Giuliana's Baptism

Giuliana was baptised!

She was the youngest of eight children being baptised that day, and none of them cried. She wore the same baptismal gown that Gabby wore for her baptism and that I wore when I was baptised as a baby. So, the dress and bonnet have some significance.

Giuliana's godparents live out of state and weren't able to make it to the baptism, so our family was joined by two sets of grandparents and our au pair, Sarah, to witness and celebrate the baptism.

Gabby and Rocco were a little busy during the service, but they didn't create any big scenes (even after Rocco knocked his head on the pew ahead of us and didn't cry!) so I considered that a big success.

Rocco fell asleep on the way home from church so he missed soccer, and Gammy and Papa didn't get to see him play. But, when he woke up we ate brunch, cake and then we all went over to Gabby's soccer practice to watch her.

Giuliana was SUCH a good little girl all day. She looked SO darling her little dress... a bit amish, actually, with the bonnet. ;)

Rocco's 2.25 Birthday Party!

Finally… Rocco celebrated his second birthday with some of his little friends!!

Forget the fact that he’s actually two and a quarter… he was so happy to finally have a party! For an entire week preceding the party, Rocco kept saying “I want my birthday party!” and “I want birthday cake!” while jumping up and down with huge, super-cute puppy dog eyes.

The party was at a local park, the weather was gorgeous and we were joined by wonderful friends and family. Some of Rocco’s friends that were able to join us included Kiya, Livi, Maddy, Ewan, Kyle, Leo and Van. Sadly, some of his other current best pals (Giovanni, Sofia, Leah and Ayla).



The birthday cake took a beating. The minute we took it out of the box, Rocco pushed the train into the cake and swiped his fingers into the frosting to taste-test it. Luckily, we managed to get a couple photos of us with him and the cake before the sun decided to melt the frosting off the front side of the cake. Yummmm. After eating and playing for a while, we eventually lit the candles, sang the birthday song and let Rocco blow out his candles. Surprisingly, Rocco acted shy as we sang to him, but then he jumped at the chance to blow out the candles. Seconds later, the cake was covered in kid spit and finger/handprints. Hmmm… wonder why none of the adults wanted cake?!


Is it strange that Gabby and Rocco were the only two kids whose faces and upper bodies looked like they had been dipped in frosting? Literally – they were both covered in frosting.

We also did the piñata thing. Only, the Martino’s tend to always add our own excitement to things like this. First of all, we forgot a string to hang the piñata from. So, Dan decided to hold it with his hand. Yeah… brilliant, I know.

The piñata was so strong that after two rounds of all the kids trying to crack it open, Dan decided he would just smash it himself. He of course ended up hitting his own hand that was holding the piñata. I’m laughing as I type this. It was hilarious and very strange at the same time. And, to make things even more interesting, Dan took another swing and the end of the club he was using flung off and flew right between two au pairs, Sarah, and Noris, and into a sand pit. It looked like a scene from a movie as they both had super-quick reflexes to lean ever so slightly and miss the flying club. And, it landed in a sand pit where kids play. Imagine the shock and horror we would have caused had Mr. Martino knocked out an innocent bystander. Sheeesh. I assure you… nobody was hurt. But, it was hilarious and we were all laughing so hard.


Anyway – the party was a success and our little dude finally celebrated the big TWO!

Rocco's first day of PRESCHOOL!

Rocco started school today.

It was a day of mixed emotions for me. I was very excited for Rocco, as he is socially more than ready to be in a pre-school environment. I was sad though too… because Matteo should have started school today too. He would have loved it. He would have loved all the new toys, new friends, and eating lunch with lots of other little people. It was also a little difficult today knowing that the day Rocco started school is the ten month anniversary of Matteo’s last day with us.

I can’t believe it’s been ten months since Matt died. So many emotions. So many thoughts. So many feelings I can’t even begin to share in this sort of forum.

Rocco was very excited this morning. I drove him to school and told him how proud I was of him for staring school. Then, he went on to ask about who else was proud of him. It was so cute…

The second we got into the classroom he was off grabbing big airplane toys and then he moved on to animals… making them talk to each other. I could also see he was interested in the other kids in the classroom and he started talking with them as I was leaving the classroom. They of course looked at him like “Who’s the new kid and why is he talking to us?”

I tried to get a kiss and hug out of him before I left, but he was too focused on the toys. So I left. I looked in from outside the classroom door and he looked at me through the glass. I waved at him. I blew him a kiss. But, he just looked at me. He probably thought “Huh. What’s my mom doing out there and why is she being so sappy. Why doesn’t she just come back in here and watch me play?”

Dan went over to the school around the lunch hour so he could bring a few things that I forgot to bring this morning. As he entered the class, the teacher signaled for him to leave and she went out to talk with him. Apparently, they had just come in from outside and Rocco was VERY upset that he had to go back inside. Dan asked how Rocco was adjusting and if he was behaving. Miss S said Rocco threw a couple playground balls over the fence while outside, but other than that he was doing well.

Apparently, Rocco ended up seeing Dan. And, as Dan was leaving he saw Rocco get his sad *I’m about to cry face* and then Dan heard a very loud “I WANT MY DADDY!!!”

I picked Rocco up at the end of the day and he was laying on one of the nap mats with Miss J sitting next to him. My first thought was that he must not be feeling good. But, Miss J said he had just fallen asleep not too long ago. She said he didn't nap during naptime. Instead, he would cry a little, and whine "I want my mommy" in between looking at a book and playing with a truck. One hour into the nap, he started crying really hard so Miss J took him outside to play ball and water plants and then he was fine. But, then when she had to bring him inside again I guess he was pretty upset and had a little tantrum. Uh oh!

Miss J told me he finally started to fall asleep on Miss S's shoulder during story time at 4:45pm. Poor kid - he must have been exhausted!

I'm still shocked the little guy didn't nap! Especially since the school nap is the same time as his nap at home. But, I'm pretty sure he was not a happy camper mainly because he couldn't nap in HIS bed with his football blanket.

Looks like Rocco might need some time to adjust to this "school" thing. Hopefully, he'll adjust fast because it's hard on mommy too!

Regardless, we're so PROUD of our little, big boy today for starting school!! YAY ROCCO!!

She's ROLLING!

Giuliana started rolling from tummy to back on Monday! We're so proud of our little angel and can't believe she'll already be 4 months old in another week.