Since Marin and I have been home sick, we've spent even more time than usual just sitting around reading, playing, and talking with each other. His vocabulary has skyrocketed in the past couple weeks. He also has started "singing" a lot. I can't understand the words to any of his songs, so that is good preparation for when he is a teenager.

Marin's word of the day today is towel. As in paper towel. Of course, it involves a cleaning implement. Those of you that know Marin are not surprised. He said "towel" for the first time this morning at breakfast. He was asking for a wet paper towel to clean off his high chair tray after he finished eating.

He's doing so much better today. He's got just a bit of a cough and his nose is a little runny, but his fever is gone and he seems to feel much better. I'm doing tons better as well. I can actually breathe out of my nose, which is heavenly. And my throat has upgraded to feeling like fine grain sandpaper, instead of coarse.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell everybody about this cool book I found. Actually, it is a series of books called Good Night Our World. I picked up the New York City version for Marin while we were there and he has loved reading it since our return home. I'm thinking of adding to his library from other places he's visited. It's a really cute board book and he loves pointing out the smallest details in it. He can also say the word "taxi" which makes me laugh and is so NYC.

Marin and I went to the grocery store this afternoon to stock up on the essentials: milk, bread, and Totinos Pizza Rolls. It is supposed to snow sometime tomorrow and I knew that the shelves would be bare by this evening. Other shoppers were also planning to hunker down. The woman in line in front of us had chosen 6 bags of potato chips. Just the mere mention of the word "snow" sends people into a frenzy. Naturally, it is one of Marin's current favorite words. He said it repeatedly on our trip through the isles, adding to merriment of it all.

While standing in the check out line, it suddenly hit me that we were out of aluminum foil. I quickly backed out of my parking spot, grabbed a roll off the shelf in the next isle over, and instantly felt relieved. After all, you never know when you'll have good grilling out weather.