Monday, January 31, 2011

Grandpa's Birthday!

Today is Grandpa's Birthday and although we didn't get to celebrate together tonight due to the snow and ice, we did have a great birthday lunch yesterday at the Hog Stop! Happy Birthday Daddy!

The birthday boy and his sweetheart

Mateo was mostly interested in this game, although he did a great job of staying at the table and eating all of his lunch.

Francesca was really into dipping her fried pickle into ranch dressing and sucking off the dressing. Eating has now become a "challenge" since she has decided to assert her independence. It is a certainty that any meal will end in a change of clothes for either her or me or daddy or all of the above!

Dad and his Mom - she remembers yelling to the medical staff when he was born "Don't let them steal my baby!" Her 3 oldest children had been kidnapped and missing for several years when my Dad was born. She has quite the stories. An incredible woman.

Mateo loves Great Grandma and is always sure to give her special attention. (While typing this post I just realized that when my grandma had my dad, she was the same age as I was when we got Mateo... I hope Mateo and I look this great 60 years from now!)


Mateo and Francesca (and Chester) adore their Grandpa Jim.

Watching original Superman videos on Sunday afternoon

Grandpa lets Francesca dig into the jell-o

Swim lessons

Mateo started swim lesson 3 weeks ago at the YMCA in Valley, and he LOVES it! Every Saturday morning we've driven out west to the Y where Mateo hops into the water and swims like nobody's business. He's in the Eels group.
We are so proud of him because he really is making good progress learning how to float front and back and kick his legs straight. He's done a great job of listening to his instructor, Austin, and after every minilesson he'll turn around and give us a thumbs up as if to say, "I know I'm doing a good job!" It's darling. He's darling!

The hardest part about the swim lesson is keeping Francesca out of the water. She is more mobile every day and there have been soem close calls where she has about dived in herself. Last week she walked right over to the slide and would have gone down had she had her swim suit on.

Swimming lessons are so important for our babies since we spend so much time up at the lake and around water during the summer. I love watching Mateo learning how to swim and seeing his confidence grow. It's wonderful to praise him during and after and to see his sweet confident smile as he soaks it all up.

Hopefully next session will be a bit warmer outside and Francesca can join in on the swim lesson fun!
Jumpin' right in!










We finish every class with a splash!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Snow

We played outside together in the snow Sunday morning. Granted it was just for a few minutes so the babies didn't get too cold, but it was good fun. The only part of Francesca you could see was a small slat where her eyes peeked out. There was no way that Francesca was going to let her brother go outside without her! Mateo loved encouraging Francesca to walk on the snow and would have been happy to play outside with her and his Daddy all day.

I love to see how Mateo watches out for Francesca. He is such a incredibly loving big brother... it fills my heart with such joy and pride to see him pay such sweet attention to her every day. The other morning he woke up and was the first one to her room to answer her cry. He turned on the bathroom light, walked into her room and said, "Don't worry, Francesca. I'm here." Tonight he wanted to help her eat her dinner, so he scooted his chair around Daddy and up next to her and patiently tried to convince her to let him hold the spoon and feed her. When that didn't go as well as he expected, he scooted back to his spot and said, "Now watch this Francesca. You take your spoon and scoop up the food and put it in your mouth like this."



We asked the neighbor to take a family picture of us but he didn't push the button down all the way! sad.


Walking

Hat head

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I'm walking!

Francesca took her first steps today!!!!!!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! What a JOY to be home with her when she walked for the first time.


Here's how it happened... Cesca was sitting in her new princess chair and promptly stood up and looked at me with a big smile as if to say, "Mom, I'm thinking about doing something new..." and she sat back down. I said and signed, "Stand up again, Francesca." She did - and then came the truly amazing part - she took two steps forward!


I was so overhwhelmed with excitement that I swept her up and did a happy dance with her in my arms saying, "Francesca! You're walking! I'm so proud of you! Yea, Francesca!" Mateo joined in and we had a true celebration right there in our family room. We called Daddy right away and he said, "Que alegria! Grabalo, mi vida!" So we got out the video camera to share the magic of this milestone with you.


I couldn't stop smiling all night. We've been saying for a while now that she was so close to walking. It must have been her PT session today when they encouraged her to walk with just light support holding her hips where she proved to herself that she could walk without holding onto something or someone. It was also so fun to watch Mateo's joy as his little sister started walking. He was bursting with just as much pride as me.


Of course, the first thing Daddy did after getting home from his work dinner was to grab the camera and sit down to watch his daughter. He then immediately called his parents to show them the awesome news.


What a day! Now we're really in for some excitement!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Bedtime

Tonight I was giving the kids a bath before bed. While in the tub, Mateo kept saying to Francesca, "Francesca, I'm so proud of you for not pooping in the tub!" He said it about 3 times and then it was time to get out. It was quite an accomplishment to make it through a bath without it ending in poopy water. Well... as I lifted Francesca out, we soon realized she had been hiding something beneath her. "Francesca!!!!" We made a quick escape and then rerinsed before getting their jammies on. Oh, dear - we'd almost made it.

While I was cleaning the bathtub and disinfecting the toys, Mateo somehow got Francesca into his bed and was trying to put her to sleep. When I peeked into the room, they were both laying down and singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" to each other. Mateo words were as clear as a bell and Francesca was vocalizing all of the syllables. It was such a sweet brother-sister moment. I am sure there will be many more to come... but hopefully not after another poopy bath!