Hello from the 2.5 year olds! :)

Hello there... Has it really been over 6 months?  As cliche as it may sound, time has flown by... and I have not had much motivation to write!

I have enjoyed being home with the twins, but I feel the urge to step out and get active part time.    In an attempt to re-discover myself, I have taken upon myself to loose some weight.  I have lost approximately 17 lbs in 5 months, which is no where close to my pre-pregnancy weight... but better late than never!  I was brisk walking 2-3 miles at least 3-5 times a week... the weather has been a damper (excuses ;)).  I need to get our treadmill working so I can start doing my routine indoors.  I am also eating a lot of salads and less/low carbs... which has helped a lot!

Few of our highlights...
-RT is completely potty trained (we still have night diaper on though); RM is done with pee-pee, but holds his poop till he has woken up in the morning or after a nap, and goes in his diaper/pull ups; We do not wear any pull ups or diapers when we are going out!
-We have two bilingual chatter boxes here.  They can easily switch between English and our native tongue.
-We still sleep in our cribs.  Ever since RT took a dive on to the floor just after they turned 2, they haven't really tried hoping across the railing.  I am hoping we can get over naps and do the transitions!  In which case I wouldn't have two bouncy kids running around their rooms multiples times in a day.  I am sure I am speaking too soon! :)
-We still do a 1-3 hour nap.  Though, we can very well skip a nap... but that usually leads to tired and fussy evenings.
-We are still going to the Y for their enrichment programs... 2-3 times a week.  We will most likely continue with this till they turn 3.  I feel like they are getting the social/educational exposure that they need at home and outside... and we can wait a little before starting school.
-RT finally switched over to straw sippy at 2 years (our third attempt).
-We have done a lot of fun stuff (fairs, zoo, museum, beaches, mountains, farmers markets, amusement park, weekend trips) this summer... things they remember and appreciate.  Whave finally reached a stage where we can spend time away from home and not have to worry about night time sleep.

With Sandy approaching... everyone stay safe!

Wash Your Hands, Daddy - LOL

Some tit-bits of our speaking toddler'ism

Lol... Daddy was cleaning the vacuum cleaner, and RT thought it was disgusting. She repeatedly went - "Yucky, wash your hands Daddy!"

RM gets in to the bath tub, and goes "Beach". Its been for ever since we have taken them to a beach. I was surprised that he could relate to the fact that there is a big puddle of water in the "ocean", and there is the same stuff here in the "tub".

We are on to our 3rd attempt to transition RT to straw sippy for milk. RM has been taking milk from sippy for the last 6 months now! He can very well drink straight out of the glass too! It's been a week, and things are not going well here! She is drinking may be 2-3 oz milk every few days. I am ending up giving her around 1.5 to 2 serving of yogurt a day. Homemade made milkshakes, flavored milk, cheese are also almost a no go. She is such a tough cookie. But amidst all this... we have managed to give up our after dinner/before bed milk. I had imagined that would be difficult. RM was already not wanting to drink before bedtime. And RT could care less with her transition. So we just stopped!

Soul Searching

The other day I went grocery shopping, alone... since my Mom was home with the kids! After I checked out, there was a really old man walking inch by inch... holding up a huge row of people behind him at the narrow exit of the grocery store. It took everybody a long time to get out of there. I wanted to help, but I was way behind him, and momentarily felt rushed as well... because it was nearing kids lunch time. The old man finally stepped out of the grocery store, and everybody rushed out after him. I rushed to my car, quickly drove to the bank ATM, and then zoomed by. The old man, was still inching towards his car. One man offered to help, but the old man either denied or probably gave a convincing reason for the guy to not help him!


I felt very guilty! I should have offered to help him! I was not juggling my twins!


Besides the guilt of not helping, because I was so preoccupied with things to do, it just hit me that one day I might (will) be in that stage. It will be nice to have family around to help me out, but who knows what situation they/I will be in and will there really be some one to look out for me?


It was easy to go in to the self pity mode when we were struggling with fertility, it is easy to be disappointed now with some one when they don't behave the way you expect them to, or be annoyed when some one plays politics with you. But when you are at that age... when every moment of your life is a struggle... who do you blame? Would you expect empathy from the person across from you?


It just humbled me. Life is not easy, and no matter how blessed I feel, I do get flustered and worked up with the terrible twos. Its a phase, and I will miss that too. In general I am stressed with things that are going on around me, but where does all this fall in my life when I actually look back at it may be 30 years from now?

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my twin Cup Cakes!! :)

24 months Update!

Our little babies have transformed in to these toddlers who like to go run down the slope with older kids, climb up a huge play set in our tot-lot, and mimic anything we say or do.

My bedrest (the whole of third trimester), just seems like a fleeting past. And the IF journey which has brought us to this stage a distant memory. I can still empathize with an IF, and wouldn't think of myself anything other than an IF... but the aches and pains are overshadowed by the beautiful smiles and heart warming calls for Mamma and Dadda! It's been almost 3 years since I have been home, and I have loved every minute of it without a doubt of why I left my job!

Between their first birthday and 18 months, there seemed to be a huge transformation... they left behind their babyhood in that span! But they have become big people in true sense, since their 18 month birthday!

-We back seat drive already (stop, slow, careful, oops)!

-We can identify our community/house, costco (from three different roads), some other landmarks that we usually pass while driving around.

-We can identify, red, blue, green, pink, purple colors. Blue is RM's favorite, and RT shows preference to green.

-We pretend play with doll house, house, have music sessions, love making food in our kitchen, race car arounds, play basketball.

-We perfectly arrange our shoes in a line on our own.

-We will not leave the bathroom without shutting off the lights on our own.

-We will get you your towel after you shower (lol - if they get to come in while I am showering).

-We can pretty much name all our friends.

-For almost a week, they knew that their birthday was coming up! And there were going to be cake, candles, food, friends, balloons!

-We are almost in to 3T clothes, 2T/24 months are mostly too small. I am missing all those cute-cute baby clothes! Diaper still size 6. Going to have to upgrade their shoes to 8 and 9 for RT and RM respectively.

-We are going through phases of being a picky eater.

-Potty training hasn't really commenced. They can pee on demand when they are getting ready for their bath, but poo-poo signs are not very concrete... so we haven't gone all out.

-Grandma is here... she headed our way especially for their birthday! A lot of pampering and attention is on the cards for the next several weeks!

We had a celebration with friends at the local Y with friends and family on March 24th... and a small celebration at hone on their actual birthday March 26th.

Blessed!

I just realized, that pretty much most Mommies I had started following when our Journey began... are Blessed! By a child or two, who is their own... after all the struggle, heartaches and tears! For some it took longer, for some it was several losses in between, for some it was adoption, but most of my bloggers are mommies today.

If you are not yet blessed, you will be! Life is not easy, but it rewards you for your perseverance!

*Birthday* Plans

Oh its winter, and all the festive season is over. So, what is a Mommy to do!? Start thinking about a birthday party!

Yes, that is what has happened! We will be turning two, in 2 short months. It won't be a super big celebration, but we will be going to a small party place, since it is just too crammed with 10-15 kiddies running around (along with their parents) in our little house!

So far, I have tried to keep the duo away from as much commercialized stuff as possible. Their diapers, clothes, sippy cups, bags... none of it has any characters on it! But, these animated characters have made a grand entry in to our household through the limited TV that they watch. And Emo (E.l.m.o) is our favorite (besides Th.omas). And, I just can't think of anything else for their birthday other than Se.asa.me Str.eet! They adore Emo... and are so happy and enchanted when they see him. I can't imagine what else would make them so excited - other than to see Emo balloons, Emo happy (cake), Emo decor. So, most likely, the theme is going to be a no brainer this time! :)

Has anybody celebrated or attended a birthday party at YMCA? How has your experience been at the Y?

Potty Question Mark!

PAATTY- That's what POTTY is called in our household. Where does Mommy and Daddy Poo-poo/pee-pee... and the answer goes Patty! Hehe....

The duo is starting to show interest in the potty a lot now a days. We have had a potty in the house for almost 9 months now, but never used it... but now a days they like to go sit on it (RM with his pants down, RT could care less), and then they also want to wash their hands. All this made me go buy Elmo Potty DVD!

RM tries to strain a little bit when he sits on the potty, as if trying to go... but we haven't really had any trinkle in the potty. But its a start. I am in no rush, I "might" give it a shot in spring/summer. I am hoping to have some company then and plus it won't be as cold to leave naked kids running around.

Now for all you folks who have been there done that:

-I am thinking of using the potty seat (on regular toilet bowl) than the kiddie potty at home. Is that just less work, because you have one (or two) less things to clean?

-If you are using the potty seat, there is no way twins can be sitting there at the same time... how do you handle it when one is on and one is not (but wanting to get on the seat right then and there)!

-How have you handled the situation when one was more ready to be trained than the other? Did you just wait?

Any other tips/advice will be greatly appreciated!

23 months

23 months and 1 week, really!!

This is a recap of the last two months - this post was started in January (yes, I have really been lazy with updating here)! To me they seem like little big people, and it is unrealistic to note down each small thing they do. As much as I would love to keep a record every month of their progress, I am not sure how I am going to address this in the upcoming months. It is bitter sweet, this blog started with my fertility journey - it was my life line, and today they are almost two, and I don't know where this blog is headed. I don't want to shut it down, neither do I want to neglect it... this is my baby too!! Only time will tell!

Here are the highlights:

-They can repeat pretty much any word we say, and communicate with all sorts of words and mini sentences in 2 different languages.

-The call out each other with names. They know their names, last name, Mommy & Daddy's names, street address!

-They can both identify up to 20 and pretty much say A through Z, along with some nursery rhymes.

-RT by herself has started identifying the letters that go with words. Like she will say herself Monkey.... M... and I have never purposefully prompted this to her!

-They both climb and sit on to their high chairs. RM has hopped in to RT's crib after getting up from a nap once. They are trying to climb in to their cribs from outside. Our days of them jumping out of the crib are near. I don't think I am ready for yet another transition and the sleep battle that may arise with it. I think we do have the railings for the crib to toddler bed conversion in the garage. Its stay in the garage may be numbered!

-The other day, during one of our cold/cough days, RT threw up... we had to change her and her sheets, I asked her if she wanted to sleep with us and she said yes. And yes, she did co-sleep with us without any problem. She was asleep in a few minutes without any wake ups. Though, she did get up a little earlier than usual. Just gives me some hope that we might be able to go out this summer for overnight trips without major sleep issues.

-RT sits with her baby doll and reads her stories. Her favorite thing to tell her doll is "Goo (Good) Job Baby".

-RT loves helping Mommy put groceries away.

-To them "Costco" equals "Grocery". Since Costco has the mega carts (side by side seating), that is our hot favorite place to go get stuff! So for their little minds, every item is picked up from Costco. If they are pretend playing that they are going out... they will tell me that they are going to Costco and start with a list of items (eggs, bread, broccoli (bocoli), beans, tomano (tomato)), Cheerios, chicken, fish etc) they are getting. Pizza (Pisha as they say it) tops the list.

-We went to a bounce house twice in the last 2 months. RM had such an awesome (aawshum

as per RM) time. He climbed up super big slides and came down it without any fear. RT had fun too, but she was a little hesitant and reluctant to go explore a few of the things out there.

-We did Gymboree in January... I basically had a groupon deal, where I got fee initiation and then super cheap 1 month class deal. The kids loved it. We will be starting gymtime at the local Y as well this month. We are thinking of getting them in to some sort of school environment this summer.

-It's crazy how much both of them have picked up. Like, we no longer have to tell them - oh look its raining! They will identify it and tell us even before we realize it! Even though we haven't really had much snow (besides the freak storm in October and some snow fall in February), they love seeing it on TV or in books.

-The other day they were roaming around the house holding each others hands, and RT was holding a baby doll as well! That is the cutest thing ever! They were waving us bye-bye! :) There is a lot of pretend play. They even act out our bed time rituals with their dolls - step by step! And, there is a lot of love too - kissing, hugging, helping out, consoling... at the same time some terrible two's as well!

-We saw our first movie in the theatre today - The Lorax. And I was pretty impressed how well they handled it. There was no stepping out in the middle of the movie because of an uncontrollable tantrum or meltdown. They were a little scared during some parts of the movie (where its dark and has creepy (to their ears) music), but otherwise they enjoyed it. They had their own interpretation... as in Lorax was a Monkey, and the fishes were Dorothy (thanks to Elmo)... besides that they had appropriate reactions of "Oh noooo" or "oh ooh" or clapping, or dancing to music etc!

-We have had another failed attempt of sippy cup transition for RT. RM has been on straw sippy for almost 5 months now! But RT... she is giving me nightmares about potty training, just looking at how difficult she is in transitioning to sippy and how fussy she is at eating her food.

-I ordered their Elmo birthday dresses from Etsy! I have a cake design in mind. The rest I still need to plan out. We have been so very busy off late, that I have been exhausted. We have been out and about every weekend doing some kiddo activity or the other... weekdays have been busy too!

-We go in for their 24 months appointment on April 13th, and RM's yearly follow up appointment with the neurogeneticist is May 4th.

-We are 3 weeks away from their 2nd birthday! The party is going to be on March 24th! :)