sweetness

At camp today, Rafa didn't want to sleep 2 feet away from his sister, so he crawled over nuzzled her arm a little and fell asleep by her side. All together now, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

little miss independent

When we go to the bathroom after a meal and I sit Sylvia on the counter, she knows it's time to brush her teeth.  So, she immediately grabs her brush and starts.  I have to struggle to get some toothpaste on the brush and she definitely doesn't let me make sure she gets all the nooks and crannies.  Nevertheless, I'm trying to celebrate her desire for dental hygiene. 

voices and noises

The twinfants have lately really begun exploring their voices. Everything from screaming to groaning to coughing on demand to blabbing to this:

It's adorable and fun, but I still can't wait until they can talk.

downward facing dog

Godmom Candy (and yoga extraordinaire) must be so proud. Her boy has been working on his poses lately.







It's so fun to see the random and often bizarre things they decide to start doing.

Here's Rafa wearing a stacker toy as a bracelet as he often does. Pink is "in" for boys, right?

libros

D and I LOVE reading. We haven't had much time to dedicate to books without pictures lately, however.  But, we are super pleased with how much the twinfants enjoy books.

Since we are doing the bilingual thing, I think it's even more important that they hear lots of language. We've heard they might start speaking later because of it, but they'll catch up quickly and once they sort it all out will have better language skills because of it. Nevertheless, I know it will be somewhat frustrating for me to have to wait longer for them to talk. So, in the back of my head every day is the recommendation that we read with the twinfants at least 30 minutes every day. We definitely don't achieve that every day, but it's nice to have a benchmark to aim for.

I'm certain I would be a basket case if they didn't like books, but fortunately, they snuggle right on up and jump into the new and exciting worlds that books unleash. Well, at least they look at the pictures.

the family of grace

Our church family hosted a dinner to celebrate all the children who were baptized during the past 6 months.  It was a beautifully simple and meaningful gathering.  Sylvia LOVED the spaghetti.  2 fisting and Lady and the Tramp slurping all night long.



She also encouraged us to remember the sixth commandment, while hiding the fifth...



This guy didn't really want to eat the pasta.  How is he related to me???  Fortunately, we had brought some food just in case.  And he's really stinkin' cute, so I guess we'll forgive him.



Godmom Amy taught Sylvia about original sin, the 4 spiritual laws, or the color blue or something else important.



Godmom Candy is preparing Rafa for mutton busting at the rodeo.  You know, all the important stuff happens at church.



We were also joined by Cathy and Dave, Cathy who spent many hours caring for me and the babies during those first few months and both of them representing the choir who fed us for many months.  How people survive child rearing without so many generous and supportive people, I can't even imagine.

We also chose the twinfants' life verses.  The staff prepared a slide show of all the children with their verses, which was really beautiful.

Sylvia: Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit.

Rafael: Micah 6:8 He has shown all you people what is good. And what
does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God.

It's amazing to know that my kids will grow up being loved by so many.  

good morning...sunshine...

Rafa continues to cherish his early morning time with mama. 5am, 5:30, he's really embracing Ben Franklin's 'early to rise'. Some friends came to town last night, so we took the kids out to dinner and kept them up an hour after bedtime, thinking, maybe we'll get to sleep in a little...

HA!!!!!!!!




It's 4:30 and I've been awake for about 20 minutes, when are you getting up to play with me???!?!

It's a goods thing I'm a morning person and can dredge up some cheery smiles from somewhere. Well, really, it's a good thing y'all napped for 2 hours yesterday afternoon and I got to catch up a little.

And, it's a good thin your sister is more like your daddy and needs a few cups of coffee to get going in the morning so they can get going slowly together.

Pre-view

One of our sweet friends from Grace came over VERY early the other morning to take some photos of our 4-family.  We can't wait to see all of her handiwork, but she has sent us one example, because we asked for a photo of S for an event at church.  Enjoy:

Help from Oma

On more than a handful of Sundays recently, C has been busy Sunday afternoons at Grace working on a vision committee. So that papi isn't too tired on these Sunday evenings, Oma has taken time to help him play with, feed, bathe, and "put down" S and R. We always have a great time! This week we had a special treat and Gong-gong also joined in the fun. Oma took these two shots while she was here this past Sunday...




Papi reading an Elmo story...




Gong-gong and S doing what they do best: smiling!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

the dentist

Happy birthday, kids, for your first birthday, you get a visit to the dentist!...

All in all, they did well. They were amazing with the cleaning and let the hygienist do things that they would never let us do. Maybe she should come over in the evenings to brush their teeth. Rafa didn't really like being checked out by the dentist, though. He was calm enough for her to get a good look, but it was a little traumatic at the end. Even B-I-N-G-O couldn't calm him. Only letting him sit up and be in my arms worked. One mom did say as we left that her baby was the only one who screamed and that she didn't hear ours scream. I think she was trying to get a message across to her under 2 child who was busy disassembling a wooden block tower and didn't hear a word she said, but it certainly made me feel good!

the birthday bash

Happy 1st birthday, Sylvia and Rafael!!

We decided to forego a big party this year, mostly because the twinfants won't remember it anyway, but also in part because we don't need 20 more flashing, beeping, singing, and talking toys, and in part because we're tired enough as it is and just the thought of planning a big party is exhausting.  So, instead we just had family (blood, godparents, and our nanny) over to celebrate.  And that was still 19 mouths to feed! 

We had a blast.  I'm really grateful that D and I both have great relationships with our families that they enjoy being together.  That is definitely something that I hope will be passed on to our children. 

Sylvia and Rafael get to spend the most time with their in-town cousins.  Somehow, the 5 of them made it feel like a giant party!

Oma generously baked all the cakes for the party.  One heart shaped cake for Sylvia and Rafael and 2 big ones for everyone else.

We hadn't planned on the cake turning into the baby smears icing everywhere experience and had tried to just feed them some bites of the cake.  We should have known better.  Sylvia had other ideas.

Grandmother, Granddaddy, Cousin Hannah and Aunt Karen came to town for the weekend and represented the Vassar family well. 

I know Sylvia and Rafael enjoyed all the loving they got from near and far.  They might not remember the moments specifically, but feeling the love, receiving so many snuggles and hugs, and laughing and playing with loved ones matters.  For all of us at any age, really.

park play

I love that Sylvia and Rafael are now old enough to enjoy going to the park.  The swings are the best.  We've also been to a couple splash pads, which means we have a reason to get wet and run through the fountains.  No lie, part of the fun is our getting to act like children.  But of course, we get the most joy from the kids' giant smiles, squeals of joy and baby giggles.

cuteness

Sylvia loves to get into everything.  Literally.  To her, climbing in, on, over, and under everything is fun.  This was how she entertained herself at a friend's birthday party.  It did come in handy when we were leaving because we just rolled her down the street to the car.  Your beer and your baby all in one place.  Now, we just need to teach her how to use a bottle opener...

And this is just stinkin cute.  D has a knack for capturing great photos.

1 year stats

Our doc appointment isn't for a few weeks, so we did some rudimentary measurements here.

Sylvia:
30"
22 lbs

Rafael:
29"
21.5 lbs.

Happy First Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYLVIA AND RAFAEL!!!!

We love you more than anything.  Even sleep.  Most of the time.



While we were visiting D's parents for his dad's 70th birthday bash, D's sister-in-law's photographer sister (follow that?) generously offered some of her time to take some pics of the kiddos.  It was fun.

Enjoy!


http://focusphotographyteam.zenfolio.com/p883605668#h4031c4d8

the latest antics

Sylvia and Rafael change so quickly! Since I haven't posted in awhile, I feel like I have a million things to get caught up on here.  Here are a few things that come to mind about what's going on.

Sylvia
- loves, loves, loves being upside down
- loves, loves, loves being tossed in the air
- loves, loves, loves being swung around (notice the theme?)
- eats everything. And quickly. Without chewing. In just about every meal, she'll choke some food down to the point that her eyes water. She also has a tendency to put so much food in her mouth at one time that she physically can't chew or swallow
- eats books. She's in a war with her father whose mission as a dad is to teach her to respect books. Guess who's winning.
- is a restless sleeper, tossing and turning during the night and wakes up for a few seconds every once in awhile, so she likes to sleep in in the morning.
- today on the way to and from music class, she started spontaneously cracking up in the car.  SO much better than the screaming that we're accustomed to in the car.
- sings with us.  Melts our hearts.

Rafael
- loves, loves, loves being held (especially by his mama)
- HATES being strapped in a chair, particularly the carseat. I think it's more because it means the mama hugs are going away, but the reason doesn't affect the volume.
- is starting to wake up earlier than early. He probably loves his 2 on 1 time while his sister snoozes.
- still likes to stare.  We hope the hamster is running in the wheel in his head when he does that.
- has started vocalizing.  It'll take awhile before he catches up with chatty Sylvia, but he's starting to express himself vocally, which is fun.
- did I mention he likes cuddling?  Love it.
- has 8 teeth!  One more than his sister.  Who said girls develop faster?  Sylvia 536, Rafa 1...