Adventures in Babysitting

Jeff and I headed off to LA for the 10-year LMU Alumni Reunion and abandoned our son. It was great! I saw more last calls than as many days and I felt 21 again.

Well... I mean, it's a reunion, not a miracle.

Sadly, I didn't take many photos, but here are some shots...
(And is anyone noticing how ho-ho-horrible my camera is getting? Santa, can you hear me?) Back at the ranch, Marco kicked it with G-ma and G-pa (Friday) and Grammy Pammy (Saturday). He even got to spend some time with cousin Tommy. He felt 21 again too.

I keep forgetting to mention on the blog that G-ma never returns Marco without an album of photos she took of their adventures. In fact, she's taken some of our favorite shots of him. G-ma says he slept well and here's why...

Ode to Clara...

Thanks to the grandmas in our lives!!

Runnin' Cuzzin, Part II

Last weekend we participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. We walked with "Team Courtney" with and in honor of my younger cousin Courtney.

Sooooo... Marco donned his velour tracksuit with sweatsocks (sadly, he's outgrown his running shoes) and we packed up and headed to the City for the walk. I forgot my camera so all these shots are lifted from my family or the Romioses. Thank you!

Thank you to my sponsors:
Uncle Roger
Sue V.
Nduta
Claire
Alex
Darcy, Kevin & Katie

Thank you to Jeff's sponsors:
Barbara
Meredith
Kristy

With your help, we were the 10th largest fundraising team in the Bay Area! Can you believe that? So amazing.

My cousin is doing really great! Not only does she look incredible, but her cancer protein marker is down to 21, which is in the range of a cancer-free person. They've reached their goals and she's just staying healthy. She's truly an inspiration.

Go Team Courtney!

"May" pose a choking hazard.

In case your kid is rocking an older exersaucer and you're a bad mother, please note...

"The plastic covering on the soft block towers can detach, posing a choking hazard to infants. Graco has received 137 reports of infants mouthing and chewing pieces of the plastic film covering, some of whom required medical attention. Serious incident reports include 32 infants who gagged and 49 who choked on the plastic covering."

Oh, there was choking, there was gagging, there was throwing up... and there was the piece of plastic! So, warning for others. If this is your exersaucer, Graco will send a replacement part. There are more details about model numbers and stuff on gracobaby.com. Here's a photo of the death trap in question...

Breaking News.

In tooth news... Marco got a third tooth! He's pacing to be a jack-o-lantern by the 31st. Boo!

In bizarro neighbor news... Avery broke her leg! Poor angel! She's 10 days older than Marco and apparently had a twisting tibia fracture, aka "common toddler fracture." How sweet is her pink cast?
She's as tough as her Dad. Alright, who are we kidding? Her mom. She didn't even crack a frown when she came over to have Marco sign her cast.

Marco was an incredible gentleman letting her play with all his favorite toys and letting her crawl faster than him even though she has a new impediment.

At least that's the story I'm telling the outsiders. For you loyal blog followers, I feel okay telling you that Marco wrestled his Toy Story ball out of her hand. When it slipped out of their grasps, Marco HELD THE BACK OF HER TANK TOP while he crawled over the top of her to get to the ball. Uh.... sorry Avery.

I think we're alone now.

Uh... so this is new.

Sorry again for the quality, once again, we record all our special family moments using Jeff's phone camera.

One small step in the living room.

Marco attempted to conquer the stairs in the living room.

Pushes up to standing...

His whole body atop his conquered stair. Nooooooooooo...

I wonder where he learned that?

Hairs Cut.

Just clean me up a little on the sides, trim the bangs and make me look respectable.


Before.
After. "Hey cousin, looks like you just got a hair cut too." "Hey G-pa, looks like you just got a hair cut too."

Crack myself right up... I figure Marco is making family bald jokes on borrowed time.

The Baby That Ate Marco

Friday we got together with Marco's girlfriends. Willa, Ashlie and Marco were all born within 24 hours of each other. The three of them had always been very similar in size. So, uh... what happened? These girls are delicate flowers. Very dainty and ladylike. Here's some photos of Ashlie, Willa and the baby that ate Marco.

And when he was tired of the photo shoot, he crawled away to wreak havoc on Willa's house.

And no boys in the house.

Jeff's Heather came over to babysit Marco while we went to a punk show in the City with Dan. Ha! For the record, we told the babysitter that she could invite boys over and that she could even raid our wine cellar. So there you go. We're so cool.

Marco really wanted to "come join us" and wear his new Converse high tops, but even the opening band was going on after his bedtime, so we had to leave him at home. Plus, he'd probably have to abandon "faux" and go real mohawk and I don't think we should take a razor to the baby's hair just yet.
In other update news... Marco's new daycare is going well. It takes me a little less time to get there even though it's further. My secret source (alright, it's Katie) has given me status updates... Marco asleep when she picked up Brooke... Marco having a bottle while surrounded by the other kids... the twins taking turns hugging Marco... so everything seems to be fine.

He's been eating well, sleeping well, crawling and he's still sleeping through - so I can't complain!The kids at the old daycare were younger and it was veeeeery mellow there. The new daycare is a hotbed of activity and Marco can't stand to miss a thing. He eats lunch with the group and even has a 3:00 afternoon snack with the group. So grown up! He's started to push and pull himself up to standing I think maybe to escape all the kids "loving" him all day.

I call daycare a success.

Sun Salutations

Ooomborg... Namaste.