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.  

Impromptu Birthday...

March 25th, 2011, at the demand of our two year old, we celebrated an "unbirthday."  Rocco enjoyed birthday cake the previous weekend at his friend Alex's party and he must have had a sweet tooth.  I heard Matt trying to tell him that it is not his birthday and that his birthday is in October.  Rocco ran up to me saying, "Rocco birthday, Rocco birthday cake and ice cream."  Who am I to pass up cake...so we sent sissy to the store.  When she came back we all sang Happy Birthday to Rocco...he was soooo happy.  I love seeing that happy face!  Cake and ice cream was shared by all.  Happy "unbirthday" Rocco!

Swimming in Baltimore

Matt and I decided to take an overnight trip to Baltimore just for fun.  It didn't really go as planned due to a conference of 1600 teenagers sharing the hotel with us.  As we tried to settle in for the night, those silly teens were outside our room yelling and banging and being obnoxious.  We ended up leaving and driving home but we did get a few cute shots of the boys in the pool.  They both love the water!

Baby Roman

Roman turned 6 months old yesterday.  He is such a happy, smiley boy.  At about 5 months he began rolling over.  He was very proud of himself and now he does it with ease.  These are a few of my favorite things about Roman:

1. When he first gets up in the morning, he lays in his crib making all sorts of noises.  I smile to myself as I listen to him on the baby monitor cooing and babbling happily to himself.  When I go in to greet him he smiles as big as he can and squeals in delight.  I love it!

2.  He loves to dance with his daddy.

3. He plays with his fat little feet and even gets them into his mouth.

4. He rolls onto his tummy and turns himself in all directions to look at you or to try to get at a fun toy.

5. He is patient with Rocco, who sometimes pats a little too hard or has trouble sharing.  Roman never cries, just looks at his big brother and smiles.

6. He has just started gathering all his strength to push himself forward...probably will crawl very soon!

7. He grabs my face and pulls me to him and holds me there tightly...he might just be trying to gnaw on my face...but I am gonna tell myself he is hugging and kissing me.

8. He looks like an angel when he sleeps.

9. He has the fattest thighs.

10. He is obsessed with his dad.  He holds his little arms out whenever he sees him.

And the rollover is complete!

Random...

Forgiveness and making peace with someone who harmed you doesn't mean it's over.  It in fact lingers forever because it changed the course of your life...in profound ways...and you may be left wondering who you would have been if you were kept safe and sound and whole...but you keep it inside and watch others put that person on a pedestal and glorify them while you are always just outside the circle.  And all you really want is validation and for a small time to just forget because you know acceptance is too much to ask for...and you know that because you were totally left out of the book...like you never existed...in that.....family.  And it's heavy...to be erased...

...and then you rejoice...because the smiles you see all day fill you back up...and through the pain...you learn and you celebrate the ones who are patient and loyal and solid...

These are my confessions...

1. I have an emotional attachment to sugar.  Soda, chocolate, candy, cake, ice cream, cookies...it has been my constant companion and it has never let me down.
2. I am two semesters away from my masters degree in Social Work.  I want to finish, but I have ZERO interest in doing social work.  Been there, done that and this is what I learned...some people just have a different idea of "normal" and they don't want help.  It is draining and exhausting work because I just used to work harder than my clients.  No thanks!
3. I LOVE the college vibe and that is the only reason I would finish.
4. If I ever work outside of the home again, it will be at a little shop with cute stuff and require very little effort.
5. I feel lost because I have no clue about my ancestors and my lineage on both sides.  I sometimes wish I came from a big annoying Greek family that all live near each other and that get together for every event no matter how small and celebrate with a huge meal and talk about visiting the motherland.  (sounds like a movie)
6. I have OCD.  I can trace it back to my childhood.  It was an escape from stress, tension and fear.  I count  the edges of things over and over.  Once, I started counting the edges of my ceiling fan and I just blanked out with my thoughts and my counting...when I "came to" I was up to 600.  That is just..wow...I convinced myself that I went from 20 to 520.
7.  After my little brother Jeremy died, my life became one big worry after another.  Before he died, I lived in an ignorant sort of bliss.  I felt untouchable and safe.  Those days are long gone...I am now in a constant state of awareness and worry.  Boo!
8. I don't believe those people who say they died, went to heaven and came back.  Look people, the brain reacts to trauma in crazy ways.  You saw a bright light, saw your loved ones and they told you it wasn't your time yet...you felt weightless and perfect...Trauma and morphine perhaps...
9. I want to live in the moment so bad!  It is hard to do.  My biggest daily challenge is adhering to this concept.
10.  I care way to much about what people think.
11.  I think Republicans are somewhat heartless, greedy and selfish.  Didn't Christ teach us to feed and clothe the poor.  The playing field isn't even, never has been.  Some folks are lazy, true that, but Christ didn't give us the right to make that judgement, he just said feed and clothe them.  NOW practice what you preach and share your good fortune based on your privleged status.  If the greedy and powerful practiced what they preached, there wouldn't be such a great need for government intervention.
12. I have strong political opinions.  (see #11)
13.  I am learning that open-mindedness is essential to attain peaceful resolutions.  The world is full of all kinds of people, for a reason.  If done correctly, we should all balance each other out.  Sadly, there is no balance....yet.
12. I want to travel to Italy and introduce my little boys to their "familia" there.
13. These confessions are for the sole purpose of entertaining Sue, and keeping my spirit alive after I am gone.  :)