Tutu's and High Tops

2 words I never thought I would mention together.  I knew having a girl would be different but how different I was no aware of.   Don't get me wrong, I am loving the girl  even more so because it's a whole new experience for all of us.  We were so use the the BOYS.  We love the BOYS.  The BOYS love tools, balls, tools and balls.  We now have a Girl and she loves, books, babies and tea parties!!!!!


The best part for me is Miss Miss (my nickname for her) loves books as long as they are read by Daddy.  She is starting to be a Daddies girl, yeah!  Don't get me wrong I love that my kid want and need me, but  my heart melts to see my daughter grab a book and ask Daddy to read it to her.


On the Girly note I am loving the Tutu.  Shelly sent her this pink polka dot tutu for her birthday that is her FAVORITE.  She will even pull it out of the drawer and bring to to me to put on her.  I must admit, I am a bit partial to the tutu too.


I cannot deny that a part of me was waiting for her.  Granted if she was a boy I would have been just fine and absolutely okay with it.  Granted she would have been named Rocco.  There is a huge part of me that is really, really glad she was a girl. Not that I am that girly girl, but to have my girl is great.


I pledge to NEVER be her buddy, but to always be the the one person she can come to and trust.  I actually  tell my boys the same thing.  See my mother was never my friend, but she was THERE for me always.  We became friends when I realized she was the smartest person I knew.  I only realize that because she taught me that she and my father were not my friends, they were my PARENTS!



I kind of wish she walks in my shoes, cause I didn't turn out half bad. I kind of hope she takes her own path because the journey is half the battle. Either way we are all in it together - Michael, me, Francesco , Nicolo and Carmela.


We will make it. I am certain.

Year End

I am going to use the old cliche "the year went by so fast" because it really did. Granted the very beginning of the year was so what of a blur for me with a new baby and having to go back to work. I honestly can't even remember Christmas and New Years from 2012-2013. The fog has since cleared, most days and I an pretty sure I will remember this year (especially since I am documenting it). We had a good Christmas all around, nothing fancy but everyone was healthy and happy. Michael and I set a goal not to use our credit cards this year and did a good job with that. We let the boys know early that Santa would be only bringing them one NICE gift. They each thought hard about what they wanted and got just that. They also were very blessed to receive many wonderful gifts from their Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. Funny thing Nicolo said the day after Christmas. He got up and said that he thought Santa made a mistake, when I asked what he meant he said that he got more that one gift. I reminded him that Santa brought him his 3DS but the other gifts were from his family. He said, "Whew, I thought I was going to have to take it all back." We where blessed to have family close this year. Nana and Nonno are here and just around the corner. Aunt Rose and Uncle Dan are not far and they themselves had a baby. They now even have a cousin in CA, yeah! We even got Michael to come to Christmas Eve mass with us. We had a good Christmas.



Santa was good to everyone, Carmela got a baby:




Nicolo got his 3DS:

 

And Francesco got his own tablet:



I got everything I wanted this year too. Healthy, happy kids! Now this coming year will do the same thing and fly by, but at least this time I will remember what happened! Happy New Year!~

My Photo is Complete

I haven't been taking a ton of photo's lately but I have taken a few. I am trying to get back into taking more pictures. I now know why each subsequent child has less photo's than the one before, the mom is just plain busier. There are plenty of times I pick up my camera with great intentions but have to put it down to referee a Bey Blade Battle or remove cat food from a toddlers mouth. I have though taken a few pictures of the 3 kids together and realized something yesterday when I was looking at the latest pictures. When I look at the photos of the 3 of them together there is this feeling of completeness. It's not that I don't love the pictures of my two boys together, but with Carmela in the middle it just looks and feels complete! I used to say that I always felt like there was someone missing at the dinner table, but she is here now and our table is full, and so is my heart!

The Kids Were Here {1}

I like when I find evidence that my kids have been somewhere.  I am not talking about the gazillion Lego's on the front room floor that I asked them to pick up or the dirty laundry they left on the bathroom floor.  I am talking about the subtle clues they were there, like finding a pile of rocks carefully stacked under my bed or finding the stuffed animals all lined at attention behind the couch.

Just last night I walked in the front room (where all the Lego's are still on the floor) to lock the door and found this:


I love how I know right away that was Nicolo, he wanted Yoshi to see all the pictures in the digital frame. I recently found the frame getting out Christmas decorations so it's new to them. He was watching it himself the other day and fascinated by all the "old" pictures of him and Francesco. I can totally picture him carefully sitting Yoshi on the shelf and telling him to watch the photos as they change.

**Update - this morning Yoshi was no longer there. Nicolo had him and I asked why he took him off the shelf, he said "He was done seeing all the pictures."

Tool Time

My boys love tools, especially Nicolò.  He will tell you that his favorite store is Lowes, if you ask why he will tell you because they sell tools and plants.  He is definitely my get your hands dirty kid and really likes to figure things out on his own.  Recently he went to his favorite store with his father and came back with a tool set.  When I asked Michael why he bought it he said that Nicolò picked up the set and would not put it down.  He said that he didn't feel like fighting about it?  This from the man who says that I buy too much for them.  Needless the say it was a good buy, he loves the set and spent a couple of hours playing with his tools.

My favorite part of the set is the little suspenders that came with it.  All dressed up in his tools stuff he really looks like my dad.  He likes building things so in that respect he is very much like my dad!

My mom will agree - that is my fathers face.



How cute are those suspenders?




How cute is this kid?!

Turning One

I've said it before, and I will say it again, time flies!  I feel like this time it went even faster. This past Friday Carmela had her first birthday, I know I can't believe it myself.  This one was bitter sweet for me because this is the last time we will be celebrating a first birthday in our house.  My baby is a toddler  (but will always be my baby) and with that we have passed another milestone (sniff, sniff).



Now that she is really developing her own personality I really can see how different she is than the boys.  She seem to be a little mixture of them.  She is fast like Francesco, and doesn't mind making a mess like Nicolò.  She is in between the two in regards to her sleep schedule - Francesco never sleep, Nicolò did, Carmela is inconsistent. One thing for sure is she LOVES her brothers.  I love the way her face lights up when she see them come to pick her up from school.



We don't do big Birthday parties for first birthdays but we do make sure they know it is their special day. The boys helped me to make her cake and we colored it pink, then decided she needed purple frosting and green writing on it. We had balloons, a banner, hats, and a special dress. I am pretty sure she knew it was her special day!

 

 I still can't believe she is ONE!