Hello 2018!!

Helllooo Hello 🙂

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Ok, firstly I’m even surprised this blog and domain name still exists 😛 Its been a whole year that I wrote anything nor even logged in!! Yes, I hear ya- Shame on me, I say!!

But, in my defense, I raise twins 😀

And what a year 2017 has been. Challenging in every way, every sphere. With the physical challenges, there have been a lot of mental ups and downs as well and phew, we managed to sail thru;this far!

As you may or may not know, my husband and I live in Atlanta with very minimal (almost nothing!)  help nor support system. We took Kai & Kri back there after our long vacation in India just before they turned a year old. You’d think we are crazy traveling with toddlers but Honestly, traveling back with them in the 22 hour journey  was the easiest thing compared to what lay ahead for us new parents on our own.

We did hire part time help for a few months, who were mostly on and off and barely managed to work around our budgets of paying through the roof for these glorified nannys. I think, just finding help, settling them in, watching them leave, back to finding a new one rolled the months and how!

The day my mom left back to India (May,2017) was when it all hit me that Iv got to be the mom now, the adult around and incharge of my two tiny humans. I bawled and wept with the reality staring right at me. I was left alone with the babies for the first time (Im a Stay at home mom with the husband working late hours) since they were born. The first day was crazy, second was worse, third was crazier and then I think the babies and I just made our peace, learnt to dance to each others tunes and settled in. This just made me realize an inner strength I never knew I had. Patience, resilience, endurance, flexibility, planning ahead even if its to the park/restaurant, multi-tasking, strategizing, hell, what did I do an MBA in Human Resources for 😀

Its been tough but a great fun ride so far, watching Kai & Kri grow and develop their personalities. They can self-feed (to some extent but mostly wont, toddlers are weird remember ;)), take to youtube and the wonders of Peppa(yes, judge me for being a terrible parent, but a girl’s got to live!) acknowledge each others presence, play, explore, say ‘Mommy’ “daddy’, identify animal sounds, say a few other words,  babble and are just fun little babies who I thoroughly enjoy hanging out with. All of those sacrifices from my husband and  I seem worth it all when we watch them growing a little more each day. We’v even travelled domestic & made one international trip – which I will write about in my future posts 🙂

As they are fast approaching their ‘terrible two’s’ this year, I know the trials and tribulations are only to magnify. I console myself that there’s always youtube, hehe 😀

 

So the main thing I’v set out to do is make some GOALS for 2018! 

Yes, I need to list them down. To be read and followed ardently 🙂

1. Me Time : Ok, Im stating the most obvious. Which I shudnt even be bothering to, being a Mom and all that. But I just dare say it. I love my kids and would never leave them out of my sight, but Im not here to win ‘epitome of motherhood’ 😀       For mine, theirs and the husband’s sanity, I am going to try to make more me-time. If it means gym/yoga/ grocery shopping alone (I LOVE target, ok ! ;)) or just a walk and a coffee or reading a book, every day atleast an hour.
2. Pick up a hobby : Very much in sync with the above. I need to rediscover myself and my talents which have taken a hiatus post mommy-ing!
3. Plan and prep ahead : If you know me, I try my maximum best to be perfectionist. Also my pet peeve and what Im criticized for. Being a perfectionist, I ensure I have everything in order and organized. With babies, thats near IMPOSSIBLE. However, now that they seem to be more predictable, I will strive harder to plan and list and make notes and prep (meals for the week included!) to make life easier.
4. Recycle and reuse and declutter : The tiny army comes with a gazillion things and as a mom although its terribly sentimental  to hold onto each and every thing as a keepsake I have to learn to let go. These babies outgrow clothes so quickly and how many boxes of clothes can I hoard?!?! Ending of 2017 when we moved houses, husband and I made a conscious decision to declutter and donate to goodwill. This year, definitely one of my main goals is to go minimalistic (don’t laugh, Im serious here!) and use the space we live in appropriately!
5. Financial planning : It’s high time we tighten our belts and look household finances squarely in the eye. Something we havent really paid much attention to Il admit! By watching our income and expenses, we can better plan for our vacations, activities, big purchases and plan for future. As boring as it seems, it really is important to sit and figure out the black hole and do that excel with our expenses and purchases so we can see just where our money is going.
6. Promise to get more creative juices flowing : I mean, blog more regularly. Just so I can journal and record the Kai kri tales better and meet so many more wonderful MOMS out there 😉 I am going to set a reminder to publish one post a week atleast and be more methodological. Not wait for the next year to reach out again 🙂

 

What are your goals? How’s your year looking like?

Would love to connect and hear from you!

So please do leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Love,

R

 

 

 

 

 

New beginnings…

Ahhh my morning cuppa tea. Piping hot freshly brewed tea has been served. Just the way I like it. Less milk, full of flavor. I take the morning newspaper, settle in my cozy comfort spot with one leg tucked under, get ready to devour my tea, read some snippets and just enjoy my me-time…when…

Kri, the younger of my twin boys comes crawling, screaming “Amma amma amma” (Amma is mother in our South Indian lingo). He has a dirty diaper.All of 10 months old, he and his brother, Kai have us all wrapped around their sweetest littlest fingers. I immediately forget my tea. Oh, my sweet boys need me more than I need tea. So, thereon I go about changing diapers * 2, feeding them their breakfast on their sitters, doing things that I never imagined I knew I could. Ofcourse, with all the help I can get now from my ever so kind parents, family and inlaws, without whom I wouldn’t even be writing this! The fact that Im still sane and smiling, I sure owe it to them, big-time 🙂

A little background: Mine was a “high risk” pregnancy, Kai & Kri are mono-di twins, which means they shared one placenta with just a thin membrane separating them.   As they say, be careful what you wish for, and someone up above sure decided to hear K (my husband dearest)’s wish and gave us undoubtedly the biggest shock of our lives when we found out I was pregnant, at our 8th week ultrasound scan, we were having MONODI twin boys!! K was over the moon, I wept!Blame it on or thank the genes, it was considered”ONE SHOT, DONE”:> Never had I ever imagined, I’d be part of the special,privileged lot of TWIN MOMS !Whats more miraculous is that not only were they not planned for, no treatments taken, no special measures taken to make them, but they are only 3 in 1000 pregnancies that happen!!

Being a mother is tough. Being one to multiples is beyond exhaustion, I cant even remember the last time Iv slept more than 4-5 hours at a stretch at night. The physical and mental stress combined is sheer craziness sometimes, often leading me to wonder and question WHY ME?!?!?

I look at them with such adulation, like any mother would. Kri now crawls & Kai creeps. Both trying to stand and achieve milestones at their own pace. Both fully mobile little humans. Emoting, expressing, babbling and developing their own personalities. Often teary eyed, I simply keep watching them. My maternal instincts one side, my terrible habit of googling just about everything and reading up a dozen blogs/books on parenting ,on the other, I realize like every new mother, I too have no clue how to play this parenting game. Especially * 2!!

However, I thoroughly enjoy this new role, taking pride in raising two little humans, accepting the new beginning…the new era that is to unfold:)

And now..to finish off my tea….:)

Till next time..Love,

R