Alright, that's it! Who said it was allowed to snow more than the 1 allotted time a year for Nashville?! It is snowing so hard that I can barely see outside. I can hear giggling from the neighborhood kids as they have teamed up to build one gigantic snowman and this should put me in a cheery mood. But, like the only thing it does is make me glad that Marin is still a baby, that way I don't get dragged out into the crap.

I am a beach gal, plain and simple. I don't do cold. I complain once the temp drops below 70. I do not own any snow boots, but I do own a half dozen pair of flip flops. It looks like I might be able to put those flip flops to use this winter after all.

I'll keep you posted.

Well, I looked into some beach trips and have come to the realization that it is too dang cold to swim in the ocean right now. I'm not a polar bear, so I don't enjoy even remotely cool water. I don't know why I thought it would be warm enough to swim in Florida. I've been to Florida dozens of times in the winter and while it is much, much nicer than here, it still isn't swimmable to someone who lives in the South. I knew that. I was just in denial, I guess. Since we didn't want to break the bank by hopping on a plane to some tropical island at the moment (we do still have our anniversary trip in the summer to think about), we've decided to stay home for now.

Now some random points:

Marin is still as wild as ever. He'll be 9 months old this week---that's crazy, huh?

I'm super psyched that Greek (the fraternity/sorority show on ABC Family) is coming back on tonight. Just what I need---more t.v. watching.

I would really like to go see The Tooth Fairy at the movie theater.

I've started a new book, Alex Berenson's The Silent Man. Matthew just finished Steve Berry's The Paris Vendetta and I plan on reading that next. We have a whole list of books we want to read. It is just finding the time (quiet time that is) to read them!

Marin started beef baby food this week. He hates it. He gags with every spoonful. I have to give him fruit "chasers".

I burned my tongue halfway off tonight on some broccoli. It is still hurting an hour later.

Well, my show starts in 10 minutes, so talk to you later!

Alright, I'll go ahead and admit up to what I've been doing all weekend. I've been on the internet for 3 days now, trying to find somewhere warm and sunny to escape to. I don't have specific dates or time frames in mind. It is getting close to the time that Matthew and I start thinking about our annual Aug. pilgrimage, but we both have said that we don't think we'll make it till then. We need some fun in the sun ASAP! We really want to take Marin with us and just spend some time outdoors without freezing to death. So, we're thinkin Florida. You'll be the first to know when we book somewhere!

Matthew's brother Caleb came to visit us for a few days last week and we had a really good time catching up with him. We did way too much eating, went flying (Marin's first flight), and went to a hockey game. Check out Marin's blog for pictures. Caleb even volunteered for babysitting duties so Matthew and I could catch a movie. Let's just say that both Marin and Uncle Caleb took a nap after we got back. ha.ha.

p.s. this was posted by me (MaLeah). I was just too lazy to change from Matthew's sign in name.

This week Marin began having play dates with his pal Brooks. Since the boys are only 8.5 & 3 months old, there isn't a lot of "playing" going on. Mostly they peed, ate, and cried if I put either of them down. That's a pretty full afternoon for a couple of babies.

I tried to get them to play in the floor with Marin's toys. Brooks laid on the floor on a blanket and looked at me like I'd lost my mind, politely throwing in a smile or two for good measure. Marin tried to climb into Brooks' car seat and then when I declared Brooks' seat off limits, inserted himself between the kitchen chairs and gathered dust. He's more handy than a Swiffer.

The most interesting thing that I leared during our afternoon was that if you want a baby to eat their food, all you have to do is act like you're going to feed it to someone else. Marin flat our refused to eat his squash until I brought Brooks over near his high chair. One look at Brooks sent Marin into hysterical gesturing and opening his mouth really wide and making mmmmm sounds. Squash must not be so bad after all. Tara (Brooks' mom) has promised to bring him back over on spinach night.

The boys will be getting together again soon, so stay tuned for more of their adventures.

Marin is crawling! He started Jan. 1st and was just moving forward an inch or two at a time. Matthew and I both looked at each other and said that in a week or two we'd be in trouble. Well, trouble has come-a-knockin. Marin is all over the place. He can really fly.

We have went into high gear baby proofing mode. Marin is into everything. While it is pretty funny to watch him revel in his new found freedom, it is quite annoying as well. Just when you think you've removed everything he could possibly find interesting, he goes for something new. As I type this, I've gotten up a hundred times to keep him from messing with some electrical cords behind the tv stand. We're going to have to come up with a solution for hiding them out of reach. I'd love to solve the entire problem by buying a nice big flat screen to hang on the wall, but I'd sure like to meet someone that has a baby than can afford to run out and buy a flat screen!

We've plugged all the electrical outlets. We've put foam on the corners of the tv stand. We've started shutting the doors to all the rooms that aren't baby proofed. We plan on getting lots of baby gates this weekend to block off the 2 hallways and the kitchen.

Marin can also stand if you get him to hold onto something, such as the couch cushions. Of course you have to sit right beside him and catch him when he decides to just let go. But he's getting stronger every day in his development. We're really in trouble when he figures out how to walk!

His palate is also expanding weekly. He has been trying a tomato blend this week. Unfortunately, he seems to be allergic to tomato as it causes a nasty looking rash all over. We've stopped the tomato and plan to try again in several months. After doing some research on the internet, a lot of doctors recommend waiting until 18 months to try tomato. Now someone tells us! Our doc did say to hold off on the peanut butter, shellfish, and eggs, but he didn't mention tomato. At least it doesn't inhibit his breathing--just causes a rash.

Well, he's into something else, so I gotta go!

Today was a big day. I finally got around to taking down the interior Christmas decorations. The outside ones will have to wait. It's too cold and besides it is still snowing.

We took Marin outside to get his picture made in the snow. He was very curious about the whole thing. He did enjoy looking at passing cars more than the snow, so that figures.

He's napping now and I'm sitting here surrounded by wet coats from our photo shoot, about 2 dozen toys, and a pair of dirty socks (at least they are Marin's and not mine or Matthew's). I figured that I'd use Marin's nap time to do something fun, not something productive.

We went to the Preds game last night. We won, so that was good. Marin wasn't his usual bubbly self. He usually LOVES going to the games, but he's still a bit under the weather. He only has today and tomorrow to go on his medicine (thank goodness). He hates the stuff and I can't say that I blame him. It upsets his stomach and therefore upsets me. He has went through the diapers, let me tell ya.

It looks weird where the Christmas tree used to be, since I got used to it being in its space by the fireplace. Now there is just a big empty hole. That used to be where Lexi's dog bed stayed. As soon as she left to go back home to Virginia, we put the tree in its place.

I hadn't mentioned Lexi in a long while, so I thought I would. She's doing GREAT, loving life with her new family. She has been adopted by her "Uncle Andre"--now her new "Dad!" She has greyhoud siblings George & Lisa to play with and by the pictures and videos he's been sending she has fit right in. I couldn't be happier for Lexi and I think that it has worked out wonderfully for all involved. She seems back to her old self now.

I will say that Matthew's and Marin's allergies are much improved as well since Lexi's re-adoption. I did a thorough cleaning of the downstairs after Lexi left and we changed all the airfilters. We are still looking into having the upstairs carpet replaced and repainting the walls up there. Since one of the air intakes is upstairs, I think that will help additionally in the allergy department for my boys.

Matthew and I were talking at lunch today how BIG Marin has gotten. He looks more and more like a little kid to us every day, instead of a baby. He's so sweet too. He loves to give us hugs and kisses and make funny faces at us. He cracks us up constantly. We just love him to pieces.

I've learned not to doubt The Weather Channel or old men in Wal-Mart.

When I woke up this morning and took a peek out the blinds, there was not one flake of snow to be seen. My first thought was great, I can't believe we went to 4 stores stocking up on crap to get us through a non-existent snow storm. Then I got started on the morning routine and forgot all about it.

Fast forward to lunch time. While clearing my plate from the table, I happened to see a bit of white in the grass through the closed blinds. Humm, I thought, maybe there is a flurry or two out there. So, I opened up the window to get a better look. I yelled for Matthew to come see for himself. He picks up Marin and the three of us go to the backdoor to see what all the fuss is about.

Marin's big grin summed it up. It's beautiful. The biggest, fattest snowflakes greeted us as we got to show Marin his first snow. It is falling steadily, but ever so gently, like something out of a Christmas movie. Will we get a foot of snow? It's doubtful. Are we going to dress Marin up and take him outside for pictures? You betcha!

"It's HERE!" came the yell from a jubilant child in the parking lot of the neighborhood grocery store. Everyone looked around in search of "it". I didn't have to look. I used to teach 1st grade. I know that face. The face that has just seen the first snowflake of an impending winter storm. The face that hopes it snows 3 feet and that school is canceled until at least spring break.

Though I haven't seen anymore "it" since we arrived home from our evening of stockpiling, we have all the essentials: Little Debbie oatmeal cakes, Fig Newtons, and a case of Pepsi. As the evening wears on, the predictions for massive accumulation lessen. That's the official report from the weather service. I'm not listening to them though. I choose to believe the gentleman at the adjacent check-out counter to ours at Wal-Mart tonight that said he heard it was supposed to snow "about a foot".

Matthew and I also discussed the necessity for me to call and cancel my eye doctor appointment that was for tomorrow morning. The roads could be slick and there is no need to be out in the bad weather unless it is a real emergency. So, I cancelled.

Naturally though, we accepted box tickets to tomorrow night's Predators game.

Well, it's not quite the end of the world, but close. They are predicting 1-3 inches of snow in Nashville. I'm hoping that I'm the only one that knows about it. We need to keep this sort of info hush-hush, at least until I have a chance to run to the grocery store and Wal-Mart. Even the hint of a flurry sends everyone around here in a panic. I usually laugh at the people who buy milk, bread, and eggs any time the temperature drops below freezing. With a sick 8 month old at home, I will admit that the pre-snow ritual now intrigues me. I have spent the better part of the morning coming up with a plan of attack that includes buying enough provisions to ride out the storm and enough cases of Pepsi to get me through being stuck in the house with Matthew and Marin.

It is super duper cold here and we, like everyone else in our neighborhood, still have our Christmas lights up. We have a month (by HOA rules) to get them down. But with it this cold, there is just no need to fool with it. It's been this cold since New Year's Day (when we usually take them down), so they are staying put for now.

The only thing getting me through this frigid weather is hockey season. It is the only good thing about winter in my opinion. With this being an Olympic year, the Predators are playing more games per week than usual. Everyone in the NHL takes a 2 week break during the Olympics because a lot of their players play for their respective countries in the Games. Quite a few of our team members are going so that will be exciting to watch.

I have also finished another book! Alter of Eden was completly awesome. I loved every minute of the book. Matthew was in the process of reading The Doomsday Key and finished it at the same time I did my book. So, now we've swapped. We are each a few chapters into our new books. It is hard to read and keep an eye on Marin at the same time, so we get most of our reading done when he's down for the night. He's been taking long naps here lately, so I do get a bit of reading done during the day too, which is nice.

I feel bad for the little guy though, because he still isn't back to 100%. He despises his antibiotics and tries to make sure more ends up on him than in him. I have to squeeze his little cheeks open to make him take it. He does have one bright spot in his week though. He's trying a new food. Mango! He adores them so far. He can't get enough of his pear/mango blend. He makes a "mmmm" sound and holds his mouth open like a baby bird. I can't spoon them in fast enough.

Well, he's about to have a meltdown. I sneezed and it caused him to go into a crying fit. It must be nap time.

Update: 2 minutes later....I picked him up and he immediately closed his eyes and fell asleep. ha.ha.

First off, I wanted to give everyone an update on Marin and his ear infection/cold. He's feeling a lot better, but it was slow going there for a while. Matthew had updated on his blog that he was feeling much better. Well, he was feeling much better for being sick, not better in general. The poor baby was still having a rough time with it. Sneezing, coughing, and a nose so runny that it chapped his face pretty much sums it up. He hasn't really tolerated the medicine well either. It has given him a rash or two, upset his stomach, and it takes two people to hold him down to get the dropper in his mouth. He is in a lot better spirits though, laughing and clowning around as we speak.

Now onto happier news. The biggest news of the day is that he's started crawling! He started on Jan. 1st. He moved in the forward direction a foot or two and Matthew and I both said, "Oh no, we're in trouble now." Since then, he's gotten better at it day by day. He'll chase a toy about 3 or 4 feet across the room before he gets mad and throws a fit because he can't move fast enough. ha.ha. He also says Mama all the time, as well as Dada. He usually calls for me when he is tired, sick, or generally needs something. He calls for Matthew when he wants to play. Typical. ha.ha.

One of the good things about being stuck in the house with a sick baby is getting to do a lot of reading. I finally finished The Charlemagne Pursuit. It was a pretty good book, but I just couldn't like a couple of the main characters that were supposed to be protagonists. But the story line itself was pretty interesting. I've already started another book too, The Alter of Eden. Now, that's a cool book! I'm only a few chapters in and already hooked. It's a very fast-paced, exciting read, like most of James Rollins' books. His books would make great movies.

Speaking of movies, my mom came down before Marin got sick and Matthew and I were able to go see a couple movies. We saw Did You Hear About The Morgans. It was supposed to be a romantic comedy, which it was in a way. But I was disappointed that it kept running into the ground that he had cheated on her. Who wants to go on a date night to see a movie about infidelity? That was the reason we didn't go see It's Complicated, even though it looked like a funny movie. I just don't enjoy watching movies about people cheating on their spouses. That's messed up. It's too true to life in a lot of cases. I don't want to glorify it by paying to go watch it on the big screen. Ok, I'm off my soap box. ha.ha. We did go see one of the best movies I've seen in a long time though. Up in The Air was the perfect movie. I will say that if you've never been a business traveler (or a tag along business traveler like me), you wouldn't "get it". You need to be or have been a real road warrior---not just been on a trip here and there---to really get the film. We laughed ourselves silly at it, even though a lot of it was quite sad and depressing at times. Matthew and I both gave it 2 thumbs up even though it is a niche movie that won't appeal to a lot of people. It is a must see for anyone who covets their airline miles and elite status at hotels. :)