One year and a half year update..

Times flown and here I am, sitting down the capture the one and a half year of an experience called "bringing up the twin terrors!" kachi and kautu (I don't know why it is in this order, may be because Kachi was responding to us much earlier than Kautu, who remained interested only in his toys till a few months back!) have been a part of our lives since May 18th, 2006 and managed to show me a few home truths along the way.

Kachi shows me how sloppily I drink tea...with a slurping sound and a blissful expression on my face, which till now I was ignorant of!
He shouts out for Appa, Amma and Aautu much in the same veins as the paperwalla shouts for paper early in the morning..a hoarse fishmonger cry that has Karthik n me wondering if this is how we actually call each other!
Kachu still remains with the six teeth he had four months back. We are yet to take him to the doc, but maybe, we should start back the milk that we've been denying him at 2 in the night.
He repeats every single word we say and the latest is "Adi" which means hit. Now he does something we would surely not like and comes to us, says Adi and hits our hands before proceeding to do exactly something else we would not like!
If he wants food, he screams "Mammu", sits on his mini chair with one leg up and keeps screaming "Mammu" till I rush with the hot food and the place the first spoonful in his mouth. Till this happens, only a cotton plug can save your ear.
Till a few weeks before, if we do not give him milk in time when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he throws away the bottle when we get it to him! One whack from karthik got rid of this habit, but we soon put a stop to the untimely feeding.

Kautu....is still the restless child. He just cries if he is hungry, thirsty, sleepy, cranky and wants something. So, it is left to us to figure out what it is that he wants and more often than not, we somehow manage to get it right!
All his words are single syllabled. He gets away with a 'Ka' for kaka, kaal (leg), kai (hand), car, a 'Pa' for paal, papa and so on!
He climbs on to everything with horizontal steps, and has fallen so many times that I have seriously considered having a custom made helmet for him.
Making him sit still to eat is the most difficult job of all. I feed him and Kachi alternatively and on most days manage to finish off in less than 5 minutes. Thats the max he will sit. And after that, no matter if he is hungry or not, its a no no.
He is on his legs every waking moment of the day. To see Kautu sit still is like rushing to take a snap of the rare moment.

One and a half years...and I am still trying out different techniques each day..for feeding, scolding and teaching. I wonder if I will ever be complacent in parenting, if I will ever settle into a routine with them and when I will start feeling comfortable being a mother. Maybe, when the next one comes along??!!!!