Happy Birthday Aunt Gloria

Yesterday Theo recorded a little video for Aunt Gloria's birthday while eating his spinach fetuccine alfredo! And he's wearing the PJs she and Elliot got him (one of the many pairs).

Visit to the Ladies

Here's Theo saying goodbye to Nonny and Aunt Donny after a good, long polka. As usual, this was a great visit. Before we left the house I asked Theo what we eat at Nonny's - meatballs! I asked him what we do at Aunt Donny's - cake! "Yes, we eat cake, but what do we DO?" - Dance!
I was so impressed with his answers to non yes or no questions!

We brought play dough to Aunt Don's and the ladies marveled at this advanced toy! They thought it was the most amazing, creative invention. Aunt Don took the pink play dough and showed me how to make pasta the way her mom did. There was one kind of pasta (I can't remember the name, but it was cavatelli-ish) that I couldn't quite get the hang of, which frustrated her. She thought it was so easy, you just take two fingers and give it a quick roll. She had such finesse and such skilled, practiced fingers that she didn't understand why I didn't get it right away!

Happy Birthday, Hubby Wubby!

Today is Joe's birthday. We did a switch and had cake in the morning. Theo was so excited to sing happy birthday to daddy! And he said, "No more Lisa's birthday?" We had celebrated Lisandra's birthday this past weekend. I love that he's getting that people have "turns" for birthdays. Today is daddy's turn. Although Theo thinks that daddy turned 4.

Joe just called to tell me that he and Theo are both in time out. Theo pulled over a chair next to his time-out chair and said, "Daddy and Theo sit!" And so right now, there they are, sitting in the corner together.

For You, Aunt Pia

I dare you to tell me his voice isn't the sweetest thing EVER in this video!!

Theo with Aunt Lisa, her parents, and sister Ura

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo (How about you, you, you?)

How's Theo? Theo's 4!

Well, it was a whoooole lotta celebrating last weekend. We had the bug's 4th birthday party on Saturday, which was a great success. The party was in a local Sunnyside playground. It was in the 90s but most of us stayed cool with occasional trips to the sprinklers, which gave off a good mist without soaking you unless you want to be soaked.

Theo was excited when he realized it was his party, which didn't happen until he saw the cake was for him. He's so used to it being someone else's birthday. He finally announced with a big smile, "It's Theo birday!"



Theo wasn't too thrilled with the concept of being given presents that he couldn't play with right then and there. But after a few gifts he got the point, and by the end, he said, "I want more presents."



A whole truckload of kids from the playground came over to help Theo bust open his Batman pinata.


Click here to see pictures and videos from the weekend. (User name is eorecchio@gmail.com, password is seemypics).

Another Movie Date

Every day when I pick up Theo he says he wants ice cream from the ice cream truck. Usually I say something like, first dinner, then ice cream. Or first store, then home. He's really starting to get the idea of this sequencing.

Yesterday I told him that we were first going to get pizza, then go to the movies. He was very excited by this, and repeated as we walked hand in hand, "first pizza, n mooo-vie!" Then we passed by the ice cream truck, and he changed up the plan. "Mommy, first ice cream, n pizza, n movie!" How could I not give in to that?
He ran up to the ice cream lady in the truck, pointed to a picture of the vanilla cone, and said, "I want nilla peese!" She, charmed, gave him his order, and he said "thank you!" People get the biggest smiles on their faces when they hear my little guy's good manners. Makes mama very proud!

We passed by the playground on the way to get pizza. So after we ate, Theo changed up the plan again. "First playground, n mooo-vie." As it turned out, that was my intention anyway, since we were still early for meeting Joe and Clay. Plus, I'm thrilled to encourage this understanding of sequence.

We met up with Joe and Clay, went into the movie theatre, and bought Maow her fourth Spongebob toy from the machine (see yesterday's post). Once seated, it was still dark, and Theo said, "Mommy, where mooo-vie? I want mooo-vie!" Finally, the movie came on, and Theo sat like a perfect little boy during the whole thing. He had his tub of pringles and bottle of water, and he was set. He even laughed at various points! He seems to really enjoy the experience in being in a theatre and watching a movie with other people.