Making Their Daddy Proud

Hello Family and Friends!

So as I was looking back at some of the pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks I was reminded of what great models these boys are!! Thinking back to when Jeff began shooting seriously, Bella (our older dog) was really his only loyal model. Then I came along and was forced to go to some horrible places like wineries in Santa Ynez and the beautiful beaches of the California coast to help Jeff with his assignments at Brooks. Now I have gladly passed on the torch to the boys and they are taking the job very seriously! Have a look for yourselves......(Blakey in particular is quite a ham in front of the camera)

Blakey chillin' in his activity chair

Nico "practicing" drinking from his sippy cup

Fall is definitely in the air in our neck of the woods (For us, this means 70 degree weather and the need for a sweatshirt.) I bundled up the boys and couldn't resist the urge to capture their cuteness!

"Look at my teeth everybody!!"

"Can someone turn on the lights" part 3

(I really don't think Blakey thinks its as funny as we all do!)

"Go fast mom!" say an excited Nico and Blake.

I guess the excitement wore off for Nico by the end of our walk.

Over the past several weeks the boys have been more and more active and aware of their surroundings. At our house, their surroundings include 2 dogs and a loud cat. Jeff and I are so glad that our fur babies are FINALLY able to earn their keep around here by keeping the boys entertained!

Guapo and Blakey

Bella and Nicolas

Blakey eyeing Boo Boo

The boys have also become more aware of each other. They smile at each other and they seem to know who we are talking about when we ask them where their brother is. So far there has been no known "fighting" over the same toy but I'm sure that is in the not-so-distant future.

Playing nicely with the same toy

Jeff and I really love this time of year.................The weather is cooling down, there's a slight chill in the air, Halloween is around the corner, and, of course, IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!! Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I actually enjoy lounging around on Sundays cheering on our San Diego Chargers just as much as Jeff does. "Lounging around" isn't what it used to be BUT we are enjoying sharing the excitement of watching our Bolts play (and hopefully scoring lots of touchdowns) with the boys.


So what else is new around here??? Let's see, Nicolas now also has both of his bottom teeth. They are both on the verge of crawling. There is alot of rocking (Nico) and rolling (Blake) goin' on. We are partly excited for them to reach this milestone, but scared out of our minds as they will become more mobile once they "crack the code" on this one! We have not completely baby-proofed the house yet but know that's in the imminent future. They are both sitting up independently but not for very long. Eventually they topple over!

Blake still has his helmet on but has pretty much made all of the growth he possibly can. The dr's are very happy with his progress and are now just wanting us to keep it on so he doesn't go backwards......In a few weeks he will probably only have to wear it at night.

Nicolas is still disgusted by anything that resembles solid food. You wouldn't tell, though, when you pick him up! We're not sure what either boy weighs, but man, my biceps are getting larger and larger each day!

Man this is a long post...I guess that's what happens when you let so much time go by!

I need to go to bed....It's a busy weekend around here with Jeff working two weddings!!!

Here are some parting shots I just couldn't leave out!

Hugs and kisses,

Rebeca

Caption Contest

So we had a little impromptu photo shoot in the family room the other day. There were several great shots but here is our favorite:

We're not sure what Nicolas is whispering to Blake but thought some of you could give us your ideas!!

I've recently changed the settings on the blog so that anyone can comment. So.....comment away!!!

Hugs- Rebeca

Lots of Laughs

Now that the boys are moving around more and becoming more aware of their surroundings, we find ourselves laughing a lot. Last night was a good example. I gave Blakey his bath and brought him downstairs in his hooded towel. As I attempted to put on his diaper and jammies, he decided he wanted to roll over. Here is what happened:

"Can someone turn the lights on?" #2

"Oh, thank you! I can see now, even if it's only out of one eye!"

I don't look so great in this picture, but Blakey is at his utmost of cuteness so I couldn't resist!

As I was bathing Blakey, Jeff was trying to feed Nicolas a yummy dinner of oatmeal and prunes. I think Jeff gave up after Nico decided he would rather have the food all over his face rather than in his mouth. Jeff was amused and decided to give Nico a goatee like Daddy. (How am I ever going to teach these boys not to play with their food?)

Like father, like son

Yes, Nico's food is usually everywhere but in his belly!

Then he gives me this cute shot and I really can't complain......

Had to throw in a picture of Blakey. He LOVES to sit in his high chair! I think it's because he knows what's going to come next. He loves eating so much that the other day as I was holding him and brushing my teeth at the same time, he attempted to put the toothbrush in his mouth thinking it was a spoon.

Believe it or not, I still have people ask me if the boys are identical twins. Usually it's from strangers (who love to say the dumbest things) but I'm still amazed that someone can look at them in their stroller and then ask me if they are identical. Hello???

Of course when they tell me how adorable they are, I couldn't agree with them more!!

Okay, off to do something productive while the boys are still napping!

Hugs- Rebeca

Houston, We have a Tooth! (or 2!)

OMG, back so soon???? Yes, we have some very exciting news to report!

For the last several weeks the boys have been showing symptoms of teething. Every morning, for a while, I would wake up and think, hmmm, will today be the day a tooth decides to make its presence known? Eventually I gave up......

Well, as I was feeding Blakey yesterday I noticed something strange-looking in his mouth on the bottom. I felt around with my finger and sure enough, a tooth! To make life even a little harder for my tough little cookie, a second tooth cut today. So, Mr. Big Boy Blakey has his two bottom teeth!!! Not sure if I'll be able to snap a picture of them quite yet, but soon enough!

We took some cute pictures of them eating (for Nicolas, pretending to eat) in their high chairs that I'll have to post soon.....

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend! We're off to a neighborhood BBQ!

Love,
Rebeca

Blogging Break

Hi All-


Sorry to have gone MIA for a while. The truth is that with me going back to work part-time, Jeff and I are both exhausted. I am working 3 days a week and on those days the boys stay home with Jeff. We have help from my mom and two "nannies" who go to the college nearby. As most of you know, Jeff is not a morning person but on the days I have to leave the house by 7:00 he has to be up and ready for baby duty.


When I get home from teaching my rowdy class of 24 first graders, I am right back on baby duty while he goes upstairs to his office to get some more work done before dinner/ bath time. We bathe the boys, put them to bed and eat dinner. At that point Jeff usually goes back to work upstairs while I try to muster up enough energy to wash bottles, clean up the kitchen, do laundry, pay bills, etc, etc. I try to get to bed by 9:30/10:00 and then the whole cycle repeats itself the next day. The boys are still not sleeping through the night so we are still suffering from sleep deprivation.


So, for the good news!


As of last week Nicolas weighs 15 lbs, 10 ozs and Blakey weighs 12 lbs, 15 ozs. So, Nico has more than tripled his weight since birth and Blake has more than quadrupled his weight! They are almost the exact same height, Nico 26 inches and Blake 25 3/4 inches!


Blake is still wearing his helmet, but has made a lot of progress. We had plans for him to be a football player for Halloween, but it is pretty likely that the helmet will be off by then.
Any cute twin-themed Halloween costume ideas?

We are also lacking in the picture department, but here are just a couple:

Rubba-dub-dub, Blakey's in the tub!

Nico sleeping in his carrier after a walk with Daddy

Hugs and Kisses,

Rebeca

Coolness All Around.............

How have I let 10 days go by without posting??? Oh, that's right, I am the mom of 6 month old twins!!! Yes, the boys turned half a year old on the 5th. Jeff and I were trying to decide how to celebrate the big day.....I had contemplated making cupcakes (my all time favorite dessert!) and passing them out to our friends in the neighborhood. Ran out of time for that. Then both of us realized that this celebration of the first 6 months of their lives, was not so much a celebration for them, really more of a celebration for us. We survived the first half a year of being first time parents to not one, but TWO babies!!! And while this new chapter of our lives has been filled with exhaustion, tears, exhaustion, fears, exhaustion, stress, exhaustion, nervousness, and,oh, more exhaustion, it has been equally filled with joy, amazement, laughter, and amusement. I think back to that day when they arrived into this world......It was a cold, rainy day...somewhat chaotic as I had to be discharged from the hospital only to be readmitted an hour later. The first sight of each of them and our hearts seem to have doubled in size instantly!! Okay, I'm making myself cry...time for some pictures!

A toast to us and our boys! (Bella was excited too!)

Opah Cay ("opah" means grandma in Malaysian) made some awesome quilts for the boys. She embroidered all of their stats on each quilt. We will do an "official" 6 month shoot this weekend.

Check out the drool!

You probably noticed that Blake is wearing a "cool dude" helmet. Over the course of the last few months he has developed a flat spot on the right side of his head. Our pediatrician checked it out and recommended this course of treatment. He had this special helmet fitted just for him and he wears it 23 hours a day! We are hoping it will only take 2-3 months for his head to return to a more rounded shape. We had a choice of designs/ colors for the helmet, but with football season upon us, we decided on plain white. After we get a hold of some Chargers stickers/ decals, Blakey will be the coolest Bolts fan around!!

So, back to the flat spot. The reason he developed a flat spot on the right side is due to some tension on the right side of his neck. This was most likely caused by a lack of space in-utero. (Not only was Nico hogging up all the food in there, apparently he was hogging up all of the space too!) So Blake has been working with Teacher Andrea (a physical therapist) weekly to help ease the tension on that side resulting in him having a full range of motion in his neck. Here are some pics of Blakey working hard!

So onto other "cool" news....

My niece Carolina is one cool kid! She is very competitive and looks forward to entering something in the County Fair each year. This year she decided to enter a drawing. After contemplating the subject of her piece for a while, she announced to us that she wanted to make a portrait of the boys because she needed something "that inspired her". She studied a picture of the boys and here is the end result........

As you can see, she won second place...To us, she will always come in first! We love you Carolina and when the boys get older they will be so honored that you made this drawing for/of them!

In other news, both boys are rolling around all over the place! (in both directions) Blakey appears to be our big eater. So far they have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, bananas, avocado, and squash. Nico can honestly care less about solids. Every time I put the spoon in his mouth he looks like he is going to throw up! We will be trying out carrots tomorrow!

We have been "sleep training" over the last week. The hope is that the boys will learn how to fall asleep at the same time in their cribs during nap time. We had some rough moments at the beginning, but they are doing better now. They have both been sleeping while I've been writing. Life has been so much better when they nap at the same time. It allows me to get things done around the house. One of these days I might even be able to nap with them!!

Hope you are all well! We have their 6 month appointment at the doctor's office in a couple of weeks.....

hugs and kisses and cheers to all of you who have helped us make it these first 6 months-

Rebeca, Jeff, Blake and Nicolas

Pictures of the Week

So Jeff and I thought it would be a fun idea to find the cutest picture of each boy and have a weekly "Picture of the Week" post.....As I was looking though my pictures I realized pretty quickly that picking "the cutest" picture would be impossible..........Hate to sound biased, but we sure have some darn cute babies in this house!

"The Jumperoo"

Well, it's been an exciting week. First the cereal then we broke out the jumperoo. Nico went in first. He quickly gave us his sign of approval- his ear to ear grin! Jeff is working on the video......

As you can see, their feet don't quite reach the ground yet so we placed the phone book on the ground to give them some leverage.

We thought the phone book was a good idea until Nicolas "danced" all over it, tearing it apart. Luckily we have a few others sitting in the cabinet!

Look at those thunder thighs!

Blakey looking pretty happy in the jumperoo too!

I just LOVE this picture!! Blake always has the cutest expressions! He is enjoying tummy time more and more each day!

Another personal favorite. Nico actually fell asleep with his bib in his mouth! After I took the picture, I carefully took it out. It must have tasted good.

Last weekend we went down to Long Beach for a Fassett family reunion. As you can see in the picture, it was quite a large group. We especially enjoyed chatting with Jeff's second cousin, Elise, who is the mother of 8 year old triplet girls!!

The other night I told Jeff to go choose a book for story time. Being the good father that he is, he came back with the "Word a Day Vocabulary Builder". Got to start them young, I guess! The boys look so entertained, don't they?

Believe it or not the boys will be celebrating their 6 month birthdays next week!! I think we will ring in the big day with a yummy jar of carrots!!

hugs to all-

Rebeca