Astrovelo

Although it is hard for us to believe, a couple of days ago, Ashwini turned 4 years old. She is growing up too fast, learning everything too fast, and talking a lot. I start to hyperventilate when I start thinking about when she turns 14-15 and wants to go on dates or when she turns 18 and leaves us to go for college. Thankfully, those days are still farther away in the future.

As our first child, she helped us learn how to be parents. I still remember being worried about small little things and rushing to the emergency room at the hospital just because we didn’t know what to expect and how to deal with whatever that was happening. After a couple of such trips that ended in us being embarassed because we worried for no reason, we started to get a little more confident in handling Ashwini by reading books and talking with friends. Even after all our experiments with parenthood, Ashwini seems to be turning out alright. Her love of books is keeping her ahead of her class in terms of reading skills. She looks to be ready to go into Kindergarten next year.

It has been an awesome experience to be a parent. Ashwini made it easy for us. Given the troublemaker nature of Adit, if he was born first, I doubt that we’d have thought about having another child.

Yesterday, Ashwini went with me for her first ever movie in a theater. We watched ‘Curious George’. She has been a fan of ‘Curious George’ books for the last few months and it was nice to see George come alive on the screen. It was a very sweet movie. The story was completely new and had just a few references to the original stories. In the days of hi-fi 3D animation, this was done in a classic 2D style. But, it was fun to watch.

me: Ashwini, we are going to see ‘Curious George’. I am so excited. A: (after pausing for a couple of seconds let out a ear-piercing scream) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Daddy, that is eg..sited.

Ashwini’s portrait, taken at home.

• Ashwini had a nice Christmas holiday break. No daycare for 10 days. This was the longest break since our India trip last year. Her baby brother was born during that week to make things more interesting for us, parents. But, Ashwini enjoyed the time at home. She adores her brother, too. Wants to hold him and is very gentle with him most of the time. Sometimes, she gets very possessive about her things and doesn't want Adit to use them.
• Going back to daycare after the break wasn't a problem at all. She was happy to see all her friends and teachers. Didn't fuss about me leaving her there. Actually, it was just great to see her interact with Payton on that first day. Both were so happy to see each other. They were grinning from ear to ear and Ashwini was eager to show Adit's photos to her. I wished I had my camera with me to capture that moment.
• Ashwini's vocal capabilities have reached new peaks. She keeps using more and more new words and making more and more complicated sentences. She has been learning new songs and she likes to sing all the time. Also, she absorbs mannerisms from others and uses them correctly. For example, she said this to me while eating dinner, today: "I am sorry Daddy, but, I can not drink any more milk."
• Ashwini remembers whole stories, even to single phrases, just from hearing them over and over. Once in a while, I get tired of reading a story word to word from the book and I improvise from the pictures, and Ashwini stops me and says out the correct words and phrases from the book. The first time it happened, I thought it was just luck, but, she does it repeatedly. I have stopped improvising these days.
• While reading books, I noticed that Ashwini touches her chin with her finger and then turns the page. I don't know where she saw it, but, she must have seen someone wet their finger to turn the pages of a book. She tries to imitate it, but, not knowing what that action was she just touches her chin in stead of putting her finger in her mouth. I am glad she didn't copy what she saw correctly, this one time.
• Ashwini has been getting more and more stubborn. It is difficult to get her to do anything. She doesn't want to wake up in the morning, then she doesn't want to go to preschool, then she doesn't want to come home from preschool, then doesn't want to eat dinner, then doesn't want to stop playing to go to bed. I probably wrote about this last month too.

Another photo of Adit and Ashwini.
I liked this photo. Ashwini seems so happy holding her baby brother. At the same time, it makes me sick to my stomach as I realise the amount of responsibility that we have taken on for the next so many years.

Taken on the shores of Lake Michigan in South Haven, MI.

• Two major changes happened in Ashwini's life during the last month. I wrote a post about one of them, i.e., her move to the preschool class. It has been 3 days since that transition and she is coping very well. She is getting comfortable with new schedule (shorter nap time), new friends (and teachers) and new responsibilities. Ashwini has cliqued with 2 older girls that were in her toddler room last year and they help her do things that she is still struggling with. Overall, we are relieved that this transition has gone well without any problems.
• The other big change is Ashwini's sleeping arrangements at home. She is out of the crib and moved on to a spanking new bed. She even helped me dismantle her crib. She calls her bed, "my beautiful bed" because the sheets have lots of pink, green and white flowers that she likes. Ashwini is quite sure that cribs are for babies and she is a big preschooler who needs to sleep in a bed. Over the last two weeks, she must have fallen from it several times, but, we have a mattress on the floor to soften her fall and she hasn't complained about getting any 'ouchies'. Sometimes, we find her on the floor in the morning and sometimes, she just climbs back up in the bed and goes back to sleep.
• Ashwini has been learning more and more songs and rhymes. We got a new Marathi CD for the car and she is picking up those songs, too.
• Ashwini's jaws probably ache by the time she goes to bed every night. All through her waking hours, she is constantly talking, screaming or singing.
• She is eating more and more new foods like fresh cut tomatoes, sauted bell peppers, sauted okra and eggplant. We are so happy to see her eat all the vegetables from our garden. We have started giving her multiple items of food on the plate at the same time. She also started eating a typical marathi thing: toop-sakhar-poli rolls.
• Ashwini still has problem pronouncing some 'sh' sounds like in shower. She says 's' for 'sh' and makes it 'sower'. If we imitate her and say 'sower', she doesn't like it.
• Ashwini loved going to the beach last weekend. We were in the water for about an hour. She was running in and out and splashing water and sand everywhere. She finally figured out that sitting in the water and letting the waves come to her was much better than running after them. There was a big grin on her face all through that hour. We should make more trips to the beach.