Enjoying the Turrell Skyspace at daybreak

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Matchy, matchy!

Ready for bed...



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like mother, like daughter

she's walking

Sylvia has taken steps for probably about a month now. Most of the time she prefers to crawl, though, and only walks when we stand in front of her and scoot backwards as she tried to reach us. Other than that, she rarely chooses to walk since she's a mean crawler and gets around quickly, which is her MO. Today, though, while I'm home sick (I can't remember the last time I've been sick. It stinks.), I got to watch her choose to walk around the play room. Multiple times while trying to get from one place to another, she did it walking!! She even turned around, so it wasn't just Frankenstein steps forward, but even a little graceful. It's so fun to see them growing up.

Rafa, our careful one, still isn't very interested, but I think once he sees her walking around, he won't be far behind.

I've been mostly hiding in my room all day, partly because I have no energy and partly because I don't want the kiddos to get sick. So, I'm glad I got that little treat during the 15 minutes I spent with the kiddos. Being home and not being able to play with the twinfants (soon to be twoddlers) has been the hardest part about being sick. Boo.

happy birthday papi!

Yesterday was D's birthday. Because of Rice's Centennial, I worked at home in between various events on campus. I did get to see D more than usual, but skipped having lunch with him to join my sister, sister-in-law, their kids and mine with our nanny at the children's museum. I'm so glad our kids have a chance to play together. Even if it sometimes feel like we notice that they're together more than they do, hopefully we're building a foundation for when they're older to enjoy each other more.












This is definitely our son. All the toys and fun kid stuff and he just wants to read the books.

it's not all sunshine and roses

Things seemed to really be rolling along smoothly for awhile there. We got in a consistent eat and sleep schedule that everyone was happy with. Kids love the nanny and weren't too sad when we left in the morning, but appropriately excited about our homecomings at night. Fun weekends together. Life was good.

And then, the vomit began again. Oh yeah, stop reading if you're on your lunch break. This post is not about sunshine and roses.

I guess we needed a reminder that this parenting thing isn't just a walk in the park. Lest we begin to judge other parents going through a more difficult stage.

Little miss Sylvia decided to bring us back to reality. Poor thing could not keep food down. So, we had to start her little tummy easy. A sip of pedialyte every 5 minutes and if she successfully kept it down for an hour, 2 oz every 10 minutes for an hour. She was NOT happy with Dr. Sari about that. She was so hungry that taking away the cup or it being empty over and over again gave her fits! But, as the nanny learned, if you give in to her desires, she's worse off because then she throws up again and is now more dehydrated and you have more disgusting cleaning to do.

Once she mastered the pedialyte, we moved her on to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples, and toast). Food, finally!! 24 hours on BRAT, then a slow transition to regular food.

While this craziness was going on with Sylvia, Rafa decided to go on a hunger strike. I don't know if it was an empathetic move, teething, just striving for independence, protesting our food offerings, trying to get attention or what. The main problem wasn't his starving. His chubs thighs have plenty of stores. But, he started waking up in the middle of the night and really early in the morning (5am) because he was hungry!! Not cool, dude.

The comical-if-it-didn't-drive-me-insane part was that Sylvia was hungry and wanted food and would cry when we put it on Rafa's plate and he didn't want to eat, so he would cry when we put food on his plate.

Sylvia went 24 hours on a regular diet, but then lost it again. So, back the beginning again. She never got a fever, nor any other symptoms. Just couldn't keep her food down. I've given up on trying to figure out the cause. Maybe if it happens again, I'll get curious, but for now, I'm okay living with the mystery.

We figured out Rafa will eat purées, fruit and bread. We're trying not to just spoil him so that he thinks he can just eat what he wants. (Trying to avoid the 3-year old who only eats lean cuisine pizza we were told about.). But, we also selfishly want some sleep and can only send him to be without dinner so often in a week. And, if we let him just cry until it's time to get up, then we have two crying babies and the other is sick and really needs her sleep. So many curveballs (excuses?) derailing the "plan."

To top it all off, somewhere in the middle of all that was their late 12-month appointment and since they're fighting 2 live viruses, we're being a little more lenient until that period is over. Unless of course, we then have another reason to be softies....

fall is here

And since our nanny is cold natured and protective of our kids, they are always warmly dressed. So, when the weather turned, she broke out the warm clothes.




So cute!!!

girls

Sylvia caught a bug and was sick, more on that later, so at one point, I didn't just abandon her in her crib for her to go to sleep on her own for her nap, but cradled her in my arms, which was a special treat for both of us.  After all the craziness, the sight of her sleeping was sweet indeed.


And then, my new niece, Natalia, came to town!!  Oh, and her big bro Alex, Tia Sonja, and Tio Jose, but this is a post about girls, so here's a pic of the new baby girl.  What a cutie!

1 year checkup

The one year checkup is really a 13 month checkup... 

In any case, here are the stats:

Sylvia:
Height: 30.75" (86%)
Weight: 21 lb 3.2 oz (44%)
Head: 18" (62%)

Rafael:
Height: 30.5" (62%)
Weight: 21 lb 3.2 oz (19%)
Head: 19" (90%)

From the numbers, our kiddos are skinny!!

The first year checkup is a fairly torturous event.  They got 4 shots, but the worst was the blood test.  They had their fingers pricked and then squeezed for the longest minutes ever as the nurse filled a tiny tube with drops of blood, one drop at a time.  I'm not sure the pain was all that bad (although I hate finger pricks, so it might have been), but I definitely know that they hate being restrained that long.  There were many tears and lots of lung exercises.

Fortunately,we did get a little fun time in while we waited for the torture.  Here is how we proved to the doctor that Rafa has reached the developmental milestone of imitating us.

technology and kids

My sister-iu-law sent me this article that features one of her colleagues.  It's a good read for parents today.  http://www.houstonfamilymagazine.com/category-1/time-to-wean-off-the-screen/  We have certainly "heard" that we shouldn't let our kids watch TV for 2 years.  It didn't occur to me that that also applies to other electronic devices.  I certainly bought into the idea that good, educational apps would be beneficial to my kid.  Aside from the general message of, zero tolerance for screen time before age 2, the things in the article that hit home to me were:

1. Watching TV interferes with infants' sleep. And with all the current research about how important sleep is (and that includes my last year of empirical research), I've been trying to guard their sleep as much as possible.
2. Even if my kids aren't using my phone, if I am, I'm not focusing on them (although, for about a month, I have tried to be strict about not being on my phone unless there's an emergency during the few hours I have with the twinfants, particularly because they already have to share their time)
3. By the time the average person reaches age 70, he or she will have spent the equivalent of 7 to 10 years watching television.

more sweetness

Our nanny and I chatted about how the twinfants like to bump heads, which we think is their way if nuzzling with each other. Since I hadn't been able to catch it on camera, I asked her to try, too. She didn't get the head bump, but did catch a few other sweet moments.













Sorry, Rafa, about the public pantless crotch shot, but at least you're wearing a diaper!!

all in a weekend

We enjoyed hanging out with some DINKs (double income no kids) at the Texans game yesterday who made the mistake of asking us about our weekend. When I finished listing what we did on Saturday, she was exhausted just hearing about it! When you get up between 5:30 and 6, you can get a whole lot done in a day.

Here is a photo from our play date on Saturday with 3 other families. They had a ball pit in their pack n play!!




Sunday morning, we monopolized the swings, but since we were the only people at the park at sunrise, I think it's okay. The kids loved it.

I don't know why, but I love the way Rafa crosses his feet when he eats.



I also love seeing how Rafa and Sylvia are so different. Here is an example. We got some alphabet magnets. Both kids like taking them off the fridge. Sylvia throws them all over the floor. Rafa collects them in his little hand. Just like when he empties the Kleenex box or plays with toys. He likes to hold on to as many in one hand as possible.




And then there was tailgating with kids. A new experience. We learned we have to pay more attention to the weather when it's not just us...