5 on Friday

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

5. Marino loves being in small spaces. Interestingly, I was the same way as a child. I slept in my closet for a few months and under my bunk beds (as in, under the bottom bunk) for over a year. Here he is in his new favorite spot, a 16 quart storage container that is supposed to hold his play food. Instead, he dumps all the food on the floor and sits in there with his toys and books. 4. Marino loves feeding Max treats. Max is super gentle when taking the treats and Marino squeals with happiness when he feeds Max. Very cute! 3. I made chicken in the crockpot on Monday. I made drumsticks, since the boy loves to gnaw on his chicken legs! Well, the crockpot made the drumsticks so moist, the meat was falling off the bone and Marino was trying to put the meat back on the bone! He loves to eat it off the bone!

2. I talk a lot about Marino's expressive language, but his receptive language skills are also excellent! I really feel like he understands the vast majority of what I tell him (even when he pretends not to, like "stop standing on the couch" or "please don't throw your half eaten clementine slice at Mommy"). Anyway, in our vast time at home while snowed in this week, we've read about, oh, 35 books a day. Out of sheer boredom, I started asking him to show me things in his books that I've never given him a name for before (disclaimer: since Marino is in daycare, I really have no clue how many times he may or may not have been give the names for things before...he often busts out with things I've never told him, like recognizing MLK). I asked him things like "where's the lighthouse?" "where's the cement mixer?" Would you believe he pointed to everything I asked him about? I'm not sure if he was just choosing the things he didn't already know names for, but even so, I was pretty impressed (what else is new?).

1. You know your child has spent too much time in hospitals and doctor's offices when...

he takes his father's iPod ear buds and holds them to his chest like monitors:( !

However, I thought it was rather smart of him to think of that.

5 on Friday

5. Marino's vocabulary continues to expand almost daily. He's even learning multiple words/ways to communicate the same concept. For example, he now has 3 ways to ask for milk. He knows the sign for it (he learned this first). He also says for a "bobble" (bottle) and now he's learned to say "milk" as well. This morning while I was getting him dressed, he signed for milk, then said "bobble?" and then asked "milk?" I guess he figured if he asked me a number of ways, I would finally get him what he wanted!

4. Marino understands so much now. His receptive language is pretty amazing. I would say he probably seems to understand 75% of what I tell him, the biggest exception being anything having to do with emotions, which is a fairly abstract thing I don't expect he will understand anytime soon. A cute example is when we went to the doctor on Monday, she was telling me to be on the lookout for croup. "If he starts a barking cough, that's how you'll know its croup," she said. Marino suddenly started saying "woof woof woof woof." :) How nice of him to demonstrate for me, huh?

3. The boy has started making sound effects to go with his kisses. So if he blows you a kiss, or give you a kiss, he says "MUAH!" to go a long with it ::heart melts::

2. Marino loves to be outside. Here he is on Tuesday, sick as a dog, but still in his little nook, longingly looking out the window. He kept saying "aside?"

1. This picture is not posed. Marino likes to watch Yo Gabba Gabba in the glider and tonight he climbed up there by himself with his 2 favorite things: his new football and the remote!