Time to brag....

Matt takes Rocco to a Tiny Tots class full of two year olds on Saturdays.  So today the teacher was reading a story that had a picture of a construction type truck in it and the teacher called it a crane.  Rocco climbed off Matt's lap, walked to the teacher, pointed to the "crane" and said, "that's an ex-ca-va-tor!"   Stunned faces all around.  I.LOVE.HIM!

Liv and D

I wish I knew how to make this picture bigger....one reason being to illustrate what thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of orthodontic work can do to a smile.  They both have perfect teeth!  Lucky little spoiled jerks!  :)  I am so proud of these two wonderful people...it has been such a pleasure to be their mom and I have such high hopes for their futures.  It is hard to believe that they were once so little and dependent on me for every little thing...it is a bittersweet feeling to know that they will soon venture out into the world as independent adults.  Sigh...tear....sigh....I did my best...made a ton of mistakes but I loved them madly through it all and still love them so much it hurts.  I cherish everyday that they still live in my house and have told them both they can stay until they are 30...and I mean it with all my heart.   To my Liv and my D...thank you for filling my heart with such intense joy and pride.  Love, Mommy

Easter

 Grandpa D surprised Rocco and Roman with a sandbox for Easter.

 Easter Bunny brought the toys

 D eating his Easter dinner and refusing to look at me.  :)

 Olivia's Easter basket.  The Easter Bunny still visits the teenagers...

Does he ever wear a shirt?

 Yes, that is a Justin Beiber doll.  It sings and she was thrilled!

 Coloring eggs with Grandpa

A few pictures from Easter....

Shenendoah!

Matt and I decided to take a mini-trip with the babies to Shenendoah National Park.  The park borders the Blue Ridge Mountains and is part of the Appalachian Trail...basically a big, beautiful forest!  I researched the area and found that they are home to Black Bears...the website gave all sorts of information on what to do if you see a bear...um...that was a little intimidating!  We were told as long as we stayed on the hiking trails and brought a noisemaker we would be fine.  So, we brought Rocco!  A perfect noisemaker!  We really felt like we were "roughing it" because our room lacked a TV, Wifi and a mini-fridge.  How would we survive?!  We had a great time and so did our little boys.  

 "Roughin' it" with the laptop.  Rocco loves his Curious George DVD!

 View from our porch

 Our room. :)

 Matt's cocktail in a plastic cup.  Real classy!

 Cuddling on the patio waiting for sunset.

 Blue night sky

 Black bear in a tree!  Can you see him?  He was so high up in that tree!

 Black bear again. I need a better camera!

 Road trip...Rocco holding RoRo's bottle for him.  So sweet....

 The winding road shot.

Coolest baby ever.

Happy Hikers

We decided to take advantage of a beautiful, spring day!  We are surrounded by woods that have fun and easy hiking trails.  A few pics of our adventure.

                                                        Roman in the baby hiker

 

                                           Daddy and his boys

                                                        Exploring pinecones!

                                                        Happy face!

                                                        Exploring "flowers"

                                                        Taking a rest

                                                        He kept trying to jump up on this bench!

                                                        Feeling small among the trees...

Sun through the treetops.  Beautiful!

Precious, patient, Pee-U and undies!

Rocco- "Hi Mommy"
Me- "Hi Rocco"
Rocco- "You are so precious to me Mommy."
Me- big pile of mush, I would have literally bought that kid a pony right then if he asked me to.

Rocco and his Baaf (Grandma) watching a movie.  Rocco is anxiously awaiting his favorite part.

Rocco- "Unkeys (monkeys) dancing Baaf?"
Baaf- "It's coming up Rocco."
Rocco- "It's sooo hard to be patient Baaf."
She looked at me like a deer in the headlights, regained her composure and told him he was doing good being patient.
....where does he get this stuff?

Daddy- "Rocco, do you want a waffle."

Rocco-"No waffle daddy, pee-U."

Pee-U now refers to anything that Rocco finds distasteful...a taste, a smell, even a trip bye bye that he is not interested in.  I asked him tonight if he wanted to go with Daddy to take D to practice.  Rocco said, "No, pee-U."  He.is.hilarious!

This is Rocco making the difficult decision of which undies to wear today.  He looked them all over, murmered, "hmmmm" a few times and then settled on his plain whites, which were yellow within the hour...he lights up my life!

The boys!

Today was Rocco's 2 year checkup (we are a little behind) and Roman's 6 month well check.  What a complete contrast in personalities we have with these two!  Rocco was a mess, stressed out, upset, traumatized by the mere thought that a stranger (doctor) would dare come near him with a stethoscope, thermometer, scale, measuring tape etc.  Roman could have cared less...we actually used Roman as an example for Rocco.  "See Rocco, it's ok, Roman is happy and smiling."  Rocco screamed, cried and fought every step of the way.  Roman was calm, cool and collected.  He even beamed at everyone when he was seated on the baby scale.  He grabbed the sides of it, looked up at us and smiled his signature open mouthed grin.  He was quite proud of his new seat!  And the scale reported a whopping 21 lbs, 2 oz!  He measured in at 27 inches.  90% percentile for height and weight.  He is solid and chubby and so very huggable!  Rocco weighs 30 pounds and is 37 inches tall.  He is in the 50th % for weight and the 97th% for height.  Tall and skinny, just like daddy!  They both got two shots...not surprisingly Roman cried for about 20 seconds..Rocco is still crying...hours later!  He did stop for a few hours in between...they are so very different and so very loved.