaners through the centers to make stems. She made a vase full of them and put them on the table for me at lunch time. So sweet!! She even made me a surprise sand castle in her sandbox, which she said was especially for Mother's Day. Wow, I felt loved by my sweet little girl!! :) And I'm sure that Alex loves me too, he just hasn't learned how to do crafts yet to show me. :)

What Alex is saying these days...

Alex has been learning lots of new words in the last few weeks. He has been saying "dada" for daddy for a long time, and finally started saying "mama" a few months back. (He seemed to think it was funny when I would point to myself and say 'Who is this?' to reply, 'dada.') I totally think he knew what he was doing too!!

He has been saying Arya since around the last week of March/first week of April. He says "dada" and "Arya" much more than "mama"!!

In the past few weeks he has started pointing to things he wants. He has also started saying "hot," and when he says it, he holds out his hand and then pulls it back quickly, as if he is touching something hot. The funny thing is that this week he has started saying all sorts of things are "hot", like the light switch, the milk in a cup, or even my arm. I've been trying to let him touch cold things like the gallon of milk from the fridge while I tell him "cold", but he still says "hot" when he touches it! I think he really likes being able to say words that we say though. So cute.

Another fun word he uses is "hide" or "hiding". He loves peek-a-boo, and Arya loves hide-and-seek, so he gets to use these new words often.

Alex loves to watch the birds and squirrels out the window in the living room, and he's been saying "buh" for bird for some time. In the last week and a half or so it has turned into "bur" though...only missing the "d"!

He is definitely understanding a lot of what we tell him. He loves to do high fives, clap his hands, wave hi (which he's been able to say for a good while now) and bye (he says "dah" when he does this - not sure why??), when asked. He also likes us to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider, while he does motions for the spider and the rain. He will respond to the following requests:
close the door
sit down
come
bring me the ____
give me the ____
There are probably a good number more, but these are the ones I'm thinking of right now.

Today he was walking out of the room and he had taken off one of his shoes and left it in Rajeev's closet, where he was playing. I asked him where he was going and where his shoe was. He came back into the room and went and got his shoe from the closet to show me. It is so much fun to see him learning so much and communicating what he is thinking.

Alex's Clogged Tear Duct

Alex had an appointment last week with a pediatric ophthalmologist, who examined him to see what needs to be done about his clogged tear duct in his right eye. He has had problems since he was just a few days old, and they just seem to linger. Because the duct is blocked, the tears and normal bacteria in the eye that normally drain through the tear ducts into the nose, aren't able to drain properly. His eye is often teary, and gooey discharge sometimes makes his eyelashes stick together. His eye will get really red and sometimes swollen, and sometimes his cheek is dry or red due to the constant tears. (Click on the following link for a little more about the condition from the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.)

Having a blocked tear duct is very common in babies, but 90% of the cases clear up on their own by during the first year. Well, unfortunately, Alex's tear duct doesn't show signs of getting better on its own.

The ophthalmologist is recommending that he have a procedure done to open the tear duct. They will insert a probe into the duct, and place a tiny tube inside the duct to help hold it open while it heals properly. It will stay in for 6 months. Sounds awful to me. I hate to think of him having to have eye surgery, and to be under anesthesia when he is so small. But the doctors seem to think that the problem will only get harder to correct with time, but if they do the procedure now, there is a very high success rate. It should be able to take care of the problem and prevent him from having to worry about it for years to come.

So, it looks like this is what we'll have to do. I still have to schedule the date, but it will probably be taking place in the near future. Please keep my sweet little boy in your prayers that things will go smoothly.

10 teeth and 3.5 steps

My little Alex is growing so quickly. Just before the weekend, I noticed that one of Alex's molars had come in on his upper right side. (I was reaching into his mouth to pull out a piece of paper that he was trying to eat when I felt them!) Then, yesterday, I was tickling him when he was lying down and when he opened his mouth to laugh I caught a glimpse of another one on the top left side. I couldn't believe that it was already time for this. I've been noticing that he has been drooling much more than normal for the past few weeks, and now it all makes sense. Anyway, this brings the total to 10 teeth!!!

In other Alex news, our little guy has been getting closer and closer to walking. He stands up on his own all of the time now. He took a step on his on two times while at Arya's preschool a week ago (3/2/10). (He'd taken sort of half-steps different times previously, when he'd be cruising from couch to coffee table, etc. and would let go briefly.) Rajeev and I have been encouraging him to come to us when he's a few steps away. He usually takes about one step and then drops into a crawl to get to where he wants to go. Tonight he went back and forth between us repeatedly, taking several steps each time. He seemed to be having fun doing it!

I probably shouldn't be so eager for him to walk because he is already so hard to keep up with!! I don't know if Arya was just less busy at this age or if I just forget how busy she was!! Alex is constantly on the go and he is a climber. Lately, he loves to climb up onto the chairs from Arya's kitchen set and stand up on them (often without hands if we would let him). He likes to climb over the bottom rails of the dining room chairs and squeeze through to the other side. He also tries to climb the step stool in the bathroom and loves to climb on top of the printer/fax/copier in my office which is 18-20 inches tall. I can't take my eyes off of him for a second, but I just love that sweet boy!!