TWINS

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 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.

I AM PRETTY SURE I MARRIED “SUPER MOMMA”!

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If I were to tell someone that I have 3 week old twins – that’s right, not one but two newborns – plus 3 other kids under the age of 6 at home and my wife has yet to complain and/or act tired, people wouldn’t believe me.. Trust me, it is TRUE!

Becca has not only been Miss Amazing with every single one of her 4 pregnancies (very few complaints, zero to none weird cravings, etc), she also shines when it comes down to motherhood! Her level of patience with the kids and tackling all her responsibilities is to admire… and one virtue I wish I had more of… When shit hits the fan at home, I am usually the one to lose it first. Hehe.

Yeah, probably her many years as an Assistant Principal at a middle school and being surrounded by kids and loud noises helps… but man, she is good!

For the past couple of weeks we’ve had the privilege to have her mom and step dad at our home helping us out with the babies and with the other 3 kids (holding babies, changing diapers, taking kids to school and extracurricular activities, etc). But the day they left, Becca was put to the test. For the first time in 3 weeks, she would have to take care of Emilio, Alejandro AND Santiago at home, then pick up Nico and Nati from their school, take Nati to her dance class (wait for her with the other 4 kids in tow) and then head back home.

Knowing how daunting this was going to be, I offered help and offered to leave work early to go at least pick up Nati from dance class. She turned my offer down saying “I got it. I am going to have to do it someday, so I might as well start today”… I even gave her 1 more hour to change her mind but my phone never rang and I never got a text….

Not only did she rock the entire ordeal, but as I walked into our house, she was cooking dinner! And on top of that it was yummy!

I was crazy impressed and proud of her. Once again she tackled it head first, no ifs or buts about it. Rocked it. Her assertiveness gave me a peace of mind and a “we got this” feeling. Felt good.

Thanks Super Momma. You Rock. We are so lucky to have you. Keep on rocking. 🙂

P.S – the 2 graphics used on this pots were taken from Google Images… I claim no rights on these and definitely don’t want to get sued for using them – so there.

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. 🙂

“You may want to sit down” – The day we found out we were having a total of 5 kids!

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Those are the words Becca chose when I was staring at the Ultrasound after she had gotten back from the Dr. that afternoon. Let’s backtrack a little though…

2 weeks prior to me staring at the ultrasound, Becca mentioned she was not feeling well… Being that she had been pregnant 3 times before, I suspected she could’ve been pregnant so I bluntly asked/commented “you are not pregnant, are you!?”… to which she responded nervously… “I don’t know…”

At that point, we had not yet shut down the idea of having 4 kids, but in reality we were leaning towards “closing the shop” – the kids had been more demanding of our time, and although a lot less dependent on us, they required more direction, re-direction and parenting. They had also started extracurricular activities that demanded more time with them (gymnastics, ballet, soccer, etc).

I said, “we need to find out ASAP”– if we were having a 4^th kid, we needed to know so we could plan accordingly. The list included finances, work, home arrangements, cars, baby needs, daycare, school, drop off, pick ups, night-time schedules and the list goes on and on… So, I went to Publix that same afternoon, handed over the test to Becca and waited for the results… She wasn’t ready to find out, but I could not wait any longer… so I went to the bathroom, looked for the stick, and looked at the results… My first thoughts were “f***, we are pregnant” followed with a smile and a feeling of joy with a “f***, we are really pregnant!”. I shared the news with Becca and together we experienced mixed emotions as we waited for the news to settle… After thinking, “well, we have 3 what’s a 4^th one” and realizing we had all, if not most of the baby equipment needed, we felt blessed and began to embrace the idea. Becca confirmed the news that week and scheduled her follow up appointment for the following day.

This brings us to THE day…. Becca’s appointment was in the late afternoon. After she picked up the kiddos, we decided to meet at the Dr’s office parking lot. This was our 4^th rodeo so we did not feel the need for me to go with her to the appointment and instead I took the kids home to make them dinner while Becca went through what we thought was a “routine check up and first ultrasound”.

After leaving the Dr’s office, Becca called me but I could not answer. She followed the missed call with a text “All is good. No need to call me back”. I continued prepping dinner so it could be ready upon her arrival… And this is where we were….

As I am staring at the ultrasound, this one seemed a little bit odd to me compared to the other 3 kids’ ultrasound images. My initial thought was a concern that there was something wrong with the baby… To me, there was more “stuff” in that picture than I had previously seen… Becca noticed my confused face and when I said “there’s more stuff than usual.. I can’t really “read it”” she said…. “You may want to sit down”… As my a** fell backwards into our kitchen stool, I said “f***, are you pregnant with twins?!?!” Becca’s eyes got a little watery and as she nodded… I was in disbelief… we both were in awe not knowing how the heck we ended up being pregnant with twins!! We don’t have any history of twins on either side of the family and we were not even ready for a 4^th kid, much less a 5^th!!! We held each other, nervously laughed, Becca cried a little, and as in many situations, we were able to find comfort in each other and embraced the idea and the new babies coming into our lives.

It took us a couple of weeks to let the news sink in. Every time we talked about it we could not believe our situation and discussed all the things we needed to do to prepare for their arrival. Getting used to the idea and being able to turn the corner to embrace the new challenge and adventures took time. I think it took me longer than Becca. I am (or try to be) a planner, I like to try to make sure our family is ok at all times, therefore until I got to the point where issues like finances, schooling and house arrangements were taken care of or at least planned for, I had not allowed myself the opportunity to fully embrace the arrival of our 2 little boys. I wish I had done it earlier because at this point, the more I think about raising 5 kids and the enormous amounts of memories we are going to build, I get really excited about the future and know that God has a plan for everyone. And I really like what he planned for us. 🙂

The love and positive vibes from family and close friends as well as reading blogs from parents of twins and multiple kids made it easier for us (me) to get more and more excited about the idea. Surrounding ourselves with such great support has been a key element to helping ease the transition into our new adventure and we are very thankful for everyone in our lives. Thank you.

So, Becca was right. I needed to sit down. What she forgot to mention was to buckle up because we are about to embark on the best ride of our lives! 🙂

B rocking her pregnancy - 26 weeks in :)

Becca has been a trooper throughout her pregnancy. She makes it look easy… Maybe that’s why we keep having kids? JK.