Give Thanks...

hellooooooo!

We are taking a holiday for the Holiday! Will most likely post something this weekend. Until then,

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Worst Kind

This week was, as phonetically interpreted by my Spanish friend, literally "Juan, el uv uh weak!"

Week 30.5 ~ 7 months old

Kohlden: 16 lbs 9 oz
Madelyn: 15 lbs 9 oz


Living in Florida you encounter bugs. Lots of them. Mosquitos, roaches, spiders. You name it, we got 'em. Back in high school we even collected bugs for our biology class. Actually one of my favorite projects; I still have the specimen collection, scientific labels and all. But the one bug I never wanted to catch, as I'm sure most people don't, is the stomach one. The worst kind. Alas, the twins and Braelyn got it last week (as posted by Uncle Mike) and unfortunately their parents were finally bitten by it as well and subject to it's rather unpleasant side effects last weekend.

If you could call our house condemned, I likened it to the days when hospitals were fighting yellow fever with only a fly swatter. I'll spare the details: vomiting, nausea, loose bowels, sleeplessness, diharrea, dysentery, scurvy, well, you get the picture. Not pretty. Not even close. I'm surprised Orange County Health Services didn't come over to quarantine us. We even had to miss my cousin's little wedding ceremony because we dared not infect the other members of the family, much less the newlyweds.

Unfortunately with being sick, the kids couldn't go back to daycare (with good reason, although it was there they got it in the first place) and I lost 3 days of work. Luckily I was able to speak with one of the directors of Starchild, one I've had a good rapport with from the beginning, and convinced him to give me a half week's credit on the twins, since they only stayed at school for 2 days. At $200 per week per child, that was a big deal!

By the way, here is a picture of the finished nursery for the twins, with Maddy's new crib to the right. It is also one of those "Crib 4 Life" ones but a different model since the one Kohl has is Braelyn's original and they don't manufacture that model anymore, although we were able to match the color. It blends nicely with a little more elegance to go with it's feminine occupant.


So aside from the sickness here are some picture highlights of the week:

Braelyn is growing and developing into this amazingly smart and independant little person. No need for Mommy or Daddy's help anymore, now she'll just use whatever tools she can to get what she wants. Mommy took her to get new shoes for school and as they looked at all the different styles Braelyn stated adamantly that she couldn't have "that one" because another girl at school has the same pair. There must've been at least 5 different styles she would not touch. Thank goodness there were 6 styles available. Sheesh, it's already begun.

Talk about having my hands full; I can only imagine how much longer I can do this until my back gives out.

On Friday none of the kids could go to school so I took them for a 2 hour drive to get their nap (and give Mommy one too; She stayed home) but they were so exhausted from being sick they just stayed asleep wherever you left them.

But amidst the suffering there were moments of sunshine, as the youngest diva shows off Big Sister's shades.

Here is a clip of Braelyn trying to make Maddy laugh.



Braelyn also loves having an audience she can entertain, especially now that the twins are sitting up and paying more attention to her. Here she's reading to them...

and trying to make them laugh again...

She also tries to get them involved, as shown here. She's singing a favorite pop song from the radio that goes, "When I say jump, you say how high? I ain't never seen anybody jump so high. Like a bird, like a plane. It's insane. Jump, jump, jump, jump!"

Yesterday Tangie again flew out to Pensacola and Uncle Mike flew back to his wife and home in California with a couple day layover for work in Washington D.C., so I was flying solo with the team. I had to work so luckily we found this very nice and kind babysitter through a contract company from Tangie's work. Sonia was like an Hispanic angel, as she dealt with the twins and their sickness for 9 hours straight for two days! I got her personal phone number and would recommend her to anyone in need of babysitting help. She was amazing! And luckily, with the twins out of school for almost an entire week, their little tummies are feeling better and are over this bug, as evidenced by today's pictures.

Knock on wood.

One week 'til Thanksgiving. Have a great weekend everyone!

Baby Boot Camp...

Week 29.5

Madelyn: Petite

Kohlden: Husky

Hello and Good Evening. Uncle Mike here, reporting LIVE from ground zero. Talk about a whirlwind of activity this week! This is my first attempt (and possibly my last, if things keep up like this) at the wonderful updates of the Isidro Family via blog.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Friday night was one of the first times the temperature dipped enough to notice. It's surreal to be here in Florida in November, and still be able to wear flip flops and t-shirts while everyone else in the U.S. is bundled up in several layers. Thankfully, there's a fireplace close by to snuggle up with a few good looking kiddos!

Sabbath brought plenty of visitors to the house. Fresh caretakers swooped in during the afternoon and immediately grabbed a kid. Lolo, Lala, and Auntie Esther arrived with the chilly weather, and made sure that the kids were warm enough to travel to space.

We were joined later that evening by the Bergherm and Grodack families for a hot dog roast at Club Pergola. Hot apple cider, delicious cheddar cheese pretzels, and assorted meats were more than enough reasons to brave the chilly weather. Blake and Evan Bergherm, Calleigh Grodack, and Braelyn explored the multiple uses of the inflatable bio-dome toy, and managed to have more fun rolling around on top of it and sliding face first into the grass.

After the food and fun, we collected all the babies and retreated to the warmth of the house to watch an incredible documentary called, you guessed it - "Babies." As if we were in short supply. It was such a cool film to watch, especially for the parents - the different styles of child-rearing are fascinating! Never before had I seen some of the cleaning techniques (such as a corncob for total exfoliation) and babysitting options (tie him to the bed, or call some goats). These are great things to remember for the future, I'm sure...

While fascination occurred downstairs, most of the suspects - er, I mean, toddlers - were upstairs watching Dora and playing in Allen and Tangie's room. As the evening started to wind down and parents began to prepare for the trek home, all the kids very politely thanked their hosts and filed out with smiles on their faces. Smiling - simply because the parents had no idea the amount of destruction they left in their wake. Someone call in the National Guard - we have a natural disaster!

Truly, our family is blessed to have such sweet babies. No wonder Lala can't seem to concentrate at work these days - she can't wait for the weekend!

So yes, the weekend went on without a hitch. But stuff got a bit crazy during the week.

Braelyn's eye got into a fight with another little girl's finger, and lost horribly. Everything was fine - it was a bit irritated, but no real issues. Even Braelyn was fine while we were eating dinner and she was telling me about what happened. But the second Mommy called and Daddy started talking to her - weeping and gnashing of teeth arose out of nowhere, just so that Mommy could understand the breadth and depth of her excruciating pain. Sobbing, unregulated tear duct production, and mucus. But in a blink of an eye, the second Daddy said "Mango Ice Cream," the bubbly, energetic, drama-free Braelyn magically appeared. I love my niece - and her Academy Award for best actress! Just like her Uncle...

So the fight was just the icing on the cake. The twins were due for an upgrade at school - since they were now sitting up on their own quite nicely. So arrangements were made this week for them both to transition into a new room - with more activities, interactions, full coffee bar, and high-speed internet.

But they got a bit more than they bargained for this week. Shortly after the transition (Tuesday), both the twins apparently caught a stomach bug that had been floating around the new room during the previous week. The staff apparently had not adequately dealt with the disinfection of the room over the weekend, so the twins started to lose their lunches, dinners, and breakfasts.

Tuesday evening Tangie was out of town on business for the night, so Daddy and Uncle Mike ran around all evening like an episode of Iron Chef. Apparently, my outfit didn't coordinate to Madelyn's liking, so she doused me with about 5 ounces of her disdain - which qualified her for an impromptu bath! I got changed and grabbed Kohlden to feed him next, and apparently HE didn't think my choice of outfit was appropriate evening attire - so he added about 5.5 ounces of his scorn to my new shirt. Picky, picky! You're getting a bath too, Mister...

So for the past few days, both Madelyn and Kohlden (and now Braelyn, as of tonight) have been chillin' at home filling burp cloths and diapers, trying to get over this bug that they never should have gotten in the first place. An apologetic call from the daycare explained the whole ordeal, which helped calm the patriarchal irritation.

To say the least, I've experienced a lot over the past few weeks - with this week offering a crash course on crisis management. I absolutely adore these beautiful children and their parents, and it's such a bummer that this week has been tough for the little ones. But, through all the tummy aches and wet diapers, they're still smiling.

Oh yeah - one last thing. I am still amazed at night when we prepare the bottles at the sheer volume of milk these little munchkins go through per day! This is what the dishwasher looks like EVERY NIGHT. Incredible.

It's so nice to know that I have a place here, and a bottle to call my own.

Well, that pretty much covers the basics. In review: cold weather, hot dogs, Babies, destruction, Oscar nominee, stomach bug, smiling babies, and an abundance of nipples.

This has definitely been fun - thanks for reading!

Uncle Mike

Milestones

Week 28.5

Kohlden – 16 lbs 3 oz
Madelyn – 15 lbs 6 oz

This week marked the arrival of Fall. Partly because the weather has turned slightly and it isn’t so awfully hot outside, but mostly because immediately after Halloween you begin to see Christmas decorations being displayed, especially in high people traffic areas like the malls and shopping centers. Crazy. So much for Thanksgiving…which is, unbelievably, just 3 weeks from today.

Last week was a very nice one; a little detour from the normal activities. We gave Lolo and Lala the weekend off, so we were on our own with the children. At least the best thing about this is that last Thursday and Friday evenings the twins…wait for it….SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE NIGHT WITHOUT WAKING UP! Glory be! It was a welcomed event and one milestone I think Tangie and I had been hoping for since April. It was a positive reminder that yes, we can survive this!

At school they had a costume parade on Friday for which Braelyn’s advanced preschool classroom painted white shirts and went as 101 Dalmatians. Very cute.

Sabbath was a gorgeous day with absolutely beautiful weather. We did not want to miss out so we took advantage of this opportunity and decided to spend the day outside, hence an impromptu trip to the zoo. We took a detour and had a lovely breakfast outside, at Peach Valley restaurant in Lake Mary. They have the best apple fritters that you dip into a strawberry yogurt kissed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum! The people there gave us lots of smiles and attention as we tried balancing 3 children whilst trying to enjoy our breakfast.

The zoo was packed, as there was a family festival there for the weekend activities. Lots of children, and we saw a lot of families with twins. Funny how we are more aware of families with twins, now that we’ve had our own. Braelyn was able to paint a mini pumpkin, and the twins just enjoyed the bumpy ride on the stroller, watching all the people. Most of the animals stayed in their dens or were sleeping.




Saturday evening we were treated to dinner and had a chance to reconnect with our friends over at Karis and Amy Zbaraschuk’s home. The Grodacks and Johnsons attended as well. It was nice to finish off the day with some adult conversations, although most of it dealt with the children. Kent and Kelli had missed our PumpkinFEST celebration the previous weekend as they were going through the Panama Canal on their cruise, so they had a chance to share some pictures and stories of their vacation. It was a nice walk down memory lane, remembering all the cruises Tangie and I had in the past sans children. I can’t wait until our next one, although it will be a very different experience with 3 tots having fun as well!

The Z’s have 2 boys and it was neat to see the interaction of them with Braelyn and Calleigh. The difference between the two sexes is that when a boy gets pushed or roughed up, he will retaliate and push back. Girls, on the other hand, will scold vs. retaliate. Case in point, Zachary was pushing little brother Kaleb on one of those plastic car toys and bumped Calleigh, who was pushing Braelyn. Cal immediately got this look of annoyance and shock on her face and stomped right up to Zachary, and with her index finger in his face, stated matter of factly, “Zachary, BAD BEHAVIOR!” It was the most surprising and hilarious interaction between children I’ve seen in a while. Duncan looked on and shared that Calleigh must’ve picked that up from when her daddy would be reprimanded by her mommy. “Duncan, BAD BEHAVIOR!” It was so funny! I’m sure Corey would’ve been proud.

Sunday I had to work so Tangie had the kids all day. They ended up taking a trip to the park, with Brae having some fun climbing and spinning.

After trying to take a nap in the car, they got home just in time to start prepping the costume to go trick or treating. While Uncle Mike manned our door, off they went with the twins in the stroller to see how much candy they could get. Brae in her Dora Princess outfit – with Cinderella high heels that she could barely walk in. She decided to change back n forth between those and flippy floppies almost every house as she was sure the person answering the door wanted to see the entire costume. Somehow she got shy every time going to the door and wanted to hide behind mommy. It didn’t help that one of the twins was crying the entire time. After the bag was half full, they rushed home as the mosquitoes were out for revenge and the twins had a long day. I’m sure we had over a 100 trick or treaters come to our door. I came home as it was wrapping up. We ran out of our candy and Brae offered to share what was in her bag with the next people that came. When I said thanks, she replied "That's how we roll Daddy."
The week went fast. Tuesday while Tangie was getting the twins to bed, Brae went with me to vote. She was very curious about the whole process. While waiting our turn in line I was making conversation with her which everyone could hear. All of the sudden I hear a loud nose and a cute little voice saying real fast “I toot excuse me”. A few chuckles from others emerged. She was so proud of the sticker she received when we were done.
Either they are starting to sleep through the night, or maybe we are just too tired to hear them. We are skipping out on the midnight feeding now and trying to “drown” them in milk before we put them down. If they wake up before 4:30a, we are trying to get them to take the passy and go back down. After that, we’re feeding them. Last night they slept from 8:30p to 6:30a. but a few nights before Tangie was up at 4:30 with one, up at 5:30a with #2, shower at 6:00 and then getting Brae ready for school thereafter. Crazy.

The twins are sitting up so much better and are starting to make each other laugh more.

They still have their coughs that they are trying to work through. Big sister got a little bit of one too. Recycle time I guess. Yuck.
They love grabbing their feet and also being in the activity center. Maddy also lights up when Braelyn is paying attention to her…which is quite often. During bath tonight while getting all lotioned up, Brae decided to put Maddy’s left arm over her chest and in a high pitched voice imitating her speaking said the Pledge of Allegiance. It was too funny.

Have a good week