A Day in the Life

It generally starts with a whine, a whimper, a screech in the monitor. Sometimes I get a "momma". The hour is always much earlier than I would like it to be.

As I open their bedroom door, I'm greeted with lots of smiles and cuddly hugs. Sometimes they tell me all about the dogs on their wallpaper in their toddlerese language. Nicolas pats my back and repeats over and over and over and over "momma, momma, momma". Blakey likes to snuggle in my arms as we walk down the stairs. Not a bad way to start your day, right?

We snuggle for a bit on the couch and before you know it, our day is in full swing. I try to prepare breakfast hoping that they will play nicely and independently while I attempt to create a healthy, yet appealing meal that will end up in their bellies and not on the ground, AKA the dogs' bellies. Nicolas races into the kitchen with a "momma, momma, momma" and he goes onto the counter to "help" me make breakfast. He gets pancake/ waffle batter all over me, the counter, himself, etc. Bella lingers in the background, waiting for something to come her way. Blakey can't wait for breakfast so he gets some cheerios in a little bowl. Before you know it, the cheerios are all over the floor. As you can see, mealtimes are so much fun at our house!

We eat, clean up and get dressed. Nicolas runs away from me as I try to get him dressed and Blakey insists on wearing his Elmo slippers "side, side" (outside in Blakey's toddlerese). We bundle up and head into the yard. See, we've been couped up in our house for the last 4 days in a row due to rain. I take control of the "caca" situation in the yard and dry off the climbing equipment. I come into the house to wash my hands and in comes Blakey behind me holding a dead mouse by the tail. What a treasure! I scream, he looks confused, and my mom wonders why I didn't take a picture of the whole scene. The next thing I know, Nicolas is bringing wet sand into the family room. Nice. And within ten minutes, they are both soaking wet!

And so it goes and goes and goes. We take walks. They fight staying in the wagon. They ask for water but they'll only drink if it's in the RIGHT cup. They ask for yogurt but only eat it if they can feed themselves.

Yes, my friends, we have chartered new waters. The independent, strong-willed, determined phase, I guess.

Luckily the day is sprinkled with drops of cuteness here and there. Blakey practicing new words with the sweetest of intonations while Nicolas rambles on and on about who knows what, saying "momma" about every fifth word. Giggling hysterically as I put special finger paints in their hands for the first time during bath time. Hearing a plane up above and watching their little fingers point up to the sky as they attempt to say "avion, avion". Listening to Blakey say "up, up, up" and then continue to get up onto our bed by himself where he jumps like the cutest monkey around. Watching them wrestle with their cousins. Really, the list could go on and on.

The day ends with a little Elmo, some more snuggles, some books and night-night kisses.

Sweet dreams, my boys. Sweet dreams.

Random Tidbits

Hello Friends!
We are busy getting ready for Christmas, as I'm sure you are too! With the excitement of Halloween decorations, we have been anticipating experiencing Christmas this year, now that the boys are a little more aware of all that is going on. We have a whole new list of words to learn! (They still LOVE saying calabasa, by the way and get very excited anytime they see one. Notice in the picture of Nicolas right below this text, he is actually pointing to the pumpkin on the counter.)

Blakey LOVES books, especially ones about transportation. He fell asleep mid- story. I have to note that Blakey is very into learning his letters. He walks around the house finding "Bs, Cs, and Ds. O seems to be his new favorite. I really have to credit Sesame Street for this. Being a first grade teacher makes all of this very exciting but believe it or not (you probably won't!), I had nothing to do with this new adventure of letter discovery!










Nicolas loves to help me cook. I think we were making pancakes in this picture. "Help" might actually be the wrong word, but it's all par for the course when it comes to toddlers, right?

A neighbor gave us this Elmo chair and Nicolas has pretty much claimed it as his. Blakey generally on sits on it when Nicolas is not around.

My dad and stepmom were visiting for Thanksgiving and it was so great to have the extra set of hands. We took our first walk around the neighborhood scouting out Christmas lights.

I don't know what it is, but the boys have this obsession with putting on shoes. It could be their shoes, my shoes, Jeff's shoes, etc. Blakey loves my Uggs and could actually walk quite well in them.

Hope you are able to enjoy this time of year. We are looking forward to a visit with Santa in the coming weeks. I keep telling the boys, "santa claus is coming to town........."

Hugs,

Rebeca

Bragging Rights

Alright, here goes. I know, I know, every parent thinks that their child/ children is/ are the cutest/ smartest in the world, etc, etc. Well, Jeff and I are no different.

For example, today as Blakey and I walked by a framed picture on the wall of Jeff and me at a Chargers game many moons ago, Blakey looked at it for a minute. I said nothing. And totally out of the blue, he said "football". Are you kidding me? All there was in the picture was Jeff and me in our Charger gear and a football field behind us. There is A LOT going on in that child's brain!

Nicolas amazes us as well. The other day, as I was dressing them, Blakey's pants fell off the couch onto the floor. I asked Nicolas, in spanish no less, to pick them up and bring them to me. No problem mom!

Jeff and I know that this is all normal and children should be capable of doing things like this at this age, but it really reminds us that these boys are growing up TOO fast!

Halloween was great! The boys LOVED dressing up and Blakey was even excited for me to paint his face! However, when it came time to trick or treat, the boys had absolutely NO idea what that was all about. I guess it's because they have never had candy so there was no motivation to walk from house to house and put mysterious objects into a bag. With my mom's help, we made it to about 6 houses and the boys called it a night.

They did, however, enjoy all of the halloween decorations and our favorite word for October has got to be Nico's version of calabasa (spanish for pumpkin), "why-ya-ya". I made myself capture him saying it on video because I know that next year at this time, he won't be saying it the same.

Here's our family picture. I'm going to have to say that I think this is the best family picture that we have to date....(There I go bragging again, but I guess it's okay. It is MY blog after all!)

Hope you all enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. We know what we are thankful for.

Love,

Rebeca

So Much to Blog About

October started out with a fun trip to Travel Town in Los Angeles. The Fassett family got together to celebrate Scott's birthday. We looked at old trains, rode some little kid trains and took A LOT of pictures of cute boys frolicking in trains.

Blakey loved exploring the train engine room.

Afterwards, we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. The only sad part of this picture is that you cannot see Blakey's cute little face. The boys were very well behaved, especially considering it was very close to bedtime.

Ah yes, the pumpkin lights! The boys were fascinated when I brought out the "calabazas". We now go exploring around the neighborhood looking for more!

A few weeks ago, we met up with some friends for pumpkin patch trip #1. We had a delightful time, despite the very high temperatures. This farm was very big and we actually had to leave before making it over to the pumpkins! We did manage, however, to spend some time in this cool play area, watch some pig races, visit with the farm animals, and see a band perform.

Silly Blakey! (notice the red cheeks- poor boy!)

They loved watching this band play.

I know I've mentioned it before, but Elmo is almost more popular than mommy is in this house. I found 2 little cute Elmo dolls at Target. When the boys woke up to them, they were thrilled! In fact, Nicolas carried them around all day and I made the mistake of letting him take them to nap time. He decided that it was more fun to talk to his Elmos than to sleep. Uh, won't make that mistake again! (Blakey has the original Elmo behind Nicolas.)

The boys LOVE their cars. Usually it's Blakey who runs up to me, or anyone who visits the house for that matter, and brings me his "car-cars" (not to be confused with "ca-ca" or "cracker" which all sound very similar) but on this particular day, Nicolas was very focused on collecting all sorts of vehicles and playing with them on the front porch. You can see Blakey in the background running back to add more to the bunch.

I told Nicolas to give Bella a "beso". So, on command, as Nicolas bends over towards Bella, well....you can see what happened!

We were delighted this past week when Evan, my 12 year old nephew, got on an airplane and flew all by himself to come stay with us for a week. He lives in Phoenix and was on a fall break. All I can say is that the boys learned how to say his name in less than a day and when he left to go over to my other sister's house for the night, there was major meltdown in this house! Here we are at Chuck E Cheese. (our first time there and probably our last for a while. Daddy was very stressed out!)

Blakey loved the merry-go-round.

You can see the boys looking a bit sleepy..........

Last weekend we took our second trip to a pumpkin patch. We went to a smaller one and lucked out with the weather. It was much cooler and felt like fall. The boys had their first ride on a pony. They are true Taylors, naturals with animals.

Nicolas figuring it all out while daddy is hard at work.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Blakey kept trying to look through the hole......maybe next year sweet pea!

Run, run..........

Finally, the boys find pumpkins their size!

We took Evan and my other nephew, Andrew, to our new favorite restaurant. This restaurant sits right on our little Camarillo airport. You can watch the planes land. But even more entertaining for Nicolas and Blake, were the birds who have learned that if they hang out on the wall long enough, they'll get some yummy, greasy food. There was a lot of chatter of "pajaritos tweet, tweet" at the table.

Just couldn't resist....In the midst of a diaper change...............one of the cutest little bottoms around!

We learned a new board game while Evan was here, Sequence. It was quite fun. Nicolas enjoyed playing with the chips while Grandma studied her cards.

Cool guys, cool guys

The boys are very into giving out "besos" (kisses) right now. Here Evan is saying goodbye to Blakey. We miss you already Evan and can't wait to Skype with you soon! (hint, hint Susie!)

This morning Blakey found his glasses and actually kept them on long enough for me to take a picture!













Ah man, that was a lot! The boys are getting cuter and cuter each day. They are figuring out the world around them and we are really enjoying them during the process.

We are really looking forward to getting them into their little costumes...I won't give them away. You'll have to stay tuned!

Hugs,

Rebeca

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