On such a beautiful spring day as this, I thought I'd take a minute and let everyone know what has been going on in the house of Rorex in the past week. I also had meant to mention that as of March 15th, we've been in our home for 3 years. It doesn't seem like that long to me, but it seems like we've been here forever as well, if that makes any sense.

We got back Marin's invitations for his 1st birthday bash and they've been sent out. A few people have mentioned getting them and that they thought they were cute. I certainly thought so. :) Marin's picture is included, so how could they not be adorable? :)

Speaking of Marin, he's growing like crazy. He's gotten so tall lately. We think he may have topped 30 inches. He's also getting very skinny. I guess he gets that from his mom. ha!

His latest game is fetch. Matthew and I make good fetchers, as he throws everything and then cries after it. And, being the dumb first time parents we are, we go get it. :) I'm still scarred for life because my mom wouldn't go back and get a rubber ducky that I threw out of a moving car. Yeah mom, I remember. ha!

We've been spending a lot of our evenings and weekends at the park. Marin LOVES the park. His favorite thing to do is go on the swings, followed by holding onto things and standing around. He also enjoys the slide, which he goes down by himself, with one of us catching at the bottom. He has to lay flat on the slide though, or else he bonks his head. :)

Other Marin stuff: He still loves his Exersaucer, though I hate to say he has nearly outgrown it. His current favorite toy is an alligator on wheels that was a Christmas present from his great Aunt Jay. He has 2 teeth that he loves to show off, except when you try to brush them. Yeah, good luck on that. He's discovered that he can reach the DVR and DVD players and gets in trouble at least 100 times a day for touching them. He would rather play with an empty water bottle than almost any other toy. He still really likes his assortment of "cold chewies"--plastic teething rings.

Food report: Marin still likes to eat, but his tastes are quickly changing. We don't think he'll be tough to wean off formula, because the only time he really wants a bottle is first thing in the morning. Lots of times he won't even take an end of the night bottle. He despises most all of his baby food these days, even things he previously liked. He'll eat almost anything from our plates that we give him. Last night he ate pork chops (yes, I'm serious), brocolli cheddar cheese rice, and real green beans. His favorite was the pork chop. He ate about 1/4 of one. He loves water from his Nuby cup. He would really, really like to find out what is so great about a Pepsi, but that is wishful thinking. He looks longingly at one every time we have one, which I must admit is more often than we should.

On the move: Marin still prefers to crawl in the Army crawl type way. He can crawl in the standard crawling position, but always reverts to the Army. He's gaining wicked speed when it comes to cruising up and down the couch. He is getting braver about holding on with one hand. He pulls up on his crib, baby gates, us, the couch, and anything else he can get his hands on.

My current favorite thing about being a parent: rocking Marin to sleep at night. Matthew gives him his last call bottle and then I rock him to sleep. He goes down super easily, usually in less than 5 or 10 minutes but I really enjoy our night time snuggles. He's getting to be such a big boy and is always on the move that he doesn't let us snuggle him as often as he used to, so I'll take my snuggles where I can get them!

Matthew, Marin, and I have had a quiet weekend here in Nashville. We've watched a few hockey games on television, went to the park, went on some walks, and mainly just relaxed. The spring weather has been wonderful and we'll take 70 degrees and sunny over cold and windy any day.

The biggest news of the weekend has been Marin's foray into table foods. About a month and a half ago, we tried getting him into Stage 3 baby foods. These foods have small "chunks" in them. Imagine mashed potato consistency with small diced pieces added in. Well, he couldn't handle it. He choked and gagged the whole time, so we went back to the Stage 2's which are basically apple sauce consistency. He has been happy with this arrangement, but we figured since he's nearing his 1st birthday that it was about time he learned to eat something other than mush. We visited the Stage 3's again and got the same results this weekend---choking, gagging, and a few tears. So, we were at a loss as to what to do.

Standing in the isles of our local grocery, we made an executive decision. We were going to skip the 3's and just try some type of table food. Enter organic O's. Not the popular children's favorite that the rest of us grew up on, but close. We have been asked by the pediatrician not to feed him hard foods yet, specifically no "O's". But we were instructed to use Stage 3 baby food as a bridge to table food. He wasn't happy with the Stage 3, so we thought, why not try "real" food and see what happens. We've tried a few bites of "real" food in the past and Marin didn't seem ready for it yet, but he has really come around this weekend.

Want to know what his new favorite food is? Yep, the "O's". He squeals with delight when he sees them coming. Since we know we're not supposed to be giving them to him yet, we break them into 4 tiny pieces to prevent choking. Yes, I know everyone else on the planet gives their kid whole "O's" by the time they are half Marin's age, but we're at least trying to follow doctor's orders somewhat. We felt so brave that we also gave him a few bites of real green beans and cheddar brocolli flavored rice. He tolerated both, but without the same gusto as his "O's". He can feed himself a few bites of them, but gets frustrated because he can't get them in his mouth fast enough and wants Mommy to do it instead. Yep, he's spoiled, but that's ok. As my mom says, that's what babies are for! He is so adorable "chewing" those pieces with his 1.5 teeth. ha!

Marin has also been a champ with his sippy cup for quite a while, but he's really into it these days for some reason. He gets soooo excited over a cup of water. Hey, whatever does it for ya little guy. It is beyond me though how Marin ends up soaking wet drinking out of a sippy cup, but he does.

So, that's the latest Marin update. Matthew does a better job of posting on Marin's blog than I do on here, so you can always find out more about what he's been up to on there.

Ok, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I'm going to try to put a positive spin on a negative post. :) I have been reading a certain blog for many years. This is a blog about an awesome mom and her house full of kids, both home grown and adopted from China. She shares the good and the bad that goes on in her household and her posts are often very frank and honest. She shared today that she's been getting a hard time from anonymous commenters about the topics she talks about on her blog, especially medical issues concerning her special needs daughter. I think it is awesome that she and her family feel comfortable sharing their struggles. Life isn't always rosy and fun. Sometimes it sucks. And during those sucky times, it is good to have family and friends and even strangers on the web think good thoughts about you and yours. I am just sorry that there are negative people that feel better about themselves by bringing others down.

It doesn't even take a detailed post about something personal to get the anonymous commenters fired up. We get hateful remarks from people all the time on our own blogs. That is why we have the comments filter turned on. To hear "them" tell it, we are an unhappy family that is warping our child and controlling his every move. Marin is 10 and a half months old. I'd like to see anyone try and control an almost toddler.

As far as Marin being unhappy, that just goes to show that the posts are from people who do not know him or us. He laughs more than any person (big or little) that I have ever known. He is constantly smiling, hugging us, hugging his toys, and just generally being happy.

But what about Matthew and myself? Are we always happy, smiley, go lucky people? Nope, I don't think so. We are adults. We have to deal with adult problems and just generally things that aren't fun---try bills and cleaning as two awesome examples. Life isn't always fun.

We have tried over the past year to create an honest picture of the first year of life with a baby. It isn't always a good time. Anyone who says otherwise needs to let me know where they buy their pills. We try to talk about the good and the bad on our blogs, that way family and real friends can know what is going on with us. If it makes other people feel better to put us down, so be it. We just get a good laugh out of their comments and then delete them. They never make it to the blog anymore, so I don't know why they even try.

This post didn't start out about me, it was supposed to mainly be about how cool my blog friend Karen and her family are. Go check them out. But, you know since I am so controlling and unhappy, I had to highjack the post. :)

Sorry its been so long since I've posted! We're been quite busy! We just got back this past weekend from a week in Georgia & Florida! Marin had a week full of "firsts". Matthew and I have smiled and laughed more this week than we ever have. It was really cool to see things through the eyes of a child, as the saying goes. Wanna know what Marin liked best? Disney!

No, we didn't actually get to go into the park. We didn't have that much time and know that Marin is still a bit too young to go on any of the rides. But, we did walk around the Disney Boardwalk and stay at a Disney resort (The Swan). As soon as we got into Orlando Marin started saying, "Good! Good! Good!" The little fella says this any time he is happy about something and oddly enough he doesn't say it about food. He says, "Ummm or yummm" for food. The "good" word is reserved for places he likes. He says it in stores, restaurants, the Preds arena, and now he has given his stamp of approval to Disney and The Swan. :)

We also took Marin to the beach for the first time! I wish I could say that he liked it half as much as Disney. ha! We got a lot of great pictures and you can see them on Marin's blog.

We visited The Georgia Aquarium which was neat but oh so very crowded. I think I'd skip it just because of the crowds. Granted we did go on a Saturday, but I did not expect to have to wait an hour to go one mile by car (seriously) getting off at the exit. Once we got into the Aquarium it was at least 10-20 people deep at each exhibit. Plus it was LOUD in there. Not from kids either. From adults. No one had ever heard of an "inside voice". Marin did enjoy the walk-thru tunnel with sharks in it! He also enjoyed the penguins, but their enclosure was tiny so we felt sorry for them.

Marin got to go on a swing for the first time at a park at the beach. He LOVED the swing and when we tried to get him out of it he cried. We let him ride it till he looked like he might throw up and took him out kicking and screaming.

Speaking of screaming, we thought there would be lots of that from Marin when we went to watch the fireworks at Epcot. He saw fireworks on the 4th of July but wasn't even 3 months old yet, so he paid no attention to them. We took his earmuffs that he wears at Preds games to muffle the noise. This must have worked like a charm because he LOVED them. He couldn't take his eyes off the sky. He would even whine a little bit when there would be a break in the show. ha! He wanted more when they were over!

Marin also ate sand. And licked the bark of a palm tree. And tried to rip up the protected sea oats out of the dunes.

All in all, it was a busy week. :)