Christmas Card Update

A few weeks ago I posted about how Shutterfly was giving 50 free holiday cards to bloggers who wrote a post about Shutterfly.  I finally got around to designing and ordering my cards last night and I saved a whopping $106 at checkout!  That Shutterfly blog post was the best 5 minutes I think I've spent blogging in a long time.

Christmas cards are ordered and should be here next week. Now I'll just have to address them...  :)

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a tiny bit different than last year.  Remember those tiny babies in the above picture?  That was 1 year ago.   This year those tiny little sleeping babies ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, spinach casserole, and crescent rolls (and banana. But that wasn't really part of their "Thanksgiving" meal.  They just loooooove bananas!).  Yum! 

 

The weather got really chilly Thanksgiving weekend and we were able to finally break out the winter coats and the awesome owl hats that Emily made for Ana and Javi!  They love their hats and don't try to take them off!  They look so sweet walking around the cul-de-sac with their little hats on :)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We had the annual AMOM breakfast with Santa this morning.  It was really fun.  I look forward to going in the future when Ana and Javi are old enough to participate in the crafts, the face painting and when they actually know who this "Santa" guy is. 

This was their first time seeing Santa and I think they did okay.  Ana was more interested in walking around the room.  She didn't really want to sit on Santa's, or anyone's, lap.  Javi was so happy sitting with Santa.  He just sat and stared at him for a long long time.  There was no line for Santa, and he said that he didn't mind holding him, so they sat there for quite a while  :) 

I don't want to spoil our Christmas card that all 7 of my readers will be receiving, so I'll leave you with these pictures that pretty much sum up the day...

Walking

This is what Ana and Javi do for much of the day.  They walk and walk and walk.  They really love walking up and down the hallway from our bedroom to the front door or to the kitchen.  We close the bedroom and bathroom doors so they can have free reign over that back hallway.  Aren't they becoming great little walkers?  It's funny how differently they walk.  Ana is so light on her feet and Javi... isn't.  :)

One

I still think it's impossible.  They can't already be one.  Impossible.

We had a fun little party at a park right by our house.  The theme was 'sock monkey'.   Our loving families came to celebrate with us.  Grammy, Grampa, Erin, Dan, Abuelo, Abuela, Jenny and Pedro all made the trip to Austin!  Aunt Nancy and Uncle Manuel couldn't make it from Boston - but they were there in spirit!  Several of our friends from Austin also came out to celebrate. 

We played at the park, ate some snacks and delicious cake and opened presents.  It was just about everything you'd expect from a first birthday party  ;)

Here's a little recap of what Ana and Javi are up to at 1 year old:

Javi (aka William)  ;)  *that's for you auntie Erin
- He is a funny funny boy.  He loves to make people laugh - especially Ana. 
- He loves to eat!  People are always impressed by how he puts away his food.  He really prefers things that he can feed to himself now.  He's not so into pureed baby food.  Even when I'm feeding him baby food, he likes to have something on his tray to nibble on between bites.  I could list his favorite foods, but that would probably take a few pages.  He loves cheese, blueberries, bananas, ham, tofu, mac and cheese, peas, avocado, turkey, chicken... the list goes on.
- He's a great walker!  Just this past week he's really gained confidence while walking.  For a few weeks he would take a few steps and sit down.  Now, walking is the perferred form of transportation.

(please excuse the drool... he's working on a few more teeth)

- He is so smart.  He has a shape sorter toy that he loves to play with.  He has actually put some of the shapes in the right spots!  He also knows where the cow, pig and horse belong in the 'Little People' Barn.
- He is big.  He is at the 97th percentile for height and weight (32 inches and over 28 pounds)!
- He is so loving.  He is a great little cuddler.  He gives hugs and kisses to his stuffed animals.  He is so sweet.
- He loves to play with his friends.  When he's in a bad mood, he can always be cheered up by Reid or Sam or Stella.
- He hasn't started saying many words yet, but he does say mama, dada, and gog (dog).  He can also do the sign language signs for dog and milk.  We're going to be starting more sign language videos and classes next week, so hopefully that'll help him.  He is very interested in his hands - he likes to copy people doing hand motions.  For example, at the dr. office last week, he was copying the motions the doctor was making while rubbing hand sanitizer into her hands.  :)  She was really impressed.

Ana:
- She is a crazy fun little girl.  Her personality is so much fun.  She starts bouncing and bopping every time she hears a song.  No exceptions.  We'll be in the grocery store and she'll start dancing to whatever song is playing in the background.  It makes for some pretty interesting looks, but whatever.  She also has a "radio" on one of her fisher price toys (the door).   She hits the radio buttons over and over until her favorite songs come on.
- She is a great walker!  She walks laps around the house.  She really hardly crawls anymore.  She is so light on her feet.  She can stand up mid-room without holding onto anything.

- Her favorite foods are cheese, cheese, and cheese and she'll nibble on whatever else I give her.  She is a great eater and really isn't picky at all.  So far, the only thing she really didn't like is swiss cheese (but she looooooooves every other kind of cheese).   Do you understand her love of cheese?  :)

- She loves to squeal and laugh.  She and Javi just look at eachother and laugh and giggle and tackle eachother.  I love that they love playing with eachother.  I don't know how moms of single babies do it. haha!

- Her hair is getting really long.  Everyone says how jealous they are of her beautiful hair.  It's so long in the front that it's in her eyes if I don't pull it back.  She's starting to pull out hair clips/bows/ponytail holders, but I have to keep trying.  Lately she has gone with a Pebbles style single ponytail on top of her head.  Kinda tacky, mostly just cute.

- She loves Ringo.  She is so sweet with him - hugging on him and petting him.  She also has started throwing her food (mainly just her cheerios) off of her tray in hopes that he'll come and eat them off the floor.  Ringo is usually not allowed in the kitchen during meal time for this reason.

- She is smart!  She understands so much that you tell her.  She also says mama, dada, and knows the signs for dog and milk.  She babbles all the time and I can tell it's not going to be long before she's talking nonstop!

- She has 6 teeth - 4 on the top and two on the bottom.  The four top teeth all came in at once.  Poor baby.

Both Ana and Javi love to read, love to play outside and love eachother.  They give eachother goodnight kisses every night before bed.  It is so much fun to watch them play together.  They're never too far apart. 

The past year went by so fast.  I'm ready for time to slow down a little bit...

Free Shutterfly Cards for Bloggers!

Shutterfly is running a promotion right now for bloggers to receive 50 free holiday cards (http://bit.ly/sfly2010)! I am actually going to send out Christmas cards this year and this promotion will make it really easy! I was just looking at some of their new cards and love them. They have over 700 different Christmas card designs on the website. We sent out photo cards for Ana & Javi’s first birthday party and everyone just LOVED them. Photo cards are definitely the way to go! It is so fun to have the mantle full of pictures of friends and family during the holidays.

I intended to send out cards last year, but I was in a total post-baby fog. It never happened. I figure that by blogging about it, I will actually stick to it and get something sent out. Right?

I actually think that a 2011 calendar would be a great Christmas present, too! Hmm…

Here are some links to some pretty cool Shutterfly products -

• Holiday cards - http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

• Christmas cards - http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

• 2011 calendar to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

Is anyone else going to send out Christmas cards this year?

Backing Up a Bit - Maryland and Pumpkins

Okay, I just realized how terrible I've been at blogging.  Sorry.  I am going to back up a little bit and post about our trip to Maryland and our visit to the "pumkin patch". 

In mid-October we hopped on a plane and flew to Maryland for a friends wedding.  Zach and Juan were college roommates for several years.  We were excited to attend his wedding - even if it meant flying 1/2 way across the country with two semi-toddlers. 

We had not stayed in a hotel with the babies yet, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I tried to pack well - not too much, not too little.  I kept telling myself that there were grocery stores and baby stores in Maryland  :)   We arrived late on Friday evening and got settled in the room.  We got Ana and Javi to sleep in the pack & plays that were provided by the hotel.  We ate dinner (quietly) in the room and then Juan headed out to the bachelor party.  I quickly learned the downside to staying in a hotel with babies.  Hotel rooms are small.  I tried to be quiet while watching the Rangers play the Yankees on TV.  They slept okay - as well as can be expected.

On Saturday morning we met up with my Aunt Nancy, and her daughter & son-in-law, Keltie and Dave.   It was so great to see them!  Nancy lived next door to my grandparents for years and years.  She was almost like a grandmother to me.  She moved to Maryland just before I had the babies.  It was so wonderful that Ana and Javi got to meet her!  Unfortunately, Javi was a big crank ball that day.  I think it was teething (he got 4 top teeth all at once during that trip!).  He was just not himself.  They were understanding though - they've all seen fussy babies before. 

We were in for another treat when Katie and Jen arrived!  They agreed to watch Ana & Javi while we went to the wedding.  I felt kinda bad that they got to the hotel and said hi and I basically threw fussy babies at them and left.  I knew they'd be fine  - although they probably have been convinced to never have babies...

The wedding was beautiful.  I am so happy that we were able to attend.  I know Juan had fun reconnecting with old college friends.  The reception was at the hotel where we were staying, so I was able to pop up and check on the babies (and Jen & Katie) a few times during the evening.  They did a great job.  They even rode the elevators up and down and up and down to keep them entertained. 

After the wedding, Juan took over baby duty (although they were soundly sleeping) and Jen, Katie and I went to the hotel bar for a glass of wine and to catch up.  I miss my Rice friends and still hold on to that hope that we'll all live on the same cul-de-sac in our old age. 

On Sunday we went into D.C. and toured around.  It was 'open grounds' day at the White House, so we were able to walk right up to the front door, the Rose Garden, the Oval Office, etc...  It was really fun.  Ana and Javi walked (yes, walked!) around in some of the parks and ate some peas at the Washington Monument.  We headed back to Austin on Sunday evening.  It was a great trip!

The following weekend we went to a nursery in our neighborhood to get a few pictures with pumpkins.  Ana was very into it, but Javi was mad at me.  I wanted him to be in something orange/Fall.  I didn't really realize that his overalls were too small and that his onesie wouldn't snap.  So, he wasn't very happy with my squeezing him into that outfit and then making him sit on straw.  :)  We still got a few cute pictures.

Long Overdue - Halloween!

This was Ana and Javi's first ever Halloween!  It's crazy to think what I was doing last year for Halloween...  I was busy scaring all the neighborhood children :)  I was just about a week away from delivering two huge babies.  I was HUGEly pregnant. 

This year was so different.

Juan and I had our first night away from Ana and Javi on the night of October 30th.  We drove to Richardson on Friday night and stayed with my parents.  We left the babies with their Grammy and Grampa on Saturday afternoon and Juan and I made our way to Denton for Ellen's wedding!  We checked into our hotel and took a nap before the wedding - yes, an uninterruped, no chance of baby waking up crying, NAP.  Ahhhh.  We had a great time at the wedding.  Ellen was a beautiful bride and she and Tim seem so so perfect for eachother. 

We stayed over in Denton on Saturday night.  I still woke up at about the time the babies would be waking up and I thought about them non stop - but it was good to have one night away.  I knew they were in excellent hands.  :)   We went to IHOP in Denton and drove back to Richardson.  (It's only about 40 minutes away)

Ana and Javi didn't seem to even notice that we were missing for an evening/morning.  They were happily playing when we got there.  They played for a while in the morning with Aunt Mildred and then later in the day with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Pedro.  It was so fun getting them all dressed up and ready for some heavy duty trick-or-treating. 

Ana was a ballerina.  She loves to dance.  I have no doubt that dance classes are in her future.

Javi was a Spanish Soccer (or futbol) player.  He got an official uniform from his aunt Bego and uncle Pepe.  He looked so cute. 

They went to three houses.  We went to the house across the street, to the Wachtlers and to the Boxwells.  They (ahem, Juan and I) got some yummy candy. 

Overall, it was a wonderful first Halloween weekend!

Ten Months

Aahhhhhhh!  I can't believe Ana and Javi are already 10 months old!  Where has the time gone? 

They are just growing and changing every single day. Here's a little summary of what they're like at 10 months old:

Javi - (I am making an attempt to call him "William" more often, since that is his name...  ha!)

- He can stand for about 20 seconds without touching anything.  After a few seconds he just starts laughing.  It seems like he's just so tickled that he can stand up.

- He is a very very fast crawler.  He just zooms all over the room and kinda mumbles under his breath while he darts around.  I wish I knew what he was saying.
- He loves to eat and eat and eat.  He is really good using his fingers to pick up food from his tray.  He can gobble up a tray full of cheerios and banana chunks so fast.  He hasn't really met a food he doesn't like.  He got his first taste of Saltlick brisket last weekend and loooooved it.
- He is really good at drinking out of a straw sippy cup.  He hugs his cup and drinks.  He loves water.
- He has his two bottom teeth and is working on a few top teeth. He is our slobber king and wears a waterproof bib 100% of the time to keep his shirt somewhat dry.  He goes through 4 or 5 drool bibs a day.
- He loves giving hugs and kisses.  I sometimes have to make sure he doesn't squish Ana  :)  He tackles and hugs her - laughing the whole time.   He is learning how to give kisses.  He's really good at blowing raspberries though!

-  He is a big "solid" guy wearing 18 and 24 month clothes.  He is quickly outgrowing the 18 month stuff... just in time for me to get him a new fall 24 month/2T wardrobe!
- He loves reading books.  He crawls quickly over to sit with me when I pull out a book to read.
- He goes to sleep at 7pm and usually sleeps until about 6 or 6:30am (usually waking up for some pacifier help early in the night).  He takes two naps a day at about 9am and 1pm. He's having a bit of a rough sleeping patch right now - he has a little cold (or teething, we're not sure).  So his sleep schedule is not quite so great.

Ana

- She is such a sweet sweet baby.  She hugs and kisses and smiles and is so kind and happy. She has just started giving good squeezing hugs.  I love them.
- She is also a big baby.  She's wearing mainly 18 month clothes and some 24 month.  We can tell that she's getting noticeably taller since her 9 month Dr. appointment.
- She has her two middle bottom teeth and no others currently in sight. 
- She is a great eater.  She takes her time with her finger foods, but she is great at feeding herself.  Her very favorite food is graham crackers.  She devours them. She likes to listen to music while she drinks her bottle.  We've started listening to the Beatles channel on Pandora instead of only listening to Raffi-type artists.  I think that a little 'classic' music is good for them.  :)

- She can pull herself up and 'cruise' around while holding onto the couch and her toys. 
- She sleeps like a pro, but is also having a little bit of a hard time right now during naps.  This too shall pass. Right?
- She loves to dance.  She bops around whenever music is playing.  Unfortunately, she has me and Juan as her dance instructors/role models.  Hopefully she'll have more style and grace than us.

- She loves to read.  She crawls over and sits down next to me whenever I pull out a book to read.  She often sits in the middle of the books in the play room and "reads" them herself.

- She loves Ringo.  Ana and Javi both do, but she really loves to pet him and love on him.  Too bad he doesn't really understand that baby love means getting poked and pulled at.  He takes it for a few minutes and then just goes into the other room.  :)

Last week we went to two free music classes to try them out.  They were a lot of fun.  The second class was a bit too crowded and during our normal nap time, so it was a bit of a disaster.  Thank goodness Reid didn't mind sharing his mama.  Jenny helped me out with two somewhat cranky babies that wanted to be on the move - not sitting still playing with maracas.   Even after the music disaster, we signed up to take a weekly music class that is being taught by a woman in our neighborhood.  We are going to go with my two neighbors that had babies within a few weeks of Ana and Javi.  It should be fun to get to know them better.

This is Javi, Ana and Reid playing at Reid's house

This Saturday we are going to the Austin zoo with the Mothers of Multiples group.  We haven't been to the Austin zoo yet and I've heard it's pretty fun.  I'm excited to see how Ana and Javi react to seeing zoo animals.  I think they'll really like it. 

I'm trying to decide what to do for Halloween costumes.  Any suggestions?  :)

Aunt Erin and Uncle Dan

Juan, Ana, Javi and I went to Richardson last weekend to visit family, friends, and to see Erin and Dan!  We hadn't seen E or D since their wedding in May, so we were very very excited!   We had a great time at Grammy & Grampas house.  They love playing with Annie, swimming in the backyard "pool" and getting lots and lots of kisses from their family.

We did a lot of relaxing and hanging out over the weekend.  Javi even helped Dan with a little bit of his work.  Javi is really good at pressing just the right series of keys on the computer to do some strange functions and type very interesting characters.  You have to be very brave to let him mess with your computer.  He loves it though.

Ana and Javi just learned how to pull up on things.  They both really started doing this on Friday - the day we left for Dallas.  They quickly became professionals, pulling up on EVERYTHING.  This is not fun at nap/bed time.  All they can think of is standing up and it's hard to get them to lay down and settle into sleep.  Hopefully this phase will pass soon.  They did the same thing when they learned to roll over and to sit.  Eventually they figured out that it wasn't really all that exciting and sleep was more important :)   Here's a naptime picture in their nursery at Grammy & Grampas house.

Ana and Javi also love playing in their pjs in the morning.  I usually keep them in their pajamas through their morning nap, so they get some good comfy playtime in the mornings.  Hasn't Ana's hair gotten thick and long?!  I've heard several comments over the past few weeks about how she's starting to look more like a little girl and less "baby".  Noooooooooooo!  She's still my little baby!  Javi on the other hand... he still has that little baby face.

We were also lucky in that Juan's parents were in Dallas last weekend.  We got to spend some time with them and with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Pedro.  (I was forgetful and didn't take my camera... all of the pictures here are from Erin's camera.)  It was fun letting Ana and Javi crawl around Jenny & Pedro's house.  They loved exploring and leaving their little baby handprints all over their windows.

Javi and Ana still each have 2 teeth.  I think they're working on breaking some more in, but nothing yet!  Javi has been drooling and drooling so much lately.  Hopefully they come in soon so I can let him go a few days without a bib! 

It was a fun weekend with family!  We hope to see everyone again very soon!!

New Format

I was a little frustrated at my old blog format because it was making the posts appear so narrow.  I hope you guys are okay with this new format.  I tried to keep the changes minimal!  I also added two new tabs at the top of the page.  One will contain recipes and the other will contain posts about baby things I've found to be useful.   (edited to add: nevermind on the new tab idea.  That was just a pain in the butt.  I will just put recipes and baby things on this main blog...)  :)

I have a few friends who are expecting right now or who have babies younger than Ana and Javi.  They've been asking what products I've found useful and my opinion on good toys - so I'll just include everything here.  I plan to continue updating this with my toy and product reviews - both good and bad - as Ana and Javi continue to grow.

Oh, and I came up with a multi-billion dollar toy idea the other day.  I need to do a little internet research to find out if it already exists.  If it doesn't already exist, I will soon be marketing my idea and retiring to Tahiti.  ;)

Crock-Pot Experiment

I love my crock-pot so much that I should probably start a separate crock-pot blog :)  Or, maybe just a new tab on this blog where I can put recipes... I like just throwing random ingredients into the crock-pot and seeing how it turns out.  Today I am experimenting with a new recipe - Fajita Chicken Tacos.  I will update tonight to let you know how it turns out! 

Fajita Chicken Tacos
1 package    HEB Fajita Marinated Chicken Breasts
1.5 cups      Chicken Broth (low sodium)
.5 can           Corn (we used the other 1/2 of the can last night)
1 can             Black beans, drained.

I'm cooking on "10-hour low" all day...  we'll see what we have at the end of the day!

Thrilling blog entry, huh?  :)

Edited to add:  The final product was okay... it was easy and good enough to eat, but I don't think this will be a regular crock pot recipe.

Doctor and Fun Videos

Ana and Javi had their 9 month well-check today (a week early).  They are both still big babies!  Ana weighs 22.5 pounds and is 29 inches long.  Javi weighs 25 pounds and is 30.5 inches long.  They are both healthy and happy - that's all we could possibly ask for!  Our next appointment is for their 1 year check-up.  It doesn't seem possible that they are that close to being 1 year old.  Where does the time go?!

Ana and Javi were being so funny tonight.  They were crawling around the living room together and laughing and laughing.  They definitely keep us on our toes now - especially since our living room isn't totally baby proofed yet.  I've posted two fun videos, below, that really show off how good they are now at crawling.

7 Years

Today, Juan and I are celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by watching Mad Men on our DVR, eating leftover spaghetti and meatballs, and then Juan had a conference call for work.  Don't feel too sorry for us though, we went out last night for a special celebration dinner.  We ate at one of our favorite restaurants in Austin, Jeffrey's (http://www.jeffreysofaustin.com/).  It was delicious! 

We had to wait for our table for just a minute or two, but that was plenty of time to have a brush with fame.  Lance Armstrong came into the restaurant just after us and walked by us as we sat on a bench waiting for our table.  I held back and didn't ask for a picture or autograph.  :)  That's supposedly one of the nice things about Austin for celebrities - they don't get too many "fans" bothering them while they go about their lives. We also sat in a dining room with "Jeffrey", the GM of the restaurant (some woman...), and Jeffrey's parents.  It was pretty fun.  They even had a personalized menu for us that said, "Happy 7th Anniversary".

Steve and Emily stayed with Ana and Javi.  It was very nice of them.  I warned them about some of Javi's recent evening antics - he has been waking up in a baaaaaaaaaad mood at 10ish almost every night (especially if he's too tired when he goes to bed, which he is frequently right now since we're cutting out the evening nap).  So, last night at 10 he woke up screaming.  Poor Emily hadn't heard him like that before.  She handled it like a pro and just snuggled with the little dude until we got home.  What would we do without Steve & Emily?!?!  I really don't know!

Today was a big day here.  Ana got her first tooth!!  We went to the Remington's house to play with Reid, Sophia and Jacob this morning.  Ana found a cool dirtbike toy to chew on.  I think that must've been what helped to get that tooth to pop out.  Potty talk ahead... skip to the next paragraph if you don' want to hear it --> Poor Ana had a rough weekend in the bathroom department.  Baby girl has been on a "p-foods" diet for the past few days (pears, prunes, peaches, peas... good to get things moving).  Today her tummy finally let loose and we went through about 150 diapers.  Fun fun ;)  She feels much better though, so that's what's important. 

I snapped this picture of all of my babies (Ringo included) with their dad yesterday.  They were relaxing in the evening while watching a baby sign language DVD.  I'd just given Ringo a bath and he really wanted to snuggle with everyone.  He didn't even mind when Javi started head butting him.  He's such a sweet puppy with the babies.  He loves going in their play room and just laying on the floor with us.  He even "scratches" on the mesh door in the gate so we will let him in.  Ana and Javi loooooove him.  I swear that Javi tries to say "Ringo".  It comes out as "go", but it's whenever Ringo walks by!  I might just have to count that as his first word.  haha!  (Juan's heard it too... it's not my imagination.)

Javi decided to prove just how smart he is by going to get his favorite book when I asked him to.  Please ignore my baby talk.  :)  Isn't he one of the two smartest babies ever?!

I'll try to get a picture of Ana's tooth tomorrow.  I also need to post some video of her crawling and pulling up on things.  She is such a strong and fast baby!

Oh, we also have Ana and Javi's big 9 month well-check appointment with the doctor tomorrow (a week early)!  It will be fun to see how much they have grown since their 6 month appointment.  Anyone have any bets on heights/weight?