5 on Friday

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

5. Marino loves to toast at meals. On my birthday, he insisted we "cheers" before we ate. "What do you want toast to?" we asked. "Let's cheers to cupcakes for all of us!" he replied.

4. Marino has a plush robot my friend Rachel gave him for his 2nd birthday and he sleeps with it every night. At the hotel last weekend, Marino announced of the robot, "This is my baby. His name is Juicy." Evan flatly refused to call the robot by its given name.

3. The names Marino comes up with for things always crack us up. He pointed to a picture of the Ravens (NFL) emblem the other day and asked what it was. We told him its a raven. "Yeah," he said, "His name is Braven. Braven the Raven."

2. At the beach last weekend, Marino came running out of the water shouting "Mommy, I just peed in my pants in the water!" I told him everyone does it, we're just supposed to keep it to ourselves.

1. On my birthday, Marino announced "Mommy, I'm your greatest fan."

Great Grandparents

We are so fortunate that my grandfather (Pap) and his wife (Joanne/Nannie) having temporarily relocated here for 4 months so they have an opportunity to spend time with us and particularly with the great grand kids. Last night, we had dinner with them at our favorite place and it was a great chance for Marino to bond with them.

Among the Many Reasons I Love Our Friends and Family...

Unless you live under a rock, you've surely heard that our area (Metro DC) and our county in particular got the worst of the unusual derecho storm last Friday. We had about an hour of non-stop lightning, rain and high winds (70 miles per hour). Our house was shaking - it was very unusual. And then...the lights went out. For 48 hours. When I got up in the morning, I couldn't believe what I saw. Trees were in the roads, on houses, power lines were down. 500 of 800 traffic lights in the county were out and there were accidents everywhere. And in the midst of all this, a little boy's birthday party was cancelled. The worst part was telling him, but he actually took it better than I expected. "Why can't you just send the fixers to fix the power?" he wanted to know. Luckily, we have amazing friends and family and they stepped in to make sure we still had a great day.

My mom and stepfather were here and took us to a delicious lunch. Then we headed over to Evan's friend Brian's house, where we went swimming with all the kids. Evan's cousin Ahmad's wife was visiting from North Carolina with her kids and his other cousin Rahsaan was there with his kids, too. After swimming, we had a cookout and took the kids over to the park. Needless to say, Marino had a great time.

Swinging with Amiyah

Spinning with Jahvon and Amiyah

Cutie pie Jahvon - he will always pose for me!! And wow, this boy can swim! I've never seen such a strong swimmer at his age (3 1/2).
Raiden and Marino, rolling out
Kaia - she loves the camera, too
This is Raiden's "I'm not smiling for you" face

We camped out at my aunt's house Saturday since she had power (and a/c). Evan's Aunt Joyce suggested we take Marino and his cousin Landyn to Chuck E Cheese's to celebrate Marino's birthday. The boys had a great time and Landyn is such a great big cousin.

Can you tell they were having fun?!


This picture cracks me up!

We're so lucky to have so many amazing people in our life that helped make this weekend so special, even if it was different than we expected!

Health Stuff

I am sooooo behind on blogging, so I'll be combining some events to try and catch up on everything I want to share.

A couple weeks ago, Marino got his first bad cut. While playing with Daddy, he tripped and hit his face on the side of a wooden stool. Evan called me downstairs and I was shocked to see blood all over Marino and all over he and Evan's shirts. After 15 minutes or so, the cut still opened every time we touched it, so I took him to the ER.

This is us waiting in the ER and hoping Ironman is using his powers to heal Marino's cut...

After waiting three hours, the PA came in and told us since the only "open" area of the cut was in the middle, stitches weren't needed. She said normally they would glue a laceration like his, but it was too close to his eye for that. So, we were told to keep it clean (ha!) and bandaged with antibiotic ointment.

Here's how he looked when we got home.

It ended up bruising a couple days later, but seems to be healing well.

We see a pulminologist quarterly to review Marino's asthma and allergies (as they relate to his breathing). They administer a test to see how well he is breathing and he LOVES this test! He breathes into a tube connected to a computer...the goal is to blow all the leaves off the tree to reveal the monkeys hiding in the branches. He is always so excited to go to this doctor to do this "game."

Who's the genius who thought this up?

We've seen a lot of improvement with his using Nasonex (nasal spray) in addition to his other allergy and asthma meds. The doctor said Marino is probably in the top 10 of his most allergic patients, so keeping the allergies under control is paramount to controlling his asthma. But all in all, he's doing well with our current treatment.

Today You Are 4

Dear Marino,

Today you are 4 years old. As always, Daddy and I are so grateful for the happy, healthy and fun little boy that you are and all the ways you've grown and matured in the past year. Sometimes I can't believe you are only four...your vocabulary is amazing and you sometimes say things so poignant, I forget I am talking to such a young child.

You continue to be very snuggly and loving, especially with your mommy. You usually need a little while to warm up to people, the exceptions being your grandparents and your "best friends" at school. I love to see you hugging and kissing your friends, knowing that you will soon be "too cool" for that (although, hopefully not too cool to snuggle with Mommy).

You love super heroes and Transformers. We love to watch you play with all your action figures - you always crack us up. You love pretend play and you are always announcing you are a robot, a dog, a knight, a super hero, a builder, a vet, etc. We hear a lot that you are "all boy." You also love animals and have extensive knowledge of sea creatures. You get excited every time you see any animal, even sparrows and worms. You love your dog and sometimes scold me if I ask him to move when we're snuggled up "No, Mommy! Max wants to snuggle, too."

As always, you are very active and never stop moving until bedtime. You are a very fast runner, even compared to kids much older than you. You love to climb and jump (on and off of everything). We've acquired a large collection of books and every night you choose a different one for Daddy or I to read to you. You love reading and have an amazing memory...you can usually recite most of the books to me as I'm reading them.

You enjoy school and your teachers say you love to do puzzles when you are there and learn about geography and space. You've just begun coloring inside the lines and drawing with purpose. It seems you are friends with all 35 of your classmates and you enjoy telling us who you played with each day.

You often announce "I'm shy" but that only lasts a few minutes in most situations. You tend to be a leader and love to make people (kids and adults) laugh. It's rare for you to hear music and not start dancing. You love music - Hot Peas N Butter and The Fresh Best Band are your favorites. You definitely enjoy attention and the more people laugh and compliment you, the more you ham it up.

Marino, you are an amazing miracle. Daddy and I love you so much more than we could ever tell you. Happy 4th Birthday, Baby. We're looking forward to this next wonderful year with you.

Racing and Swimming

The weekend before last was another busy one. I ran my first 5k! I had been training for almost 3 months (I'm someone who never ran a mile until last Fall). Marino and my sister-in-law, Rianne, were there to cheer me on (Evan and his friends went on a guys trip for the weekend). I was a bit slower than I was hoping but I did it and I was proud that my boy was there to see me do it!

Later that day, Marino had his first private swim lesson, which went surpringly well. Our first swimming experiences of the season were met with terror, but he was very comfortable with the swim instructor and kept asking her if he could dive in the deep end.

Sunday, we got together with family in Virginia. All the cousins got to swim together - so cute!
Pacey, Jamia, Kiara, Samantha, Addie and Erica
These three get along great! Little girls are the sweetest!





Fun times with family - we love it!

Sesame Place

The week before last we headed up to Pennsylvania to meet up with Sonia, Wil, Cat, Siena and Alana at Sesame Place. This was our first visit and we loved it! We went on a Saturday so it was fairly crowded but the longest wait we had was only 20 minutes (to ride this roller coaster).

Catalina - I just love her!

Siena sat with me on the roller coaster. The whole ride, I squeezed my eyes shut and held on to her for dear life. Then we stopped, I opened my eyes and Siena, cool as a fan, said "Why did we stop?" She was way braver than me!
Marino LOVED the swings. He had the hugest smile the whole time!
Daddy and Marino on the teacups. Later, Marino told me the teacups were the only scary ride he went on (Evan said he was spinning them really fast).
He loved the climbing nets.
Poor Daddy tore up his knees in these tunnels!
Uncle Wil and Siena
Daddy and Marino, waiting in line
Playing arcade games with Daddy
Cooling off

Lazy river - we all had fun on this

Ending the day with a fun parade. He loved it, especially Super Grover!
It was a really great trip and I'd like to go back to do some of the things we missed. The majority of the attractions there are interactive, so its more physical than your typical amusement park. Luckily, it is also smaller and less hilly, so you don't get overwhelmed just walking around. Hope to visit again soon!