3 years + 10 months...and 9 months!

 at lyla's 9 month check-up, she weighed in at 18 lbs (46^th percentile), and  remains short (33^rd percentile) with a huge head (98^th percentile). i surprised the twins with a flu shot at lyla's appointment, and they handled it decently well (livi much better than jacks).  lyla has been crawling for a few weeks now, and more recently has started pulling herself up on everything.  she doesn’t tend to crawl very far, but likes to stand up, sit down, crawl a few places over, and repeat.  she also loves to hold your hands and go for a wobbly walk around the room.

jacks still has a love for buses – last night we could hear him in the backyard yelling out bus lines ("38R!!") as he zooms around on his scooter.  he’s also obsessed with clocks and telling time.  the first thing out of his mouth every morning is “what time did I wake up?”  Regardless of the time, he exclaims “what?!? that’s so late” with a huge, dimpled grin.  he’s also loves to sit and watch the digital clock and excitedly tell us every time a minute goes by.  he won’t let it go until john or i acknowledge that it is in fact 7:03pm;  he also shares the time with livi but somehow she gets away with ignoring him.

livi is officially in love with ballet.  i’ve never seen her so excited to go somewhere on a consistent basis - she runs right into the class and has a blast for 50 minutes while i sit in the hallway doing work.  however, she will not show us any ballet moves at home!  we'll try to coax it out of her but she won’t budge and refuses to show us anything.  we’re also spending time teaching the kids how to properly say thank you and hello/good-bye--and by "proper" i mean looking someone in the eye and saying the words clearly and in a nice tone.  while jacks has no problem with this, livi will still grumble the words as she walks away from the person.  while she's not shy by nature, i’m thinking this is just someone who doesn’t like to be told what to do.  not sure where she could possibly get that from…must be john. =)

their typical style: relaxed vs. fancy

lyla, terrified as usual

thrilled to have a little bit of space!

lyla and her twin brother

we're finally trying to make use of our "basement"

we're working on a great new playroom,
which of course involves some ikea furniture

while it takes 300% longer to complete, jacks and liv
really do love being a part of the build process

working on his fine motor skills!

balancing on the new shelf, aka stairs to the fort

lyla still takes down her 7 ouncers like john takes down a luke warm latte

"crushed it," as john likes to say

fun with her pal Jeremy

lyla loves to crawl a few paces and then sit,
but tends to plant her bum in the most awkward places

a saturday night out for my cousin michelle's wedding

it was really cool seeing this picture of my grandma
and grandpa...as livi would say, they look so fancy!

sunday coffee stop

excited for their playdate with ella!

they thought their vests were pretty hilarious (my back-up for
when i realized on my way home from work that i didn't have car seats!)

family spin around the block

reading already! 

lyla dozed after a long day

it turns out livi was quite tired too!

this is her "don't mess with me" face

one of her favorite poses

everyone loves a good stare in the mirror from 2 inches away

jacks found someone to talk to while on the potty

morning milk...still dark out 

his beloved bus broke!!!

this is the next best thing to a real twin brother

roaring like a lion!

shares livi's obsession with swings

snack time!

on a little red school bus adventure...they are living the life!

livi got to choose the destination for a school bus
adventure, and she took her 11 friends
and 2 teachers to ride the carousel

a new place for john to "fall asleep" after a night out drinking

after 12 years of living in san francisco, it was finally our turn! yipee!

sheila made spooky spiders with them

jacks could never look spooky
 with that dimple!

they've been getting in the halloween spirit this year

meet our three ninja turtles...they could at least fake enjoyment!!

back to school = back to chaos

with the start of september, our lives feel like they became a million times busier!  john started his new job, which he loves, but that requires getting into a new groove in terms of schedules. we're volunteering a bunch for the school and i'm at the peak of my marathon training, so we are both pretty much constantly exhausted.

the hardest part, though, has been the lack of weekday naps for jacks and livi!!! their class this year is from 1-4pm monday through friday, and three days a week they also go out on the little red school bus from 9am-1pm.  they have such a wonderful time at school and do get through the week surprisingly well.  however, by the time the weekend rolls around, they can be a mess, often taking naps on the weekends for 2-3 hours.  the silver lining (thankfully, there is one!) is that they go to bed early at night and are pretty much asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

love that the teachers braved the beach on an incredibly hot day

quietly reflecting on a park adventure

trying out a new slide

a drought-friendly way to stay cool

this was john's cue to head to work

enjoying the preschool family picnic

jacks showed off his tree-climbing skills to his friends

poor guy fell asleep in the car at 4:30pm, but even the
sweet smell of his bus wouldn't wake him...

so we moved him downstairs while we cleaned up 

lyla was excited to check out the new play area

even with lyla and livi chatting it up, jacks did not wake

he literally slept from 4:30pm to 7:15am without opening his eyes and came downstairs for the breakfast the next morning feeling like a million bucks

with no weekday naps, livi has also been sleeping in
past 6am, which has been just lovely

so happy to start ballet!

how cute is she!?

we couldn't resist a quick trip to ikea before a stanford football game

lyla enjoyed her first football game!

even though it was 8pm, she was quite peppy and
made friends with other fans

these two are finally old enough to be engaged....

although some sweet treats from ikea did help (best $0.60 i've ever spent!)

this was a surprisingly delightful saturday night

3 weeks in and john still loves his new job!

we even visited him at work and met his team

of course, the big supply of snacks was a big hit!

after our visit to lyft, jacks and i headed out
on a special adventure that started with dinner

the hotel bellman gave him a sweet gift
as we waited to check in

the view from our room

we then headed out to take a ride on the cable car
(we wanted to avoid daytime tourist lines for the iconic ride)

i think both of us could get used to this lifestyle

the next morning we headed out on a muni train

we had breakfast at frog hollow in the ferry building

we both visited the exploratorium for the first time

jacks loved it, but i realized john would have liked it
more than me (too educational for me on a saturday)

'trains, trolleys, and buses' was the theme of our adventure, and it ended
with a trip to a little train museum and some souveniers

while jacks and i were gone, john held down the fort
with his favorite girls

he did household chores

and entertained child after child after child

they headed to the jcc for a breakfast bagel

abuelo and abuela came down for a visit

livi was excited for the art projects they brought with them

the whole family headed to jacks' first baseball practice

auntie keet, uncle mike, and baby lyla cheered
jacks on from the sideline

the kids helped me make sprinkle cookies for a bbq

we brought the finished product to kelly and mark's
and the kids finally got to taste their creation

jacks even got to practice his baseball skills on a piñata

despite this loot and the fact they were the only kids old
enough to eat candy, they were perfectly content to choose
4 pieces (you know, because they're almost 4)

sibling snuggles

my mermaid and merman

getting busy at home

standing like a champ...and trying to add
jumping rope to her baby resume

this toy has probably entertained jacks for
over 2 hours a day for the past 5 months

looking cute as she practices her swing

hey battah battah

with no naps, this can happen often due to exhaustion

sometimes you get upset when you were at the park with
 a friend and jacks watched dora the explorer without you

look at that face

she still can fall asleep anywhere

testing out the mini-slide at the park

livi was teaching the girls how to lean in

taking the train for a ride

she can literally swing for hours!

lyla tried out livi's old ride

we test drove these beauties on our block (lyla still needs a couple of
 months before she's sturdy enough to weather the bumpy sidewalks)

we got invited to an oktoberfest celebration downtown

we had a blast as can be seen above

we decided to take the cable car and bus home

turns out that when you wait, then leave to go potty, and then wait again...
you might end up waiting for a really long time!

jacks was excited to share his 2nd trolly experience with the whole family!

despite the late hour, jacks and livi kept on smiling all the way home