Weekend Highlights: Swimming, Playdates and Comedic Timing

Marino seems to be feeling somewhat better. He is definately more drowsy than usual, presumably due to the antihistamine he is taking. The good news there is he has been sleeping through the night. The bad news is, even if he is very itchy, we can't give him the antihistamine OR his Zantac for reflux again until Wednesday! His allergy test is Wednesday morning and he can't take antihistamines 72 hours before (Zantac is an antihistamine, who knew?). So, this should be interesting. We may have a very pukey, itchy boy on our hands next week.

Saturday morning, I took Marino to Romp n' Roll (http://www.rompnroll.com/). My fellow preemie mom friend, Megan, recommended it to us, so we checked it out. It's very convenient, since it's literally less than a mile from us. We took the Tumble Tunes class for kids ages 10 -24 months. We did singing in a circle, played in the gym, played instruments along with songs, etc. Marino enjoyed it, especially the gym part. He wasn't so great in the circle time. He kept just crawling in the middle of the circle, and trying to take "Rompy" (the big stuffed dog that is the mascot). This actually seemed to sort of annoy the teacher, which I had to give an eye roll to, since, seriously, he's 12.5 months. Don't show him a stuffed dog and expect him not to want to play with it!! I was also sort of annoyed at the "branding" in the class...all the songs and everything we did incorporated the company name. The highlight was that there was a boy there who looked just like Marino, but with blue eyes. Anyway, we did have a good time, but I'm not sure if we'll go back. It's also pretty expensive ($20 a class) so not something I want to make a committment to.

Later on Saturday, Robyn and Ryan came over to swim. We had a lot of fun at the pool.

Here I am getting to snuggle and swim with 2 very handsome boys:)

Pool pals.

Ryan is adorable. Look at that smile! Can I be melodramatic for a moment? I realize Marino doesn't have a ton of deep thoughts in his head right now. But, I swear, sometimes I feel like he just knows things. Yesterday, we were at the pool and it was a great summer day - hot and sunny and we were having a great time with Robyn and Ryan in the pool. Marino looked at me and smiled and then turned his face so the sun was warming him, closed his eyes, and gave this very content smile. Sometimes, I just feel like he knows how good he has it now.

Did you know that Marino is a comedian? Most babies are pretty funny, but Marino has true comedic timing! Miranda and Pacey came over to play Sunday afternoon. Miranda and I were talking about the babies clapping and I was going on and on about how Marino refuses to clap, even though we've been working on it with him for 6 months. As we were having this conversation, Marino started clapping! Oh, Marino, the irony!! He basically spent the rest of the day clapping...I think he was mad because I said he couldn't do it.

Here's a very short video of him clapping and doing the "YAY" sign afterwards (he's pretty pleased with himself)



And here's some shots of our visit with Pacey and Miranda. We had lots of fun!