11 months of two kids in the house!

These months have just whizzed past me in a jiffy. I don't really know how to describe the feeling but its hard to now imagine the life we had before Jiya came by. Even though it just seems like yesterday but I now wonder what Vansh did around the house without her, what I did with all that time on my hands. I now realize I did have time on my hands unlike now when I keep trying to keep up with the pace life moves at with 2 young kids. It goes without saying what fun it is to have a baby in the house, more so as she's now developing a distinct personality, taking after her brother for the spiritedness. Sigh! I hoped that I would have at least one easy child. Looks like this one's going to outdo the elder one as well. Even though this one's supposed to be an update post about what Jiya is upto but it just wouldn't be complete without talking about both the siblings in the same breath.

She's a mover, fast when its the vessels clanging in her favorite dishwasher, faster when she hears the front door knob turn and she hears dad come in and fastest when she senses its time to go out and looks at Vansh putting on his shoes. She follows by picking hers out from the shoe rack and handing them over to one of us. But when it comes to following mommy around the house when she tends to chores, she's figured out that crying helplessly gets her on mom's hip thus increasing her speed to move around manyfold. She loves to unload the dishwasher though, delighting in the "Thank youuuu" I tell her as she hands me one spoon after another to be kept away at their proper place. She also loves being responded to with a "haanji" (yes) as she keeps saying "mamma, mamma, mamma" in different pitch and tones.

About a year back when Vansh's terrible two's made their ferocious tenacious presence felt and knocked me out several times in a day, sending me groping for solutions to experienced parents, asking them when things get better, I heard that magic number 'at 4 years' in several parents' conversation. So fraught with distress I was at that time, that I immediately thought after doing the easy calculation that when Vansh turns 4, Jiya would be 2 and I would still be experiencing the same things at that time. Little did I know that the terrible two's can happen as early as 11 months in the younger one. Now Vansh was a fairly easy little fella till about 14 months of age. But then he didn't have an elder sibling for showing him the shiny juicy delectable paths of what all toddlerhood can be. So when this one gets a reprimand from mom on leaving that 'masalas' drawer alone, not one but two antennae strike up, two pairs of eyes shine that mischievous smile, two little mouths don the silly grin as the bro-sis duo proceed to do exactly that. Its mighty hard to keep a straight face looking at those fun expressions.

She is one strong willed child. A NO means a NO for her. Try feeding her just that one extra morsel after she has expressed her being done with the meal and it'll come straight out of her mouth, that is if she has been distracted to open her mouth in the first place. Try offering her water when what she needs is milk and she'll throw the sipper vehemently accompanied by a strong cry. We hadn't experienced this behavior with Vansh till much later.

When both the kids are playing together, at times she's happy to be left alone and shouts when Vansh as much as tries to come close to see what she's playing with. She can spend a good fifteen minutes playing by herself in the room alone moving from one toy to another. Cars and Legos seem to have caught her fancy as well which is not surprising considering the special place they enjoy in Vansh's heart and life. Both siblings follow each other from one room to the next driving their own particular vehicles. Jiya's also been spotted moving other things like cups and scoops as if they were cars. At other times, she's the one who refuses to leave the other one alone as hard he tries. When he's in a good mood, he'll just let her have the toy he was playing with and move on to another one and she'll then want to move on too to what he picked. At times, I intervene when I hear a lot of yelling from both of them showing him to how to exchange toys with her or distract her with another toy if he doesn't want to part with what he's playing with. It works sometimes, doesn't work at others which is when both of them have to part with the problem creating toy. When it comes to absolutely touchy things like wanting that exact car that Vansh is playing with, he screams and she screams back, a louder scream, a manipulative scream in the knowledge that this heralds trouble for the elder one. Puzzles and crayons and paints are to be done on the table but I smell trouble with that too already as she'll stand up holding on to the leg of the chair or the table and keep doing 'aaa aaa aaa' in an attempt to be put on the table herself. Ideas? Ideas anyone?

And then of course there are the absolutely precious moments where both of them make each other laugh like no one else does. He literally shovels and throws her on the floor (Thank God for small mercies like it being carpeted) and starts to tickle her left, right and center all amidst peals of laughter from both of them. She throws herself over him when I ask her to say Good Night to him and does her own version of hugs and kisses; or extends her hand to his mouth so he can have a bite from the cracker that she's having after he's had his own. Blissful indeed!

For the records, she now has 4 teeth - 2 up and 2 down.

She cruises along holding onto furniture and stands for just about a second without support.

Eats everything of what we eat. Favorite foods - parathas, banana, apple and Parle G biscuits. We call her a 'ghodi' (female horse) because she does a little jig when we give her something sweet in her mouth :)

Sleeps 10 hours at night (gets up once or twice, no feeds though, goes back to sleep once patted a little) and takes 2 naps ranging from 1 to 3 hours each.

Huh!! Can't believe she'll be a year in less than a month's time!! CAnnot help but end with a cliche, when it comes to kids, time sure does fly!

Share