Learning the Words

Our kids have been busy lately 'Learning the Words'. The younger one is learning to speak while the older one is learning to read.

For a while now we have been guessing and second guessing what our little one is saying to us. He literally lets out various sounds thru' his mouth and gets very frustrated if we don't understand it. He sometimes gets over it by pointing at objects that he wants. But other times he is just frustrated and starts crying. But lately he is catching up and has begun to talk words that make sense to him and us. Even though we are going to miss his 'baby talks', I am sure the baby will be in much better mood once he starts conveying his wishes. No wonder they call it 'Terrible Two'.

It's been a different kind of challenge with the older one. I sit with him and teach him words. For the initial few days, he was frustrated that he cannot read. He kept saying 'Daddy, This is very hard'. Also I used to get frustrated that, inspite of all the efforts, he is still not able to read. Then suddenly one day he just started realizing how to read. I don't know what happened in his brain the previous night. But all of a sudden the next day he got it. He was very happy when that happened and so was I. Now he is slowly beginning to read short stories and he is enjoying it.

So the last few months have sure been very challenging for our family.

Contrasting personalities

When we initially conceived our second baby, one of the first things that came to my mind was 'We already have one and we have gone through many ups and downs with the first one. Now that we have learnt our lessons , How hard can the second one be?'. I am a programmer by profession. That's probably why I must have thought like that.
But Oh boy! We just can't believe how different our second one is from the first one. Granted they look similar. But they are 2 different personalities. Life always seems to present us with challenges all the time. But we are thoroughly enjoying it.