Thank You!

Arya had a Fairy Party for her 6th birthday and we had such a great time. I still need to post photos from that, but in the mean time I wanted to post this sweet thank you note that she gave me after the party. :) She was writing them for her friends, and after she was done she brought this one to me.

In the note, she says thank you for the Do and Discover, which is the science kit that we gave her for her birthday. She also says thank you for the cake and the pixie juice, which I made for her Fairy Party. I just took lemonade and put a little green food coloring in it to make it bright and colorful to match the decorations. I put a sign on it that said "pixie juice" (Thanks for the idea, Pinterest!!) and the girls loved it!!

Here's the back of card. If it is hard to see, Arya is on the left (labeled "me") and I am on the right (labeled "Mommy"). Arya's background is pink because that is her favorite color and my background is green because that is my favorite color. :)

She was absolutely thrilled with the science kit, which lets you do all sorts of science experiments. She had seen a similar one in a catalog some time ago, and mentioned periodically how fun it would be to have a science kit, but she was really surprised when she opened it. I wish I had her reaction on video...she just kept saying, "I can't believe it! I can't believe I got a science kit!!!" By the way, this week she told me that she decided she wants to be a chemist because she loves chemistry! (The kindergarteners periodically go participate with the high schoolers in chemistry class and get to do all kinds of fun experiments. Arya LOVES it!)

Arya Loses Her First Tooth!!

Tonight Arya lost her first tooth!! The day after her 6th birthday (1 week and 1 day ago), she noticed that her front bottom tooth (on her right) was starting to get loose. She's been wiggling it all week, and a couple of times throughout the week she has bitten into something and forgotten about her loose tooth - making it more and more loose. Tonight I could tell that it was about to come out. Arya was so excited!! (Meanwhile, I have felt a little sad that my baby girl is old enough to be losing her baby teeth!!)

Tonight we had to make a trip to the Indian grocery store in Indianapolis to pick up supplies for the restaurant, so we decided it would be fun to go for a walk along the canal. We were hoping to get to go for a pedal boat ride, but ended up arriving 14 minutes after their cutoff time of 6:00p.m. (Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take a boat out even though they were still open until 7:00p.m.!) Arya was so disappointed. She couldn't understand why all of the other people were still out boating but we were not able to boat! :(

We still had fun at the canal. The kids loved seeing the fountains and the big goldfish, and blowing the fluffy dandelion seeds that they found. They also loved yelling "ECHO!!" and listening to the echoing sounds whenever we went under a bridge.

After our visit to the canal we headed to the Indian grocery store and Arya and Alex found some guava candy (like the kind Hama had brought them from Toronto). We bought it and went to the car to wait for Rajeev to finish picking up supplies. The kids both had a piece of the hard candy and before they had finished it, Arya's tooth just popped right out! She couldn't believe that it was so easy. It didn't hurt, didn't bleed and was not traumatic at all! She was so thrilled that she even begged us to tell the guy working the drive-thru at Wendy's (where we picked up dinner) that she had just lost her first tooth! So cute! :)

It was a busy evening and Arya and Alex were both asleep in the car by the time we got home around 9:30p.m. I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to leave the tooth for the tooth fairy since Arya didn't get to put it under her pillow. I am sure that the tooth fairy will understand!! :)

Alex Feeds the Ducks

Weatherwise, we have had a very strange end to Winter and beginning of Spring so far. We have had extremely warm weather very early (at least a week of temperatures in the upper 70s and into the 80s in mid-March!) We have been able to spend a lot of time outside and (aside from really bad allergies!) this has been GREAT! Rajeev and I are trying to get ready for the Mini Marathon and we've loved being able to run outside.

This afternoon, Alex and I went for an outdoor run, and decided to stop at the duck pond to see the ducks. We brought some crackers and Alex had so much fun feeding the ducks...especially since there were 3 little ducklings that followed him all around and were very curious! He was so excited that he was actually jumping and dancing around with the little ducks. It was so sweet. The ducklings kept following us as we got ready to leave, but eventually we got them to go back toward the pond with the other ducks. I was afraid we might end up with 3 new pets!!

I had my phone with me and snapped these photos that I had to share. :)

"I like her."

Yesterday, Arya went back to school after 2 weeks of Christmas vacation. Alex and I were out doing a couple of errands in the morning and when we finished around 10:30a.m., he asked if we were going to go pick up Arya. Our conversation went something like this:

Alex: Are we going to go pick up Sissy now?
Me: Are you ready to go pick her up?
Alex: Yes.
Me: Well, she is not finished with school so we can't pick her up yet.
Alex: Well, I want to pick her up. I like her. :)
Me: Do you miss Arya?
Alex: Yes. I miss her.

It was just so sweet, and I wanted to jot it down so that I could remember it. :)

Arya Starts Kindergarten

Arya started kindergarten this week! I cannot believe how quickly the last 5 years have passed. We found out in June that Arya would be going to Burris. Around July, we learned that kindergarten was being extended to full day rather than half day. Then a few days before school started we found out that all elementary grades would be adding an extra hour to the day!! This makes Arya's school day 8 hours long, which has been quite an adjustment. She has been doing great, but has clearly been exhausted these last few days. (We stopped having her take an afternoon nap about a month before school started in an attempt to get her tired and to bed earlier so that she could also start getting up earlier. We definitely made progress, but it has ) She has today off due to faculty meetings, and I think that the break will be good for her as she continues to transition to her new routine!


Rajeev, Alex and I all walked to school on Monday for Arya's first day. Parents were invited to stay for story time. Mrs. Huffman read The Kissing Hand, a sweet story that made all of us parents get teary. :)


As for kindergarten itself, Arya seems to be enjoying it. On the first day she used the following words to describe it: great, amazing, fabulous, and perfect!

She has two friends from preschool in her class and she has made friends with a couple of other kids too. She loves the playground. She seems to really like her teacher too. She liked playing with the parachute in gym class this week, getting to check out a book from the library, playing a game in class to get to know the names of different students, and learning to read the phrase, "I like to..." (She is ready to read a different book in class though because they keep re-reading the one that just uses lots of different "I like to" phrases (I like to read/cook/munch/etc.). I explained to her that seeing the same phrase often will help them to remember how to recognize those words, but she still says she'd like to get a chance to read something else though! Too funny!)

She has taken her lunch to school this week and seems to be happy with that. (Just for record keeping purposes, school lunch is $3.20/day. I think it was $1.10 when I was in middle school and $1.35 in high school.)


We've also continued our attempt to walk to and from school whenever possible. Parking is limited and traffic is busy, so walking has been a great alternative (especially since we've had nice weather). It takes about 7-12 minutes to walk to school (depending on whether Arya and Alex are walking too or in the stroller). I usually make it in 7 or 8 minutes when I walk pushing the stroller, but we make a lot more stops to look at things along the way when the kids are walking. :) Plus, it gives us a nice time to talk about the day, enjoy the outdoors, and get a little exercise.


I know that this year will hold a lot of wonderful things for Arya, and while I feel a little sad that she is growing up so fast, I'm so excited for all that she will be learning and doing this year. I love this little girl with all my heart. :)

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!!

Putting up the Christmas tree!

Arya has been so excited about putting up the Christmas tree!! We picked it up from the garage at the old house yesterday and she wanted to put it up immediately!! It was already kind of late to get started, and you should have heard her trying to convince us to try to get it up anyway.

"We can just put a little bit up and then relax for a little bit and then put a little more up and then rest some more and keep doing that!" She even started pushing the Christmas tree box from the kitchen towards the living room. ("Look how strong I am, Mommy!!")

Oh my, how do you say no to so much excitement? Anyway, I gave in. Sort of. :) I agreed to put together the tree and put the lights on last night, but said we had to wait until today to do the ornaments when we could do them all together.

(Rajeev was resting last night after passing out in the late afternoon, which is another story altogether. He has not been sleeping much at all due to the crazy amount of work he's got to do... working 16 hours a day is a short day for him, and two days last week he worked 25 hours straight, came home and slept 7-8 hours and then went back to work. It has been insane, and I've been really worried about the fact that he's gone for months and months with a schedule of working so many hours and sleeping so little, knowing that a body will eventually just shut down if you don't take care of it. Anyway, after this passing out episode our doctor's office recommended he get checked out at the emergency room. So, we spent a few hours there and all of the tests came back normal and they basically just said, "You need rest." I guess we'll have to pay a lot for those words, but at least we were able to get him checked out and know it wasn't anything additional. I felt relieved after a very scary afternoon.)

So, Arya and I put up the tree and she was so cute as she helped sort each size of branch so we could put the branches and lights on. We have pine cones that came with the tree and they attach with little wires that you can wrap around the branches. She got a kick out of putting those on, and sneaking on a few ornaments as well. She would say with a big excited smile, "Mommy, every time I'm good maybe I can put on a pine cone or an ornament!!"

Alex was also so excited that he couldn't go to sleep! He usually is out by about 8:30 or 9p.m., but last night he was up until 11p.m.!

This afternoon, after a good night's sleep for Rajeev, we all decorated the tree together and it was a lot of fun to do as a family! I'll try to put up some of the photos soon that I took of us all putting up the tree! Merry Christmas everyone!

Learning signs

We have been doing several signs with Alex since he started eating food. We'll do signs for "more", "all done", "eat" and "thirsty/drink" as appropriate, and also move his hands to do the signs as we say the words to help him learn.

Last week, I thought he put his hands together in a sort of "more" sign while I was feeding him dinner, but I wasn't quite sure how intentional it was. However, today he definitely did two signs intentionally. It is amazing what babies can learn at this age!! (He is 8.5 months now...how did that happen??)

First, this morning he put his hand up and waved it back and forth when I asked him if he was all done after sitting on the potty. I don't think he was really answering me saying, "Yes, mom, I'm all done going to the bathroom." However, I do think he's heard me say "all done" enough with the sign that he knew that what he was doing with his hand went with the words that I was saying. Pretty cool!!

Then, tonight he'd already eaten dinner and gone to sleep for a bit and then he woke up while we were eating. He was wide awake so I brought him out and was holding him as I ate my dinner. Alex was facing away from me, but toward Rajeev's mom, and she said, "Look! He just signed 'more'!" I was really surprised! I turned him around and asked him if he wanted some more and he did the sign again. I gave him a bite of a cracker and after he ate that, I asked if he wanted more. He did the sign probably 10 more times like this, laughing like crazy every time we would see him do it and then give him a bite of cracker.

I can't remember how old Arya was when she started learning signs, but it is so amazing to see babies figuring out that they can communicate even before they can talk. We may not know tons of signs, but it was definitely worth it to try signing some common words/needs when Arya was a baby, and I think it is going to be good to try these with Alex as well!

Alex loves food :)

Alex has been much more interested in eating solid food at this age than Arya ever was. She didn't really care about food until she was about 10 months old. She loved rice cereal the first time we gave it to her and then wouldn't eat it after that. Alex, on the other hand, wants to eat food whenever we are eating!!

For the past month or so, we've been cooking veggies, blending them up, and mixing them with rice cereal for him on a regular basis. He LOVES it! He has been eating about 1/4 cup each night at dinner time, and lately, I've been feeding him some at lunch too, although he usually eats less then than at dinner time.

He has tried lots of foods (carrots, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, bananas, joulo (Nepali dish made by cooking rice and lentils together until they're soft...not sure how to spell it!!), saltine crackers, cheerios, and animal crackers to name a few) and we really haven't found anything that he doesn't like yet!! His favorites are carrots and mashed potatoes. No wonder our little boy is not so little anymore!!

Getting an early start on potty training

Disclaimer: This post is about potty training, so if you don't want to read about this subject, just skip it!! :)

You know, parenting does not always go exactly like you plan that it will go. I think that before you have kids you sometimes have ideas of how you'll raise them...and then once you actually have kids you usually have to adjust your plans for the real world and your real kids!! :)

Potty training is one of those areas where you usually have ideas of what you'll do ahead of time, but then you just have to see how it goes with your own child.

In Nepal, kids are potty trained early. In recent years, there has been more use of disposable diapers, but using a simple cloth has been a lot more common. So, needless to say, if your baby is just wearing a cloth that leaks all over you and everything else whenever they go potty (no plastic pants, etc.), you start potty training early!!

Anyway, with Rajeev growing up where it is so common for kids to be potty trained by 18 months, it just seemed logical to start early with potty training. We started putting Arya on the potty whenever she woke up when she was about 6 months. I was surprised at how quickly she learned what to do. (I mean it only took a few times.) She didn't start telling me that she had to go potty at this age or anything, and it wasn't like she wouldn't go in her diaper. But by paying attention to when she acted like she had to go to the bathroom, and then taking her, she went through fewer diapers and potty training was a gradual process for her. It wasn't seamless or perfect, but it seemed to work pretty well.

Anyway, we've started the process with Alex now. We were a little late in doing so - he was 7 months instead of 6 like his sister!! (I was just lazy!!) It took him longer to figure it out than Arya...we put him on the potty probably 15 times with no results!! I thought for a while that it might just not work with him, but he seems to be getting the hang of it now though. I just put him on the potty when he wakes up in the morning and he has been going pretty much every morning for a good month now. It is nice because due to his daily routine being what it is, putting him on the potty at this time means one less dirty diaper that I have to change each day!! (Yippee!) I don't really put him on the potty at other times unless I can clearly tell that he needs to go (which I usually can't tell until it is too late!), but I feel like we've gotten a good start on things. I don't worry about rushing it and know he won't be fully trained until he is ready, but for now, this seems like a good way to start.

Girlfriends!

Arya got to go to a birthday party for her friend Brenley last weekend, with friends Maggie and Maddie there too. Maddie and Brenley are cousins, and both in Arya's preschool class, and Arya has had fun getting to play with them at school lately. And of course Maggie has been Arya's friend for just about as long as she's been alive! (Plus, we're friends with all of the girls' parents!) The girls had a great time playing at the playground and eating cupcakes. Here are a few photos from the party that I snagged from Brenley's mom's facebook page!! I love the collage of photos above of the four girls all together. Aren't friends fun??!

Arya and Maggie having cupcakes...you know Arya LOVES chocolate!!

Arya and the birthday girl, Brenley!

Cooperation

A few weeks ago, Arya wanted to help me iron. She said, "Mommy, you hold the iron and I'll put my hand on your hand to help." I was a little hesitant because I didn't want her to burn herself, but carefully let her start helping. She then said, "That's called cooperation. That's what friends are all about. Maggie learned that." Me: "You mean Maggie taught you that?" Arya, "Yeah, Maggie taught me that."

Rajeev and I friends with Maggie's parents, but Maggie and Arya are also such sweet friends. She is a little older than Arya (about 10 months), but they always have so much fun playing together and always talk fondly about each other even when it has been a while since they've been able to play together. Apparently, Maggie has been busy teaching Arya some new things!! So cute!!

PS-The picture above is of Maggie and Arya playing at a recent birthday party!