They need to have POWERS!

Gabby recently asked Rocco if he was going to marry some of the little girls we know. Rocco immediately said "NO!" When asked why he wasn't going to marry them, Rocco replied "Because they don't have POWERS!" We asked what kind of powers his future wife needs to have and he said "fire powers!"

Gabby thought this was hilarious, as did the rest of us. This little guy is obsessed with super heroes and powers. OBSESSED!! Batman is like the ultimate everything in this house and there is constantly background theme music playing in our house... not from the TV or radio... but from little Rocco's mouth... "Er er er errrrrrrr... dun dun dun duunnnnnnnnn". It is constant.

We've asked Rocco numerous times since if he might marry someone... mommy, Gabby, his little friends. But, he continues to stand strong that "no, I will not marry anyone who does not have powers".

So... little ladies of the world... please know that if you would like to ever marry Rocco, you must have powers. No powers. No Rocco.

Oh, and apparently Gabby is obsessed with weddings or marriage (probably due in part to the recent royal wedding!), because this morning Gabby told Rocco that she was going to marry Batman someday. Rocco got really upset about this and said very loudly "you can't marry Batman cuz he's my best friend!"And so it begins... let's hope there is no future "love" interest in each others friends 12 years from now!

Visit from Gammy & Papa in May

My mom and dad visited us at the beginning of May. It was my mom's second trip to visit us, and my dad's first. They decided to visit us over the Mother's Day holiday and my birthday. I think this is the second Mother's Day I've spent with my mom in the past 12 years.

We really didn't do anything special... but rather, just enjoyed time together in our new house and the yard. The kids were excited to take Gammy and Papa on walks, show them the forest, play with them on their new swing set, cuddle them while watching cartoons, they read lots of books together, and just enjoyed easy, unplanned fun.

Rocco got to ride the tractor lawnmower with Papa... Giuilana went on numerous wagon rides with Gammy, and Gabby showed everyone her dance routines and gymnastics moves.

Dan was in the midst of making chicken tikka for our Mother's Day dinner and the glass P.yrex pan he was using to broil the chicken literally exploded into a million pieces the second he took it out of the oven and set it down. So... we spent the next half hour cleaning up all the glass and keeping the kids away from the excitement. And, then we ended up getting takeout for dinner.

We also managed to get two half-decent photos of my parents with the kids. Seems like it is next to impossible for all of my kids to look in the direction of the camera at any given time.

A New Swing Set!

We got a new swing set for the kids... at the beginning of April. Yes, I am very behind in my blogging!

I have been very busy with the kids, being a taxi drive, being a wife, doing part-time contract marketing work, training for a marathon, interviewing for new au pairs, organizing our first ever benefit for Matteo's Dream Fund, and living, breathing and trying to get sleep when I can. It's been BUSY here!!

So, here I am.... trying to catch-up!

The kids love the new swing set. We got it from Costco and had them build it so we didn't have to stress daddy out since he's been REALLY busy with work these days too.

The kids LOVE IT!! It has a double slide, swings, a climbing wall, a fort, and monkey bars. Gabby's favorite thing is the monkey bars, Rocco loves the slides and swings, and Giuliana likes the slides best too.

The big kids love to hold their baby sister down the slide. Gabby is literally like a monkey on the monkey bars... it amazes me how strong this girl is. And, Rocco just recently was able to go all the way across the monkey bars without any help - he was SO PROUD of himself, as he watches his big sister do this all the time and constantly tries to do what she's doing. Rocco still makes us push him on the swing (for some reason, refuses to pump his legs... lazy?), but is the biggest goofball on the slide going down headfirst on his tummy, climbing up the slides and just being his usual clown self. Giuliana watches the big kids and laughs and eagerly tries to do the things that they're doing.

The kids still also use the old clubhouse (Giuliana now uses this most, of course) and the trampoline. But the new swing set has sort of stolen the show in recent months! It's nice to have the space to have a big play area for the kids right in our yard.

Here are a few photos of the kids having fun!

The Easter Bunny visited...in April! Just catching up!

The Easter Bunny Came…. in April, of course!

In typical fashion, we colored eggs with the kids and our au pair on Easter eve. We colored eggs, painted eggs, dropped eggs and broke eggs. We put on bunny ears and took goofy pictures and just had a lot fun together.

The kids went to bed VERY excited to find out if the Easter Bunny would visit. Gabby told me she asked the Easter Bunny for a puppy… so I had to tell her that puppies and dogs sometimes “catch” bunnies. So, the Easter bunny might not bring a puppy because of the conflict of interest. Let’s hope that excuse keeps working for a few more years. Last thing we need to add to our already chaotic lives right now is a dog!

Easter Sunday was nice. The kids woke up and were of course very excited to search the house for their Easter baskets. The Easter bunny usually hides the baskets in funny spots throughout the house. And, this year, he hid a lot of eggs filled with candy outside in the yard… so we spent some time searching for those as well. The kids had so much fun with this and Gabby and Rocco raced around the yard trying to find eggs. We had to put Giuliana in front of a few eggs and point at them to get her interested. She was hooked after she opened one egg and found a jelly bean. Gotta love the power of sugar, right?!

Good friends joined us that afternoon for another egg hunt with all the kids (7 total). Everyone brought more eggs which resulted in a giant egg hunt in our yard. We must have hid 100 eggs and the kids spent a good 30 minutes running around the yard filling their baskets with eggs. It was a lot of fun to watching them run around with so much excitement. Then, we had a really nice typical Easter dinner… ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, salad, etc.

Hawaii Vacation!!

Someone stop the clock! I literally do not have enough time in the day anymore... 10 extra hours per day would be perfect.

Time to do some catching up with the blog...

We took the family to Hawaii back in mid-April. It was such a great trip and we all had a great time. We stayed at the perfect place for our family right on Waikiki Beach. Our resort had 6 pools, water slides, several kid-friendly poolside restaurants with great food... and of course, Waikiki beach which is super kid-friendly. It was perfect for us because all we did was go to the pool, the beach and eat.

Gabby could not get enough of the pool and the ocean... I think she became part Mermaid on this trip. Rocco was timid in the water at first... but by the end of our trip he was also swimming like a little fish (with his Speedo jacket on, of course) and getting so brave as to jump into the pool and try to swim to the wall himself. Giuliana just loved playing in the pool on the steps with her water toys, she liked me holding her in the water while chasing the big kids and she LOVED playing in the sand on the beach. Rocco's favorite part about the beach was digging in the sand... he wasn't a huge fan of going out in the ocean and preferred to be held when we went out deep. Gabby preferred swimming in the ocean to playing on the beach... and she probably was more brave with going out farther than her daddy would have liked her to be doing.

Gabby and Rocco made their very own lei (flower necklaces) and I made one for Giuliana. Then, the kids wore them around the resort for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Gabby and I also took a hula lesson. Gabby didn't want to do it at first and she ended up telling us later that the only reason she didn't participate at first was because she wasn't wearing a dress! What am I going to do with this girl when she becomes a teenager!? Yikes!

We ate ice cream every day and the kids got to hold real, live parrots... and we told them the guy who owned them was a real live "good" pirate, as he very fittingly had a missing tooth, some tattoos, a bandana on his head, no shirt, ratty shorts and a leather pouch hanging off his side.

We had numerous embarrassing moments. One night at dinner Rocco got bored so he thought it would be a great idea to throw food at another table during dinner one night. Thankfully, they were not offended (they thought it was funny, which was good - but not good). The next day during lunch, Rocco spilled an entire tall glass of chocolate milk all over our table, his chair, himself and the floor... seconds after it was delivered. Not even 8 minutes later, just after the milk was cleaned up, they delivered food to our table and Gabby somehow flipped her entire plate of food off the table... food everywhere, plate shattered.... Dan and I just looked at each other and started pinching each other hoping it was a bad dream. You know... lots of funny moments like this. But, nobody got lost on an elevator (last summer's drama), so it was all good.

We ate off the resort one night with Kevin and his wife. Kevin and Dan have a long history and since Kevin grew up on the island... he knows the great "local" restaurants. So, we met him at a hole in the wall Japanese restaurant one night... and the food was AMAZING. Thank goodness for that... because we met them for dinner when our kids were used to sleeping. So all 3 of our kids literally fell asleep during dinner and Dan and I both had a child in arms, and one in the stroller. The food was soooo good though - it was worth it.

It was a GREAT trip! GREAT memories. Lots of fun. Well worth the money and energy it takes to travel with 3 little people. We sure do miss our little Matteo though. Dan & I couldn't help but comment a million times how we missed him, how he should have been there. And, of course we find ourselves commenting about what we thought he would have liked, or what he would have been doing, and how things SHOULD have been. No matter how much fun there is to be had... there will always be a hole in our hearts.

Giuliana is 15 months old!

Giuliana had her 15 month Well Baby appointment right before we left for Hawaii (mid-April). She hadn’t been to the doctor since her one year appointment in January – and that was a good thing! Prior to that, we were at the doctor every week (sometimes twice a week) to treat her constant ear infections. Poor baby! Getting tubes put in her ears have been such a good thing for this little lady. She has had several colds since January… and not one ear infection! Hooray!

Clearly, not having ear infections is good for a child’s appetite because Giuliana has been eating like a champ since her tubes were put in. On some occasions she’ll eat more for a meal that Gabby or Rocco do. Since she’s been such a great eater – I was convinced she would have gained a lot of weight and impressed Dr. C. [In January, Dr. C was not happy with her low weight percentage (3^rd %ile).]

But, I think this girl is just genetically meant to be long & lean at this point in her life… because even while eating like a champ, she’s still barely on the weight chart and at the top portion of the height chart. Here are Giuliana’s 15 month stats:

Weight: 17lbs 15oz (3^rd %ile)

Height: 30 inches (75^th %ile)

Head: 18.5cm (75^th %ile)

Giuliana is not a big talker yet, but she is starting to show much more interest in speaking up for herself these days (instead of just screaming and pointing). She says “momma”, “mom”, “Hi”, “Hi baby”, “birdy”, and “bubba” (for pretty much any animal that she sees). She will also make sounds when you ask her what a horsey, dinosaur, kitty-cat and birdy say. She seems to also say her version of “thank you” every time you give her something… it sounds something like “tiku”.

The big kids adore Giuliana. And, she adores them. I think she has a special affection for Rocco…in the morning it is beyond adorable to watch the two of them constantly hugging each other and snuggling while they watch their morning cartoons. Rocco really plays the protective big-brother role with her… even telling his grandma recently “Don’t wiggle Junana… she’ll fall over” (and then of course, she fell over)… followed by “See… you DON’T WIGGLE JUNANA!!”

Giuliana’s two favorite rooms in the house are the pantry (with all the food snacks) and Gabby’s bedroom. She LOVES playing with all the dress-up necklaces in Gabby’s room, she loves playing with the doll house and all the doll house furniture, she loves baby dolls, and she likes pulling her clothing out of her dresser drawers and trying to put them on herself. She can flip through book pages for a half hour, talking as if she's reading it to you. She especially loves books with animal pictures. She also plays so well by herself... whether it's the play kitchen, baby dolls, the doll house or sitting at her little table with a snack while watching the big kids. She LOVES going outside to play… she especially loves wagon rides, stroller rides, riding down the slide, jumping and walking on the trampoline, getting pushed in her swing and finding slugs, snails and frogs in the yard. She loves coloring. Her favorite TV show is "The Wonder Pets" and "Batman" (she watches this with Rocco). She LOVES bath time with the big kids. The moment she hears “it’s bath time!”, Giuliana is the first to run screaming and running toward the stairs with overwhelming excitement. Giuls also gets VERY excited whenever we say “let’s go!”… whether we’re going outside or putting her in the car to drive somewhere… she screams and runs around the house with such excitement, it’s hard not to laugh. And, the second you buckle her into the car seat, she screams and laughs and is full of big smiles. Always so excited to be included and go somewhere. It’s truly so cute!

She is very shy with strangers. When people she doesn’t know say hi to her, she will act bashful and hide her face in my shoulder. However, the shyness completely disappears with her family… as she has no problem screaming at the big kids to get what she wants. She’ll push and pull and fight to get what she wants, sometimes really upsetting Gabby. This little monkey is sort of earning the nickname of “the biggest little bully in the house”.

We sure do love this little girl though! And, Dan can often be heard commenting “she is the prettiest little baby I have ever seen”.

Giuliana brings such joy and happiness to our lives. She is truly our little angel. She is gorgeous, funny, and full of personality. So loving and affectionate one minute and showing us her feisty side the next. I just love watching and observing her… it brings me such happiness.

We love you, Giuliana!!