AYSO Soccer - The Golden Bullets

Soccer season has come to an end. Nick did great and had fun! Here are some pictures of the Golden Bullets in action.

Mia enjoyed herself on the sidelines. She seems to make friends wherever we go.

Mia's buddy, Samantha

The end of the season party

Nick passed his blue stripe belt test!

Nick did great with his belt test. He remembered all of his kicks and forms and was able to remember the answers to all of the questions. He is now on track for his black belt so we signed him up for the black belt club. From this point it should take him another 2 years.

Mia is 17 months old today!!

At 17 months, Mia:

-walks well and runs
-can climb up stairs, and down stairs backwards on her belly
-sometimes uses sign language to communicate; she knows the sign for cat, dog, bird, horse, frog, cracker, water, milk, more, eat
-can say a handful of words (mommy, daddy, nana for Nick, hot, cracker, cookie, cat, doggie, water, Kyla, bye-bye,bird, baby, bath, bottle, flower, elmo, ba for Babcia)
-eats pretty much anything except for bananas
-loves dogs, but is still sometimes afraid of our cat (who, by the way, is a very mellow cat and has never harmed her)
-looks for her brother when she wakes up in the morning
-loves being on daddy's shoulder
-has a lot of special friends at Nick's school (one is Nick's friend Ayden who keeps saying that he wants to trade his little brother Nathan for Mia and another is Abbie the teacher who was also adopted)
-loves playing in the backyard
-stays at home with a part-time nanny, Maria, for one or two days a week so I can go to work (she is ok with the daycare at the gym only if she has one on one attention)
-is not afraid to express displeasure with something
-is not shy and makes friends easily
-drinks 2 bottles/day (she could probably give them up right now, but I enjoy rocking her while she takes her bottle....we missed out on so much time with her)
-is still easy to put to sleep; she goes down for 12 hours at night usually without waking and now only takes one nap of 2 to 3 hours

Nick and Mia

"This is the best day ever!!!"

Nick lost his first tooth on Monday morning and exclaimed "this is the best day ever". The day before he told me that he bit his tooth and that it hurts. I looked in his mouth and saw that his tooth hanging by just a thread. Well, the next morning he said he was wiggling it and it dropped out of his mouth and onto the floor.

He brought it that morning to share with his class and had lost it by the end of the day. His teacher thinks it went out with the trash at lunch. He decided to leave a note for the tooth fairy. This is how it went:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost my tooth today at school. I am putting this note under my pillow.

Thank you,

Nicholas Constantino

The next morning he came into my room crying. His note was gone and the Tooth Fairy did not leave anything for him! Forntunately we found $5 between his mattress and the wall...it must have fallen there during the night.

NIck's Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Nick participated in a Tae Kwon Do Tournament on November 1st. He practiced alot...he went to class 4 times a week for the last 3 weeks since he had to learn his blue belt forms pretty quickly. Not only did he have a fun time but he did great. He ended up coming home with 2 gold medals....for forms and sparring. Nick usually goes up against his buddy, Davis, since they are the same level, size, and age. This time Nick won, but at the last tournament it was Davis who won gold.

Mia's First Halloween

Mia had a very exciting first Halloween. We started off the day at Nick's school for a little party. Nick's kindergarten class sang Halloween songs for the residents of the nearby nursing home and we got to hear them practice (parents are not allowed at the nursing home since there is no space). We also got to see them break their pinata and pass out candy to each other.


Later, we went trick or treating with some of the neighbors. Mia had a great time running around with the other kids...she wouldn't even let us pick her up. She only lasted about 30 minutes though and then had to sit in the stroller since she was exhausted.