00:00So, Rinaldo and I both went to the same middle school, and I remember being 11 years old,
00:12and I saw him, who had a mustache, at 11 years old, and I was like, that is a grown man,
00:20but he was really just the same age as me, and I had the biggest crush on him, and I
00:24used to doodle my name with his last name, and I even got a dog around that same time
00:31that I was going to name Rinaldo, one that looked just like Miko.
00:35His name was Teddy, almost Rinaldo, and it was a Shih Tzu with Maltese mix.
00:40My dog, rest in peace, Diamond, she was also a dachshund.
00:45She was the funniest dog in the world.
00:48Everyone loved her.
00:49My friends loved her.
00:50We would have a party.
00:51She's up there in the party.
00:52She was a middle-aged woman in a little dachshund body.
00:56Like, she really had her own personality.
00:59But we started dating when we were 15 years old.
01:02You were 16, and that was 10th grade, and we've been together ever since.
01:07Right when we finished high school, we went into college, and I got pregnant shortly after,
01:13and that was the response of, oh my gosh, you're so young.
01:16You have your whole life ahead of you.
01:18Doors started opening up that just were opening up out of nowhere, so I knew it was a part of the plan.
01:27Sorry.
01:28Elias!
01:29Joel!
01:30It's Layla and RJ.
01:32Start with RJ.
01:33Our oldest.
01:34The first one, the OG.
01:35He's nine, but he's turning 10 on the 23rd of October, so his birthday's coming up.
01:39I'm talking, he made it easy.
01:41He went to bed.
01:42He started sleeping through the night at six months.
01:45He just adapted to everything that you would want as a first-time parent to go smoothly.
01:50And he was like the child that really paved the way to saying, yeah, we want more kids.
01:54And then, there came a lot.
01:57He's seven.
01:58He's a very funny kid.
02:00Like, he loves a camera.
02:01When he was a baby, though, he hit us with a lot of the things that we heard about what
02:06baby's having that we just didn't experience much with our first son, RJ.
02:10Colic.
02:12Reflux.
02:13But with each challenge that we experienced with all the kids that we, you know, eventually
02:18ended up having in the grand scheme, each challenge we adapted to it.
02:22So, after having RJ and Elias, we wanted to wait a little while, get a bigger home, and
02:28then have the last two in our late 20s and early 30s.
02:32That was the plan.
02:33And I got pregnant with Joel, our third, when Elias was only nine months old.
02:39And he was just the ultimate surprise baby.
02:42We even gave birth to him.
02:43Big surprise baby.
02:44I actually delivered him in my house.
02:47Paramedics came.
02:48I'm running to them saying, hey, come on, hurry up.
02:51The baby's out.
02:51You know, make the, speed the process up.
02:54So, they got everything going, and there he was.
02:57He was born in our house.
02:58I liked being the only girl in the house.
03:01I mean, like, I really wanted a daughter, but I was actually enjoying being the only girl
03:06in the house.
03:07Yes, a boy mom.
03:07Like, I fully took on that role.
03:09Like, it's fun.
03:09Like, I know I was made to be a mom to three boys, but we still wanted a girl.
03:14Our baby girl came.
03:15So, I, I, but I really did not believe it until she was born.
03:19And I was like, is it still a girl?
03:22Layla is my little mini-me.
03:24She's like my little partner.
03:25She really is a total mama's girl.
03:27Like, anywhere I go, she goes.
03:29And I love that because I love the relationship that I had with my mom, and I still have with
03:33my mom.
03:34So, it was important to give that same type of love and closeness that I have with my
03:39mom with Layla.
03:41Growing up, even in my household, where my parents are both Haitian, animals at a certain
03:47point were almost forbidden.
03:49We wanted to kind of change that narrative to where it's like, okay, we're going to grow
03:53up with dogs.
03:53I want my kids to grow up with animals.
03:55They're not going to be scared of a dog when they see them, when they go to a friend's house.
04:00So, they're very comfortable around animals.
04:03So, that kind of was the approach to why I was like, we're going to get a dog.
04:06I like to catch my wife off guard.
04:08Even when I'm taking her on dates, she doesn't know where we're going.
04:11It's always somewhere new.
04:13She was asking for a dog, and I was like, no, no, we don't need a dog right now.
04:18We don't need it.
04:18We have too many kids.
04:19But in the back of my head, I knew for weeks that we're going to get the dog one day when
04:24he was ready to be released to the owner.
04:27She was like, where are we going?
04:28Literally had no clue.
04:29Had no clue.
04:30And walked out with Mr. Miko when he was a pup.
04:33Caught the whole family off guard.
04:35But they're excited.
04:36These are my additional children.
04:37So, my fifth, my sixth, and my seventh child.
04:40Everything we do is for our kids.
04:43But then also, it's like, oh, we've got to get back home to the dogs.
04:45We've got to make sure that we do this for the dogs.
04:48Oh, we can't stay out too long because the dogs are still home.
04:50We make sure that we keep them apart.
04:52We look after them like we would our own kids.
04:54Even the food that we give them, that they eat every day.
04:57They're part of the family.
04:58We're going to be right here.
04:59We're going to try this one.
05:05You
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