SIBLING LOVE & HOSPITAL FUN

one of my favorite parts of having a new baby is seeing them with their sibling(s). sibling love is just so so special, and one of my very favorite parts of parenthood. 

this time, luc was absolutely in love, and on cloud nine to visit us in the hospital. he wanted to hold the twins right away, and never wanted to leave. he was very tender and sweet. at one moment, oliver was crying, and he stood up to the bassinet, pressed his face up to the basket, and said  soothingly 'why you crying baby twin? i'm here, i'm here, don't cry.' and another time, he spontaneously started singing 'i am a child of god' to them both, and the pediatrician and both nurses in the room stopped what they were doing, and we all just sat and listened to him sing to them. they said over and over afterwards that they were blown away by how sweet he was and i got all choked up. he is our best big brother and i know he was sent to be the example, leader, and protector of his siblings. how we love him!

lia was very anxious at the hospital, she is terrified of doctors, and she didn't want anything to do with me once she saw me in the hospital bed, all hooked up to the machines. but she adored the babies, and gave them lots of slobbery kisses. she wanted to hold their bottles and put on their hats and help with everything. it was darling. she has such a natural maternal instinct, it warms my heart. 

having my whole family of six there together for the first time was amazing. a little overwhelming- i looked around and i couldn't believe how many kids we have! but each one brings something so special to our home and i couldn't imagine my life without them. what treasures they are! we consider ourselves incredibly blessed to call each of them ours.

SUMMER SO FAR

 summer so far can be summed up in two words: snacks and swimming. haha! our daily ritual involves spending the afternoon at the pool, with plenty of snack breaks. i dunno if it's cause they're growing, exhausting so much energy swimming, or if it's my lack of cooking {TOO HOT!} but i cannot keep snacks in the cupboard, they're eating them faster than i can buy them haha. we just snack allllllllllll day long, which the twins rather enjoy too. ;) we're on the countdown to the twins arrival {7 weeks!} so i'm trying to take the kiddos out as much as we can, and enjoy these last few weeks with just the two of them. they both love the water and we have a blast together! i love love love then both so much. what a joy it is to be their mama!

LIA AT 15 MONTHS

our sweet lia at 15 months:

- she waves and claps and high fives and gives the best open mouth kisses

- she follows her brother everywhere, and is always trying to do whatever he does 

- she loves snack food and treats and regularly refuses to eat her meal so she can eat cheez-its and fruit snacks instead

- she has the biggest sweet tooth i've ever seen. if luc earns a treat, he has to eat it in hiding. if i want to drink a diet pepsi, i have to hide it in a dark cup, and sip it when she's not looking. it's nuts.

- she says 'mama,' 'dada,' 'hi,' 'no,' and 'agua'

-she is very meticulous and has excellent fine motor skills. she can already correctly use utensils to eat with, and prefers them over her hands. she loves to take all the fridge magnets off, place them in a tupperware bowl, and then put them all back on the fridge, over and over. she plays with her toys very methodically and carefully, and can stay busy with a single toy for long periods of time. she is pretty content and can play on her own happily, which is amazing. the only time she struggles is when she wants whatever toy luc has and he won't give it to her. {which happens often haha}

- she is super happy... until she's not. haha she's quite dramatic and can go from giggling to full-blown tantrum in an instant. she throws herself on the floor and rolls around, crying, looking up occasionally to make sure we're watching. she also has some awesome scowly faces that she pulls when she doesn't get her way.

- her favorite foods {besides treats and snacks} are milk, eggs, pancakes, and mashed potatoes. she still doesn't eat a single vegetable {do potatoes count?} and the only fruits she likes are bananas and apples. 

- she loves to bring me books and sit on my lap for a story. she absolutely hates it when i close a door between us {like to go to the bathroom} and will cry hysterically until i come out. she has the biggest crocodile tears, and will cling to me, hiccuping, like we've been separated for eons. she still has pretty intense stranger danger, and can be very shy, but is a big goof around her family.

we sure do love our lia girl! she makes us laugh and we love her snuggles and her big green eyes. we are pretty smitten with her and are so happy she's ours!

DISNEYLAND!

luc LOVES lightening mcqueen and mater. he can sing the rascal flats song from the movie word for word, and he plays race cars all day long. so we have been dreaming about taking him to disneyland + california adventure for several months, and had talked about going next spring. then we got pregnant with twins, and neither of us much liked the idea of going with two teeny babies. but we didn't want to miss this fun age where he is obsessed with cars either... so we spontaneously decided to just go, this month, before it gets too hot and i get too big/uncomfortable to walk around all day. it was a pretty last minute decision, but we are so so glad we decided to go for it! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! 

we spent our first day at disneyland and our second at california adventure. we started with a ride on 'it's a small world' {because it was the shortest line, and the kiddos were impatient after waiting in line for the tickets} and both of them loved it. i was a little worried lia would be terrified, but as long as she had her papa and my necklace, she was cheerful as could be.... until i foolishly tried to make her meet goofy while the boys were on a different ride, then she had a complete meltdown haha. she was NOT a fan! but she calmed down quickly and ran around the toon town playground, happy as could be five minutes later, so i don't think she has any lasting phycological damage :).  

luc and orlando rode the star tours ride, which luc LOVED, and we all rode buzz lightyear, which was a blast. we met a storm trooper, played lightsaber battles, and showed sammy the sea turtle around. [sammy is luc's preschool class 'pet' and each child gets to take him home for one weekend. this just happened to be luc's weekend, and he was pretty excited to take him to disneyland!} 

after lunch, we rode more rides, including pirates of the caribbean, which luc rode with his face buried in my lap, he was not a fan. surprisingly again, lia was fine, she had her papa to hold her of course.

we told luc he could chose a toy, and he was completely fixated on this cheap light-up spinning buzz lightyear toy. we told him he could have anything... and he picked that haha! it was adorable how happy he was with it, and how much fun he had with it during the night parade, which was the best part of our day. it was INCREDIBLE! seriously such a fun parade, with each character completely decked out in lights. i'll never forget luc's big, gleefully happy eyes during the night parade as lightening mcqueen and mack and buzz lightyear rode by, and his blushing grin when ariel blew him a kiss. he was enthralled! and lia was mesmerized by all the lights and music, her big eyes taking it all in. the parade was the highlight of our first day, it was so magical! i even got a little choked up, watching them revel in it all, i couldn't help myself. i love being a part of their childhoods. i'm so glad we stayed, we had considered going home earlier as it had been a long day already, but it was well worth staying for! the kids were beat, and both of them fell asleep in the car on the way home.

day two was california adventure {we saved the best for last} and it was our favorite! we spent 90% of the day in cars land, which completely blew us away with how real and detailed they made it- it's seriously radiator springs, straight from the movie. luc was in HEAVEN. he wanted to do and see everything at once! he and orlando rode the tractors and the dancing cars with luigi, while lia and i explored. then we got to MEET LIGHTENING MCQUEEN! i found him while luc was on a ride and i waited in the eternally long line, because no way were we missing this! when luc came running up to me to tell me all about his ride, he saw lightening and his eyes got as big as silver dollars. he walked right up to him and started telling him stories and asking him questions, and he did NOT want to leave so the next kid could have a turn haha. he was the happiest kid in the world! and then right after that lightening had to go, and red came and took his place so of course we had to stay and meet him too! it was awesome, this kid was so excited. later we found mater too, and luc was disappointed that he wouldn't drive backwards for him haha! he was tall enough to ride the radiator springs racers so we fast passed it a bunch so he and orlando could ride it more than once, and he says it was his favorite ride of all. we ate a ton of churros {sooooo good!} and had so much fun taking in all the cool scenery.  lia, who didn't really nap the day before, took a loooong stroller nap {fist bump!} so she and i did a lot of sightseeing while the boys rode ride after ride. it was perfect. 

that night we drove down to san diego to visit our family and celebrate cousin max's 4th birthday the next day. it was a great way to end our trip! i'm so so glad we went, it was so much fun, and we made memories i will forever treasure. it wasn't too hot, and although i couldn't ride very many rides, i felt great the whole time {the churros helped}. i know he's pretty young, but i hope luc remembers a little bit from our trip. he loved it, and i loved watching him love it. {it made me soooooooo excited for lia to get a little older and get really into princesses, so i can watch the same magic in her eyes in a few years!}