5 on Friday

5 special reasons I'm loving my boy this week:

5. One of Marino's few self-soothing techniques is to stroke hair when he's sleepy. He'll stroke his own hair or mine. Last weekend, Evan was giving him a bottle, and since Evan's hair is so short, Marino couldn't reach it...so he was pulling on his facial hair instead. It was sweet (ok, maybe not for Evan, who was uncomfortable).

4. He started saying a new word this week! He now says "duck." I noticed him using it yesterday to talk about his favorite puzzle piece (now that the hen is missing) from the Melissa and Doug puzzle I told you all about. I think it's really a goose, but whatev.

3. He is FINALLY getting his 3rd tooth! Wednesday night he was miserable and I told Evan I thought he might be teething (since he usually sleeps through the night now). Well, today he was laughing and I saw the top left tooth is cutting through! It's been 4 months since his last tooth, so this is a big deal!!

2. The boy has a sense of humor. On Monday, we were in the car on the way back from NJ and Marino was not happy about being stuck in the car. After whining for a while, he started saying very loudly "DADA DADA DAD!!!" Evan was driving and said "Yes, Marino?" Marino looked at him in the rearview mirror and said "up?" very quietly. It was pretty endearing (but he still had to wait until we got home for up).

1. Marino now sings "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." He only sings the "row, row, row" part, but it's pretty adorable!