Rockam invades a quiet moment

Ollie morning

Ollie does his morning exercise in a genuine Turkish sleeper :) he's finally moving into 0-3month clothes.

How pleasant it is

When brothers dwell together in unity... Never mind that they had a fist fight a few minutes after I took this photo.

Stephen, my mad scientist

Good morning, Ollie!

Getting Oliver to smile and squeal is pretty easy these day... But getting clear photos of his smile has proven difficult :)

Bug collection

Stephen's bug box, a birthday present from nonna and papa, now houses a snail and a slug. 

The snail likes to hang out upside down.

Doctor's visit success

I made the crazy decision to bring all three boys to my doctor's appointment and lived to tell about it :)

The boys were all unusually well-behaved, and the entire trip, including blood work, took 1 hour!!! I think I love Baptist Health. 

I had an A1C test, cholesterol and thyroid  tests. Hoping the results will be favorable...

Stephen turns 5!

Yesterday we celebrated stephen's fifth birthday with a few friends and a robot-themed party. Stephen was embarrassed when everyone sang "Happy Birthday."

On the menu: Pizza, Chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Also, the kids built their own marshmallow and pretzel bots.

Rockam was quick to taste his.

 

 

Next, we played some robot games-- like hunting for 72 miniature robots sprinkled throughout the front lawn.

We also had relay races with "robot feet"...

And robot masks. And grabber claws.... unfortunately, I didn't capture that.

 

 

We also played a game that I created with mix n match robot parts. Here, the kids show off robot creations from the homemade Build-a-Bot game.

Enjoying presents: Grammy and gramps got Stephen a sleeping bag. 

After the party, I asked Stephen how it felt to be five. "It's pretty fun," he said. Stephen also loved his book on sea creatures, Spiderman motorcycle, Boulder & Chase rescue bots, and Rescue bots DVD.

Ollie pretty much slept through the entire party :)

"Wook! Dare's a Nockam paintin'!"

That's what Rockam said when he saw this picture if himself :)

 

After reading a blog post over at A Holy Experience, by one of my favorite Christian authors/bloggers Ann Voskamp, I was inspired to take steps toward forming a new Parrino tradition: Giving on our birthdays as well as enjoying a flood of gifts. So, Thursday morning, before my folks arrived with said flood of gifts, I decided to get them excited about creating and buying some gifts for Grammy and Gramps. Stephen jumped in with enthusiasm, painting a dinosaur, a map, a flower and other pictures. Then, after cleaning up from the art session, we headed to Dollar Tree, where the kids were allowed to pick out two presents each. Most of the gifts were purchased with the hopes of keeping them... but we're making steps toward finding joy in giving :)

 

 

Rare moment of calm and careful

Brought to you by Rockam!

The big boys

One month old

Oliver had his one-month appointment today. He's 9lbs, 9 oz (43rd percentile), 21 inches (30th) and his head is--- get this, 25th percentile!!!

Who'd have thought we could have a small-headed baby??? Ha!

A little dose of evening crazy

This is what follows when I sit down to nurse...