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! :)

21 Months!!

Happy New Year everyone!

We are already 21 months and 9 days old. The biggest part of this month has been how much their communication has improved.

-Both RT and RM are speaking up to 4 word sentences... Favorite of RT is "Happy to you Emo" (Happy Birthday to you, Elmo).

-They have two friends whose names (say - xyz) are similar (just one letter different), so if you ask them who is their friend or which friend they are meeting up with... their answer will always be xyz!

-They distinctly understand the difference between hot and cold, and will tell you if/when an item/object is hot/cold.

-They have been trying to sing their nursery rhymes by picking up on few random words in the song.

-We count 1 through 10 and A through Z... of course we skip a few numbers and letters, but we still make a good attempt at it. RT is obsessed with letters and numbers. She will read labels, she will count your hair strands, will count along with the minutes/seconds on a digital clock... she just loves any text!

-They both mimic my dads laughter and are proud about their mimicry.

-RM is obsessed with Choo Choo Trains, he has even stopped his meal once to go see Thomas on PBS one afternoon.

-RM tries real hard to whistle (blows air)

-RM will mischievously try to irritate RT by laying on her, or pulling pranks on her when she is least interested in reciprocating back... which leaves RT fussy and RM gets a kick out of it!

-Our kids are bilingual, and they mostly understand words and directions in both languages (english being one of them). Sometimes they will say both words when they are telling us

And, my husband just found my first gray hair today - I am getting old!! :O

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to every one! :)

I can't believe it is almost end of this year... and I have turned in to such a slacker on this blog. Couple of things have been happening. One - kids are taking turns getting sick for the last 2 months, two - its holiday time and we have had family visiting off and on, and three - I started another blog. Its to do with fun kiddie stuff.

21 month update will be next!

20 months!!

We are 20 months old as of November 26th!

This past month has just zoomed by! Right after recovering from the viral that made us cancel our trips late last month (October), we were hit by another one... which whacked up 2 more weeks! RM had to take antibiotics because the doctor suspected lung infection (since his coughing actually worsened (terribly) after a week). Then one week passed by alright, and RT is now down with fever for the last 3 days! This post has been sitting in my blogger for over a week now and it might just be a mumble jumble, but I am just going to post it!

-RT can identify and call out 8 numbers out of the first 10 numbers (she is confused about 1 and 7). She even kind of knows which number comes after which. She can identify and verbalize 24 off the 26 alphabets. She loves, loves, loves books and will keep asking "what" a million times. It will tire you out, but it has been totally worth it (looking at how much she has grasped). RM is attempting to pick on numbers and letters as well.

-They can identify: circle, square, triangle, heart, star, diamond, crescent shapes. They are starting to relate to colors, but aren't really able to identify them yet. RM can identify orange.

-RM loves to be held like a baby. Especially, with the viral... all he wanted to do was hop in to my lap and demand baby-baby, to which I held him close to my heart and rocked him. Just so precious! RT is not too fond of baby-baby... but oh my... she is a big smoocher! ;) She will randomly come and smacks her lips to yours and give you the sweetest kiss ever - over and over again! She generally likes to sit on your lap and read books, or play with her doll.

-Just after I posted last time that they still don't call out to each other, they actually started referring to each other by E (for RM) and V (for RT)... they are just letters which kind of go with their names. It's funny, they will actually kind of call out to each other with it.

-RM is starting to make 2 letter sentences, and sometimes randomly says copied jumbled up sentences!

-They are starting to call and identify some of their friends with names.

-RM can spin... and spin he does! If he spins a disk, it can very well take 5-6 (proper) rounds. He even twists his wrist in opposite direction to get a momentum! His kicks and throws (ball) are phenomenal!

-RM loves to hug his sister and caress her. And RT loves to get pampered! They look so cute when they do that!

-Both of them have been helping us clean up (their toys) before bathing/bedtime... but recently RM has been doing it unprompted... he even perfectly stacks up all the books. They both exactly know where each item goes in the room!

-They have moved on to size 6 diapers for day and night!

We have just been hit by one illness after another (every 2 weeks or so)... I am so exhausted, and I am sure the kids aren't very pleased with all this either! I can't wait for it to be spring already!

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! We roasted a chicken for Thanksgiving this time... and the kids loved it!

I can't believe that in 4 short months, they will be turning 2 years old! Where has time gone?

19 months!

Happy 19 months (@ Oct 26th) my little ducklings!!

We are big people who like to hold conversations! The highlight of this month is how much they are talking!

-RT has spoken on the phone with my parents for as long as 8 minutes! Answering questions in one word, saying words when prompted... with lots of gibberish along with it (of course)!

-At one time when RT was crying... RM went ahead and kept asking her "what" (as in what happened), caressing her, kissing her (trying to pacify her)... this went on for a minute or so.

-They are identifying food objects and demanding more of it verbally. Their hot favorite is "kak-kak" - that's how chicken goes!

-Peek-a-boo is called as "PeePaa" by RM. It is the cutest thing! :) He is a big copy cat, and will imitate and repeat random stuff after you!

-RT is a very observant little girl... she knows exactly where the laundry goes (after changing their PJs in the morning); she will grab our diaper bag when we are heading out; she knows what clothes are her own and which ones are her brothers. Once while waiting at the doctor's office, I was showing her a very densely filled cartoon sketch, and she could identify a small fish, dog and bird amongst all the cluster literally with in a fraction of a second!

-Body parts they can identify and pretty much say out loud are: elbows, shoulders, knees, fingers, tongue; besides the heart, head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, chin, cheeks, belly, belly button, hand, legs, buttocks, peepee! They can co-relate and identify most of these body parts on other animals and other creatures as well. RM tries to show a tail (pronounced as "Tae") on his rear! :)

-They can identify and try to pronounce (call out) or at least try to make sounds of: tiger, lion, monkey, giraffe, zebra, elephant, kangaroo, monkey, dog, cat, sheep, lamb, rabbit, cow, horse, fish, duck, turtle, frog, chicken ant, bee, owl, eagle, penguin, ostrich, butterfly... and I am sure I am missing out on some.

-They can also identify (shapes) star, circle, triangle and square. They love to gaze at stars and moon in the sky and can identify them in the books!

-"Happy" (Happy birthday to you...) is one of their favorite songs, so we celebrate birthdays several times in a day. "Whee" (Wheels on the bus...) is the other favorite song which gets repeated several times as well.

-They still don't call out to each other. Their names are not the easiest, and they start with "R" which is not always the easiest letter to pronounce.

-Stairs are climbed like big people (by holding on to the side railings). They hop on to couches as if we were born doing that. Jumping has been mastered long back. We are constantly attempting somersaults. RM loves to climb up on things and jump off it.

-After strictly following the guidelines of not putting anything in the cribs, for like ever... we introduced these cute little teddy bears (in preparation for the vacation).

-For the most part both are announcing their poopoo (mostly after the act, and some times before)!

-We have watched a LOT of tv in the last week. With our viral infection, there was no other way I could keep things sane (for the kids and us). We are in love with EMO (that's how we call Elmo).

-With the high fever and all the after effects for RM, things were pretty out of control. RT started getting insecure because we had to pay more attention to RM, on top of it RT started showing some signs of the viral. Plus we lost our sippy - RT is back to bottles! :( The one and only sippy that worked for RT, broke! And we had the virus going around. With RT being an animated and sensitive eater, and Mommy-Daddy loosing our wits over the craziness going around the house (tears, doctor, 106 F fever, tears, poopoo, medications, puke, tears, ?vacation?...), and with no help (our extended families don't live close by), and most people we could possibly seek help from have small kids - so introducing the virus to them was out of question... ...Dr. Brown is back in action! Sigh! I am going to give her some time, hopefully I can start reasoning with her and can get her over her dislike for the milk sippy.

Vacation... Vacation...

I am a planner, I love planning parties, vacations... if becoming a "planner" was a little less stressful and a little more thankful job or at least a fancy paying job, I would be a professional planner. Enough of my BS.

So, we planned a *fantabulous* vacation!!! Three months in advance!! Found an awesome deal at a resort on the beach! Packed our bags a week in advance (you see - planning?) with most of the basic stuff so that I wasn't running like a maniac just before the vacation. I even went paranoid about exposing the kids to potentially snotty kids (trying to avoid last minute sickness). And then - bam! RM and I were down with a fever last Tuesday (18th). I was fine in a day, but RM's fever continued for 3 days and it went as high as 106 F. It was a viral infection (possibly Roseola), which also lead to a rash, puking and diarrhea! RT was affected by puking and diarrhea (and I am hoping we don't see the fever and rash at all for her). So we cancelled!! And we are home! And I am happy that the kids seem to be recovering! Vacations can happen some time later!!