16 Months Already. Dang.

Since we returned from Colorado we have run into a stretch of bad luck for poor Mino.  On one day he fell and punctured his upper lip with his tooth, then fell into the coffee table giving himself a large bruise above his eye then fell over and gave himself a goose egg on his forehead.

 The day after I picked him up at daycare and he was listless and didn't move or cry, I thought he had damaged his brain from all the falls, but it turned out he had a fever and ear infection.  I got a call at work about him falling at daycare, another goose egg on the other side of his forehead, a week later.  Tonight, he broke his two front teeth.   No pictures yet.
The kid is fearless and clumsy.  Dangerous combination or just being a boy?  Who knows.  But I think I am in for some trouble with all of this starting already.  I chalked up his smile as soon as I was notified my fetus had a penis knowing, as a dentist, that boys tend to have at least one of their front teeth broken at some point in their lives.  I figured the rest would be a broken arm here in fifth grade, skinned knees and stitches once he was at least kindergarten aged. I didn't think it started before he was even a well established one year old.  Yikes.

A prime example is this above. He is able to sneak out of his high chair belt.  Pretty much every meal ends with some dangerous standing position.

I forget the exact figure that I heard from our daily meteorologist on MPR but something like 1,000,000,000 snowstorms of appx 1.4 inches of snow have occurred in the last 3 weeks.  Enough that you don't want to shovel because it just isn't quite enough, but if you don't your very kind neighbor beats you to the punch and you feel like a chump.  Guess which side we are on.  Anyway, the most significant one was Friday night, the night that I had planned to drive home to go support one of my good friends from high school who unexpectedly lost her husband.  So that plan was nixed.  Since this horrible tragedy occurred I have spent a lot of time thinking about our little family and how easy it is to take for granted the little things, every morning I look at Mino and Martin and just feel so lucky that I have them in my life and even guilty knowing that there are people out there who have lost their loves.  Life is short, everyone knows it, but things happen that make it become a central theme in your day, and I am very thankful for today and for those guys that I get to wake up to tomorrow morning.  Becca, you are so loved.
 I felt the need to capture pictures today, of what we were doing, the little things that made up our Saturday together.  We built a snowman with our new 5 inches of snow.  Not only was this Minos first, but it was Martins!  Who'd a thunk it?  Not me.  Anyway, good times.

 I forgot to mention that Otis is a very large and warm teddy bear to Mino.  Otis has aggressive tendencies but sits like a docile baby and lets Ben do what ever he wants to him.  Amazing.

 I snuck in a quick weather lesson while we were outside.

He has suddenly taken quite an interest in shoes.  He likes to undo the velcro on his shoes.  He likes to bring me his shoes to put on and this morning he was trying to put on Martin's shoes.

And P.S.  The Pacifier (Pepe) weaning is coming soon.  Although after the tooth incident tonight I kinda wish I didn't snatch it away because it is a good mouthguard.

Mino is too young to shred!

The cold in Minnesota prevented Mino from experiencing his first extreme sport viewing experience, which every child really should have under their belt by 16 months.  Whoops.  The Red Bull Crashed Ice event came back to Saint Paul last weekend but the frigid temps prevented Mino from viewing live.  My pictures didn't turn out at all, but it was pretty cool to see especially with the Cathedral all illuminated and no deaths due to downhill ice skate crashes.

Mino is all about books right now, and has a rather (fungal) inflamed booty so has been free ballin' around the house hold taunting the pets. 

Then we went on our first winter vacation to Colorado to visit Aunt Chill and Emilio and Auntie Em and Uncle John for a "conference" in Frisco to eat, drink and ski.  Mino is a bit more difficult to manage on the plane now that he is ambulatory so it was a bit of a trying flight on Thursday night after work, but we made it safe and sound, and one self selected upgrade into a Chevy Suburban later we were rolling into Winston's condo in Frisco.
We checked out what daycare would cost us so both Martin and I could go skiing but that was more expensive than a lift ticket at Vail, so we opted to take turns.  Aunt Chill informed us that the previous week had welcomed the first real significant snow to the ski area in our part of the Rocky Mountains so we were in for some amazing fresh powder and lots of crowds.  It was fantastic though!  Martin hit up Vail while Min and the ladies chilled out adapting to altitude and touring Breckenridge.  We found that Mino rather enjoys being pushed around in a box.

 There happened to be the World Championship Snow Carving (or something to that effect) competition so we took it all in.

 I went with the crew to Beaver Creek the next day sans the Min.  I did look into it and I learned that beginning at 20 months( ? !!!!! ) the wee ones can strap on some skis and hit the snow.  I even saw one little dude, no older than 4 on a snowboard.  Mino can be just like his dad!

 Then Martin and I opted for a more Nordic experience and cross country skied the next day while the crew returned to the fresh powder at Vail.

 Mino took a great nap in this space ship contraption but needed to work his jollies out after he woke up.  I don't know if there is much cuter than a tiny child completely covered and sausaged in to winter clothing attire trying to walk around.

We met up with Prego Auntie Em for lunch in Vail

 
 before returning to watch the worlds longest Superbowl with the halftime specatacular by Beyonce which happens to be Auntie Chills Idol little to my prior knowledge :)

 Touchdown Ravens!

The one picture that I did not take and am kicking myself is Mino pointing at a bear hide that was mounted on the wall. From the first second we arrived we could ask Mino to show us the bear and he would waddle over and point at the bear.  Emilio taught him that bears were bad and he liked to shlap the bear.  Oh, and I think he learned how to run.