Celebrating the 3s

I missed writing a post on their third birthday and was waiting for this milestone to give an update...Kautu and Kachi are 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days old. The only thing they have common between them is this, their age. Kautu is forever upto mischief, his latest today was mixing turmeric and mustard, mustard and urad dal and spilling a lot of the turmeric around. Other activities include tearing the page of the calender and stuffing it in the sink, brushing his teeth five times today just because he loves the strawberry flavor, throwing a stick, measuring cup and spoon into the grinder while the batter was being prepared and finally, opening the shower on Karthik when he took baby to the bathroom!! Thats a small sample of what all he can be up to in a day. On the other hand, he is the entertainer of the family, with his antics on his pushing car ( I don't what its actually called, its this thing which you sit and push with your legs), he comes real fast and then turns the thing around on one leg ... I nearly fell off my chair the first time I saw it! He dances a weird dance every time we ask him to, but almost never when he listens to music, but hums along with every song. And...when he cries, he really really cries, like in cries his and my head off...the loud wailing goes on for hours and what it originally started for, is forgotten by the end of it! Everything he talks becomes a cry and god help and forgive me, my itching hands do get an outlet once the patience has worn thin. Well, I am able to write with such feeling cause he's at it again ... in the background and I am venting it all out here!
About Kachu... he's such a darling,..... when he wants to. But an equall 'noi noi' case..yeah thats what we call him, cause once denied something, he'll go on cribbing about it, till, like his brother, he makes you want to stuff cotton in your ears and dream of retiring to the Himalayas. But, he's the one who takes care of his sister, calls her pet names (Kutta) and even puts her to sleep. He is deeply ashamed if he drops something, or does anything that we would not be pleased with (unlike his brother, who gives a damn) and I have to put aside my rage and quitely tell him, its ok, nothings happened, else, I'll have a crying boy in my hand for the next half a day! He says the cutest thing, in the best possible grammer and when everyone else are asleep, he'll just hang around with me, sitting by my side when I read, looking on when I cook and giving his opinions in that quiet way of his that I feel at those times, that I've made a friend for life!!! At the same time, once his brother and sis are awake, he does refuse to share his things, like the way Kautu does too, and Krithika is forever trying to get things away from her brothers that, all the good things vanish and I am left with the urge to bury myself and plead I don't know these kids!!!!!
Anyway, this is the terrible 3s post...and I know it does sound terrible....but my fingers are crossed, maybe, it might get better by the 4s!

Missing and mushing...

One week kachi and kautu were in chennai with my parents. And that was a week that had me up a roller coaster ride...missing them one minute and savoring the freedom the next! I took a day off and finished the seventh Harry Potter...something that would have taken me a week or more with the kids around! Hubby and I caught a late night show, visited friends and made it a point to not return home before 11 every day of the week!
But for all this, almost half an hour of our time together, be it shopping, or in the car, or sitting face to face in a quite and secluded spot in the costliest of restaurants and trying to recreate the magic of yester years, kachi and kautu were in our thoughts and words! We would be discussing something and suddenly I would exclaim " you know, if kachi was here, he would be making a beeline for that plant there..." and karthik would say.." yeah..and kautu would be sitting on the table and swiping away its contents in a jiffy!!"..and we would laugh...a pure laugh of sheer enjoyment no other discussion of our could ever have brought out.
So, whats the freedom I was talking about? Its just an illusion that having more time means freedom. That one week has brought this to me... freedom is the ability to do what you want to fully well knowing its consequences. It is not having the time to do what you want to do. For instance, it is purely my choice, influenced by no other that I decide to sit here typing away than being in office..I know I am doing it while the kids are sleeping and I didn't go to work today cause they are sick. To me, this symbolizes freedom. When the kids were in Chennai, I went to office every day of the week, spent the evenings roaming around with Karthik, but those were things that we did purely because we had the time for it. Not because we weighed the consequences and took a decision. Being unoccupied or having ample time seems to be a bondage that bonds you more towards things that are not in fact essential for you. What is the use of time when your mind is occupied elsewhere? When your mind is happy, it is free to think, to philosophize and create. And happiness to me now...is in the smile of my kids and karthik's relaxed and contended face. And I am striving to keep these permanent with all my heart!!!

Murphy's law for toddlers

1. How is that when I mix less formula milk,they cry out for more and when I mix more keeping my hands crossed, they fall asleep half way through?

2. How is it that when I fix the time and give them food, they refuse to eat and when I wait till they are hungry and ask for it, they again fall asleep from the sheer exhaustion of playing?

3. How is it that when I don't give them a head bath for days fearing a cold, they fall sick and when I bathe them daily they are hale and healthy?

4. How is it that when I give them a good warm long bath to make them sleep longer, they wake up after half an hour and when they sleep dirty, they sleep for hours on end?

5. How is it that when I pick up one kid, the other always comes running, but when I just sit observing them, they look and smile and continue playing?

6. How is it that these two can be so exhausting yet so lovable? So troublesome yet cuddlesome? Jealous yet innocent? Viking warriers with each other, yet kittens with us?


7. How is it that they shit just after we put the diaper when they have been roaming around in trousers the whole day?

Can anyone truly understand babies?