Ohio State vs. Michigan Party 11-22-08

Saturday, our friends threw a big Ohio State party. Since Nick's siblings were in town, they joined us and we had a great time! We aren't OSU or Michigan fans, so we ended up concentrating more on the food and drinks than the game! I do know that OSU won though.

Brandon (kate's BF), Kate (nick's sister), Adam (nick's brother), Molly (adam's GF), Nick and ME-----oops, I blinked!

Nick, Brandon and Kate behind the bar in the newly finished basement:

Me, Molly and Adam

Now, the fun begins......I felt like I was back in college with the drinking games:
"Beer Pong"

"Flip Cup"

*Note to self (and my husband)* Do not play drinking games when you have to go back home and take care of a whiny toddler. (Don't worry, Nick's parents helped us!)

Thanksgiving with the Scalzo's

(i know i'm way behind!) Since Thanksgiving was going to be spent with my family this year, Nick's siblings decided to come into town the weekend before so we could have a pre-thanksgiving family dinner together. Nick's sister Kate and her boyfriend Brandon and Nick's brother Adam and his girlfriend Molly all came to town. Here we all are (sans Nick's mom the photographer) at the dinner table:
Macina with Aunt Kate!
Macina's favorite rocking chair at Nonna and Pop's house:

MMM, first time having Nonna's yummy spaghetti and meatballs!

The whole fam decided we'd do spaghetti and meatballs since we'd be having the traditional turkey dinner in just a few days. We had such a fun weekend with everyone in town....I will post more on that soon!

As promised.....some pictures of my 15 month old girl

Macina with her newest baby doll from Nonna (notice the snow?)

My 'lil gymnast hanging on the rings at "Playground World" the other week:

"Do you like seafood? See-food!"

At Chuck E. Cheese today:

She insisted on eating dinner with her creepy dolls tonight.

15 Month Check-Up

          I took Macina to her 15 month checkup last week. She weighed 20 lbs. 4 oz. and was 30" tall. She has been at about the 50% all her life, but this time she was 25% for weight and 75% for height. Hmm, not sure why her percentile for weight dropped, but we will keep an eye on it. She's a pretty good eater though. She LOVES egg yolks!! I wonder if it has anything to do with me craving egg salad sandwiches while I was pregnant. (The cafeteria staff at work would start making my egg salad sandwich for me as soon as they saw me coming!) I haven't had one since though. Anyway, she got two shots, kicking and screaming. She only cried for a minute, thanks to the sucker. She was doing everything she's supposed to be doing, except talking! I think they average 5 words at this age. I told them all she says is mama and dada, but that she does more than 5 signs (sign language).  She can sign:

• more
• eat
• drink
• baby
• shoes
• hat
• cheese
• apple  
  
• ball

Signing "more" with a mouthful of chicken nuggets! 

I think that's it, but we just started working on a few more like bath and eggs. She laughs every time I help her do the bath sign (rub your fists up and down your chest), she thinks it's so funny! The doctor said it's more important that they are understanding words than actually saying them at this point......maybe she was just trying to make me feel better! 

Well, my little girl is napping right now but when she wakes up I will take a picture of her and post it later today, because I know a blog post with no picture is BORING! 

Little things about Macina

Macina is such a GIRL! She loves putting on bracelets, purses and makeup. And she LOVES her baby dolls. She has three dolls (so far)--two normal size babies and a giant one (thanks Nonna). I constantly have to put their hats on for her and socks and change their diapers.....she shares her food and drink with them....and she makes me breastfeed them! Okay, maybe this is a little TOO much info about us but I think it is cute. :) Sometimes I have to feed two at a time, then she shoves them out of the way so she can get in there. Silly girl. She also likes to sit down and have them all sitting around/next to her while I read her a story. Here's a picture of the four of them:

Giving #2 a kiss (BABY number 2 that is!)

There are tons of things Macina likes to do even though we tell her "NO". 

• She digs her fingers into the dirt outside and eats it. 
• She runs full speed ahead down the driveway into the street. 
• She dumps all the food off of her plate. 
• She puts random things in her mouth and then gives us a big grin, when we ask "What's in your mouth?!"  she immediately turns around to run in the other direction, laughing. 
  
• She rests her feet up on the kitchen table at dinner. Here's a picture of dinner time tonight.....Nick told her to get her feet off the table and here's her reaction:

total happiness

She loves throwing things away in the garbage can, but she always makes me go with her so I have to make like a million trips there a day (lazy I know). She has to be the one to turn the light off when we leave a room and has to be the one to give the cashier the credit card or else she gets very angry! Hmmm, I'm beginning to think my daughter may be controlling......Nah!!

Halloween :Afterhours

Once trick-or-treating was over and our little girl was in bed, Nick's mom came over to babysit (thanks Melissa!). We had our own Halloween party to get to. I was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Nick was Jesus (carrying an inappropriate sign about Judgement Day). First we went to Rob and Betsy's house. There were about 12 other couples meeting there and the women brought food. Here's a picture of the pumpkin tureen dip I baked in a real pumpkin:

A few of the girls:

And a few of the guys:

Then the Limo bus came to pick us up to go bar hopping. It was really nice, here's a picture of all of us inside on our way to the first bar downtown:

Everyone had a lot of fun. I think Nick and I had a little too much fun :).  Oh, at one point Nick thought he had lost his sign forever, but then he found it behind a bar table....you can tell how happy he was to find it in this picture!

And now it is November!! I can't believe it, but I am so excited for all the upcoming holidays and family gatherings. Macina will be so fun to watch, I can't wait!

Happy Halloween!

Helping clean out the pumpkin

Happy Halloween everyone! What a great day! The weather was absolutely perfect, 68* and sunny. Macina wore her pumpkin outfit all day today....to the grocery store, outside to play....she looked so cute and even left the bow in her hair! When Nick got home from work we ate our Halloween dinner: Chili (a tradition my mom started), which Macina LOVED by the way. Then it was off to get some candy. We took Macina to a few houses on our street but then decided it would be more fun to hang out in our driveway and pass out candy. Everyone loved her flower costume (thanks cousin Aurora for sharing!) It was hard to get good pictures because we could NOT get the candy away from her mouth. She just chewed right through the wrappers and sucked away! Her favorite was Snickers, just like her daddy. We had so much fun with our little girl today.

A close up :)

Showing off her Crocs

Mommy and Macina

Passing out candy with Daddy