Christmas With Our Grandparents

Grandma Williams is still in town, and Grandma and Grandpa Rivera got into town on Friday so daddy had this great idea to celebrate Christmas early. On Friday, Grandpa and dad picked up a tree; Saturday, we decorated the house; and then today, we had a yummy dinner and opened presents.

Last year we just supervised daddy when he put up the lights. This year we decided to be a little more hands on and actually help dad hang the lights, or at least we think we helped dad!?!


This was our second huge dinner this week, and let me tell you we loved it again! Mommy even helped cook some of it, and for those of you who know mommy, she doesn't cook very often so you have to enjoy it while you can. Grandma Rivera made some Puerto Rican rice which is so good and we heard she made a great pie too, but we were already sleeping by the time dessert was served so we didn't get any. No fair!!! The ham, rolls, cheesy potatoes, and corn casserole were all really good though so we can't complain too much

After dinner we got to open all sorts of presents. My favorite gift was Lily's baby bottle and Lily's favorite gift was a toss up between her Many Kisses Elmo and her twin baby dolls. We also got these cool slippers which we wore all night since they were so comfy. We loved opening everything and checking out our living room since we aren't allowed in that room typically. Lily played a few songs on the baby grand, and we got to check out mommy's nativity scene, but we were good listeners and didn't touch. Hopefully when Santa comes we can have as much fun as we had today.

Family Pictures

We went to Freestone Park today in Gilbert to have family pictures taken. Mommy said these also serve as our 13 month pictures just so you know. We were sort of cooperative, and that was okay since we had Grandma Williams as our photographer. We had tons of fun looking at the ducks, and daddy said we'll have to go back and feed them soon. We posted a few of the pictures for you to enjoy.

A Whole New View

Daddy finally got around to switching our car seats yesterday. Wow, is it cool to see out the front window instead of the back. We never realized there was so much going on in our world. We're so excited about facing forward now, that we woke up early today to go shopping on Black Friday. It was so much fun driving through the parking lots looking at all of the people and all of the stuff they were buying. Hopefully mommy and daddy fill their carts up too!

Thanksgiving

We started out our Thanksgiving eating our favorite breakfast, French toast, off our cool new plates. If you ask us, that's a good way to start the day, and we didn't think it could get any better. Boy were we wrong. In the afternoon we went over to Uncle Larry and Aunt Pam's for a Thanksgiving feast, and we literally mean feast. We're thankful for mommy and daddy and all, but today we were especially thankful for turkey, stuffin' muffins, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We loved everything and we ate enough to fill our bellies for days. Our friends, Jackson and Payton, helped us eat our pumpkin pie. Then after dinner we played with Braden until it was time to leave and go home to bed.

6-5

I have taken my first lead in the competition. I now lead Lily in number of teeth 6-5. While I was taking a bath this morning, mom saw that two more of my upper teeth had cut through during the night. All the better to eat my Thanksgiving dinner with!

Our New Babysitter

Grandma Williams volunteered to babysit us this week since she is in town visiting. Her friends, the Eckerts, offered to help out too because everyone seemed to be worried that we might wear Grandma out!?! Why would they think such a thing? So far we've been really good for Grandma and stayed on schedule. Today we stayed busy by going for a walk, showing Grandma all of the ways to use our chairs, and playing in the backyard. Grandma is slowly learning that we climb everything, we are trying to learn how to share, and we are smarter than everyone thinks we are. We have one more day with Grandma and then mom and dad get to join us just in time for some holiday where we heard you get to eat tons of food. Sounds good to me!

Health Update

Just checking in to let everyone know that we're feeling better. We both still have pretty strong coughs, and Lily has a runny nose, but we are 100 times better than last week. The medicine mommy is giving me tastes great, and it makes me feel so much better. I've even gone back to sleeping 11 to 12 hours a night again which I know mom and dad are thankful for. Lily is another story though. Mom thinks she may have an ear infection too because she isn't sleeping at all at night. Mommy said she is going to call the doctor to see if Lily can get some yummy medicine like mine.

Grandma Williams flew in on Thursday and she is going to spend Thanksgiving with us. We definitely are well enough to go shopping and we took full advantage of Grandma on Friday. We were able to go to Toys R Us and the mall. It was great! We ate lunch at Rubio's and I have to tell you that churros are awesome. Mom only gave us a little bit, but I shoveled it in fast to make sure Lily couldn't steal any of mine. After the churro the best part about shopping with Grandma was the gifts we got just for being good. I got a Thomas the Train engine and Lily got a corn popper. We definitely need to go shopping with Grandma more often!

Lily's One Year Check-Up

Today we went for my one year check-up. I couldn't go last week since I was in the hospital so today was my lucky day. The doctor said I am looking good. I still have a cold with quite a productive cough, but he said I'm well enough to stop using my nebulizer. I'm a little bummed about that, but I got over it pretty quick once Dr. Mike said he was going to wait on my immunizations. Yippee, I got out of shots again! I do have some fluid in my ears, but no infection so mom and dad just have to keep an eye on me. Well, I'm sure you're all dying to know my stats by now so here they are:

Height: 30 inches (71%)

Weight: 20 pounds 10 ounces (38%)

Ryan stole the show today though. Dr. Mike did a quick check on him to see if he was healthy enough for immunizations, and ta-da, a double ear infection. It stinks that he is sick, but at least it explains why he has been such a grouchy rhino lately. Now he has to take yummy flavored medicine for the next 10 days, and he got out of shots too! I overheard Dr. Mike say we had to come back in two weeks though, and if all looked good we would get our immunizations then...YIKES!

Ryan's One Year Check-Up

My one year check-up went well. Dr. Mike said I am one healthy little boy, minus my diarrhea. I was sick last week, and it returned today, but Dr. Mike doesn't think it is related to what Lily has. Mom is hoping it has to do with the fact that I cut a tooth last night, but we'll see. The only thing he said mom and dad have to watch is my fluid intake to make sure I don't get dehydrated. I lucked out and didn't have to get my shots since I was sick, and Dr. Mike still wants to monitor me for croup. I did have a bit of a runny nose and a cough so he did prescribe steroids for me as a preventative measure. He hesitated in doing it, but since I was displaying some cold like symptoms and since I was obviously exposed to Lily, he felt it might be good just in case. Dr. Mike said my growth in terms of weight has slowed since I am so active, and mom can attest to that. As for my measurements here they are:

Weight: 24 pounds 15 ounces (76%)

Height: 31 inches (82%)

Dr. Mike said mommy and daddy can turn our car seats around if they want, but I don't think that is tops on their minds right now. We can also start drinking whole milk, but he recommended we wait until we are healthy before introducing something new. Lily and I have to go back and get our shots once we are feeling better, and Lily needs to get her measurements taken so we'll be back soon.

Lily visits the ER

Last night Lily was admitted to the hospital after spiking a 105 degree fever and coming down with croup. She was having a lot of trouble breathing, and her cough sounded just like Wrigley barking. When I woke up this morning she was still gone, and mommy swears I was asking for "sister". Her temperature has now come down and the doctors gave her medicine to help open her airway. Hopefully she can come back home later today. Daddy said lots of little kids were at the ER with the same thing, and the nurses even commented on how many kids had croup. One of the twins at daycare even came down with it last night. Mommy is taking me to the doctor today for my one year check-up to make sure that I don't end up having to go to the ER too. I'll let you know how that goes later.

Hey guys, it's me, Lily. I'm home now (it's around 7:00 p.m.) so I wanted to update you on what is going on. The nurses kind of wanted me to stay one more night, but daddy and I agreed that it was time to go. I needed Ryan and mommy, and I was so happy to see them. I told Ryan all about what happened, and I shared some funny stuff with him like me using my elevated bed as a slide, and me setting off my pulse oximeter because I wouldn't sit down. He was laughing pretty hard, and I heard mommy say that he really cheered up once I got home. I think secretly he missed me, but he'll probably never admit it. As for my health, I still have a bit of the diarrhea, but daddy thinks it was also environmentally caused so hopefully it will go away now that I am home. My fever is lower now with it being around 97 degrees last time the nurse took it. It is fluctuating a bit, but mommy and daddy can give me medicine for that. My breathing is much better now, although I still have a cough. I have to use a nebulizer every night to help clear out my lungs. The hospital gave me a Margo Moo one which is kind of fun. It tickles my nose at first, but then I get bored sitting still for so long. I missed my one year check-up today with Dr. Mike so I'm supposed to check in with him soon to make sure I'm doing okay. I'll have all of my official measurements for you then, and hopefully I'll also get a clean bill of health.

5-4

The score is now 5-4. I am catching up to Lily now that my upper right front tooth cut through overnight. Mommy had the day off today so I got to stay home and color while daddy stayed at the hospital with Lily.