baptism photo booth

At the party after the baptism, we set up our own photo booth and a few props including letters that spelled out BABY VINCENT MIOTA. I love how these pictures turned out.



































(photo booth photos from Matteo's baptism party are here.)

vincent - 4 months

matteo's third birthday

We've always thrown big birthday parties for Matteo, (see his first and his second) but this year was going to be tricky. We didn't want him to feel like his birthday was lost in the shuffle of Vincent's arrival. But he's finally at an age where birthday parties are exciting and a family-only party wasn't going to cut the mustard. He absolutely had his heart set on inviting a bunch of his new school friends to celebrate with him, however, having a new baby one month before his birthday gave me little time to plan and hosting a lot of new people at our home wasn't going to be an option.

Being a typical three-year-old boy, Matteo is obsessed with firemen, policemen, ambulances and rescue helicopters. He told us he wanted a fireman birthday and asked if a fire truck could come to our house. Well, no. Sorry, kid. But we could bring him, and all of his friends, to the fire truck!

I called the fire department and they said each station hosts free tours and you can make a reservation ahead of time for your group. The only catch is that if there is a call, all the firemen have to leave the station and then you're out of luck. With no other ideas, I decided to go for it. I sent out invitations, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.

Luck was totally on our side. The day of Matteo's party was also the day of the Mifflin Street Block Party, a HUGE all-day party involving thousands of drunk college students - and just about every police officer and fire department in the city, who are there to make sure things don't go totally haywire. But by some miracle, when we showed up for the tour of the station, the firemen hadn't yet been called out to the party - and didn't get a call the whole time we were there.









It was such an awesome party. The firefighters were totally amazing. They showed the kids the engine and let them crawl all over it.









They did a really cool demonstration for the kids, showing them all of their gear and how they suit up for a fire.







When I confirmed our reservation for the tour I was told (by a very gruff firefighter who, luckily, wasn't on duty the day we came) that I should expect the tour to last no more than 30 minutes because the kids would all be terrified and start crying, and we wouldn't be allowed to see any other part of the station besides the garage with the engines. Because of this, instead of a cake, I individually boxed cupcakes for the kids, expecting I would just hand them out as everyone was leaving.

But the team that was on duty was so great. Not only did they give the kids a full tour of the fire station including their living quarters and the pole...



they invited the kids to sit in their kitchen to eat their cupcakes, and gave each one a coloring book about fire safety. They even sang happy birthday with us!







It was so much fun and all of the kids had great time. And there was no crying! Matteo was weird and wouldn't wear his fireman's hat. But the weirder he is, the more fun he's having.





Thanks so much Madison Fire Department Station 3!



(And special thanks to the amazingly talented Carrie Kilman for taking such great photos!)

the baptism

We had Vincent baptized on Saturday and it was lovely. It was a smaller group this time around (Wisconsin summer weekends are always full, especially close to Labor Day, so a lot of our friends were out of town) but we were still joined by more than 40 people to witness the ceremony and celebrate with us back at our home.

I love this new life of ours but it's insane. Balancing a new baby and a wild three-year old is crazy! Matteo is going through a naked phase where he's always taking his clothes off, and he pees on the ground outside whenever he feels the urge. Last night we came home from a walk and he stripped down, ran up and down the sidewalk nude, and then peed on the grass in front of our house. Matt and I just looked at each other and shrugged. It's all about picking your battles. And hoping a mosquito bites his privates and teaches him a valuable lesson.

When you have only one child, life feels like this.



But when you go from one to two, life feels like this. In this photo, Matteo is refusing to have his picture taken with us so he's rolling around on the sidewalk.



Here's one with Matteo and Vincent and their cousins. He still looks insane, but at least he's standing up.



During the ceremony, Matteo stuck his tongue in and out like a lizard at the people in the pews and Vincent pooped so loudly that people four rows behind us heard it (during a moment of perfect silence, of course). But somehow we made it through. The priest even said Vincent was the happiest baby he had ever baptized!

Life may be nuts right now, but I really do love it so much. Happy baptism, sweet boy!

appreciating matteo

During the summer, Matteo's class learns about appreciating each other. Each child gets a week where their classmates tell them what they appreciate about them, and their parents are invited in to present to the class something about their family.

Our family presentation was all about sports and how Matteo's Mom and Dad are coaches. We spent about 30 seconds talking about lacrosse (I had to cut it short once Matteo got a hold of his stick and started chopping with it), and then Matt talked about basketball. He demonstrated some ball-handling tricks and then had the kids each practice dribbling.

[flickr video=9473962642 secret=c01ebd3fe2 w=400 h=225]


[flickr video=9471172095 secret=01af8318ed w=400 h=225]

matteo's first fish at green lake

He caught it all by himself!

green lake 2013

We're at Green Lake this week and the boys are in heaven. Matteo is finally at an age where he can jump off the dock and catch fish and do all the awesome things that make Green Lake so awesome.







[flickr video=9417633900 secret=290c4ed58d w=400 h=225]