Astrovelo

Ashwini is 3 years old today. I can’t believe that my little daughter is growing up. I still remember her as a little baby when I first held her in my arms. These 3 years have been very eventful and very enjoyable. These two posts document her growing up over most of last three years.

We had a little birthday celebration at home today.


The cake had Dora and the candle was with Cookie Monster. We probably violated some copyright or licensing laws by putting them together.


Birthday girl all decked up for the occasion.


Blow out the candle and aatttaaaccckkkk…


Hacking of the cake under the watchful eye of baby brother.


Ripping up presents is the best part of any Birthday.

On Saturday, we head out to Chuck E Cheese for a bigger party with Ashwini’s friends from preschool.

Ashwini still sleeps like a frog.

• Nov. 11, 2005: Ashwini and Payton were so cute outside this week. Payton pulled Ashwini in the wagon and they had a blast. Ashwini asked Payton to come over to her house and play with her toys. They are such gigglers when they play together these days.
• Nov. 18, 2005: This week I have been working with Ashwini on using certain scripts to help her talk to other children. Sometimes when other children cut in line in front of her or take toys that she is using, she doesn't say anything. So, I have been asking her if she likes that; if she says no, I give her a script to use like, "I was here first" or "I'm still using that. Wait till I am done." Hopefully, this will help.
• Dec. 1, 2005: It's fun to see how much of a difference a couple of months make. Ashwini is no longer interested in hanging out with me. Ashwini and Payton are best friends now. Their favorite activity is pretending in the play kitchen. It's fun to see them interact. We've also been working on some phonetic awareness (recognizing the sounds in words). Ashwini did great. She could point out objects that start with "S" and "G" sounds. This is a good step towards reading words.


Ashwini likes to play on her swingset in winter too.


• On Tuesday, it was "show and tell" day. All kids were to bring in toys that start with "S". Ashwini took her stuffed snake. She was wearing it around her neck like a scarf and showing everyone how it hisses through its mouth.
• It is becoming more and more difficult to get Ashwini to do anything. She just wants to keep doing whatever she is doing. In the morning, she doesn't want to wake up. After making her get out of bed, she doesn't want to change her clothes, then she doesn't want to eat any breakfast and then, she doesn't want to go to preschool. In the evening, she doesn't want to leave her classroom and come home. It almost seems like her every sentence begins with "I don't want to...". If it is like this at 2.75 yrs, I see very difficult teenage years in the future.

  We are trying to find new ways to make her interested in doing things that we want her to do. These days, racing with her Aai to get ready in the morning seems to be working. But, don’t know how long it will work. We better start thinking about the next trick.

• Her memory just amazes me. Today, we were at a traffic light and the car ahead of us didn't move even when the light turned green. Ashwini blurted out, "Come on lady, let's go." I remember saying something like this at a traffic light maybe more than a month ago. She remembered it and used it at the right time.

Here is Ashwini one year ago.

I know these are not great pictures, but, didn’t have much time to spend with her on Thursday morning with all the activities in the kitchen.

Ashwini helping me clean up leaves from our deck.

This month, I am late by 3 days. This is not excusable. But, being busy at work and busy at home with Ashwini has made me lose track of time. Most days, I don’t know what date it is.

I am continuing with last month’s format by transcribing a couple of notes from her preschool:

• Sept. 29, 2005: Ashwini has made some great gains this week. She is becoming more responsive in the large group and requires less direct instruction. At family group time, the children painted self-portraits. Ashwini picked a paint color that was very close to her skin color and when I asked what color yarn she wanted for the hair, she said, "My hair is black, Sara".
• Oct. 21, 2005: I am so excited for Ashwini, she is really starting to bloom socially. This week she seeked Payton out to come play with her outside. She asked Syd to sit by her at lunch. On the bus-ride home from the Pumpkin Factory, Ashwini & Payton sat next to each other and were talking about the leaves on the trees and being silly at the Pumpkin Factory.
• Nov. 4, 2005: Ashwini had a lot of fun this week playing our phonemic awareness game, for example: we found one compound word (hotdog) and turned it into two words (hot and dog). She also liked playing Spanish bingo. When Ms. Luz would call out something she had on her board, Ashwini would say, "Yo lo tengo" (I have it). She was also a big help setting up for lunch.





• Ashwini has been showing interest in learning Spanish with Ms. Luz, who comes to their preschool class one hour per week. Now, Ashwini can count to 10 in Spanish and knows a lot of simple words. I have to get a book for myself and learn a few things to help her practise at home. She is also learning to count in Marathi and can count upto 5.
• Finally, the much anticipated and dreaded 'why' questions have started. Here is a snippet of conversation between Ashwini and her Aajoba (Grandfather):

  Ashwini: Why do you have white hair, Aajoba? Aajoba: Because I am an old man. Ashwini: Why are you an old man?

  This kind of questioning goes on about everything around her.

• Ashwini is getting exposed to American football this year. I was watching a game and got excited about a play and started shouting, "touchdown... touchdown". Ashwini was standing near me. She promptly bent over and touched the ground. Seeing that, I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes.
• Last night, she had a lot of her painting stuff just spread around (to our eyes) on the floor. Getting annoyed with all the mess, V was starting to put it all back in its bag. Ashwini came running to her and said, "Aai, don't move that. That is my creation." It is just surprising how she uses these big words appropriately.

Contemplating the future of a lollipop…