Excuses, Excuses

Let's see...........I could come up with several, I'm sure. But I'll spare you those details and get on to the more exciting stuff!

These boys, these boys. We seriously laugh all the time, every day. They are doing so many new and cute things, it's truly amazing. They are talking, following directions, eating with utensils, etc, etc. The baby days seem so far behind us! The other day I was showing Blakey a picture of himself that my sister had sent me. After looking at it for a while, he began pointing and gesturing for me to put it on the refrigerator, where we keep several family photos. A little while later, Nicolas noticed the new picture and I said, "Look, it's Blakey." He grabbed the picture off the frig and began to run around the house repeating "Blakey, Blakey, Blakey" over and over and over again. It was the first time he said his name and now if I say "call Blakey", I get a very clear and classic "BLAKEY!". Now, the name Nicolas, on the other hand, is a bit harder to say so neither one has said that one yet.

The boys started watching Sesame Street a few weeks ago and they are HOOKED! Elmo is now a household name that they both can say VERY WELL! Blakey carries Elmo around everywhere and even feeds Elmo when he's hungry. Today Elmo ate more grapes than Blakey!

Last Monday we started a tumbling class. The class consists of some stretching, somersaults, and exploring balance beams, trampolines, etc. At the end, the teacher put on some music and Nicolas was completely in his element. This boy starts clapping and dancing upon hearing music instantly. I tried to bring him back to the class, but he insisted on staying right in front of the boom box and dancing on his own little stage.

It's really amazing to us how much language the boys are understanding now. We are even to the point where we have to spell some words out so they don't know what we are saying. Most things they understand in both English and Spanish, which is very exciting for us. One of Blakey's favorite words is "bye". He knows that when I say it, something exciting is about to happen next and he runs to the door to leave. Today he must have been trying to tell me that he was bored because he kept running around the house saying "bye, bye". I captured it on video and then we went off to our little neighborhood park for a bit.

Fall is upon us now and we are really looking forward to all the things this time of year brings. Football season has started and the boys have already nailed their "touchdown"sign and they even repeat the word back to us when we say it. We are planning our Halloween costumes and making holiday plans.

Hope you are all well and I promise we'll be back before the new year! ;)

Rebeca

We did it!

We went on a family vacation!! Woohoo! The main reason of our get-away was to celebrate Jeff's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. (I know, 50 years, pretty amazing, huh?) We also took the opportunity to visit with some relatives on my side of the family who live near Jeff's parents.

Here we are with my Aunt Doris and a whole bunch of cousins/ second cousins! Thank you Hillary and Jon for having us. We really had a great time catching up with all of you!






My cousin Hillary playing with Blakey, Nico and Hannah.



Blakey checking out Justin's "robo-dog". Very entertaining!

I love this picture so much, I put it in twice! (still can't figure out how to take out a picture!!!!)

My cousin David being silly with Blakey.

My cousin Lynda and us. I love this picture!

Now back to Jeff's side....

Here we are with Jim, Nancy and Jeff's cousin Jill.

This was the first time cousin Jill had met the boys.

Grandpa Jim showing the boys how to switch an electric candle on and off. Nico is VERY into switches right now. He climbs toilets, sinks, chairs, bookshelves all in the name of turning on/off light switches.

I LOVE this picture! Jeff was drying off Blakey after some water play in the backyard and I happened to be there at the right time with my camera.

Silly Daddy! This is one of our favorite games to play- putting something on our heads and waiting for it to fall off. Blakey loves to say "crash" when it hits the ground!

Head on collision at the end of the tunnel.

Nico going through the tunnel.

Blakey getting cozy with the drink bin.







As most of you know, we are HUGE Charger football fans. As luck would have it, an event called Fan Fest was going on the same weekend we were in town. This event takes place at the stadium and they let you in for free to watch the team practice. They also have players signing autographs for children under 14 years of age. We weren't sure how it would go for us, as we normally stay away from these kind of scenes, but we decided to go for it and we were glad we did!

Nico sporting his Charger gear.

Blakey is ready for football season to begin!




Blakey watching practice while devouring a blueberry muffin!





This picture is quite deceiving. While it looks like the boys are attentively watching whats going on down on the field, this lasted all of about 2 minutes. After this moment, they were anxiously pacing the aisle and wanting to climb ALL THOSE STAIRS! We left not too long after this.....

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you...we are really standing with the Chargers quarterback, Philip Rivers. We ended up getting several autographs as you can see on the white onesie, but meeting Philip was by far the most exciting moment of them all!! The picture makes me laugh for several reasons. I didn't realize it at the time (yes, we were both a bit starstruck!), but Blakey is totally getting squished between me and Philip. Nicolas is staring at him like he's not sure if he should trust him or not. He was really a big man and we had to remind the guy taking the picture for us to make sure his head wasn't cut out of the frame.

Overall it was a very successful trip. The boys did an amazing job in the car both directions, despite having to sit through a lot of traffic. They slept just fine in their pack-n-plays for naps and all through the night both nights. Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jim did a great job babyproofing their house so there was minimal damage done there. Most importantly, though, Jeff and I really felt like we were living life again. We both love to travel and it had been a while since we had taken the boys away for more than a day trip. Now that we know they can handle it, who knows where we might end up next!! (wink, wink Grandpa Bob)

hugs,

Rebeca

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.............