Max gets around

I found Max at the front door with a dining chair this afternoon. I grabbed the camera and took a video of his getting around the house walking pushing the chair for support. He was pretty amused with himself!

Busted!

If you come to our house and use the bathroom, you might just have to find yourself a few squares from the pile on the floor since I'm pretty over rolling the paper back up.

Reading Italian

Luca testing out his new Italian flashcards

Max 11 Months

Max refused to sit with his sign, so here he is posing in his favorite spot in the apartment. End of couch where he can pull all the pillows off onto the floor, or cruise to our wobbly metal and glass top end table in attempt to capsize the whole thing - glass, lamp, picture frame, remote control and all...

- 9 teeth (as far as I can tell when he lets me check) - the 4 top front, 4 top bottom have been here since before Xmas. A new molar that busted through gums a couple days ago.

- Standing, cruising

- Opening and closing doors

- Loves to put the top on his bottle after he drinks it. You would think by his reaction that this is the most special thing to do in the entire world :)

- Says Dadda to Gioel (and to everything else in the house) - but also says "ba-bba" a lot too. Luca can repeat an entire monologue in "Max talk" which amazingly enough picks up all the particular sounds, tones and inflections his brother can make. I can only distinguish Dadda and Babba for the most part, until Luca mimics his brother and suddenly I realize there are a whole slew of sounds! Will have to capture Luca on video and post.

- Eating mostly all table food, not too much puree stuff now. Although he loves to suck the babyfood fruits right from the pouch.

- Brushes his own hair if you give him a brush. Too bad he doesn't really have any hair to brush - otherwise this trick would be awfully useful!

- Deliberately snuggles (we love this of course!)

Max Beating on Luca

Here Luca and Max play in the warm laundry I just pulled out of the dryer. I pulled it out to fold and Max was cuddling in it when Luca came over, dove in and then Max went to town climbing all over him and giving him a good pounding (which Luca enjoyed oddly enough!)...

Luca and Max playing in the clean laundry from ronni Molinari on Vimeo.

Luca's 1/2 Birthday

When a child in Luca's class turns 5 there is a little celebration. So the summer birthday kids aren't left out, there are "half-birthday" parties too! Here we are over a month late celebrating since pre-Holiday Vacation the original date got cancelled due to a virus that had half the class (including Luca) out for over a week, then again cancelled in January for snowy weather. Finally, Luca got to have his chocolate cake (his choice over last year's Tofutti Cuties) and parents in class for the party. His friends in class presented him with the most special gift - a book they made in which each child decorated a page with pictures for Luca and quotes about why he is such a great friend. Thanks to Luca's teachers Sima, Shira and Sarah for arranging such a nice celebration!

Here Luca greets Mommy & Daddy in the school cafe where we were waiting to be brought into the classroom...

Sitting at head of the class...

Thinking about his wish...

Story time. Luca chose his favorite book in his classroom for Mommy to read. "Rabbit's Gift" about a rabbit who shares his turnip during snowy weather with the other animals. Luca announced to the class this is his favorite "because I love turnips", although we all really know its because he loves sharing ;-)