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!

A day in Port Washington

On Saturday we went to Port Washington to visit with Josh and Marika. For those of you who don't know, Felix and I met at Josh and Marika's wedding six years ago. Marika and I were math majors together in college and Josh and Marika are going to be Liliana's godparents. Anyway, they were just hanging out at their house with their two children (Charlotte-3 and Roland 3 months) and also watching their friend's kid (Henry 16 months) while their friends went to the US Open. So we went over and spent the afternoon with them. It was a gorgeous day, we went to the park and then back to their house for a BBQ.

Here are the twins with Roland. (are you sick of the quilt yet? it's in almost every picture!)



Just the boys.


Here's Marika with Henry. We weren't able to get a shot of Charlotte since she was napping. It's crazy to think that the twins will be Henry's size or bigger next summer. Doesn't seem possible...but I guess it is.

Yesterday after the twins were done eating, we placed their bottles on each of their highchairs in front of them to see what they would do. It's amazing how big they are getting and how much they are figuring out. They both grabbed for their bottle and while Liliana had more of a problem holding it up, Lucas sat their and drank about a quarter of his bottle all on his own. I can't imagine how nice it will be when we can just hand them their bottle!

I guess Liliana liked this bottle better! LOL!

And here is a video clip of Liliana. She is getting very good when on her stomach. She pushes up real strong and has gotten her legs bent under her a few times like she is ready to crawl. But lately she has been doing this thing where she lets her arms and legs go and just balances on her stomach. Sometimes she kicks and she looks almost like she is swimming or something.