A Full Heart

So tonight something happened that made all of the stress, exhaustion, and chaos of each day worth it.

We have a nightly ritual where each one of us takes a boy and gives him his bedtime bottle. Then we carry them upstairs and put them in their cribs. I give each boy a kiss, an "I love you", the humidifier goes on and the door closes. Usually their heads hit their little pillows and we *fingers crossed* don't hear a peep until the next morning.

Well tonight Jeff gave Blakey his bedtime bottle and Nico slammed his down in no time so he was in bed first. When I came downstairs, I went to the kitchen to finish making OUR dinner while Jeff took Blakey upstairs to bed. After about 15 minutes of Nico being in bed, he was still whining and complaining, which is pretty unusual for this time of day. I went in to get him out thinking he might have a poopy diaper. When I went in, Blakey was standing up in his crib calling out "mama, mama, mama". I decided not to engage and just ignored him. I brought Nicolas downstairs and after finding a clean diaper (nice try, Mister!), I rocked him for a bit in the glider and took him back upstairs. While I was rocking him I was thinking about how unusual it was that Blakey was still standing up in his crib talking to me when normally he goes down so easily at night.

Well, I took Nicolas back upstairs for round two and as soon as I open the door, I get this persistent "mommy, mommy, mommy" from Blakey. I put Nico in his crib, kiss him goodnight (again), and then I turn to Blakey and realize that I had never given him his goodnight kiss and "I love you". I reached out, hugged him, kissed him and gave him his "I love you". His head hit his pillow almost immediately and I felt so blessed to be his mommy at that moment!

So, there's my sappy story for a while. Sorry, no pictures for this post. Just a happy mommy moment.

Where to Start?

OMG, so much has been going on around here that I've been putting off blogging because I don't even know where to start! I guess I'll let the pictures tell you about the last few weeks around here!

We finally had to face the reality that our "babies" needed a trimming of the hair. Fortunately our neighbor cuts hair in her garage and so we took the boys over there on a Saturday morning. She trimmed their bangs and the sides but we couldn't cut the back. It was only a few weeks ago, but Blakey is already needing his bangs trimmed again!

Our neighbor was great. She somehow managed to follow the boys around with her trimmers and still cut their hair evenly! A true pro!

At our last Dr's visit, he asked me if the boys had started putting pen to paper. Uh, no. Bad mom guilt struck and set off to buy some jumbo crayons and paper. I am a teacher after all, I should know these things, right? Well, the first few tries with crayons led to Blakey gaging on them and Nico not interested at all. But now, all of sudden, they seem interested in markers. I guess crayons were just too boring! While some ink does get on the paper, MOST of it gets on their skin.

How did that blue marker taste, Blakey?

Blue-eyed mom (silly sunglasses) with her blue-eyed boy.

Nicolas has taken on a great interest in anything resembling a brush- toothbrushes, brooms, dog brushes, hair brushes,etc. Here he is somehow managing to carry all of his important gear!


Nico was so busy sweeping, he didn't realize his diaper was halfway off!

Now I'm not sure if being a ham is a result of nature or nurture, but these boys definitely know what to do when the camera is out! (especially Blakey) He was giving me all of these cute looks the other day that I just couldn't help snapping shots!

I walked from the kitchen into the "playroom" (former living room) the other day and found the two boys just hanging together like this.

Really, it doesn't get much cuter than this!



We had a lovely visit from both Grandpas, Opa Cay and Grandma Nancy. We decided to take advantage of all of these adults and we took the boys to the zoo for the first time. They LOVED it!

Our first stop was the flamingo enclosure. They just seemed in awe that a bird could be so big and so stinky!

Nicolas was not afraid of the snakes at all!

"wow mom, those are really big meow-meows!"

Family shot

Overall, it was a great trip to the zoo. I don't have any pictures of it but we were able to feed the giraffes. Nicolas couldn't get enough of the "dog-dogs" (which is what he calls every animal). He was all smiles. Blakey, on the other hand, was a little nervous and liked to look at them from a distance. He preferred the elephants for sure. I can't wait to go back again!

After the extended Fassett family left, my sister and the kids came out from Arizona. We took a trip out to the harbor.

The cousins




The boys' first carousel ride

The boys and I have been going to a four week "mommy and me" class at a preschool nearby. (I guess it's "mommy and us" class in our circumstance.) My dad and stepmom were in town for the first class so I brought them along for the support. The boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our "school". They are in a classroom with about 12 other children around their age. They have all kinds of cool, new toys and it's so fun to watch them explore and socialize with other little ones!





Blakey "painting"

Nico exploring a new "house"

Circle time (Nico looking a little tired!)

Opa Cay helping Blakey on a new toy

Grandpa Bob helping the boys teeter

This next two pictures show what happens after class on the way home.

Blakey gets tired too but he generally doesn't sleep in the car.


Big Boys Now

These boys are doing so many big boy things like eating an apple from the core and eating food with a fork!

Toddlers- a dog's best friend

Believe it or not, but Nico has proved to be more of the fearless one of the two. When we are at a park, he climbs to the top of the HIGHEST play structure and goes down REALLY big slides with a huge smile on his face. He latest trick is grabbing onto a bar, lifting up his legs, and swinging back and forth! He gives me a heart attack each and every time he does it!

Blakey is a bit more cautious but he must of overheard a conversation Jeff and I had about them a little while ago. We were noticing that it seemed like Nicolas was "talking" more than Blakey. Well, not anymore!! That boy is talking ALL THE TIME. He points to things and says something in his toddler lingo. He tries to copy various sound effects that we make. He talks to Nico and Nico talks back. Really, it is just adorable.

We are really having fun watching them turn into little people.

We have another fun weekend ahead of us with friends coming to visit. We will be making our first trip to the water park!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer as much as we are!

hugs,

Rebeca

A few parting shots

Nico trying on some new shoes.

Catch the bubbles Blakey!

oops.............

Caca and Crack-crack

So I'll start with the caca. In spanish, caca means poopoo. In an effort to make the boys potty-trained as soon as possible, I began to show them their caca in their diaper when changing them. Well, Nicolas has decided he REALLY likes that word and now EVERYTHING is caca. (Jeff is thrilled by the way!) But he does really know what it is. The other day I caught him going through a box of diapers and as he opened each diaper, he would say "caca?" and then move on to the next one when he didn't find any.

Now Blakey has started to say the word cracker but it comes out as "crack-crack". He lovingly passed his brother a "crack-crack" the other day as they were sitting in their high chairs.

So if you were to pop in to our house you would hear a lot about caca and crack-crack!

Nicolas has also decided he likes to help mommy around the house. He picks up the broom and tries to sweep and this morning he even tried to pick up the mop and clean the floor. Here's some footage from the other morning.

Hopefully next week they'll move on to cleaning the bathrooms! ;)

Hugs!

Rebeca

This World is not Designed for Multiples

First off, happy Father's Day to all! I could go on and on about how great a father Jeff is, but we all know that already, right?



Instead I will take you through a day in the life of being the mother of two toddlers and how crazy it really is sometimes. Last Wednesday I was all excited to take the boys on their first trip to the public library. They were having a special puppet show for the little ones and my first thought was, "how fun!". So I prayed that the boys would take a good morning nap, and they did. They ate a great lunch, we got dressed and we were off. So far the plan was working out perfectly! We got to the library and despite being 15 minutes early, there was a very long line that wrapped around the children's section. I knew that I would not be able to maneuver the double stroller very easily through there so I asked the lady in front of me to hold our spot and as it got closer to entering the room where the puppet show was, we would get back in line. She was very nice and accommodating and even let us cut in front of her! We entered the room and went straight to the back and close to an exit door in case we needed to leave before the show was over. The boys started getting antsy in their stroller as we waited for the show to begin. It was at that moment that a librarian came to me and said " Ma'am, you are going to have to move your stroller. We have a lot of children coming to this show and it is taking up a lot of space." My response, "Well, do you have a suggestion on where would be a better place to be?" Rude librarian, " Can't you take them out?" The first response that ran through my mind was "Are you crazy lady?" but I refrained and said "No, they'll both be off in opposite directions if I do that so that's not going to work." She kept insisting that I move them somewhere else and after I just ignored her, trying to stay calm while my two toddlers were throwing goldfish all over the nice library carpet, she eventually walked off and took her rudeness to some other poor mom. To make things worse, she spent about 10 minutes introducing the puppet show presenters to the group of children. At this point Blakey had had enough of sitting in his stroller while it sat without moving. I made the stupid decision to take him out of the stroller. Bad move mom!! He decided to run out of the exit door, out of the library door, through the library courtyard and if I had not grabbed him, he would have been in the library parking lot in about 5 seconds. Somehow I managed to hold Nicolas in my other arm while chasing him down.







FINALLY the show started and Nicolas seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately we were way in the back so I'm not sure how well they could really see what was going on. I tried holding both while watching but after about 5 minutes I felt like both of my arms were about to fall off so I strapped them back into the stroller in a hallway. I sure was jealous of all of the moms who were watching with their one toddler content in their laps. We attempted to watch the show again but after about 5 minutes, there was too much complaining so out we went. As the disappointment of not being able to do something fun because the 2 toddler to 1 parent ratio set in, I could feel the tears building up. To make it worse, a different rude librarian was shaking her head at me as I wheeled the stroller out of the room. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe it wouldn't have worked out even if I had had just one toddler with me, but regardless, I felt crappy.



So now you might ask, what was I thinking when I decided to go to the grocery store on the way home? Well, we gotta eat! If I didn't go on the way home, then I would have had to go after putting the boys to bed and I generally spend too much money when I go at that time because my tired brain and body can't focus too well.



My plan was to strap Blake into the cart and carry Nicolas in my ergo. Well, after carefully putting the grocery cart cover on the grocery cart, and putting Blake into it, I discovered that the safety belt was broken. Okay, well let me just put Nico in the carrier and I can switch carts when we get to the front of the store. Generally Nicolas likes the carrier, but today he decided he wanted to be in a cart also. So I threw the carrier back into the backseat of the car and carried him in one arm while pushing the cart with Blakey with the other arm. We hadn't even made it to the front of the store before the looks began. The looks, well, and comments, really range from "wow, got your hands full!" to "what a cute circus act you have there!" Really people, two babies. Come on, don't act like we just landed from Mars! I somehow managed to take Blake out of his cart, take the cover off, put it on a new cart, strap him in, find a cart for Nico, cover on, Nico in and strap on. Geesh, I was already exhausted and I hadn't even started shopping yet!



Surprisingly, it really wasn't too difficult to navigate two grocery carts around the store but it did bring on even more attention than we usually get. So there I was talking to my boys and putting my groceries in one of two carts and then we hit the blueberries. Nicolas LOVES blueberries! When he saw the package, he made it perfectly clear that he wanted his "azulios" (a made up Spanish word that we use for blueberries). They were organic, so I popped open the package and popped them in his mouth while we shopped. Blakey saw some crackers that he wanted, so I did the same thing. AND THEN IT DAWNED ON ME. I was being followed by a Trader Joe's employee! Seriously, every time I turned a corner and went down a new aisle, there HE was, staring me down. I thought I was just imagining things when I was looking at the juices and I saw HIM whisper something to another employee. That employee then looked up at me and nodded, as if replying "I'll keep my eye on her." Our trip was coming to a close when Blakey decided to turn around in his cart and play the "throw everything out of the cart" game. As we were checking out, I caught the manager checking everything in my basket to make sure I was buying it.....This is where I about lost it. Now, what parent has never opened something up while shopping to keep their little ones occupied? Did I do something wrong here? Furthermore, I might have looked a little crazy, well, possibly a lot crazy, but really, I AM NOT A THIEF!!!


I somehow managed to get the boys and my $140 worth of groceries into the car while holding it together. The whole way home I played the "woe is me" game and contemplated how much easier this day would have been if I only had one 1 year old. These days come and go and I really try not to dwell on it for too long. Luckily, the boys and all of their cuteness eventually remind me of how I am blessed by having two boys who will always be the same age!



Enjoy the cuteness!

Blakey checking out his new chair.



Nico playing peek-a-boo with daddy.

"Mom, take my picture!"

"WEEE!" Nico can now climb up, get on his bottom and go down the slide all by himself!

"let us in, let us in!"

We are ready for the World Cup!

This is what happened when I let Nico sit in a big boy chair at the table.

The boys checking out Fluffy the chick, our visitor for a weekend.

We did manage to have a lovely Father's Day at the beach. Uncle Scott and Aunt Shelly came with us and let me tell you, a 2 to 1 adult to child ratio is MUCH better than the other way around! We even managed to enjoy a meal at The Habit where Jeff and I both finished eating while the food was still warm. Imagine that??!! Thank you for the lovely visit Uncle Scott and Aunt Shelly!

Daddy showing the boys how to make sand castles.

Nicolas happily playing with sand while Jeff brings fearless Blakey back to the safe zone! He LOVED going into the ocean water! (and it was freezing!)

Aunt Shelly, Uncle Scott, Jeff, Blakey and Nico showing off their creation.

If you're still reading, you deserve an award!

Hugs and Kisses,

Rebeca

A Campin' We Will Go

So last weekend my niece Carolina celebrated her 14th birthday party with a weekend camping trip. We decided that the boys weren't quite ready for overnight camping quite yet, so we made a day trip out of it. We spent the usual 2 hours or so prepping for the excursion, making sure we had enough food, clothing and entertainment for these two busy boys. Once we got there, though, it was well worth the energy used in making the trip a reality! The boys were so excited to be out in nature. And, let me tell you, these boys were so dirty that when they sneezed, you can only guess what color it was!

Blakey playing in the dirt, of course.

Nicolas was entertained by the big girls until he saw a pile of leaves.

I managed to wrangle them up for a quick picture. Blakey was not interested in being confined....so much to explore, so little time!

Found the leaves!

"Mom, I almost got it...just hold on, give me a few more minutes and I'll have this thing working....." Well, I'm sure if he had been given a few more minutes, Mr.Determination would for sure have had water gushing everywhere!

We took the boys in the pool and they both liked it a lot. Nicolas was more comfortable with the water but of course, after Jeff got out with Blakey, all he wanted to do was hang over the edge and put his hands in the water.

They enjoyed a little "ride" in this portable hammock.

After our dip in the pool, we decided to break out the backpack that my dad got for us and attempt to take a little hike. We were in the middle of the Santa Ynez countryside on a beautiful 75 degree day and it sounded like a great idea! This picture was taken before we embarked on our trek---- uphill!!!!!

I think Blakey had the best view of all! He really loved being in the backpack. Nico was in my Ergo carrier and it was somewhat comfortable for me. I think I got a pretty good workout when you take into consideration that I was hauling an extra 22 pounds on my left hip!

Yes, Nico HAD to bring his blankie on the hike. It was around their afternoon nap time and we both hoped that the walk would put them to sleep....yeah, right...what were we thinking?

We lasted about 1 mile uphill and then we turned around. Although we were a bit exhausted, it did feel really good to do something that we use to enjoy prebabies. We hope to find another backpack and take more hiking trips. We have several really nice hiking areas near us and we really should be utilizing every part of our expensive zip code!

The hour ride to the campground turned into a two hour ride home with traffic. Two tired, hungry boys did not make for an enjoyable end of the day. They did, however, sleep very well that night and we have our first "camping" trip under our belts!

hugs,

Rebeca