Boys will be boys....right?

Look at my handsome little ham hock! Those great big eyes... oh what color will they be??

WARNING!! ABOUT TO GO OFF ON A TANGENT! I took the boys to Edinburough Park today to let Nico blow off some steam.. We met Grandma Corky there.. Nico is and always has been my little daredevil. He will usually try anything once (unless it is food related).. he loves to jump and climb and bounce and test himself and his limits. Does he get hurt sometimes... YES, but would I ever stop him....NO! Some parents look at me like I am crazy when he is teetering on the edge of a wall with a 5 ft drop off. I know he is only 2 but we always say "be careful, you could fall and get hurt".. then we let him make his own decision. Of course he has gotten hurt and had his share of bumps and bruises but I would have it no other way. I don't want to generalize because I have met some pretty woosie boys and some daredevil girls (I was one)... but Nico is ALL BOY. We were at Children's Museum yesterday and there was this little girl with her mom about to go down a slide. She had to be about 1 1/2 maybe a tinch younger and this slide was no big thang...possibly 7 feet long and not a steep incline. The mother literally held onto her hand at the top of the slide and was reaching down holding onto her about 1/2 way down the slide. My mother in-law Gina was at the bottom ready to catch her and her mother looked TERRIFIED. Both of us just wanted to scream "LET HER GO".. she slid down about a foot and a half and started crying... LORD. Meanwhile Nico and his cousin Geno start wrestling down the slide headfirst laughing and screaming the whole way.

OK so pictures to make my tangent above make sense... There is this wall in the gym area of the indoor park and it has two LARGE steps. When I say large (tall) I mean like over half of his height. It takes him quite a bit to crawl up them. So he is standing at the edge with his little toes hanging over the side and looks at me and raises his eyebrow as to say "Can I jump Mommy?".. I say "Go ahead, be careful".. so as you can see from the first picture, he is jumping down rather timidly..

"Oh ok... I got this. Let me crawl up and try it again"

"I better get a running start"

"Yeeeehaw"

"Weeeeeeeeeee"

"Alrighhhy then"

OK by this time I was practically peeing my pants laughing. Those three mothers in the picture below were looking at me with the most judgemental eyes for letting him catapult himself off the steps like that. They each had little girls, playing nicely, quietly...

This kid has a rough life!

The boys had to get their Twins gear and be prepared for the season!
Nico was not thrilled to be posing with his brother. I had to bribe him to sit there with PEZ.

Note to self- do not attempt to go to the Children's Museum w/ both boys unassisted :)

Hmmm, maybe this is why we have issues eating. Who in the world (me) would let their child eat sitting on the counter? At least he has veggies on his plate!

Nico loves to lay down in the bath now. It is funny because he changes his tone and voice level...it obviously sounds different when speaking with your ears full of water. I mess with him and whisper to him while he is submerged and he says .."Huh mommy?".. "what?"...haha...I am terrible!

I love my brother...

The first of many wrestling matches to come!

Welcome Joey GianCarlo, to the Morelli Mafia.. nice shirt!

Nico uses so many stall tactics prior to bedtime these days. He will tell you before he goes to bed he needs to have his cars, his blankie, his nook, his trains (all of them), his woobies, the light on, a dance party, the heat on, Mommy kiss, Daddy kiss, Mommy and Daddy kiss, and to rock rock (cuddle in the rocking chair).. below is how I found them, two hours after Nico said "rock rock"..

Bath time!!

Catching Up!

A lot has happened since the last post! Nico turned 2, Joey turned 3 months, almost all the snow has melted, etc, etc... I have heard people say that life gets even crazier when you add #2 to the mix. I would always say... "I won't be one of those people who let's the blog sit w/o updates".. HA, I have turned into that person.

The home remodel/addition is not finished. Let's just leave it at that.

Mr. Nico turned the big TWO on 2/27! This kid constantly cracks us up... it is amazing how much he learns and retains and REPEATS. He is as smart as a whip, tests you, negotiates with you, manipulates you ... I love it. I know I have said it before, but I will say it again... this is now my favorite age/stage. Nico is still obsessed with Thomas the Train. It is so cute watching him put them on the tracks and studying the motion of the wheels. He knows every single one of them by name and sleeps with ALL of them every night, along with his Thomas blanket and Thomas pillow. His 2 year stats are 7% for weight and 66& for height. A tall, lanky child? Ha! Let's just talk about the 7% for weight for a moment. Nico won't eat... well won't eat anything but fruit, oatmeal, eggs, hotdogs, chicken nuggets, veggies and hamburger helper. Yep, hamburger helper. I mean he will snack all day long on crackers, pretzels, chips, fruit chews, etc.. if you let him. Please, please tell me this will pass!

Joey is now 3 months. I just washed all of Nico's old 3-6 month clothes for him and put away the 0-3 month stuff...SNIFF! Really? 3 months already? I have to say from what we went through with Nico as a baby we were crossing our fingers to have a calm and happy #2...boy did we hit the jackpot! Joey is the smiliest, chill child. Calm, relaxed, sleeps through anything. Really the only time he cries is if he has a wet diaper or if he is hungry. Sometimes I look at him and wonder if he is ok! :) We are just not used to a quiet baby. I will say this though... he does not sleep through the night yet. Joey doesn't miss a meal... every 3 hours like clock work. Sometimes he will go 5 or 6 if he is in a very deep sleep, but more than not we are up twice throughout the night. Honestly we can't complain. I would take that over colic any day of the week!

Recently both boys were ill! Nico had a double ear infection and a cold. The cold and cough lasted a few weeks for him but he was able to kick it finally. Unfortuntaely Joey caught this virus from Nico. Joey had trouble fighting it himself so we ended up bringing him to the ER (on Mario's b-day) and discovered he had RSV. This ended up being a 3 night stint at Children's Hospital with him being hooked up to and IV and oxygen. Apparently this year was the worst in 5 years of RSV cases with Joey being 1 of over 200 babies checked into Children's at the time of his stay. I have to say that we were surprisingly calm throughout the entire ordeal... the reason is because of Joey :) Joey constantly had a smile on his face, even after major coughing spells that would cause him to gag and vomit. We knew he would be fine! On a big bummer of a note, we ended up having to cancel Nico's 2nd birthday party... 10lbs of Mostaccioli and a Thomas the Train cupcake cake... would have been so much fun :(

These pics start from early Jan and go through today 3/12. Check out how much Joey has changed. Crazy!

Smiles, smiles...

Nico really loves his baby bro!

Bella, always right in the action!

Joey's 2 month check up!

Such a ham!

Mr. Nico loves to blow his nose and tell you that he needs Kleenex.

What a thoughtful big brother helping Joey blow his nose!

Joey is grabbing onto toys now and putting them to his mouth. The color of his eyes is still in question. Some days they look brown and other days they look green. There definitely is a reddish tint to his hair, but you can only see it in certain sunlight! Just like Nico, he has mom's cheeks!

Nico playing with his new trains- Clarabelle, Annie and Fearless Freddie. Those are their names, just ask him, he will tell you!

Joey sitting up in his Boppy chair. Just like Nico as a baby, Joey absoultely despises tummy time. He will not even try to push up on his hands. He will just lay there with his face in the carpet screaming and crying until you pick him up. Sigh!

Because one straw isn't enough!