5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boy this week:

5. I'm always bragging about my boy's wonderful eating habits. There were only a couple things left he doesn't like to eat: tomatoes and beef. Well, Monday at lunch time he saw Evan eating spaghetti with meat sauce, and he asked him for some (he says "eat" and does the sign for it). He loved it and said "more" (he does the sign for that one, too). So, that makes it official - there are no foods we know of that Marino doesn't like. How many toddler mamas can make that claim?

4. Marino is always very happy and silly in the morning. He does this ridiculous hip-thrusting dance while I change his diaper, and this morning he was doing that dance and singing "this, this, this, this" while pointing at everything in the room ("this?" = tell me the name for that).

3. He loves to play catch. There are 2 quirky things he does during catch, though. The first is that he thinks it is hysterically funny if you hit him with the ball. Especially in the head. He's weird, what can I say? If you say "catch, Marino" he will go and sit in his little chair in his nook in the living room and try to catch the ball sitting down. Safety first!

2. It must be confusing for toddlers these days trying to decifer what a phone is. Some phones are rectangles, some toy phones are shaped like old fashioned receivers, some phones just stick in your ear. Anyway, Marino knows that when you pick up a phone, you say "hello" (or "heddow" if you're Marino). Well, yesterday morning I was taking his temperature with the thermometer that goes in the ear and the whole time, he kept saying "hello, hello." :)

1. He started giving kisses on command last night. Is there anything better than an open mouth kiss from a sweet baby boy?

Updates on Marino's health:
Whew, last weekend was tough! Marino was not happy to be stuck in the house with me for so long. He was sooooooo happy to go back to daycare (and especially to see his girlfriend). We went back to the pediatrician on Monday afternoon and she said Marino sounded great (he's still coughing and wheezing, but it may be a while before he gets over that completely). She also said we're going to try him on Singulair (asthma medication) in a couple weeks, which will hopefully eliminate the need for the daily breathing treatments.

The one bad thing is Marino's weight is not going up. He's gained less than half a pound in 4 months (since his 12 month appointment) and his weight is now just in the 8th percentile. Our directions were "he needs to be eating like a horse for the next couple weeks." We've been trying to give him toast with his meals (wheat with unsalted butter, maybe that is the problem;)) and I think I'm going to try to get him to drink a smoothie in the afternoons to try and pack some extra fat in his diet. I think part of the issue is so much of the food he loves in low-fat. The boy lives for veggies and fruit! Anyway, if anyone has any good fat gaining techniques, send them my way!

Marino's mysterious leg ailment has disappeared for now. He hasn't done it since Thursday. At first I was worried he was just not doing it because he was on steroids (Thursday - Tuesday), which the pediatrician said could be masking the problem if it was an arthritic reaction or a muscle problem. But it hasn't returned yet, so hopefully we can cross that off our list of things to be concerned about for now!