Bless you the mouth

MJ had a little stomach bug yesterday, but it only lasted a couple of hours. When he finally woke up at 10am he was cheery and quite normal. But just in case, we ate tummy friendly things like chicken noodle soup. He was hiccuping a bit and he said "Bless you the mouth, Mommy" He likes to transfer thoughts. For example, when in his car seat on our road trip, he can easily grab his feet. We were singing "If you're happy and you know it" and he thought we should sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your feet" since he could clap his feet together while sitting.

And here's Joey playing at home and practicing rolling over. MJ is watching me as I blog this and he sees the picture. He calls this picture "Joey's strong" I guess b/c whenever he's on his stomach like this we cheer Joey on and say "You're so strong". Joey also scoots around when he's on his back. Yesterday he pivoted 180 degrees around his head by kicking his feet.

Roll Over

Sunday night we drove back to Detroit. I hung out in Dearborn with my Grandma again. We managed to play cards while MJ tried to nap. I put Joey down on his stomach for some tummy time while my Grandma and I were playing cards. When the hand was over I looked down and saw this little munchkin on his back. If he had down one more roll he would have been heading down the stairs. Since his first roll, we've been practicing it more and he's been having a lot of fun. I got it on video once we got back to our house. MJ doesn't seem to get why it's so cool that Joey can roll over. He gets down on the ground and does it too. :-)

We visited the car show at the bottom of the Ren Cen again. They changed the cars out. There were fewer to play in, but a lot of older classic cars.

MJ and Joey had fun playing at the hotel.

Sunday

Did I mention that Saturday night we went out for Steph's Bachelorette party? We had good times, I didn't have a camera with me, but other people have shared their pictures.

Sunday we went back to Emily and Jeff's place to celebrate Emily's Baby shower. Her son (Joseph Matthew) is due June 9th. She looks great considering she was less than 1 week from her due date. We played this game where we'd guess how big her belly is by cutting a piece of string. I was within 1 inch of her exact belly size. Here is a picture of the ND ladies who were at the shower.

MJ and Mario went to a park by lakeshore while Joey hung out with me. Emily got this Bumbo and Joey gladly demonstrated how it is used. I'm so excited for Emily... we are waiting for some great news any day now!

Saturday Afternoon

Mario took MJ to the zoo (his first time to a real zoo if you can believe that). I was sad to miss it, but I guess this is how Mario feels when he's gone during the week and I take MJ to some new place.

Meanwhile, Joey and I went to Steph's Bridal Shower. He was the only boy allowed. We had a great time celebrating Steph's upcoming wedding!

We had dinner with friends from ND at Paul and Colleen's house. My self-timer and it's flashing light seem to help MJ smile at the camera but it also seems to make red-eye pretty bad for everyone. (Left to Right) Our family, Len & Kristin, Paul & Colleen.

Playing in the Hotel

I know these are four pictures of the same shot pretty much, but it was a fun few minutes. Mario had MJ and Joey playing on the chair and as you can see, Joey put his hand on MJ, MJ put his hand on Joey's arm, and then they shared toys. Joey got Sally in the end. I wasn't taking the pictures at the time, but my pretend captions would be:


smile for the camera boys

Joey reaches for the cars in MJ's hands (he is holding Doc Hudson - his favorite, and Sally - the light blue car)

MJ doesn't want Joey to take his cars

MJ shares Sally with Joey

Now, Mario was actually there taking these pictures, so he may have the more accurate version.

Great Hotel

Friday night we drove from Dearborn, MI to Chicago. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn - O'hare using some of Mario's points from traveling so it was FREE! We got in at 1am CT (2am where we were from) and the boys were a little bit shaken up by the move. MJ had a whole queen bed to himself, but for fun we took a picture of them together. Poor Joey slept either in his carseat or the stroller or the bed for a few hours in the morning when I'd bring him in bed with us. But they both slept well.

The Hilton Garden Inn had THE BEST pool! There was a volleyball net and basketball hoop set up in the big pool. They had tons of beach balls, arm floaties, kick boards, fun-noodles. Pluse, the kiddie pool had a nice gradual walk in, small slide, a couple of fountains, and this big "water tree" that water cascaded from. It was awesome. MJ and his dad had a blast. We tried to bring Joey in the big pool but it was just too cold for him. This was our first time trying floaties on MJ, and he did pretty well. This picture doesn't look so great, but MJ was brave and got more used to it. He even kicked a bit (splash with your feet). There was a jacuzzi there too which Mario and I tried for a bit, but soon we had to leave our fun pool time to enjoy other festivities.

We're Back!

We left Thursday May 30th at about 10:30am and returned home Tuesday June 5th at 8:50pm. We had a terrific trip... no major mishaps, and a lot of fun! This was the first trip I told MJ we'd be going on ahead of time. He was very excited to be going on a "special trip to see Daddy in the hotel." Our laptop is out of order again, so our generous cousins let us borrow their portable DVD player. This gave us much peace of mind during the last few hours of our trip. Between the bucket of toys I brought and naps, that took up most of the 10.5 hour drive to Michigan, but the movies were certainly nice.

First we have the double stroller, without which, I couldn't do stops alone. Well, I suppose I could do it with a single stroller, but it's nice in case MJ is sleepy and/or cranky. Joey is sporting the new look of no infant carrier attached to the stroller. We had to do this with MJ when he was 3-4 months old b/c his infant carseat was just too small for him. Thanks to the higher weight limit of the Grace SafeSeat 20.5lb Joey is still able to use it. However, just for fun he got to ride in the stoller like this... he seemed to like it.

MJ was so excited to see Daddy in the hotel. He's been staying at the Marriot in the Renassaince Center in Detroit (and also working there). This was our second stay there, and I've gotten much more used to the valet, bell man, and other nice things that fancy hotels offer. And I'm probably the only mom with 2 kids they see all week. It's really hard for me to let people do stuff for me. I'm getting better, but when they tried to pack the car for me, I had to redo it. I've got a system to make the trip alone with my two boys, and I like having things in my order. Oh, the picture is of MJs "car show" My mom gave him the first idea for this, and we play it quite often. At the bottom of the Ren Cen there is an actual car show on display... more pictures of that later.

Friday, Mario was working, we visited with Grandma aka Nana. MJ was very excited to play at Nana's house (he's been there a few times). This visit, he seems to finally have grasped that he cannot touch Nana's things but can only play with his toys. It's worked out much nicer that way. Mario really did work a lot on Friday, but I took him away from the office in Detroit at lunch so we could avoid rush hour. He worked from my Grandma's house most of the time, but managed to take a break to play a little. Joey likes this game. Friday night we had dinner with Mario's cousin Dave, his wife Kely, and their daughter Mercy. David Jr is due in about 3 months. We had a delicious BBQ and were sad to leave. I'm also sad that we didn't have the camera ready. There was a very cute picture of Mercy and MJ hugging each other goodbye, but we missed it.