The State Fair

Eric and I love the fair. Our first date was to the Oklahoma State Fair. In the past ten years we have made a trip to a fair almost every year. Yesterday we decided to get up early and go to the great State Fair of Texas. We had a blast. First, Syd and Eric went through the “Little Hands on The Farm” exhibit. Syd got to (pretend) plant seeds, milk a cow, shear a sheep, gather eggs, pick peaches and potatoes and then finally sell all of her stuff at the general store. Then as they were leaving they got free ice cream bars. That was Syd’s first taste of fair food, and she loved it. Next, we sat down for lunch. Eric got the famous Texas Corny Dog, which was delicious. I opted for a deep-fried s’more, which was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. Imagine, a funnel cake coated s’more, YUM-O! I could feel my arteries clogging and it was totally worth it. After lunch it was time for the petting zoo. All of the kids loved feeding the goats. I had to keep watching Mason and Macky to make sure they were actually feeding the goats and not eating the food. Then we moved on to the camel, which Syd really liked because it would eat out of her hand. This was very surprising to me that she would even consider letting an animal eat out of her hand, but she really enjoyed it. The next animals we saw were the ostriches, which were a little scary. Syd held her cup out for them to eat out of it and it pecked the cup really hard. She dropped her cup and had this terrified look on her face. That pretty much put an end to the petting zoo. We cleaned our hands, took our family picture and made a beeline for the exit. Finally, we made it to The Midway. I really wanted Sydney to ride at least one ride, but knowing Syd, I didn’t really expect this to happen. Much to my surprise, she found a little roller coaster to ride. She really liked it. She even put her hands in the air. We were all pretty much done and ready to go home by this point, so we stopped and got a funnel cake for the walk to the car. Who doesn’t like fried dough covered in powdered sugar?

All in all, it was a great day. Days like that make me so happy. It’s getting easier for the five of us to do things. Simple things like going to dinner, grocery shopping or the fair are a little daunting when you have two babies. Yesterday made me realize that it will continue to get easier and that there are even more fun times in store for our family of five.

Isn't she a cute farmer?

Just riding my tractor.

Lunch time!

My little animals feeding the animals.

At least two of us are looking at the camera.

Syd's first roller coaster ride.

It was a long day.

A little Texan?

Sydney has developed an accent. I don’t know where it came from, but I’m working very hard to get rid of it. She has a slight drawl when she says words like, “baby” or “hands” - anything with that long a sound. It is driving me nuts. I’m constantly correcting her. I will not have my daughter sound like a Texan/Okie. I grew up in Oklahoma, as did my Mom, and neither of us have heavy accents. Eric doesn’t have an accent. I’m guessing that she is picking it up from kids at school. Regardless, it must stop. Just because we live in Texas doesn’t mean that she has to grow up with a drawl. So for now, I will continue to correct her and hope that it gets better.

Happy Birthday, Autie!

Toddlers and Talkers

The babies are starting to act less like babies, and dare I say, more like toddlers. The last few days they have been walking everywhere and getting into everything. Mason is even trying to run, which is so funny because most of the time he just falls down. They can both stand up on their own now, and take off walking. They are trying to repeat words like cookie, ball, dog, cracker and today they said bye-bye to Syd when it was time to leave for school. They are even starting to play with each other. The other day Mason and Macky were both playing with the fire truck and having a blast. I love to see them interact with each other and play with things together. Babies this age don’t usually play with other babies so this interaction is just a ‘twin thing’, which makes it very cool to watch. I’m getting glimpses into the future, where all three kids can play with each other. I can’t wait!

Traffic jam.


I'll take that!



Sydney’s school has implemented a new reward for naptime. The kids don’t have to take a nap, but if they lay quietly then they get to pick a treasure out of the treasure chest. How many treasures has Sydney got to pick? Zero. She will not lay quietly during naptime. When I ask her about it she admits that she talks to her friends. This does not surprise me at all. In fact all I can do when I pick her up and her report shows “I wasn’t tired at all” is smile. She is my daughter and everyone knows how much I like to talk. Maybe if the treasures were things that interested her, instead of spider rings and stuff like that, she would be a little more enticed to lay there quietly. I guess for now she will just have to forego getting any treasures, I’m sure the talking is way more fun. Her poor teachers, they probably really look forward to that hour of quiet time. At least at home she still naps. Lucky me!

My little chatterbox.

Doctor and Ducks

The babies had their one-year well baby check up today. Mason is 31.25inches tall and 24lbs 3oz. Mackenzie is 32 inches tall and 25lbs 6 oz. The doctor said that they are really big for their age. Mackenzie isn’t even on her growth chart, because she is so tall. The doctor also said that they are perfectly healthy. She was very happy to hear that they have been off of the bottle since 10.5months and are eating finger foods. She was even able to get them to play patty cake and peek-a-boo. She was impressed that they can say more than just ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada.’ Even though I knew that they are doing well and I thought developmentally that they are on track, it is still nice to have a professional tell you that you are doing a good job. It is nice to hear and it made me feel really good.

On a different note, Sydney has been extra funny lately. I wanted to share a funny story. Today she woke up and announced that she was going to teach the baby ducks (Mase and Macky) how to quack. I said, “Why are you going to do that?” She looked at me with her hands on her hips and in the most serious voice answered, “Because I’m the Mommy duck and they are the baby ducks and baby ducks should know how to quack.” I said, “okay” and decided to stand back and watch. I knew it would be funny. So she finally gets both of the babies sitting in front of her and she tells them about learning to quack and then, all of a sudden, she bends down and yells, “QUAAACK!!” right in Mackenzie’s face. I died laughing and so did Macky. Mason, who was sitting right behind Mackenzie, just stared at Sydney like she had lost her mind. This ‘quack’ teaching continued for about 5 mins until they all bored of it. Just thinking about it now makes me smile.

Party Time

Today was the big Birthday Party. We had about 20 adults and 8 kids at the party today. Everyone had a great time. There were no disasters or any other major problems that can happen when you have that many people in a small space. We started the party with the kids playing in the playroom and then slowly progressed to the backyard. The big kids played on the playground and the little ones spent some time on the trampoline or walking/crawling through the grass. Then we moved inside to open presents. Even though the babies were pretty oblivious to what was going on, they liked the tissue paper and they were excited about the new toys. Next, it was time for cake. I think since they had just had cake last night they weren’t too excited about it tonight. Mason hated the icing on his hands and almost had a meltdown. Macky wouldn’t even try her cake. She did however, really like the vanilla ice cream.

I’m really glad that we were able to celebrate this milestone with our close friends and family. My dad came in from Panama, my in-laws from Albuquerque, and my sister and her husband from Oklahoma. We had a lot of people here to share in this special day and that meant a lot. I know that the babies won’t remember it, but I will. Today was awesome! I know I say this all the time, but I’m so glad to be back in the south. I love being close to our friends and family.


Look at this.



I love it!


Check out all of these toys.


Let's sing.

Happy Birthday

Mason & Mackenzie turn 1! How on earth are my babies one already? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing them home from the hospital. Oh my, was I in for a shock. I knew that it would be crazy, but I thought, ‘I’ve done this before, at least I have experience, it won’t be too bad.’ I was wrong; it was more than a little intense. I had constant help from Eric, my Mom and my mother-in-law for the first two weeks and it was still nuts. My mom came over every day at 7:00am and stayed until 5pm and I needed all of the help I could get. I’m not even sure what happened the first 6months. It took me that long to get my bearings and start feeling like a human again. Then around 7months we started going to the gym and getting into a really good routine. I finally felt like I could manage everything, kids, laundry, cleaning and all the other mom/wife duties. Now they are a year old and time has flown by. They are walking and trying to talk. They are growing up and although it sounds cliché it really does happen way too fast. I’ve changed a lot in the last year. I feel like I’m a better Mom and wife since the twins were born. They were the perfect addition to our family of three. I love our family of five.

Trying out our forward facing car seats. We love it!

Getting ready for cake

Big bite!

This is yummy.


Nice icing mustache, Macky!

More please.

A family of three

Tomorrow my babies turn one. I can’t believe it. I’ve decided to post a couple of pictures from a year a ago. I was gigantic! To my defense, I was carrying 14lbs worth of baby. I was miserable. I took, on average, about 4 baths a day because that was the only time I was comfortable. I could barely walk, because one of the babies was sitting on a nerve that made it difficult for me to raise my right leg more than about 2 inches off of the ground. When I look back at pictures I’m in shock at how big my stomach was. It is still hard to believe that there were two babies in there. My mom came over every day and took care of Syd and me. I don’t know what I would have done with out her help. Eric rubbed my back almost every night. He was excellent. I’m so glad that I will never do that again. I love my babies, but carrying them was physically one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

The last picture of the family of three.

Now thats a stomach!

Chopped Liver

A few months ago my Mom started letting Syd spend the night on Wednesday nights. They stay up late bake cookies and cupcakes and watch movies. Then in the morning Syd gets to eat chocolate doughnuts. It has become a weekly event and is now ‘Kiki and Sydney Night'. I don’t know who enjoys it more my Mom or Sydney. Every Wednesday Sydney walks out the door and says, “Bye, Mama chop liver.” She thinks this is so funny. My response is always, “Bye, baby chopped liver.” Today she was extra excited about going to Kiki’s house and instead of our normal exchange she said, “Tonight is not your night, tonight is my special night at Kiki’s house.” (all this while her little arm was out stretched and her palm was towards me) I don’t know where she gets her attitude.

This past week Syd has become completely obsessed with the babies birthday party. I’ve been making plans and buying supplies, but Sydney is trying to take it to a whole other level. She has told me about a 100 times, “Mommy, don’t forget we need party hats and party noise makers.” She thinks that we should order 12 pizzas and 7 cakes for the party. She also wants balloons, even though she hates balloons, and a piñata. I think she may have a career as an event planner.

"Pop"

Yesterday my Mom and I were in the computer room looking for Halloween costumes for the kids and they were in the playroom (yes, I know I’m a bad Mom for leaving them unattended) and we heard a loud pop. I got up to go in there as Sydney yelled, “Mommy, Macky broke the glass.” I thought ‘oh gosh, what on earth happened?’ I ran in there and there was glass everywhere. Mackenzie was standing in the middle of glass and was eating some of it, Mason was sitting with glass all around him and Sydney was standing just outside of the glass explosion. I yelled for my mom to help me get the kids out of the hazard area. Mackenzie had broken the glass that covered the front of the tv stand where the dvd player is. Thank goodness it was safety glass and none of the kids even had a scratch on them. I have no idea how they weren’t hurt. I vacuumed up the glass and cleaned the inside of the tv stand and within a few minutes the kids were back to playing and watching Tarzan (this time with me in the room, of course). I took some pictures of the glass just so you could appreciate what kind of disaster I’m talking about.

facebook

Yesterday I logged into my email, and much to my surprise there was an email from an old friend that I haven’t spoken to in about 6.5 years. I was pleasantly surprised to hear about her family and see pictures of her son. I was able to do this because of facebook. In the past I’ve been very much against joining any online sites like MySpace or similar sites, but I really wanted to see pictures of her and her family so I joined. Much to my amazement, there were several other people that I’ve lost touch with that have been looking to contact me and found me within just a few hours. I feel reconnected to my past. It was good to hear from friends that I haven’t talked to in years, some 10 plus. How else would I be able to reconnect with a French foreign exchange student that now lives in Bangkok? Well, it wasn’t without much teasing from Eric, I might add. He kept asking me, “Are you playing on ‘The Internets’?” and “Is that ‘The Facebook’?” He thinks its funny to poke fun at me. Granted, I get a little excited, but I have to tell someone and he is the only one in the house that is awake. He’ll get over it and I can handle the teasing. Well, I’m going to get back on facebook and look for some more friends from my past.

Game Day

Sooner football games have become a family affair at our house. Eric had season tickets for 10 seasons and I had them for 6. I loved going to the games, but we gave up our season tickets when we moved to Missouri and I’ve missed them ever since. Now we all get dressed in our Sooner gear and watch the game at home. We are quite a sight, all five of us in our sooner shirts. We got more than a couple comments today at Blockbuster. All of these Texans just have to say something to a family of Sooners. Are we brainwashing the kids by dressing them in Sooner stuff and teaching them to say Boomer-Sooner before they can walk? Maybe, but that is fine with me. I loved going to school at OU and I hope that the kids go there also. I would be pretty disappointed if they decided to become Pokes, Longhorns or worst yet, Aggies. Halftime is over so I’m going to get back to the game.

Ina blogger

When I decided to start this blog I thought it would be a good way to record day to day things from our family and share it with our family and friends that live far away. I thought that I would share funny stories and pictures of the kids. I didn’t really expect to use to share personal type thoughts, however today I decided that this would probably end up being a combination of family stuff and whatever is on my mind. For a long time I kept a journal and I wanted to start one of all the funny stuff that Syd said or that the kids did so that I could have a record of it to share with them when they are older. Hopefully this will serve both purposes.

As for the title of the blog, Sydney still says, “Ina princess.” She gets confused and we are working with her to say, "I’m a princess". It recently dawned on me that these minor speech mistakes are slowly disappearing. She used to say, “eddybody” instead of “everybody” and it was so cute. I miss the mistakes. It makes me realize that she is getting too big. I look at the babies and I remember when Syd was their age. We had just moved to Missouri, my Mom was just finishing her cancer treatment, Eric had quit his job and I was starting a new one. It was a very crazy time for us.

Now things have settled down. We are back to having a nice, quiet, boring life and I love it. So, for now, I will continue to write about what goes on or what I’m thinking about.

Here are some recent, random pictures of the kids. I’m still trying to figure out how to add captions. Sorry if it looks weird.


Sydney the princess.


Macky just hanging out.


Mason surrounded by toys in the playroom.

Firsts

Mason & Mackenzie taking their first car (shopping cart) ride.






This year has held a lot of firsts for our family. For the twins especially, first time to
smile, sit up, to crawl, stand, walk, and even get teeth. It seems like every day they are doing something for the first time while at the same time learning to perfect some of the previously learned skills. I love watching them grow and do things for themselves and try stuff for the first time. It is so fun to watch how different they are even though they are at the same age. Mason is a complete boy’s boy. He climbs up the slide in the playroom and has even fallen off the platform. He loves balls and needs near constant attention. Mackenzie, on the other hand, is very content to play by herself or with Sydney. She loves crawling onto the little chair or couch in the playroom and sitting in it like the little princess she is. She also loves to rough-house. I think her favorite game is to pillow fight with Sydney, which really involves Sydney hitting her with a pillow and her laughing hysterically.




Syd had her first day of school last week and she was so excited. She loves going to school. We didn’t know her teacher’s name so Syd decided that she would make up a name. She started calling her pretend teacher Ms. Merman. I don’t know where she comes up with half the stuff she does, but she cracks me up. When we finally arrived at school for her first day and met her teachers, (Ms. Tamala and Ms. Kelly), Syd was a little disappointed. She liked her made up name a lot better. She was so excited about seeing her friends, and playing with all of the new stuff, that she barely even said goodbye.

Here are some pictures of Syd's first day of school.

Doesn't she look big?

What’s in a name?

When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter we were trying to figure out what to call her before we knew that she was a she. We were at my mom’s one day and she came up with Baby Martini since our last name is Martinez. It stuck and she was Baby Martini, until the day she was born.
So it came time to come up with a name for the blog and I was racking my brain and it hit me as I’m sitting in the playroom with my three little ones. That it has to be Three Martinis. Not just because there are three of them, but also because, by the end of most days I could use three martinis.

Enjoy reading and I will try to keep this up to date. Be patient with me- I’m new at this.