summer fun

Well, here we are at the end of June and it seems as though during the months of January through April, I long for this time of year and once it arrives, it goes by too, too quickly. Maybe this month has gone so quickly because some days we are so busy trying to keep up with our son that we don't know whether it is winter or summer. I'll never forget June 11, 2009 because this is the day that I woke up with a sadness in my heart. I just said to Bryan that he is not our baby anymore, he is a little boy. He just had that look to him and I think it happened overnight. I can't really explain what that look was but it seems as though he went to sleep a baby and woke up this little boy with so much personality, so much determination, and so much spirit!!! I think he is finally starting to put on a bit of weight (I know this because some of his pants actually fit him and don't fall around his bottom when he walks) I do what I think many parents do a lot-complain. I admit that I complain about the little things-him shrieking in the grocery store, him being a daddy's boy even though I'm the one who spends just about every waking hour with him- but I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything. The hugs and the "mmmmmmwah" sound he makes when he gives you a kiss make up for it all. Gio is truly developing at a rapid pace and he is learning so much, so quickly. He started some speech therapy and has an appointment to see an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor since we are on ear infection #8...and counting. I don't want him to be in any pain and if tubes will help him be able to verbally express what he wants/needs, they would truly be a blessing. He is learning a few words "out" is his favorite, not to be outshined by "dada" and "more". I was a bit disappointed when even his speech therapist said it was odd that he doesn't say "mama" :( Whether he says mama, dada, or lucca, the most important thing is that we have a happy, healthy little boy and so, really, we have nothing to complain about! Gio loves to play outside and he is such a little boy. He walks around the track at the school down the street from our house and it is so much fun to see him watch the other runners and then start moving his arms and take off-he just loves it. He looks like he has lefty tendencies just like me, especially when he throws a ball and swings the bat. I'm amazed that he has the ability to even make contact! Here's a video of him running and playing on the deck a few weeks ago...he loves watching himself in the sliding glass door! Other than keeping up with the little man, bryan has been busy tending to his garden he built for this season. We are all excited that his hard work is starting to pay off. His project began in the fall when he built a stone wall into the hillside and continued this spring preparing for our harvest. I'm impressed to see the variety of vegetables that we have growing and cannot wait to make some friend zucchini in the coming weeks! Gio loves helping dad water, even though most of the water ends up on himself, it is one activity that keeps him busy for...minutes!

Horses, elephants, and gorillas...oh my!

We are enjoying this beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Pittsburgh. Sunday we visited a new park (not so new to Gio and me but new to Bryan) for a family picnic, pint-sized fun on the playground, and meeting the horses. The county police horses are housed at a nearby park and the little guy loved them! He loved walking as close as he could to them and would have touched them if we let him. Oddly enough, as much as he loved the horses, he loved the sound of motorcycles even more. His face would light up every time he would hear/see one....I hope this doesn't mean he is going to be a rebel! Today we were joined by my dad for another fun outing, this time to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It is nice to have such a wonderful family zoo located to close to us. Unfortunately, it does not rank as high as Lincoln Park or the Phoenix zoo, both which were spectacular. I really don't think that Gio noticed the difference one bit, we all had a lovely day. The fools that we are went on Memorial Day afternoon and it was pretty crowded but the animals were still beautiful. Gio loved watching the flamingos, the elephants, and the gorillas. He even loved petting the cockroach, which I find disgusting but he seemed to enjoy it. Let me clarify that there were zoo employees holding a turtle, an iguana (or something that looked like an iguana), and a hissing cockroach. He laughed and turned away from the first two, but went right for the cockroach. He recently learned to say 'more' to accompany his sign for more and the entire time at the zoo, he continued to say 'more', 'more', 'more' and when I thought he wanted more crackers (of course, food is always on my mind), Bryan informed me that he wanted to see more animals-it was precious.

we're baaaack

wow, it seems like so much has happened since our family last updated the 5 people who check out our blog. We have been very busy traveling to Indiana for Easter, extending our visit because I threw out my back, and welcoming lots of visitors to Pittsburgh to help take care of Gio. I have always had minor back problems but never something so debilitating as this. Those who don't think it is important to bend from the knees when lifting 21 pounds about 21 times a day....I am living proof....bend with your knees!! Thank you, thank you, thank you again to everyone who helped us with our little peanut. Speaking of our little peanut, i have to find a new nickname for him now since we learned that he is allergic to peanuts. I suppose calling him 'peanut' is, well, mean. Thankfully he is a Class 2 on a level of 6 so it is not severe but serious enough that we have to see an allergist in June and carry an epi-pen on us at all times just in case. I had no idea that peanuts are in so many things that you wouldn't imagine. Pretzels, chocolate, and chic fil a are all off limits for now since they are produced in a facility that also produces peanuts or share machinery with peanuts. I'm having the most difficult time coming to terms with the fact that he will not be able to reese's peanut butter eggs at Easter...but I'm sure I'll get over it! Thankfully, the peanut butter i gave him, he didn't actually eat but he just played with it and then touched his face, which resulted in him breaking out in a rash on his face. The following day we had his 18-month well visit, which resulted in a double ear infection and blood work-what a lucky, lucky boy. When we have stressful weeks like this it is easy to overreact but it is important to remember that we have a wonderful, mostly healthy little boy and we are so very blessed if these are our biggest worries.

bored, bored, bored

I sit here on a Saturday night in Munster visiting my parents for an extended Easter and I am bored, bored, bored. My mom just took the little guy to mass but I was not able to go because I knew there was no way that I could sit in a pew for an hour. I have known for awhile now that my back was on the verge of going but, of course, I didn't do much to prevent it. I tote around my 21 lb boy often, probably more often than I should, because it is so much quicker than waiting for him sometimes. I'm sorry but sometimes I would rather just walk up to his room, put something away, and move on to the next task rather than waiting for him to pay attention to me, come with me, climb the stairs, and eventually decide to come into his room with me. Well, now, I am paying for it. I have had my fair share of back pain in my lifetime but nothing like this. Although frustrating, if it did have to happen, I am so glad that it happened here so I can have some help. Some help, I'm sorry, I mean more help than I could ever imagine! Thank you mom, dad, aunt mary, aunt bonnie, uncle eddie and lauren for taking care of Gio for me. There have been many times in the past 17 months that I have dreamed of sleeping in, having others wake up and feed my son so I could just get a little more sleep and now my time has come. Be careful what you wish for. Now, I'm so sad that I'm not the one seeing his handsome face in the morning or rocking him to sleep b.c. I can't pick him up or put him in his crib. Thankfully, although it has only been a couple of days, he still lights up when he sees me. I finally know what it feels like when bryan walks in the door after work and that little boy runs to his daddy. He just needed the chance to miss me.

Practice Makes Perfect

As Gio is growing more and more active, it is increasingly difficult for me to find ways to entertain him in the house. We have tried coloring...he eats the crayons...and then laughs. I tried making a construction paper Easter egg where all he has to do is 'pat, pat, pat' the shapes onto the egg. He really enjoyed this until he found it more enjoyable to remove all of the shapes, too. Now, his egg is hanging on the fridge looking very, very sad. We finger paint with pudding but sometimes that takes two-three times as long to make the pudding and clean up the pudding than he will sit and play and is not really worth the effort unless Bryan is here to help.

I have had some success recently with little activities for him. He loves the $1.75 mini dust pan that I bought him and he is very helpful in dusting away. This lasts for about 10 minutes which is quite impressive. I usually last about 2 before I am bored with housework. However, the best investment I have made in my son this past month would be the $1 I spent on plastic Easter eggs. He is completely crazy for his Easter egg hunts. We had our first hunt a few weeks ago and I was pretty amazed at how quickly he took to it. I will hide the egg, say, in his toy barn and will ask him to go to the barn to find the egg and, without hesitation, he proudly walks to the barn and grins as he finds the egg and puts it in his basket. He points #1 as he does this so he thinks he is pretty cool. I am not exaggerating when I say that this egg hunt will keep him busy for at least an hour. It is a pure miracle that I never knew could exist that this little boy could focus on something for that length of time.

Although I enjoy the fact that we have a new way to spend our afternoons, I'm so glad to see that although he does not speak much, he truly is absorbing so much on a daily basis. He can't always express that he knows the egg is under the table but he can find it. To this mom, that is all I need to know that he is doing just fine.

Well, we took our little guy to his very first Easter egg hunt this weekend and, oh boy, what a hunt it was!! I was shocked at the mass of people attending this Easter activity-truly blown away. I was also shocked at the number of eggs they had scattered on the lawn for what seemed like hundreds of children. I don't know who stuffed all the eggs with tootsie rolls but I did feel sorry for them. He did great, picking up 5 of his very own eggs and putting them in his very own Easter basket.

Now, did I ever think that Bryan and I would be so excited to take our 17 month old to an Easter egg hunt? No. Will we be sure to go next year as well? You bet! We had just as much fun as he did. The pictures probably make it look like we had more! Happy Easter to all!!

How did I ever survive

without my camera phone? Rewind about 2 years ago and it was time for me to get a new phone. By now we had moved from Florida to South Bend to Rome back to South Bend and just bought our home in Pittsburgh. We were sure that we wouldn't be moving for awhile and I finally had finally had a job with a real 40-hour a week paycheck so I felt like I could splurge. By splurge, I mean upgrade from the free phone options. I was just out of my first trimester at that time and felt like after those weeks of feeling horrible, I deserved something nice and shiny. Since jewelry wasn't in our budget, a new phone I could manage (even though bryan who receives his blackberry from work said that we'll have to tell our unborn child "I'm sorry, you cannot have braces, mom needed a new fancy phone"-he really cracks himself up). After much deliberation, I finally decided on the phone with an actual keyboard so that I could text with much more ease. Well, my 'fancy' (i take joy in the simple things in life) keyboard was soon outranked by the camera phone I had never used before November 5, 2007. After Gio's birth, I quickly learned the real reason camera phones were created. What a great way to immediately send pictures of our little guy to our family and friends across the country.

Now, as I am at home with Gio for the 12 or so hours Bryan is at work, I have the opportunity to take, well, a few pictures of the little guy. I don't think anyone who receives a picture understands how much time goes into getting just one cute picture when he doesn't come out looking like a large blur-it is quite humorous to watch me try, though. This wastes at least 4 minutes of my day, leaving a good 11 hours and 56 minutes for me to entertain him until Bryan comes home. I find it essential to have this camera in my back pocket at all times with the hopes of capturing a silly moment. I love that I have his first visit to Chic-fil-a captured on film (as does my chic-fil-a loving family), his first Pirates game (in white sox gear, of course), first time falling asleep in his high chair, smelling the flowers at the farmers market, and other pictures that help capture the joy he brings to my life daily. I love sending a picture to a family member who needs a smile during the day or an extra pick me up. I appreciate that I can do that and I think they do as well. Although I do my fair share of complaining about being away from family right now, I know for certain that down the road, I am going to miss these precious moments just the two of us, being silly, somehow finding a way to fill those hours during the day and loving just about every minute of it. I'm so grateful that technology helps this forgetful mom share these moments with those we love.

These pictures are from that first fancy cell phone i had which is now my son's play phone as he dropped it one too many times forcing me to buy a new one. This one, however, does not have the fancy keyboard like I once 'needed'. It does, however, have a great camera!

you can click on the slideshow and see the pictures larger with captions.

Happy Times

I am not a very organized individual. Don't get me wrong, I certainly put forth the effort but my results are often disappointing. I will make a list for the grocery store...only to arrive realizing that the list is on my kitchen table thus I forget several items which forces an unavoidable return to the store in the very near future (honey and peanut butter were the missing items just yesterday). I think Bry's favorite is the fact that more often than not, I will write the check and envelope for church, bring it upstairs, place it on the table and then...you guessed it...forget it. I will make new lists to help stay organized around the house and I am dedicated to staying on top of these to-do lists for at least 3 or 4 days....only to see that 5 or 6 days later I inadvertently did not check off anything on this list. I will, however, keep trying to improve upon about 75 things that I can do better but I'm sure I'll lose the list of these things, too. This all brings me to my blog topic, I have about 25 different things to write about but they are all floating around my head in disaray that I do not know where to begin. We have been quite busy and our little boy has been learning so many things that I am having a hard time keeping track of it all. I used to be so diligent about writing down even his smallest accomplishments (i.e. new foods or skills) but now I just tell myself that I will remember the day and that is just not the case. I was told that I can use the fact that I am a new mom as an excuse until he is two. I may need to push it to twenty-two. He is a little behind in his language development for his age and he had some great breakthroughs recently. He may not be able to enter the spelling bee quite yet but if the spelling bee was titled "words that start with the letter D" he would would definitely take the Gold! He has been saying "DaDa" for about 15 of his 16 months on this earth with "MaMa" no where in sight. However, is also learning "down", "duck" and "dog" and you would think that he recited Shakespeare by listening to his parents cheer for him. We are trying to increase his vocabulary by reading to him....a lot. I don't mean reading him The Fuzzy Duckling or Let's Go Irish once or twice a day, I mean, reading him The Fuzzy Duckling or Let's Go Irish about 30 times a day. I can't get over how he loves these two books. He will bring the book to me and then curl up in my lap and smile in anticipation for his favorite story to be read. How could any mom resist this preciousness? I'm fairly certain that he will say "Leprechaun" before he says "Mama" but as long as he continues enhancing those skills, that will be ok with me...at least that is what I am telling myself. We recently came across a tv show that I think I enjoy more than Gio called Yo Gabba Gabba. Of course, when he wants to watch it, he will say (with remote in hand) "ga ga" (Yes, i have noticed that he can say the name of his favorite show but not mine, no need to point that out). How can I resist turning on this crazy show? Here's a video of him getting ready to watch it.

From My Videos

As soon as I remember his other developments, I'll try to include those, too. But I'm sure you're not holding your breath.

all growed up

How did this happen so quickly? One day I am rocking my inconsolable little boy, trying to get him to sleep as he clings his sweet arms around my neck, and the next he is full of excitement and curiosity running to see the joy that awaits him outdoors on a crisp March day.

Milestones are around every corner right now, this week was no different. Our ritual for the past 10 months has been very much the same every night. Bryan walks in the door from his 12-hour work day and I punch my time clock letting him know that my shift is finished. Well, actually, my shift as 'mom' is over but my shift as 'gourmet chef and housekeeper' is just beginning! Okay, gourmet may be pushing it just a little but anything that is prepared on the stove and not the microwave is gourmet to us these days.

Bryan has always been the bath and bedtime guy and the three of us have grown to really love this ritual. I enjoy hearing the two of them laughing as Gio splashes and plays with his shark and Leap the frog singing the ABCs. I know Bryan loves the opportunity to unwind from a busy day by spending time with his son just as much as I love listening to them. As I listen to my guys, I prepare his room: dim lights-check, classical music-check, sippy hidden under the pillow so Gio doesn't see it too soon-check, a sweet kiss goodnight-check and it is back to father and son time with a rock in the chair before prayers and wishes for sweet dreams throughout the night.

Well, the day came where little by little he became less interested in the milk and more interested in jumping in the crib to catch some shuteye. We decided to just stop on Saturday and he has been sleeping soundly ever since. Bryan admitted last night what I had been thinking as well. "Wow, I'm a little sad he has outgrown his bottle before bed". I think that was the first moment I realized how quickly our little boy is changing right before our very eyes. I was so worried about stopping this ritual for the fear of how he would handle the change. I am so relieved that it was his choosing and he will not be scarred for life thinking that mom and dad took his bottle away before he was ready-oh, the therapy bills we have dodged for the time being!

Thankfully, as he turns 16 months old today, he still likes to be rocked when he is tired or hurt or just needs a hug and for that we are very grateful.