Have bassinet, will travel.

Roooooooooad triiiiiip......

(Yes, that's duct tape in the picture. Don't judge.)

There were lots of things going on in Ventura... my Grandma moved to a new place, my Aunt Lia is here from Rome, my Uncle Pete was coming to town and Marco had never seen the Poseidon. You know how Marco hates to miss a good party, so we packed up the Jeep and hit the 101 for a weekend adventure!

We were very nervous about being in the car for five and a half hours, so we figured we'd leave around his bedtime. We left at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, stopped once to feed him at 9:30 and arrived at 1a.m. He didn't even wake up when we got to the boat and continued to sleep until 7:30 a.m! What a champ!

He was on his best behavior for the whole weekend trying desperately to impress the family. Aunt Lia is the mother of Marco the elder, so we wanted to be sure she went home with a good impression. He slept through all three nights in his bassinet (thanks Jack!) and was smiley and flirty most of the weekend.

We couldn't be more proud.

Here are more pics...

Little Marco approaches the giant Poseidon.
Marco on the bow of the Poseidon.

Marco was so charming that Papa John didn't even mind letting him sit in his purple chair.Aunt Lia spoke in Italian to Marco. He thought it was HYSTERICAL. Napping.Do you see the resemblance? I actually think he's shaping up to look like me. Lucky kid. The vote is still out on who's the bigger ham. Marco or Papa?Here is the whole group for dinner. Linda once again made a weekend full of impressive food. I'll spare you the pics. Alright, most of the pics. Here's her rustic bread, served with the salmon (caught by Dad in Alaska!) chowder. Yum!

You know when you do something weird and you think 'why did I do that?' This is why. These are my relatives. My blood relatives being their normal selves being captured on film making frightening faces. HA ! So there you go. Love them.Coach and Jayme Beck brought Marco a selection of LMU gear. We hope he can get in. And that we win the lottery to afford it.My Uncle Pete's dog Killer refused to let anyone near the baby. When the baby cried, he was VERY concerned. He was like Marco's tiny bodyguard. I mean, if bodyguards were three pound chihuahuas who dress like Tiger Woods. I should've warned you. Marco was so happy to meet his bisnonna. Jeff laughs because the first thing everyone in my family says is "Does he have light eyes?" or "He has blue eyes!" In my family, it's a big deal to look like "one of us." Grandma was very happy to see Marco's blue eyes and hopes that means he'll be "della raza." If they change to brown, he may not inherit her meat sauce recipe. Tough group.

Don't be scared folks. It's not Tatiana. This is my Grandma's cat SeeSee. A CAT. Jeff added his size 12 foot for perspective on the cat's giant size. Meow.

We had a great trip and even earned an invitation to come back! My Dad was so generous that he even offered to babysit sometime. It went something like this, "We'll watch him! I mean, I'm pretty sure Linda would know what to do?"

Downward Puppy

Today, we checked out the postnatal mommy and baby yoga scene in Berkeley. I would say it was okay. The class was an hour and a half, about 20 minutes of which we spent talking and 20 minutes feeding and at least 10 minutes of Marco demanding to be taken home. I think we should be jumping right into it, but whatever.

Oh and the teacher kept calling Marco "Jack." But in the spirit of a nicer world, neither he or I didn't say anything.

I may try it one more time to decide if I like it. The price for the class is a "range" (to read: "Tip the teacher.") Tacky I thought!

Here's Marco's first stretching, balancing and core strengthening...

While I Warrior I, he does a back posture.

While I work abs, he checks out the other babies.

While I work on my obliques, he flies like an airplane!
Go Baby Yogi! The class is Wednesdays at 11:15 if any of you other mommies want to check it out.

It's a "great" world.

Great Aunt Claudia and Great Uncle Roger stopped to visit Team Cecchin on their Northern California 2008 tour. Jeff and I treated them to a deck with sunshine (a commodity in Oregon), chicken cacciatore and Jeff's homemade pasta. They treated us to an outfit for Marco, entertaining the baby and Roger's scotch on wheels.

Great Aunt Claudia spoiled Marco with bouncing and singing. Sure, she's not his Grandma, but she's a grandma and sometimes Grammy Pammy's sister will just have to do. And sure all her songs were about Katie, but Marco didn't seem to mind. Here she is holding Marco and literally running around in circles to entertain him. ha! After she left, Marco called us lazy. Doesn't he look like such a big boy here?

After their arrival, they quite literally ran to our office to check granddaughter Katie's blog. They were sure she'd grown up while they were gone. It must have been all that lamb.

And here is the scotch/whiskey/dark booze tasting. Blah. Uncle Roger is the only person I know who shows up with his own selection to share.

Thanks for the visit Great Aunt and Uncle!

Braveheart!

We had our two-month checkup yesterday! The Doctor was very pleased with Marco's growth and his development. He really laid it on thick for her, lifting his head, cooing and smiling the whole time. What a kiss up! Obviously his father's son, I'm still hoping to grow into kissing up.

He got three shots and one medicine given orally (he loves that sugar water!) I insisted on watching since I didn't participate in anything gruesome in the hospital. You'd think they were stabbing those needles into ME the way it hurt! Ouch! Marco let out one of those silent cries and then composed himself when we gave him a pacifier. He's starting to take to that thing and I'm loving it for moments like these!

The Doctor said he might be a bit fussy after the shots, but he was a champ, once again sleeping nine hours in his first stretch, three in his second. (Although the night before he was up for two hours in the night.) The doctor said we're doing great already having him in his room (I hesitated to mention that he had made the move in week one, didn't want to seem completely neglectful), with his sleeping, his feeding and his development. She didn't actually use the words genius or incredibly handsome, but I could sense it in her tone. And come on, you saw the bunny pic.

Final Stats:

11 lbs

33rd percentile for weight

34th percentile for height

36th percentile for head circumference

Doc described Marco as "perfectly proportioned."

I didn't take any pics at the doctor's office, but here are a couple to sate my demanding audience. This is Marco playing on Willa's "Fantasy Island" while she napped and Niko's monkey while he was at daycare. He's such a toy thief!

Happy Easter!

This cute little Easter bunny hops you had a great one! That was not a typo.
For Easter, Jeff, Marco and I headed to Stockton for a champagne brunch with my Gr-Grandma Alice and Grammy Pammy. Food was great, company was great. However, there is a downfall to having brunch in a roomful of 70+ year olds. There is no shortage of opinions about your baby...

"When I had my baby, the doctor told me not to take him out until he was three months old." (Uh... I did not mention the stop at the Mexican restaurant on the way home from the hospital.) "He sure has a lot of hair for a baby." Uh, yes. One lady even barked out, "ARE YOU BREASTFEEDING?" (Everyone yells in case you're hard of hearing.) "WELL THEN YOU'D BETTER GO FEED HIM!"

My Grandma found these exchanges beyond comical. HA! She was giggling the whole time.

Four generations picture.
Family photo. Don't let someone shorter than you take your picture. Your arm is the closest thing to them and they cut your husband's head off.

Go Daddy!

Time changes everything. The Saturday before Easter has always been reserved for St. Ignatius' alumni baseball game in Daly City. In years past, the girls have worn cute pink shirts with their boyfriend's/husband's name on them. I refused to do that this year. Oh, and my tiny pink shirt must have shrunk.

Jeff will be sore for a week, but it was worth it. Jeff's at bat earned him a double. Here's the scene: Jeff's on third, Nego at bat. Strike out. Ouch. Marco cried even though he can only see like 20 inches.

This year the babies sported some personalized attire. Go Alumni! Go Daddy!

Grandma took more than her turn at bat watching Marco!Auntie M and Tommy. The Eggert clan turned out to watch Chuck pull a hammie. Or maybe just complain after catching five innings.

Daddy and Marco rock their gear. It was a surprisingly balmy 70 degree Daly City day, so Grandma Cecchin got Marco rockin the no pants dance. He's making a habit of this.

The Grochol crew was in attendance and Steve was on first. What?

Heather and Niko cheer on Taki. Nikos pictured here with his clothes on.This is a framer. Makenzie Eggert and Ryan Grochol ride the bench. Mak spent the whole day yelling at Chuck on the field.... "Daddy!!! CATCH!!!" So sweet.

And now Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up.

Last week, Alexis and I decided to try the cheesy mall photos at Picture People. Willa posed and flirted her way through the 20-minute photo shoot while Marco screamed. SCREAMED. HA!

They took us late and Marco was past his special happy moments. To demand better customer service, I was going to walk right out of there and buy nothing, but as it turns out the photographer was some sort of genius and still managed to produce adorable photos. Or could it be my adorable kid? I can't completely rule it out. Here's my favorite...

That's not the Switcheroo.

As you may know, Marco hates his bouncy seat. But I was holding onto the hope that one day he'll love it, plus Avery the neighbor baby likes it. But guess what? She hates her seat. If you already know the ending of this post, you're probably also one of those annoying people who predicts the end of movies. Shhhhh...

In a genius plan that can only be concocted over corned beef and Harp, the bizarro neighbors and I decided to pull the switcheroo.

Drumroll... Marco loves his new seat. HA! Could you die? I couldn't be more thrilled. In his first chair stint, I placed him in it and he fell asleep for an hour on his own. In his second stint, he smiled and bounced for about 20 minutes.

Word on the street is that Avery loves her new chair too. And once again, life is good.

In an unrelated turn of events, Marco discovered the mirror. I've tried to show him the mirror before to no avail. Apparently he just has good taste. He didn't want to see the boring mirror in the old bathroom, he wanted to enjoy the mirror in the recently remodeled bathroom! Clearly a child with good taste and a preference for all things Tuscan. He face lit up when he saw us in the mirror! This picture is terrible, but still makes me giggle.

Beer and Babe.

My co-worker Melba met us for lunch today at Pyramid Brewery. She was happy that Marco was awake most of the time because she wanted to hold him. Marco was a star. His participation went like this...

Marco awakes.
Marco precedes to be charming and smiley for Melba.
Marco eats.
Marco continues to be charming and smiley for Melba.
Marco shows signs of fussiness.
Food comes.
Marco falls asleep when placed in his stroller.
Marco silently reminds me to appreciate him.
:)
Not a great shot of Marco in his baseball hat, but cute nonetheless.

Momma University

On Thursdays, Alexis and I have been taking the kids to mother seminars in Walnut Creek. They are informational, but mostly I think I like that there's a room full of moms and babies sitting on the floor and chatting. This week, my friend Gail decided to join us! Yeah!

Her son is 10 days younger than Willa and Marco, but he's quite the man. I think he outweighs Marco by a couple pounds. I don't have a good shot of him here and her eyes may be closed. Or, maybe she's really enjoying Momma University, but here's they are anyway.

P-p-pizza and possible parents?

Tuesday night, Christina and Brendan came over for Jeff's pizza (ala cheese of the month) and visiting. I thought Marco was just fussy enough before bedtime to put off their baby having ;) but he was soooo good while they were holding him here, maybe he didn't scare them off after all... I mean, just LOOK at how happy they are.

Final words before they left... "So, do we make the blog or what?"

9 to the 1 to the 6.

Sunday, we were invited to Dina's house for dinner with her family. It was so great to see everyone! Marco hadn't met most of the Vellutinis and even though they're a bit crazy, I told him he really didn't have a choice but to like them since they were family. Sorry Marco - you have to hang with Vellutinis.

Darrin barbequed some jammin chicken and Dina did all the other work. "Dina! Ben's not listening to me!" :)

The party starred Nonno and Grandma, Mimi, Carla, Leo, Dina, Darrin and the kids Ben and Lia. Grammy Pammy even made a cameo.

Lia was not too sure about this new baby that everyone was paying attention to. Can you believe how big she's gotten? I barely recognized her!
"Reverend" Frankie kissed the ring of Marco. Or something like that. He's my Dad's best friend and he performed our wedding! Grandma Carrie impresses Marco. She says babies love her big teeth. I'm not totally buying it, but just in case, I'm looking for a set of veneers. Anyone? Follow along here. This is my Dad's godson, the uncle of my godson holding Marco. Did I lose you?Thanks for having us 916!