Daycare Picnic

Last Friday, Marino's daycare had their annual family picnic. The daycare is moving ::sob:: and this is the last picnic that will be held in this location. They went all out this year, with a dinosaur shaped bounce house, a snow cone machine, a clown and a balloon artist. The "balloon man", as Marino called him, is actually Jake the Magician and if I was planning Marino's birthday party now, I would have done something where I could hire him. Marino is terrified of clowns, but loved a regular guy acting like a clown! I've never seen him laugh so hard...he was laughing so much he was crying! It was so fun to see!

Marino, "Shi Shi" and Ariana in the bounce house

Marino and one of his BFFs - Cameron

Marino and his buddy Jake the Magician

Yummy snow cone...hence why Marino is wearing 2 different shirts and no shirt in various pictures...the snow cones were a bit messy!

Marino, Shi Shi and snow cones! What's better?

You see how he loved Jake the Magician?!

Marino and his girlfriend, Delaney

Such a fun day!!

5 on Friday

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

5. The other night I sighed when I was sitting next to Marino. He started rubbing my back and said "What's a matter, honey? What's wrong, my honey?"

4. Marino is in the habit of saying things to get a reaction out of me. You can tell, because he'll get this faint little smirk and his eyes seem to be smiling. In the car the other night, he said "Mino go poo poo". I asked him if he had to use the potty and he said "poo poo coming." I asked if he had to go right now and he said "poo poo coming to get you, Mommy!"

3. On Monday, Grammy Deb gave him Chuck the Truck. He is in love with "my truck"! Chuck "comes" when you call him and the look on his face when he gets Chuck to come is PRICELESS! He is soooo pleased with himself!!

2. Speaking of priceless faces, Marino has this new face he makes when he is giving out "big hugs" (inanimate objects included). He closes his eyes and purses his lips. It's adorable. See below..."big hugs" for his buddy Claire.

1. I mentioned last month that one of the beautiful things about Marino's age and his daycare is that the kids all treat each other the same, regardless of physical or cognitive limitations. Everyone just is who they are, and the children's capabilities for interaction don't influence their inclusion in what's going on. On Saturday, Marino took it upon himself to pass out the birthday hats. When he got to his friend Wyatt, who has physical limitations that would prevent him from being able to put on his own hat, Marino didn't even flinch before standing on his tip toes, leaning over Wyatt's wheelchair, and putting his hat on for him. I was so proud of my boy in that moment - that he showed such care for his friend.

Halloween Fun at Daycare

On Friday, Marino's daycare had trick or treating and a Halloween party for the kids. There are offices in the building the daycare is in, so the kids went trick or treating in the various offices. Afterwards, they had a makeshift pumpkin patch where the kids could pick their own pumpkins. They also played the guitar and sang lots of fun songs. Marino danced like a wild man. It was a great afternoon!

Here he is looking concerned. I can't remember what he was distressed over. Doesn't he look like a little man? He LOVES airplanes (and helicopters) so he was a pilot.

Here he is with his daycare girlfriend, Delaney. They are 2 peas in a pod.

They're pretending to pout here because they were tired of waiting to go trick or treating.

Ariana, Marino and Delaney - ready to get some candy!

"Come on, guys"

He was sort of confused about the premise of trick or treating initially. Once he caught on, he was REALLY into it!

Enjoying his treats.

He actually got stuck like this and we had to pull the farm off of him!

He ate an apple like a big boy for the first time.

He was very pleased with himself. He kept saying "that's a good apple. I bite it."

Marino and his "Shi Shi"

11 Months Old

Marino is 11 months old today.

30 days until our sweet boy turns 1!

This month wasn't quite as dramatic in terms of development as last month, but here are some changes over the past month:

- Marino is up to 19 pounds, 5 ounces

- he got his first tooth (second one is coming in next to it and the top 2 are swelling)

- he's moved into 12 month size clothes

- he's started cruising a little

- he's *trying* to stand on his own (this generally results in a fall within 5 seconds, but he's trying)

- he started signing "milk" (poor guy, for a few days, Mama and Daddy were confused and thought he was waving at us since he has a unique interpretation of the sign)

- he occassionally signs for "more" (according to daycare, he hasn't done this at home yet)

- Of all the foods I've made for him, his very favorite so far is mashed potatoes with mixed vegetables (the boy loves veggies). He makes "yummy" noises while he eats this!

Marino loves to laugh. I mean, our boy is the easiest baby in the world to get a giggle from (it's sort of addicting!). But last night, for the first time, I made him laugh so hard he snorted! Oh, it was so adorable!

Another random event from last night...Evan and I turned on the baby monitor (I had forgotten to turn the base on upstairs) and we heard some woman reading to her baby! Evan and I were just blinking at each other for a minute, trying to figure out what the heck we were listening to! Evan made me go upstairs and make sure there wasn't a ghost in Marino's room!

Marino and I are going to be tv stars (not really). Today when I went to daycare for Marino's physical therapy, our local public access channel was filming a story about the daycare (see post from Friday, May 29th for why this daycare is unique) and they asked if they could interview me and get a few shots of Marino playing. Of course he was a total ham and wouldn't pay attention to anything but the camera. Mama, on the other hand, does not like being filmed (or being the center of attention in general). This was also one of those times I really wish I had washed my hair or not worn sneakers with a dress (especially since they said they often repeat shows for up to 3 years) ::blush:: Oh, well, at least my child is cute! I'll let you know when it airs (only in our County, but it will likely be online as well).

In case anyone is wondering how my photography skills improved so rapidly this month, the picture above is from our friend Dave King. He was nice enough to come take some pictures for us last night since our last photo shoot we were missing Evan.

www.momentsforlife.com

Sleep Training, Picnics and Dinner Dates

I have resolved to get Marino to start sleeping in his crib at night. Unfortunately, he has regressed to the point of refusing to sleep anywhere other than in our arms or in the bed with Evan and I. ::sigh:: At 11 months old, its time to get him to start sleeping by himself. After speaking with our pediatrician, she convinced me the best approach would be to let him "cry it out" but with us in a chair next to his crib, so he knows he is safe and not alone. Last night it took 1 hour and 15 minutes of him SCREAMING before he fell asleep. He woke at 1am to eat and then at 3am Evan brought him to bed with us because he was crying, and, well, we are pretty lazy at 3am. Tonight, we had company and he stayed up until they left at 9:30 (!) and then passed out.

A quick AW for myself...I got my grades for the semester and I got an A in both of my classes this semester (::ahem:: my first semester back at school since Marino was born). I've actually never gotten an A in both classes in one semester, so I was pretty pleased with myself. It helps, of course, that they were both classes in Affordable Housing Policy, which is my primary area of interest in my Masters program. But, I've now brought my overall graduate GPA up to a 3.6 so I am pretty pleased with myself. 30 credits down, 18 to go! ::AW over, back to Marino stories::

Today, Marino's daycare had a family picnic and all three of us attended. Unfortunately, we had a monsoon right as it was time for the picnic to start, so the picnic ended up in the gym. Marino attends a daycare for medically fragile children, which has been a blessing for us. We can leave him there without reservations...they totally "get it." They have nurses on staff at all times and the nurses can administer medicine and other medical treatments (such as the nebulizer he needed last month). They also take serious precautions to prevent the spread of infection, which was really critical for us this 1st RSV season. Marino was there 5 months before he had any illness at all (not many daycare mamas can say that!). But more importantly, he is loved there and he loves all of his "teachers" and friends. He has never been upset when I leave him in the morning, he is always excited for the day. They also have monthly and weekly "lesson plans" so the babies are exposed to a number of new concepts. They do arts and crafts, listen to music, read lots of books, do stretches, go for many walks...its awesome. Its been amazing for us and I can only imagine the relief it provides for families of children with greater medical needs.

Here is a picture of Marino with Sharon, the Director of the daycare program. She and Marino are partners in laughter...they both love to laugh (especially with each other).

And here he is with his afternoon teacher, Sherry, who all of us (Marino, Evan and I) all adore.

After the picnic, Marino and I met up with Patti, Miranda and Pacey for dinner (Aunt Kerry was supposed to join us be she had to work:( ). Patti's baby will be here sometime in the next few weeks, I can't believe it! I was just saying at dinner how strange it is that a year ago, none of the 3 of us were moms and now we all are! Here is a picture of everyone...isn't Patti's bump adorable! Can't wait to meet her baby girl!
After dinner Miranda and Pacey came over to play. Pacey is just the happiest baby in the world and completely adaptable to every situation. She and Marino played pretty well together this evening (except when she made her happy noises, which still terrify Marino).

Wish us luck with the sleeping tonight!