Rocco update

I can't believe it, my youngest son is finding his way... on his own!!!

He currently is the MOST busy of all my boys. School, hockey, football, soccer and baseball. Rocco is a 7-year-old very social goof who always makes a funny smile for the camera. He hardly ever causes any trouble outside of the house but knows how to play rough with his older brothers.

SCHOOL
1st grade with Mrs. Marl.

FOOTBALL
Yesterday at his first football game of the season he scored 2 touchdowns.

BASEBALL
Rocco made the the U8 travel baseball. We had the kick-off team pool party yesterday at our house.

HOCKEY
Still with Chelsea Mites, after a spring season at Compuware.

SOCCER
Rocco is playing up with Vincenzo in the 10U boy's soccer team.

Rocco on the ice at Yost Ice Arena

Check out #2 Yellow... that's my Rocco!!! What a stud at only 6 years old.

Rocco, my baby boy

Rocco is such a goofball. Here he is on his first day of kindergarten.

Rocco is my special boy

After hockey practice Rocco decides to get Andy's football practice equipment out to play. What a funny kid. 

No pacifier

I am happy to announce that our home has been pacifier-free for over two weeks. Vincenzo hasn't asked for one and Rocco doesn't even know they are gone. Hurray!!!

Still having trouble with potty-training little Vincenzo, but we have faith he'll get there before he turns 4.

End of summer update

Hello Blog followers:

This has been a fabulous summer. I got to watch the kids play with friends, enjoy the pool nearly all summer long and blessed with a wonderful family. I was just telling Andy how happy I am with our life. I couldn't ask for anything more. We both realized this is the life we have been trying to achieve for so long and without warning... we've got it.

The questions I ask my sisters is "how do you define success?" Some people say by my bank account, others may say by winning prestigious awards, while a few may say graduation from college or high school. Whatever the answer, everyone has something to define it. Success for me is right now! Right now I have three healthy and amazing boys.

Right now I have a husband that loves and adores me. Right now I have the two best sisters and brother I can depend. Right now I can stay at home to mold my boys into gentlemen. Right now I can say that Dante calls me 'Sonia' and no longer SoSo and even calls me once in a while from his cell phone. Right now my two nieces are both fun and amazing, especially Anelese who always entertains me with her funny commentary.

Right now I am happy with my house and even happier for great neighbors. Right now I am blessed to have so many amazing friends, even if I somehow managed have 50% of friends 50+ years old. (Seriously, a lot of my friends are over 20 years older than me. What does that say about me? Am I an extremely mature person or are my friends extremely immature. I'm sad to say it is probably the latter.) Right now I can go to sleep through the night and not have any worries to keep me up.

Right now I am happy with my life!

So, on with my boys.

Andy
Andy will be traveling to Europe for work at some point this fall. I wanted to go with him, but he says this will probably not be the only time he goes. Maybe I'll tag along for another trip. Still, we have other trips planned over the fall as a family.

I am jealous of Andy, too. He manages to get himself out of bed an extra hour early Tuesday - Friday to hit the gym. He has been doing this for 3 or 4 months. You can tell he is losing weight and has better spirits in the evening.

Keep in up! (I'll get back into the groove once school starts up.)

Andy and I are still working on Andy's wine and my labels. It's a good combo effort.

Giuseppe


Giuseppe starts school in less than two weeks. He will be entering first grade.
I am not worried about him.

Socially he won't have any problems. As a matter of fact he averaged one playdate a week with a kid outside of the neighborhood, not to mention his daily interaction with his neighbor friends.

He has kept up on reading and math and even did a science project with me over the summer.

He stayed active with biking, hockey, roller blading, swimming, etc. He really is a very fit kid.

Vincenzo


Vincenzo starts two preschool programs in a few weeks as well as a weekly hockey class. I have already met with some of the other parents and really look forward to getting to know them as well as I know Giuseppe's friends' parents.

Over the summer we worked on a lot of preschool songs all summer, as well as colors and shapes. He has it all down. His sentence structure has grown. He can easily say 5-7 word sentences on his own.

He also stayed active by trying to keep up with his big brother and swimming. Vincenzo is just as fit as his brothers.

Rocco


Rocco loves the water. At the beginning of summer he use to just float around with me in the pool but now he likes to splash and kick his legs.

At 13 months he weighed in at 23 pounds. He is a meatball. He certainly doesn't look like he is only 13 months, more like an 18-months old.

His new word is 'tada.' Very adorable!

Rocco and I will enroll in playgroup during the school year to give him some interaction with other babies his age as well as some structure to his life.

Ann Arbor boy raises $1,300 for Operation Injured Soldiers, gets invitation to White House

I am so proud of Giuseppe and his brothers. Their actions make Andy and I appear to be good parents. Check out this article annarbor.com wrote about him.

Our way of saying thank you

Summer update

Sonia
Many of you are aware of the tumor I have growing on my pituitary gland. The doctor diagnosed me with Prolactinoma. A Prolactinoma is a noncancerous pituitary tumor that produces a hormone called prolactin. This results in too much prolactin in the blood.

With this comes swelling or soft tissue enlargement, change in ring and shoe size, unexplained weight gain, galactorrhea, fat build-up in face, excess hair growth, oily skin, fatigue and muscle weakness, headaches, as well as my worst symptom of all... heat intolerance.

Although the doctor has switched my medicine for the pituitary tumor, I still think we have this under control. I will be on this new medicine until January and at that point they will reevaluate treatment.

Thanks for all of you who have shown concern and compassion for what I am going through. It is a lot to take in and having friends and family to help with the stress really makes each day bearable. It is nice to have people care enough to try to understand what I am going through.

On the flip side, I have been lucky to be at home during much of my treatment, rather than at work.

Andy
Andy has been working hard in all aspects of life. Outside in the yard, on his career, with his boy's athleticly and for the family. It is no wonder that he never can catch up on his sleep.

Right now he is working on getting the basement more inviting. Andy and I are going to host a USA hockey player in our home if everything goes as planned. He will be 16-years-old. We just wanted to have the basement ready for him if he wanted a place to hang with his friends away from us and the kids if he needed to.

Andy & I are excited to have this addition to our family, even if it is temporary.

Giuseppe
Giuseppe finished Kindergarten with 9 As. He also finished his baseball season last month. He was awarded the "Where am I gonna hit this" award. The coach gave him this award because he'd ask Giuseppe before he pitched to him where the ball was going to go. Giuseppe would point out the further spot he could see and say, "I am gonna hit ___."

He is currently doing a summer hockey clinic in Ann Arbor. At the same time he is trying out for Chelsea travel and Ann Arbor travel. Lots of pressure for a 7-year-old, but he is lovin' it.

Vincenzo
Vincenzo has completed all speech classes and a summer pre-preschool program. It is a good thing since he loves social interaction. When school starts he will be in two separate pre-school programs. One will be through the school system and one will be private. It will be a total of 12 hours a week of formal schooling for him. I think he will thrive with all the interaction.

Also, we have big news to report. Vincenzo has been broken of his pacifier (for the 2nd time)! This also means that Rocco has been broken of the pacifier. It was necessary that we did both at the same time.

Still working on getting him to go on the potty, but so far no luck.

Rocco
Yes, my little Rock can now walk. Over the last 11 months I have enjoyed watching a very vibrant and colorful personality evolve. He turns 1 this Friday.

His most recent comical endevour was when he kept saying "DaDa, DaDa." I asked him if he loved his Daddy? He said, " Ya ya, Ya ya." It was hilarious.

Operation Injured Soldier Annual Picnic

Last year my son (age 5 at the time) came to me and said "Mom, I have too many toys, so I don't want any presents for my birthday. Instead we should help the army people who come home hurt."

So, I found Operation Injured Soldier located out of South Lyon, MI. I told them what my son, Giuseppe Gottfried, was doing and they were absolutely astounded, as we were.

They came to the party and presented him with a flag one of the injured soldiers got when he arrive back in the USA after being in Afghanistan for several years. Giuseppe gave them a check for $505.

This year he has stepped up his efforts and has raised about $700 to date.

This Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the annual Operation Injured Soldier picnic, Giuseppe will present his donation collection.

He is a selfless and remarkable kid.

Brothers playing together

It is times like this when my life is bliss. The three play so nicely together.

Rocco (THE SPOILED ONE)

So, I thought my little Vincenzo was the spoiled on. Oh, was I wrong.

Turns out at 8 months old little Rocco has shown his true colors.

This little pickle has never seen the inside of a daycare unlike Giuseppe or Vincenzo.

Actually, I am not sure he has actually been babysat while awake, so he only knows me, Andy and a few other close relatives are his caregivers.

On to my story...

I go to the gym today and drop him and Vincenzo off at the club's kid center. There are tons of toys and lots to do. It is actually a pretty nice and fun place for the kids to be while I workout.

Rocco has been asleep when I drop him off there. But today, when I dropped him off he decided to wake up and play. I gave a hug & kiss and left.

25 minutes into my workout I get paged over the PA to return to the Kid's Center. I walked in. He saw my face and quieted down. I held him and he was fine. He wasn't hungry, dirty or uncomfortable. Nope... he was spoiled. I then gave him back to the lady and he cried and cried.

So, I had to cut my workout short. No biggie. But, tomorrow Rocco better straighten up since 25 minutes of cardio isn't gonna get rid of my coolie, aka: butt.

Gotcha

Here is a smiling Rocco.

Brothers

Just before bathing, these boys let me snap a shot.

Arrr

Getting closer to sitting up on his own.

However, Rocco can roll all over when he is on the floor.

Watch out... you are next

Vincenzo doesn't hesitate showing his love.

You could be next for a unwanted hug.

Rocco @ 5 months

Cute as a button.

Merry Christmas

This past Sunday the boys got to visit with Santa at Polo Fields for brunch.

Giuseppe even brought a list of gifts he wanted. We just hope that the three boys stay on the "nice" list.

Bad weekend

• Andy nearly sliced his finder when adjusting a tension rod. Probably should have gotten stitches.
• Giuseppe's fish, Bruce, died.
• Suburban decided to no start up Saturday morning leading me to...
• ...miss Giuseppe's hockey game in Jackson.
• Vincenzo smashed his finger in a drawer.
• Giuseppe and Vincenzo found the gifts "Santa" brought in my closet under a blanket that led me to telling them an unnecessary lie to cover up my "Santa is the Spirit" of Christmas fib we've been telling them. Why do we lie to begin with?

Football clip

I apologize for this wacky video. It is still fun to watch, but a little funky. Take a look and see why I say that.