5 on Friday

Sorry I missed last week; between traveling and a Marino illness, I was a little frazzled.
Here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. Marino did great while I was gone but the day after I returned, he was sick and extra snuggly. Throughout the day, he would say "Come here you" and give me a big bear hug.

4. While standing at the potty the other day, Marino announced "KABOOM! Its a pee pee volcano!"

3. Marino is so excited about Christmas - we talk about it numerous times every day. Last year, my friend Rachel sent us a bunch of beautiful, hardcover Christmas stories, and we have really been enjoying these books. This whole month, we have read nothing but How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Polar Express, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Olivia Christmas book. I was surprised he enjoyed Polar Express so much, since there is a much greater word to picture ratio than the books we usually read, but he loves it. It's really been a joy experiencing this season with him this year.

Even more adorable, last night we were reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas when we got to the page that is just a picture of reindeer. Marino announced "This reindeer is Flyer. This one is named Doctor Rahman [his pediatrician] and this one is Hugo [the name of Jen's puppy]".

2. The other night we discussed that we were having a little family get together for Christmas this Saturday. "Are people bringing me presents?" Marino asked. "Yes, some of them might bring you presents," I said. "Well, can I give presents to everyone, too?" he asked.

1. My sister-in-law Rianne showed me a You Tube video of a toddler singing "Don't Stop, Don't Give Up" from Yo Gabba Gabba. She said it was her inspiration for getting through finals week. Little did she know, this is the song we sing on the potty every day! So I made her this little video for further inspiration. Does this boy have energy, or what?

Marino's 2nd Birthday Party

I know, I am so behind on posting this, but here are some pictures and details from Marino's 2nd birthday party (July 3rd). We had it at Romp N Roll and it was really an amazing day. At this age, you never know how your child will be for their birthday party (cranky, overstimulated, shy) but Marino was running around the whole time with a huge smile and a look of sheer joy on his face. He ate up all the attention and always wanted to be up front during circle time. He certainly seemed to understand it was his special day. In case you don't want to view the whole slide show, here's a few of my favorite pictures (all taken by my friend Regina Brown).

Isn't that Plex hat the coolest? This etsy seller made it for me...complete with a removable birthday hat on Plex's head, so I can take the birthday hat portion off and he can wear the hat in the winter! If you have an unique hat needs, definitely contact her! She came up with the idea herself and sent it to me in a couple weeks for a great price!

We had a great time with great friends (20 toddlers!)and I feel so blessed that we have so many special people in our lives that love Marino. The party had a Yo Gabba Gabba theme and we dined on eggless cupcakes (made by me) and Rita's Italian Ice. Marino gobbled up all of the treats and promptly threw them up on me at the end of the party (too much sugar and excitement, I guess). It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life...to see my boy so happy, excited and full of joy - life doesn't get much better.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

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5 on Friday

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

5. Those of you who have been around Marino lately may have noticed that he is sort of obsessed with my hair. For one reason or another, stroking my hair is calming for him and he does it absent mindedly all the time. The other day he was playing with my hair (which is pretty long now) and he ended up pushing it across my face. At first he thought it was funny and then he got panicked and started pushing it away until he found my face again and said "Oh, there's Mommy!"

4. The boy has started calling basketball "catch-a-ball."

3. Thursday morning, Marino started thumping on his belly while I was changing his diaper. He said, "Mommy! It's a drum!"

2. Daycare bought some new pedal cars for the toddlers to play with (all toddlers love these, I think). Marino was super excited to see them! He got in and played for a while and then opened the door, pointed inside and said "Mommy, in!" Can you imagine me in this thing? They'd need the jaws of life to get me out!

1. Marino has a new best friend - his inflatable tiger we bought at the circus. Monday morning, he picked up tiger and said "Tiger, sit down in chair. Wait, wait. Sass" all while putting him in our glider and handing me the remote to turn on Yo Gabba Gabba. Apparently, tigers like "sass" as well as toddlers.

See evidence below of tiger love!

5 on Friday

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

5. Marino's love of Jason's Naturals toothpaste continues! The tube has an octopus on the front and he asks for the toothpaste by saying "apus" and then shows me the "apus" on the tube:)

4. We have a skylight upstairs where our bedrooms are. Sunday morning, Evan was carrying Marino downstairs in the morning after he woke up and he waved to the skylight and said "bye bye night night!!"


3. Marino has been crabby in the morning lately, probably because of the medicine he gets at night (which makes him very tired). Yesterday morning, he woke up and was so happy. As I was carrying him downstairs, he was thisclose to my face, beaming a gigantic smile at me. When we got downstairs, he grabbed his Foofa figure and was making her dance and sing. I forgot how happy he usually is in the morning and it was nice to see him happy again!


2. The boy used lots of new words this week (spontaneously and in the correct context), including music, lotion, shimmy and tired. When he told me he was "tired", he rested his head on my shoulder to demonstrate.

1. Marino has started memorizing the words to lots of songs (almost all Yo Gabba Gabba songs, of course). When we listen to our Yo Gabba Gabba CD in the car, he knows lots of the words, but not all of them. He chimes in with every 3 word, or so, like a hype man. It's adorable.

5 on Friday

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

5. Marino wanted me to "play" this gorilla he has that plays music and dances (when he was colicky, it was the only thing that would calm him down). Well, his batteries were dead (this happens a lot around here and I'm not always all that disappointed). I said, "he's tired, can you make him go 'night night '?", thinking he would just put him back where he found him. To my surprise, he put the gorilla face down on the ground, started patting his back and saying "night night." Then he decided he was ready for bed and threw him in the crib. It was interesting to see how his interpretation of how we put him to bed.

4. In the car on Friday, Marino was asking me for his Plex, which he had thrown on the seat next to him. I couldn't reach Plex and I told him that. He asked again. I started saying "Marino, I can't reach..." and he interrupted me and said "Mommy! Stop it! Need Plex!" He didn't want to hear anymore excuses from me, apparently!

3. The boy thinks when you knock on a door you say "not got" instead of "knock knock" (life is so confusing for toddlers, isn't it?). But it's hysterical to hear him knocking and saying "not got" over and over.


2. Marino is finally accepting watching something other than Yo Gabba Gabba. He routinely asks to watch "pets" (The Wonder Pets) and Nemo now. Evan told me a few weeks ago to stop buying every piece of YGG merchandise known to mankind, since toddlers have historically fickle tastes in favorites. I didn't believe it at the time, but the tides are changing now...

1. When I get ready to fold his laundry, I always pour the laundry basket of clean clothes on his floor (to sit on the floor and fold the billion pieces of tiny clothing) and he always squeals and dives into his clean clothes pile and says "swimming!!"

Marino's 2nd Easter

My first ever post to this blog was on Easter of last year. It's amazing to see how much Marino has changed since then. He was not yet crawling, standing, talking, etc, and hadn't cut his first tooth yet. Look at him now (ok, he still has a freakishly small number of teeth, but everything else has changed drastically).

My mom and stepfather came down on Thursday night so they could watch Marino for us on Friday (daycare was closed but we both had to work). Marino definately bonded a lot with them. When I got home from work, he was calling my mom "Granna" (this adapted from "Manna" which is what he called her last month) and Ray "Grampa." He had a great time hanging out with them, and trying to convince Granna to let him take a bath in the lake:)

Saturday, my mom and stepfather, Aunt Chelle, Evan and I all took Marino to Bunnyland at Butler's Orchard. It's a scaled down version of their fall festival but was a lot of fun. We had beautiful weather (high 70s and sunny). Unfortunately, the boy was cranky. He is cutting a molar on the bottom (it's swollen but hasn't cut through yet) and I think that may be the reason for the crankiness. He was not even amused by the bounce house (although he recognized it as we were driving into the parking lot and said "bouncy house!") and he was too afraid to look at the bunnies because a woman was holding them with her face painted like a bunny, which apparently Marino found terrifying (odd, since he is not afraid of much).

Marino's favorite part of Bunny Land was these big slides that he went down with Daddy. He LOVED them!!

After some sliding, we went to this cute little hay ball pit where Marino was enjoying himself. Evan walked away for a minute and Marino started saying "need Daddy." When Evan came back, he said "More? Slide?"...since Evan brought him down the slides before, I guess he thought he needed Evan to go back down. It was pretty funny (so, of course, we had to oblige).

Wish granted, more slide

Evan's friend Brian said this tunnel is sort of creepy.

They had new chicks there - so adorable!!

And some sleepy sheep. We remarked the sheep looked tired and a toddler next to us looked at us and said "shhhhh" with a finger to his lips:)

Family love

Marino and his Aunt Chelle

Tractor trike...he couldn't reach the peddles, unfortunately.

More sliding

I love this picture of Evan!

One of Marino's current favorite things - BUS!!

Going through the maze with Daddy

Marino and his Granna

Marino with Grampa and Granna

He was so excited to climb up this hill after he saw some big kids do it. Climbing is one of his favorite things!

Daddy and Marino liked this slide the best (it was the fastest one).

Hi, Bunny!

Even the ponies had bunny ears

We were supposed to go to my friend Miriam's birthday party for her son Matthew (Happy 1st Birthday, Matthew!), but the boy was so wound up and cranky after our visit to Bunnyland, he didn't take a nap until 1:45! After he got up, I decided he was too cranky to subject people who don't already know and love him to his madness. We just relaxed the rest of the day, hoping the crankiness would get better (it didn't).

Easter morning, we got up and went to the playground for a little while before the Easter bunny arrived.

I kept thinking something was "off" here; I forgot to button the top bottom of his shirt! Oh, well!

He is in love with his Brobee backpack. He wears it around the house, outside to play, etc.

Later that morning, the Easter bunny arrived. In the boy's Easter basket:

Books on his favorite things:

Curious George Rides

Elmo's World: Balls!

Yo Gabba Gabba: It's Nice to Be Nice

Gab N Sing Toodee

Gab N Sing Brobee (the Toodee and Brobee I got on Kid's Woot for $10 for both!)

sidewalk chalk

Birdies t-shirt

Brobee Mega Bloks set

Gerber apple mini-fruits

sifter, shovel, rake and truck for his sandbox

Silly Jumpin Plex (this was a big hit...it only makes noise if you throw it or thump it on the ground...perfect for a toddler, although occassionally he would feel bad and give Plex a hug after throwing him).

wind-up eggs (we told him they were Oskee bugs from YGG)

He thought this sand rake was a brush

I think the apple snacks were his favorite thing in his basket (Max's, too).

He seemed to enjoy his Easter gifts, although after seeing all the Yo Gabba Gabba toys, he asked "Where's Foofa?", Foofa being the only character he doesn't have a toy of yet. I guess I need to get on that!

After lunch and naptime, we painted wooden Easter eggs. I was very nervous about attempting to dye real eggs, considering the severity of Marino's egg allergy, but I still love the tradition of decorating eggs. My buddy Rachel over at Allergen Free Please had posted this great idea for decorating wood eggs. I like the idea of painting a few a year and I decided we would write the year on the bottom. I think it will be fun to pull out the eggs we've painted each year to decorate our Easter baskets.

Evan and I painted the eggs with an acrylic paint base color on Friday night and then we used washable paints to decorate the eggs with Marino. Washable paint serves a purpose, but my best analogy is that it's like painting with nail polish. I think next year Evan and I might paint our eggs with acrylic paint for a better result and let Marino use the washable paints. As you can see, our eggs are not exactly beautiful, but we did them together and I love them!

After painting eggs, we went to Great Seneca Park to their great playground. The boy was still sort of cranky and he was sort of overwhelmed by all the very big kids there (10 and older). He mainly wanted to snuggle with me instead of playing.

Climbing up to the slide with the big kids

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, as well!