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!