The Zatelli Zoo: September 2013

Hey Stranger, its been awhile....sorry about that. Don't worry, I've taken plenty of pics and have BIG NEWS (no, I'm not pregnant) but you have to get through all the pics to hear my news!!

We love us some Sweet Frog...

Again, I'm not ashamed to admit that I bribe my kids in Target...popcorn and icee...does it every time!

Browsing the Party Store for Halloween costumes.....

Hannah has had the pleasure of going to Big Al's with Krebbs and Tony and Vince to watch football....or play iPad, whatever :)

Another Lowe's Build and Grow Success!

The boys' daycare/after school had a family "fish fry". Well, we don't eat fish but we went to play :)

Dom seriously loves these bikes. I've made the mistake of trying to pick him up while his class is outside and he's on the bike....yeah, we leave screaming.

Juice box and cupcake right before bed....why not ?

They had a bouncy house too....Dom wanted nothing to do with it.

Their costumes came in! I CAN'T WAIT!

This beautiful weather calls for some serious park and bike riding time.

So in love with these boys.

Vince had to make a poster about himself for Kindergarten. Pretty much sums him up, I think.

Speaking of Kindergarten...Tony and I went to back to school night last week and his teacher shared these great pics from their Grandparents Day Lunch. Vince was lucky enough to have BOTH sets of grandparents join him for lunch. So special!

These 2 never stop....ever. They are constantly into something....usually trouble.

Monster mouth.....

Goofball...

This is so Tony Jr. He found his helmet and tried putting it on even though we weren't going to ride bikes or anything. I kept telling him to just take it off b/c he didn't need it but he flat out refused....though, he was thoroughly pissed that he couldn't get it on right. He would rather throw a huge fit than listen to his mom. I'm in so much trouble with this boy.

Dom had his 2 year check up on Thursday ( a few weeks late). He weighed 29.6lbs and measured 35 inches...all 50-75th percentile. He screamed bloody murder when the nurse told him to strip so she could weigh him (he's very attached to this Superman Tshirt with cape) so I thought for sure we were in trouble when the Dr came in but he was awesome for the Dr. and didn't cry when he got his flu shot....just don't make him take his shirt off, ok :) The Dr said he was right on track and wasn't too concerned about his lack of speech since I'd had him evaluated and will be starting speech therapy sometime soon. I did however get a kick out of him telling me "he's at the age where he's going to START being unreasonable"...start??? seriously??? Clearly doc, you've never spent any length of time with this kid....or his father.
I took the big boy to Krispy Kreme to celebrate a good visit. Nothing like a chocolate iced sprinkle donut to make you feel better. (I had a pumpkin spice donut....YUMMMM)

Clearly he hates donuts....

I love this kid to the moon and back...

As if a Dr check up and shot wasn't enough, I dared a hair cut too. And once again, he amazed me by being a total angel. I love his hair short.

Then we went to the park....such a great day off together.

Here's the Superman shirt/cape. It was his cousin Nathan's so its a little worn but he doesn't care.

He loves this David book...probably because he can relate so much to the trouble David gets into.

New skeleton jammies from Eli.

LOOK, they're quiet and sitting and getting along!

Its a damn good thing he's cute....

This morning was brought to you by an Amazon box. Who knew you could make a race car out of a box....apparently Vince did. Between making it and decorating it, we wasted a good hour or so....thank you Amazon.

Then it was back to wrestling and tackling mommy. Yes, that's me at the bottom of the pile up.

All boys.

They sure do love their daddy...

and popcorn. Not sure which they love more.

Just a few other pics from a few days ago....

We sure do make cute kids :)

Are you still with me? Were you eagerly waiting for the big reveal? Are you sitting down?

DOM STARTED TALKING! YAY! Thursday morning I woke up to the sound of "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA" on the monitor. I shocked myself at how quickly I could get out of bed and run upstairs to greet him....with tears streaming down my cheeks. You see, he's occasionally said "mama" but never TO me, like never called me mama and never called Tony dada...does that make sense? So when I heard him say mama (knowing he was calling for me to come get him) it was the greatest sound ever. Then the rest of the day he called me mama, called Tony dada, and called Vince "vincey". It was like someone just flipped a switch. Then when I dropped him off at school on Friday, he went right to the teacher and as I was leaving he SAID "BYE BYE MAMA". The teachers looked around like "Did Dom just talk? When did this happen?" and I couldn't help but cry (good tears) the entire way to work....and I'm even crying as I type this. Even though I knew deep down he was just stubborn and would talk when he was ready, I couldn't help but worry...all the time...that something was wrong or that he'd be so far behind but I finally took a huge sigh of relief and realized that everything would really be ok. Speech therapy doesn't start for a few more weeks but at this rate, I'm not worried and everything will be just fine :)

Here's a few Instagram pics from the last week....

Sheriff Vince before Dom's party...

A little identity crisis. Is he a Skylander? Is he Buzz Lightyear? Is he a knight?

We've reached a new milestone. Vince now goes with Daddy to hang with the big boys and watch football (which happened to be at a bar this time...don't judge).

Post nap giggles. I would just like to note THIS WAS THE LAST TIME DOM GOT A PACI! Yes, Grandparents...Dom is officially (well, 5 days) weaned off the paci! WHOOHOO! I thought it was going to be a nightmare but since daycare doesn't give it to him, I thought I'd give bedtime a try without it AND it worked! He was fine! No crying, no screaming, no waking up in the middle of the night crying for it...nada, nothing. I had no idea it would be that easy peasy. 5 days later, still going strong. SO, WE ARE A PACI FREE HOUSE!

Oh my god, I love this kid. While Daddy and Vince were watching the football game, Dom and I went to Sweet Frog (clearly, we're the smarter ones). He insisted on wearing his Buzz costume. I love it. I think its awesome that he wants to be his own person and doesn't care what others think...and that he double fists ice cream.

ADORABLE!

Buzz and Buzz....

Dom got these Hulk fists for his bday (thanks to Mr. Krebbs) ....we had the mask. Vince decided to do the Hulk Smash (and scare the crap out of his baby brother).