What is it with Federal Holiday's?

Everyone knows what this is, right? Well, to my baby boy it is something you put in your mouth and accidently swallow! Yes, that's right, Carter swallowed a paperclip yesterday and I spent my evening in the ER to make sure it wasn't stuck. It wasn't (thank goodness) and the ER trip was pretty quick (only about 1 1/2 hours, thank you pediatric ER at Howard County!) and we were sent home to go to bed.

At about 3:30pm Carter told us he ate some fuzz (really the paperclip) and he could feel it in his throat. A little while later he told Nick that the "fly" had come out. We think he coughed the paperclip up (not too sure the story from Carter is a little fuzzy, no pun intended). A few hours later he had a paperclip in his mouth and Nick saw him with it (made him take it out of course) and this is when we found out that it was in fact a paperclip he had swallowed earlier (it was now 8pm). We had some neighbors over for a BBQ (in the rain) and our next door neighbor is a surgeon (how convienent, a belly surgeon at that) and he told us we should take him in to get checked. We went, they took a picture (x-ray) and the paperclip was no where to be found. So, either it already had passed through his stomach or it wasn't in there anymore. Anyway we are grateful our trip to the ER was short and uneventful (if you can call getting a ride on a hospital bed and seeing your insides uneventful to a 3 year old!) and we are home today getting ready to go to gym!

Doing my Duty!

The preschool that Carter will be going to this year is a co-op preschool. This means all the parents have a job they must do during the school year. This helps keeps costs down and forces all the parents to be involved (I am not sure force is the right word, if you didn't want to do this you would have chosen a different preschool where this is not required) Anyway...my job is the monthly clean helper (or janitor as Nick calls it). My job requires me to take the classroom toys home and clean them each month. Since school starts this week I have had to start my job...it is not as easy as it may sound, there are A LOT of toys at this preschool, but what kid wouldn't want their Mom to bring home tons of toys for them to play with each month?! Here are the toys that I have had to clean so far (I don't think I will post about this every month, but even I was astonished at how many toys there were!

The Mr. Potato Heads (Carter calls his school the Potato Head school because when we went to visit they had the Potato Heads out to play with)

The water table toys that we obviously played with in our "water table"

I learned after cleaning the potato heads that the bath tub was the best place to clean the toys (soak them in bleach solution) and then to dry them on the deck in the sun. The potato heads were a bit of a disaster trying to clean them and it took way longer than it should have!

The kitchen food.

Each month I will have a variety of things to bring home to clean as it rotates through the school year. From the kitchen food, to kitchen toys, legos, bristle blocks, etc. I will be a cleaning fool!!!

The Tire Park

Last weekend I packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the tire park to play around! It was GORGEOUS outside! We had a great time and would have stayed longer if there hadn't been so many bees!

Sophia, Sophia, Sophia

I haven't posted much this summer so I made this collage to show what Sophia has been up to...

She has been playing in her exersaucer, going swimming (which she really enjoyed by the end of the summer!) had her 1st 4th of July, experimented with bows, made some funny faces, hung out with her big brother, went on her first vacation to Bethany Beach, took some walks in her stroller, and was always smiling! What a busy lady!!!You feel bad that I have to look at her everyday don't you!!!

Captain Underpants!

Need I say more?

Sophia Gets Baptized

We had Sophia Baptized in July. It was a beautiful day and so many friends and family came to celebrate with us. Nick's, Dad's cousin Monseignor Vaghi (who baptized Carter and married us) did the honors at his church, The Church of the Little Flower, in Bethesda Maryland.

Sophia wore the same Christining gown that both me and my sister wore when we were baptized.

My sister, Karen, and Nick's brother, Vince, are Sophia's godparents. They are also Carter's godparents.

With Grandma and Nana and with Great Grandma! (in my 2nd dress of the day what a fashionista!)

It was a long day!!

Bedroom Makeovers!

Ok, we didn't completely make-over the kids rooms but some additional items have been added to each one that have made them more complete. Here are the new additions...

In Carter's room he got a new floating shelf for his piggy banks and some pictures, and a new bookshelf (that matches the shelf). We can now display the bookends we got for him in Myrtle Beach (they matched his crib bedding, but they are still cute!) and put out the collection of Shel Silverstein books I got for him.

Sophia got a handmade mobile (courtesy of Etsy and me! they are actually flower pin cushions!) a floating shelf, bookends from Myrtle Beach (I am thinking of getting her a collection of Dr. Suess books to put between the bookends), Carter's old bookshelf stuffed with books, her name proudly displayed over her bed (another DIY project, we stained the letters ourselves!). She also recieved a few accents for her room at her Baptism from family friends, the Hard's. She got a zodiac baby block (the year of the Ox) and an adorable clock.

What lucky kids!!