Last week

Mario finished up his last week of work on his project in Detroit. So here are a few picture of him haning out with his boys and Little Pete on Friday. They were all reading these car brochures that Mario picked up. Joey was looking at the brochure as well, but this picture looked cute.

Joey gets so proud of himself when he sits up.

Joey really likes his dad!

Saturday night, Mario and I went to a Sports Fiesta (an office dinner at a partner's house). Before dinner, Mario played in the basketball and volleyball tournaments while I stayed home and prepared things for our babysitter. She's watched MJ many times before (and has a little brother who is 6 months old). So, we thought we'd see if she could watch both of them. This was our first time leaving both of them awake with 1 babysitter (other times there was more than 1 person around to watch both of them, or we'd split them up and just leave MJ with the sitter). Anyway, she did a great job and we had a great time at the dinner. There was a margarita machine (yum!) It's always nice to return to a clean house and sleeping kids.

Monday night Mario and I went to see Transformers. The plan was for Mario to go see it on July 4th (when we thought it opened) while I watched the kids, and then he'd let me go out at night to see fireworks in downtown DC while he watched the kids. Turns out, it opened sooner than we thought. So we called our babysitter Monday afternoon, she was free, and came over that night. We had a good movie date... hmmmm...is that our first movie since Joey? It might be... well, it was fun.

2 weeks ago

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted. It's hard to remember what has happened in the last few weeks. Here are a few pictures from 2 weeks ago. Joey still likes his jumperoo (very appropriate for a kid with his nickname). And MJ tried

Tony and MJ did a craft on a rainy day. Tony was definitely a bit more coordinated.

Joey still likes to roll over. But his more favorite task is scooting around and trying to pull the gym arches down.

MJ tried to help me with the dishes by putting the silverwear away. He was pretty good at it at first, but that didn' t last long. He's better at sweeping.

First Solid Food?

Mario and I were having dinner Sunday night and were enjoying some delicous hummus. He asked when Joey can start eating solids and I said around now (between 4-6 months most parents choose to introduce rice cereal). I was thinking I'd wait a bit because there's no super rush. Well, Joey was looking like he wanted to eat everything I was eating and just for fun, we thought we'd give him some bread to mush on. He really loved it and got sad when we took it away. I don't think he actually consumed anything, but he seemed to like it. Turns out he was just really tired and wanted to suck on something, but it was fun to try it out.

Today we had Kristin and Little Pete over for dinner. The boys seemed to play a little better today. Mario was slightly less aggressive and Pete is good at standing his own ground if he wants something. Pete is very interested in Joey, who he calls Jo Jo. He likes to point out his eyes, but we thought it was safer if he held Joey's hand instead. Joey likes Pete a lot too!

Jumperoo Joey

Big boy Joey tried out his Jumperoo on Saturday and aboslutely loved it! He's a really happy and content baby in general. But he is very excited to try new things like this.

Saturday night, Andrea, her husband Andy, and Kelly came over for dinner and a game night. We're all sad and agree that we don't hang out enough, so I'm happy we were able to get together. We celebrated my belated birthday, and I was officially able to turn 26 since they got me a cake. Unfortunately, I couldn't find our candles so I blew out some matches. Here is Andrea holding Joey, she rocked him to sleep.

Park with Tony

We've missed our play group for 3 weeks in a row due to travel and other things. Last Friday, when we were available, all of the other families seemed to be traveling. No worries, though, we were able to hang out with the Franzonello's at the park. Mario and Tony went to check out this bridge (which appaerantly has snakes living under it). Everyone was fine, and we had a fun time.

Floaties

Wednesday wasn't a really terribly hot day, so we went to the park in the morning with the Franzonello's. I assumed the afternoon would be a little warmer, so we met Pete at the pool. MJ tried out his new floaties and I think really did a great job with them in the big pool. He didn't need them in the kiddie pool, but still has one on his arm anyway. It was a very windy day and I thought it was cold, but the boys didn't seem to mind. The boys are actually happy in the picture of them together. MJ is saying "cheese"

And this is a picture of Joey from hanging out this morning. He got so excited when I sat him up in front of his gym rather than laying him down. So, he played like this for a long time this morning. He got up a few times last night (I think the travel set him off a bit). I knew there would be times in Joey's life that he'd wake up again. So, I'm going to take my own advice and remember that in a year, he'll be walking and such a big boy, and I'll wish I could have him little again. I'm going to appreciate the extra cuddles we get at night while they last. I'll also appreciate how he falls asleep by himself at night. At least he's got that going for him. The past two nights I've put him on our bed and left (the pack n play isn't as comfortable) and then I move him to that later in the night. Maybe that's why he keeps waking up in the pack n play... I'll experiment and see. Maybe I'll just have to get rid of the desk in our room so I can put his real crib in there. Oh, and MJ said something really cute today and I can't really remember what it was. Man, my memory is going. These are the things I need to write down so when I'm old and my kids are grown I can look back and think of how cute they were.

Baby Fish

I may have mentioned finding a baby fish in our tank before. His mommy died and then he died after I realized he was alive and tried to care for him more. Maybe a month ago I noticed I had two more baby fish. They were hiding under things and it was hard to see them. I was worried when I left for my trip b/c the big fish like to eat the little fry. But sure enough, I returned and they are still there...even bigger and not hiding as much. I was reading online and I think they are big enough now that they can swim away from the other fish. I also heard that once the mommy starts having babies, she'll keep doing it for the rest of her life (even if the daddy is no longer in the picture). She is a sunset wag platy and they are livebearing fish who have maybe 10-50 fry each time. I totally don't remember this one getting big... so maybe it was my other fish (the mickey mouse platy who died awhile ago) who is the mommy. It's hard to see the baby fish, but I think this is the mommy. Sad that she probably ate some of her babies. I am SO glad that I'm hard wired to love my babies and not eat them.