Last night was a laid back version of our normal Sunday night since there was no school today due to the Jewish holiday. So the kids stayed up just a little later with us. Liliana loves this new book. We bought it the other day at the tag sale of the Cuban-American family. It is essentially a Spanish-English visual dictionary for kids. It has lots of great pictures and Liliana has really taken to it. I am even learning a few new words...like hoja..which means leaf. Good word to know at this time in the year!

Lucas was all smiles all the way up to bedtime...he's been so much better at smiling for the camera these days.

We got the twins a new toy. It's called a play wall I guess. It just has a bunch of bells and whistles and will be good when they start to pull themselves up. But right now, we can move all the features to the ground level (see Liliana's hand) until they start to sit up and pull themselves up. They seem to love it.

Playing is tough business...can't you tell? It's exhuasting!

Vampire mode

The twins have been on the verge of teething for what seems like forever now. The teeth are there...you can see them, but they haven't come through the gums yet. As a result, Liliana is in what we call "vampire mode" where she sticks her gums into you almost like a viper or a vampire trying to draw blood. She wants to chew and gnaw on everything. We got a bit of it on camera tonight...it's funnier when she does it to you on your neck...but you can get the idea from the video..

A big Saturday

Yesterday the twins did quite a bit. After breakfast we packed them up and headed out to a tag sale in Norwalk. The woman who was having the tag sale has twin boys and she used the same sitter, Andrea, that we now do. She is actually the one who recommended her. Aside from that, she is married to a Cuban man, Orlando. So Felix came along and the two Cuban-American families got to meet while I scored on some nice clothes for Lucas!



After we got back, Grandpa came for a visit. Here he is with Liliana....



Lucas came along and Liliana decided not to smile.



After a quick nap, we got the kids bundled up to go to the Homecoming game at my school. Lucas seemed all geared up and ready to go!





The game was fun...we didn't stay for all of it, but it was a beautiful day. Staples won 42-6!




And after all that, Nana came by for a quick visit in the afternoon. (We didn't get any pics..we were too busy playing blocks..) So after all that, and some dinner, a bottle and baths, they were exhausted and slept wonderfully, once again, right through the night.

An amazing thing happened today. I got the kids home from Andrea's house around 4 pm and she had told me that they would be needing a bottle very shortly. So, sure enough, as soon as I got home, they both started crying and pretty furiously. So I changed both of them, buckled them into their chairs (amongst much wriggling and crying) and then I gave them each a bottle and waited to see what they did. It was clear that one was not going to wait for the other to be fed. Both of them picked up their bottles and downed all 8 oz.



Liliana got a little confused towards the end.....


but she got it figured out.

What a treat. Having them be able to feed themselves a bottle is such a help. How long have they been hiding this skill from us?

Also, we have come to realize that it is a hopeless effort to assume that they will stay on the quilt anymore. They roll and "scoot" around so much, they are off it in seconds, chasing something that has caught their eye. Oh well, it was great while it lasted!

New Discoveries

I think Liliana just discovered her head. I know that sounds weird, but all afternoon long she had her hands on top of her head and she was feeling around...almost like she never knew it was there.

Felix was out playing golf on what will most likely be the last warm night of the year. So it was me and the kiddos on our own tonight. After dinner I took them for a walk around the neighborhood before their bedtime bottles. I have an iPod speaker that is portable and can be brought when I take walks. So we just walked around the neighborhood listening to some mellow Kenny Chesney. And out they went.....

The following are videos of the kids. The first is of Liliana. She is trying to crawl these days and we are enjoying the last few days with non-mobile kids.

This one is of Lucas and his nightly friend Sr. Pez (Mr. Fish) Lucas loves to hit the button to activate the toy aquarium. At one point I pan out to see Liliana but it's too dark to see her. Most nights Lucas keeps hitting the button until he tires himself out and falls alseep. But, for example, tonight, he somehow rolled far away from the toy (which is mounted on the side of the crib) and couldn't get back to it and proceeded to cry. Poor little guy. Sometimes we just have to cut him off.

This week was a long one and everyone seemed ready for a nice restful weekend. On Friday night both the kids seemed beat after I took them to the park. Lucas fell asleep on the living room floor...


And Liliana fell asleep on top of Felix.



Up again, only to fall asleep in the high chair mid meal.



Saturday night we were all smiles....

Lilana has started to figure out crawling. Not moving forward too much yet, but its a matter of days.

Hanging out together

And today, without meaning to, I grabbed two outfits that were very similar. Not identical, but close. They are identical in the amount of slobber these two got all over their shirts though!

We had a long restful weekend. Time again to get ready for the week ahead.

SUPERMAN!

With all the rolling around these two do these days, it is often hard to keep a bib on them. Lucas has the uncanny ability to roll around so much that his bib gets turned around and ends up looking like a cape. Very superhero-ish if you ask me.

Bruce Park

This morning we went to Bruce Park to meet up with Aiko, Mike and their kids. If you follow this blog at all, you have seen Aiko and Steve and their family a bit. Mike is a good friend of ours from high school. He and his wife Mineko live in Greenwich with their son Taiga. Mike and I went to our senior prom together.
The weather was amazing. We met for breakfast and enjoyed the morning to the fullest.

An outing with the Gomez twins wouldn't be complete without a stretch on the quilt!


Aiko and Liliana right after she woke up from her nap.

Mineko and Taiga...

Ko, one of Aiko's son.

Aiko's other boy Rei taking a try at the big kid slide.

Liliana testing out the swing.

Then Lucas came along and they both fit perfectly together in one. Everyone around us thought it was such a sight! One woman said she had boy/girl twins who are now four and she said "It never dawned on me that you could do that!"

We turned them around facing the same direction...they had a ball!

Me and my brother just hanging out!

A rare picture of all four of us..of course we are not all looking at the camera...that's asking a bit much!

Thanks Aiko, Steve, Mike and Mineko for a great day!

Like Father, Like Son

Always looking for something to munch on...

Pepperoni always does the trick!

Halloween Sneak Preview

I know it is early, but we just got the twins' costumes for this year. We got them for a very decent price from a mother of twins whose twin girls wore these last year. They were worn only once and are in excellent condition. So pumpkins they will be! It was too cute to pass up for a blog post.

Gotcha!

A Day at the Museum

Felix and I had originally planned to make it a beach day today, but it was a little cool for a full out beach day. So we decided to go into the city to the Museum of Natural History. The city was very quiet since most people in the area of the museum were away. We were able to find parking easily on the street.

We took the twins to the show in the Planetarium. It was called "Journey to the Stars" Lucas didn't like it so much, or rather he was just tired and so Felix waited outside with him during most of it. Liliana LOVED it, was looking all around at the dome above us with all the stars. Then she laid back on my chest facing up at the screen and fell asleep just as Whoopi Goldberg was telling us what will happen when the sun dies off in about 5 billion years. You missed the best part Liliana! This is Lucas and Felix before we went into the show.


No trip to the museum is complete without seeing the dinosaurs! I love these guys!

Some sea turtle creature from back in that time.

This one was the tallest of them all. With the people in the picture at the bottom your really get a good perspective...so cool!

Felix and the elephants.

Hey Mami! I am smiling at you!

And you have to go see the huge Blue Whale. It's crazy to think animals that big really do exist.

Overall, it was a nice day. Tomorrow starts the week up again. And stay tuned, we have some video and some sneak preview of Halloween costumes to come!