5 on Friday

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

5. Everyone at daycare thinks this is hysterical...the boy eats chicken drumsticks like a big boy...he just picks them up and starts gnawing! He eats down to the bone, too...there is no meat on that sucker when he's done!
4. On Monday, Marino and I went to the playground and brought Max, but we ended up needing to go back to the house to get towels to dry off the slides. We left Max at the house when we went back. After our playtime, Max could hear us laughing as we were walking back to the house and started barking inside the house. Marino heard him barking and he started yelling "Mashis? Mashis, where are you?!!"

3. The boy is developing excellent manners. He says "thank you" and "welcome" (although sometimes confuses when to say these). He also always says "sorry" (prounounced "sowwy") anytime he bumps into anything, including inanimate objects.

2. One of Marino's Christmas presents was a Thomas the Tank Engine train set. It came with a variety of pieces, one of which is a stop sign. We taught him what the sign meant, so now he will pick it up and hold it towards us and say, very seriously "STOP!!" and be very pleased with himself.

1. Marino loves to dance. He'll dance to anything...the ticking of the oven on his play kitchen, the alarms on our cell phones...anything! The adorable thing is that now when he does it he, he yells "DANCING!!"...just in case we were unaware of what he was doing, or something:)

To My Boy at 18 Months Old

Dear Marino,

Today you are one and a half. I remember a year ago thinking "Gosh, Marino will be 18 months at this time next year. I wonder what he will be like?" Whatever good things I imagined you would be, you are all that and 100 times more. You are Mommy's best friend, my heart, my pride and joy, the very best part of every single day. I love you to pieces.

It was just a year ago we gave you your first taste of solid food. Who knew you would have such a sophisticated palate as a toddler? You are willing to eat everything we give you (the only exception to date is black beans). Yesterday at New Year's Dinner with Grammy Deb, you ate beef, potatoes, carrots, chicken, rice, collard greens, applesauce, bread, macaroni and cheese and black eyed peas. It is a marvel you are still such a thin boy! Your very favorite foods right now are applesauce ("appysauce") and clementines (which you call apples). I think you would eat those things 20 times a day if I let you!

You love to watch Yo Gabba Gabba, which you call "sass." In fact, if we ever turn on something else, you hand us the "mote" and say "sass!" You love to kick and throw balls (you are less enthusiastic about catching the ball). You enjoy building with your blocks and you like knocking them down even better. Anytime you hear music, you start to dance. Thankfully, you inherited your rhythm from your dad! If ever I need to make you smile, I can "drive" one of your toy cars over your head; that always cracks you up. You love to make Mommy and Daddy laugh with hats...you put them on your head all different ways and then on our heads as well. Your laugh and smile make my heart swell...I wish the whole world knew the joy of having you love them.

In the past few months, people have started saying you look more like me than when you were a baby. I think you have my eyes, complexion and lips and Daddy's nose, ears, face shape and head. You have gorgeous light brown curls, which need to be cut every 2 weeks; they grow so fast! Right now it seems you may have my small stature, but we'll keep our fingers crossed you grow into a big guy like Daddy. You certainly have Daddy's outgoing and friendly temperment...you love to talk and to be the center of attention.

I am so proud of the boy you are becoming. You've overcome so much and you are such a good boy. I love our quiet time together...snuggling in our glider together, with your head on my chest or when you bring me the Boppy pillow so you can lay down and stroke my hair while you drink your bottle. You are very loving and generous with your kisses and hugs now, especially for Daddy and I, as well as Maxis.

Happy Half Birthday, my Littleness! Can't wait to enjoy this next year with you!

My handsome boy at 18 months

Big Belly

If you say "big belly," Marino pats his belly, which is fairly ironic, considering he is a skinny guy (we're working on that). Between 12 and 16 months, he fell back in the weight charts from the 25th to the 8th percentile (his net weight gain for 4 months was only half a pound). We put a lot of effort into getting him to gain some weight this month, since falling back on the charts is not a good thing (being small and staying small is preferable to falling behind). Our efforts paid off! He gained 2pounds this month, putting him up to 23 pounds, 6 ounces (23rd percentile for actual age, 40th for adjusted). YAY!

One important thing we did was stop giving him milk after 3pm (until his bedtime bottle at 8pm). He can drink water or a smoothie in the afternoon, but not milk. This has helped keep his appetite up for snacks and dinner. Usually he starts asking to "eat" on the car ride home from daycare or as soon as we come in the door (when he was taking a bottle in the late afternoon, we couldn't get him to eat 2 bites of dinner).

While Marino does not gain weight easily, we are very lucky that he is an enthusiastic and adventerous eater. In fact, there is nothing right now that he refuses to eat (he's not crazy about black beans, but he'll eat a few if they're mixed in with other veggies). When Marino moved to the Waddler room at daycare, EI therapists were doing occupational therapy with the whole class. Their first report to me was that Marino was a huge asset for the whole group, since they were working on self-feeding (using a fork and knife to cut and eat food) and Marino was so enthusiastic about eating, it was a big encouragement to the other kids. He loves food so much, in fact, that he makes lots of "yummmm" noises while eating!

Here's what a typical daily eating schedule looks like for Marino:

6:45AM - 5 ounces of whole milk (with PolyViSol, probiotic and Evening Primrose Oil added).

7AM - 3/4 slice of whole grain toast with unsalted butter

8:30AM - whole fat yogurt with fruit (usually something seasonal - right now its apples; he likes strawberries in the summer).

9:30 AM - 1/2 a banana or some goldfish crackers.

11:15AM - lunch: usually rice or pasta with vegetables and cheese (this week I made risotto with carrots, tomatoes, onions, unsalted butter and cheddar) plus a small container of unsweetened apple sauce and milk. *

2PM - 5 unsalted Saltine crackers with vegetable hummus and half a banana or string cheese.

3PM - offer milk (5 ounces).

4-5PM - Goldfish crackers, water, any leftover cheese, smoothie or banana.

6PM - Dinner. Applesauce first (I mix his Singulair in the apple sauce). Next, usually some sort of meat (chicken, ham, turkey, catfish) and toast or a starch (mac and cheese, tortellini) and mixed veggies.

7:30 or 8PM - milk (6 ounces).

The two major additions this month that seemed to help him to gain weight were the toast and the smoothies. He LOVES both of those things, and getting him to eat them adds in probably 300 more calories a day to his diet.

* Other regular lunches: homemade mac and cheese with broccolli and cauliflower, dal, pasta with pureed squash (instead of tomato sauce) and mixed vegetables. In my opinion, its much easier to increase his calorie/fat intake if I make him meals myself, since I can add in whole milk, cheese, butter, etc. for weight gaining purposes. I highly recommend the cookbook "Cooking for Baby" from Williams and Sonoma.