Snowpocolypse 2011

Our family in the snow :)

A monumental thing happened in Atlanta last week...it snowed...and not just flurries or even a light dusting but 4 or 5 inches!  On Sunday night, just after Dominic went to bed around 9:00, it started to snow and was already accumulating 20 minutes later, something unheard of in Atlanta.  By the time we woke up, there was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground, the most I can remember seeing in Dunwoody ever before.  Everyone had been talking about this “big blizzard” coming, but I honestly didn’t believe it till I saw it.  After all, we hardly ever get even an inch of snow on the ground, much less accumulation of any kind.  They are now saying it’s our once-in-a-decade storm.  We had the “Blizzard of ‘93” when we were out of school for a week right after spring break and the “Ice Storm of 2000” when the power was out for several days and a tree fell on my car. This one was referred to by many as the "Snowpocolypse of 2011."

Dominic's first time playing in the snow

Sunday night before the snow, Brian, Dominic, and I took a family trip to dinner at Moe’s and then to Publix to get our shopping done for the big blizzard and the week.  The store was pretty cleaned out of milk, eggs, bread, produce, and pasta sauce, but we were able to get everything on our list without a problem.  An added bonus was that it was late enough in the evening that most people had already gone shopping, so the store was less crowded than it would’ve been when I normally go to the store on Monday afternoons. 

Brian and Dominic on the sled.

When we got up to the beautiful blanket of snow on the ground on Monday morning, the 3 of us took advantage of our ridiculously steep driveway and went sledding down it.  It was so much fun!!  This is the first time I can actually remember sledding.  I know I had sledded before, but I can’t actually remember it since it was so long ago.  The day before, I had asked my mom to bring over our family sled that we had used when my brothers and I were kids.  Having Dominic get on my childhood sled showed me how my life has really come full-circle.  Dominic didn’t seem too phased by the cold temperature outside but he wasn’t a huge fan of the snow when we put him down in the cold, wet stuff.  

Dominic's first time sledding!

The combination of snow and temperatures barely breaking the freezing mark all week turned into a work week full of snow days.  Schools were out for 5 days, and the entire city (Atlanta and Dunwoody both) were completely shut down for most of that time.  Brian finally went back to work on Day 4 (Thursday) because he wanted to get out of the house.  Dominic had not been napping well with Brian at home.  I loved having him here with us, but it was probably for the best that he returned to work.  I think Brian had reached his limit of being around Dominic and all of his increased whininess that came with getting few naps during the day and not getting out of the house.  With Brian being at home, I also found myself taking it a little too easy and letting all of the housework pile up.  I neglected to do the laundry and was also supposed to get the Christmas decorations down, leaving the house a complete wreck and a lot of work ahead of me.  It's surprising considering that we couldn't really leave the house for those 5 days thanks to the icy roads and were going stir crazy. You would think I would have had a ton of time to get housework done.  

My snow angel and me (I'm cheesy, I know)

 In other news, my mom and I took Dominic to his postponed follow-up pediatrician’s appointment and found out that he still has an ear infection in his left ear.  His appointment was supposed to be on Wednesday, but it was postponed till Friday because the doctor’s office was closed due to the snow.  The doctor prescribed Dominic a stronger antibiotic and warned us that he’ll get diarrhea, so to make sure Dominic eats lots of yogurt and applesauce.  Luckily, that’s exactly what he’s been eating, so that diet wasn’t a problem at all for him.   

Speaking of eating, feeding Dominic had become particularly challenging prior to the snowpocolypse.  He seemed quite disinterested in pureed food.  That, in combination with his hatred for the highchair, made meal time a dreaded time for me for about a month and especially the week or two before the snow.  Brian and I think the highchair issue was due to the fact that Dominic always wants to be crawling around and never confined – just like the changing table issue.  Plus I believe Dominic has been trying to assert his new-found independence (a precursor to toddler-hood, I’m afraid) which is supposed to be typical at this age apparently. 

I tried different musical toys, songs, and even Elmo youtube videos on my iphone, but the diversion wouldn’t last long.  Plus I’d rather not have him learn to associate eating with these kinds of things (especially with videos/tv).  I don’t want Dominic to think that whenever he eats he has to watch TV, or that whenever he watches TV (when he’s older) he has to eat.  My goal has been to feed him in the highchair, so he associates eating and the highchair instead of letting him eat all over the house, allowing for choking and simply dropping food everywhere.

Much happier in his highchair thanks to his "Magic Spoon"

When Dominic first started solids, Brian and I had given him an extra spoon to play with while feeding him, but it didn’t work well at the time.  In a desperate move after reading online that it was helpful for other babies with a similar aversion to eating in highchairs, I tried giving Dominic an extra spoon to play with while I was feeding him solids.  Low and behold, the “Magic Spoon” worked and Dominic suddenly started doing a fantastic job eating!  He would quickly, quietly, and painlessly in his highchair.  After eating his spoon-fed food nicely, I would then give Dominic some finger foods to eat. 

Once he seemed finished with his finger foods and/or done with sitting in the high chair, I then started giving him his bottle.  At the same time, I also began giving Dominic all of his bottles after each meal, and cut out the dinner bottle all together.  Now Dominic is on 3 bottles a day (at breakfast, lunch, and bedtime).  Even moving his breakfast bottle to the end of breakfast was a success after it had failed dramatically in the past.  Yay for mealtime! 

Eating a cracker whole!

 The highlight of the week before the snow was Dominic learning to eat an entire cracker that is given to him.  This started during playgroup on Thursday when his friend was a toddler mum-mum.  These cookies are the size of a cracker, so Dominic tried it and could too.  As a result, for the next couple of days, I started giving Dominic crackers whole instead of in small pieces as I’d been doing before, and he was able to bite off and chew pieces.  There was some gagging involved - not surprising – but overall it was a success.  This is another big accomplishment in the food eating process for Dominic and for me!

Add caption