Day 92.....the week of many pictures

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Everyone is still healthy and doing well here in Denver.  Dillon's belly is "behaving itself."  He is eating and drinking; not enough of either, as he lost another kilo this week and continues on overnight fluids; but he is enjoying food more and more every day.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our fearless leader :))  We have missed Sean so much this past 2 weeks.  Some days it seems like we don't do anything, yet we are busy, and then other days it feels like we are running nonstop.....but 14 days without seeing Sean feels like an eternity.  We try to stay connected via phone so neither of us feels like we are  missing out on too much of the information and updates and life in general, but we are essentially living two completely separate lives and sometimes we each feel like we have no idea what is going on in the others' world.  However, oftentimes when I have time to talk he is smack dab in the middle of something and oftentimes when he has time to talk I am smack dab in the middle of sleeping.  We do our best and I think we both feel fairly well connected, but us Denver Buckley's are sure looking forward to a full week of Daddy time.


It snowed here yesterday, maybe about 4 inches.  Dillon immediately volunteered to sweep off our little balcony.  He had so much fun out in the fresh morning air, stomping around, making tracks, sweeping it off (we are on the fourth floor remember).  He probably swept it three times because he just kept going over and over it....I think with the intention of just staying outside in the crisp air longer, not with the intention of getting the balcony exceptionally "clean" (wink wink). 

Dillon sweeping the balcony one board at a time

Luca saw one of the Brent's staff outside shoveling sidewalks and off he went to lend a hand.  He stayed outside shoveling for an hour.....with a little respite of a hot chocolate break provided by one of the ladies from in the office.  It was so funny to look over our balcony and see this little kid, shovel in hand, big pile of snow next to him, sitting on a rock and sipping a steaming cup of cocoa.  Later in the day Dillon decided, after much begging from Luca, that he would go outside WITH snow pants and boots on to play a little (originally he had only agreed to go in his regular shoes and walk around on the clean side walks while Luca romped in the snow....but I think his kid energy and his love of the outdoors got the better of him :)).  With camera in hand. I followed them downstairs to witness the first snow play of this season in Denver.   You gotta see these pictures.  Pure, simple, complete joy.

nothing beats a walk in the morning snow with your brother

Dillon IMMEDIATELY flopped down in the snow.  His statement...."This is SO comfy!"

Pure Bliss....that grin stayed on Dillon's face the entire time he was in the snow

Do you guys make snow ice cream where you live?  My Mom grew up in Upstate New York and they ate snow ice cream as children and she passed that tradition along to Todd and I.....so of course as soon as my boys were old enough we began making snow ice cream, and that treat continues on to this day. In fact, it is one of the first things the kids talk about when it snows because you can only do it the first couple of days of fresh snow....it is a very time sensitive issue :))   The way we make it is this:  We get a bowl full of fresh snow, sprinkle it with sugar, add a few drops of vanilla extract, and a few tablespoons of milk.  Stir it all up and what do you have.......snow ice cream.  Luca was SUPER worried about Dillon eating any of the snow that he had shoveled.  Luca informed us that he had shoved so well that he had scraped the sidewalk with each pass of the shovel and that dogs pee and poop on that sidewalk and people spit and bugs crawl and cats barf.....I mean it is a really terribly toxic place, that sidewalk....so there was NO WAY Dillon was going to be able to have snow ice cream.  I ventured out into the yard and discovered that the snow was deeper in some areas than others, especially over the grass.  I gave Dillon the okay to gather some of that very top layer of snow for his snow ice cream.  I headed back upstairs to grab a container for Dillon's snow.  As soon as I was inside the apartment I could hear both kids screaming.......in a panic I ran to the balcony and looked over.  They were calling me to tell me to just throw the container down over the railing....and so I did.  They very carefully scraped off the top layer of those yummy icy flakes and raced up to the apartment to make and consume their ice cream.  It was a beautiful moment and I don't think Dillon ever enjoyed his snow ice cream so much.....maybe the possibility of not getting to have any made it that much more delicious.

It stayed in the 20s all day so the snow did not melt.  This morning Luca begged and pleaded that I go out with him for a snowball fight (he actually wanted to do it last night after dinner when it was pitch black and about 4 degrees....sorry little buddy).  So I started getting on my snowball gear and Dillon suddenly jumps up off the couch and says..." I wanna go too!!!!!"  So Luca and I relaxed our expediency of getting ready to give Dillon a chance to finish his pills and get his gear on as well.  Out we headed.  Turns out the boys had pretty much tromped through all the "good snow" yesterday.  I suggested that we hop in the Cruiser and drive over to the hospital where there are little rolling hills out front and a big huge lawn.  YEAH!!!!!  I grabbed water and snacks and off we went....unfortunately I did not grab a photo capturing device.  Anyway, we all stomped and rolled and piled and jumped and ran and threw and dodged and completely immersed ourselves in our play together....right there in the front of the hospital with traffic going by and sick kids inside....we lost ourselves and at that moment we were the only three people in the world.