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.