practice

We are heading off to South Bend by way of the Windy City to see this girl (my cousin Nena, aka Margarita) graduate from college.  It makes me sound so old, but I totally remember coming back from an amazing trip to New York City with my mom and the Serranos to find out that Nena had been born.  In true Latino style we totally got yelled at by the hospital staff for having too many of us in the hospital room and for passing Nena around like she was a hot potato.  Apparently we didn’t do too much permanent damage – she graduates Saturday from here and we couldn’t be prouder of her.

I consider this trip our ‘practice’ trip for our big trip in a month to Quito.  Think it’s easy packing 3 kids for 5 days?  Think again…

two boys – two outfits a day (just in case) times 5 days equals a.l.o.t. of stuff.

Packing is my nightmare.  Really, flying is my nightmare… I’m a terribly nervous flyer and the whole experience kicks my OCD in to complete overdrive.  The worst part is that I can no longer take my little Xanax when flying because I’ve got to be completely lucid for my kids.  Ugh.  And, because I’m crazy, I insisted that we could only take 1 suitcase between all five of us.  My OCD is so bad that I actually started making packing lists two weeks ago.  So you’d think that I’d have finished packing like ages ago, right?

the mess in the hall tonight… but seriously I’m packed.  We’re packed.  In worst case, we’re headed to a big city – they’ve got diapers and wipes there.

So we’re off to Chicago until Friday when we drive to South Bend to meet up with the graduate, Javi, Tia Marga, Jack, Cutter, Richard, Nana, & the Bug.  Can’t wait to see each and every one of them.  Fingers crossed for smooth travels, no TSA pat-downs, and vomit/cry-free flights.

javier–6 meses

someone found his thumb! uses it pretty regularly as well.

brotherly love.

The skinny on my ‘mani’ -

Height: 24 3/4 inches long (8th percentile) – 1 1/4 inches longer.

Weight: 16 pounds even (20th percentile) – a gain of 2 pounds.

Head Circumference: 16 3/4 inches (20th percentile) – only 3/4 inch difference since his last visit.

My boy is SO much happier now that he’s not spitting up/projectile vomiting every two seconds. The combination of new meds from the Pediatric GI doctor, plus starting solid foods has really done wonders for both his tummy and his disposition.  He’s still more demanding and a little on the ‘intense’ side, but he doesn’t cry c.o.n.s.t.a.n.t.l.y. like he used to and is all around much happier and pleasant to be around.

Javier LOVES the jumpy and would stay in it all day long if he could.  He loves any kind of movement really – the big swings especially.  He also loves being held… like all.day.long.  I think Wednesdays may be his favorite day since we go to playgroup and someone, usually Ms. Alicia, is bound to pick him up at some point.  He also loves the stroller Ms. Amy has loaned us for our Chicago trip, but only if he’s sitting in the front.  He demands to be able to see what’s happening.

Javier is sleeping much better now – consistently sleeping from 7:30 at the latest until about 6 in the morning – not as great as his bro, but still 11 hours. He’s not much of a napper though – prefers to catnap throughout the day and waking at the drop of a hat, whereas Andres could sleep through a tornado.  When he cries, the only way to describe it is SHRILL.  Ohmigoodness is it LOUD – we tend to cover our ears.  He’s also ridiculously chatty – babbling all day long.

I’m a handsome devil, and I know it.

My boy is also a champion roller.  I mean he rolls everywhere and you can’t leave him unattended for a second.  If you put him in a swing or bouncy chair you have to put his seatbelt on, otherwise he rolls over in the chair and tries to shimmy off of it.  He also does this crazy scoot – not quite crawling but he lifts his butt up in the air and scooches along the ground.  It’s crazy.  I predict he’ll be crawling sooner rather than later… and then the real fun will begin.

andres–6 meses

before bed cuddles with papa.

andres, left; javier, right. I’ve mentioned I’m obsessed with baby feet, right?

Just in time for their first trip on an airplane, the boys had their 6 month checkup.  I looked back at Emilia’s stats at 6 months, and it’s wild just how close the 3 of them are.  Emilia at 6 months weighed 17 pounds, 12 ounces and was 25 1/2 inches long with a head circumference of 17 1/2.  Andres measured up as follows:

Height: 25 1/2 inches long (20th percentile) – he’s grown 1 1/2 inches since his last checkup.

Weight: 17 pounds exactly – up two pounds, 48th percentile.

Head Circumference: 17 inches – 28th percentile, up from 15 3/4.

My gordito – he’s such a sweetie.  Marcus and I remark that he’s just a ‘cool’ kid – totally chill and mellow.  It’s still rare to hear him cry – only when he’s tired (insists on sleeping on his tummy which is problematic when he’s stuck in a car seat :(), or just needs a little cuddle.  I still feel like he sometimes gets the shaft because Javier is more demanding, so I make sure he gets extra alone-time-cuddles with Mama before he goes to sleep.  Andres is a champion at sleeping.  He goes to sleep by 7:30 at the latest and regularly sleeps past 8:30 every morning.  Most mornings I have to wake him at 8 in order to get him fed and dressed in time to drop Emi at school – poor boo.  He also takes two good naps a day – the afternoon nap close to 3 hours.

Andres loves the jumpy and loves to giggle/laugh with us.  He’s also a champ at sticking things in his mouth and drooling.  Poor boy continues to cut teeth and he’s just a slobbery mess, often soaking through at least 2 shirts a day, even with a bib on.  He rolls from tummy to back and from back to tummy, but doesn’t do so super regularly – just kind of hangs out however you set him down.  He has, however, started to do this…

“what up, mama?” - a terrible picture but I didn’t have the chance to change the settings on my camera – afraid he would tip over.

The boys have started eating solid foods and Andres, not surprisingly, is a champ at eating.  So far they’ve tried sweet potato, banana, mango, pear, apple, prunes, green beans, carrots and green peas and Andres loves all of it.  Both boys have also skipped the whole start-with-one-meal-and-build-up plan and have gone straight to eating 3 meals a day – mornings a fruit with some cereal, lunch a fruit and a veg and dinner either a fruit or a veg with some cereal.  I fear when I have to feed them as teenagers.

one day

One day I’ll be one of those mamas who arrive places looking all put-together-casual-cool and effortless.

One day I’ll be on time for stuff, regularly.

One day I’ll remember Gleneagles Rd. is closed because of this.

One day all three kids will be sunshine-y and smile-y.

One day we’ll all sing “Cumbaya” on the way to school, instead of me trying to tune out the whining and crying in the back by turning up the Ceelo Green a little more.

One day…

clearly, today was not the day.

Seriously, this was essentially the best picture I got today… Javier drinking his bottle, Andres a slobber-y mess, and Emilia making her world famous ‘cheese’ face.

Further proof…

back off lady – don’t even look at me.

No, today was the typical last-minute-mad-dash-out-the-door, wearing an old top I bought ‘pre-Emi’, pitting out of course, with hair that has seen better days.  But we had to power through nonetheless.  Today was “Muffins for Mamas” day at Emilia’s school. Of course, I had to schlepp all four of us to school.  Really the girl wanted me by myself, but it wasn’t to be.  In yet another ‘mother-of-the-year’ moment, look where I parked them…

the hall outside emi’s classroom.  andres chillin’', javier catnapping.

showing off her present for mama – not sure exactly what it is – a cross between a butterfly and a ladybug?

today, however, was the day I remembered to ask a friend to take a picture of my girl and i.  bless you, reyna!

case in point – this is my friend laurie.  look how polished, how put together, how nice she looks.  even andres is enamored with her.  so much so, he promptly vomited all over her sleeve.  today apparently, was the day for total mortification as well.

my gifts.

swimmer girl

Encouraged by several of our friends, I finally mustered up the courage to sign Emilia up for swimming lessons.  The ability to swim is super important for me.  Not only is it good exercise, but I have very fond memories of swim lessons at the K of C pool growing up, as well as taking Nena and Javi to their swim lessons at their neighborhood pool ages and ages ago.  I love swimming and grew up by pools all summer long, eventually even having one in our backyard.  Plus, there’s the factor that we will forever be outnumbered – there are more of ‘them’ than ‘us’ and they need to know how to at least tread water.

Emilia talked a great ‘game’ about how excited she was about swim lessons, but made it a point to tell me she didn’t want to get her face wet, nor did she feel like she needed an actual teacher, but rather wanted mama to get in the pool with her.  I picked Charlotte Aquatics, just down the road from where we are, because several of Emi’s friends (Kate, Maisie, Liza and Zoe) had all taken/were taking lessons there.  When I checked it out it seemed perfect – a very small pool, tiny classes (5 kids with 2 instructors), and very mellow.  They are, however, pretty hard-core in the sense that, when Emilia had the full-on-koala-bear-death-grip-meltdown I knew she would when it came time to take off her dress and get her to the edge of the pool, the teachers essentially ripped her off of me and took her. The wailing was deafening to say the least.  None of these pictures are particularly good as I only had my cell phone and, oh, by the way, two other babies with me, but you get the idea.

emi’s teacher’s name is ms. gigi, from brasil. emi was sobbing at this point and had just barely hit the water.  she wouldn’t even tell the teacher her name she was that upset.

you can’t really tell but there’s a little railing the kids are holding on to.  they were supposed to scoot along the wall, holding the railing, to the end of the pool (maybe 10 feet total) where they would work on a skill).  as you can see, emi continues to scream bloody murder and at this point has upset the little boy next to her.  awesome.

The video is towards the end of the class where she had finally stopped crying.  You can’t hear, but the teacher is asking her how many brother she has (she holds up 2 fingers) and how old she is…

 

emi - first swim from Denise Glaser on Vimeo.

Enter video caption here

not sure if she was smiling because she was a) done with class or b) knew an ice cream was in her future.  stinker.

open house

Last week was “Open House” week at Emilia’s ballet class. The kids do a couple of dances and ‘exercises’ and give a little preview of one of their recital pieces. I sent the hermanitos to “child watch” so I could focus a little and not have them be a distraction… we get a lot of stares what with having twins and all.

some pre-class stretching…

e on the end.

practicing the ‘grande-jete’

not the most graceful of landings.

getting ready to tap.

e and ky were separated just after this picture.

checking in with brooks.

testing 123