Say...cheese!!

           In the next few days, Kavya started crawling & was trying to stand up with support. Oviya would sit without support if we make her to sit, but would eventually fall after few minutes :) Oviya started clapping & Kavya was trying to do so by seeing her younger sister. They started drinking water in sippy cups (which I never thought they would do at this stage). Both laughed at each others' silly activities & were speaking in their own funny language. I wish I had a dictionary for baby language :p
Even before analyzing the toy, it ends up in their mouth. They never leave anything without tasting it.
                                          

One of my favorite pastime is to take them number of pictures until I get a good one. In the search of getting a perfect shot, I end up getting all the perplexed shots. If one smiles the other would stare, if one sits straight the other would bend, if one sees the camera the other would see down,if one wants to pose the other would spread the arms across the face, if one is ready the other would chew a toy, if one finally gets the point the other would squish her face. But, who cares? It's sooo adorable :)
                                           

     

(Click picture to enlarge)

Yet another try gave cute results. Besides, seeing here & there and getting distracted with the toys, Oviya couldn't sit for a long time & would fall down anytime (finally fell down too :P). Even though the final outcome is what I wanted, I think every pic is a moment to cherish.

                                            

Sometimes, when I need a miracle, I look into my babies' eyes and realize I've already created two ;)

New milestone

According to the human evaluation... nah... Let me start this way...

All babies are unique and meet milestones at their own pace. There were huge differences between Kavya & Oviya in meeting their milestones even though they were twins. Kavya was the first to sit on her own. Oviya was trying to crawl and would always move towards Kavya to pull her. So, we placed some pillows in between them to block (this worked out only for few days :) ). They listened & laughed even if I sing the same song or played the same game again and again and again. They never get bored :) I was happy that they were beginning to understand my 'No's and 'Don't do's.

Playpen became their favorite place to hang out. They had all their favorite toys in it. They started paying attention to the songs played in TV. It was fun watching them play all day. Eating, sleeping and playing were their whole day jobs. I wondered what a busy schedule they had :) Something seemed to strike them at this point. Since they were watching each other closely, when one of them cries, the other started crying thinking that something went wrong. This made the doctor visits horrible. Both used to be crying inconsolably even if one gets the shots. And of course, if one gets up in the middle of the night, the other one gets up too :(                                   

When beautiful moments happen, I sure like to picture it. I tell both of them everyday to give me kisses. Finally, Oviya seemed to get the point. I was a proud momma to get Oviya's first kiss :) When I take her lips near my face, she would bend and bite my cheeks :). Lucky me, no teeth by then. 
A baby's kiss - I recommend including this in the wonders of the world :P

Rolling... jumping... laughing!

Kavya & Oviya became 6 months old and nevertheless to say, every passing day was filled with fun & surprises. 
Ready.. Set.. Go... It was time to start solids even though milk was their primary food until one year. They tasted rice cereal, mashed fruits and veggies. Kavya seemed to like Peach & apple while Oviya liked carrots & beans. Somehow, both didn't like green peas. I've read that it takes more than 10 tries for a baby to like a new food. Never give up :-)

Apart from crying, now they started showing other reactions like wriggling, making noises, blowing 'raspberries' and a lot other. Each had a favorite toy too. Kavya likes an elephant toy and she would chew it's trunk & made it wet all the time :-) Oviya likes a butterfly teether which she would bite, lick and drool over it. They rolled all over the place and tried to grab & play with each other. Both became familiar with each other's company. The giggles & smiles they shared were the evergreen moments.

                                                 

We got their most useful toy ever in which they still play each & every part of it - the combined walker and activity center  The next exciting toy they ever had was the jumper where they liked to jump, jump and jump ;-) Jumping made their legs strong and of course the urge to jump whenever we were holding them in the lap too :-) They become super excited and hyper energized when they jump and my heart melts like a butter when I see them laugh hysterically :-)      

                                            

Another interesting thing happened at this phase and this is my favorite part too. They started smiling and posing for the camera :-) They always give a surprised, amused, joyful expression while flashing the light in the camera.

This is what I call a flash shock!! :-)

Worst nightmare experience!

The 4 months of India trip came to an end. Now came the undesirable part of return flight journey. I was lucky enough to get a friend (Thanks to Vidhya Srinivasan) to accompany in the journey, but our bad, Kavya & Oviya didn't make it pleasant. Due to the crowd & new surrounding we had to face their uncontrollable crying right from the airport. Between weird looks and sympathetic comments we somehow traveled and reached USA (puff & pant) with the babies in infant carrier and luggage in hands, all the way!

To make the nightmare worse, the babies got stranger anxiety on seeing their dad who came to receive us at the airport. Neither they want to go with him nor ready to sit in the car. After much agitation, we reached home. The once they lived home and their own dad looked strange and new to them. It took 10 days for them to get adjusted and get along with dad although they wanted only me to make them sleep.
This was their reaction when taken a picture with dad and a picture with me in their new playpen :-)

                                           

Since we did not childproof the house fully, it was quite risky to leave them unattended in the room. So, we got them a playpen were they learned to sit, crawl and stand up. They rolled, moved, kicked inside the playpen without any danger of getting hurt. The jet lag was still there for a week which made them sleep so deep during nap times. Kavya would fall asleep immediately while drying her after the bath. Oviya would go to a deep sleep in whatever position she was, after the bath. Kavya's nap and Oviya's funny sleep position have been captured :-)

Later, both got comfortable with the new environment and started interacting with each other. This could be a part of their development or just sharing of sibling love. They seemed to touch and feel each other and tried to communicate with each other. The bonding between them started beautifully, after all they were born from the same womb just few seconds apart ;-)