With all the things that are constantly happening in our lives, it is easy to lose our perspective in the shuffle. At least it is in my case. There is always something going on (and I am thankful for it) whether it is family related: running from one place to another, from one class to another, or getting the kids ready for whatever the case may be (school, bed, classes, birthday parties, doctor’s appointments, you name it), or work related: jumping from one deadline to another, juggling multiple tasks, putting out fires and spending time coming up with ideas all at the same time, it seems as if our focus is always on the next task at hand or maybe on 1-2 tasks ahead to try and get “ahead of the game”.
It is easy to get lost, easy to lose focus on what matters most, easy to devote all our energy on the tasks at hand right at that moment, and easy to focus only on the accomplishment of the immediate goals. The difficulty lies in learning to take a step back, breathe and enjoy the moments for what they are worth. We spend so much time fighting and arguing with our kids to get them from point A to point B, that many times we fail to enjoy the journey — at least I know I do. And it is only during the calm after the storm, in the late nights after everyone is asleep, when I get to think about our day, or when I turn off the radio or the podcasts during my commute and evaluate our weekends, that I realize I may have missed opportunities to enjoy our kids more. I realize that I have wasted a lot of energy disciplining, redirecting, etc and not enough energy on enjoying the laughing, playing, and loving.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about each day goes by so quickly. I know every day needs to be cherished more. I think about how after the clock strikes midnight, we no longer have that day. We can’t get it back. And how because of that finality, we need to make the best of each and every day. Live the day with no regrets. Focus on making each other happy, not sad. Focus on enjoying the moment and cherishing that time together. Focus our energy on filling our minds with positive things; the negatives are a waste. Only 24 hours are given to us each day, and tomorrow is not guaranteed.
And even though I think of this often and we have conversations with our kids about it at the dinner table, I still lose my perspective, I get lost in the tasks of the day, and the checkpoints of life. This is why I need to constantly remind myself to live in the moment. Why I need to imbed this into our family values and daily practices. Why we need to make it a habit, and not just a thought that appears from time to time. we need to constantly regain perspective and refocus on what really matters.
It is worth everything.
some pictures from our weekend.
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Santi’s Terrible 2’s are kicking my ass!
I feel like I am writing this post while waving a white flag in peace/surrender. Holy shit. I can’t take this anymore and I’ve ran out of methods to deal with and tolerate it.
Hey, this is not my first rodeo, I dealt with Nati’s and Nico’s and we survived. We figured out ways to manage them and we all came out on the other end. This time is another type of beast and this one is kicking my ass.
I think part of the problem is we have been dealing with this while we’ve been dealing with babies that were not sleeping through the night and we were trying to get them there (as of now they are sleeping through the night. Yay!) so every temper tantrum Santi throws, exponentially increases the magnitude of the issue and the urgency to make him shut up! ☺
90% of the time, he is the happiest, coolest kid. But the other 10% he is like a combination of Damian/Chucky and seems to lose his sense of hearing, his sense of reasoning and everything else.
When shit hits the fan, he goes into this non-stop crying mode. It can be triggered by multiple things, but here are some of the most ridiculous ones: “I just woke up at 3am and I want fucking juice”, “I wanted to lay by dad but then Nati or Nico laid by mom so now I want to lay by mom or else!”, “Nico beat me going up the stairs, how dare he!”, “I want to get what everyone else is playing with, now.”. The list goes on. Never a “oh well, that makes sense you are upset, screaming your lungs out seems to be the best approach” type of scenario….. sigh.
The above could fall on the normal reasons why someone 2 years old decides to throw a temper tantrum. What’s not normal is the “exorcist” mode he goes into. Even if we cave into his ways to make him stop, he gets himself in such a state of mind that he does not hear it! He keeps screaming “No!! No daddy, I don’t want (enter random reason here)”, or “I want juice” even though I keep telling him he can get some.
I’ve tried timeout, tried reasoning with him, tried the whole hugging thing, tried to get him to take deep breaths (ha!), tried putting him in our walk-in closet, escalated by turning the light off for a few seconds and nothing works! I’ve tried all these things not to be mean, but to try to snap him out of that state of mind!! Trust me, if it wasn’t because I would have to clean it up afterwards (and because Becca will probably kick me out of the house) I would have tried throwing cold water at him to get him to snap out.
So far, he is winning. By a lot. Actually I think we are both losing because it sucks for everyone involved. My hope is that “this too shall pass” but I am hoping this happens sooner than later. In the meantime, I need to probably find ways to meditate, stretch, explore breathing methods, read or whatever the heck I need to do to work on MY patience so I don’t lose it while Damian is going nutso around the house. Maybe that is the positive thing out this clusterfuck. I may become a master meditator, breathing dude or awesome at venting on a blog.
Wish me luck. ☺
3 Reasons why this labor day, I am thankful for my job.
Looking back, I consider I’ve been lucky throughout my career. I’ve worked at great companies with great accounts, had great teammates and had some great leaders/mentors. However, for the past 2.5 years, the agency I work with is just perfect for my family and me. Yes, of course there are tough days and crazy busy days, but those are few and far between and the fun and awesome moments outweigh the not-so-good ones by far! To sum it up, here are 3 reasons why I am thankful for my job and why I LOVE working where I do.
- I get to be myself and do what I love
For those that know me, you know I am a pretty energetic person, in a good mood 98% of the time and probably a pain to deal with at times… At my previous agency, although I was able to be myself around my co-workers, there was this “corporate” feel to it and “playful” behaviors were frowned upon by some of the upper management team. I felt like I needed to watch what I said or did at times and did not feel I had a voice… Booooring… 🙂
At my current agency, that has never been an issue. My boss/owner of the agency embraces people’s personalities and has built an awesome team that allows everyone to be him/herself, while still working as a solid unit. In my experience, when people are free to be who they are and do not have to put up a façade, they work better, more freely, they enjoy being there and feel accepted, which in return yields efficiency and overall happiness.
Besides being able to be me, I get to do what I love- what I’ve wanted to do since I was in high school! I get to work in a fun and creative Ad Agency with awesome clients in so many different verticals! No day is the same, every client, every campaign presents a new, fun challenge and I never stop learning! I learn from my peers, from our clients, from new situations, and experiences and of course from data! 🙂 . Professionally, I could not ask for more.
- My boss is a woman and a mother.
You have no idea what a difference this makes. I think of myself as a very involved father. My family means the world to me and I want to be a part of my kids’ daily lives as much as I can; I would never forgive myself if in 20 years I look back and wish I would have been more present. Nope. I refuse to let that happen and my boss not only knows it, but also shares my same beliefs and is sooo supportive of anything family.
In this era we hear claims of work/life balance and how employees need to support women in the workplace to allow them to spend more time with their kids. Not only that, but to be OK with it and not see their time with their families as a “weakness” or a “lack of commitment” to their jobs that could prevent them from professional advancement.
Although I am a strong believer that all of the above should apply to men as well (that’s a whole other post), I don’t have to worry about ANY of it because my boss is a woman AND she is a mother. She gets it! She practices it! She is very involved in her child’s life and has a very strong family foundation. So, at previous jobs when asking for time-off to go be part of my kids’ activities, or even Dr.’s appointments, although they rarely denied my requests, you could tell they did not like it and I had to do these things with a guilty feeling about it…. And that feeling sucked! Now? She is 100% supportive and in return she knows that I will work my butt off to meet any deadlines, deliverables and expectations. It has to be a give and take where every party benefits and wins from it.
So, to my above point, it probably would be awesome if more women were in top positions in Corporate America to build better workplaces, or we can hope that the new generation of involved fathers (which I know all my friends with kids share my beliefs) start taking over the big honcho roles because we get it. We love family/work balance and a happy working environment.
- We have a team that believes in well being
As a team, we workout together at the local YMCA 2-4 times a week. We support and promote healthy eating habits, diet together, juice at the office, etc. We have a great support group that makes it so much easier to stay in shape and try to eat clean. We’ve all had days we don’t feel like going to the gym, but the team pushes us to go and once we are done with the workout we are so grateful we did it. It takes a village and we have a fun, healthy village.
For the above reasons and truthfully many others, I don’t take it for granted and I am thankful for my job! I hope everyone feels the same about theirs.
Sometimes I seriously wish I had boobs!… tonight especially!
It is 11:52pm. I am now writing this post because of the damn debacle I just went through is relatively fresh in my mind..
Yes, you read it right… sometimes I wish I had boobs because at times it seems is the only thing that would soothe the twins… and believe me when I tell you, the thought of getting boobs is not as crazy as the amount of patience and insanity required to deal with 2 crying babies at the same time and feeling helpless! So yes, I would take the temporary boobs if available. Of course they need to be fully functioning milking boobs type. I am definitely not looking for the ones that would make me look hot with a low cut shirt…;)
Anywho, back to tonight’s mayhem! Some background story first. So, the twins (6.5 months old) don’t sleep through the night yet. And before you consider sending me advice, please know that I’ve read books, articles, systems, strategies, schedules , you name it, and have even consulted our pediatrician looking for help… To my comfort (NOT) he told me some babies don’t sleep through the night until 18 months old!!! PLEASE don’t let this be me… But in the meantime I’ll do whatever we can to try to get them there. We could all use some solid back-to-back hours of sleep. I feel as if I’ve lived on interrupted sleep for the last 6+ years… oh wait! I have! (enter joke of having 5 kids in 6 years here).
So, after much research, we moved the twins upstairs to their own cribs. They slept together downstairs but just as my other 3 kids, they are horrible sleepers and cannot stay still through the night and kept waking each other up…. So with their move upstairs, we decided to feed them formula when they wake up around midnight. Formula takes longer to digest and hence they are full longer… or so we think/thought.. And of course I (Andres) would give it to them so Becca can sleep and she can get them once they wake up AGAIN around 4ish…
Instead of going to bed and having to wake up at midnight to go prep the bottles when they wake up. I’ve stayed awake so I can prep them close to midnight hoping to avoid a crazy ass fit that could potentially wake up all other 3 kids and then we are in huge trouble… So big that I don’t even want to EVER let it happen to find out…
Tonight however was different. They woke up around 11:30. I wasn’t freaking ready. And it would be ok if they would just wake up like normal people but they wake up as if someone is pinching them or if they just had a nightmare about Jason chasing them with the chainsaw and was really fu*%$&g close to catch them. That’s how they wake up! Insane.
Tonight was also unusual because since I am usually ready and prepared, I don’t let them wake up each other. Before the other wakes up and starts crying, I have the other in my arms and with a bottle in their mouth. Boom. But nope, not tonight… Tonight I had to let them cry together, freaking loud as hell, until I came back from the kitchen with their bottles. But that was just the beginning! As I raced upstairs, I came to their cribs and saw both of them screaming to the top of their lungs… I picked up Emi, shoved a bottle in his mouth and I leaned over my face so I could hold the bottle with my chin. Once I got that settled, I had to somehow feed Alejandro. So I leaned over his crib with the bottle and was able to feed him. There I was, my left arm holding Emi, my chin holding Emi’s bottle and my right arm/hand feeding Ale lying on his crib. But Emi had to take me to the “Difficulty Level B” like in the Atari 2000. He kept putting his hand on the bottle and pulling it down… all my leverage was with my chin so of course the bottle fell off his mouth and he was not having it! He screamed like crazy! My only way to stop him was to let go off Ale’s bottle, fix Emi’s bottle so he can drink and then putting the bottle back in Ale’s mouth before his screaming got out of hand…. This same thing happened 3 times! Bottle down, babies crying, me juggling babies and bottles and then figuring out a way to burp them at the same time so they could sleep.
Top top it all, why is it that every time you have your hands busy something feels itchy on your body but you can’t itch it!!! So frustrating!
So, while struggling through the feeding and dealing the best I could with my crazy overreacting yet OMG so cute babies, I thought of how much easier it would’ve been if I had boobs to feed the guys and being able to feed them 2 at a time!! It would save me a lot of headaches, probably gotten me more sleep and help me keep my sanity!
Since probably my wish will not come true, I will continue to wish the babies would sleep through the night instead of waking up screaming bloody murder!! Good night.
Sincerely,
Helpless (and boobless) in Florida.
Our last Summer weekend! :(
It feels as it was only a few weeks ago the kids finished their first year at their new school. I remember I thought we had SO much time to do SO many things! We thought about going to the beach more often, plan a trip or two to Orlando to go to Sea World, use our tickets to Dinosaur World and so many other family adventures!… wrong.
Before we knew it, it was mid-August and we were planning what to do on our last weekend before the kids (and Becca) went back to school!! Don’t get me wrong, we did a lot of fun stuff this summer (Becca’s family came down to Siesta Key for a week, we went to the beach a handful of times, I played in the Ultimate Frisbee Sunshine State Games, Regionals and Nationals Championship and much more) but we thought our summer break was going to be much longer than it was. I guess life with 5 kiddos, 2 of which were under 6 months of age goes by really really quick…
The crazy thing is that this weekend was no different than any other weekend this summer. We had a lot going on. Between Open houses, purchasing last minute school supplies and clothes, celebrating my 39th birthday and trying to get everyone back to our night-time schedule, we were running out of time very very quickly. We needed to make sure we had at least one super fun day! Unfortunately, the weather had been against us too! It has been raining on a daily basis making it hard to play outside and if that was not enough, all this stupid rain is making our backyard a mosquito paradise!! Sucks!
But, I knew we needed at least one last weekend at the beach. I reached out to our beach buddies but unfortunately none of them were able to come out! And the ones that were going to join us texted me the morning of to let me know they had partied too hard the night before and were staying in nursing the hangover….. (damn people without kids. :)) I didn’t care, I had promised the kids (and myself) that we were going to the beach and so we did!!! We got very lucky, we went in the morning and were able to escape the nasty rains and enjoyed our Florida sunshine.
We had a blast. Despite the fact that I forgot to bring the paddle for our paddleboard (what a momo), we played in the water and the kids “surfed” some waves on the board — I was actually impressed on how brave Nico and Nati were getting up on the board and riding the waves! That came to a temporary stop after Nico rode the longest wave and took a tumble once the board hit the beach… 🙁 … He did not cry and got back on the board but he began to “abort” much earlier jumping off the board to make sure he did not eat the beach again… haha.
Santi had a great time jumping waves and playing in the sand burying the army men and animals he had brought. The babies were very well-behaved and even took a couple of good naps in their little cocoon enjoying the breeze and the sound of the waves (seriously… is there a better scenario to take a nap!?! ok, maybe if there was a hammock… ).
After leaving the beach we headed home to celebrate my birthday with my family and we even got to play upfront with their scooters AND played in the pool before the rain ruined the rest of the afternoon. The kids loved it. Now that Nico can swim, he has been enjoying the pool so much more!
Monday was the kids’ last day off. Their “nona” picked them up in the morning and took them to the Ringling Museum of Art and they LOVED it!! It never occurred to us to take them to the museum assuming they would be so bored and probably crazy loud! But they all loved it and were mesmerized by all the art. One more cool activity to add to our list.
I also got to have some fun Monday night! I met with a couple of friends to go paddleboarding in St Pete. We were able to paddle for over an hour right on time before the rain took over…
Although the summer flew by, we had a great last weekend as a family taking advantage of many of the cool things Florida has to offer. We are ready for another school year (oh boy, so we think….).
Wowzers! Emi and Ale are 6 months already!
I could easily use 2 cliches right off the bat to open this post (and I will) 1. Time flies and 2. They grow up so fast! Both darn right… I am not sure if time seems to go by way faster the older I get, or if it is the combination of the older I get plus how busy we are and how many kids we have! 🙂 Regardless, I could not believe it this week I was taking our little babies to their 6 month appointment!
These two little men have been growing SO quickly and I feel as if I am not taking the time to slow down and enjoy more of what will be “our last set of firsts” with Becca. Seeing the babies grow and progress has been a blessing and an amazing experience once again, but coming to terms with the fact that each milestone they achieve will be our last of that particular milestone is bitter sweet.
At the end of the day, we can’t stop time but what we can do is to make a conscious effort to make the most out of what life presents to us. Throughout the past 6+ months, we have been blessed with very healthy babies and I pray to God that they remain as healthy and happy as they are. The addition of the twins to our family, although challenging at times, has been the most rewarding experience not only for Becca and me, but also for Nati, Nico and Santi — they have such a sincere love for the babies that melts our hearts. Trust me, I am well aware that Santi could’ve gone on strike and thrown a million and a half temper tantrums about the babies “displacing” him from the “baby” role (although only recently have we stopped referring to Santi as “the baby”) but instead he embraced them, claims them as his babies and protects them and loves them constantly! Same goes for Nico and Nati. I think the transition from party of 5 to party of 7 (gulp) was successful because Becca and I made sure we had a plan for the process and we made (and still do) a huge effort to maintain a level of “normalcy” in our kids’ lives. We continued with everyone’s extra curricular activities (ballet, gymnastics, soccer, bmx…) and never allowed the welcoming of Emi and Ale to negatively impact any of their activities. We wanted to make sure they felt loved, appreciated and valued so they wouldn’t have any negative feelings towards the babies or any feelings of a “lack of attention” or anything of that sort…
Has it been easy? Heck no! Has it gotten easier? Nope, even though we’ve gotten better, life still has its challenges. Has it been worth it!? Heck Yeah!! Best thing that has ever happened to all 7 of us. Loving every second -even though I wish they would sleep through the night by now so we can catch up on sleep.
Anywho, this all started because Emilio and Alejandro had their 6 months appointment so here are their stats:
Emilio:
Height: 25.3in
Weight: 16lbs 6oz
Alejandro:
Height: 24.8in
Weight: 16lbs 12oz
At the Dr. — twin style in their car seat. 🙂 Ale getting checked and Emi looking like he is making fun of him..
Our Easter Weekend
By now I should probably re-name this blog “the week after blog”… given the fact that I NEVER post when I really plan to or want to… oh well, something for me to work on.
Here’s a quick snapshot and ton of photos of our Easter Weekend. Our first as a Party of 7! 🙂
FRIDAY
We had a long weekend as a family thanks to my awesome agency that closed on Good Friday. The day off allowed me to spend some great quality time with the fam plus run some pending errands like sending my car for a much needed tune up!
With time to spare after dropping off the car, we went Bicycle shopping for Nico. His birthday was coming up and although he loves riding his Strider, he has been seeing some kiddos around his age riding bikes with pedals and he had been asking for one….
After a good amount of research from Becca and a couple of phone calls, we were able to find out the bike we wanted was at a local bike shop. After checking it out, we decided to buy it.. It was more than what we originally were willing to pay for it but we ended up getting a nice solid bike he can grow into it for a couple of years and of course depending on the condition he can hand it down to Santi or Emi or Ale… God knows we have options! 🙂
Here’s Nico’s new bike! And of course now I got Nati asking for a new one for her…
After riding bikes and scooters, we went to pick up my car and headed to the Strider BMX track where they were hosting a fundraiser for a 4 year old kid who is fighting cancer! – Hearing stories like this is one of the saddest things for us. In many occasions we’ve discussed with Becca how no one is “safe”… you think that delivering healthy babies will get you to the other side but that is not true.. that is just the beginning.. Unfortunately, many things can happen down the road. Kids from all ages have been born 100% healthy and are being diagnosed with life changing diseases, conditions, etc. I certainly pray every night to God to thank him for our kids’ health and to ask him for continuous health throughout their lives. I know something like that will devastate me.
The night was a success.. I am not sure how much money they raised but there were a good amount of people and they had a 2nd event scheduled for Saturday. We met our good friends there and the kiddos once again had a great time racing on their Striders.
SATURDAY
Saturday was Party Time! We took the kids to one of our friend’s 3 year old birthday party! It was a super cool party at a reservation that involved a presentation of animals that live in their habitat. The kiddos got to see snakes, birds, spiders and some reptiles! I was crazy impressed at Nati… she held not 1 but 2 snakes!!! That’s 2 more than I am willing to hold! Nico was more like me and did not want any part of it.. Santi did not want any part of it either but the snake gave him no choice… (I would’ve freaked out and screamed… Santi simply froze and keep an eye on that thing that was crawling on him… yikes!).
From the party we went to our friend’s house. They recently bought it and did some awesome renovations to the house and it looks amazing! We had a beer, I got peed on by Emilio (or Santiago… fyi, they look alike.. ), we hung out for a bit and then headed out to run errands to prepare for our Easter Sunday with Family.
EASTER SUNDAY
Family events are always fun for us. We love entertaining and having people over whether it is friends or family. This year we had my mom and dad (who was visiting from Colombia), my sister and her kiddos and some of my sister’s friends stopped by later in the day.
Our day started off with an Easter Egg hunt around the house… The Easter Bunny came in, ate some carrots and left clues that led to other clues to find the “hidden treasure”. The kids loved it. This year was special because Nati has been reading so well so she got to read ALL the clues! Nico was in charge of cracking the egg open and Nati would read the clues. They had a great time reading and finding them. The Easter Bunny brought Nati a new swim suit (which she wore later that day at the pool), Nico a Lego Movie and Santi a Word World movie. The babies got some new toys. Everyone was happy.
For lunch we grilled out some steaks, brats and had them with salad and rice. It was yum! We purchased the meat from a local meat shop and we are definitely going back!
Our lunch was followed by pool time! The weather was amazing. The water was still not hot enough for my liking but the kids did not seem to mind. It was the first time they got in this year and had a great time. Previous to Easter Sunday we had already declared this coming Summer “The Summer of Nico”. Our goal is to have Nico swimming before the summer is over! We’ll see how it goes…
And of course, before the day was over, we did the “official” Easter egg hunt. We had prepared 40+ eggs with some candy and small toys. We hid them around our yard and had the kids find all the eggs. It is always fun to see their excitement when looking for these eggs and opening what they got. Shortly after, we wrapped it up — everyone went home to prepare for the week ahead.
It was a blessed weekend. We are thankful we got to spend it together as a family. We hope everyone had a blessed and fun weekend as well.
OUR WEEK – A BALANCING ACT
Throughout our six years of parenting, we’ve never been a family committed to a “structured routine”. We have been more a “go with the flow” type and that has worked for us. Yes, of course, there is a “loose” routine that we try to adhere to, but we are very flexible since every day brings on new challenges.
With Emi and Ale, things have been more structured, and although we still don’t follow a strict schedule, we do make sure they are doing things like eating and “sleeping” at the same time… otherwise Becca would be feeding a kid every hour on the hour… but that’s a whole other post.
Since Becca’s family left, we’ve been working on returning to our normal routines and making sure everyone is able to participate in their extracurricular activities. Nati attends modern dance, ballet and gymnastics, Nico rides BMX strider every other week (or we try to) and he started his soccer season once again and Dad plays Ultimate Frisbee with the Florida Masters team (33+ years of age).
I am not going to lie.. it has been hard for Becca to haul all 5 kids to dance and gymnastics, but luckily I’ve been able to take off early 2 days of the week so I can attend Nati’s gymnastics and coach Nico’s soccer team. In addition, we juggled this weekend so I could run errands for our business on Saturday morning, and then I headed out to Gainesville for our team’s practice/tryouts… Plus it doesn’t end with just their activities… we then rush home to prep/eat dinner, get lunches ready, do homework, put kids to bed, etc etc.
Last week, Nati was also asked to participate in her school’s Open House event. She and other kids from her kindergarten class showcased a few of the awesome things they’ve learned this year, and some of her art was even featured! She was so proud, and deservingly so.
I mention the above because Becca told me Nati wanted to participate and asked me if we could make it. I said: “If it is important to her and she wants to do it, we’ll make it happen”, and so we did. And we always do. We believe it is important for everyone to be able to do what they want (within reason) and feel the support of the family (all of us).
I know it was hard on Becca this weekend when I left her with all 5 kids so I could go practice (Nico was supposed to come with me but bailed last minute because the weather was crappy… smart man). We knew it would be difficult, but Becca understands how important it is to me and it had been on our calendars for quite some time now. She was a champ and I was SO appreciative of her sacrifice so I could enjoy what I love.
This past week was a great learning week for us. It taught us that although it will not be easy, we can still manage to fit in what everyone loves to do and do it with everyone’s support. Yes, there are sacrifices being made, but that’s what we do for the people we love. After this week we feel ready, very ready. Bring it on life.
This picture sums up the crazyness levels at home. LOL.
Some of our favorite pics from the week/weekend.
The babies are here! – How our other kids welcomed our new additions and the “Twins” phenomenon.
Besides the crazy rush we went through to deliver Emilio and Alejandro, (ok never mind it wasn’t THAT crazy) having twins seems to be a “novelty” and one you need to navigate carefully so everyone involved feels loved, cared for and important. Especially when you have 3 more kids to worry about!! 🙂
Going into this we knew we had our work cut out for us to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi were going to be ok with the arrival of two more babies into their lives. And not just 2 more babies… twins! Identical twins! Whoa! A phenomenon of its own! Since this is our 4th rodeo, we kind of think we know what we are doing. We’ve dealt with “sibling displacement syndrome” (I totally just made that up) twice already and feel like we succeeded at it. But this is a different ball game ladies and gentlemen, this is twins. This is the “I want to dress them up the same and make them look so cute” game. This is the “Oh my God you have twins! How cute! Tell me all about it!” type of game. And because of this, I/we need to step up our game and say “Hey! Thank you, yes! They are twins (yet they are individuals… oh boy.. that’s another thing we’ll deal with) but check this out! We have 3 other kids who are amazing!! Yes, we are Catholic (very non-practicing) but that is not why we have so many… And these are their names AND they are awesome because they do this and this and this…
And don’t get me started with the looks we’ll get… and my struggle to hold back my desire to punch or say something to those I can tell who are judging us… This is definitely another post/rant. 🙂
So, because of all of the above and a ton more, we tried our hardest to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi felt not only special, but also so they could feel that everything was normal and their world was not turned upside down because Emi and Ale had arrived…
In an effort to do this and due to the timing of their arrival (one day before Nati’s 6th birthday), my schedule was out of whack the first couple of days… trying to juggle being at the hospital to support Becca and tending to the newborns while still maintaining “normality” in everyone else’s lives!
This is sort of what Monday night and Tuesday looked like.
Monday 7:49PM: Welcome babies to the world.
Monday around 9pm: Nati, Nico and Santi come meet their new baby brothers. 🙂
Monday 9:30pm: I leave with the kiddos to put them to bed at home (about 25 mins away)
Monday 11pm: I head back to Hospital
Monday 11:30PM – Tuesday 6am: tend to newborns as needed. “Slept” in a very uncomfy chair.
Tuesday 6am: Get up and head home.
Tuesday 6:30 – 7:30am: Get showered, pack Santi’s lunch, wake up kiddos, get them ready for school.
Tuesday 7:40 – 9am: Drive Nati and Nico to school. Then drop off Santi at daycare and head back to Hospital.
Tuesday 9-11am: Tend to newborns and Becca as needed.
Tuesday 11am: Head out to Target to get cupcakes for Nati’s birthday and get lunch for Nati and Nico.
Tuesday 11:45 – 12:30pm: Brought cupcakes to Nati’s class, they sang to her, went to get Nico from his class and had lunch all together! I loved all of it. 🙂
Tuesday 1pm – 2:45pm: Back at the hospital.
Tuesday 2:45 – 3:45pm: Head out to pick up Nati and Nico from school and back to the hospital.
Tuesday 3:45 – 5pm: at the hospital.
Tuesday 5 – 5:45pm: Head out to pick up Santi from daycare and back to the hospital. We had dinner at the hospital.
Tuesday 8:30pm: Took all 3 kids home to put them in bed and once asleep, I went back to the hospital.
Rinse and repeat.
Phew…. That was ONE CRAZY DAY! But those are the sacrifices we needed to make for our kids to make sure their lives were “normal”. I would do it again if I had to (oh wow.. just jinxed myself… just kidding, we took care of that AND I probably will go double whammy and go in for my vasectomy too).
Besides all the crazy things we had to go through, the kiddos LOVED their new baby brothers. They wanted to see them at all times, they wanted to hold them, feed them and kiss them. Santi (our 2 year old) was the only one that was uneasy around them… as if they were too little and he was afraid of breaking them. Emilio and Alejandro couldn’t be loved any more by their sister and brothers. And now that it has been 2 weeks, I can honestly say no one has felt “displaced” or not loved. Heck, we do try hard and make a conscious effort so that everyone feels “special”- as parents each of the kids holds a special place in our hearts.
I am so proud of my Nati, Nico and Santi and so appreciative of how welcoming and loving they’ve been to Emi and Ale. It makes me smile to think about all the love they share and all the amazing memories they will build together. We are so excited about our adventure. It has only been 2 weeks and I would not change a single second.
We are seriously Happy Number 7. 🙂
The babies are here! Wait!! What?!? The babies are here! — The arrival
Yes! The twins are here! We are now officially a party of 7!! S@#t just got real!
There are is a lot that has happened over the last week, so I will break it down into preparation, arrival, the other 3 kiddos’ reactions, and our first week as a family of 7.
Let’s start with their arrival which I think is the most important..
The weekend before their arrival, Becca had started to feel some pressure in her belly and started to feel some contractions. They were not very consistent, but contractions nonetheless. When Monday came around, I went to drop off the kids as I do every other day and on my way out of their school, I called to check on B. She said that she was feeling the same and had made a Doctor’s appointment for 11am. We agreed that I would go to work and depending on what the Dr. said, I would go home or stay at work.
After her appointment, she told me the Dr. said that although the delivery process had “started”, it would be best to wait until we got further in as she wanted to keep the babies growing in her belly for at least 1-2 more weeks… With that being said, I headed out to the gym for what was my last workout as a father of only 3 kids…
Becca picked up the kids from school as usual and on her way home she called me to let me know that she was having regular contractions about 10 minutes apart!!! I wrapped up stuff at work and headed home as fast as I could!! All of our babies had been induced so this whole “rushing to the hospital” was new to us (we hadn’t even packed a bag)… Heck! All of this is new to us! We are rookies at everything “twin”…
While driving, I made plans with my mom and sister to drop off the kids at my sister’s house and to have my mom stay with the kids at our place for at least 1-3 nights. As soon as I got home, we packed up everyone and headed out!!
After dropping Nati, Nico and Santi at my sister’s house, we headed to the hospital and after Becca’s evaluation, the doctor said that we were not “fully” ready and that she would like the kids to “cook longer”.. I am not sure if that is what triggered Becca’s labor, but soon after that, the contractions started to spread only 2 minutes apart which drove the Dr. back into the room to let us know that we needed to start prepping for delivery!!! Holy crap…. Reality hit us…we will be welcoming 2 more kids into our home!! Were we ready? Were all of our preparations enough? Did we even bring enough stuff to the hospital to welcome them? … Regardless of the answers, it did not matter, they were on their way!!
After prepping Becca, they called me in. Although I really wanted to look behind the curtain (against every advice not to do so), I decided not to because I did not know how I would react and Becca needed me more than I needed to satisfy my curiosity (if I could handle it)…
At 7:49PM, the world welcomed Emilio and at 7:50PM, we welcomed Alejandro- two healthy baby boys. All was good in the world at that time. Momma was good, babies were good and kiddos were taken care of.
Monday 1/26/15 at 7:49PM, our world changed forever. Our hearts got even fuller with love. That day we became Happy Number 7! Yep, it could be the most challenging year yet, BUT we know that it will be the most rewarding one as well! We are so excited about the adventures and memories that await us.
P.S – the arrival of these little ones have also opened our eyes to how much love we are surrounded with. The positive energy, love and help we’ve received from family and friends (old and new) has been overwhelming and we (all 7 of us) will be forever grateful. Much love to everyone.