Ahhhhh... Minnesota!

I am so behind in blog posts... with several in the works. We'll start with the Minnesota trip summary!

Our extended vacation in Minnesota was near perfect. We left during my favorite season... Minnesota is so beautiful in the fall. The weather is perfect for being outside and running... high 70's with cool, crisp air in the morning and evening. And, everywhere you look trees are changing colors creating a really beautiful golden light.

The extended Minnesota trip allowed the kids to spend so much quality time with their grandparents. Time together that I could never put a price on. And, I know Gabby and Rocco will have so many memories from their time there. I really wish Giuliana could remember her time there too... good thing I took video and still photos. Someday I'll have to tell her all about how her and her Papa became best friends.

My parents on the other hand might read this and think to themselves "Yeah... priceless is right. We've been fixing or putting things back together ever since you left." Or, perhaps their memories will mostly be of putting every nick knack that they own up high, or removing tables from rooms, or rearranging their space completely to handle the circus that IS my family. While I think we completely interrupted their lives for much longer than orginally planned, I do think my parents also enjoyed it. A little? Maybe?

We also got to spend lots of time with our MN cousins, see our China cousins, and I got to see and have dinner/lunch dates (without kids!) AND play dates with many wonderful friends of mine from high school, college and my childhood.

Some of the fun stuff we did:
*One trip to the Minnesota Zoo (which is AWESOME!)
* One trip to an apple orchard
* Lots of swimming in the lake
* Lots of boat rides
* Lots of rides on Papa's cool ATV... even driving up & down the street and into the lake
* Numerous trips to the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum (many of these with Gammy to explore the cool stick play structures)
* Gabby & Rocco had two trips to the cinema w/their daddy, seeing "Toy Story III" and "Despicable Me"
* Lots of time spent playing and having family dinners with our MN cousins. Lots of dress up, building forts, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, playing music, and putting shows together.
* One special day spent with our cousins who live in Shanghai (just happened to fly through MN a few days after we arrived).
* Lots of story time with Gammy
* Uncle Dave brought his RC plane out so he could fly it for Rocco. Rox thought this was SO COOL!
* Lots of play dates with my friend's children
* Weekly trips to Open Gym @ the local gymnastics academy
* Gymnastics classes (for both Gabby & Rocco)
* Gabby went to her first play with Gammy, Papa and two cousins to see "The 1,000 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins"
* One trip to the ER for Rocco. Rocco thought it would be a great idea one day to essentially climb the Empire State building to get to the vitamin cupboard. Long story short, he was fine. Not even sure he actually swallowed any vitamins or not. The vitamins he reached were thankfully, non-toxic. But, we brought him in just to make sure he was ok and wouldn't need further action.
* One trip to the ER for Gammy. Gammy broke her foot on the last day we were there because she stepped on a toy at the bottom of the stairs. ACK! I felt and still feel AWFUL about this!
* McDonald's for dinner. This might not sound interesting, but my kids didn't even know what McDonald's was last winter. By Spring, Dan had taken Gabby on two occasions because he thought it was odd she didn't know what it was. Rocco had never eaten McDonald's before Minnesota. Gabby prefers the chicken nuggets (made from every part of the chicken and over processed and then filled with flavoring... yum... sounds delish, right?! YUK!). Rocco prefers the cheeseburger (is there really meat in it?).
* Helped uncle Dave celebrate his 40th birthday... this included singing Happy Birthday to him about 20 times.


Some of the funnier and more memorable moments include:
* Rocco asking every day "Can I see your big planes, papa?"

* Gabby helping me sort through my mom's closet. We were getting rid of a lot of her clothes... and Gabby said "Well Gammy... your legs are still good. You can keep your legs."

* At dinner one night, after we were in Minnesota for 2 or 3 weeks, Gabby said to Gammy and Papa "So, how long are you planning on staying here?" (guess she got to thinking it was OUR house! ha!)

* Gammy teaching Giuliana to accept and eat jarred baby foods.

* Giuliana developed so much while we were there! Not only did she learn to crawl while we were there, but she also learned to pull herself up to a standing position. Such a strong girl! She also said her first "Hi!" and did her first clapping while in Minnesota.

* Gabby made several *MN best friends* - Ava, Abby and Becca.

Pictures to come - hope to post tomorrow!

Rocco Bocko Update

Rocco has changed so much in the past year... so many things have happened and he has weathered a storm most children never have to face.

This child melts my heart! He has me completely wrapped around his darling little fingers. I am so proud and completely in love with him.

So, here's a little update on Rocco:
Favorite food: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with Oscar Meyer hot dogs. He will often request this for breakfast and eat the entire package. Oh, and his other favorite food is whatever is on YOUR plate. Seriously, if he sees you eating something... he will climb into your lap and say "Can I have a bite?" This kid eats a LOT of food.

Current favorite toys: Nerf gun, hot wheel cars & trucks, his bike, any type of ball

Favorite books: Any book about trains, airplanes, cars and trucks and "Goodnight, Gorilla!"

Cute words I hope he never says correctly: bamano = banana, bider = spider, booky house = spooky house, juninana = giuliana, capapilar = catapillar, lightny makqueen = Lightning McQueen, alligator = elevator, gray-ma = grandma, kwirl = squirrel, miter circle = motorcycle, gunk = skunk

Sleep patterns: Rocco is our best little sleeper! He'll sleep from 8:45pm'ish to 7:30am'ish. He used to fall asleep within 10 minutes of us putting him in bed and we never had issue of him trying to get out of bed or trying to stall bedtime. However, after having spent the past 3 months sharing a bedroom with his sister, he has learned the wonderful art of delaying bedtime. What a circus! I am SO EXCITED for them to once again have their own bedrooms and for the nightly circus act to be put to a stop. Rocco is also still a GREAT napper. We'll usually nap him around 1pm and he's pretty consistent with napping for at least 2 hours.


















Nick names: Rox, Rocko Bocko, Rocky, Rocquito

Favorite treats: Oreo cookies, Starburst, donut holes,

Best friend: If you ask Rocco who his best friend is, he'll say "Tato". So, while I think Gabby is truly Rocco's best friend, he still also amazingly considers Matteo his best friend too.

First haircut: August 2010 (@ 31 months of age)

Does he remember Matteo? Not 100% sure if or what his memories are of Matteo. He knows who Matteo is... he has no problem identifying Matteo in photos or videos. If you ask Rocco who is brother or twin is, he'll say "Tato". We also talk about Matteo every day so I know it is always a topic that is front-of-mind. For about a month now, he'll often come up to me out of the blue and say "Mommy, Matato just die." He does this most often at bedtime. He knows that when he sees mommy cry, it is because she misses Matteo. He also knows that Matteo has a special star in the sky and that Matteo sits on the moon at night and watches us. Matter of fact the first night we were in Tahoe, we went out to find his star and we could see a million stars. I kid you not. We saw more stars every night in Tahoe than I can ever remember seeing on any given night in my life. It was so beautiful! Anyway, Rocco said "LOOK!! There's a lot of Matteo's up there!" And perhaps there were... perhaps the little guy was surrounding us at one of those times when we needed it most.

Some funny things about Rocco:
When Rocco wants something or wants to show me something, he will physically grab me, and pull me saying "Come here mom... turn THIS way!"

When Rocco wants something, and he wants it now... he'll say "Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I...." until you give it to him or tell him he can have it. VERY persistent, this child.

Lately, if he's upset with me or Dan or even Gabby about something... he'll go up to whoever and say something like "Listen you little man... ". Yes, we are all called "you little man".

When he is mad at you, or upset about a situation he will yell "I NEVER!" And, if he's really mad, he'll yell "I never, never, NEVER!"

Rocco has a serious appetite in the morning. Some of the first words from his mouth every day are "MOM... feed me." Or, "I. NEED. SOME. FOOOOOOOOD." One morning in July while we were staying in Tahoe, I woke up to Rocco yelling from his bedroom "MOOOOOM! I. NEEEEEED. SOME. FOOOOOOD?" followed by a growl.

Funny things he's done in the past 8 months
Missing banana bread: I had just made banana bread and put it on the counter to cool. Two hours later, I couldn't find it anywhere in the kitchen. It seemed very suspicious but I thought Dan had either eaten it or put it somewhere I just hadn't looked. Very odd. Later that afternoon, I was putting toys away in Rocco's room and sure enough... there was the banana bread... under his bed, shoved up against the wall, with huge bites taken out of the center of it.

Screen door tackle: I was on the phone with a friend while we were at the Tahoe rental house. I was watching Rocco press his face up against the screen door and move his hands across the screen. I watched him as he ran away from the screen towards me. Next thing I saw was Rocco running by me at mock speed and he ran right into the screen door, sticking it like he was sacking Tom Brady. I couldn't believe my eyes. Seriously. What on EARTH?! He was fine, of course. The door? Not so much... it flew completely off it's track and we had to replace it. I am still not sure why he did that... maybe he thought it was like a trampoline and he would bounce off. I don't know. Crazy kid.

Ladder jumping: One of the first days we were at my parents house Rocco discovered a ladder standing up in the back yard. (And, yes, this was when my parents were still learning that having my kids in their home was like having 3 monkeys in their house.) My mom looked over and saw that Rocco had climbed to the top of the ladder. She was full of panic and ran over to the bottom of the ladder yelling "Rocco you need to get down." Well... next thing you know, Rocco jumped off the top of the ladder and landed into my mom's unsuspecting arms. Gosh... it's such a funny thing NOW! But honestly, I am still shocked that he didn't flatten her like a pancake when he jumped AND that she actually caught him.

Gun rules: One of Rocco's new favorite toys is a Nerf gun. He kept shooting people with the foam Nerf bullet at my parents house and papa was very worried that he would shoot Giuliana. It doesn't hurt - but we didn't want it to get her in the face. Anyway, Papa told him the rule was that you couldn't shoot people or Papa would take the gun away. Rocco of course had to test this. So, he threatened to shoot Papa, each time Papa saying "Don't do it... I'll take it away." Rocco shot Papa. Papa took the gun away. Rocco cried very, very hard. The next day... Papa put the gun out for Rocco to have again. Rocco was SO happy to see it. My mom and I said "Rocco, now what is the rule with the gun." He stopped, looked at us very seriously and said "Don't. Shoot. The Papa." It was hilarious. We had to tell him... "No, don't shoot people!"

Picking up on girls: Believe it or not, Rocco has pick-up lines. When we were still living in Los Gatos, a few girlfriends were over and they would ask him a question and he would say "I play football all the time." They'd ask him another question and he would say "I throw football really high." or "I throw football really far." This went on and on. He wouldn't answer any of their questions... just kept grinning at them, smiling and talking about football. When they were gone, he said "Mommy... where your friends go?"

Then, when we were in Minnesota, we think he sort of had a thing for his cousin Emily. We were suspect of this when he started following her around and listening to her direction so well. Then, one night when she arrived, Rocco went up to her and said "I sweaty. I went for a run. I got my running shorts on." (while swaying back and forth). At that moment, we knew it was a crush.