Fun in the Snow

Marino loves the snow. Presumably most kids like snow, but Marino REALLY likes it. He can't pass snow with out touching it. Or kicking it. Or stepping on it. No matter how many days we have snow on the ground. He just loves it.

The last 2 winters we had almost no snow, at least not enough to go sledding. This year we've had a couple of big snow storms, including one where we got 22 inches of snow! Marino was loving it. We headed over to the lake to go sledding after the snow stopped. Marino was so happy!

One of our neighbors made a "jump" on this hill for snowboarding. I went down the hill with Marino the first time we did this jump and, ouch! I'm too old to land that hard on my butt. Marino loved it though. 

                          

His thoughts on this jump? "That was EPIC!"

We finally made it to Whitetail Ski Resort to go snow tubing.  We went in the evening (6-8) and it was cold, but thankfully Evan and I invested in snowpants this year (why did we not do this before??) so we were all nice and toasty.  Our good buddies Jen, Matt, Sydney and Noah came with us.  Marino and Noah LOVED the tubing.  Sydney was not a fan.  I liked it but it was a bit scarier than I imagined! 

Looking down at the tubing lanes

Looking up at the tubing lanes. That's Evan finishing a run on his belly (scary!). 

After tubing we took the kids out to eat. These 3 are sooo silly together! 

We're enjoying the snow, but still ready for Spring.

Marino keeps asking when we can go to the pool! 

Welcome 2013!

On New Years Eve, we headed over to Evan's cousin Rashaan's house to celebrate. We had a lot of fun and the kids had a blast - they all stayed up to watch the ball drop. 

Rahsaan had plastic champagne glasses and sparkling cider for the kids to toast with. 

Cider wasted ;)

What NYE looks like in your 30s...playing board games

 

On New Year's Day, Lauren an I went for a 6 mile hike in Catoctin Mountain Park.

It was my first time there and there was actually a decent amount of snow on the ground, which made it beautiful (but more strenuous to hike...and slippery. I definitely fell on my butt more than once).

At the very top of the mountain (850 foot climb), there was a latrine. I would like to kiss whoever put this up there!

Gorgeous view

Lauren and I - love this picture!

Happy to welcome in 2013!

Snowy Playdate

During winter break, Marino's buddy Jace came over for a playdate. We actually got (a tiny bit of) snow! The boys were pretty excited about it.  Of course, they did ask "Where is the snow going?" once we got out there.  It was already melting by the time the snow stopped!

I thought this was so cute - the two boys snuggling and watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

5 on Friday

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

5. Marino has been battling a virus since Friday.  I asked him how he was feeling the other day, and he said "The fever went down from my head to my nose to my throat to my heart shape and it made my heart beat really fast like this beep beep beep beep. Then the fever went down to my belly. But I'm still sick."

4. Christmas Eve, Aunt RiRi and I took Marino to see "Rise of the Guardians." He loved it, except the scary parts, at which point he said "This is not my favorite part of the movie."  The villain in the movie is the Boogeyman which Marino thinks is named the "BoogerMan." Too funny to correct him!

3. We got some fairly rare snow on Christmas Eve, as well (just a dusting). Marino was so excited. As soon as he saw it, he said "It's snowing! That means it's really Christmas!"

2. Before we went to see the movie, I said, "Marino, we need to eat so we can see this movie" 
He said, "But I'm sick. I can't go anywhere."  "You're too sick to see a movie?!" I asked.  "Ok, I'm just a little bit sick. Little bit sicks can still see movies."

1.  The other night when Marino was falling asleep, he whispered "Goodbye, sickness." 

5 on Friday

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

5. Last week, Marino announced, "Mommy, I just want to hug girls. Not boys. Just girls." At the time I was downloading mp3s and he saw a picture of Rihanna. "I want to hug her" he said.

4. When Marino is mad at Evan or I, his new insult is "You're not my family anymore!"

3. We had our first (tiny) snow fall of the season on Monday. "Mommy, is all the snow down yet?"

2. Marino is slightly obsessed with the concept of a "best friend". In his world, best friend status changes daily and sometimes hourly. But the other day he said "Mommy, Aunt Sonia is your best friend." (this is true).

1. Marino's language skills are great, and he really picks up a lot of the nuances of adult conversations. It's always a bit surprising when your 3 year old asks "How was your run, Mommy?" or "Mommy, you don't feel so good? That's too bad." I just love this boy so much!

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. When Marino finishes crying, he will wipe any remaining tears out of his eyes and announce "I not crying anymore. I happy now!"

4. One of my favorite Marino-isms....sometimes I'll count something and he'll say "That's right, three. Great job, Mommy."

3. Snow day fun yesterday...


2. Wednesday, Marino peed on the potty at daycare. Yesterday, he peed on the potty at home. We are so proud of him!

1. In related news, Marino insisted on wearing underwear after using the potty. I helped him put on some Yo Gabba Gabba underwear with Brobee, Plex and Muno on them. He looked down at the underwear and announced "I am princess!"

snOMG 2010!!

Ok, enough with the snow already! It was a novelty the first couple storms, but this weekend we got 30 inches of snow. 30 inches, folks! That's a lot, even by my upstate NY "snow is no biggie" standards.

It was a blessing in disguise, of sorts, however, since apparently I have c.diff again and was sick all weekend (and still am sick). It's a good thing I didn't have to go anywhere, because, um, I couldn't. If you're keeping count, this is the FIFTH TIME I've had c.diff in 19 months. The last time was in September. I've really just had it. I didn't even call the on-call GI doctor (they're still not in the office because of the snow), I just started taking Vanco this morning. Tomorrow I'll call my GI doc and get a game plan. Honestly, there's not much I wouldn't do at this point to not have to worry about this infection coming back again. Just the fear of it coming back impacts my life (anxiety) and when I actually have it, I can't function normally. It's even more frustrating knowing that I got it because of a completely avoidable mistake. I went to see a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist) in December (one day I will be brave and post that story) and he told me the whole reason the doctors gave me antibiotics after I had Marino was that they thought my incision was infection because it was oozing. It was oozing because I was in DIC, so I was loosing fluids and blood from everywhere inside of my body. So, had an MRI been done initially, they would have seen it wasn't an infection, I wouldn't have been given antibiotics and I would have never gotten c.diff in the first place (you can only get it if a. you're on antibiotics, so your good bacteria are decreased b. you're exposed to it, which is hard to avoid in the hospital and c. you have a weakened immune system). Anyway, it's even harder to swallow knowing the whole thing was avoidable and now this infection is the bain of my existence.

Now that I got that rant out of the way, here's what you all came here for...pictures of the boy (and the snow).

This is our backyard Saturday morning (it was still snowing).

Front yard on late Saturday afternoon (no more snow after this).

Evan made Marino his first "snow shake" (snow, milk, sugar and vanilla extract). He wasn't that into it... he took 2 sips and said "all done"

Daddy and Marino made a card for Grammy Deb's birthday

My aunt gave me this play tent as a hand-me-down from my cousin Clare. This was the perfect weekend to use it (and it has a very appropriate igloo theme).

Sunday, we all went over to Grammy Deb's to watch the game/celebrate her birthday. Marino loved the singing happy birthday part, but he was weirded out by these sparkler candles.

When I asked him if he was rooting for the Saints or the Colts, he said "Colts." My sister-in-law convinced him otherwise by the end of the night.

Max, trying to get some food (yes, he needed a sweater, did you see all the snow?)

Marino ate pizza for the first time - he loved it! He kept going back to Evan saying "bite?"

Side eye to anyone getting too close to his pizza...

We were very lucky that we all had off today. There's no way I could have gone to work with my belly acting the way it is, so it was a blessing to have off. Tomorrow, I do have to go to work (Marino and Evan will be home still), so I'm hoping I can make it and not have to take a sick day.

Thoughts and prayers for the end of this c.diff are welcome (as are any unique suggestions for how to get rid of it for good, if anyone has any).