Kabir plays Oom Pa Pa!

Last night, Kabir dressed up to take the stage at the Katzen Art Center!

Kabir played Oom Pa Pa, a piece he had been practicing the piece since early December. While he would rush when practicing at home, he kept a nice pace when performing. It was absolutely beautiful! I have been hearing it on repeat. :)

I was so excited cheering him up that I missed a second or two of the start, while recording.

I was lucky to accompany him. Our evening was full of special moments, we arrived the art center with enough time at hand to walk its hallways and check out the art on display. The Charkha took me back home!

The performances were all very beautiful. They gave me my fill for a musical evening! Thank you, Kabir!

The very happy mama and Kabir then dined at their favorite Chinese restaurant Q by Peter Chang. Over conversations of building forts at recess, the controversies and trials that happen in 3rd grade, to the upcoming class play, we savored Peking Duck and schezwan fish for dinner. It was happiness at its best, being with this sweet kid who is growing up with a beautiful heart and a little too quickly.

God bless you, Kabir, always! I'm excited to experience your musical journey.

Love to you,
Mama

Vir is 6!

Vir,

You were longing for your birthday and counting months and days to it! While we had been so excited for your special day and the celebrations that came with it, I am so behind in writing about your year around the sun. I am so sorry. As I write this today you are 6+ and just as sweet, if not more. I love you!

Your excitement for your birthday reminded me of myself as a child and even as a young girl. The waiting, the planning, it was all so magical and exciting. While my excitement for my own birthday has died over the years, I wish for yours to live your lifetime, I'll help! :)

You started planning your birthday in Fall, wishing for snow and having a snow ball fight party at home, over the weeks of thinking you thought spy party would also be fun. While we celebrated your birthday indoors at Kidville, it did snow the night before your birthday! I was so excited for you! When you wish for something with all our heart, it does come true!

You had a fun time celebrating at Kidville with all your friends, building in the construction zone and playing in the gym. You said zipline was your favorite! On the day of your birthday, you celebrated in class with chocolate covered strawberries as a treat for all KXers.

At home you had wished to go out for Sushi for dinner at Wasabi, which is attractive to you and Kabir for it's sushi train, however, you were so overjoyed after cutting cake and opening presents that you decided we should just order food in! The magic of presents and wanting to play with your new toys! :)

This has been an year of new beginnings and growth. You started Kindergarten at a new school. While you had Kabir when you started, you have made many friends now. Your teachers say, they never see you alone. You seem to love it. Your favorite things to do at school are Choice Time, Exploratorium and recess.

Your school is a Quaker school and even the youngest kids sit in Meeting For Worship for 20 minutes each week. I wondered for your love for movement, if this time of silence and centering would be challenging for you. I attended the first meeting for worship, that was open for parents and was so proud at how you and all your young friends sat in silence. It is not easy and an early start is a great gift that I hope you will use as you grow.

You are full of energy and bring out the child in us. What I love about you most is your very caring and thoughtful nature. I am amazed by the way you think, you are a wise soul in a 6 year old's body. You care and speak in the most meaningful ways such that no one feel hurt and everyone is included and loved. 

You are also very observant, you have great vocabulary. You love stories and science. Super heroes are also a favorite. Our trips to the library involve reading super hero books, one after the other. I have to get creative to sneak in a different book and I don't always get lucky. Over time your interests are expanding. You are over Dog man (Yay!). There was a big phase of "why?" and I attribute that to reading a lot of Dog man.

You are my teacher, you are teaching me patience and also creativity to redirect your attention. Daddy is better at it than I am but I am learning. You are strong willed and it's impossible to make you do anything. You like to know what's coming and be part of the decision making.

You love to help, off late you are starting to help make breakfast. This is a huge help and I appreciate you and your helpful nature so much!

You look forward to iPad time on Friday nights and movie nights on Saturdays! You are a Star Wars fan!

You love playing board games and card games. Chess, Risk, Uno, Sleeping Queens are some of the favorites. 

You love machines. You love putting batteries in devices, you love to open things and learn how things work. Robots excite you, you sometimes even talk like a Robot...you'll say C.A.L.C.U.L.A.T.I.N.G while adding numbers.

You like listening to podcasts on your way to and from school. Wow in the World, goop tales or other story pod casts are your favorites. You ask for them to be played in a very sweet voice! :)

You like to build...mostly pods. Whether you are building with Legos, magnets cardboard or other material, your creations always have people in them. You like army and battle fields, troops are hiding everywhere in our house! My encouragement and redirection for more peaceful games hasn't worked so far...but I am hopeful this is a phase! ;)

You love to try new foods and drinks and I love having you as my taster. 

I love you, my sweet Vir and I wish you the very best time growing up! Stay curious, stay kind and continue to bring out the best in us all.

Much love to you, always!

Mama

New Beginnings!

Last week, we had a brand new Kindergartner and a brand new 3rd grader in our house! So much excitement, we could hardly sleep!

Tarun and I had been very excited for the boys to be together at school. As I drove them to school the first day and as the school got closer, a realization struck me; this was it, Vir, our littlest one was off to Elementary school.  Where did the time do?!? And then the eyes were wet and the tears were rolling or may be it was allergies.

But as soon as we parked, the mood was different. The school was beaming with bright smiles. They gave high fives to the greeters and Kabir and I walked Vir to his classroom. Outside the classroom, the board said:

We went inside, Vir met his teachers and soon found his favorite things to play with. He was busy in no time! Kabir walked up to his class and was overjoyed to see his friends!

They both didn't notice when I left and then I didn't see them till pickup.

Vir had a lot to share the first two days and I was overjoyed but now all he shares is about recess and PE! Where did the other stories go? I long for them and I hope they will come back.

Kabir loves third grade! He is loving math, is writing stories and is thinking about what type of community they should be as a class. It's the thinking they do, that I love the most.

Vir is as happy as he can be! He loves the multiple recesses he gets and PE is another favorite. He calls his days "very fun"! I don't doubt him at all. Every day, I wish I was in his class!

Excited for both the boys on their new journey and the magic this year will bring! 

8 is great!

Kabir, you turned 8 earlier this month!

This was a wonderful year! We have been impressed on how quickly and how much independent you have become! All you need now are reminders but who doesn’t?!

As a young 8 year old, you are well read child, who enjoys fiction from Dogman to Harry Potter (You have read 7 of the 8 books and are now re-reading them!), all the books about battles and various wars, to biographies. You love books and are always found with one, unless playing.

Ms. Beeny your teacher, recently shared that on your field trip to the nature reserve center, there was a free library. You picked a book from it, found yourself a tree trunk and sat on it to read! After finishing the book, you went back and joined your group.

You are also writing stories and poems at school. This is one area that we have been working on. A creative child that you are with many wonderful ideas, sometimes they don’t transfer well on paper. Your teachers have been very excited about your latest myth and I can’t wait to read it myself!

Your favorite things to do are building Legos, reading and playing Minecraft!

This year you started taking piano lessons and have your first recital coming up soon. You recently played the below piece for a performance in your class.

You also picked up Fencing and Tae Kwon Do and seem to enjoy them both.

You are curious and are a keen learner. You have a great sense of humor, which is enjoyed both at home and school.

Days have gotten busier for you with some homework every day but weekends allow for some unstructured time, which you love.

In general, you are keeping good health, we are seeing some improvements with asthma and eczema, which is a hopeful change that with some more time it will get even better.

For your birthday, we had Norah, Mamu and Mami visting. You celebrated in school with your favorite Rice Krispie snack and at home we celebrated by spending the day at the Salamander Resort, doing some of your favorite things; playing Foosball, doing archery and spending the day together! First thing you did after getting back home was completely built the Lego set you received as a gift!

You made a donation of various kids items to A Wider Circle, in lieu of a birthday party. I hope you always do for others and others do for you.

It’s been interesting to see you grow, change and also stay the same. Excited to see what year 9 holds!

We love you, Kabir! Stay curious, stay kind and be humble, always.
Mama