New Jersey Trip to Visit Our Favorites

Last weekend, Marino and I took a little road trip to New Jersey to visit Sonia, Wil and the girls: Catalina and Siena. I didn't get to see Siena when we were in New York in March (she was sick) and she has changed so much since I last saw her in January. She can really keep up with Cat and Marino now and Marino had a good time playing with both girls.

When I told Catalina I wanted to take a picture, she busted out this fabulous flamenco pose!

We were lucky to have a gorgeous day on Saturday, so we took a walk to feed the geese/ducks and hit up all the neighborhood playgrounds.

Back at Sonia's, the kids had a little dance party...it took Marino a little while to catch on, but the girls are dancing queens!

The kids took turns blowing and stomping on bubbles...isn't spring time the best?

This girl is always smiling!

Two cuties!

Sunday we had some cloudy skies and colder weather (it went from the 80s the day before to the 60s on Sunday) but we went over to Grounds for a Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ and the kids had a wonderful time. They had new sculptures since we went last year and I love how this place makes art less of a static concept and more of a dynamic, interactive one that kids can appreciate.

And, of course, the peacocks are always a big hit!

Uncle Wil gave the kids these gigantic lollipops and they were in heaven. It took them a good 45 minutes to eat them!

I blew out the color on this one (my camera was acting up) so I made it black and white. I love how Marino has made himself part of this scene here...

And here...this sculpture was so clever! You go around a corner and it really looks like you've caught this couple in an intimate, secret moment.

This one was a little house, representative of the inside of the artist's mind. Loved it!

Catalina called this "the Playdoh man"

As always, we had a great time visiting - we love our friends! Saturday morning, Marino and I got in the car and he asked "Are we going to see Catalina?" Can't wait to see them in July for Marino's birthday!

5 on Friday

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

5. A week or so ago, my riding lesson was cancelled. Evan had already picked Marino up and he was very happy to see me when I got home. I asked him how his day was and he said "I missed you today, Mommy. You not riding horseys today?"

4. It's fun to watch the boy learn and apply social ettiquette. Everytime we encounter someone new (and even sometimes someone not so new) he says "HI! I'M MARINO". Sometimes he includes his last name and sometimes he introduces himself as "Super Marino".

3. Marino has discovered the wonder of drinking fountains. His school has a low water fountain and everytime we pass it, Marino says "Oh, I need some water." Then he takes about 5 minutes to adjust the height of the water and work up the nerve to put his face in to get a drink. It's sort of painful to watch, but he is getting the hang of it.

2. We got to visit with some of our favorite friends, Jen and Sydney, last weekend. We walked over to the playground where Marino had the idea to create a train on the slide by holding Sydney's legs. I thought it was pretty creative.

1. This picture makes me happy. When Marino saw it, he said "I see Sydney. That's my best friend." :)

5 on Friday

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

5. The other day Marino and I were looking through a small photo album I have of maternity pictures. I was showing Marino that Baby Marino was in my belly in the pictures. "Yeah", he said, "I was still hiding in there."

4. Over the weekend when Marino was sick, he was actually asking me for breathing treatments (although the issue with his breathing was in his nose and not his lungs).

3. Marino is still very proud of his Mother's Day gifts to me. Thursday morning when we woke up he pointed to the flowers and said "Those are your flowers. You love them."

2. No matter how many times we correct him, Marino still calls motorcycles "moon bicycles."

1. Marino has a toy frog with 2 broken legs that lives in the bath. The other day he said "Oh no! What happened?" I said, "Aw, someone broke his legs. Who would do such a thing?" "It was a lady. She came around the corner." Marino said and vehemently denied he could have been the culprit. He then swaddled the frog in a washcloth like it was a blanket and rocked him saying "Aw, my baby. This is my poor baby."

3rd Mother's Day

This picture has nothing to do with this past weekend, but it makes me happy.

This Mother's Day was full of irony, like being woken up at 4:30am by a feverish boy who was vomitting on me. He had developed a nasty sinus infection over the weekend and so we spent most of our Mother's Day with him burning up with a 103 fever and laying pitifully across my chest.

Evan and Marino brought me breakfast in bed, with some pretty flowers and adorable cards. Marino was sooooo proud of the gifts; he kept saying "I bought these flowers for you. Wasn't that sweet, Mommy?" All day he kept shouting "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" At one point we talked to my mom on speakerphone and Marino said "Happy Mother's Day" but she didn't hear him. He started giving the phone a dirty look out the side of his eye and said "I SAID HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY". He was very annoyed she didn't immediately respond with glee (which she of course did once she heard him). The boy likes lots of attention!

A few months ago, one of my Facebook friends posed the question "What does it feel like to be a mother?". I responded with a haiku I had written shortly before she asked the question.

the depth of my love

infinite and surprising

every time you say "mommy"

Of course, that is just a tiny expression of the way it feels to be a mother - how do you a describe a feeling that changes who you are and all of your priorities? Not a day goes by that I don't have a moment where I marvel at the greatest blessing of my life - being Marino's mom. It just gets more wonderful as time goes on.

I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day. Only another mother could understand what a gift it is to be a mother - lovely and terrifying, natural and challenging all at once.

Apple Blossom Festival

I am still a week behind on the blog, which I hate! The past couple weeks all of my spare time has gone into selling stuff we don't need a) on Craig's List b) at a large consignment sale and c) at a community yard sale. We sold a lot of stuff, enough to finance my next project: make our backyard into a place we all want to hang out. We're going to buy a outdoor climber for Marino, some comfy chairs for Evan and I to sit in, and I have some decorative ideas in the works, including painting our unused planters in ocean colors and adding solar tiki torches, painting bird houses, etc. Oh, and buy outdoor storage seats, so I can pick up all the toys in the lawn at the end of the day. Anyway, I've felt very frugal selling my old stuff to finance something that will benefit the whole family. I'll post pictures once the backyard is complete. I think I have too much time on my hands now that school is over!

Last Sunday we went to Winchester to Grammy Deb's new house where right across the street they were holding the town's annual Apple Blossom Festival. The day we went was a special kid's day and they had lots of fun things for the kids to do, including a bounce house (Marino's favorite thing) and a petting zoo with some exotic animals.

As I am obsessed with all baby animals, I was loving this baby camel!

Is that a big bunny, or what?

Someone call cuteoverload.com...this sheep is snuggling an enormous turtle. It seems to me this turtle would not make a good cuddle partner, but they were hugged up the whole time we were there.

My buddy again...

One of the giant toys Evan won for Marino playing games.

Aunt Chelle, Marino and Evan enjoying some treats.
Another one of Daddy's prizes.