Vincenzo update

Oh Vincenzo!!! What an amazing young man you are becoming. Vincenzo doesn't like to let on how much he cares and how big his heart is, but we know.... we know.

Vincenzo still loves his electronics. Nothing new. He's been a 'gamer' since he started playing wii at around age of 3. He also has a growing passion for baseball. He's strong and a leftie.

SCHOOL
3rd grade with Mr. Perry.

BASEBALL
Vincenzo's second year on the Ann Arbor A's team.  U9 A's Green travel baseball. He has weekly fall practice.

SOCCER
Vincenzo's second year playing on the Saline Rec team in the 10U boy's soccer team.

Special note: Vincenzo cut his hair yesterday. He was letting it grown out for the past year. It's hard to recognize him without his golden wave.

Vincenzo playing board games in Marion

Vincenzo was excited to play Balderdash with Carmino, Kathy, Dante and Giuseppe over the Christmas 2015 holiday.

Vincenzo's update

Vincenzo may be the kindest kid in the world. He cheers for his teammates louder and more often than I have ever witnessed. Even when his teammates have a bad play he is the first to encourage them to get up and try again.

He is our whiz-kid, knowing technology at the level he has mastered for a 7-year-old, first grader is astonishing. He amazes me how many hours he can be focused on doing electronics and learning new skills. His new passion is Minecraft. He loves to play the game, watch YouTube videos to brush up on his skills and reads his Minecraft books to make sure his tactics are foolproof. When he is on a mission he fully immerses himself in it.

Currently Vincenzo is on a Mite hockey team that involved ice time 2-3 times a week Fall – Spring. He hasn’t found the position he likes most at this point but has successfully played all of them… including goalie.

Beside school work and daily homework he juggles piano lesson into the mix. It doesn't matter the time of year, he loves to play Jingle Bells and we love it, too. 

Vincenzo cheeses it up

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.

Hanging w the family

Giuseppe and Vincenzo are just chilling at grandma's in Indiana while the rest of us catch up.

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.

Happy Birthday little guy!

I have enjoyed watching you grow up over the past three years.
I wish you many more years like that in your future.

Vincenzo's birthday invitation

BIRTHDAY update! We are no longer having a pony party. Instead Vincenzo has requested a Star Wars party. New invitation to be posted soon.



Here is the invitation that went out to a few of Vincenzo's friends.

Cooper

How cute!

Brothers playing together

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

Potty Training

Today is the official day.
Vincenzo has started potty training.
This morning we left the house with Vincenzo wearing big boy undies. No messes.
We hope this is the week.
No more diapers is a huge savings.

Sudzie Vincenzo

When it comes to taking a bath Vincenzo does it better than anyone else.

Dance Dance Dance

Brothers

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

Vincenzo in Marion

I think Capone likes Vincenzo. What do you think?