2nd Mother's Day - Part II

My 2nd Mother's Day was great! I got to sleep in and when I woke up, there were cards, a drawing from Marino and a beautiful locket from Evan waiting for me.

Marino and I had our regular Sunday swim class, which went much better this week than last. Marino is a total daredevil and only wanted to leap from the side of the pool towards me without warning (repeatedly). He likes to scare his mommy, apparently. I definitely need to invest in some swimmies for summer!

After swim lessons, Marino very kindly took a 2.5 hour nap for probably the second time in his whole life (most naps are 60 minutes). Evan got me my favorite lunch, Vietnamese food, and I had lots of time to enjoy it and watch trashy reality tv on my DVR:)

After the nap, we went to the circus. We had fairly low expectations about how Marino would like the circus and it was close by and fairly inexpensive, so we thought it would be a good introduction to live shows for him.
We discovered at the show that Marino is completely terrified of clowns. Friends, Marino has undergone horrific medical procedures, 2nd degree burns, numerous hospital stays, etc. and I have never seen him afraid of anything the way he was afraid of those clowns. Everytime we saw one, he would start trembling and clutching Evan and I at the same time. At one point, he had one of our ears in each hand:( It was very sad to see. Evan's Aunt Ronnie gave us a bright side to this - at least we will never waste money on a clown for one of his birthday parties!
He enjoyed the rest of the show, especially the animals. Evan and I were really disturbed by the way the animals were treated during the show. To get them to do anything, whips were used. Honestly, if the animals just walked through the ring, it would have been exciting to me. I'm not sure why they have to do tricks. It was clear the animals were afraid and agitated, and Evan and I had a hard time enjoying the show because of it. I hope to raise Marino with a non-anthropocentric ethic (meaning that his moral community will include all living things, not just people). The circus is definately not in line with that and I wish I had considered that before (not that he will remember or even noticed that was happening).

I mean, would you be happy if someone made you do this for reasons you could not understand?

By the way, one of my friends said that the Big Apple Circus is animal-friendly. If that ever comes around, maybe we will try that (if he outgrows his fear of clowns).

After the circus, we headed over to my mother-in-law's house for a Mother's Day cookout.

Here's a picture of me and my precious boy on Mother's Day. That shirt he's wearing my friend Sarah gave him for his 1st birthday! I can't believe he can still wear clothes he's been wearing since the summer!

Our little family:)
Marino and Grammy Deb

Evan's family - Marino, Evan, Rianne (Aunt RiRi), Grammy Deb, Richelle (Aunt Chelle)

Sammy, Ronnie and Krissy - love them! I also love how close all the kids in Evan's family are...I hope Marino has lots and lots of cousins that are like siblings to him!