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. :)