Happy Birthday!

We finally made it a whole year together! We wanted to celebrate Lucy, Cristy, and Olivia's birthday with all of our friends. The girls enjoyed the attention and Dany was such a great helper since the girls didn't know how to blow the candles and we wanted to keep the spitting to a minimum. It was so fun having music, swimming,and have our friends over. Olivia was very happy to see that everybody enjoyed the food and the cake. We had Mexican food including three types of enchiladas, beans, rice, jamaica, and Elizabeth's summer punch. Olivia made her favorite cake... strawberry short cake. We are so fortunate to have so many good friends. Olivia used to miss not having extended family in town but our friends have become that family.

I love my kids!

Dany is so caring. He comforts his sisters when they cry and tries to make them happy. If someone is not feeling well, Dany always brings a blanket, his favorite Spider Teddy beard, and a drink of water. The part I love the most is his soft and nurturing voice. Lucy has the cutest smile. She claps, wrinkles her nose and looks at you as if you were the most beautiful thing in the world. She is very good at sharing with Dany and Cristy. She smiles to strangers and let them hold her as long as she can see her mom right next to her. Cristy is the funny one. She loves laughing more than smiling. She is so silly. She loves nodding "no" and laughing at the same time. She loves pick a boo. She covers her self until you ask "where is Cristy?" and she uncovers herself as she gives you a nice laugh. She loves kisses and she says "I love you" back to her mom. (It sounds like one word but she knows what it means because she keeps putting her head over Olivia's shoulder to get another kiss, to hear "I love you" and say "I love you" back to Olivia. Watching your kids grow, it's like falling in love with them. Each time you see how special they are, you feel all these butterflies in your tummy, you have a big smile on your face and a tear in your eyes.

Girls Night Out

Finally! It has been over a year since the last "Girls Night Out". The babies were in their beds for the night. Olivia was waiting for her friend Niki to pick her up. Then, Dany said "Mami I don't want you to go... stay here with me". Olivia explained "Dany you get to play with your friends all the time but Mami hasn't had a turn to go play with her friends, Mami wants to have a turn too". Dany said "Ok Mami, you do can go play with your friends and I'll stay here with Dada to take care of the babies" A few minutes later Niki is at the door talking to Dany (Niki is also Dany's Primary teacher at Church). Olivia started to say goodbye and Dany said "Wait" as he run to the family room. He came back and gave Olivia his favorite dinosoure robot and said "Mami you do can show your own dinosoure robot to your friends and you do can play with them if you like" Oh!... he sounded so sweet and fun at the same time. Olivia is always asking Dany to choose a toy he can share with his friends when we go to visit them. Having something to share with his friends must make Dany feel very special and confident because when was his turn to send his mami out into the world he made sure she would have a toy to share. So, when Olivia and Niki picked up Amanda... Olivia had a dinosoure to show her and one of the sweetest stories to tell. Anyway, we got some diner and went to see Mama Mia. We love the movie. It was so fun, exciting, inspiring, and it gives you so much to look forward to your older years. Defenetely a movie I will buy. It's hard to picture yourself as a woman over fifty because the only women that you know of that age are your mom, mom-inlaw, and similar. But, my goodnes! It's going to be so fun! Don't take me wrong I love my live now but life it's just starting! I can't wait to go out again and watch "The women". We'll see.

In case you wonder "what we do all day"

Here is some of the evidence of what our little people do "all day long". All three like to redecorate their space and put things where they think it belongs. Too bad we don't agree on "where". Dany like all little boys loves playing with several toys at the time and the girls have reach that stage where they love to take everything out of any kind of containers, drawers, cabinets, etc. We are just lucky that at least one of them helps to clean when properly motivated. .

Phillip's Birthday

We love our Phillip and on his birthday he gets whatever he wants. Unlike the rest of our family, Phillip doesn't like to be the center of attention. Our job is to make it special but keep the celebrations simple, and private. One thing Phillip loves is food, and what a better way to start the day than with a home made banana cream pie. Phillip had to go to work but Olivia had time to bake him a cake while he was gone. After work, we resumed the celebrations by going out to diner. As soon as we came home the girls had to go to bed. So, it was up to Dany and Olivia to sing happy birthday to Phillip. Dany was practicing and he did a good job singing for his Daddy. Phillip is a great Husband, Father, and Friend. We are so grateful to have him in our lives. Happy birthday Phillip!

Las Fiestas!

This month we had two parties. First we went to Elina's Birthday party. Dany did great socializing with the other kids and participating in the activities. It was fun to get to see our friends the Jimenezes and the Chipmans. We have been friends for many years. Then we had Julia's baby shower. Julia is Sophie's mom. We have been friends since Sophie and Dany were just a few months old. It was fun planing it and enjoying the results. It was open house style. We had a chocolate fountain and other appetizers. Olivia made cup cakes with cream cheese frosting using the recipe we published earlier in this blog. Everybody love the cup cakes. We can't wait for the next party!

Milestones

The girls went from two naps to one. It’s very early for them to go to one nap. Most kids go to one nap around 18 months. Olivia saw the signs and just couldn’t believe that they would only need one nap. Over the last three weeks only four days they were in need of two naps. They are sleeping very well during the night. They sleep 12 to 14 hours a night and a one nap in the afternoon of 2 to 3 hours. According to most books and websites they need 14 ½ hours of sleep, so they are doing great. We love the new schedule. We are free to have morning activities without feeling bad for making them miss their nap.

The girls are eating solids! We have struggle so much getting them to eat their solids. We were lucky enough that their weight has not suffer but now they are crawling all day and burning lots of calories. We are so happy they finally figure it out. Their favorites are applesauce and baby yogurt mixed with baby cereal. They love it!

We faced them forward in the car! We know it’s a bit early but we just couldn’t wait any longer. They love it and it’s so much easier to load and on load our people. It’s so nice to see their little faces in the back of the car.