Because his lips are so lushy lishy…

Late night hunting with Grandpa in the yard:

Monsta was complaining that his tummy hurt and this morning woke up with 103 fever. I made chicken soup with alphabets in it and he is pretty much just dozing on the couch all day. Poor kid.

He sort of sang….

Max was crowned King of all the wild things…

He looked older by the end of the ceremony…

But, he is still my baby…

and always will be.

I have mentioned before that the Monsta is pretty much over the whole camera thing. If I ask for a smile, I get cheese. If I don’t ask, I get cheese. So, I end up not asking and letting him do whatever he is doing and if I would like him to look up, I try to make him laugh somehow by asking him something funny. That works for about a minute and then he is back to cheese. After the cheese though, there is the annoyed phase. If I’m lucky, I can snap a few during this sensitive stage. If I click one too many, then we move into full on tantrum. I’ve been timing it pretty perfectly I must say. Here is Ben with the “annoyed” face. I love these shots just the same. I could eat up those cheeks and lips in one bite. They are THAT cute!

Switching topics over to our bee friends. They LOVE us and our deck. We keep saying we are going to seal the deck with an oil based stain because the bees don’t like that but it is not high up on our to do list. Until then, we live with them. Get rid of them. They come back. We get rid of them and so on and so on. Here is a sweet little guy that is working away. They like to build under the railing.

He is doesn’t live here anymore.

A Birthday that lasts for more than a week must be a kid’s dream. The Monsta doesn’t understand why we keep celebrating but he sure doesn’t mind the dessert! It started last Thursday (his actual Birthday). The immediate family came over for dinner and cake:

He made a wish (which is usually…I hope Mommy does good…..could ya die!)

Then on Saturday, Craig’s cousins came for the day. My inlaws joined us later in the day and we had dinner and cupcakes:

Thanks Rachel for those lishy cakes!

All this celebrating and the real party is still coming. We always have a BIG bash for Ben’s birthday and we love it because it kicks off the summer. That is scheduled for this Saturday. I’m a bit worried about the weather. It is not looking good right now. I don’t know what we will do if it rains. This small house can’t accommodate all those people. Yikes!

Memorial Day weekend photos are soon to come this week…..

Off to Flamenco soon – I’m back to classes if you didn’t know.

have a great night! xxo Marina

It has been awhile since I’ve said how fast time goes by so here is another dose.  I’m looking at my desktop calendar and I can’t believe that tomorrow, Monsta is turning 4, and the day after that, Cubby turns 8 months old.  ACK!  I look at them and see it!  They are maturing in front of my eyes and it is not going unnoticed.  Every morning when I nurse David, I inspect…  More hair – check, Longer body – check , Fuller face- check.  I can’t stand it.  SLOW DOWN!  Then The Monsta comes barrelling in and I see for sure that he is older with the, “Mom, you crack me up!” and “Come quick, I’ve discovered something!”  phrases. 

They are getting older and my back is telling me that I am too.  Pains popping up all over in places that I never knew I had.  I go to sleep with an ice pack or a heating pad and pray that in the morning I will be ache-free.   Ok, enough complaining from me…..

Here is Cubby at 7 months and tomorrow you will get a BIG dose of the four year old.  Have a great, HOT day!

Yesterday turned into a splendid day that was spent at the beach. I was secretly stressing about what if Cubby didn’t like this magical place but he turned out to be a true Palencia after all. I use my maiden name for the simple reason that I grew up on the beach. I don’t remember many days NOT being at the beach in the summertime. We made long days even longer back then by packing breakfast, lunch and dinner. We set out early like eight o’clock and munched on HOT bagels from Higbie Bagels while watching the waves. We swam and dug and slept and built and talked and listened to music for hours on end. The whole family as a family enjoying ourselves as a family should. We would grill on a hibachi till sunset and then finally go home with the smell of Coppertone and salt still lingering on our clothes.

Is it possible to recreate those days?

Yesterday was spur of the moment as my Mom and her friend were going. I spontaneously said we would meet them there. Ben was in his element and had a smile plastered on his face from beginning to end. David was the sweetest little thing…..he sat and ate and lounged the whole time never once making a fuss. Could I ask for more? Ben and I dug holes and then made a tunnel to connect them which was really cool. We passed things back and forth. We ran to the water a zillion times and he made me say, “Don’t you dare come up here water!”. When it did, we would yell, “HEY!” and run. The water was so freezing that I couldn’t feel my toes but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but having fun.

When we got home, I placed this little, wiped out guy on the grass, so I could water my window boxes. He looked so cute!

Why not, right? You’re a kid, you can do anything! Came across this site recently. How cool does that look? I wonder if there is anything like this on the East Coast.

I’ve been trying to get the Monsta to go on the LIRR. He LOVES trains and we visit the station often. (It is right by his school) A train pulled up the other day and I wanted to get on real quick and then off again. He wouldn’t have any part of it. What is that about? I told him I would hold him to get on. I think the gap really freaked him out. The Engineer did wave to us out the window as they pulled away. He got a kick out of that!

Here is another cutie shot sans pizza:

This is everything!

Celebrating Mom – iheartfaces

I entered this shot into a contest for Photographing Children: Using textures. Winner gets Photoshop CS5. I’m keeping my fingers crossed but I never seem to have any luck with these contests. It’s fun to participate anyway.

While Earth Day was a few days ago, I’m behind in posting the pics.  We had a tremendous day talking about all the kind things you can do to help save our planet.  Monsta likes to discuss these things.  He is always pointing out litter that we see when we go out.  He asks why did somebody throw that on the ground Mommy?  Keeping our kids aware is the most important thing we can do as parents.  They will grow up learning that Earth is our home and it has value and we don’t want people to dirty it up.  He gets that we recycle in the house but maybe I need to bring him down to the recycling center so he gets to see the big picture.  That would be an experience for him and me.

Using the dirt that they dug up from putting in our new fence last week.

Filled a pot that we got at a Spring fair up in Westchester County.

Look at me, I did it!

Planted grapefruit seeds from a grapefruit we shared months ago. It was delicious and we dried the seeds on the windowsill.

Planted zinnias in Cubby’s pot.

Add some water and wait…….

What are some of the fun things YOU did for Earth Day?