Catching Up

We've been busy as usual, enjoying the holiday season and visiting with friends. 

A couple weeks ago, we got a chance to visit with Sydney and Noah and the kids had a lot of fun baking and decorating gingerbread "mans". 

Last week was Parent's Night at Marino's preschool. He goes to Montessori school and it was really interesting to see what and how they learn there. 

As you can see, he was very serious in explaining his lessons to us.

One of his favorites - the land and water forms

Marino enjoying a gift from Aunt Sonia - Batman underwear.

Fun winter storytime, including a "snowball fight" and marshmallow snowmen

Fenton Street Market

(skipping around a bit in terms of chronology)

 On Saturday we headed over to Fenton Street Market for storytime and trick or treating. 

I love doing story time, and this one was especially fun, because I love Halloween and the kids were very enthusiastic about the stories. 

Our buddies Uli and Aaron, ready for storytime

Telling spooky tales

Sharing is caring

 

My friend Erin and her youngest, Chase. 

All the vendors had candy for the kids - most seemed to get a kick out of seeing the kids in their costumes

Emilia, Marino and Grayson

Emilia and her sweet mom, Yvette, crafting. I had reflective Halloween necklaces for the kids to make.

We got very lucky - it was a beautiful day (high 60s, sunny). Literally, the calm before the storm...we may not have Halloween here in Maryland, depending on how hard Hurricane Sandy hits us (its not looking good). So at least we got a chance to use Marino's costume and go trick or treating.

Jazzy Storytime & Playdate with Ryan

I have mentioned, without elaborating, that I've been doing a preschool-oriented storytime at a local independent bookstore. I really love reading aloud and its a fun thing for Marino and I to do together. It also gives me an opportunity to be creative.

The last storytime had a Jazz/Mardi Gras theme. I started out by playing the kids the song "When We're Human" from the Princess and the Frog soundtrack as a way to orient them to the concept of jazz music. I talked a bit about Mardi Gras and New Orleans. I read This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt (this is one of Marino and my favorite books). I then played the audiobook of CD of Jazz Fly by Matthew Gollub and "read along" using the physical book. The kids LOVED the Jazz Fly CD and they all got up and started dancing as it played. It was really fun to watch them get so excited!

After the stories, I played the rest of the Princess and the Frog soundtrack, and we made Mardi Gras masks using random art supplies I had (plastic masks were sold in 3 packs at Michael's). I had feathers, foam stickers, glitter glue and pom poms for the kids to use for their masks. They really enjoyed the craft, and showing them off when they were done.

Here's a few pictures of the kids and their creations.

Marino's mask was a bit scary to me...it looked like a swarm of bees was attacking him, but he was quite proud of it.

After storytime, my friend Robyn and her boys Ryan and Matthew came over for lunch and playtime. Ryan and Marino got along great - they especially enjoyed wrestling and throwing each other off the couch. Little boys are like baby deer locking horns with their rough play!

How cute is Ryan? Here he said "Hey, I'm going to make a silly face. Take a picture!"
Two handsome boys!
Double silly faces

5 on Friday

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

5. I've been leading a preschool storytime at a local independent bookstore in town (I plan to post details about the storytimes I've done, I just haven't gotten around to it yet). Last week's theme was love/Valentine's Day. I asked the kids to introduce themselves and tell me someone they love. Marino thought for about 2 minutes before he responded with "I love Quintyn, my brother." Also sweet - I gave the kids heart shaped lollipops before I started reading. After I gave them out, Marino said "Hey, Mommy! You forgot to give lollipops to the mommies!"

4. Later the kids decorated these heart shaped ornaments for Valentine's Day. Marino finished his and presented it to me, saying "I made this for you, Happy Valentine's Day." Then, twice he decided he needed to add more decorations so he went back to the table, finished it up and represented it to me.

3. Marino made the Peapod delivery guy's night on Friday. When he arrived, Marino said "Hi, I'm Marino." "Marino? That's a nice name," he said, "My name is Stefan." Marino said "Stefan? That's a really good man name." I think Stefan was pretty pleased with himself...

2. One of Marino's new buddies at school is a little girl named Ellen. When I came to pick him up the other day, he said "Ellen, say hi to my mommy." "Hi, Mommy" she said. "No, no, Ellen," said Marino, "This is not your mommy, it's my mommy. So you just say 'hi, Marino's mommy'". Ellen must be used to dealing with Marino, since she was unfazed by this conversation. Yesterday when we were leaving, he shouted down the stairs to her "Bye, Ellen! You will miss me so much!"

1. Yesterday when I picked Marino up, his friend Ike was upset about something. As we were walking out together, Marino said "You want to hold my hand, Ike?" Ike said "No, I want to hold my mom's hand." "I will hold your mom's hand, too," Marino said, taking her hand, "Then we can all hold hands together."