Freak Out Time!

There is no way in just one short month that my girls are actually going to be a year old!  I won't stand for this! It's completely unfair that they are growing this quickly and I'm completely unprepared to have toddlers.  That being said, I AM excited to celebrate their first birthday with all our friends and family and I will do my very best to keep it together and be a rational adult :-)

The last couple weeks have been completely hectic and I foresee the next several weeks being even worse so bear with me if my posts start to become incoherent and all over the place.  This mama has a lot going on in her life!

But back to the kiddos...we plan on doing some major toddler prepping in the next weeks: we are pushing with full force to get the girls eating finger foods (this has been our biggest challenge) and we are going to start working on phasing out pacis. 

Finger Foods: How I loathe you.  The fact that the girls prefer baby food on a spoon from Alex and myself is entirely our fault.  Due to time crunches and saving ourselves the headache of cleaning up after two babies, we have resorted to shoveling spoonfuls into each girls' mouth.  Now, at 11 months old, neither girl cares to feed themselves and they like very few things with textures.  I've been on a mission all week to overcome this.  I refuse to serve them vegetable puree at their first birthday haha.  Texture has been our biggest obstacle, with Dozer being a close second.  The girls readily hand over their food to his waiting mouth next to their highchairs.  It's like I'm raising three children instead of two, honestly!!

Pacis: Luckily our girls aren't heavily reliant on pacis, they only use them at night and in the car.  Our first step is taking them out of their carseats.  Then, over the next few weeks they will only go to bed with one (now they get three in their crib so they can find one in the middle of the night so mommy doesn't have to get up!).  I know we are going to have some frustrating nights where they can't find that single one in their crib but I'm hoping some nights they will just give up looking for it and fall asleep.  I'm deliriously optimistic if you can't tell :-)

11 Month Stats

Olivia: about 19 pounds, can say Coco (my mom's dog) and can almost say "dog" (I think she might be an animal lover!), she easily stands without any assistance but refuses to budge a single step, loves to identify noses on all her stuffed animals and on people, if you say "Ay yi yi" she slaps her forehead hehe, she likes to pretend feed her goofy stuffed animal, and cannot be without her stuffed puppy dog.

Emma: about 24 pounds, can stand with no assistance and take 3 or 4 steps before crashing down on her butt, loves to point at things (including Minnie Mouse on our calender, the lights in the ceiling, and Dozer), she loves to clap and wave to the fireworks that come on before Disney movies, and she could spend all day looking at pictures and videos of herself (she will literally pull out photo albums and have me flip through the pages for her!).

Working on our Father's Day present

She's a super fast colorer

This little thief stole the bacon before I finished setting the table for Father's Day!

Father's Day 2012

The girls' gifts to Alex

11 Months!

Emma is ADDICTED to ice cream and whenever it is gone she becomes hysterical!

My smarty-pants

The Girls' Very First Cousin!

On June 5th at 8:42PM my niece (and the girls' very first cousin) Avery Harper Tavera made her debut, weighing in at 7 pounds 11 ounces and measuring 21 inches long--she is absolute perfection!  When my older sister went into labor earlier that day my little sister and I hustled down to the hospital since it was an hour from us.  We waited so patiently but Miss Avery had other plans--just like my girls had done to me :-) Even though my sister ended up with an emergency csection (again, just like these little girls did to me!) both her and Avery are doing fantastic.  After everything my sister went through she needed some big-time rest so we sadly had to go home without getting to see them all :-(  Luckily by Sunday all our schedules aligned so that Alex and I were FINALLY able to take the girls to see them.  I think Olivia could have cared less about the baby but Emma really wanted to touch her head--I think it was all the hair hehe! Unfortunately, as it often happens, I did not take a single picture since I was too busy man-handling my kiddos that insisted on going after every breakable thing in my sister's house.  (Little does April know how numbered her days are of getting to have candles and tv remotes out in the open lol)  We stayed about an hour and left them with some yummies from Trader Joes as well as the only advice you should ever really give new parents: It gets easier.  I am so excited for our girls to grow up together so close in age.  I have a TON of cousins with quite a few right around my age so I know how great that makes family functions :-)

My sweet little niece, Avery

The Many Memories of May

I'd say something like, "May has ended up being sooooo busy for us" but these days that's how most months end up :-) We've gone to Dodger games, met up with Auntie April for lunch (Miss Avery is due any day now!!), had a garage sale, celebrated Mother's Day, met dad at the zoo on his lunch break, done lots of swimming (Auntie Shanyne even came and swam with us!), started lessons at My Gym, had our first mini-family vacation, and watched Auntie Nat graduate from college!  Whewwww!!!  There's bound to be some events of May that I'm completely forgetting hehe.

On the girls' 10-month-day we started our first lessons at My Gym.  It's a 45 minute class that is composed of running/crawling around, singing, dancing, climbing on tons of equipment, playing in a ball pit, hanging in swings from the ceiling, and so many other fun activities.  The girls did so well even though they were the youngest there (it's a 7 month to 13 month class and all the other kids were 1).  During this music circle thing the kids were suppose to be let free to pick an instrument and play together.  They both left us right away but Lu came back with a maraca to sit with me and not the kids!  Emma on the other hand could have cared less if we existed--she was in the center of the jam session and had picked out the largest instrument--a tamborine--and was as happy as could be.  Our next class is next week because of the holiday this week and I will remember to bring my camera this time.

On May 24th we loaded up the girls and the suburban to take a mini-vacay (our first as a family!) to Long Beach to see Natalie graduate from CSULB.  We opted for getting a hotel because the girls can be unpredictable and we wanted a place to fall back on in the event of a nuclear meltdown :-)  We got there Thursday afternoon and during the check-in process the girls were so well behaved and for that I thank them because we ended up getting upgraded for FREE to two HUGE adjoining rooms with ocean views.  Ummmm awesome first family vacation right??  We got into our rooms and found them to be practically baby-proofed already, score!  The girls had such a great time roaming around and exploring.  That night Natalie met us at our hotel and we walked to a crepe place for dinner.  The next morning we watched her dance across the stage to receive her Dance major diploma.  I speak for both Alex and I when I say, we are so extremely proud of Nat and were so thrilled to be able to share in that special day with her.

10 Month Stats

*No doctors appointments this month so it's anyones guess on how much the girls weigh*

Emma: Such a happy baby!  (Who would have thought that when she was 3 months old and colicky??)  Her top two teeth are coming in and she is still working on feeding herself finger foods--she is quite messy and takes foreverrrr hehe.  She has started standing unassisted and balancing for a few seconds and even took one step, froze, then sat down!  She will literally start walking any day now I think!  She is so vocal (they both are) and carries on full conversations, although we have no idea what she's saying.

Olivia: Such a silly baby!  You can literally pretend to tickle her and she will crack up for hours!  Her top two teeth are ginormous but so stinking cute!!  She is an expert at feeding herself and using her straw cup but still loves to be craddled for her bedtime bottle.  She refuses to sleep unless beanie dog is in her crib and we recently had to invest in several more to have in case of emergencies.  She stands and cruises along the furniture but really has no desire to walk on her own.  She is extremely loud when she babbles and I blame dad for this entirely as he has volume competitions with the girls at the dinner table :-)

Dad met us at the zoo on his lunch break!

Checking out the hotel room

"I approve!"

This looks familiar??

Hiding!

Oy vey!  She turned this lamp on and off a hundred times!

You'd think they had never seen a TV before

There she goes dancing across the stage!

Dance Department Graduates

10 months!

Watch out world!!

I've Got Places to Go Ma!

Oh little Emma...you are much too small and young to be thinking about walking!  Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to care that this is too soon for me.  I was ok with her cruising along furniture but now with her walker toy she has full run of the land.  I won't be surprised if she actually walks before Olivia--Lu doesn't seem to have the same desire to walk--she'd rather jump or climb.  

Mother's Day 2012

 I thoroughly enjoyed my first Mother’s Day with my girls OUTSIDE the womb!  Last Mother’s Day I was big and uncomfortable and pretty much miserable :-(  This year was so much more pleasant and memorable.  Alex took the monitor with him when he woke up so I got about an extra hour of sleep while he made a yummy french toast bake breakfast.  I received two lovely cards from my little ladies, 2 dozen roses from Alex, and a ginormous orchid with a ton of buds close to blooming.  *Orchids are special to us as it was the first gift Alex ever gave me.  On our first date he showed up with a potted orchid and a book on caring for them.  At the time I thought it was strange for an 18 year old to bring a potted plant to a first date but it turned out to be quite the tradition for us.  The tradition has mostly been my remarkable talent to single-handedly kill each and every orchid Alex has ever given me :-( No matter how carefully I read that book cover to cover, no matter how closely I followed his nana’s orchid advice, I have not managed to keep any orchid alive to rebloom for a second time.  For those who have seen my tattoo that is its purpose—a permanent orchid I cannot kill :-)  And ever the faithful husband, Alex continues to purchase the nicest, most expensive orchids in the hopes that I finally make peace with my beloved potted friends.  

Later in the evening we met up with everyone for dinner at Buca Di Beppo and it was such a great time.  I'm looking forward to many more Mother's Days with my family!

 

Fun in the Sun

The girls are super busy-bodies and in order to keep our house in tact we have to come up with lots of outlets for them.  We've been doing a lot of swimming, playing at the park, and building forts.

Cutest kiddos ever: playing Peek-a-Boo with each other

Emma LOVES to watch the famous talking twins :-)

Emma's new favorite thing to do is to give anyone and anything a big wet kiss!

Building forts with daddy

We had some visitors!

Daddy trying out his hiking pack with the girls

Park day!

Ummm this face??? I love it! 

Enjoying the whole 2-acre park to ourselves!

My loves

Our new rafts!

The whale was a fail :-( The tail just hung on her head haha. 

And this is what happens when mommies have to use the restroom...they come back to everyone without pants and one who has managed to lose BOTH socks.  Emma's face just about sums this up!

When the Lion Pounces on the Zebra...

Now, I know I say all the time how the girls are growing up too quickly and I wish they would be babies forever but....I am truly coming to enjoy this phase of their life (this awkward not a baby not a toddler phase).  In the last few days the girls have started doing something I can only describe as "play wrestling."  Every time they do it I am unable to get my phone or the video camera out in time to capture it.  This is how it goes: almost every time it begins with Emma initiating the wrestling, followed by Olivia laughing hysterically, and then they each go their separate ways unscathed.  I know that last part my change as they get older and bigger but for now I'm happy they're wrestling out of love and not over a pair of shoes. The first couple times they wrestled I would quickly pull Emma off Lu out of fear but a couple days ago, since dad was supervising, we let them go to see what would happen.  Now, they constantly wrestle and crack each other up the entire time: