July has been pretty relaxed so far, but we’ve had lots of fun visits from family and lots of fun summer activities. On July 4 we went up to Indian Lake, NJ to see a bunch of my family members. My cousin Matt lives on the lake. So it was an awesome place to celebrate with some great food and boat rides. Gianna loved meeting her 2nd(?) cousin Jake and hasn’t stopped talking about him since. Unfortunately, though, she had a bit of a fever so we did not stay late enough to see fireworks there. But TV fireworks work well enough for me!

My parents came to stay with us for a few days after that and we had tons of fun. The highlight, I think, was our trip to chik-fil-a (aka The Nugget Store), where Gianna got this hat that she wore for two days straight. Gianna and I had a fun girls morning one day and went to Chuck E. Cheese’s. And Doug and I took her to a little concert nearby that night. (This ended in a ridiculous meltdown over a stubbed toe, but let’s focus on the positive!) It really is so fun to have time alone with her every once in a while.

Later in the week Elizabeth and the kids came to visit. The girls played really well together and it’s so fun to see the boys start to do fun things. Jack is all over the place, I hope Mark can keep up soon! They’re definitely interested in each other.

We made the trip up to Jersey City to see them on Saturday when Aunt Jenny came to visit. I forgot my camera, but we had a great lunch at The Taco Truck in Hoboken and fun playing in the park. Gianna and Mark both loved seeing their Aunt Jenny. Mark liked showing her what a messy eater he is.

The kids and I went to Jersey City again during the week for a playdate, but turned out to be mostly a lunch date for Elizabeth and me. There’s a deli famous for awesome sandwiches, called Fiore’s. So Elizabeth kindly went and got us the day’s special, sausage sandwiches. And they were awesome. Doug and I will have to make the trip sometime for their renowned roast beef…only made on Thursdays and Saturdays! I’m sure it will be worth it.

Last weekend we made a day trip to Binghamton (way too much time in the car, but at least we got to sleep in our own beds that night!) for the DeAngelo family reunion. We celebrated Isabella’s 3rd (!) birthday beforehand. Gianna was super excited to see Bella open her gifts and share her cake! And, as always, it was nice to see the extended DeAngelo family. Gianna enjoyed playing with her cousins in the sand and on the playground and even in the lake a bit. Mark just looked cute.

Since we met up with Nonna and Pop-pop at the reunion, they brought us the walker for Mark. He’s really loving cruising around in it. He desperately wants to get on the carpet with it, but he still manages to chase his sister around the kitchen. Too cute!

Gianna may be turning into a Jersey girl after all. Here’s a video of her talking about stickers (“stickahz”).

In other news, Mark's latest favorite toy is this ball. And as always, he loves attention from Gianna!

I lost the will to blog...so here is all of June!

June has been super busy for us. It started with a fun trip into Manhattan for a playdate with Riley (2) and Piper (10 months). Gianna and Riley had a great time playing together. And Gianna is quite taken with Piper too. Piper introduced Mark to one of her local friends, Ryann. And these three chubs had some good staring contests. It was an unbelievably gorgeous, mild day and we were so happy to spend it all outdoors with friends! Thanks girls!

The next weekend our friend from Harvard, Kelly, came all the way from Texas to visit us. It had been a year and a half since we last saw her and it was great to reconnect. Gianna took an instant shine to her and wanted to show Kelly everything; especially her latest accomplishment: using the potty! We’re grateful to Kelly for being such a good sport and being Gianna’s potty “audience” for 2 days! (The potty training was basically Gianna’s idea and she’s been doing great! We’re so proud of her!)

The following week we went to my parents’ house in VA while Doug was in Luxembourg again. We didn’t do too many exciting things, but I got a chance to get some shopping done with the extra hands around. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We came home Friday afternoon and Nonna made the trip with us; which was great since there was a major accident and the trip took almost an hour longer than it should have. Pop-pop came up Saturday morning. It was great to spend the weekend with them.

Gianna sporting all of her pull-ups on the trip home.

Gianna "feeding" Mark, so cute!

Last week we went to our church’s annual carnival. Gianna enjoyed the rides this year, so that was fun. It was SO hot when we were there that it sapped our energy a bit. Nonetheless it was fun to see her enjoy the rides and games.

Mark makes this face often, but it seems like the heat made it more prominent!

For the last few days Doug has been at a class and not been able to get home before the kids were in bed and was also gone all weekend. So we missed having Daddy around for sure! We’ve mostly passed the time with silliness at home, but we have had some fun outings like our trip tot he Discovery Museum. And check out our two silly videos at the end where Gianna sings happy birthday to America and Mark spins on his butt.

TEETH!

I swear, he makes this face all the time. It's not JUST because of the tiara :)

Mark loves The Supremes (he's watching a video of them)

I'm sure he would have enjoyed this "pond" more if he could crawl.

The first time Gianna has ever enjoyed a ball pit.

Grandparents and great-grandparents

The last couple of weeks have been busy. The kids and I went to VA while Doug was in Luxembourg during the week. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and getting to see Aunt Elizabeth, and cousins Bella and Jack almost every day was a real treat. Unfortunately, I am a terrible photographer and there is little to no evidence that any of this occurred. But, it was a hot week, so I managed to snap a few pictures of all the fun Gianna had in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa’s and all the fun she had with Bella in the sprinkler at Nonna and Pop-pop’s. It was a great week and we are super grateful to everyone for keeping us from missing Doug too much.

Doug had a good trip to Europe, but we were so glad for him to come home Friday evening. But there’s no rest for the weary and so we were off to Binghamton to celebrate Doug’s grandfather’s 90th birthday and to see the rest of the De Angelo family (including great-grandma De Angelo, see picture). We had a great time getting to see so many family members!

As a side note, we are on day 2 of being pacifier (aka bunkin) free! I followed my sister-in-law Elizabeth’s idea of suggesting the idea of a bunkin fairy coming to take them all away and give them to babies who need them (thanks, Elizabeth!). So I’ve been mentioning the bunkin fairy to Gianna for a week or two and every once in a while I ask if she’s ready for the fairy to come. On Monday, much to my surprise, she said yes! There have been a few minutes of crying at every bedtime or naptime and some early wake-ups (but she’s been getting up early anyway, so not that much worse!) but all-in-all she’s done really well and we’re so proud of her. After her first nap without it she said, “Am I a woman now?” Sorry Gianna, just because you’ve gotten rid of your pacifiers does not make you a woman. Unfortunately, I believe she thinks the only thing standing in her way of becoming a woman now is using the potty. We’ll keep you posted on that one!

Florida and our 6-month-old!

Last week we went to Florida to visit some old friends and to go to (gasp!) Disney World for a day. (Our friend who works there got us in for free, we wouldn’t have attempted it otherwise!) Our dear friends Matt and Shannon (Matt and Shanno, according to Gianna) were our hosts. We spent the first day in Doug’s hometown visiting his high school and former teacher “Auntie” Yentz. Mark loved playing on Yentz’s bed and Gianna loved playing in her garden.

Our day at Disney was HOT and mostly enjoyable. Gianna rode some rides and loved meeting the princesses (though she had reached her breaking point just before meeting Ariel, hence the photo of just Mark and me with Eric and Ariel). I thought the wicked stepsisters and stepmother were hilarious and this was actually one of the best videos we got. Luckily after a nap, she was ready to go again and she loved the parade we saw just before leaving. So all in all, it was a successful adventure. Mark mostly slept, but I consider that a success too!

The week after we got home Mark turned 6 months old. I still can’t believe it. He seems to be getting happier every day since his hospitalization too. We feel truly blessed to see our baby boy so happy again! He is definitely thriving. He has a new found love of solid food and formula. Here are his stats: 19 lbs, 3 oz and 28 inches long (the 90th and 95th percentiles respectively). Maybe he’ll play basketball…maybe not, the odds of him staying tall are NOT in his favor. Oh, and the day after his six month birthday he got his first two teeth!

Mark and Gianna have a newfound mutual admiration for each other. They just smile and laugh at each other all the time. And Mark watches her every move. It’s so fun to see them form a relationship!

Mother's Day and Mark update

The Thursday before Mother’s Day Mark had a follow up appointment with the infectious disease pediatrician. He said Mark looks perfect and that all we have to do is follow up with an ECHO with the cardiologist in a few weeks. (This is because Kawasaki disease can effect the heart arteries. His Echo in the hospital was normal, so we would just be making sure everything still looked good. We will likely have to do this annually throughout Mark’s childhood.) The doctor also said that the test for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever came back negative. However, he also said that, though he originally favored a Kawasaki disease diagnosis, he was now more 50/50 since Mark’s fever didn’t drop quickly after the IVIG treatment for Kawasaki disease. He said that if Mark were tested for RMSF now, it might come back positive. So, basically we may never know what he had. We don’t plan to test him again, but if the cardiologist wants bloodwork done, we may go ahead and have the test. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it though. The important thing is he’s back to his old self except for one small detail. He has laryngitis. We don’t know if this is some other virus or just the result of a lot of screaming while he was in the hospital. In any case, it hasn’t gotten much better over the last week, but it doesn’t seem to bother him and it has a certain charm. Here’s a video where I tried to capture the raspiness. I’m not sure you can really tell, but it’s a cute video regardless!

My Mother’s Day weekend was very nice. My in-laws came up Saturday morning to go to a couple wineries with us (yes, NJ makes wine!). We tasted some nice fruit wines and got a beautiful tour of central Jersey farmland. On Mother’s Day I went out for a pedicure and ate way too many bad things for me. I think I’m going to start calling Mother’s Day “Fat Day” cuz it’s all about food for me. I did get a pretty good picture of me with my babies to celebrate the day too. And here are two other funny pictures. Mark looks like he just smelled his own diaper and Gianna was loving posing with her cute hairdo which lasted maybe an hour beyond this photo session!

Easter and a week in VA

This is way late, but with Mark’s illness and my general tiredness, it got put off by about a month! But anyway, here it is.

We spent a lovely Easter weekend in VA. Gianna loved all things Easter: dying eggs, hunting for eggs, and getting stuff! It was super fun to spend the day with Doug’s whole family. Gianna and her cousin, Isabella, hunted for eggs several times and looked adorable in their dresses. (Isabella has a tutu on under hers. Too funny!) And though Doug will try to take credit, Nick made a fabulous meal!

The next weekend we went back to VA again because Doug was set to spend 4 days in Vegas and I wasn’t about to stay by myself with the two kids for all that time! Luckily, my parents were happy to oblige in helping me. Gianna and Mark had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. I’m sure they were tired from all the playing. We also got to spend some more time with Isabella and Jack. Gianna and Isabella are getting to be quite good playmates. It’s so cute to watch them and listen to their conversations.

Being silly with Nonna

Mark really enjoys eating his own socks. Hilarious.

Gianna enjoying crafts with Grandma

My new favorite picture of Mark. It's just so him.