5 on Friday

As always (except last week when I was too tired to think), here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. Wednesday morning, Max came in Marino's room with me in the morning when it was time to wake him up. Max sneezed and Marino said "Bless you, Maxis." So sweet! I'd never heard him say it before. By the way, I sneezed later and didn't get a "bless you" :(

4. The week before last, Marino and I had to go to the allergist to (finally) get him the H1N1 vaccine. He wanted to play with my phone and when I gave it to him, he held it to his ear and said "Hello? What Mommy say?"

3. The other day we were leaving daycare and a flock of birds flew by. Marino said "I see birdies" clear as day. It's so fun to have him just bust out with coherent sentences! I can't even imagine how it will be talking to him in 6 months! His language has developed so much just in the past couple of months.

2. When he is tired and silly and falling asleep on my lap at night, his new way to make me laugh is to take the front strands of my hair in each hand and criss cross it over my face over and over. It makes us both crack up. It's so adorable when toddlers actually try to make you laugh.

1. His teacher at daycare said that she sneezed the other day and he said "bless you, Annie" (his new favorite phrase). She said "thank you" but apparently Marino didn't hear her, because he very firmly said "ANNIE?! I SAID BLESS YOU!!!!" She said it was all she could do to wait until he looked away before she started cracking up! She said the rest of the day the other teachers were fake sneezing to get the same reaction, but Marino didn't fall for it:)

Tired Mama and Playdate Pics

Friends, my current schedule is kicking my butt. This is the first semester since Marino was born that I needed to be on campus 2 nights a week. Campus is about 20 miles from home, but the translates into an additional hour + commute on those days, each way. Last week was particularly bad, since traffic is still impacted by the 40 inches of melting snow we have here. It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to drive 20 miles home from class on Tuesday. Not to mention that having c.diff and sitting in traffic is not a great combination. I know, I'm totally whining. But I'm tired and there are many weeks left in the semester!

Marino is definately entering the "terrible twos." He is challenging us and seeing what he can get away with. A response of "no" from us generally leads to him throwing himself on the floor and whining (luckily these tantrums are very quick). Occassionally, he also hits us or pulls my hair. He often kicks me too. And sometimes bites me (or his crib). He had 3 teeth cut through (teeth 7-9, he has a lot to go), so that may be part of the issue (one is his first molar). He has also been particularly clumsy lately (lots of falling and bruises), and I'm not sure what to attribute that to. In a nutshell, things have been challenging all around. He definately still has lots of sweet moments, too, of course.

We had another playdate with Patti and Madelyn, my Aunt Kerry, and my cousin Miranda and Pacey yesterday. Madelyn is crawling! And Pacey can count to 12! Like count actual objects (not just recite the number is order). It's so fun to watch everyone change month to month.

Here's Marino giving Madelyn a hug (unprovoked, I might add...apparently his monster toddler behavior does not extend to babies).

A three-way baby hug!

Marino and Pacey decided they were very interested in Madelyn's toys.
Madelyn...she's getting so big!

Playing peek-a-boo...Madelyn trying to figure out what in the world Pacey and Marino are doing.

Watching "sass" of course!

Best cousins: Marino and Pacey

Doing the "itsy bitsy spider"

Playdates!

Three day weekends mean lots of time for awesome playdates! On Sunday, we had a great playdate with Jen and her daughter, Sydney (and her son, Noah, but at just a couple months old, he's not that into playing yet...he prefers napping).

Look at these two Valentines!

They kept driving their cars into the corner and then just staying there until we turned them around!

Sydney is the sweetest. Unlike Marino, who currently responds "NO" to everything you ask, Sydney says "yeah" to most things, and she says it so seriously, like she really means it. So sweet!

Look at that smile!

Jen was making faces to get them to smile and Marino is trying to imitate her in this picture. He likes trying funny faces, ala "sass."

On Monday, we had a playdate with my friends from work, Miriam and Monica. Interestingly, Miriam and Monica both worked for me when I first started at my current job (although Miriam got a promotion in our department right when I started and Monica got a promotion a year or so later). We all had baby boys within a 13 month period! This was the first time we have managed to all get together with the babes (Monica is now a SAHM, lucky!!).

Here's Monica's baby Vincent (5 months). How cute is he?

This is the only picture we could manage of the 4 of them: Kanye (Monica's older son, 6 years old), Marino (eyes closed), Vincent (asleep) and Matthew (Miriam's son, almost a year old).

Kanye is so awesome at being a big brother! He was great with all the kids and is such a sweetie!

Here's Kanye, Marino, Matthew and Monica.

See how sweet he is?

Monica and her new baby boy

So sweet!

Brotherly love! These two are going to look just alike!

Matthew is getting so big! Look at all that hair!

It was great to get a chance to visit with everyone this weekend. Marino is so lucky to have so many special friends (so am I)!

Catalina is 2!

Last Saturday, we were supposed to go to New Jersey to celebrate Catalina's 2nd birthday. Then the snow storm of the century happened, so we didn't get a chance to go until this weekend. It was a rough trip for me, since belly is still not back to normal, but we had such a great time there! Catalina and Marino play so well together - I love it!

Here I am with some of my favorite girls: Sabrina, Sonia and Bernadette

Catalina and her ice cream cake.

She even blew out her candles this year! Last year she wasn't that into her cake...it's so amazing how much these babes change in one year! Siena and Catalina. Cat was showing me her eye and Siena's eye.
She loves her sister (Siena loves her, too)
Catalina and Marino had a great time with these balloons! Marino has taken to calling a balloon "moose." Not just this balloon, either. We saw balloons yesterday and he also said "moose." He also calls spiders a "moose." I wish I knew what goes on in his head!
Isn't she gorgeous? She looks just like her mom.
Marino is always sort of confused when we call Cat "cat," since she is not the kind of cat we see in his books (which he calls a "meow" or "kitty"). Catalina has this ride-on cat that I got her last year for her birthday, and we told Marino to "ride the cat." He gave us this weird look and started to get on another ride-on toy behind Catalina...apparently he thought we meant ride Catalina! Poor guy...it's confusing when different things have the same name!
Sharing goldfish and bunnies
Doesn't he look really grown up here? Maybe it's the shirt.

She was reading this book...apparently it was fascinating!
I love this picture!
Marino giving Beana a kiss!
I love this picture, too. She looks so thoughtful and beautiful, reading her birthday card.
She loves her some Elmo!
Wil and Siena, Sabrina and Evan (being silly)

Siena smiling!
Auntie Bern and Siena.
The birthday girl!


Before we left, Cat and Marino put on their jammies and had a jammie jam. Here they are dancing with Elmo.
Sonia taught Marino the "night night game" where you pretend to go night night. This is a fairy accurate representation of how he sleeps...stuffed animal under him, butt in the air.


Cat's got the iPod to play the beats for dancing
It was great seeing everyone. I REALLY wish we lived closer and could see each other all the time. I can't wait until Siena can join in all the fun, too!