Krish Loves Math!

There have been lots of new academic updates with Krish in the past few months that I haven't been able to blog about yet, but something he picked up just recently is an interest in learning multiplication! He is actually an avid fan of math just like his Daddy, and his love for it sprang from his love for basketball!  He began to show more interest in large number addition problems in parallel to his--what I can only call--obsession with playing basketball and keeping score!  That's when we noticed how fast he was at counting by twos and threes to keep his and his opponents' scores. Since he'd been watching the college basketball championship games back in March, we noticed how quickly he figured out the difference in scores, as well, to figure out which teams were winning and by how much.  This rapidly lead to doing three-digit addition problems in his head at a pretty fast pace.  Addition problems that involve carrying over digits are still a challenge, but a problem such as 342 + 524 are a breeze! (video to come).  Seeing him do this kind of complicated math in his head at such a young age is truly impressive to us!  What's more important is seeing him take an interest all on his own.  For instance, reading requires some extra encouragement at times, but he is ready to do math any time!

So just a few days ago, he came across a multiplication workbook among his workbooks and started asking me questions about it.  I asked him if he was ready to learn multiplication (I was waiting to teach him because I didn't want him to get confused with addition and subtraction), and he was extremely enthusiastic!  I loved it!  He opened the workbook and decided to randomly start with the 8's column.  I got distracted with Arjun for a second and before I could even explain anything to him, he had already written in the answers for 8x0 (0), 8x1 (8), and 8x2 (16)!  I was shocked!  I texted Neil to ask him if he had ever explained multiplication to Krish before, and he hadn't.  I don't know where he picked it up from, but he figured it out all by himself with very little explanation from me!  He's such a math wizard!  I worry and feel like it's only a matter of time before he will be outsmarting me in math!  With Daddy, I'm not so sure.  They may battle it out for a while!

Multiplication 

Multiplication by 5s

Arjun Loves Learning the Alphabet!

As Arjun is getting older (he turned 18 months this month on the 18th), he is developing quite an interest in learning new things!  He knows many new words, including, "hi", "bye", "ya" when he agrees with you, "Mummy", "Daddy", "again", "come", "come out"(phrase), "ah-nunn" for all done, "shoes" (which he pronounces "choose"), "ah-choo" for choo-choo train, "cracker", "yummy" and he smacks his lips when he finds something tasty (typically sweet food like a cookie or sweet yogurt), "baby", "cat", "meow", "teddy" for teddy bear, "hot"as he holds his hand above a hot dish/bowl with food and proceeds to blow on it, "Ba", "Nani", "Tana" for Tanya, and many more I'm sure.

What's more impressive is that he knows words to songs because he loves singing so much!  For instance, he can sing and enunciate most of the words to "Happy Birthday"  and his current favorite, the "ABCs"!  Arjun is not one for hand gestures so teaching him baby sign language proved to be quite a challenge.  Thus, relying on the words he knows and uses to communicate is very important.  Plus teaching him how to say new words is so much fun!

One of his favorite books right now is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (a favorite of Krish's as well), and that story inspired him to learn the alphabet!  He loves pointing at the letters on the last page of the book with Daddy or me and saying the letter names!  He is actually beginning to recognize some letters such as "A", "B", "C", "O", "P", "Q" and "V" and points to them somewhat consistently!  He does make a mistake every now and then, but it truly is impressive.

We can't believe how eager he is to learn and enjoy every opportunity we get to teach him.  Because of this high interest and love to learn the alphabet he has shown in the past week, we just recently took out the easel for him to practice recognizing various letters.  Even Krish gets excited when he hears Arjun say a new letter for the first time when they are playing together in the Play Room.  "Mommy", Krish will yell running to me, "Arjun just said a new letter!  He said 'B'!" He is such a smart little boy, and Daddy, Krish Bhai and I couldn't be prouder of him and his enthusiasm to learn!

Mommy's Birthday Weekend April 25-27!

This year I turned 31 on April 25th, and while I'm feeling older, I had a wonderful, youthful experience on my birthday weekend with my amazing family!  On Friday night, Neil planned a surprise dinner with our Carrollton group friends at a nice Italian restaurant in Dallas called Zio Cecio.

My mom came into town to visit, so on Saturday we took the kids to a new place we found on Groupon called Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch about 45 miles away in Pilot Point, TX.  This was the first time we were taking the kids to an animal park after a long time.  The boys are not that into animals (except Arjun really likes dogs and all things fuzzy) so we avoid those places in general.  However, the safari tram ride sounded like it would be fun, and we were looking for something different to do.  The animal encounters were mildly interesting to the boys, but they really loved the huge playground the ranch had on site!  It had the longest swings I have ever seen, and the boys, and adults, loved every second on them!

Meeting a baby camel!

Family tram ride!

Feeding the camels on the tram ride.

Krish on the merry-go-round!

Daddy and Arjun on the swing!

He loves swing time!

Everybody enjoying the swings!

Look at how long they are!

Loving every moment on the long swing!

Brothers playing with the goats at the petting zoo.

Arjun and Nani!

Krish enjoying a snow cone at the end of a hot day!

One of my favorite hobbies is baking!  The other one is arts and crafts.  Thank you to my mom and Neil for facilitating some baking time for me on Saturday while Arjun napped.  My favorite dessert to make is chocolate chip cookies, and the only way I enjoy baking nowadays is if my boys are in the kitchen baking with me!

Krish loves baking with Momma!

Yummy, warm, delicious, straight-out-of-the-oven,
chewy chocolate chip cookies!  Only that much yummier
because they were made by my special, sweet baker, Krish!

Thank you to Mom and Dad for the beautiful
and delicious Edible Arrangements  fruit bouquet!

On Sunday, my sweet husband planned another surprise meal for me (you can see what a foodie I've become!):  the most amazing brunch in Dallas, The Four Seasons, Cafe on the Green!  It was the most amazing food I have ever had, and I'm truly thankful to my hubby for being so sweet and thoughtful!  The whole family enjoyed a wonderful Sunday brunch together although we definitely missed Mom and Dad.  Other than that, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend with my family!

Family brunch!

Yummy dessert plate!

In the golf cart at the Four Seasons

In front of the beautiful Four Seasons pool!

Arjun's Gymnastics Class!

For the past month, Arjun and I have been attending a Mommy-and-me gymnastics class together, and we've been having so much fun!  Since Gymboree was pretty far from our house, this was a great, close-by alternative.  Arjun is by far the youngest in the class, as it ranges from 1-3 years, but he is keeping up as much as his physical developments will allow and is learning quite a bit!  The most important part is that he's having a great time doing it!  He likes his Coach, Ms. Natalie, and so far has been learning gymnastics techniques such as a tuck, pike, straddle, forward roll, log roll, balance beam walk, mini cartwheel, backbend, and backwards flip!  He obviously can't do much of this without complete help from his coach and momma, but he sure enjoys the class environment and learning new things from a teacher and other children!

Krish's Video

As I was finally cleaning off all the wonderful pictures and videos I have of the kids that I just couldn't part with on my phone, I came across this cute video Krish took one typical weekday morning at home.  He definitely loves the iPhone, and this particular, little clip showcases his sweet, cheerful personality!