5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week: 

5.  The other day, Marino stood on his trampoline and announced, "I'm a rocious." It took a few minutes to decipher he meant to say "ferocious." 

4. My mom and stepfather came to visit us a couple weeks ago. They asked Marino if he wanted to go to mass with them. "No, they just have peace songs there," he said.  They asked again and he said, "No, it's too fancy."

3. I took Marino to the dentist for a checkup this week. Here's some quotes from that visit: 

"It smells like shots in here. Are you going to give me a shot?" 

::mid-cleaning:: "Can you wait a minute? I just need to breathe." ::takes deep, meditative breaths:: 

"Do you have wifi in here?"  

2. The other day in the car, Marino rolled up his pant leg and showed me his calf. "Check out my leg guns" he said.

1. Evan and Marino have been watching old shows of Voltron and Transformers (from the 80s) on Netflix. They both love it. The other day in the car, Marino said, "Mommy, can you turn down the music? Did you know Voltron is the king of robots? And he defends the galaxy from evil robot shadow menaces, like Laser Beak. Ok, I'm done talking. Turn the music up, please."

Pictures of recent fun times....

Monster Mini-Golf with Jace and Landyn

Marino and Landyn love Chipotle!

Marino and his cousin, Raiden, on Super Bowl Sunday

"Look, Mommy. Take my picture, I'm being cute with Max!"

With Captain Planet at the DC Car Show

Playdate with old pals

Fun with family in New Jersey

These two are double trouble - Marino and Josiah

We went to The Pop Shop - the best restaurant, especially if you are on a gluten-free or vegan diet!!

Visiting with aunties and besties in NJ and celebrating Cat's 6th birthday

Marino adores Sabrina's boyfriend, Steven. He wrestles and punches him every chance he gets. 

Happy Birthday, Cat!

The kids love Sabrina!

My forever friends

Visiting Pappy & Nannie

My grandfather and his wife are now living in DC for part of the year - YAY! We went to visit them for lunch last weekend and had a great time. Marino taught them how to play Go Fish;)

Easter 2013

Our Easter started on Saturday this year. I did a Springtime Storytime at the bookstore and we did an egg hunt after stories. Egg hunt + bookstore = fun!

After storytime, we headed to Gramma Debbie's house. Aunt RiRi was home from school and Aunt Chelle put together a fun egg hunt for Marino. An hour later he asked if we could do it again! We were fortunate to have a beautiful day. 

Krissy, Aunt Rianne, Sammy, Marino, Aunt Richelle and Gisele, post-egg hunt. 

We finished the day with a great meal. 

Easter morning, Marino woke up to this:

He was super excited to see the Easter bunny came! Favorites from his Easter basket:  Melissa & Doug Firefly Flashlight, the book Creepy Carrots, and Lindt Chocolate Carrots. 

Later that morning, Aunt Chelle and Aunt RiRi took Marino to see The Croods, which he loved!

That evening, my friend Chandra came for dinner with her daughter, Hannah. They live in Atlanta and I haven't seen them in a couple years. Marino generally needs a while to warm up to people, but not Chandra and Hannah! He immediately showed them all his toys, was jumping on them, hugging them, sitting on them, etc. It was nice to see him so open! He and Hannah had a great time - she even played cars, Transformers and super heroes with him. 

This morning he said "I wish them could visit again every day." 

Great weekend, great friends, great family! 

Christmas 2012

Our Christmas was wonderful this year, although Marino was sick and ended up with a constant cough on Christmas. Evan had to wake him up on Christmas morning. He came downstairs and said "He came! Santa really came!"

He loved all his Ben10 toys.

Awesome Playmobil pirate ship from PapPap and Gramma Barb

In the afternoon, he headed over to Monique and Dexter's house to visit with the family.  Marino had a lot of fun playing with his cousins - he loves to wrestle so willing participants are quick friends. Here he is with Mikey.

All the family together on Christmas.

Marino put on a little show for us. He's pretty entertaining.

Sleepy Max

Me and my favorite boy on Christmas

Last Weekend in Pictures

Richelle and I visited the last market of the season at the Fenton Street Market. It was freezing but there were lots of great vendors there.

Sunday we went over to Gramma Deb's to visit with family and have dinner. Marino got his presents from Gramma Deb, including the new Leap Pad. He loves it!

Aunt Chelle, Aunt RiRi, cousin Danny and cousin Sam lurking in the back!

Don't ask me about these silly faces he's making.

Aside from his not feeling great, we had a fun time. Marino tried chitlins for the first time and loved them, to which Pop Pop (his great grandfather) declared "That boy has soul!" He even got to play video games with his cousins. Lots of fun!

This Weekend...

...we went bowling for the first time with friends. Marino LOVED it!

...Aunt RiRi was in town from R.I. and she came over to play...she's awesome!

Mommy ran her first 10k....

Marino and Evan were there to cheer me on.

I was slow (I always am), but I ran every last bit of the 6.2 miles and I felt great (aside from being cold!).

Done! Smiles with my friend Jaime who rocked the 10k!

We also had storytime and a playdate. Busy, fun way to start November!