Happy Christmas everyone

Milosh just gave a present to us, which he built in his school. They sewed a little pocket on the pillow.

At home, he was so excited, he decided to write us a note. His spellings remind me of what he said just this morning - you know, there is a kid in my class and I saw that he spelled book as 'buc' - lol.

He has written happy sleep because he expects to get presents when he wakes up :)

We will be in Mexico for Christmas this year, we will need to figure out a plan for the long awaited gifts.

Do I have to go school today?

Every morning Milosh asks the same question. Do I have to go to school? He keeps saying he loves after care which is free play and tries to convince me that it's really a Sunday, every weekday. Now it has been six weeks since school started. So I asked him if we should look for another school for him. He said yeah, look for something where we can play the whole time.
I said now you are a first grader, you will have to do some work no matter where you go. He thought about it and said, then why don't you send me to the toddlers' school. I said, hmm.. What will you do when you graduate to elementary again. He said I will go back again :)

I like this model, it's hard to convince him otherwise, hard to explain why education is important. The real reason is you do it because everyone does it.

But looking at everything that they do in his school, I want to go back to elementary myself.
They go to field trips so often, and then they do things related to that the whole week. They are reading about space and universe and visited the planetarium. The homework was also related to that. They went to a farm, got  vegetables and fruits, learnt to weigh them, and write about their dream farm. They went to watch salmons and draw pictures of it in school, learn about their life cycle. Next week they will learn about different cultures, they will learn about Diwali also! They will also start swimming each week starting next week. I am definitely more excited about his school than he is. I am glad their school sends a lot of pictures, so we parents feel connected to what they do.  I don't know if Milosh will start to look forward to school anytime soon, he has to work quite hard.  But hopefully when he grows up and looks at the pictures of his school, he will say those days were fun!

Milosh's first official homework

The first official homework is here and will keep coming every week from now on. This will require parents' involvement.

The first assignment is to write down where you would go if you could go anywhere in the solar system. Fun part was showing him videos about solar system. Reading books to him was also okay. But getting him to write- that took a lot of running and chasing. He did it over 2 sittings. I got him to say things and wrote them down on a piece of paper for him to copy. Turns out kids start to draw stars and trucks if they have to do anything for more than 5 min! The stars had to be erased for space although they paired well with the moon ;)

While doing the homework, he also declared...

I wish I could be at home all day, and play and take a bath and watch TV... 
I wish there was no homework...
I wish there was no school... 
I wish I didn't have to do elementary so I don't have to write. 
I don't want to be a teenager so I don't have to speak and present.. 
I don't want to grow up and work on computers. 
I wish I could be a kid and play all day....

The Montessori system has definitely made him expressive :) but unlike the way our schools worked, he absolutely does not want to be told what to do. I have heard good talks about how school systems need to evolve.

For now I am glad we didn't wait for the last day to finish the homework. ;)

Milosh's first homework

The first official homework is here and will keep coming every week from now on. This will require parents' involvement.

The first assignment is to write down where you would go if you could go anywhere in the solar system. Fun part was showing him videos about solar system. Reading books to him was also okay. But getting him to write- that took a lot of running and chasing. He did it over 2 sittings. I got him to say things and wrote them down on a piece of paper for him to copy. Turns out kids start to draw stars and trucks if they have to do anything for more than 5 min! The stars had to be erased for space although they paired well with the moon ;)

While doing the homework, he also declared...

I wish I could be at home all day, and play and take a bath and watch TV...
I wish there was no homework...
I wish there was no school...
I wish I didn't have to do elementary so I don't have to write.
I don't want to be a teenager so I don't have to speak and present..
I don't want to grow up and work on computers.
I wish I could be a kid and play all day....

The Montessori system has definitely made him expressive :) but unlike the way our schools worked, he absolutely does not want to be told what to do. I have heard good talks about how school systems need to evolve.

For now I am glad we didn't wait for the last day to finish the homework. ;)

Monday lunch at home

Yesterday Milosh's body felt a little warm to touch right before he went to bed. But he was perfectly fine in the morning. Don't know if it was the Monday blues, or the embracing the beginning of fall season, I relented to his "I don't want to go to school". I did give him an appropriate speech about how the school will not be as bad as he thinks etc but I don't think I was ready for my daily grind either :p
Lo and behold we are having a warm and comfortable day at home. I asked Milosh where he wanted to go for lunch (since I am working); and he insisted on home food and said "pooris". Unlike my reputation, I am not at all against making pooris at home but my mental framework is such that I always forget about pooris. I could not remember the last time I made pooris. So it was a good reminder and I made a super quick lunch that Milosh really liked. Pooris made our comforting Monday even more comforting :)

Sometimes it's nice to break the  rules ;) Now you are a true foodie, I can guess what your next meal is going to be.

Milosh's fabulous summer camp

https://photos.app.goo.gl/v9gLKZkgKihuFw8E3

Summer is over now and everyone is "back to school". The hardest thing for Milosh is to get over his summer camp :) This year's summer camp was a blast!

This year Milosh was old enough to join the elementary kids for summer camp and the fun had no bounds. They had amazing teachers and amazing schedule. They went for tons of field trips - they went to remlinger farms, many parks, they had a field trip of riding scooters, they went and watched Seattle storms game, they went to a water park. They had water play every week in their own school. They had culinary week. He also did a Lego camp at his school. They also got to play some video games.

Their teachers were great about taking pictures and making videos. I am so glad some memories of his summer camp are captured :)
The videos of his camp are a must watch!

Things Milosh did to make my birthday special

1. He started singing Happy birthday and that reminded him of balloons, so he found some and made me blow them. He then bounced them on a paper knife bursting each one of them!
2. He put together a circuit (using a kit he has) which would play the happy birthday song. Only the song was distorted likely because of weak battery and when he was making the circuit I was screaming at him to get dressed up for first day of school. Oops!
3. He told me in the evening that he really wanted to make a card for me but the teacher didn't let him. I can imagine he would have been shy and awkward and his teacher must be managing a new class with new kids to understand. He did write in his journal about his mom's birthday :) I took a picture of it a few days later - it's super touching.
4. When I had told him its my bday tomorrow, he asked where is it? I said there is no party, you and I will go to a concert. He insisted I have a party like everyone he knows has.
5. He blew the candle of my cake, ate most of it ;) and opened the one physical present I got.
6. Finally, he went to the concert with me even though he didn't really like it, even I didn't really like it. He was one of the few kids there. He was more energetic and cheerful than me during the concert.

In short, he was absolutely adorable! And made my day more special without trying too hard :)

Back to school

Milosh starts first grade today :) "back to school" had never meant anything to us, until this year when the school sent a list of supplies they wanted the kids to get.

Instead of getting everything from Amazon, we decided to make an event of it and went to a real store with Vvibha and Rhea to let the kids pick things they needed. When we started looking, I felt like this is a puzzle or a treasure hunt - except that everything was right in front of us! And we still could not find. E.g. 0.9 mm papermate mechanical pencil. "##$$&&??" There were so many varieties of pencils, I had no idea. Then we needed markers, but not permanent ones and I kept finding the permanent ones only. But after some time we got a hang of it. Milosh was super excited to pick everything. He was disappointed when the list got over. He kept coming back and asking "what else". Lol. His choices are nice and simple, I like it. He does not care for too much fanciness.

Lots of thinking went into choosing his school though and also some last week changes. After enrolling him in public school and even getting the teacher allocated, we had a change of mind and decided to continue him in his current school. We are all happy about the decision :) and excited to see how Milosh likes first grade. Among other things he will have weekly swim lessons and bi weekly field trips. This is good since he does not want us to take him to any classes whatsoever. He likes to do his own thing.

But anyway, this reminds me of my childhood days. Starting of the school, new books, notebooks, bags and how we used to cover all the notebooks and write our name on it :)

Milosh is growing up so fast. From our community newsletter, I used to look for classes for infant, baby and mommy classes, then toddler classes, and this time I had to look under "youth"! Our big boy!

Which of these rings do you like more?

Hmm, the ring that Milosh made  vs two rings: one given by daddy as engagement ring and the other given by dada Dadi as a gift because they were so happy being Grand parents.

Tough choice. I had to say it's a tie.

Milosh with a baby

Milosh is so wonderful with younger kids and babies. He is quite a role model for Kanchu who will follow his footsteps any day. With babies he always goes and selects the best and softest toys for them. He constantly plays with them and engages with them.

Today he is having a sleepover with Rhea's baby brother instead of Rhea :) He has just been super cute with him. He got stickers and put a heart sticker on his face, put a little minion stamp on his face, some stickers on his bum. He has been making a ramp for the baby to crawl on. He has been wanting to feed him. We can tell he is so excited to have him around. He is also being very thoughtful in everything. In short he is being amazing, love seeing this side of my baby :)

Mohawks on Skype

Milosh and his daddy showing off their mohawks.

Milosh's take on hindi movies

Milosh was talking about Hindi movies the other day. He has seen enough Hindi movies that his opinion is well formed.
He said there is always a girl friend and a boy friend. And there is a lot of dances. All the boys get in a group and dance; and all the girls get in a group and dance. But the girls get to dance longer.
This last sentence got me laughing like crazy. Today I was in group meditation sit, and suddenly got reminded of this last sentence and I had to work hard to not laugh out loud and disturb others.
The other day we were watching socha na tha. He can't understand all the dynamics, so he thinks even sister in law of the hero was his girlfriend. So he asked me does he have three girlfriends? Anyway, he slept off in a while. Next day he asked me the story.
Another time, we were watching  Bhootnath. There was a melodramatic scene where Amitabh Bacchan is asking his son to stay in India but the son and his wife want to go to USA. Typical cliche scene but Milosh made it hilarious by saying - I vote for USA. Lol!!! This is the opposite of what the  director was  trying to win from the audience. Anyway, I am really happy that he watches the movies and shows that I like with me. I know some kids always want only cartoons etc but he is nice to me. I like his shows too :)

One way road to console gaming

I had been avoiding owning iPads and introducing Milosh to any structured gaming for obvious reasons. This summer in his camp they introduced gaming on PC and he began asking for games at home.
I thought may be now is the right time to let him dip his toes into gaming, did some research and got him the Lego movie video game. I made some rules, have to make them almost every day, because every day is a little different!

I also started to play with him - partly because it is fun and partly so I can help him not get stuck and frustrated and partly so he can share his excitement with me instead of me getting angry at him for playing too long all the time.
So far so good, he is loving it :) and following the rules more or less. He plays well. My skills are pretty close to a six year old's (when I am figuring which direction I am moving, he says, mommy I saved you) but I can read and understand the clues better ;) - so we make a good team! He of course wants to play every chance that he gets. This game, the main character does not really die, different characters have different powers, so sometimes Milosh will play with both the remotes, or if I am playing, then he will exchange remotes to do the most fun part :)
This is definitely a milestone though. I still remember the time when we got video game at home as kids. It was a birthday gift for me but my brother was more excited about it than I was. We were not supposed to open it till my bday and he patiently waited. Then early morning he woke me up - didi, let's go play. It was many hours later that mom and dad woke up and wished me a happy birthday and then my brother was like, oh yeah, happy birthday. Lol. He played much more than I did (Bhai, if you are reading this, I got the queen of Kid Icarus - I will never let you forget no matter how well you play). Gaming has changed a lot since then! It's technically improved but also there are games that focus on cooperation, and strategy and not just killing. In fact Milosh told me he does not like to kill (the Lego skeleton army right now) - which did surprise me somewhat. He says he likes to build. I am quite happy about that and will get him more building focused games rather than destruction focused  ... Of course only as long as he follows the rules. ( I am kidding myself, he is never going to go back from console gaming, hence the title of the blog, not until there is a technology shift so there is something even better to play with or his wife enforces otherwise...)

Weekend trip to Oregon Coast

Milosh and I took a weekend road trip to northern part of Oregon Coast. Pictures of our trip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CT6ZNzEb3goXGEYB3

Here is a summary of what we did:

• Astoria trolley tour which runs by the Columbia River
• Climbed up Astoria column and flew aeroplanes 

• Went back to the hotel and Watched DVDs in the hotel
• Ate a lot of breakfast
• Drove to Ecola state park and walked around looking at some great view points of the Oregon coast

• Went to Indian beach, walked on the sand and water, looked at star fishes and shells, made sand castles and bridges.

• After lunch, we bought a kite, successfully assembled it and flew it :)
• Went to hay stack rock on Cannon beach and played with the dry and soft sand.
• Went back to hotel, and watched DVDs
• Ate a lot of breakfast
• Rented a tandem bike and rode it on Astoria Riverwalk
• Stopped by at the Astoria farmers market 
• Drove back to our "normal" home.

Serious alert mommy

No hiding the fact that I get angry and impatient more often than I should. Milosh often responds to this by saying, but why are you so upset mommy? Sometimes i am more justified than others, and I often apologize to him and ponder why I had to be in a hurry or so anxious.

This time I said okay, why don't you help me be better. So we decided whenever I am being "serious" Milosh will give me a serious alert and the deal is that I have to laugh.

It's working very well. E.g. I was serious about making sure we reached Astoria column in time so he could fly them down. Milosh gave me the serious alert. No need to hurry to have fun. Of course he tries to try his luck asking for more videos and desserts, but I have to respond calmly. Or I get the alert!

(Btw, while writing this blog in a parking lot, waitress caught me and gave me my card back! I was in a hurry to leave and write this blog - talk about slowing down!)

Back to DVDs?

Milosh and I are on a weekend vacation, and we are staying in this place which gives free DVDs to take to the room and watch.

I let Milosh pick one DVD but since our room was a little bit of a walk, I asked him to keep a second one, as a back up. I don't think he understands what back up means, and sure enough he watched both DVDs on the first evening we stayed here. When going to bed I asked him what was the highlight of his day. I was wondering if he will pick the long drive, the trolley ride by the river, or may be flying down a wood aeroplane from Astoria column or at least the fancy ice cream I got him.. And he said (yes you guessed it) watching the DVDs!!

There.was no choice but to repeat this the next night. Fortunately, I could enforce just one DVD. And he complained what's the point of getting the second DVD (he is starting to sound like us)

Today we are checking out, and he said I am not going to wake up the whole day, so we don't have to leave. I said I know I had a fun vacation too. Then I paused and asked, is it because of the DVDs? He said yeah! Grrrrr...

I told him we can watch most of these on Netflix at home. That was not cutting it. So I said or we can DVDs at home also. And he said... Really?! Yay!!

There is something about the tangible thing that he can pick  and hold (he was way faster picking this than on the myriad choices on Netflix) and a guarantee that he gets to finish the whole movie that makes DVDs way more appealing for him. I thought this generation will never care about DVDs and here he is!
Now, can someone remind me why blockbuster went out of business? :)

What makes Milosh cry...

Milosh cries a lot less frequent than most 6 year olds. He probably will not cry if he falls down or gets a minor scrape etc.
Yesterday I found him in tears, he was crying uncontrollably, he could barely explain why he was crying.
Turns out his little ninja could not reach the handles after mounting the bikes!!
After sometime he was able to fix it and his joy had no bounds!!
Milosh and his cute little problems!

Slides and swimming pool fun

Video of fun time in pool today: here
Milosh talked me into doing this with him, saying he saw a grown up do it.

Shivum thinks there are bad guys for real

Milosh came and said - "Mommy, Shivum thinks bad guys are there in real life."
I asked if he meant the spiderman or Ninjago type of bad guys.
He said, no any bad guys.

This is one of those times the innocence of children strikes you and you want to save it pure and precious as long as you can. You wonder whether to tell them what we think is the "truth" and bias them, or letting them figure everything out.

What also struck me is how blessed you are, if your child thinks bad guys are only for movies and shows :)

Here's to never ever finding any bad guys!

You can never guess this

Milosh: guess what word I am thinking of
Me: give me a clue
Milosh: it starts with an a and ends with an s.
(I tried a few words but failed)
Milosh: you can never guess this one. It's "of course"

That's my little boy who has started to notice words new to him and thinks of them.

Three visits to Derby days and our bike ride

I took Milosh for the kids' bike parade in the morning, followed by fun riding times. After many hours of fun in the sun, we rested at home. He went again with Rhea, and then after I picked him he had broken a toy that he badly needed. He even kissed his toy a few times declaring  it's the best toy  he ever had. So we

had to go a third time! Every  muscle of mine was asking for rest! But he won't budge, he calls his toy a wrecking ball. It's an inflatable weapon and it had ripped. The guy at the fare was very kind and let him exchange it. Our efforts in making a third trip paid off! We also got to see amazing fireworks up close.

The only irony is that the replaced wrecking ball ripped again within hours, lol!

We spent the rest of the weekend i.e. Sunday biking around the locks and south lake Union. We did 15+ miles on a tandem bike and he did fantastic! I thought I was stretching his limits, but he asked to go out biking the moment we came home!

My six year old in all his toothless glory

Happiness is ..wearing Seahawks gear

Milosh got new shoes and new clothes on Friday, thanks to his daddy. These are not ordinary clothes, they are Seahawks branded clothes, the one brand that is allowed in their school and one brand that every one in this area recognizes.

Milosh is so excited about his clothes, he put them on and started dancing and running. Kept looking at the mirror. He said if only I had a helmet I would be a real Seahawks player :)

Entire weekend he wore these clothes, chances are he will wear it for few more days and nights. Food, dirt, sweat can do no harm to a true Seahawks player ;)

Milosh starts to earn money

The tooth fairy gave Milosh a dollar. He was skeptical though, he asked me multiple times if I had kept the money (his friend had seen his mom put a dollar) and if I was lying about it. But he was very happy to receive the money. He has put it in a safe place and was excited about the idea of having his own money. He kept looking at it and deciding if he should keep it folded or not, at what angle he should keep it etc etc.

I have further offered him 2$ for organizing his books and  a quarter for getting off the car and going to the library to drop off his books.
He has gotten it clarified if he gets money for being good and well behaved. I clarified - no, only for chores. For not being good, there will be other consequences. Then he asked me what consequence means. As I was explaining, he said he will ask his teacher tomorrow.

Last time he helped decide a consequence himself and agreed that it was fair.

In other related news, we came to another agreement for more harmony at home. Milosh rewards me with a sticker before going to bed if I haven't shouted at him the whole day. Earlier he was trying to fudge it and threatened to not give me a sticker if I did not give him extra tv time. But I told him sticker is only for not shouting, nothing else. I love it when he gives me options of stickers. For now this arrangement is working :)

Milosh lost his first tooth today

We were biking on the trail and he lost his tooth. First the blood and the change made him overwhelmed but he was okay soon after.

Winner of the guessing contest is Naani/ Naana.
Their guess was Sunday (I hope they meant this Sunday and not the next)
Dadi's guess was Thursday, the day dad is coming back home. Tayaji's guess was Tuesday. Mami's guess was 25th.

Anyway, ideas on what the tooth fairy should do?

Morals of stories that Milosh made up to put daddy to bed

1.  U should tell someone if you are going to eat them before you eat them . 

2. U should not eat somebody when you just threw up. 

3. Before you go buying food you should check if you have that food. 

Sent from my mobile phone. Please excuse the brevity, spelling and punctuation.

Guessing game for my blog viewers: when will Milosh lose his first milk tooth

Milosh is about to loose his first tooth. It's wiggly and getting wigglier by the day.

All the family has to guess which date he is going to loose his first tooth. The one who gets the closest date will be the winner! And will have a chance to be famous on this blog ;) and may be get to tell him the tooth fairy story.

Milosh's graduation

Lovely ceremony where kids came in a line holding flowers, got themselves seated. After the intro, they recited the poem Great Expectations. Each graduating kid crossed the bridge and lit up a candle (all candles made a heart). They finally sang a song and the ceremony was done.

Milosh had been worried about how he would look in the gown and the hat. I had told him there is nothing you can do to not look great. He was still worried about it :) Right after the ceremony he took it off and I had a hard time getting him to take pics. 

What a milestone though!! As planned, Milosh has spent 3 years in living Montessori Academy. The criteria to get into the school was being potty trained :) and look how far they have come. He and all his Montessori friends were so adorable! 

Why do the moon and sun follow us?

Mom: may be because they like us?
Milosh: or may be because they are going in the same direction as us.

Both the q and ans are so sweet :)

Milosh learnt balancing a bike

On memorial day weekend 2017, Milosh started riding his orange bike without training wheels!! Big milestone!

He just hopped on the bike and started riding like he always knew how to ride. I was expecting to stand next to him and run around, prepare him for some falls. And he just rode :).

The very next day I took him to the trail. He had fun putting sticks and fern leaves in his helmet and got the comments from people - best helmet ever! The trail was friendly, even though there were fast bikers.

Milosh's first camping trip

I have not been blogging for a long time. Not sure if I will be able to backfill, but never too late to start again :)

Milosh had his first camping trip this weekend. He loved it and did awesome. He enjoyed hiking, climbing up walls, sleeping in a tent, eating s'mores, collecting shells, stones and sticks and sitting in a campfire. It helped that he was not forced to shower or  brush. We went to Larrabee State Park, which is Washington's first state park, near Bellingham.