Date night with Gabby!

There is another reason I love the holidays... and that's because it's a break from the normal routine. No school routine. No rushing to gymnastics class or swimming lessons. No crazy work requests. Everything just seems a bit quieter.

So, Dan & I usually take advantage of this time to go on a few dates. This year, we decided we'd take each child on a special date with us. For Gabby's date, she chose to go out and get pedicures and dinner. Although, she got a manicure AND a pedicure. And, some very cute flowers were painted on her big toes. Dan and I just got pedi's.

For dinner we went to a fun wine cafe. And, while the big people can have wine flights... the little people can enjoy milk flights. So, Gabby got to enjoy special milk flights served in fancy wine glasses. She tried strawberry, caramel, chocolate and white and I had to remind her to not drink them so fast or we'd be in the bathroom more than sitting at the table during dinner!

She also entertained us through dinner with funny stories from school and with her friends. She is such a fun little girl. She's always full of excitement, and willing to share stories and see what our thoughts are on certain scenarios with her friends, etc. I love listening to her stories and thoughts, and hearing all about her world that we aren't a part of during the school day. And, I'm so glad she shares stories with us. I imagine the day she stops sharing so much is not too far off!

We love you so much, Gabs! Thanks for the fun date night!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas holiday was nice. If you celebrate this holiday - we hope yours was also nice!

Christmas Eve Day was busy. We took our toy donation to Seattle Children's in the morning. After that, we went home and started prepping our Christmas Eve dinner... home made lasagna and bread. When Giuliana woke up from her nap we let the kids open family gifts... gifts from cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and Dan & I. Then, we raced out of the house at 4:30pm so we could hopefully still find seats for Christmas Eve mass. After church, we came home and ate dinner. (Well... some of us ate and some of us could not stop playing with our new toys. But, those of us who did eat ate enough for the little people who didn't!)

The kids had so much fun opening gifts. They each seemed truly thankful for every gift they opened... it was cute. Rocco started a routine of opening a gift, yelling out with huge excitement what it was, then yelling thank you, and then holding it next to his face saying "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese" so I could snap a picture (even if I didn't have my camera ready) and then begging Dan to open it. Also, as Rocco would open gifts, Giuliana would be VERY interested in whatever it was he got (Batman, Spiderman, transformers, whatever...). So, Rocco ended up clearing a spot on the kitchen counter to "safely keep his gifts out of Giuliana's reach". And, after a new gift was opened, he would go throw the new gift up high onto his pile. It was hilarious! He was literally storing all his newly acquired gift stash! Of course, it didn't take long for Giuliana to figure out what was going on or where all of Rocco's cool gifts were... which meant lots of negotiating between an almost 4 and almost 2 year old. But, it was funny all the same. I think Rocco kept his *stash* piled in that spot on the counter for at least the next day and a half. Grabbing what he wanted, as it was needed. Tossing unused new toys back onto the pile. I was eventually able to talk him into allowing us to move the new gift stash to the play room and his bedroom.

Giuliana could have cared less about opening gifts on Christmas Eve. She was much more interested in taking what gifts were already opened that interested her from her brother and sister. This created a number or tantrums and meltdowns between her and Rocco on Christmas Eve, as she was very fast to put claim on Rocco's new Batman and Batman mobile. This girl is in LOVE with Batman!! I'd say she loves Batman just as much as Rocco does, if not more. Matter-of-fact, she had a 45 minute meltdown/tantrum before bed on Christmas Eve because SHE wanted to sleep with Rocco's new Batman. I felt so bad for Rocco because HE wanted to sleep with his new Batman. But, we were eventually able to convince Rocco to sleep with his new Buzz Lightyear toy and give Giuliana the Batman. JEEEEESH!! Anyway... Giuliana did show much more interest in actually opening gifts on Christmas morning. And, now as luck would have it, every day she is trying to sneak open her birthday gifts (which are sitting out with Rocco's). Every day, we find her stealing a birthday gift from the pile and when she's busted with it (about to open it, or in route to take it into hiding for her secret opening) she'll run from us holding the gift and we have to catch her and put it back into the pile. She's already opened two of her birthday gifts completely! This little girl keeps us on our toes!

Gabby got a lot of big girl gifts this year from both us and Santa. Even she recognized that she received less toys, and more "grown-up" gifts (or gift that are more useful). Things like new bed sheets and a new big-girl quilt for her room. Earrings, shoes, board games, crafty stuff, and clothing items she had been asking for. She loved everything and was very thankful for all of her gifts and I was glad to see that. And, she had a lot of fun helping the little kids try out their new toys. She's such a GREAT big sister!

Before bed, we read "T.was the night before Christmas". We tucked the kids in. (That sounds a lot easier than it was - because Giuliana's Batman tantrum made it horrible on xmas eve!!) And, then it was time to start the tricky stealth mission of getting the stockings filled and wrapped S.anta gifts downstairs by the Christmas tree. And of course, Dan still had to build stuff. Every year, he waits until Christmas Eve to do this... and then he'll be cursing and complaining in the next room, and he'll come over and complain to me that he doesn't have the right parts or whatever. And, every year, I suggest he starts this earlier... but no. He tells me it's his tradition. And, of course, he has all the parts... it's just he's probably numbed his stress too much with the b.ourbon to notice. Men... go figure!

Anyway, Santa was very generous this year. He surprised the kids with two family gifts. One was a big holiday train (that sings holiday music and has little elves pumping it along the tracks) that the kids LOVE. We'll pull this out each year at Christmas and have it be sort of another Christmas decoration in the house. The other family gift was another i.Pod Touch (to hopefully stop the iFights and provide sanity on our upcoming trips so each child has their own iSomething). Santa gave Giuliana a new baby doll, a wooden baby crib, changing table and high chair, a tea set and some M&D wood kitchen stuff. She was very happy (although I think she would have been just as happy with getting a B.atman doll!). Rocco got lots of transformers, an Optimus Prime transformer helmet and some more B.atman and S.piderman related stuff. He was in Heaven! Gabby got lots of H.ello Kitty stuff (per her request to Santa) including new H.K. wall stickers (to replace the princess wall stickers! wow - never thought this day would come!), a H.K. wallet, a H.K. i.Pod Touch case, a H.K. vanity/makeup mirror, and lots more H.K. stuff. She also got her very own speaker/docking station to put in her bedroom for her i.Pod, some sparkly hoop earrings (she was VERY excited about her hoop earrings!), and a new 2 wheeled R.azor scooter.

By the time Christmas Day hit... this momma was exhausted!! The culmination of all the errands, shopping, wrapping, getting projects done for work and Matteo's Dream Fund, being a taxi for the kids, having Dan gone traveling for business for 16 days in December, being pregnant, volunteering in Gabby's classroom, prepping/planning for 3 kids birthdays... ACK!! I think I spent November and December in a whirlwind of checking stuff off my lists for the past two months and it was as if my body finally said "I NEED A BREAK!". So, on Christmas Day, my feet hurt, my legs hurt and I felt like a semi-truck had run me over. From the moment I woke up, I knew I needed a day to just sit around and do nothing. And, I didn't need to talk anyone else into that (no surprises there!). So, that's what I did. Nothing. And, let me tell you... I can honestly not remember the last time I did this (I'm too Type A to just sit around. I like to be doing something.) But, it felt GREAT! Everyone should do this at least once a year! The kids had a grand time... they played with their toys all day, listened to music, we played the new board games and Dan helped them open toys and played games on his iPad.

Christmas Day was very quiet. But - it was exactly what we needed and we enjoyed it. We stayed in PJ's all day. We ate leftovers... and just chilled!

We hope you also found some time to just relax over the holiday break!

Toy donation... our new holiday tradition!

We have a new family tradition...

It started last year when we made a big donation to Seattle Children's on behalf of Matteo's Dream Fund.

This year... we did it on behalf of our family because we got SO much out of the experience last year. After last year's donation event, we didn't even need to discuss that we would continue to do this every year moving forward.

It really makes for a fun, meaningful and great experience for both adults AND children. I highly recommend adding it to your list of holiday traditions as well.












We bring the kids to the toy stores... let them shop and pick out lots of toys, markers, crayons, coloring books, dolls, puzzles, games, etc. Dan and I picked out gift cards and iCovers. Then, we drive directly over to the children's hospital with the kids and gifts in tow... and let the kids bring all the bags in to the volunteer office where the toys are being collected for the holidays.

The kids ask a million questions... every "why, who, what, where and how" you can imagine. And, as we're leaving they comment on how they hope the toys and gifts will help make a bunch of sick kids smile and feel loved over the holidays. They talk about it for the rest of the day and it isn't hard to know that they feel really good about it and are more grateful for their own good health and all that they have.

And, it also is an easy way for us to do something good for so many other little kids... in memory of our little angel, Matteo.

'Twas the Season...

Our holiday season sort of spans the time from Thanksgiving to New Year's. And, since I already posted about Thanksgiving... time to post more about Christmas.

We went and chopped down our tree at a local tree farm the Saturday after Thanksgiving. And, we had it up, lights on and decorated by the end of the day. That was a record for us! Usually, we get our tree home and lights on over Thanksgiving weekend... but the decorations don't get put on for a week or two later... mostly because we always get caught up in some sort of chaos.

The kids did a great job decorating it this year. They needed help getting decorations in the higher spots of course, but in general, they didn't bunch all the ornaments in one spot as they used to do. Both Rocco and Gabby were very involved with the decorating and really seemed to enjoy it. Giuliana sort of danced around and played with ornaments, broke ornaments, pulled some off the tree and put some on.









Some of the other *signs* of Christmas in our house were the swirl of colored lights going up our staircase; the baby J.esus in the manger scene; the cranberry, peppermint and holiday scented candles burning throughout the house; the beautiful holiday cards sent to us by so many friends and family; the darling Christmas tree place-card holders Gabby made for our Christmas dinner table; and then of course, the big signal to the kids that Christmas is right around the corner is seeing presents wrapped and under the tree.

And, as always... Matteo is in our constant thoughts. Holidays seem a little jaded ever since Matteo died... and I honestly think that helps keep us a bit more focused on the reason for the season, instead of getting carried away in the consumerism and crazy behavior that can devour people over the Christmas holiday. Gabby had a number of difficult moments that hit sporadically over the month of December. She broke down sobbing on one occasion... just missing her brother so much. It literally rips my heart out to see her hurt so much... and not be able to *fix* it. And, it takes everything in my power to not break down sobbing right along with her.

The first Christmas after Matteo died, a very dear friend of mine gifted us with a number of personalized ornaments with Matteo's photos. The kids always want to put those ornaments up first and they treat them with the utmost care. I included a couple photos of those ornaments here.

Christmas Cookies!

Christmas cookies are a MUST every year for several reasons:
1. It's a great tradition to do every year with the kiddos
2. Who doesn't LOVE cookies... especially butter cut-out cookies!
3. It makes Dan absolutely crazy and stressed out (and I get so many laughs out of this - I love it!)

So, this year we decided to make the butter cut-out cookies, the colorful kaleidoscope cookies, and gingerbread cookies.

Well, I must be getting old... because we only got to baking the butter cut-out cookies on our first cookie night. The kids had a ball. Highlights included
* Giuls being covered in flour
* daddy getting stressed with kids getting flour everywhere
* daddy getting stressed with kids sneaking and eating the dough (Giuls was the worst, grabbing chunks of dough at every chance and stuffing them in her mouth!)
* Rocco taking the cookie decorating very seriously... and then at the end, he ended up dumping a pile of brown decorations all over one cookie
* Gabby spending more time eating the red-hot candies than decorating her tray of cookies (she was the last to finish)
* Giuliana really enjoyed putting sprinkles on the cookies and took to the task much faster than I expected her to. She too ended up dumping an entire bottle of sprinkles on one cookie though... but hers were different colored flour shapes.

The next night I made one batch of the kaleidoscope cookies (the green/mint), one batch of the white/almond and I ended up burning the red/peppermint batch. Good times. Then, when I started to melt the chocolate to frost all the cookies with, I think I overcooked the chocolate too.

I ended up throwing out the gingerbread cookie dough because we had mountains of cookies sitting around already... and well, I didn't want to food poison anyone (yes, I totally forgot I had left the dough out for an entire day because I kept getting distracted by kids and work and life in general). Great excuse to not create anymore temptations though!

Our au pair, Michalina, even made a batch of her grandma's butter cookies with a lemon/egg white/powdered sugar frosting. They were also delicious!

And now... it's time to lay OFF the cookies! :))

Oh BOY! We're expecting baby #5!

We've known for quite a while now... but sort of just *announced* our exciting news. We're expecting another baby in April 2012... a BOY!

We couldn't be more thrilled to add another little boy to the family. And, we're so happy Rocco will get to have another brother, only this one to live through this wild roller coaster ride of life.

The pregnancy has been going well. I'm over 21 weeks pregnant, and definitely still have my moments of extreme exhaustion. Mostly because I am probably doing WAY TOO MUCH these days. Not only am I mom to three kids, a wife, a taxi-service for my kids and working part time... but lately, I've been trying to check so many things off my to-do list for the non-profit organization we started, Matteo's Dream Fund. And, in addition to that... all the Christmas and birthday shopping has been on my shoulders and Dan's been traveling a LOT these days. I feel like every day I wake up to a to-do list 10 miles long and that the entire day is a rat race. I think I will be excited once January hits... :))

At the beginning of the pregnancy, I was extremely tired, experiencing nausea and frequent black-outs (almost fainting) until about 15 weeks. I happen to have a low blood pressure when I'm not pregnant... so when I'm pregnant, the black-out spells seem to happen quite a bit in the mornings. Less frequently as the day goes on.

I am still exercising 3-5 times a week... but really only able to still run for 1 mile at a time. So, now I mix that in with a long walk. I think not running is just around the corner... as I carry my babies like there is a basketball attached to the front of me, so it just gets incredibly uncomfortable to actually run. Not to mention... it puts a lot of pressure on the goods!

The kids are SO EXCITED about the baby! We surprised them at the end of September with the news by having them open a present with ultrasound photos in it! Rocco immediately said he wanted a baby brother. And, Gabby immediately said she hoped for another baby sister.

I found out on December 12th that it was a boy. So, on my way home from the appointment, I picked up lots of blue balloons and a "It's a Boy!" balloon. That's how Dan learned the sex. And, when the kids got home from school, I brought out the balloons and they started jumping with joy. It was super cute.

Gabby then proceeded to go into great detail on what we should name the little guy... and she happened to say the name of pretty much every boy in our class. It was hilarious!

Also, at my last appointment, they did all the important anatomy scans... and everything is looking great. So far, it looks like we're having a very healthy little man.

Obviously, I couldn't help but think that Matteo had a part in all of this.... the pregnancy, the gender... everything. I hope the little guy comes out looking exactly like his angel brother... chubby cheeks, golden-brown curls and all.

Gabby also asked the other day if we could name the baby Matteo... I had to tell her no. She asked why. She wanted to know if Matteo would be mad. I told her he wouldn't be mad. But, I told her that there will always only be one Matteo in our family, and he is in Heaven. I told her the baby's middle name would be Matteo. And, someday.... if she had a little boy, she could name him Matteo. She seemed to like that.

Everything in life remains bittersweet. It sure is a wild ride, isn't it?

Matteo's Dream Fund web site is LIVE!!

After a lot of time, a lot of work, and the help of many fabulous people... we are thrilled to announce that MATTEO'S DREAM FUND web site is LIVE!!

Visit http://www.matteosdreamfund.com to learn more about Matteo's Dream Fund, our mission and Matteo's story. Tax deductible donations can now be made online via the web site, and our apparel selection is all displayed there too! And, if you like being a part of the social media world, you should also know we have a Facebook page. LIKE us to be included in our communications.

I have so many people to thank for help with everything related to Matteo's Dream Fund. So many of those items are encompassed in the web site, including the logo, the fact that we have filed with the IRS to be an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (and all the legal work involved with that). Not to mention the great apparel we have for sale or the fact that we even got the web site live!

So, I would formally like to thank our Board of Directors, including D. Martino, K. Hart, M. Desai, M.LaValle, and myself. I would also like to thank our pro-bono attorney consultant and college sorority sister, K. Austin, and her associates as well as another college sorority sister, J. Peterson, for getting the ball rolling on the pro-bono legal endeavor. I would like to thank our logo designer, A. Cambouris. And, our promotional materials consultant, John. And, obviously, I would like to thank each and every one of our supporters... people who have donated time or money to our charity. People who have sent kind words or helped us in one way or another, including businesses that have so kindly donated goods and services. This is all possible because of SO MANY people!! So - THANK YOU!

2011 Photo with Santa!!

Our 2011 Santa visit was fairly uneventful, compared to past years. That is mostly due to the fact that GABBY is no longer scared Santa! This was officially Gabby’s second time taking a HAPPY photo with Santa.

This was Giuliana’s first time taking a photo with Santa, and she was not a fan. As I was holding her and approaching Santa, Giuliana started to cry and put a strong grip on me. I tried putting her in Gabby's lap... but that was next to impossible, as she was screaming and holding on so tight. I just couldn't go through with the Santa-torture. So, I decided to sit down next to Santa and make Dan jump in the photo too! So, here is our family photo with Santa. This is a picture of the picture on the screen from Santa's Workshop. Yes... I'm too lazy to scan the photo. Maybe I'll do that in the coming days. And, had I known I’d be in the photo, I would have actually done something with my hair! Oh well… what you don’t do for your children!

So, of 4 children, only one has been totally un-phased by taking photos with Santa. Rocco has never been scared of Santa. Matteo was NOT a fan of Santa. At all! He acted almost as crazy as Gabby. This was our Santa photo from 2008… it still makes me laugh.

Also included there is Gabby's award-winner photo with Santa from 2006…hilarious!

BTW: The photos included here were all taken while we were waiting to see Santa, or visiting with Santa.

Penicillin Allergy

Grrrrrreat! As luck would have it, we now apparently have two kiddos allergic to penicillin. It might not be totally evident in these photos because of the light... but Rocco has huge red patches all over his face (and his entire body). Oh, and he also has tomato soup lining his lips.

Rocco and Giuliana were both taking amoxicillin at the end of November. And, sure enough... before I was able to give Rocco his second dose on the last of his 10 day stretch of being on the medication, patches of red hives started appearing all over his poor little body.

I noticed a few suspect red spots on his face, and immediately lifted up his shirt to confirm my suspicions. Yup - he was having an allergic reaction to something and it had to be the drug.

This is probably the second of third time he's been on a penicillin-family drug. Our CA pedi never put the kids on penicillin drugs, based on the fact that Gabby has a penicillin allergy. But, our pedi here (whom I really like) comes from a different school of thought and has said sibling allergies to the same drugs are not as common as once thought (or something like that). Well... guess we proved that wrong with Rocco. :)

It's such an awful looking rash and literally moves in red patches all over their entire body over the course of 3-4 days. In my experiences... the second day looks like your child's body was overtaken by a red hive monster. And, it's a tad scary when you first recognize and realize they're having an allergic reaction just because I of course always fear the worst and think about anaphylactic shock. Luckily though, neither Gabby or Rocco had any difficulties breathing with their reaction. They just had the awful looking big red patches covering their entire body. And, Rocco seemed slightly bothered by it.... scratching every once in a while. I don't recall Gabby having scratched at her hives at all... but she was also under the age of 2. Whereas, Rocco is almost 4... so that may have something to do with it. I was able to give Rocco B.enadryl a few times, including right when I noticed he was having the reaction.

Hopefully, little Giuliana won't get the same allergy!