Another Busy Weekend and Skin Update

This weekend was another busy one with the boy. I'm not looking forward to summer ending - I love having my weekends free to hang with my favorite little man!

After the Fair on Saturday, Evan, Marino and I went to a family picnic at Great Seneca Park. My grandfather and his wife, Joanne, were visiting from Florida and it was great to be able to see them.

Marino's favorite cousin Pacey was there. She decided she wanted to sit in Marino's stroller with him:)

Marino got a chance to visit with some of his other cousins, too. Doesn't he look a lot like Erica (on the right)? They have a very similar complexion and hair color/texture. She is the sweetest girl in the world, so hopefully he will take after her in that regard as well.

L to R: my Aunt Kerry, Evan, Marino, Pacey, Miranda and Sigrid.
Marino and his great grand Pap.
On Sunday, Evan, Marino and I went to visit with The Western's (all of them). It was great to see everyone and meet the newest additions: dogs Coco and Ruby. Marino really enjoyed swimming with everyone (including the dogs!).

Here's Marino playing with Aaron (can you believe he is 7 months older than Aaron? they are almost the same size!).

Ruby decided she wanted to lay like the babies!

Daddy and Marino swim time!

Mama and Marino swim!!

Marino's eczema has gone from bad to worse over the past 10 days or so. I thought he had a heat rash, but I guess his eczema flairs up from heat (and it's been in the 90s for the better part of the past 10 days). Today was especially tough. I was groggily changing Marino's diaper at 6am when he showed me his hand and it was full of blood! He had ripped open a gash in the back of his knee. I cleaned it, put a Band-Aid on it and put cotton long pants on him, thinking we would be ok. Nope - he opened up the other knee on our commute! Ugh! Luckily, we have nurses at daycare, so they cleaned it an put a figure eight wrap over it so he couldn't get to it.

The silver lining is we had an existing dermatology appointment today, so the doctor got to see it at it's worst. The dermatologist said it's atopic dermatitis. When I read up on it, a lot of things clicked for me. I'm always saying "his skin is just so sensitive" (he gets hives from his own saliva, the dog's saliva, random things like water bottles, etc) which is typical for this condition. We have some prescriptions now and a plan for bad flare ups like our current one (wet wraps over night) but the doctor told us we should prepare for this to be an ongoing problem until somewhere between the ages of 5 and 10. Even then, he said it is likely he will have sensitive skin even as an adult. He also asked me a lot about asthma, as there is a strong correlation between the two conditions. Time will tell if asthma will be an issue (let's hope not).

To add insult to injury, when we arrived at the doctor's office, Marino had a very red eye. When I looked inside of it, he had some strange black thing in the very bottom of his eye. The nurse helped get it out (which did not make Marino very happy). Guess what it was? A fly! Poor Marino - not a good day. First an eczema flare up, a bloody knee and then a fly in the eye!

To end on a happier note, can I tell you how proud I am of my boy's palate? I try to make him lots of different kinds of foods, in the hope he doesn't end up one of these kids who refuses to eat anything but mac and cheese and chicken nuggets (I was one of those kids). Every week, I make him something new and outside of the stereotypical "toddler food." Last night I made rice pasta with pureed asparagus, artichoke hearts, summer squash, peas, dill and unsalted butter. Well, daycare reported he LOVED it! They let him pick it up and eat himself because he was so enthusiastic about it. I swear, this boy loves everything (not so much meat, but definately all fruits and vegetables). Hopefully that will continue as he gets older (although I'm sure he will go through an "only eats pizza" phase or something).