Grammas Are Awesome!

Last weekend was great! My mom and stepfather came to visit us (Marino). Marino has really bonded with them lately and as soon as he heard them come in downstairs, he was yelling "GRAMMA! GRAMPA RAY!!" from his bath. He was awesome for them and Evan and I got to sleep in and even got to see a movie with my friend Lauren and her boyfriend. I can't even remember the last time we went on a double date!

We also went over to my friend Patti's house so Marino could take a dip in the pool with her daughter Madelyn (who turned 1 last month!). Marino had a great time and happily ate up all of Patti's yummy snacks and played with all of Madelyn's toys. My mom came with me and my Aunt Kerry came too...it was nice to visit with everyone on a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. I know! Me! I never do that! Luckily, my mom let me snap a few pics with her Blackberry.

Thanks, Mom for all your help this weekend! We love you!

Family Pictures

My friend Gina, of RMB Photography, took the pictures at Marino's birthday party (post coming soon) which was awesome because I got to enjoy the party without worrying about getting pictures of everything (because I am obsessed with photographic evidence of all happy moments in my life). I asked her to take some family pictures of us before the party and here's some of my favorites:

Anthony's 1st Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated the first birthday of Tony, the son of our friend's Ishmael and Sandra. The party was at Great Seneca Park and Marino had a great time exploring and playing with all the kids. Tony is so adorable and I can't believe he's already 1!

Here's some shots of the younger kids trying out the pinata

Ahmad and Jahvon

Daddy and Marino
The birthday boy and his dad

Then it was the big kid's turns
Josh (who is an awesome baseball player) tries to get the candy

Iziah takes a turn

Amaya's turn

More big kids trying to get the pinata open:)

Marino, Evan and Ahmad
An injured butterfly...isn't it gorgeous?

Singing happy birthday to Tony...he wasn't so sure about all the fuss

The birthday boy!

Raiden trying out the tree swing

The birthday boy needed a little nap

Marino getting into the party spirit with some Mickey ears

Amaya and Jahvon. Amaya is really great with Marino...she's a sweetie!

Love this face!

Ishmael and his boy

Marino and I both really enjoyed the hammock

All the kids loved this tent. Marino kept calling it a "house."
Happy Birthday, Anthony!

5 On Friday

As always (except for last week, sorry!) here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. On Tuesday night, Marino sang Happy Birthday to me (6 days after my birthday). At the end, he said "Happy birthday to you, Mommy! Want cake?"

4. His new favorite phrase is "need big hug?" Anytime anyone is sad or hurt (including toys) he offers a "big hug" (it definately makes me feel better!).

3. Marino LOVES "Toy Story" (my cousin Miranda gave it to him for his birthday and he's constantly asking "watch toys?"). My friend Lauren gave him some Toy Story toys for his birthday, including Woody (he calls him "Boody") and Buzz. He thinks Buzz's phrase, "To infinity and beyond" is very cool, but of course he has no idea what he's saying. He likes to hold Buzz in the area and announce "BEYOOOOOONN" (beyond). Very cute. And hard to believe my baby is playing with action figures!!

2. The boy LOVES popsicles (who doesn't? My mom asked if I was giving him juice popsicles and I had admit I was giving him the kind with lots of sugar). The other night I gave him a popsicle after he ate a nice big dinner and he finished it in about 90 seconds. I said "Marino, did you finish that popsicle already?!" and he said "Yeah, Mommy, its good!"

1. The other day he brought Woody over to me and said "Mommy? Boody went poo poo." Hmmm...someone in the room went poo poo, but it wasn't Woody. Or Buzz.

Trip to the National Aquarium (Baltimore)

On Tuesday, Sonia and family packed up to leave. Marino threw himself on the ground crying as they were leaving, which is definitely not his typical reaction to saying goodbye to guests. It was sad but we promised we would see them soon (like in an hour). We all drove up to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium.

This was the first time we took Marino there. They don't allow strollers (if you visit you will notice strollers would make it really difficult for that amount of people to navigate the aquarium) so we were waiting until we thought Marino was old enough to walk around on his own with out a)running away or b) getting really tired.

Marino and Cat loved it! I think Marino's love of Finding Nemo made it even more exciting for him...he loved finding Nemo, Dory and Mr. Ray there. It was a really good visit and I think we all enjoyed it. Sorry the pictures are so bad...it's too dark in there to get great pictures.

Before we left, we caught the dolphin show, which is worth the additional $3 to the admission price. Marino kept yelling "Dolphin swimming! Dolphin jumping! Yay, dolphin" and clapping:)
We were sad to say goodbye to our friends, but luckily we are meeting them in Philadelphia next week for a trip to the zoo!