Pietro's Birthday

This is a little after Tday. I remember making hand-turkeys in kindergarden. The teacher painted each finger a different color. That was my very favorite project the whole year. I wanted to try it with Amedeo. He really liked it! I'm glad because he has been anti-art lately.


And December 5th is Pietro's birthday. Traditionally, this is the first day we get any signifigant snow fall. We got a few flurries, but nothing good like in years past.
As you can see, he is VERY excited about his present.


Grandpa and Pietro playing tennis together. Pietro has been staying up very late playing his games...I am glad it's a hit, but I hope he is getting enough sleep.


I made a chocolate pudding cake for dessert. It has cake on the top and the pudding on the bottom. It goes together in a crazy way...you make a batter and put it in the bottom, then you sprinkle dry ingredients on top. Then you pour coffee all over, making what looks like a giant cake-y disaster. It was delicious. I would make it again and again.


One very happy Pietro.

Zoo Day

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we went with James and his sister and parents to the Baltimore Zoo. The boys had a great time together. It was rather cold...but we saw lots of activity from the animals.

The train ride was fun for the boys. It doesn't take you near many of the animal exhibits...and it is short...but, boys and trains are hard to keep apart.



Cookies!!!

They enjoyed the children's part of the zoo...lots of animals to pet and fun things to see...



Amedeo fell asleep in the car on the way home. I managed to carry him in and put him on his bed. When I checked on him 2 hours later, he was in this position, sound asleep. He is still in diapers for naps and bedtime. I didn't put one on him this time since he was already asleep...so his clothes and shoes were soaked with pee. I learned that soaking the shoes in Simple Green and water works well. The drying rack in our dryer works great to get them dry again.




Next...a few pics from Pietro's birthday...

Thanksgiving Post

We are thankful for our family, friends and good fun. I think Amedeo expresses our happiness with this energetic train dance.




Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Trick or Treating

We had to go and see Grandma for some trick or treating! She has all the good candy.



Grandma took Amedeo to visit some of their neighbors...



I think the part that Amedeo liked the most was the socializing. He loved going door to door to talk to people. The candy was exciting, but I think he mostly liked the attention. So far, he hasn't asked to eat any more candy, fortunately.


One of our cool neighbors sets up a cave in their garage. They offer snacks and wine and beer to the adults. I was ready to stay there all night.


My mom made stuffed orange peppers. Delicious and cute. If you look closely, it looks as if this pepper has been barfing.

This one is a snarky pepper.


Thanks, mom, for the amusing and yummy dinner!

Pumpking Carving & Painting

This October has been weird weather-wise. At the Ren Fest, it was hot. Then, a week later, it was coat weather. Amedeo claims to dislike his coat. Too puffy, he says. Maybe he's right.


I really need to get him his own vacuum. He seems to enjoy sucking up dirt. We have lots of that at home...hmmmm.



Sheep on a swing!

Instead of giving him his own knife this year, we gave him paint. He was very serious about this.

He was generous with the paint. It was still wet when we put it outside for the trick or treaters to admire.

His first close-up of pumpkin guts. He was not inclined to touch them.


Happy pumpkin and scary pumpkin...which one am I and which one is Pietro?

Next...trick or treating with grandma!

Halloween Party

We were invited to a lovely Halloween party this year, hosted by Emily, Jack and Henry.


Vacuuming sheep? Why, yes, they do exist!




Denise and her Sunshine Bear, Jocelyn.

Jack, Amedeo and Jillian playing with the trains.


Our hostess, Emily and her fellow cami-wearer, Melanie.


The gang on the couch.

Jocelyn, Henry (monkey costume), Jack, Jessica, Jillian, Amedeo and Brooks.
We didn't get pics of Emily1...I didn't get any of her at Clark's Farm either...sorry Em1!

Thanks for the party, Emily2! We had a great time.

Edited to fix boo boos.

Clark's Farm

Our mom's group took a trip to Clark's farm this year. I didn't get super great pics of our friends, so I'll just put these up.

Amedeo enjoyed their giant wooden train.


I couldn't resist taking a pic of my mushroom eater sitting on a mushroom. One of the foods that he latched on to early in his solid-eating days was mushrooms. When we go to Five Guys, he orders a "mufroom cheese sandwich."


Luckily, we thought to color coordinate with the tractor. I asked him if he liked the hay ride. "No, it was too bumpy."


We got off the tractor ride at the pumpkin patch. He wanted to play with the runty green pumpkin. Silly child.



And...cute little goats.
More to come...Halloween parties to recap...trick or treating to recap as well.