leverage

This weekend, we went downtown and explored with the kids. They enjoyed checking out reflection pools and skateboarders and reflective granite walled buildings, pigeons, parks and most of all, a relatively empty plaza with stairs and ramps and tables and chairs and multilevel landscaping (which was fun to run around in).

Sylvia decide to help the city of Houston rearrange the furniture. After all, pushing things at this age is about the most fun imaginable.

She started trying to push the chairs at the height where she pushes Rafa in the stroller:




Not very effective. The legs kept getting stuck.

So, more leverage was needed.

Do kids figure this stuff out or is it just dumb luck?! I continue to be amazed at what they figure out, so they either need to enter the lottery or college... Cuz I guarantee, we weren't on our hands and knees demonstrating.

pics from the nanny

Our nanny asked if it was okay if she sends us pictures of the kiddos. Of course!! Although they sometimes cause us to be overcome with emotion at work, so we'll have to be careful when we actually check them out.

Here are a few faves of mine from Valentine's day in the outfits from Grandmother and other random days.

lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

The twoddlers LOVE animals.  Well, they love pictures of animals.  Or animals that are about 5 feet away from them.  Anything live (or even resembling live, like, stuffed animals) that gets near them and their hearts start racing, they start trembling and kicking, and whimpering.  Big, small, sweet, calm, doesn't matter.  I'm sure that all my friends who are loving parents to animals think it's all my fault because I selfishly don't want to clean up after a pet around the house.  So be it.  We do try to let the twoddlers get to know our neighbor's dog who is adorable, small, and sweet.  While they clutch onto us with one hand and both legs squeezing tightly, we have gotten them to pet (touch) little Farrah.  But, it is definitely a mixture of fear and excitement and curiosity and who knows what else all mixed into one. 

While completely understandable, it's also a little nutty to me.  I mean, they both make more animal sounds than speak words.  What does a dog say?  Woof, woof!  cat: meow, mouse: eeeeeeee, camel: pbbt, fish: pohp, pohp, rhinoceros: pubbt, rabbit: nff, nff, nfffff.  Seriously, they can make a rhinoceros snort sound and get excited about it.  Rafa's favorite book by far is the Winnie the Pooh animal encyclopedia.  I don't blame him, the pictures are fantastic.  I bet he could look at those pictures by himself for an hour if we let him.  But, yet, show him the real thing, and he would rather go running for the hills.

The twoddlers do love animals if kept at a safe distance and they get really excited about seeing the creatures that I think they can communicate with better with than their parents.  So, while on a recent trip to New Orleans, we took them to the aquarium and the zoo.                                                    

story time

Sylvia loves to read out loud. She sometimes reads to us. Other times she just opens a book and starts reading out loud to herself.

Rafa probably even loves books more than Sylvia. But he just takes it all in.

baila, baila!!!

nanny update

It's amazing to think that we have already completed one year of having a nanny.  That extra person that helps keep the kids clean, fed, entertained, learning Spanish, and also manages to do a little laundry and wash the dishes.  We went back and forth on the nanny versus daycare dilemma and ultimately our desire for the kids to learn another language really outweighed everything else.  The nanny has the added bonus of not having to label all their stuff and pack them up every morning.  I'm not sure how exactly that would have fit into the schedule...  We had a great year with G.  No regrets.  She quit the Friday before MLK Day (sorry to keep you in the dark so long!).

Amazingly, our new nanny started on Tuesday after MLK Day.  She would have started Monday, except that D and I had the day off.  We didn't miss a single beat!  A miracle of miracles.  G had been sick in December of last year and while she was out, we had two different nannies come help out.  We thought it was great because we had some backup caregivers for the future in case G got sick or had to take her daughter to the dentist, whatever the case may be.  They got to know the kids and our house.  Little did we know we'd be in the market a few weeks later for a replacement for G.  We happened to learn that one of our backups from December, M, was unhappy with her job.

So, on Thursday, I had a strange conversation with G.  There were a couple things that I needed to ask her to be more careful about (like cleaning the sippy cups because a couple still had black stuff in them--ew), which I did.  She responded by asking if we could be home 15-30 minutes earlier every day and also wanted me to put the kids into various classes and buy them more things because she said they're bored.  (?!)  I told her that they had plenty of stuff and that if she didn't know what to do with them, I could come up with a list of activities for her to do with them, which I did.  I also contacted M and asked her if she would be interested in a full time job.  I just sensed that G was going to quit.  Mommy instincts, I suppose.

Sure enough, on Friday, she decided to go back to her old job at the school.  And immediately.  I went back and forth between being annoyed that she didn't give more notice and feeling that if she had already checked out, I probably didn't want her taking care of the kids, anyway.  And then when M started right away, it just worked out well for everyone.  We left it all on good terms and while it was a good year, I think everyone is better off. 

We're looking forward to the next season and our new relationship.  There will inevitably be some ups and downs, but so far it's been great, for which we are incredibly grateful.

age convergence

Look at these guys! They are turning into kids before our very eyes.


We don't have to take Sippy cups anymore and they can handle grown up cups with straws!

They're running and play on their own without our having to entertain them 100% of the time. It's happening. They're growing up. Everyone said it would happen. And it's really fun! I love seeing the changes that each day brings. Seeing them learn and be excited by their new interactions with the world.



And I love how much fun it is to play with them. Just as they're turning from babies into kids, we get to set aside our adult behavior from time to time and turn into kids.



The weather has been so amazingly gorgeous, that has recently meant lots of time playing outside at the park. Going down slides. Watching the birds. Meeting and playing with other kids and their parents. It also means dancing every time music starts playing. Eating pb&j for dinner. And generally just not thinking about that loan agreement that needs to be read for work, the laundry that needs to be done, the bill that needs to be paid...and just playing.