Life as Party of 7

Our last Summer weekend! :(

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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!

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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

Happy Number 7

Happy babies!

Alejandro

Emilio

At the Dr. — twin style in their car seat. 🙂 Ale getting checked and Emi looking like he is making fun of him..

Twinfie at the Drs office

“What the heck?!”

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One day this summer, while at the beach, I picked up Santi (age 2) and went in the water with Nico and Nati. We live near the Gulf of Mexico, so the water is usually calm and “good” waves are hard to come by. However, it was a windy day and the waves were bigger than usual. After jumping a couple of waves, we got hit with a “big” one and both Santi and I got splashed with water all over our faces….. It was fun and hilarious, especially when I heard Santi say, (with a loud squeal) “What the heck?!!?” I could not stop laughing it was so cute and funny, which of course gave him the green light to keep saying it over and over… oddly enough, it never stopped being funny.

When I checked the date of my last blog post, I felt the same way. “What the heck!?” I realized I had not blogged since Easter!! 4 months without blogging!?! To me, it meant 4 full months without documenting some of the amazing things that have happened … less memories to look back upon when we read our family blog… Unacceptable, yet I understood why…. Oh yeah, we happen to have 5 kids, two of whom are now 6 months old TWINS! And life at our household has gotten busier. In addition to the non-stop learning of how to raise two babies at a time (not freaking easy), we were juggling our jobs, our business and trying to launch a new one. All while still doing all of our activities like Nati’s ballet and gymnastics classes, Nico’s strider races and soccer, my Ultimate Frisbee practices and tournaments, etc…Looking back, it seems like a lot, but in reality, that’s the only way I function. I like staying busy. Sometimes too much. J

So, I’ve decided to make a list of “Awesome things we’ve done this summer” and blog them one by one so we can record all the cool memories we’ve built this summer and recall the milestones the kids hit this summer. Exciting moments like riding a bike without training wheels! Or Learning how to swim! Or our Beach Week, Nati’s dance camp, Emi and Ale’s growth and Santi’s craziness!

I hope that writing these snippets don’t take me as long as 4 months 😉 I’ve realized how much I miss blogging and how amazing it will be for our kids to read our blog once they grow up, have children and take time to reflect on their childhood. And of course for Becca and I to do the same and cherish all the amazing moments we experience as a Happy Family of 7.

Our Easter Weekend

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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 2^nd 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.

HAPPY EASTER 2015!

8 weeks – Babies Update

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Last Monday, the babies had their 8-week check up. I know, 8 weeks already! Time seems to be flying faster than usual… probably because we are always on the go, never a quiet moment around the house these days…

The great news is that we continue to be blessed with very healthy babies. That is the most important thing and I thank God every night for protecting our kiddos and keeping them healthy. Other than a small eye infection on Alejandro’s left eye, everything else has been great.

Here are their 8-week stats:

Emilio:

Weight: 7lb 14oz.

Height: 20.8in

Head Circumference: 37.3cm.

Alejandro:

Weight: 7lb 13oz.

Height: 20.8in

Head Circumference: 37.5cm.

As you can see, they are growing very similar to each other and let me tell you, telling them apart these days is getting harder and harder… I thought that as they grew up they would start developing certain differences… Nope, not these kids! They’ve decided to make things harder by looking more alike every day!! Thankfully, we still have Ale’s big toe painted blue to make sure when in doubt… but man! we need to come up with other alternatives or new “tells”…

Another fun fact is that although they have been growing nicely, even after 8 weeks they have not yet reached our other kids’ birth weight. Nati and Santi were 8.3lbs and Nico was 9.1lbs!! I know! we make BIG babies :)… You would never know judging by Nico’s petite figure… although Santi’s robust figure would give it up ;).

Emi and Ale have become more alert, they spend more time awake and have started to recognize faces and smile :). Their favorite place is the double boppy where they chill and nap. They also love to be held and have been enjoying some tummy time.

We are 8 weeks in and we could not be any happier as a family. It seems the joy and challenges the babies have brought into our lives have gotten us closer together as our team of 7. We are certainly a blessed and Happy Number 7.

Chilling at the Doctor’s office.

Waiting to be measured.

Chilling with Santi.

It’s so cute how much they love each other.

Tummy time turned into hug time!

Our first family beach day! 8 details that helped us pull it off!

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This past week, Nico and Nati were on their spring break, which meant Becca took care of 5 kids by herself most of the week since I had to go to work. To give her a break and get the kids out of the house, we decided to go to the beach! Here is a list of 8 things that made our first beach day as a party of 7 a success!

Time Flexibility: Although we knew some people would be getting to the beach at 9:30, we did not stress to get there at that time.. Given the fact Emilio and Alejandro had a rough night (and therefore so did Becca and I), we had gone to bed late so we let the kids sleep in. Life with kids does not always work as planned, so being flexible and not sweating the little things help. We believe kids work better in a non-pressured environment. No rush. No stress. No fights. 🙂 The beach will be there no matter what time we show up.

A full baby is a happy baby.. a hungry baby – not so much! J . Prior to our departure to and from the beach, we made sure the babies were fed (tried to time it around their 3-4 hour schedule). This helped for a much more enjoyable beach day and for quiet car rides. 😉

Planning what to bring: As simple as it sounds, beach outings require items such as beach chairs, tent, umbrella, change of clothes, snacks, cooler, towels, sand toys among others… it ends up being a ton of stuff, so packing most of the stuff the night before (or at least having a plan of “attack” in the morning) helps for an easier and more efficient morning… This was our first time with 5 kiddos. We had to pack extra for the babies and because we knew we would be at the beach for a while — it’s not worth going through the crazy hassle for just 1 hour of fun. Which brings me to my next point..

“Plan” how long to stay at the beach: Ha! This sounds easy on paper. As parents we know most of the time things don’t go as planned, hence #1 on the list is very important. But it is good to estimate how long you’ll stay – Will you be there long enough to need lunch? Are you planning on having lunch by the beach? (do you need a change of clothes). In our case, will we be at the beach long enough so the babies would need to be fed again? Having an idea helps you prepare for things to come as the day goes by, when prepared (or semi-prepared) things flow more smoothly.

Shade, shade, shade (and don’t forget sunscreen): I must admit, I overplanned for shade this time around. I brought a canopy/tent (like this one), a cocoon for the babies to protect them from sand and sun (we have a fisher price version of this item), and a beach umbrella. Becca planned well and applied sunscreen on our other 3 kids and the boys always wear rash guards with SPF to protect them from the sun. Now, Dad is a different story… I forgot to apply sunscreen and paid the price the couple of days after. Dumb move on my part. Plan for shade. The sun is fun, but can also be harmful. Plus it’s good to have a shady spot after being in the sun for a while. Don’t forget sunscreen!

Keep an eye on the kids and relax: Huh? Yes, it can be done. As long as we know where our kids are at all times, we can relax, have a beer, talk to other adults and chill out. Some parents overprotect their kids and make the outings annoying for their kids and for everyone around them… The kids will be kids, they like to jump waves, make sand holes, run around without being careful, etc etc. We make sure we keep an eye on them, supervise and correct if/when needed and then let them get back to having fun.

Don’t sweat the sand: Sand will be everywhere. As much as you rinse off by the beach and shake all items prior to putting them back in the car, sand will find its way to be everywhere… It is what it is. I am not going to lie, it took me a while to come to peace with that and I have learned not to sweat it anymore. I have 5 kids… the days of a clean car at all times are long gone (actually not sure if they were ever there J).

Enjoy the beach and enjoy the kids: We don’t get to go to the beach every day. The beach offers so many cool things you can’t find anywhere else and is such a different “playground” for the kids! Plus, it offers super cool photo ops capturing the kids having a blast with their friends and siblings. We always come back from the beach with fun memories and a TON of pics to prove it (as seen below :)) .

More and more we are becoming comfortable experiencing things as a family of 7- as parents of 5 kids under the age of 6 and as parents of 6 week old twins. We don’t shy away from life. We embrace it. We learn and confirm we can do it! Yes, it is not the easiest and it has its challenges but the rewards and memories make every second worth it.

CHEERS TO LIFE!

OUR WEEK – A BALANCING ACT

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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.

Nati’s Art featured at the Open House

Nico and Santi helping get Emi and Ale to the Open House. 🙂

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.

Due to so many accidents on the interstate, I was re-routed through the country roads. So relaxing.

Horse farms in Ocala, FL on my way to Gainesville.

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.

Strike a pose. Policemen version.

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.

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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 4^th 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 6^th 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. 🙂