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Last post for a while...

Have I ever told you how amazing my friends are? I haven't? Well, let me tell you they are pretty wonderful. On Sunday, Nina and Chris treated Jason and I to a day at the Biltmore where we got massages, a fantastic lunch (I had the key west grouper sandwich), and a very relaxing afternoon. We were overwhelmed by their generosity and had a fantastic time. Thank you thank you.

The beautiful Biltmore Hotel, Pool and Grill area

Biltmore spire

Video from up above...oops had the video on "old timey" effect, sorry.

Today, we have been outside as much as possible. It's a gorgeous day here. This morning we played with dirt, rocks and leaves.

Lily accesses the container contents and sorts accordingly

Zane steals the bucket and eats the dirt

(Lily's face says it all)

Following our morning outside, the three of us headed over to downtown to eat some lunch at Baja Fresh

mmm i luhike chkin quesadeeyas n cheeps

mmphf hfffeppfheeafffp

(mmm spanish rice)

This is the last blog post until December. Tomorrow I will be swamped packing and getting ready to leave on our trip. On Thursday, we all head to Houston for Thanksgiving, and then Jason and I will take off for Dallas to complete our house hunting. We'll be back in Miami on Friday the 4th, so we'll see you all then.

Hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

The Vizcayan's Ball

Jason and I were invited to the Vizcayans Ball. The weather was great and we had a good time. I wish Zane and Lily could have gone because I think they would have looked adorable in a tux and schnazy dress :)

Walked down the red carpet, fancy

Would you like a Maserati for the weekend? Go ahead bid!

Yes, fireworks

I thought this was our dinner...apparently, lobster, crab claws and shrimp is merely an appetizer.

Filet with Gnocchi and encased Ratatouille

looking fancy

View from our table, right as the sound system blew out for a few minutes

What rich people look like dancing

She's trying folks...

Lily really is putting forth effort to talk. She tries hard to get her mouth around some words but they don't come out so well yet. She knows what everything is, but just can't express them!

Bad poetry on a sunny day

After lunch, they were sent out to play

Mom took their clothes,

they needed changing anyway

I saw the squat down

and Zane soon had found

how to tell mom

that he'd made something brown

Mickey D's

Today was the babies' first Happy Meal. We had a rough morning out running errands and mom just didn't feel like cooking.

Lily tried to like the McNuggets, but like her mama, she found them rather disgusting. She did love the fries though.

Zane, like his daddy, had no problem shoveling the McNuggets in his mouth

They were quite messy so mom sent them outside to play in the sprinklers. Also another first. Seeing how it normally rains here each day during the spring and summer, I haven't used the sprinklers since before they could walk

Zane coated in a thin layer of ketchup

I don't know how he got in there, I only turned around for 5 seconds, but he was pretty proud

Playing with the spray

Lily took a more scientific and cautious approach to these "sprinkers"

In other news, Lily is back to her vampire ways. Must be all this Twilight phenomenon. Zane came running up to me crying hard and with a wet mark on shirt. I found this underneath along with a guilt ridden Lily. She spent 5 minutes in time out for this one.

Backyardigans

Video of fall time here in Miami.

Weather has finally turned from rainy and sweltering to very very nice.

More house guests today

wait, is that a....

yep, sure is....BAILEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

well hello!

We had a fluttery fellow visit us this afternoon. Lily came running to me yelling MAMA MAMA MAMA and urging me to follow her. She took me to the window and I couldn't see anything. I figured a cat had run through the yard but then as I was turning to leave, I heard thwap thwap thwap and turned to see this gorgeous guy begging to get out. I took a few pictures of him and then opened up the other door to let him fly away. Goodbye and goodluck out there! The birds are migrating ya know!!!

lemme out lemme out

waaaaaaaaaaaa....

so pretty.

A very quick Saturday

Dad had a layover in Miami today before heading to Argentina tonight, so he made a cameo for the week. We had some fun in the backyard. What has your weekend been filled with?

Rim shots

and car shops

Dad's a leaping

and thrill seeking

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ok mom. no more pictures, back into the house with you.

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daddy, take me with you...i fit nicely into suitcases.

No pictures, just a story

As many of you know dad is out of town so mom is flying solo. Flying solo is fun because random things get to happen. Take tonight's bath for example.

Zane is in the tub and Lily is walking around naked in the closed door bathroom. She looks up and sees her potty. I have not even begun to think about potty training with so much going on, plus they are only 17 months (almost). She aggressively points at her potty and does her "MMMPH" grunt, which means want. Who am I to not give her a potty. The more she's interested in it the better for everyone. I get it down off the counter and give it to her.

She proudly turns around and backs her butt up to it and sits down with a big smile. My child is a genius. She then points to the toilet paper, stands up, turns around, waves and says. BUH BYE! You can guess from these actions she has seen mom in action for a long time now and yes, mom waves bye bye in front of the kids. The smile on her face is precious and I wish I had this moment on video tape. But we all know nowadays that would land me in jail.

I finish Zane and do the switcheroo. Zane looks at the potty and tries to figure out how to use it as a weapon. He picks it up over his head and I put it back down. I say to him, no Zane, this is a potty. You go pee-pee and poo-poo in here. He looks at me like "lady did you ever think you'd be saying this as you accepted your grad school diploma?" I reiterate. Peepee and poop only, you know peeeeee and uuuurgggggh. ...big mistake. Making the poop uuurrrgggggh noise is pavlovian to my child. He squats on the floor and by the time I realize what he's doing it's too late. I look over and there is a huge, and I mean huge even by adult standards, pile on the floor. I jump up and say, AHHHHH, wait wait wait! Too late again.

He sees what is now on the bathmat and does the mexican hat dance smooshing it into the bathmat and up through is toes. The grin on his face goes from ear to ear. I scream, NO NO AHHH, WAIT, NO! This only excites him and he starts running around the bathroom tracking it all over the bathmats and tile floor. I try to start picking up mats and reach for toilet paper to get some of this mess up. He sees me picking it up and reaches down to his feet to pick it up himself. Now it's all over his hands. He tries to hand it too me and throws it in my lap. NO!!! AHHHHHH I'm screaming. He screams AHHHHHH back, loving this game.

Meanwhile, Lily is just sitting in the tub playing with the toys watching the whole thing unfold saying nono nonono and wagging her finger.

Alas, I was able to get mats in the wash, the tile cleaned and the child re-bathed, but it put our bedtime a little late tonight. Gotta love toddlerhood.

Lying is inherent to human behavior

Zane. Did you eat the dirt when we were outside?...shakes head "no."

Larry the Lazy Lizard

One of the things I will miss most about Miami are the anoles. These cute little lizards are EVERYWHERE. I love reptiles so it's been a real treat getting to chase and play with these guys. Today this guys who lives in the gardenia bush was out sunning himself. When they are asleep the lizards are brown, when you wake them up they will turn green. Very cool. You can also see he's finishing shedding his skin and has a little left on his face.

Sleeping

I woke him up but he fell back to sleep

Video Catchup

I had some memory problems on our home computer so I wasn't able to download or create videos. Below though, I have a few videos for you. I took the outdoor ones today and the video of the babies just being cute has footage from this past month. Enjoy!

Neither Lily nor Zane talk much. They have a few words here and there but they just aren't real big on using their words. BUT, they understand everything. Here's an example with Miss Lily.

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This is a video of some outdoor playtime. In it you will find:

1. Lily's obsession with rocks

2. Zane's obsession with socks

3. Lily being Miss Bossy and Tattletale. You will notice when Zane does something wrong she claps her hands...that's because mom claps her hands when a 'no-no' is done. Lily picks up on everything.

4. Her persistence

5. Her temper

6. Zane acting like a baby

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Cute kids

1. Jason got one of those singing cards for his birthday from Nana, Lily loved (loves) it and likes to groove to the tune.

2. Zane likes the 'Bob the Builder' theme song. He doesn't actually watch the show, he just wants to see the opening so he can nod his head when they ask "Can we build it "YA!", Can we fix it "YA!""

3. Lily likes to hide Zane's monkey that he sleeps with. If you ask her where she's hidden it she will look at you completely innocent and do her hands "I don't know!?!"

4. Zane has a crush on Nina. Nina is the lady that comes on the TV at night when they are allowed to watch a little TV as mom and dad clean up the kitchen/house. Every time she comes on he gets a little coy smile and will flirt with the TV.

Colorful Tuesday

Lily chose a sweeping pattern to express herself through red crayon and paper.

Zane chose a more of a "slam the blue crayon onto the paper like a drumstick" technique.

Monday Snapshots

Lunchtime

How can such a small person eat so much?

Kids are so cute they give you heart attacks

Lily had fun at the park this weekend learning how to run down steep hills.

...while Zane tried to run out into the street and play in traffic.

Happy Birfday 2 meeee

For my birthday dinner, we headed out to family friendly Chili's. The Chili's in Coconut Grove is very twin friendly because they have a huge seating area outside that is covered and has lots of TVs and music playing to keep them from getting bored. Most of the time they bob their heads along to the music and become the stars of the patio. They are pretty cute, I'd stare too.

Zane must be in a growth spurt because he did not stop eating. He ate 3 chicken crispers, french fries, cinnamon apples, tortilla chips and then was still looking around for more. Geez.

mmm...chicken crispers....

Lily was much more picky with her food and has been all week. It looks like one of her bottom teeth is trying to come in so her mouth may be a little too sore to mash up stuff. She did eat a bunch of french fries though by sucking on them until they just melted in her mouth. She was a big fan of chugging ice water so all that leans towards that tooth trying to pop through. After we finished and the table was cleared they brought out a dessert. She was not too happy that she could not partake. I let her have a few tastes of it but she would have preferred to shove the whole thing in her face. She is her mamas daughter.

WHAT! NO DESSERT!!!!!

Thank you everyone for making my birthday special. I remember the day my mom and my dad turned 30...how did I get here so quickly?

Ninja Cat

This is Ninja cat. Her actual name is Lucky but I renamed her Ninja cat. My neighbor has 12 cats. Yes, 12. And most of them are outside cats so they roam through my lawn royally upsetting Bailey. Most of them are skiddish, but not Ninja Cat.

She appears out of no where. I will be in the kitchen busy with things and the door to outside will be clear. I'll put a dish and the sink and look back and BAM there she is. She will sit outside my door for hours, always just looking at me. A few times I've given in and given her food but that was a huge mistake to start and now I just feel guilty if I don't give her something.

I've never seen her walk up to the door. I have no idea where she comes from, she just magically appears to watch me in the kitchen.

I'm considering changing her name again to "Geico". She just reminds me of that stack of money staring me down.

Friday Snapshots

Lily what are you doing? :)

none of your business go away.

Thank God for Windex.

This guy has been hanging out on the back porch for 3 days. I think I'm going to shut off the light. I think he's transfixed and I don't want him to starve to death or anything...He's huge, about 6 inches long.

They're at that stage...

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors mom.