father of twins

Our Easter Weekend

being a father Easter 2015 Fatherhood Fun with kids Happy Number 7 Holiday Fun Life as Party of 7 life with twins Parenthood Parenting multiples party of seven Raising multiples Raising Twins Strider

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!

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

Beach with kids Fun with kids Happy Number 7 Holiday Fun Lessons learned Life as Party of 7 life with twins Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples parenting tips party of seven Raising multiples Raising Twins Weekend Fun

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

being a father Children Milestones Fun with kids Happy Number 7 Lessons learned Life as Party of 7 Life Reflections life with twins mother of multiple Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples party of seven Raising multiples Raising Twins Weekend Fun

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.

Baby Update being a father Happy Number 7 Life as Party of 7 Life Reflections Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples Raising multiples Raising Twins Strider

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. 🙂

Babies Update!

Baby Update being a father Parenting multiples Pregnancy Stories Pregnant with Twins

The date is rapidly approaching, that day when we become a family of 7 plus our dog is less than 3 weeks away.. yikes!

Whether we are ready or not, what we have left to do, what we have done so far and whether we are freaking out or not is content for another blog… it is coming.. just not even mentally prepared to put it on paper!

This post is to share the amazing news that our baby boys have cleared the date when their arrival might have been considered risky… Cleared the date where we would have had to go to a different hospital that had special caring facilities for premature babies. We are in the clear. If they were to decide to come into this world tomorrow, we will be able to go to “our” hospital and the delivery would be performed by Becca’s doctors. The ones she’s been seeing since we were pregnant with Nati (that’s right, I said “we”). Moving forward, our babies will he delivered where we received all 3 of our other kids as it is likely that their lungs are developed enough. Again, it’s “our” hospital, our comfort zone – and this is very important at the time of delivery. Trust me, this is my 4^th rodeo.

In addition to the great news above, the babies are doing great! They are growing at a very nice pace and weighing approximately 5.5 and 5.7 lbs respectively. The momma could not be doing any better (considering the circumstances). Yes, of course she is tired, in pain at times, uncomfortable, itchy, etc. but none of these are anomalies for a pregnant woman at 36 weeks of pregnancy. She is rocking this pregnancy yet again – she is good at this!

For the past couple of weeks both of the babies were facing head down in perfect position for delivery. However, on Tuesday we found out that one of them decided to rebel against the system and decided to show the other baby who the alpha kid will be. He decided not only to shift, but also to pin the other baby down so no further movement is possible, or at least the chances are minimal.

What does this mean? More than likely Becca will have to deliver via C-Section- this is new territory for us. But hey, everything about this adventure seems new. Because of the position of our little rebel, the doctors will not perform natural delivery at the risk of encountering complications and having to do an emergency C-Section- they require both babies to be head down.

The bottom line: It sucks for Becca as the recovery is longer. It sucks for me because I will be exposed to things I’ve never seen before and I am not 100% sure how the heck I am going to handle it…. I hope well enough to be Becca’s rock by her side, but I seriously have no idea what to expect … let’s just hope I don’t pass out or are scarred for life.

The good news in this is that unless the babies decide to make an appearance earlier than expected, we will book the delivery date. Doing this allows us to plan ahead, plan who’s going to be watching the kids, who’s taking them to school, who will house-sit, who can we count on for running errands, cooking meals, etc for the kids. Trust me, it is not an easy task. Taking care of 3 kids at once (ages 6, 3, and 1) when you are not used to it can be a daunting task.. only a few people (family :)) are ballsy enough to volunteer for the task.

By scheduling, we can pack our bags, set up our alarm, prepare ourselves and the kids mentally and physically, etc. I like it like this. All of our kids have been scheduled – as mentioned above, Becca rocks pregnancies and kids seem to get comfy in her belly and choose to stay there as long as allowed.. 🙂

Crazy long story short, we are in the final stretch. Babies are, thank God, healthy and so is Becca, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this insane adventure in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for “listening”. Can’t wait to welcome you to our world little ones.