Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Vince came home from kindergarten today and showed me his favorite St. Patrick's Day project

It's hard to believe our first born little baby boy is so big, and flying through his kindergarten year.

He's changing and growing so much every day.  Before I know it, days go by and weeks march on before I realize he's not so little anymore.  So when he was excited to show me his leprechaun mask from today, I initially was about to keep rushing around the kitchen frantically getting things done for the next day.  But I stopped, and we snapped this photo, and he shared with me all his stories of the day... And that was so much better then tackling the kitchen duties.. Which could wait.

Vince's 2nd Birthday

Vince turned 2 years old on June 17th! I still can't believe how the time has flown by, and our little baby boy has turned full fledged into a toddler. His birthday was on a Thursday, so he spent it at daycare. We made it a fun day for him and his friends at school as Mike took some time off and went with all of them to get ice cream at Baskin Robins!

Here's everyone loaded up in the awesome little toddler cart that Vince's school has, equipped to carry 6 toddlers safely in belted seats. It's so ridiculously cute to watch these strollers carting around toddlers while the kids just hang out in their cart!

A chocolate faced Vince demanding more ice cream from Daddy, while buddy Jon looks on in mild shock.

Then at home that night we had our own little birthday celebration with a chocolate doughnut (of which he just played with more than ate). Happy birthday little man!!

The real celebration happened on Saturday in our backyard where we hosted about 40 adults and 20 kids to a day of eating and swimming and playing around in a jumpy castle. It couldn't have been a better day to have a pool birthday party! The sun was out, the sky was clear and the pool was nice and cool. I was praying for good weather on that day since I sent out the evite, and that's exactly what we got. It was a long fun day of running around and swimming, Vince made it through the whole day like a champ... no nap at all! Of course he fell asleep by about 6pm and that was it for him, but he pulled through like a little party animal!

We were so busy having fun and running around that I didn't even take one single picture of the whole day! I can't even post anything from that day! I do have a video of all of us singing happy birthday but the document is so large that I can't even down load it onto my computer... so oh well!! Does anyone happen to have any pictures from Saturday? If so, send them along!

And last but not least, here's the latest picture in our tradition of putting him in Mike's Italia t-shirt every year on his birthday! He's growing into it for sure!

June 2008

June 2009

June 2010

Did Vince Just Do That?!

I have a variety of special moments and events collected in my memories about things that Vince has done in the past few months.

Some things I'll never forget:

-The first time Vince actually wrapped his arms around my neck to give me hugs. (circa April/May 2009)
-Grabbing and eating off Daddy's apple instead of accepting the little birdie pieces that I was breaking off for him. (approx June 2009)
-Vince's smile when he sees me walk in the door after work. Then he does the super speed crawl over to me and climbs up my legs until he's standing... and won't leave me alone until I pick him for some hugs, holding his arms out up towards me
-Vince being very independent and wanting to use his own spoon for every meal (within the last month)
-The belly laughs that I can get out of him when I get down on the floor and tell him I'm going to get him.... he LOVES being chased, and completely cracks up! (what kid doesn't)
-The first time he started playing with toy cars and making the car noise along with it! His car noise consists of blowing raspberries with his lips, but you can get the gist of what he's trying to do... (July 09)
-Vince's first time making a house out of a cardboard box. This was from our new dishwasher that we got in July.


-Shaping Vince into a little Buddha when he fell asleep in his stroller (he only needs the lotus flower in the palms of his hands)


Our boy seems to definitely have a mind of his own, and it appears he's developing somewhat of a short fuse if he cannot do or get something that he wants. He gets so frustrated! I clearly see the motivation behind teaching babies/toddlers sign language now!!

It must be so hard for them to know what they want but not be able to say it or get us parents to understand! We need to practice more sign language with Vince... but for now, if he takes his arm and wipes it across his high chair table like a set of windshield wipers... making the food fall all over the place,... well we can pretty much make a safe bet that he's done eating!

Among the more recent tricks that Vince has been practicing these days, I've captured on camera how he has been trying so hard to use his spoon to eat. Here he is putting the food ON the spoon, and THEN using the spoon.... he's a genius.

If you cannot see the video below, then click on the following link:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Vince and His Buddy Adam

I wanted to share the pictures I put together of Vince and his buddy Adam, it's amazing to see how they already have so much history together!! I suppose it shouldn't be surprising. After all, they have both known each other since before they were born! Kathryn and I met in a hypnobirthing class, both determined to stay drug, epidural, and induction free. Vince came into the world last June, and Adam followed in August..... here's a shot of their first meeting. Vince is dressed to the nines to meet his buddy for the first time... and makes sure to give him the heads up of what the first 2 months of life are all about. Adam is listening intently as you can see:


Getting together outside on a nice sunny day! We did this a lot while the weather was nice last year!

Together at the hypnobirthing class reunion in December 2008

Though they've been friends for quite some time now, they never really actually acknowledged each other's presence very much until quite recently.... here's one of the first few shots of them shaking hands:

And then of course there was their first Halloween:

Our first visit to a pumpkin patch.... and here they are completely exhausted, we found them tucked away in a little corner, sleeping.

Here's when they decided to wait up for Santa, just to see if he was real! They figured they wouldn't miss him if they just pulled up their chairs and sat by the tree until Christmas

Practicing how it will be with two kids in tow!

Another fun day out in the sun!

Old pals, sharing everything including each other binkies. Vince, don't look so surprised!

Playing together at the Children's Museum this month:

This place was great! It's a life saver more for parents I think! There is a whole room dedicated to kids under 3, and also a separate part for "crawlers only".... where we could just let them go.

Adam even got in on Vince's first birthday cake! Vince wouldn't have had it any other way of course

3rd Anniversary, and the T-Shirt Tradition

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our third anniversary! It's been an awesome 3 years of marriage with Mike, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me; he's my hero and true love and I can't wait to spend many many more anniversaries with him!! We had a nice evening out at dinner, and then came back home and watched one of our Netflix movies (that has been sitting there for 4 months). I felt giddy about the idea of watching a movie again, and working through our Netflix que! How's that for how long it's been.

When we thought back on what we were doing at this time last year, our memories got fuzzy... as we were totally sleep deprived new parents to a 1 week old little Vince! To see the picture from last year click here; I must say we look a little more held together than I remember being.

Now, on to the t-shirt tradition. When Vince was born we took a picture and posted it of him in his Daddy's t-shirt.... and we plan on taking a picture every year in that same t-shirt until he basically doesn't let us do it anymore! I predict that's how this tradition will end up dying out... when Vince has had enough of it. Until then....

Vince: 2 weeks old

Vince: 12 months old

Happy Easter!

Vince had a good time meeting Ms. Easter Bunny, here's one of the better photos with the two of them together... and his signature hat (thanks to Nonna!). It was no small miracle that the photographers were able to get a shot of Vince both without trying to accost the bunny and without trying to take his hat off!

The poor Easter Bunny ended up getting dragged a few times by the ears when Vince was able to get a good grasp and manage a good pull of a couple 3-4 inches before we were able to run over and stop him. Luckily Ms. Easter Bunny was pretty chill about it all.

Here's a few more fun photos from the photography session. We had so much fun getting Vince to smile (it's never that hard).

Here's our little mini man obviously stating that he's number one!

The sweetest little face!

Getting tickled by the flower!

Here's an untouched-up shot of Vince at the beginning of an ear grab

OK, now MAYBE he looks like a Vinnie here....

Vince practices his "gentle" stroke

Our Little Dracula

Vince's babysitter Kathryn noticed the other day that he had some top teeth coming in. Our baby is getting his baby teeth! When we hung him upside down to look at what was growing, while fighting giggles and wiggle worm movements, we saw that he looks sort of like Dracula! His canine teeth are coming in faster than the incisors, so it looks reminiscent of little fangs coming in. You may have to click on the picture from the blog itself in order to make it so you can see the little fangs shooting through. He'll be a carnivore for sure!

Some Random Pictures and a Milestone

After the whole house buying fiasco, the rest of our weekend has been pretty anticlimactic; save a scene from our local park, and Vince starting to pick up his own food. We stayed home for Valentine's Day and watched a Netflix movie while eating left overs, how depressing is that! We were thinking over the fall through of the house, but we are keeping our hopes up. We did manage to go on some nice walks as it was sunny outside although very cold with the wind!

Here's a great picture of Vince completely bundled up for our walk. He's got his winter hat, winter jacket and pants, and he's wrapped in his bundle me.... with a blanket under there too! Needless to say, he fell asleep during the stroll while we shivered through the park and ran for the sunny parts and out of the shade. We had fun trying to help this guy retrieve his inter tube from out on this frozen swampy part of the park. He had the bright idea of tying a rope to his car jack... and then throw it out to the tube in hopes of getting it inside the tube. Then he could reel it in. Well that didn't happen. He threw the car jack, it missed the inter tube and crashed through the ice like an anchor. He couldn't pull it out, even when Mike and he both pulled on the string (why didn't I get pictures!). We all went looking for rocks to throw and break the ice and the next thing we knew he was walking out there, breaking through the ice, and getting knee deep in ice water! I watched him fall at least once. It was like a scene from dumb and dumber.... he ended up getting his car jack and inter tube back though, but had to run for the car to keep his legs and toes from frostbite.

Getting Ready to Brave the Cold

Then on Sunday I was commenting on how big Mike's feet are and how small Vince's are... and I decided to get a comparison shot for the record. Is it possible that Mike's feet were ever that small!?

Mismatched sizes

Then last but not least, I captured a little milestone of Vince's first attempts at using his pincer grasp to grab little rice puffs and feed himself! Something again, we as parents are excited to see our son doing... but may not be so entertaining for the rest of the world. Here is the video if you are one of those pincer grasp enthusiasts. We think it's pretty cool. I tried to do it with little pieces of avocado as well but that didn't turn out so well. He just squashed the avocado in his hand and proceeded to smear it over the high chair. We'll try it again in the future!

Vince Shows Off His Opposable Index Finger

We Have A Tooth!

Last week I was running my fingers along Vince's gum line (you'd laugh at my to do list these days....) just to check if he has any teeth coming in. I felt a sharp little ridge on his bottom gums! I had to use a bit of pressure to feel it, but I had proof of the little tooth coming in when I checked the book he had just been chewing and saw little nicks where his lower gums were gnawing. Needless to say, his poor books are probably going to start getting more beaten up now that he is getting his choppers (or one chopper for now). There's no way I can get a picture of it yet, but stay tuned for that. He hasn't really been more fussy due to his teething, but he is getting a bit of diarrhea..... anyone know why those two may be linked? Anyway, this tooth is just reminding us of how fast he is growing!

Along the lines of how fast Vince is growing, I got a shot of him having a meal in his high chair for the first time last night. We tried putting the tray on but his little head barely went over the top and he couldn't see, so we ended up just feeding him without it. Thanks Grandma for the Santa hat!

Vince's Big Shoot

We took Vince to a portrait studio on Sunday to have some pictures taken before the holidays. Here's a couple of our favorites. You can click on the link below to see the entire album.

From Vince: December 2008

Santa!

On the way home from my parent's house this weekend, we stopped at the Natick Mall to get a photo with Santa. We figured the line would be relatively short on a Monday morning, and the mall was only 5 minutes out of our way. Here's Vince's first photo with Santa:

Vince looks pretty happy, but Santa, not so much. That's understandable, since Vince had a handful of Santa's beard 30 seconds before this picture was taken (FYI Santa's beard was very real.. not your garden variety fake one).

Vince Tackles Rice Cereal and Apples

Vince has recently been sucking down the bottles like a champ. He either has a hole in his leg where all the formula goes out, or his appetite is just getting too big for a liquid diet. In any case, he was in for a big surprise last week when I put a spoon full of rice cereal in his mouth. He started suckling on the spoon for a little bit, probably thinking it was a strangely shaped nipple... but it wasn't too long before he figured out it was food in a different form. Here are some recent photos and video of Vince with his new way of eating.

Here he is with the first couple tries, obviously stunned at this new experience

We were able to take a few classic shots with Vince's reaction to his first apples as well. He seemed to enjoy the new taste, but made a few faces that were reminiscent to what it may be like if we were to have put a juicy lemon in his mouth instead of sweet apples! It provided for about a good 45 minutes of entertainment for Mike and me. After a few bites of the apples he made it clear that he missed his bottle, so we gave up and he sucked down another 6 oz.

I swear, we didn't put lemon juice in these apples!

Vince: Lord of the Dance

Vince loves to kick his legs around as soon as his diaper comes off. It makes for a challenging time getting the new diaper on, but I have found that when he does his little leg dances that he reminds me of that Musical or play The RiverDance where all those dancers are kicking around but it seems their heads stay in one place. Here I've captured a few highlights of Vince's dancing career, this kid's got talent!

Here's a video of him cutting a rug on the changing table

Here's another video of him kicking it up in the bathtub. I happened to capture the nice shot of Mike almost losing Vince from his grasp as he lowers him into the tub.... but Alas he was fine. Disclaimer: yes, both Mike and I realize how dorky we have gotten about how we talk to our baby..... just try to ignore it if you can while you watch.

4 Month Visit

Yesterday Vince had his 4 month old well baby visit. This was going to include another horrible round of vaccinations, to which I would have rather avoided! I made Mike come out of an all day training in order to have him be there with us when he got his shots. He had it pretty rough the rest of the day, and from what I heard through Kathryn (our neighbor that watches Vince during the day) today was not so good either. Poor little guy, I feel so bad. We had some good times tonight though, with some smiles and lots of little giggles. I think he's on his way to being his old self again.

check the side column for the Stats on Vince's 4 month visit.

Vince is 4 Months Old!

Vince turned 4 months old on the 17th. Here are a couple of pictures:

Vince hanging out with Dad.

Rock on Vince, rock on

We Have a Milestone....

....but unfortunately it was not witnessed by either my husband nor I. I usually put Vince down on his tummy a lot so he can practice putting his head up. He's become pretty good at it when he wants to, and I'd say it's no small feat with the size of noggin that he has. His head has rapidly become proportionately bigger than the rest of his body, and he sometimes reminds me of the Charlie Brown character when I see him from the back of his head. Here's a good example:


So today I put him down in his little jungle gym, on his tummy so he could look at himself in the mirror. After I put him down, I went over to the table to do some work on the computer... from where I was I could see his feet kicking and moving about. I did about 30 seconds of work on the computer and looked up to see Vince's feet had turned from downward to upward! He was on his back! He had rolled over on his own and I missed it! I jumped up and went over to him and sure enough he was laying there looking up at me as if to say "didn't think I could do it, huh?" So I promptly tried to re-enact the scene but he wouldn't have any of that.... and he hasn't repeated the roll over yet so I don't know if/when we'll get to see it in person. I'm starting to think it was just a fluke, but I'm hoping for the best.

By the way, if you ever listen to Car Talk on NPR.... then you'll know Click and Clack... those witty brothers that will tell you how to (not) fix your car. Well, they were the Grand Marshalls at the Honk Parade that we went to last weekend and I just want to put their picture up for a tribute (even though they never waved to us). I'm not sure which is Click and which is Clack though, anyone have insight?