Diwali

Went to Reshma's Diwali party last night. Girls did really well! We were there for almost 2.5 hours and they were fine, didn't cry at all. Reshma had all the old toys out and Quinn and Benjamin were entertaining them. They loved Reshma's new puppy. Vennela was too excited to see the puppy, she climbed on top of the puppy's cage. We escaped with only two minor incidents, Vennela climbing on the cage and Shruthi pulling down the whole try of roti;). This was a much better Diwali party than last year.

The cycle has begun, now Swapna has the cold and I think I'm getting the cold too;)

Bubble Baby

Winter came early to us, temps only in the 40s for the next 4 days;) We took the girls out this evening, to the Chipotle that opened today in the neighborhood, awesome! And ofcourse Swapna had to dress them in Winter clothes, Vennela got the big blue jacket; she looked like a big bubble baby:) I don't think she liked the jacket, she wouldn't move.

They are understanding things now, Swapna trained them well - now they go to the closet and pick up their shoes, put them back in the closet and go upstairs when we say go upstairs. I don't think this 'do what your parents say' thing will last too long.

Both kids have severe cold. Hopefully they will sleep better tonight. Our trip to Staunton this weekend is off - both of them have a cold and it's supposed to snow in Staunton this weekend;) May be next year.

Vennela is getting to be a real rowdy - she completely bosses over Shruthi. This evening, Shruthi was sitting in my lap and I was reading her a book. I guess Vennela wanted that book, she came over grabbed the book and just walked away. If she wants something, she just grabs it from Shruthi. Shruthi does it sometimes too, but not like Vennela, who behaves as if she owns everything.

Good Night Gorilla

Our girls love their books! Shruthi knows all the book names. You just tell her a book name, she brings it over and flops down in my lap. Their new favorite is 'Good Night Gorilla'. I've read it 7 times on Mon and they were still not done with it. We stopped at 7 times only because I hid the book;) That's what we are doing now, after reading 'good night gorilla' a few times, we just hide it. If not we would be reading that book the whole day;)

Vennela still has a black eye, must have been two weeks since she ran into the table. And Shruthi fell face down in our driveway and has scrapes on her nose and face to prove it;)

First road trip

We did our first road trip this past weekend, went to Rehoboth Beach, DE. It was fun, girls liked it. It was about a 3 hour drive, they did fine for all the 3 hours in the car. We just forgot to note down the name and address of the hotel;) I had to call a friend and find out which hotel are staying at. This was a perfect time to be at the beach, no big crowds, and the weather was nice, not too warm and not too cold. We were worried that they won't sleep in the hotel room, but they slept fine in the playpens. The first day, they had a blast on the beach. They both loved the waves, kept running in to the water. It was hard holding on to both of them, they weren't scared of the water at all. They loved the sand slipping from under their feet, with each wave. It was hard keeping them in the room, whenever we opened the door, they just ran out the door;) All the playing in the water must have tired them out, they slept till 7am the next morning. Vennela was too tired from all the playing in the water, she didn't even want to go in the water on Sun. She just kept walking back to the stroller, as if to say, I'm done, let's get out of here.We stopped by Roy''s on the way back, a nicer place to change diapers than the back of a van, in a gas station;) All of us went to an Eastern store instituion, Holly's for lunch. Girls were happy to be back home, they must have missed home, went straight to their room and started playing with their toys. I guess it's not that bad traveling with kids, we just have to be prepared and go with the flow...

Started taking them walks early in the morning. It's quiet nice in the mornings, a little chill in the air and all the birds out making noises. Both babies love watching the birds. We usually do a 30 min loop, give Swapna a quiet morning.

We left both of them with Robyn & Scott this afternoon, for 1.5 hours, while we packed. The first time for them to be away from us. Robyn said they were fine, didn't cause any trouble, except for Vennela, who went into Farful, the puppy's cage. But as soon as we went to pick them up, Vennela threw a bigger temper tantrum, screaming, hitting her head on the floor, the whole package.

Both of them are walking really well now. Vennela loves her walker, walks all over the home with it, doesn't let poor Shruthi any where near the walker.

The biggest trouble we have now is changing their diapers. It started about a week ago. Now we need two people to change their diapers;)

In their developmental checkup, the doc said that they are doing well in every category except for their speech, she says they are at the level of 11 month olds. I guess the babies too it personally, for the past few days, they won't stop talking, blabbering away non-stop.

update

Too much stuff going on. Two more weeks before the big move, in exactly two weeks, we will be in our new home, surrounded by boxes, trying to figure out where all the stuff is and where the babies are, we are having a hard enough time keeping track of them in this small home, not sure what we will do in that big home. We will definitely miss this house, had been our home for the last 8 years.

Both babies are doing great, walking with the walker and taking small baby steps. They already had their initiation with falling down, Shruthi already scraped her knee, didn't seem to bother her much. She hasn't figured out how to turn the walker, so as soon as she hits something, she stops and starts screaming. She won't need the walker for much longer, her walking is improving every day.

Sometimes we don't know what to do with our little trouble maker, Vennela. First she figured out how to turn on the TV, then the DVD player and this morning, she somehow turned off Swapna's Cisco router, took Swapna 30 mins to get it back online;) She got three timeouts today, for hitting Shruthi. We are not sure if she is intentionally hitting Shruthi or if she is playing.

This past Sat was bad, think we set a record, Shruthi threw up three times and Vennela twice. It was all because of Swapna's infamous sambar rice. That was the first time they tried it and looks like they didn't like it at all.

Our poor, dying TV

Our new, nice, fancy, LCD TV is on it last legs;) Vennela figured out how to turn on the TV;) She walks over to the TV and she knows which button to press to turn it on. They did press some other button, now we can't turn it off. Only way to turn it off is to unplug it. We dont have enough energy to research how to turn it off. Let me know if anyone is looking to buy a used LCD TV.

They started drinking regular milk over the weekend. We were worried that it may take them a while to get used the regular milk, but they didn't seem to notice the difference. We gave 50/50 formula/regular milk to Vennela for a couple of days, but now it's all real stuff.

Drove down to Sarita's on Sun, for Meghana's b'day party. We were worried that they would not like being in big crowds, but they were fine. On the way back, Vennela threw up in the van. The 'barf bag' that Amy gave us and we thought we would never use came in handy:) We pulled over on the freeway, cleaned her up and back on her way. Our first freeway adventure.

Big Week

Had their first birthday on Tuesday! We had big plans, wanted to take them to the zoo, but the weather was crappy, so ended up staying home. Swapna baked them each a cake. They had more fun playing with the icing.

Their 1 year doctor check up went well. Shruthi is at 22.5lbs and 30 inches and Vennela is at 20lb and 29.5 inches.

Yesterday evening Vennela was near my laptop for a few mins and then walked away. Remu noticed that she had something in her mouth - it was a key from my laptop keyboard! She managed pull off one of the keys. She will be a handful for us;)

They have a brand new cousin now, Sudha had a baby girl on May 8th:)

It works! Don't know why we haven't tried it before. We started leaving them in their cribs around 6:30pm. They cry for about 30 mins and then fall asleep. They are sleeping much better this way, waking up fewer times at night, even then, they are going back to sleep themselves. It works during the day too, makes the days a lot less stressful.

Fri morning I brought them both in to the living room and started making their oat meal. They were unusually quiet, came back and checked up on them - Shruthi was busy dumping a cup of tea on my cell phone, which wasn't designed to be doused with cold chai;) And Vennela was busy pulling down the toilet paper in the bathroom, can't leave them out of sight for even a single minute.

Both babies are standing up and sitting down on their own. It already started, both going for whatever the other has;) We are letting them fight it out, for now, don't know what else we can do.

Went to National Cathedral's annual flower mart on Sat. It was fun, lots and lots of kids and activities for kids. Kids got free baloons, so they were happy.

Tomorrow is their 1st b'day! They are big girls now, one year olds!

Took them to Mike & Linda's on Sat. Vennela felt right at home, was crawling all over the home, chasing their poor dog. Shruthi got into the act after a few mins, once she got used to all the new people. Don't know why, but she still has stranger anxiety.

Vennela is the instigator, always the first to get into rooms she isn't supposed to and exploring and finding things;) and of course Shruthi follows her.

This evening, spent a quality 30 mins in the hammock with both girls. They loved being outside.

They are still waking up all through the night, sometime because they get stuck in the crib and sometimes for no reason that we can think of. All the advise on the web says to let them cry it out;) I guess we have to try it and see.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Last night they slept much better, we actually got some sleep last night, hopefully it will last longer than one night.

Vennela figured out how to sit down, and that's all she did for 15 mins. She was giddy, showing off her new trick to all of us:) Both girls are feeding by themselves, sometimes, if they feel like it:)

Banana Babies

Both babies love bananas. If you feed them, they will finish a whole banana. It's good in a way, it can be our emergency food. Now they are getting really uncontrollable if they are hungry. Yesterday I was giving a bottle of milk to Vennela and I guess Shruthi was hungry, she jumped over Swapna, and grabbed the bottle from my hand;) She didn't stop screaming until Swapna got her another bottle.

Vennela is self sufficient now, we can hand her the bottle and she will drink it. I think Shruthi can do it too, but she is too lazy;) They both still don't like being in the playpen, their mini-jail.

Shruthi is our pseudo-puppy. She always pulls off one of her socks, puts it in her mouth and crawls all over the home, she won't let the sock go.

They are still not sleeping through the nights, wake up every hour;)

They are back!!!

Babies came back Wed night, two gundus, not shiny anymore:) I think Vennela recognized me right away, it took Shruthi a few mins. They did remember our home, crawled over to their toy basket right away and started playing with their toys. We were worried about how they would do on the plane, but they did fine, didn't trouble their mom and uncle much, even with only one bassinet on the second leg.

They are crawling all over the place. We have to keep all the doors closed, if not they will be there in 5 mins, pulling down things.

They were over jet lag in a couple of days, but did get cold and cough, so had a few rough nights, no sleep for all of us. Having Venu around helped a lot, share some night shifts. They still have cold, so are still not sleeping through the night;)

Now that they are mobile, we have a few accidents everyday, bumping their heads into things are crashing when crawling, or getting stuck in things. Crashing when crawling is the worst, hit their face on the floor and start crying. They figured out how to stand up, holding onto things, but haven't figured out how to sit down, so are stuck standing up.

We gave them yogurt for breakfast this morning, Shruthi liked it, Vennela didn't but she ate it anyways.

Shruthi the Destroyer

Shruthi loves rolling over to the air vents and putting her face on the vent, likes warm air blowing in her face. Yesterday, she pulled one vent cover off the wall, screws and all. Can't wait to see what she will do to stuff that's not nailed down;)

Went for their 9 month doc checkup and shots on Tue. Both babies are the same height, 28 inches, in the 90th percentile. Shruthi is 19lb 6oz and Vennela is 17lb 1oz. Vennela hasn't gained any weight in the last 3 months, surprising because she has been eating better than Shruthi for the past few weeks.

Vennela is our pseudo-animal, makes different animal noises each day. Most days she is a lion and some days she is a donkey:)

Working from home is nice, get to see the babies all through the day. Vennela does get really mad if I come upstairs and don't pick her up, she would be following me wherever I go.

Moving our India trip back three weeks really messed up with Swapna's plans for baby clothes. She didn't buy them any new clothes thinking we will be in India, in the warm weather. Babies have outgrown all their clothes, can't even really stretch their legs; we keep some of he buttons on their dresses unbuttoned so they can move around a little ;)

Trying night

Nights like last night really test our patience. Shruthi woke up screaming around midnight, she was quiet as long as someone was holding her but started screaming as soon as we put her down. As if we didn't have enough, Vennela woke up screaming too. Don't know why they are doing this. Didn't help that Shruthi woke up at 4am;) Don't know why they are waking up crying, still in their sleep.

We really are in trouble now, Vennela started rolling over, for real this time. Now both are rolling into each other, trying to pull each others hair. It's puzzling why they are so interested in hair;)

One more week to India trip. Swapna already packed babies bags, but you never know if we packed everything.

We are mobile

Both of them are moving around now, albeit in their own strange ways. Shruthi just rolls around, till something like a wall stops her or she gets stuck under the furniture. Vennela has the most unorthodox way of getting around; she moves while sitting up:) It's hard to describe how she does it, but she is going places, very slowly though.

Both babies are eating their tiny snacks on their own. Vennela is our own soprano. As soon as she wakes up in the morning, she starts singing;) There is one thing that scares Vennela, it's the pressure cooker whistle. Don't know when she will get used to it.

They really love the toy toy that Grace got them. All I have to do is put it in their lap and turn it on and they break out laughing:)

On Sunday, I left Vennela on the couch and went into the kitchen, came back in 5 mins and the TV was on and she was watching cartoons, in Spanish;) She IS a firecracker;). Like Remu says, she likes both babies, but Shruthi is her favorite, she didn't want to say that Vennela is a trouble maker. When they get a little older, I'm sure we will have trouble keeping baby sitters, because of Vennela.

We moved our India dates to Jan 30th, don't have any bassinets available in the second leg of the flight, not a short leg, 9 hours, will be interesting, with two babies on our laps.

Pizza on Fire!

Had an adventure on Tue. Munni said she would stop by in the evening. We went out and got Ledo's Pizza. And of course they were late, so Swapna in her infinite wisdom decides to put the pizza boxes in the oven and turn on the oven, in the broiler mode! It only took a few mins for the pizza boxes to catch fire and the house started filling with smoke. We took the pizza boxes out, were able to save most of the pizza, except for a few slices. Nitin and Greeshma thought the pizza was great, real barbecued flavor:)