5 on Friday

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

5. When Marino finishes crying, he will wipe any remaining tears out of his eyes and announce "I not crying anymore. I happy now!"

4. One of my favorite Marino-isms....sometimes I'll count something and he'll say "That's right, three. Great job, Mommy."

3. Snow day fun yesterday...


2. Wednesday, Marino peed on the potty at daycare. Yesterday, he peed on the potty at home. We are so proud of him!

1. In related news, Marino insisted on wearing underwear after using the potty. I helped him put on some Yo Gabba Gabba underwear with Brobee, Plex and Muno on them. He looked down at the underwear and announced "I am princess!"

New Family Member and Favorite Friends

On Friday, Marino got a new baby cousin! Baby Adalynn (Addie) was born at 6am on Friday. Miranda and Scott brought their new baby girl home on Saturday and Marino and I went to visit them and Pacey, of course! It was so nice holding a tiny sleeping baby...I forgot about the tiny mews they make!

Marino and Pacey had lots of fun together.

They share a love of trains and cars!

Sunday, Jen, Sydney and Noah came over.

How cute are Sydney and Marino together? They love each other.

The kids decided they wanted to paint.

Noah supervised the painting.

Love relaxing weekends with family and friends!

Visiting Friends

The weekend before last, Marino and I went to visit Sonia, Wil, Cat and Siena. As always, it was great seeing them and Cat and Marino always have lots of fun together. Wil was nice enough to watch all 2 kids so Sonia and I could go clothes shopping by ourselves, which was awesome! We always have such a great time seeing them and we're looking forward to seeing everyone again in a couple weeks for Cat's 3rd (!!) birthday.

After dinner, the kids got these gigantic lollipops and were REALLY excited about eating them. Marino is pantsless because we ate pho for dinner which is messy since he insists on eating it with his hands.

Later, the kids decided to play "night night"

LOVE this picture of all 3 of them!

Nena wakes up!

Marino wakes up!

The next morning, Sonia and Wil took turns "scaring" Marino and Cat. Toddlers are easily entertained...they were "scared" the same way about 30 times, but they certainly enjoyed themselves.

Can't wait to see our friends again soon!!

5 on Friday

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

5. One of the things we got Marino for Christmas was a travel airport toy and a pack of toys that fly: airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons, etc. One of the things in the pack is a blimp. Marino asked me what it was and I told him. He turned it vertically and said "It's not a blimp, it's a rocket". I was blown away by this, since we've never discussed rockets before. I asked him how he knew what a rocket was and he thought about it and said "like George". At the very end of the Curious George movie, George and Ted take a ride in a rocket ship. Its really fascinating how their little minds work!

4. Tuesday morning, I woke up to Marino giving me a kiss on my nose.


3. Wednesday night, when I put Marino to bed, he said "I want a big hug". When I gave him one, he said "Aw, that's nice. Great job, Mommy."

2. We went to visit my friend Sonia and her girls last weekend (post coming). Since then, Marino has been very interested in princesses. He told Shi Shi (daycare director) that she looked like a princess when she put her coat on the other day. Later, I tried on a dress and he said "Mommy! You're a princess" when I put it on. Such a charmer!

1. Last night Marino and I were reading "Hop on Pop". He pointed to one of the Seuss characters (think an adult "who" from "Whoville") and said "Is that my Mommy?" I asked, "Why? Does it look like Mommy?" Very seriously, he nodded and said "Yes". So much for being a princess!

Special Guests!

On Friday, my stepsister, Jennifer, her husband Haagen and daughter, Bae-Corine, stopped by to visit us on their way to DC for a dance convention Bae-Corine was attending. Marino and Bae-Corine LOVE each other, so it was great to see them together. Marino really enjoyed showing Bae-Corine all his stuff and playing with her.

Showing off his new Mater...

She is the sweetest girl in the world!

5 on Friday

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

5. If we're doing something Marino doesn't like (changing his diaper, blowing his nose), he now tells us "That's enough!"

4. Marino has a little brush I keep next to the tub to put in his special leave in conditioner. He likes to make me laugh by saying "for my teeth?" and holding the hair brush up to his mouth with a huge smile. Sunday night he said "For my teeth?" and I laughed and said no, and he then propped his butt up in the air and held the brush there asking "for my bottom?" The boy loves to make me laugh!

3. He has just started "reading" to me; he will flip through the pages of the book and tell me what the story says, in part from memory and in part from imagination. I absolutely love it!

2. Marino just added a new snuggle partner to our house - a cozy bear he got from daycare. Now he sleeps with his "boy", a stuffed robot my friend Rachel gave him for his birthday and the bear. Tuesday night, he gathered them all up together in his arms, gave them a hug and said "I love you guys!"


1. When I picked Marino up from daycare on Tuesday, the kids were in a circle singing a little song ..."I like Marino, yes I do, I like Marino how about you?" The nurse told me they were singing all the kid's names and Marino asked "Are we going to sing about my Mommy?"

Welcome 2011!

I'm very behind with this post, sorry! Marino gave me his cold from last week, so I have been extremely tired and congested this week. For some reason, even though school is DONE I feel like I still have way too many things to do every evening. Enough complaining. It's a new year!! Last Friday, we headed out to ring in the new year with Jen, Matt and the kids. We had a great time, although Marino only made it to 10pm. Sydney was a party animal, of course. At midnight I woke Marino up to go home, but he passed out on the couch before I got his coat on. I wish he slept like that at home!

Sydney, Jen and Justin, ringing in the new year!

Beautiful girls

This is nearing his pass out time....note the polar bear pjs
Sydney was adorable with this horn...she is always willing to pose for me:)

She realized the horn was blocking my view of her pretty face, so she turned it to the side.

Happy New Year!!

After midnight...Sydney finally got sleepy
This is how Marino ended the night

On New Year's Day, we headed over to Grammy Deb's house for a delicious dinner.

Here's Aunt Ri Ri, Grammy Deb, Sammy, Marino and Evan

"RAWR!!"

Marino is Two and a Half

Today, Marino is two and a half! He's really transformed from a toddler to a little boy over the past 6 months and continues to be a constant source of joy for our family.

Here's some details on what he's like at 30 months old:

Weight: 28ish pounds (29lbs with clothes and shoes on last week).

Height: not sure, but he is getting too tall for his 2T pants

Clothes Size: he's been in 3T shirts and pjs for a couple months, just outgrowing 2T pants (but can't wear anything without an adjustable waist - he's still a skinny guy). He wears a size 7 shoe and size 5 diaper (no potty training progress).

Health: His health is great, although his asthma continues to be an issue, as do his allergies and atopic dermatitis. All three of these issues tend to ebb and flow and thankfully not at the same time!

He's finally cutting the last of his teeth - the top 2 year molars. As of last week, only one had cut through, so one left and we are done with teething...for now anyway.

Likes: airplanes, cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, dinosaurs, all the Toy Story characters, Dr. Seuss books, music - hearing and playing it, mac and cheese, anything with butter on it, Popsicles, orange juice, chicken (dark meat especially), most things that have cheese on them (particularly the Quakes cheddar flavor rice cakes), his grandparents, Diego and Dora, Olivia, Lynley Dodd books and all animals.

Dislikes - sleeping (especially by himself), being rushed, large groups of people he doesn't know, total darkness, black beans, foods that look strange to him (guacamole, yogurt covered raisins), wearing clothes (especially socks), getting his diaper changed, blowing his nose.

Personality - Marino is very affectionate still but in a very genuine way - he doesn't give hugs or kisses on demand (except to Mommy) and he takes a while to warm to new people. He's very active and loves to run, jump, somersault and throw, catch, and kick a ball. He is fairly introverted and needs to take quiet breaks if we're around large groups of people.

He sneaks into our bed every night now that he's learned how to open all the doors in the house. We should probably mind this more than we do. He often wakes us up by telling us about his dreams, like last week when he woke up and announced "Mr. Don [Grammy Deb's boyfriend] not listen to me!"

He thinks "big kids" are really cool - he especially likes Sydney's older brother Justin. As active as he is, he can sit through an entire 90 minute movie if he's in the mood. He likes me to read to him but he often uses it as a way to postpone his bedtime. He loves to play with Playdoh and to paint.

Marino loves to talk and sing. His speech continues to amaze us - it seems every day he says something new and in the correct context. Saturday night when I was bathing him, he said "Mommy, I see Sydney yesterday." I had never heard him say "yesterday", let alone use it correctly! He's finally grasping the concept of counting actual objects rather than rote counting. He likes to show off his counting and if you don't immediately respond, he says loudly "I COUNTING" and waits for praise.

I really think Marino will be an actor one day. He LOVES to make us laugh and he remembers things that made me laugh weeks ago and will do them to make me smile. His favorite trick is when I'm on the couch reading, he'll come over and put his mouth on my bare calf, like he's biting me but without pressing his jaw down. This toddler slobber tickles and always makes me laugh/scream. He thinks its hysterical! Often he'll look at you out of the corner of his eye to make sure you're laughing at what he says. He has a whole set of super dramatic emotions he uses at will - faux laugh, faux cry, faux shocked expression, etc. His facial expressions are hysterical. He responds extremely well to positive reinforcement (praise, smiles, laughter, hugs) and asks me to cheer for him all the time.

Here's a quick little video of he and Evan doing a piano/singing duet of the ABCs. He LOVES the piano.


Can't wait to see what this amazing boy will be like at 3!