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. ☺
They say money can’t buy happiness, but I am pretty sure we just bought some of it.
I am a dreamer. I am also a believer of chasing your dreams. I’ve chased a few of my own. Some with successful results and some not – those are the ones you learn the most from. I also believe in supporting and pushing others to follow their own dreams. In this story, someone else’s dream affected me directly and I was happy to play a role to help make it happen. 🙂
Back in 2007 when we started considering having kids, Becca had what could’ve been a very successful career in business. However, I’ve always thought that teachers were special people with special qualities and I thought Becca had all those qualities and had the potential of being an awesome teacher! (I was proven right later). At that time, she started toying with the idea of teaching in order to spend more time at home and eventually when our kids grew of age, she could be involved in their school life. We thought more about it due to the fact that Hillsborough County was in need of teachers, and the timing was just right. The easy decision would’ve been to remain in her position, move up the ladder of Corporate America, etc, etc BUT we had a bigger plan in mind. A plan that could allow Becca to eventually fulfill her dream of being a mom; a mom that could be involved with the kiddos.
That summer we (she) took the plunge. And no surprise, she was AWESOME at it. Kids loved her. Teachers loved her. Administrators loved her! A few years later she was offered an Assistant Principal position and although she hesitated taking it because she would miss the classroom and the kids, she took on the challenge and rocked that position as well. (you see the trend here? ;))
Last year, we were given the opportunity to chase her big dream for the first time. Chasing it required some sacrifices – mostly financial as our kid’s school is a small private school that is not in need of APs so she would need to teach – but we could not chase it in 2014. We had a lot going on with the babies on their way, short notice, etc… Although disappointed, we think it was the best thing. That extra year allowed us to plan ahead to make the transition in 2015. We needed to come up with ideas on how to supplement Becca’s new income so we could maintain our lifestyle. Also, the arrival of the babies meant more expenses! Food, daycare/nanny, etc. We had to plan for all of it and make sure we would be ok. It was also a good year for Becca to begin her transition of her AP role in her school (a school she loved and is so grateful for). During her pregnancy with the twins, they were so amazing to her- being very flexible with her schedule, out-of-school duties, etc. We are forever grateful to them not only for that last year, but for the entire time Becca was a part of the school.
This summer (2015) when the opportunity rose, we were ready. We had a business in place (www.PackLessPlayMore.com), we had the nanny situation for Santi, Emi and Ale taken care of, and Nati and Nico had successfully finished their first year at their new school! I am not going to lie, going into it was a bit scary. As much as you plan, you never knew how things are going to settle in, how “accurate” our financial planning was, how crazy (or not) things would be, etc.
Well…. I can now tell you with confidence that it has been AWESOME! Becca is so happy! The kids are SO happy their mom works at their school! Becca feels so fulfilled teaching again and loves that she can see our kids throughout the day, have lunch with them, be available if they need her, etc… I am kind of jealous but so happy for all of them. Yes, we are a couple of tens of thousands of dollars short compared to last year, but every penny is worth it. Being able to chase and achieve a life dream has no price – it only brings satisfaction, smiles, happiness and that, for us, is what life is about. Being happy together.
So yes, people say you can’t buy happiness, but I am pretty sure we just bought ourselves a huge chunk! Cheers to dreaming and chasing dreams!! God bless.
MONDAY MORNING QB: FATHERHOOD
If there was such thing as a QB rating for parenting performances over the weekend, I think I would have had one of my lowest QBRs yet… As with many other things, admitting it is the first step. And I admit it: I had some really sucky moments this weekend.
Sometimes I get caught up in the whole “parenting” and “disciplining” and set some stupid high expectations for my kids (if Nati read this she would tell me “ooohh you said “stupid”) and sometimes I forget how young they are! Nati is not even 7, Nico is 4 ½ and Santi is 2 ½ !! and I somehow expect them to be crazy well behaved, be quiet when I ask them to and follow directions 100% of the time. Who am I fucking kidding! If it was THAT easy, people would not complain about how hard it is to raise kids! Or how hard is to maintain your sanity when you tell your kids to stop doing something and not even 30 seconds later they are doing the exact same thing you JUST told them to stop doing!
Boom. That was my weekend. I think I could even tweet my entire weekend in less than 134 characters…
Me: Guys will you please keep your voices down? The babies are trying to sleep.
Nati/Nico/Santi: Yes/ok dad.
Me: Thanks!
30 seconds later…
Nati/Nico/Santi: screaming and running around the house chasing each other.
Me (to myself an looking at Becca): What the fuck…
Rinse and Repeat all weekend long….
So needless to say, come Sunday my patience had a very short fuse. I was quick to snap. I think in a way I thought I was trying to stop things from escalating but I don’t think it worked and my lack of patience was definitely the only thing escalating at a fast rate.
Sunday night I went to bed frustrated. A little disappointed at the kids. Monday morning rolled in and Nati and Nico were at it again in the AM. I called them out as they ran by me down the hall. They turned around and I gave them the evil eye… They got it. They knew I was mad and headed over to the table to eat their breakfast.
In most cases, I would’ve chucked that one on the “W” column… however, the sad look they had on their face when they realized Grumpy McGrumpy was at it again and interrupted their fun was not what I wanted to get in return. That moment I realized that in those moments I become the “no fun” dad and even less impressive, the “He’s mad at us, we are going to get in trouble” dad. And THAT one sucks. I don’t want to be the parent they “fear”, I want to be the rational dad that can work everything out with his kids. It was not a good feeling.
That same morning. Before any of that went down. Becca had sent me an article she read at 6am that morning while feeding the babies. Her timing couldn’t have been better. It was such a great eye opening and reminder that kids are just kids and that I need to learn to “chill” more and expect less from them. I should only expect them to be kids. Not little adults. Especially Nati.
Here is the article: http://www.scarymommy.com/the-burden-being-firstborn/
So, I admit it. My QB Rating sucked this past weekend. The good news is that I get a chance to make up for it every single day of my life and you can be sure I will give it my best shot. I will never be 100% but I will work my ass off to get as close to it as possible. I have 5 amazing reasons to do so.
God Bless.
And of course… here are some cute pics/video of the kiddos in action. 🙂
Downhill competition – Home Style from Andres Leguizamon on Vimeo.
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
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?!”
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
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.
HAPPY EASTER 2015!
8 weeks – Babies Update
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!
