Just another weekend...

It was a typical weekend for us these days. My mom has been taking little Di on Fridays so I can have some free time (something I don't get a lot of anymore!) I say it all the time, but SO grateful to have my mom here to babysit. I ran around like any mom with 8 hours of alone time and went to the bank, a drs appointment, got a mani/pedi, then back at home, vacuumed and mopped, caught up on some e-mails and laundry - whew! Feels so good to get things done, but I was ready to collapse by 8pm!

Danny is at the end of his first semester of his MBA and had a ton of work so he headed to the library on Saturday after breakfast. It's hard not spending weekends together sometimes but he'll already be getting ready to graduate by this time next year. I took Diana down to visit my mom at work at the Weston YMCA. She's been asking us to visit her for weeks now and was very proud to show off her granddaughter! We chatted with her coworkers and had a smoothie from the snack bar. When my mom was done with her shift we headed over to my parents' and had pizza with Grandpa Ron and Uncle Brandon. Diana has a whole set of toys that she plays with at Grandma's so she was a happy camper.

Today is Sunday and Danny took a break from studying and the three of us went to breakfast at Panera in Boca Center. Diana loves sitting in her highchair these days and gobbled up a bagel! After we ate we strolled over to Joseph's Italian Market and had a great time browsing the gourmet pastas and olive oils. We bought some smoked mozzarella cheese which is hard to find in regular grocery stores. Here's what we're using for in tonight's dinner: Smoked Mozzarella & Sun-dried Tomato Cigars
We're now enjoying a quiet afternoon - Danny is back to the books, I'm catching up on my writing and Diana is napping - finally! Her 3rd tooth is starting to come in and she's not having an easy time with it, poor baby.

A pretty normal weekend here at the Muzzarelli household! Glad we got to relax and spend some time together because we've got a busy weekend coming up! Danny is headed up to Gainesville this Friday morning for his 1st semester finals, I'm a bridesmaid in my good friend Lisa's wedding AND Lindsay (my best friend from high school) is coming into town with her husband from California - she'll be meeting Diana for the first time when they come over for Sunday brunch.

Looking forward to a good but busy week!

Where did the time go?

It's hard to believe it, but Diana turned 9 months old this past Friday. As Danny said, "She's been out now as long as she was in!" Funny, but true : )  I feel like we were just doing around the clock feedings and 10 diapers changes a day and now she's on the brink of walking, trying foods almost every day and is evolving into a little person! Amazing how that happens right before your eyes.
We had her 9 month check up last week at the doc, she's healthy and wonderful! Here are a few cool milestones we've hit in the past month:

• She's gone from pulling up to standing to standing up by herself and balancing!
• Those bottom two teeth are finally in and (I hope) teething pain is behind us
• She's not content to just sit and play, we've hit that stage where she is starting to crawl everywhere! No more putting her down to answer an e-mail for 5 minutes and she stays put - instead, I turn my attention elsewhere for a minute and I see two little legs crawling out the door of the room and into the hallway. I'm told life gets even crazier when they start to walk!
• We have a mini "foodie" on our hands! She insists on trying everything on mom and dads plates, from eggplant parm to olives to Italian bread dipped in olive oil to oatmeal cookies!
• She plays with her toys in a whole new way - she recognizes scenes from her Baby Einstein DVDs and laughs at the characters, turns pages in books and gets (very!) mad if you take a toy away for any reason. Uh oh, mini diva on our hands!
• Besides "dada" which she's been saying for a few months (I'm still waiting on "mama!") we're pretty sure the "bup" she keeps saying is "up." Her second word!

We can't wait to see what month 10 brings!

They call them "Great" Grandparents for a reason

It's one of those things you can't be 100% grateful for until you become a parent. When you have a little one of your own and go from just being someone's child to being someone's parent, you get what family is all about in a whole new way. It is really special that little Di has so many GREAT grandparents living right here in Florida that are healthy and active and can enjoy time with her. Great Grandma Sally (or "Gigi") lives only 25 minutes away in Tamarac, as do Great Grandma Ann and Great Grandpa Manny (or "Nana" & "Poppa"). And Danny's grandparents ("Great" & "Poppa") live just a few hours north up near Tampa.

We went down to visit my grandpa or Bisabuelo Rubio (great grandpa in Spanish) in Coral Gables (that's south Miami) this past Saturday afternoon. Because of busy schedules and Danny starting school after the new year, we hadn't seen him since right before Christmas, when Diana was 5 months old. Imagine his delight to see her crawling all over his apartment, standing up and gobbling up our California Pizza Kitchen takeout! We had such a great time just hanging out in his apartment, visiting and talking about baseball, family and life in general :)

Rubio had some old pictures he's been wanting to sort through and we had such a good time looking at photos of me as a baby, my dad as a kid and even pictures of Rubio and my grandmother Diana when they were dating. Little Di is named after my grandmother who passed away a few years ago and it was very special to be able to show her pictures. As she gets older, I will continue to show her pictures and tell her stories so she knows how wonderful her great grandmother was. It always takes my breath away to see my great grandparents' beautiful wedding pictures - her dress was just gorgeous and everything looked amazingly elegant.

After a couple hours visiting and eating an early dinner, we had to head home so Danny could get some work done and we could get Di in bed at a reasonable hour (something that's harder to do these days since she discovered that crawling around the house and getting into everything is WAY more interesting than sleeping!)

What a wonderful afternoon with Bisabuelo - we promise to not go another 31/2 months before visiting again!

Home improvements...

For those of you who don't know, we bought and moved into our first house when I was 8 months pregnant last June. Yep, we were either very ambitious or a little crazy! With the help of our families, we got everything moved in and pretty well organized with three weeks before little Di's arrival. We even managed to put together a kitchen island and shelving from IKEA, hang a few pictures and lighting fixtures, pressure clean the back porch and repaint the front door. But that was about it - the main focus was on just getting moved in (and I wasn't much help, waddling around in the summer heat with a huge belly!) And so we did it.

Then came the whirlwind that a newborn brings. Decorating and home improvements? Forget about it! Those of you moms (and dads!) out there know that when a baby is born, just taking a shower, doing a load of laundry and maybe some grocery shopping is a big accomplishment.
Now that the new baby fog has (mostly) lifted and Diana is approaching her 9 month old birthday, we have started to focus back on our "new" house (even though we will have been living here a year this June)! We've planted a Meyer lemon tree and a beautiful bottleneck palm that we took from Danny's parent's house when they moved two weeks ago. With the help of my mom and grandma, we found the matching dresser to our bed from IKEA (in the sale room!) so we are one step closer to having some semblance of a master bedroom set. We've hung some pictures given to us by Danny's parents and moved a few we already had with the help of our interior decorator, AKA my mom! We even had a garage sale a few weekends ago and got rid of some long overdue "stuff" we had lying around. Next up is cleaning out the mess that is our garage. Whew!
Being homeowners is definitely a change from renting, but it's a great feeling knowing that the time we invest in our "home" is ours and only ours to enjoy with our family.

(Pictures: Top left: Our new IKEA dresser and picture in our bedroom, Left bottom: tiny fruit is starting to grow on our Meyer lemon tree, Top right: Diana's play area gets a makeover, Bottom right: trying our hand at growing basil)

We make a good team!

I usually do most of the cooking in our house these days, getting dinner on the table at least 5 nights a week. But this isn't because Danny isn't a good cook! He's super busy with working at the bank and being a full time MBA student but back when it was just the two of us in our Atlanta apartment, we would get in the kitchen together and try out new recipes weekly.
Danny grew up watching his Gramma cook up delicious Itallian food so he really taught me a lot about all things culinary.

Anyway, the Muzzarellis just moved into a new house in Coral Springs and haven't had a whole lot of time to cook...and we've been wanting to have cousin Roman over to play with Diana...AND Danny's grandparents are in town for Easter weekend from Sarasota, so we decided to invite the whole Muzz clan over for Friday night dinner.

I cleaned and set up the kitchen and made a big salad with all kinds of chopped up veggies. And Danny got home from work and made my favorite dish that he cooks - shredded, roasted eggplant in homemade marinara sauce...put the mixture on a bun with mozzarella or provolone cheese and fresh basil - YUM! It was definitely a success. We had such a good time visiting with Gramma and Papa and being with family.

I must say, we make a good team when we entertain together!

Pictures (Top right: Diana helped mom and dad cook!, Top center: the table is set and ready for our guests, Above left: Sash & Di with Papa and Gramma, Right: Stanley had a bath and looks handsome)

Passover 2010

Diana was a part of her first Passover Seder this past Tuesday evening. Danny got home from work early and we headed down to Weston to join my mom, Ron and Brandon...AND Aunt Jo, Lee, Aunt Stace and Jamie (in from North Carolina), Grandma Sally, Grandma Ann and Grandpa Manny. It was nice to just have the family together - love it when friends join us too, but there's something special about it just being close family.
Our Seders are usually filled with laughter, no one knowing which page we're supposed to be reading from and someone sneaking food from the Seder plate before it's time to. This year was no different - Lee was nominated to run the Seder readings and he did a great, organized job, but we all are such a lively bunch that the structure didn't really last for more than 20 minutes. And really, what I care about the most is Diana just being a part of our family traditions. It's not so much the religious aspect of the holiday but the quirky things that make our Passover special in our family...and carrying that on through each generation.
Diana sat with my mom and bounced around on the couch. She also tried Matzo and Grandma Ann's spinach pie - she could not get enough! She's been eating the leftovers for dinner for two days now. Grandma Ann lives to see people eat and almost jumped for joy as Diana opened her mouth for more...and more!
After a really nice dinner, everyone watched American Idol and had dessert. Diana was tired and napped in Grandma and Grandpa's room. And Danny and Brandon retreated upstairs to do the usual..play video games!
Diana's first Passover was great! Close family, good food and a chance to be together and celebrate another year, another springtime.