Meeting Cousins

..slowly catching up...One of the things we got to do last month was meet our newest cousins! My cousin Carter has two children (and a wife) I hadn't met because they live across the country. Noah is 3 1/2 and Zoey is 3 months old. Stephanie and I email each other but this was our first time meeting. She was as sweet and funny as I expected and the kids got along great. Marino and Noah have similar energy levels (crazy) and they had a blast together. Marino really likes being the "big" cousin. I was surprised, but Marino was very interested in Baby Zoey. When she was sad, he sang her lullabies and even made up a song about her where she was a "super girl" and one day she will be as cool as Marino. He's something else. We met at Port Discovery in Baltimore and had a blast!

Noah was less enthusiastic about picture taking than Marino. 

Two peas in a pod

Making giant bubbles

Me, Steph and Zoey

How cute is this?

Gassing up the car, checking the tire pressure. What a team!

Snuggling Zoey

Too much! I think Marino was wearing Noah out by this point!

Fawning over Zoey

Marino's lullaby for Zoey

The Boys

The boys and I had a lot more fun the week we were off together. Tuesday, we went to Ocean Dunes Waterpark in Arlington, VA. We all had a lot of fun and there was plenty there for both boys to stay entertained (and for me to stay cool).

Wednesday was a rainy day, so we headed to Port Discovery in Baltimore for the morning. It was sort of crazy there - there were several summer camps visiting and it was a little too crowded for Marino. Quintyn was having the time of his life in the tree house and Marino and I headed to the new section designed for kid's 3 and under. Ahhh...that section is like an oasis of calm!

Thursday, was our last day together (Friday morning Marino and I left for the beach; Quintyn left Friday night) so I gathered the boys to take some pictures. Quintyn is the only one who is pleasant for picture taking out of the 3!

Saying goodbye was tough. When we explained to Marino that Quintyn was going to be leaving, he refused to say goodbye or give him a hug and hid in the closet. He definitely seemed to understand the concept, since he told every stranger at the beach "My brother Quintyn went back to Iowa with his own mommy."

We definitely miss him a lot and hope to see him soon!

More Pictures and Port Discovery

OK, I couldn't just show you 5 of the pictures Dave took, because I love so many of them. I just love showing off my boy!

Here Evan was tickling him, but he was so sleepy, he started falling asleep once he was laying down on the ground!

Toddler photography bloopers...the boy is clearly too skinny still for 18 month size pants...

Full moon (aka embarassing shot to show future girlfriend)
Happy guy!
There's ducks in this lake, mama!

Our little family

GQ pose

He loves it when we kiss

Handsome Marino

Family snuggle time

Wednesday we had off for Veteran's Day, so the 3 of us went to Baltimore to go to Port Discovery, the children's musuem. We had a lot of fun, it was very toddler friendly.

Here's Marino playing with some animals. In Marino's world, animals say "badup badup badup."

There were apples and bananas in this little house, so Marino was a fan.

Jazzy barn scene.

BAWWWL pit...he went nuts for this! There's a little video below of him in the ball pit...he didn't want to get out!

"gentle" petting the cow

Where do I start, mama?

Marino as a cowboy...

Riding a horse with mama

Playing ball on the big soccer field with Daddy.

Ball pit video...he's swimming in these balls and loving it!

New things this week:

Marino started saying "bear" this week, but for some reason he says it with a Boston accent: "beyahhh." It's ridiculously adorable. Beavers are bears, too, by the way.

Marino started saying "night night" this week, too, and resting his head down when he's tired. Today, at nap time, "night night" was the first thing he said before he fell asleep...it was precious.

He also started telling me when he is going "poo poo" (yes, if you're not a parent, this is probably not all that interesting and maybe gross). We're going to slowly start potty training, although I expect it to be a long road (he's young, especially for a boy).

Medical Issue of the Week:

So...the children's museum was fun but possibly not the greatest idea I ever had. Thursday afternoon he started vomitting and stopped eating. He just kept asking for "wa wa" (water). Friday, he was still sick (throwing up, downing Pedialyte and not asking for milk, he slept for 5 hours during the day), but luckily it never progressed to a fever or breathing issue, so I think it was just a 24 hour stomach bug. Today, he was eating and napping normally. I literally have no more sick leave, so the illnesses and other minor medical disasters really need to stop for a while, mmkay?! !!