5 on Friday

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

5. Marino is learning his colors (previously, if you asked him what color something was, 9 times out of 10 it was "green"). I asked him the color of some cars the other day and he correctly identified green, red and blue. He called yellow "purple." It's a process but he's definitely getting it!

4. The other morning, Evan was up with Marino and he said "Daddy, what sound?" (meaning, what's that sound?). Evan said, "I don't hear anything" and Marino said "I kidding, Daddy."


3. As I was carrying him to bed the other night, he patted me on the back and whispered "it's ok, Mommy, it's ok."

2. The boy still wakes up overnight a lot. The other night I was up with him around 4am and he said these beautiful words to me "I take nap."

1. I took Marino to the pulminologist on Wednesday (and YAY! we are weaning him off the Pulmicort for the summer, provided he does ok, and just keeping him on the Singulair). Normally, Marino is opposed to anything we ask him to do at the doctor's office (any doctor, not just this one). This time, he walked right up and stood on the scale (without us even asking) and said "ok, bubbles!" The nurse usually has to blow bubbles to get him to stand still on the scale, and I guess he remembered! He also willingly stuck his finger in the pulse ox machine, waited for the beep and said "Mommy's turn!" When the doctor came in the room, Marino immediately pulled his pants down (totally unnecessary for the pulminologist).

Low Key Weekend

We had a fairly low key weekend. In case you haven't noticed from reading the blog, I have a tendency to overbook myself every weekend and never feel rested by the time Monday rolls around. I'm working on this!

Saturday was Evan's cousin Sammy's graduation/18th birthday party. Evan's cousins are all the best of friends and I absolutely love it. I hope that Marino has that relationship with his cousins one day (whenever my sister-in-laws get around to babies...no rush, Chelle and RiRi!!). Sammy is a sweetheart and has changed so much since I started dating Evan 5 years ago.

Here's a shot of Marino and Aunt Chelle at the party

Rianne and Sammy
Evan and Sam

Super cool cake...that's Sammy playing football on the cake

We had a great time at the party and got to visit with lots of friends and family.

Sunday we had a huge storm, so after our (indoor) swim class, we were lazy all day.

Today was a gorgeous day, so all 4 of us (including Max) went to fly Marino's Brobee kite after work. We had a great time! Marino kept saying "Brobee face in sky!!" He did a great job holding the kite and only let go once (we got lucky and the handle stuck on a chain link fence so we didn't lose the kite).

Marino loves to tell us "I'm scared" (I'm not kidding, he probably says this 20 times a day, sometimes for no obvious reason). He usually gets to the top of slides and then announces "I'm scared" and has to be coaxed down. This is what's going on here...

Loves to climb

Running with Max

Happy boy!

5 on Friday

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

5. The other day in the bath, Marino kept handing me his boat and saying "fi you." I had no clue what this meant, so I handed it back and said the same to him. He said "No, no, Mommy, fi you!" and I realized he was saying "for you." What a grown up thing to say!!

4. The boy has started stripping off all his clothes at night, so when I go check on him at night, he's totally naked. I'm not sure why he's doing this, because he then snuggles up with a blanket, making me think it's not because he's hot. I know he loves to be naked!

3. I finally found my webcam so we started using Skype with my mom over the weekend. Marino really liked it, although he kept thinking my mom was actually here. He kept saying "Gramma, park!" and then he tried to hand her his play doctor toys, saying "Gramma's turn."

2. Marino has this toy in his bath, which he absolutely loves. The bad thing is, he drinks bath water straight from the tap with this toy. Yuck. Last night he was doing this and he said "Mommy? Want some?"

1. I told you a couple weeks ago about how the boy enjoys getting kisses on his boo boos. Well, now he's progressed to yelling "kiss kiss" anytime he gets hurt. The other day on our commute home, he hurt his finger some how and was yelling "Mommy, kiss finger, kiss finger" over and over:(

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day started off with a bang...

Friday, daycare called and said that Marino was vomitting up all the birthday cake he ate.

???????!!!!!!!

Um...yeah, he's severely allergic to eggs (which they knew but somehow forgot).

When I got there he was still vomiting, getting hives, and periodically getting lethargic, so I asked the nurse to use the EpiPen. I called my pediatrician and she said to take him to the ER, just to get him some steroids and to have them look at him. Luckily, after the EpiPen, he was pretty much back to his old self again, but we had to stay at the ER for 2 hours for observation to make sure he didn't rebound. They also gave him a long acting steroid and some Bendaryl.

I have to say, this was the most pleasant ER trip we've had, not feeling like Marino's life or limbs were in jeopardy. We watched a Scooby Doo video, the nurse fed him popsicles (which he LOVED), and after the steroids, he jumped around in circles for 30 minutes.

Saturday, we all just took it easy. My friend Kristal (Gabrielle's mom), had a baby boy named Christian on Saturday morning, after several very difficult weeks in the hospital, trying to stay pregnant as long as possible. Christian was born on Saturday at 24 weeks and 5 days - a 1 pound, 4 ounce miracle baby. He is turning out to be quite the tough guy already and I was so honored to be able to meet him on Saturday. He's adorable!! The whole family has a long road ahead of them in the NICU, so please say a prayer for them.

Sunday, we took Marino to the playground. It was hot (90+) so Evan and I were tired long before Marino was (he was red faced and guzzling water but didn't seem to care). Marino once again proved to be an awesome climber, which I'm sure will be the cause of lots of worry for me once he's a little old and climbing trees:)

Does this boy look hot or what?

After our playground trip, we went over to Evan's Aunt Ronnie's house for a bbq. We got a chance to visit with Evan's Aunt Ann and Uncle Mike, visiting from South Carolina. Aunt Ann made this awesome Redskins blanket for Marino, which he found very "cozy"!

He wrapped himself up like this, by the way!

Monday, I took Marino to the pool. It was quite a different experience than the last time we were at the (neighborhood) pool, since last summer he wasn't walking. He had a great time splashing around in the baby pool, but he really wanted to be where the most kids were (the big pool).

Evan and I went shopping on Monday night and got one of these!
My car was leaking oil and needed new brakes (and had 126,000 miles on it), so it didn't make sense to put more $$ into it when it wasn't likely to last much longer anyway. I wanted something safe and comfy for Marino and I love this car!

5 on Friday

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


5. Over the weekend, Marino was eating a Ritz cracker. He bit it in half, looked at it, and said, "it's a boat!"

4. On Sunday, we visited with some of our favorite buddies: Pacey and Madelyn (no pics, sorry, I was fasting for a colonoscopy and not thinking clearly). As we were leaving, Marino told me "Pacey is best friend."

3. Marino is tattletale. When I picked him up from daycare the other day, he was busy telling on his friend Jared, who took one of his girlfriend Delaney's baby dolls. He was telling Jared, "Laney's baby! Not nice!"


2. He's finally learned how to blow bubbles in swim class without swallowing a mouthful of water. We're having lots of fun with that. He's loving swim class and is actually starting to practice really swimming by "scooping" with his hands/arms and kicking his legs simultaneously. You have to say "scoop scoop scoop" though, or he doesn't think it's as much fun!

1. Marino is very flattering. Yesterday at daycare, we saw the director, Sharon (aka Shi Shi) and he said "Shi Shi very pretty."

Fish Fry!

As I mentioned last week, on Saturday Evan fried up the fish that everyone caught when they went deep sea fishing. If you never seen one, this is what a fried fish looks like.
Yep, too much like an actual live fish for me to be able to eat. But the consensus is the fried fish was delicious. We were lucky that lots of our friends came by to visit with us and take the fish off our hands, including Evan's good friend, Ahmad, who is just home from a looong deployment in Afghanistan.

Here's some of the couples: Gina and Brian, Donna and Ahmad, Evan and I, Rahsaan and Tara

All the kids...this is the reason I know Marino won't be lonely as an only child...

All these kids belong to 5 couples (and 2 are only children)! Check out the mirror -that's my favorite part of this picture!

The guys
More guys

The ladies

Jahvon...his mama does this little head tilt when she's posing for pictures, so this is what he does when he sees a camera.

Ahmad, Jahvon and Donna

Family head tilt pose

My tired boy and I...note the fist around my hair, a common sight when the boy is sleepy

Tara and Raiden

Love his hair!

More head tilting

Anthony - he's getting so big

He was cruising everywhere!

It was a great evening with great friends! Marino and I were so tired when we got home!

Special 1st Birthday Party

Preemie moms have a special bond, a sisterhood of sorts, based on our unique shared experiences. A year ago, my former boss, Chris, posted pictures on Facebook of his preemie daughter and I contacted him to let him know if he or his wife wanted to talk about preemies, the NICU, etc, I was here. His wife, Carol, and I formed a special friendship after that. They live about an hour away from us, so I hadn't gotten a chance to meet Carol or their daughter, Cassie, in person until this weekend. They were sweet enough to invite us to Cassie's first birthday party.

It was so great to finally meet Carol in person. We shared a great big hug - she's an amazing mom and it was so great to meet her on this joyful day, when her very happy, healthy and beautiful baby girl was turning 1. It was really great to see things come full circle.

The birthday party was at Gymboree and Marino LOVED it! He had so much fun and was a total ham at the party.

The happy birthday girl, Cassie.
Catching some bubbles

Chris and Cassie

Marino loved wearing this hat...he insisted on wearing it until we got in the car.

The birthday girl and her wonderful parents

Cake hands!
Happy family