just for fun

snuggling

Sylvia finally is learning to snooze in the nursery. Maybe snuggling with the lion is key...



Rafa likes finding his friends during the night. It seems like every night he snuggles with a different friend.



And, of course, we love our snuggle time, too. Knowing it won't last forever, we try to savor the moments. Aunt Candy came over for some snuggle time and let us go out for the evening. What a treat!! Muchas gracias!!!

6 month update (a little late)

Things are getting easier with the twinfants, yet life is much busier. It is partly because work is busy, partly because now that things are easier with the kids, we're jumping back into life. So, I've been a blogging slacker.

I realized that I hadn't shared the info from their 6-month checkup. So, here 'tis.

Sylvia
26" (48%)
16 lb 6 oz (48%)
head: 16.5" (26%)

Rafael
26" (23%)
16 lb 15 oz (30%)
head: 17.5" (64%)

Of course they're perfect in every way, but the numbers look like Rafael has a disproportionately giant head and Sylvia a disproportionately small one.

Success!!

gf?

I missed out on the bedtime routine for a work dinner last night. D sent me a photo which I thought was just to let me know that the kids were sound asleep. On closer inspection, it appears Rafael got a hold of Sylvia's potential lovey.




How young is too young for a girlfriend?

adventures in food consumtion

Our kids are very good eaters. So far, they have eaten pretty much everything we've fed them. It might not last, but hopefully we can get them to taste a number of different flavors so that they won't be picky eaters (unlike their mom as a kid...).

Sylvia typically is a more voracious eater than Rafa, although that might be in part be she does everything with a little more gusto.

We just started introducing breakfast. They get baby cereal with the nanny at lunch and new foods at dinner (mostly veggies). Yesterday was quinoa with mango and applesauce for breakfast. I had some. It's delish!




Tonight was another attempt at finger foods. Blueberries and broccoli. The blueberries were tart and their faces were fantastic. Neither really wants to feed themselves. They mostly just played with the food and opened their mouths like birds waiting for us to feed them.




We are also trying to get them to drink from the sippy cup. Unfortunately, the nanny thinks bottles are cute, so I'm not sure how much help I'm getting from her on the sippy cup training. She did say that they are learning to hold their own bottles, so at least there's that.

And a pic of dad two fisting.

little things

Some of the little things Sylvia and Rafael do are really endearing. Rafael has taken to chewing on his bottom lip. And I love it. Not entirely sure why, but I think it's adorable!




When Sylvia sleeps on her tummy, she always tucks her hands under her body.




I find it's these little things that I cherish most.

lovey and toys

It has been recommended that we start introducing a lovey to our babies. (D thinks the word lovey is strange.)  In any case, it's intended to be something that will help them feel secure.  Like Linus's blanket.  I think for some babies a lovey naturally rises to the top of the toys.  That hasn't happened with us, although Rafa probably finds great security in his pacifiers.  Sylvia never really was a paci kind of girl.  That might contribute to her having a harder time with separation anxiety.  Right now her lovey is her parents.  Sweet, well sort of.  Until we try to drop her off at the nursery at church and the corners of her lips turn downward, her lips start to tremble, and giant tears instantly start falling from her eyes.  Oh, Sylvia.  Since she's born in the year of the rabbit, I recently ordered her a rabbit stuffed animal that has little ribbons on it in an attempt to "create" a lovey for her. It was inspired in part also because she really likes the ribbons on this mirror:

 

 We'll see if it takes... 

Along those lines, I thought it would be good to share (and document) some of their favorite toys.  This is the first toy that they could really grab and move around.  And they LOVED it.  Still do.  But, particularly when they first started grabbing things.  Ours was a gift, but you can buy it here.

Sylvia has always been fascinated by crackling toys.  The ones that have paper or plastic in them.  As a tiny infant, Sylvia would stop crying when she heard that sound.  I often had to crinkle the toys for 5, 10, 15?! minutes until she calmed down.  This guy not only makes the crinkling, crackling sound, but also has a trunk to chew on and plastic feet.  We have it's yellow cousin (lion, bear, I can't remember), but it hasn't been as popular as the elephant (clearly because I can't remember what animal it is...).  You can find it here.

Of course, Sophie the giraffe is a hit, as was their playmat.  I keep thinking that there should be some household objects that they would enjoy playing with, but they tend to be interested in plastic bags (and yes, they do try to pull them over their faces), nail scissors, batteries, and other dangerous things.

We were also gifted this lantern.  When I got it out of the box, I thought that it was a dumb toy.  I mean, they have a toy horse with blocks that plays different songs that match whatever side of the block is facing up and a car steering wheel toy that has a gear shifter and a horn, and all kinds of bells and whistles.  This is a lantern.  It turns on and off.  And sings a few short tunes, but only has one button and a wheel.  And guess what, the kids love it.  

And who wouldn't love this overstimulating colorful, noisy contraption?  The Evenflo ExerSaucer Smart Steps is a joy both for the kiddo stranded in the middle of toys galore and for the parent who now has hands free.  Of course, unless there's another infant crying for attention. 

Both babies also really love this set of car keys.  That does not bode well for the parents, I fear.  It makes some pretty realistic car sounds when each of the buttons is pressed.  They enjoy pressing the buttons with their fingers and chewing on them with their teeth.  Both methods rev the engine.

It's also really great to watch them chew on their Nubys.  They are marketed as toothbrushes, but they have been the best teethers for us.  I am amazed at their fine motor skills as they manipulate the Nuby to find just the right angle to chomp down.

girl vs. boy

There are many ways that our kiddos are different. How they use their mouths is but one of them.

passports

I used to be really organized. I used to get things done ahead of time. I used to not lose or forget stuff (much). I used to think all that wouldn't change (much) with kids. HA!

In preparation for our international travels this summer, one big item on our to do list, of course, is get the Vassariños' passports. That process starts with getting birth certificates. The old me probably would have taken care of that in October. Maybe even September. The new me ordered them in March. Maybe February. The old me would have already researched the process for passports before we received the birth certificates. The new me started reading frantically when my sister-in-law gave me tips on what to do and I realized I might need to expedite their passports.

I learned a couple of lessons during this process. 1. You now need an appointment for your passport application. The government is getting efficient! Maybe. 2. Passport photos are a pain.

We called more than a dozen drugstores to try to find one that could take the Vassariños' passport photos. They either don't take pictures of infants or their camera was broken, it seemed like everyone had an excuse. We finally found one that agreed to take the photos. They told us that they opened at 7am, so we planned to be there first thing Saturday morning.

Since it was only about a mile from our home, we went on an early walk and arrived shortly after 7am.  We were told that the machine hadn't warmed up so they wouldn't be able to process the photos.  Why didn't they mention that the night before when they told us that they opened at 7am?  We finally figured out that it only meant we would have to return to pick up the photos and we could still have the pics taken since we were there with two infants.  OK, no biggie.  Then the photo guy asked us where our white sheet was.  What??  Apparently, we were supposed to know that we needed to bring a white sheet to stick behind them in their stroller.  After much begging discussion (did you notice that we have two infants here??) and explanation that we walked 20 minutes to get there, we convinced the photo guy to let us just hold the babies in front of the screen where they take the adult photos since they can sit up and hold their heads up.  I returned the next day to pick up the photos.  These were the results:




Seriously??!!?!  There's no way those photos are going to pass muster.  Sylvia's head is totally blown out (photog speak for so much white light that you can't see the detail).  Maybe Rafa's will pass.  They look a little like criminals, but I'm not really concerned about that, I just need photos that will be accepted at our upcoming appointment.  The photo guy tried to assure me that they are more lenient with infant photos.  But, I figure they're probably more lenient about facial expressions and head tilts, not the quality of the photo. But, he and his assistant assured me they'd be fine.

I decided to take a couple pictures myself just to have a backup set.  I would rather show up with some options than walk away without a passport.  And, trying to find time to load up the kids for another visit to the drugstore that was incompetent the first time did not sound like a winning proposition.  Here's how mine turned out:



I am still a little concerned because I don't have a fancy flash and there wasn't enough natural light, so there are shadows on their faces (which is a big no-no according to the Dept. of State website).  But, they do show more detail than the drugstore pics.  They even make it look like Sylvia has hair, what a feat!  I took the pictures to a different drugstore and the photo guy didn't want to sell the prints to me because he didn't think that they would be acceptable because of the shadows.  He only wanted to sell me photos that he could guarantee would be accepted.  Of course, his camera was broken so he couldn't take new pictures, even if I had the babies with me.  I begged discussed with him that the ones that another location in his chain had given me were worse (he agreed) and that I didn't care about getting a refund on all of the pictures--it wasn't about the money, I just needed pictures for our appointment.  He relented and gave them to me for free and even made a second set which was cropped a little more to cut out some of the shadows even though that means Sylvia's head is a little lower than "required"? on the Department of State website.  Well, at least we have options. 

Fast forward to our appointment.  D picked up the kiddos and the nanny and met me at the post office.  We had an appointment at 11:30 (neatly tucked in between D's meetings), so the nanny made sure the Vassariños napped a little earlier.  We waited at the passport counter, but nobody came to service us, so we went to the regular line.  Once we got to the front, we told Terre that we had an 11:30 appointment.  I started getting out all of our paperwork and she said our name didn't match her 11:30 name.  She said our appointment was at 12:30.  I told her that I called to confirm the time since I had two infants and scheduling was important and she just pointed at her sheet of paper that said 12:30.  I understand that's what your paper says, it's just not what I was told!  So, she had us go stand in the corner while she took care of a couple customers until she decided she could take us.  It felt a little like this:

She did eventually call us over and was helpful, although not particularly nice.  I presented her with all of our passport photo options and she chose the ones that I had taken that were cropped.  Fingers crossed that the Department of State accepts them!  Now, we wait.

top of the morning

The twinfants are serious about preparing for the day in the morning.

First the prayer...

Then the stretches...

Don't forget to brush your teeth (er, gums in Rafa's case)...

traveling with twinfants (part III)

For our flight to Tampa, Oma and I sat together and D was right across the aisle.  We were in the 2nd row of extra leg room seats, which is ideal to have the extra space and the ability to have the diaper backpacks at our feet, which would couldn't do in the bulkhead.  I nursed one baby on the ascent and D gave a bottle to the other.  We did this to help them clear their ears.  Fortunately, we also lucked into their nap time, so after eating, they both snoozed for almost all of the flight.  For the descent, we switched babies and fed again for their ears.  There was hardly a peep from either baby the entire trip.  Someone must have been sending some serious prayers up on our (or our fellow passengers') behalf.  I don't think anything could have gone better.  Really, it's true.  I promise.  No lie.

Most everything worked out quite well on the trip.  We had some tears and screaming because we got caught in a couple traffic jams.  The kids expressed what we were all feeling.  For one of them, I think we spent an hour going about half a mile.  Or at least it felt like it.  They must not have many wreckers in the Tampa area. The things we take for granted.  Safe clear would have had that mess cleared up in about 1/100th of the time.  The other thing we didn't consider as well as we should have was our seat locations at the games.  We were so excited about being able to sit in fantastic seats, that we didn't think about how hot a 1pm game would be with babies in your lap.  For the second game, we abandoned the premier seats and headed to the shade.  Fortunately, the stadiums were all small enough that pretty much anywhere was a good seat.

George Steinbrenner Stadium.  Twinfants sporting Minnesota Twins unis.

One of my favorite moments on the trip was when a Yankees' fan told D that there was a place to watch the game inside if we wanted to keep the babies out of the sun.  He followed it up with (under his breath), "What you need to do, is have the missus take the babies inside."  To which my prince responded, "She's a bigger fan than I am." 

All decked out to see the 'Stros take on the Blue Jays.

Ready to go see the Astros in Kissimmee!  Too bad that game rained out...

We also took the twinfants to their first museum--the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg.  It was a phenomenal building and a wonderful collection.  It also provided the opportunity for the twinfants to don pipe cleaner mustaches.

The main thing that we learned on our trip is that there is a whole new level of flexibility needed for traveling with children.  And we will always strive to pack an attitude of embracing each moment without thinking about how it might influence our "plan" but focus on the opportunity for a fantastic Plan B (or C or D or E...).

traveling with twinfants (part II)

We planned at 5-day trip.  2 travel days and 3 baseball games.  And we got excited.  We figured spring training would be daytime, outdoor and somewhat noisy activities, so very baby friendly.

We managed to pack for all four of us in one suitcase to check.  That even included diapers (which we left for the end and just stuffed where we had extra space), two gloves (for foul balls) and most of the baby food they would need (we snagged a few bananas at breakfast to supplement what we brought). 

We didn't buy extra seats for the babies, so they traveled as lap infants.  The fun fact about lap babies is that you can only have one per row on one side of the aisle.  That's because there is only one extra oxygen mask per seat grouping.  And some rows don't have extra masks, we've been told, so you have to ask the right person to get you in the right seats.  And the right person is not everyone who works for the airline.  Not even the ones who get to wear the fancy jackets.  It pretty much means the people at the gate.  You know the ones.  The ones who have about a million things to do before the flight takes off and they have timed their arrival at the gate down to the minute so that they are constantly doing something and only take care of "situations" at the gate with much frantic typing. 

D dropped Oma, the twins and me off at the curb while he parked the car.  Oma and I loaded each baby in an umbrella stroller, slung a car seat on the back of each one (hanging it over the handles), grabbed our carry-ons and headed to the counter to check the bag.  So far, so good.  D dropped off the car and met us at security with his carry-ons.  We each had a backpack diaper bag (since we would each have a baby and sit in different rows, we figured it would be good for us to each have our own supplies).  The backpack is key.  It probably doesn't win us any fashion points, but fashion is not important when you carry around twins.  Nobody pays attention to the adults, anyway. 

Security took a little longer than normal, but I thought we did pretty well.  Not sure if the people behind us would agree, but we weren't any slower than the guy who has to take off his belt and empty 5 pockets, take out his computer, untie his shoes...  Plus, the security personnel in Houston were fantastic at helping move us through.  They took all our liquids for the babies (and extra water to hydrate the nursing mom) to a special machine to check them out.  They did that while we loaded up our gear.  They were very clear in their instructions to us about putting all the stuff through the machine, carrying the babies through the metal detector, etc.  Kinda weird hearing good things about airport security, huh?!

On the other side, everything loaded, we headed to the gate. 

traveling with twinfants (part I)

D and I are avid travelers. We love it. This whole baby thing, though, has put a big damper on our traveling. Recently, I had been getting very antsy to get away. It had been almost a year since our last trip and that's a really long time for this spoiled lady.

We have been talking about a trip to Europe this summer to visit family and combine it with a work event for D. Most people who hear that respond by telling us that we are crazy. Some give us the thumbs up while staring with Rafa-esque dropped jaws and bug eyes. We are really looking forward to it, though. In preparation, we thought it would be important to take a shorter trip, particularly before getting on the plane with Sylvia and Rafa for a transatlantic flight. Just to see how crazy we are, how big a mountain of gear we need, and learn at least a few of the things we're not thinking about.

Our mission, to find a place to go that is one short plane trip from H-town, with baby friendly activities, that we would enjoy. We considered many cities where we have friends. And then it hit us. Spring training. Oh, yeah. We love baseball almost as much as we are traveling. Perfect! And the icing on the cake? Oma loves baseball, too. And she has always talked about wanting to go to spring training. This was our golden opportunity, to go on a great trip, share it with Oma, and have an extra set of hands for the babies to boot.

Now we just need to figure out: two rooms or suite? Double stroller or singles? Snap-n-go or umbrella? Bring car seats or rent them?...

Of course, what did we spend time thinking about? Little Yankee Stadium or new Red Sox? Tickets behind home plate or behind the dugout? Multiple Astros games or just one?

because he lives

God sent His Son,
They called Him Jesus.
He came to love, heal and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon;
An empty grave is there to prove my Saviour lives.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain day because He lives.

And then one day,
I'll cross that river.
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then as death gives way to vict'ry,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he lives.

Because He lives I can face tomorrow!
Because He lives all fear is gone!
Because I know He holds the future!
And life is worth the living just because He lives!

rabbits!

The tradition of the Easter Bunny conveniently also provides an opportunity for the twinfants to annually embrace their zodiac sign.  Our inaugural ritual began with a mandatory photo with the giant costumed animal.  We wondered if our kids would be terrified of this strange costume custom.  And, quite honestly, the rabbit costume was a little scary.  Fortunately, they aren't quite old enough to realize that they should be afraid of larger than life rabbits.  Maybe they have a friend named Harvey.  We also didn't give them to the rabbit to hold as we were told it was a 12-year old boy who probably conned his mom into giving him an iPad or something for his hours of putting up with children.  So, we held them and they played with his costume.  We did get a decent family photo out of it. 

7 months!!

It doesn't feel like they can get any cuter or I can love them any more. But then I wake up the next day and they are and I do.

i like to eat, eat, eat

apples and bananas...

This was our second attempt at the babies feeding themselves.  While Sylvia is happy to eat banana chunks (and pretty much anything), she really doesn't like having to work herself and much prefers that we feed her.  Rafa is more likely to grab the food and put it in his mouth, but he is much more picky about what he actually eats, texture being a big deal.  We'll give them a little break and try again later.  I think they would do better if they got to see us eat from time to time, but not sure we'll ever get to the point of having a meal ready for us and sitting down with them at the same time to eat.

krunk

Do kids still say that or is it already passe?  How are we going to keep up with what the kids are saying these days?

grateful

I am grateful that both D and I are close to our parents.  I am grateful that they live here or nearby.  I am hopeful that they will have great relationships with their grands.  We treasure the time they get to spend with my 'rents and are really looking forward to D's parents coming to town this week.

i survived!

D had a biz trip down to Brasil for a week and so I was a single mom for a week.  I have always had immense respect for single parents.  I never could quite understand how people do it.  I'm still not sure I do, but I now have one more week of understanding.  It was exhausting.  It also happened to be my busiest week of work since my return.  Of course it was.

In any case, that's my excuse for the radio silence.  Next week, I'll have to come up with something else...

In the meantime, a couple pics of Rafa.  I don't know why they're turned on their side.  I guess you'll just have to turn your head...

Rafa has started sucking on his lower lip.  It cracks me up.

We are learning to use a sippy cup, now.  I really thought Sylvia would take to it sooner because she eats/drinks anything and everything she gets her paws on.  But, she did not have even an iota of interest in the sippy cup.