Awaiting Baby Sister

Dominic and Jojo are going to be big brothers! It is about 5 weeks till her arrival and I know Dominic is very excited to be having a sister. Jojo I think will need some convincing as he loves being babied and getting the attention. My how our family has grown! :-)

Mommy went out with the girls one night and Grandma and Pupo watched the boys. Apparently this is what boys do when mommy is away!







Dominic and Jezzie! I don't know who is enjoying the company more. :-)

Updates

Dominic is now 3 1/2. He is a constant source of laughter and trials. :-) His ability astounds me and still continues to grow, as it should be. His brother Jojo is on the verge of crawling. Dominic has adjusted to having Jojo in his life and is now lost without him. Although he still loves to go with Grandma and Pupo on outings by himself.

Jojo is such a sweet happy little guy. His ability in the last three weeks has taken off. He started sitting up just about his 6 month mark. At 7 months he began to get on all 4's and wobble. He now moves all around, but has yet to crawl. He can however pull himself to standing in his crib. He loves strawberries and his nightly routine. Jojo loves routine!!!! He's not as into books like Dominic was, but loves to look out at everything and see all that is going on. He truly loves to be a part of everything. Jojo spends a large part of the time in the front pack connected to me.

Matt is completing his first year of residence and just about to begin his second year. It has gone by quickly, but there are still 2 more to go. I'm not wishing the time by, but it will be nice when he is home again with a normal schedule and routine as well. Right now his schedule is always changing and it feels like we don't get to see him as much as we would like.

My final update for today is that Dominic is registered for preschool. I think he will thrive off the new challenges and love the interaction with the other children. We will see. His first day is Sept. 8th!

Awaiting baby brother!!

Dominic has grown so much and is such a big boy now!! I think the best part about his age currently is his language ability and the things he says. I should be writing them down daily, but he is so active now that I'm exhausted by the time I have time to write.

His vocabulary is amazing. He tells stories, asks questions, knows the names of lots of books, can recognize any family members car, knows which way to go to grandma's house (both), where Pupo works, where his hospital family members work and is constantly challenging me.

He knows that he has a baby brother coming, but I don't know how much he really understands the reality of it. In a short amount of time we will be able to see how he handles being a sibling, rather then an only child.

He is currently fully potty trained and has been for 2-3 months now. I still put him in pull ups at night to preserve the bed should he have an accident. He is down to having one accident per 10 days. I was surprised at how quickly he picked it up.

He has grown very close to the neighbors across the street in the last two months. He absolutely adores Kyle. They get along and play so well together. It also gives me a break to watch rather then interact.

Dominic's baby brother was due three days ago. He is a bit like Dominic already by being stubborn about entering the world. He unfortunately does not have a name yet as mommy and daddy have a hard time agreeing.

Hopefully, he will arrived very soon!

First Movie

We took Dominic to his very first movie yesterday. He saw Wall E. I thought he would be unable to sit through the entire movie, but he proved me wrong. He did enjoy the bathroom and asked to go three more times through out the movie. (We began potty training about 10 days ago.)

Each day he fills me with funny thoughts and phrases. As much as he is a challenge some days, I really love this age. His comments and new vocabulary still stun me. I think that I should be used to it by now, but I'm still in awe!

Matt Graduated 06-07-08!!! Here is a photo of Dominic and his daddy! Congratulations Daddy!!!!! We are so proud of you.

Dominic is getting a baby brother!

It has been a very long time since the last post!! In that time we have bought a house, moved and are expecting a new addition to the family. A little baby boy will keep Dominic entertained and give Daddy a second fishing buddy. :-)

Dominic at two years and three months talks in complete sentences, knows how to climb over his gate in his room, loves the word "NO" and completely enjoys cars, and tractors. He amazes me when Pupo pulls up in his rental car and I'm thinking it is Grandma's car and he's telling me it is Pupo's rental car. I'm like how does this little man know the difference when I easily mistook it for another!!

He really enjoys being outdoors and being around other children. When we moved in to the new house we found out there is a three year old across the street. Some mornings Dominic just waits at the window for Kyle to appear outside.

My ultimate favorite though has to be when Matt and I are having a serious discussion and Dominic will copy word for word the person talking. Of course we are trying to be all serious and he comes along and parrots us, totally cracking us up. :-) What would we do without kids??? They are so funny in so many ways. I swear he makes me laugh daily. Although, there are many days he also makes me want to cry. Like when he dumped the whole 64 load laundry detergent on the carpet in the basement. I guess we at least have a clean floor. However, again today Matt informs me that he dumped the detergent today into the washer (which already had cloths in it). At least he is getting better at his aim!! (Although replacing laundry detergent so often is getting expensive.)

So this ends another fun filled day with a little tyke!

Toddler Time

Wow, I knew it was a while since my last blog, but I didn't realize it had been this long!! I have little excuse for not blogging, but I can say that Dominic has kept me extremely busy. He is now 35.75 inches, he weighs in at 28lbs and is a ball of energy. He talks non stop. I stopped counting words a while ago now (when he hit 200), but at age two he is singing Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC's, counting and saying complete sentences. Some sentences range from just a few words to 5-7. He loves his Thomas the Train set/trains, and his books. He no longer sleeps in his daybed crib, but is now in a full sized bed. He switched on his birthday and did so on his own.

We have started potty training. Dominic gets a small sticker for just sitting and a big sticker for actually going. However, the little stinker has already figured out a trick. He waits till he is in bed and then says "mommy, I go poop on potty". Up we go to sit on the potty.

Now that I have gotten used to him talking so much and so often it takes the special comments to really capture my attention. A few that I can remember.... Matt was in the kitchen in the morning (early for him-pre coffee) and Dominic was getting into stuff and making a mess. Matt told Dominic to go in the living room and play with his toys. I took Dominic into the living room and as we were walking he looks at me and says "Daddy needs coffee". I just lost it!! I couldn't believe it came out of his mouth!!

One thing that Dominic has learned that other people find funny is that he learned what tentacles are. So I'll sign octopus and ask what the octopus has. He will respond with "tentacles". However, coming out of his little mouth it looks and sounds so funny.

I'm very pleased with Dominic's ability to speak and communicate. I truly believe that his success was due to excessive amounts of time spent lap reading, and sign language. His manners are also coming along nicely, but he still needs prompting most of the time, but not all of the time.

Things we are seriously working on; temper, destruction of things, hitting, cleaning up a mess after making one, and potty training. He has hit the terrible two's and my little easy going angel boy has been replaced. As with all things, I know we will work through this slight challenge in time and hopefully I will do the best job I can in teaching him. The worst part of it all is that he is still so darn cute!!! I especially love to watch him when he is asleep, he still looks a bit like a baby when he is sleeping and definitely looks angelic. :-)

We shall see what tomorrow brings!! Oh...Matt got a contract at Syracuse!!! YEAH!!!! We know where we will be next year and that makes things so much less stressful. Graduation is only five months away!!! Wow!! Then we will all have to call him Doctor. :-)

Story of the day!!

I swear that I have a Dominic story of the day every day. Some days are more interesting then others, but each day has a special one. Two days ago I was making an apple pie that Matt had requested. Dominic was in the kitchen with me as he usually is where ever I am. So, I have the mix in a bowl on the counter along with 5lbs of sugar. Can you see where this is going???? I turn around for like 2 seconds to grab the nutmeg. When I turn around again to go back to the mix I see Dominic with the 5lbs of sugar dumping it all over the floor!!!!!

However, the better story of this day was in the evening. Usually before bath time I try and get him to sit on the potty for 20 seconds. We count to ensure that it is indeed 20 seconds, otherwise he is off it in about 2 seconds! So, on this evening he was in the bathroom ahead of me. He grabs his potty and tries to put it on the big pot by himself. He ends up dropping the little yellow chamber into the toilet. I told him "no", that it didn't go into the pot. Then he got frustrated and ran out of the bathroom. Seeing that he was attacking this problem on his own made me think that he had to really go. So I picked him up really quick and made a mad dash to the bathroom. Quickly put his little potty on the big one and plunked him down on the seat. Low and behold about 3 seconds later he started to pee!!!! Later, I felt really bad for telling him "no" in relation to the chamber. He was on the right track all along and it was just a challenge for him to get the little pot on the big one!

Ok, for the story of the day today. After lunch the cats wanted to eat. There was very little in their container and I decided to let Dominic feed the kitties today. So, I showed him how to open the top and pour the food into the dish. Yep!!!!! My mistake again!!!!! Yes, he dumps it all over the floor and I think to myself, "ok, maybe I shouldn't have showed him that". As the food is all over the floor and he continues for a few minutes playing with the container and trying to feed them again without success, I think what a mistake. Then, out of no where he goes over to the kitchen vacuum and turns it on and goes and begins cleaning up the mess. I was so shocked that the only thing I could do was watch and take pictures. No, he didn't do a great job of cleaning up, but he did work at it. When he was done he says "all done", with a big smile and proud as punch for doing it

Backtrack 18month follow up

Dominic had his 18 month follow up July 9th. His goal was to be speaking 4-10 words and was at 100. He was 34 1/4 inches tall (95%) and wighes 24lbs, 11oz (30%) head cm was 46 1/2 cm (30%).
Gaining weight!!! However, still a tall boy!

Last two months of Photos

Here are some photos of the last couple of months. The first four were taken at camp about a month ago, July. The last picture of Dominic in his red hat was taken yesterday 8/18/07.

Dominic's Story of the Day

8/19/07
There are many days of Dominic's story of the day, however he keeps me so busy now that I hardly have time to write them down and then I forget them because a new one pops up. Today (he is napping now) I will write.

Matt and I needed to do some grocery shopping. So we headed off to the store with Dominic in tow. As we are in line ready to check out Dominic is sitting in his cart happy to see faces so close to him (two baggers and two cashiers, one of each on each side). He says to all "Hi!!" "Hi!!" "Bye, Bye" "See you tomorrow"!. Matt and I started laughing. See, he just started the see you tomorrow thing last night. He spent the day with Grandma and Pupo (Matt and I went on a hike for our 5th anniversary) and as he was leaving their house they said to him "see you tomorrow" and so he picked it up.

Currently at nineteen months he says over 160 words, and is now almost always putting two words or even three words together. I'm amazed at how fast he is picking up language. I attribute his success of language to two things; signing (ASL, class and Signing Time), and his frequent library/reading time. We still visit the library at least twice a week and check out 15 books each time. Plus, with our own library at home we have enough reading material that we commonly read for 1/2 to 1 hour a day everyday.

The other new thing is that he loves his crayons. He has found out that they have a purpose and enjoys using them, sometimes on books (we are working on that one!).

Last Thursday Dominic got the pleasure of having his Grandpa and Grandma Becky watch him. It was a first for all. I don't know who was more excited. It was the first time in a while that I was ready to walk out he door and instead of him crying or becoming upset like I expected he turned to me, waved and said "bye, bye, mommy". Grandma and Grandpa got to spend their own quality time with Dominic and all had stories when I got home. We later went to Georgio's for dinner, yummmm....

I'm thinking of all the things Dominic enjoys doing now, but there are so many!!!! He loves to push a stool up to the bathroom sink and wash his hands, or just turn the water on and off. He enjoys doing whatever Matt or I are doing, including dishes, and laundry. The playground has become something enjoyable for him as well. However, recently he has decided to forego the the slide in exchange for extra time on the swing. Last time I went with him he spent 45 minutes in the swing. So, for me I would sign to him and he would translate back to me in words. It is a nice time for review and reinforcement of both ASL and English.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this age!! He is so much fun, and although some days I feel like I'm going crazy, it is always worth it!!

Farm Visit and Past Experiences

Our day at the farm and a few in between. I can hardly believe it has been over two months since my last blog entry. However, I can honestly say we have been extremely busy and Dominic keeps me on my toes.

Let me see... Dominic now says over 65 words, loves Signing Time with Alex and Leah, rides his little tricycle around the house, loves his homemade rocking horse, and drinks out of a regular little cup.

There are so many days that go by and Dominic had done at least one memorable thing, however, me being so busy with him I don't even remember them an hour later. Here is one example that my husband took the time to write about.
"Sooo, Lee was folding laundry on the couch in the living room. Dominic was messing around throwing the clothes on the floor, so to occupy him, she says "Want to help mommy and bring the towels to the kitchen?" He takes the stack of towels with a big grin and proudly marches off to the kitchen. He returns a minute later, beaming with pride and she gives him another load. Off he goes into the kitchen again. He returns, smiling and happy. Lee is very proud of him now. So she goes into the kitchen, but the towels are nowhere to be found. Where did they go?

Yup, he put the entire load of towels into the garbage can."

I laughed at the way he wrote it!! It was true, but it is so typical of Dominic that I didn't think it a big deal, just very funny!

The one memorable thing I can write about today though is my being locked out. My mom had come down for a brief visit and on her way out she mentioned that I needed to water my plants on the porch. So, I grab a glass full of water to water the one that is really dry. I shut both doors to our new apartment (as both the cat and Dominic will wander out if I don't shut the storm door). I water the plant and as I'm trying to open the door my mom is pulling out of the driveway. I realize much to my chagrin, that Dominic has locked me out of the house. ( To top it off I have absolutely no keys to the apartment. Dominic lost them somewhere one week after we moved and we only had one set. We kept hoping they would turn up somewhere. )
So, I'm screaming at my mom to come back and pull in the driveway. She is thinking "what could possibly be wrong? I just pulled out of the driveway.". I'm frantic!! Just when she pulls back in I get through the door and think what an idiot I am, the door was just stuck. I go to the car to tell my mom what happened and she comes up on the porch and tries the door only to find it truly locked. :-) Luckly my mom has been locked out of her house many times before and easily helped me. I don't know what I would have done if she had not been there!! Thank God for mothers!!!

Now I realize that my son can open and lock doors as well as throw stuff in the trash. He is much more clever and knows far more then I think he should for his age. At 17 months he far exceeds my expectations.

Finally, yesterday we took a trip to my friend and her husband's house to visit the farm. Dominic really enjoyed the visit and loved the tractors. Not only did he get to run around and explore till his heart was content and his feet tired, but he got to visit the cows and can now say cow instead of moo! Yeah!! It was a wonderful day!! I just hope my friends who are non-children people tolorated us alright.

It was a wonderul day and one for the memory bank!

Bed Jumper

Dominic had a horrible night again last night. He has recently been sick, and teething. The two factors have made for some long nights. Last night was one of them! After getting up once and waiting nearly an hour for him to fall asleep, then it taking me more then 45 minutes to fall asleep, it was only an hour and a half before he was up again. He repeated this process when he awoke at 4am. So, after an hour I decided to let him cry for a few minutes. I let three minutes go by where his cries would vary. Me thinking he was just tiring himself out and was going to fall asleep any minute was the one in for the giant surprise. I hear a giant clunk,boom, thud. Thinking he wailed his head really good on the bed, I go running in there. I open his door to find him flat on his back spread eagle starring at the stars on his ceiling. He is ONLY 15 months old, and just a week past it at that!!! I now have a monkey jumper!!!

Aside from this mornings news, he received his first haircut yesterday. I think it looks much better and much more kept, without to much being cut off. I put the hair into an envelope to go in his scrap book and took a photo. Daddy didn't notice till going to Grandma Mo's house where she immediately noticed.

Off to the little man!

15 Month follow up

Dominic turned 15 months old!! He had his check up with the Dr. and found him to be in the 90% for height (32 1/2 inches). Tall boy!! However, he is only in the 10-20% for weight, (21lbs 14 oz.). He now says over 20 words, climbs everything and runs instead of walks. He climbs his high chair and gets in himself. Most recently he has started imitating everything. It is like living with a little parrot. Him and Jezzie get along wonderfully.

What's New???

Well, it has been a month since I've posted last again! I didn't intend on it being this way, but it feels like we have been very busy. Plus, add in Dominic being sick, teething, mommy being sick, teething again and loads of activities and it feels like the days just slip away.

So, what is new??? Dominic is a handful!!!! Let's see....he has added to his vocabulary (star, bus, up, milky, apple, dragon, dog, key,.....that is all I can think of at this moment, but I know that there are more). He goes up and down stairs. If you help him by holding his hand he will go up and down stairs like a big boy. If he is unaided then he will go down backwards and go up creeping.

Two days ago he totally shocked me!! He climbed up his high chair from the ground all the way to the top, got in, turned himself around and sat down. He proceeded to repeat this at least three more time. So, when Matt got home and I informed him of the new task that Dominic could master, he did not believe me. So, I told Dominic to get into his highchair. He did just that and I watched the shocked look on Matt's face. So, now we have a little monkey boy!!!

Two cute things of today.... First, I was taking the laundry from the kitchen to the bedroom and as I was walking through the living room I see Dominic sitting on the couch like a big boy with a book called Cars, Cars, Cars. He had the book open and was saying "car" then he would turn the page and say "car, car". It was absolutely adorable. I do have photos, but I'll have to upload them tomorrow or so.

The second cute thing of the day I was not present for. Dominic finger painted today and I put them up on the fridge. Tonight when he got home with Daddy he walked up to the fridge, grabbed the finger painting and showed Matt, and then the cat, all before tossing it to the floor where it was suddenly forgotten. However, for a few minutes he was aware of what he did and proud of doing it!

We are working on signing more as it is extremely helpful in communication. His vocabulary is rapidly building, but you can't beat signing when there are challenging words.

Two other things before I forget and bring this post to a close. Dominic loves to go bye, bye. He even knows the order of events. He will grab his shoes and drop them by me to put on him. Then he will pound on the door saying bye, bye. Once the door is opened he will point to the keys and say "keys". Then we continue the process of leaving our house. But, I brought this up because last Sunday when we went to church Dominic and Pupo left to go to the car. Dominic got to pretend drive, which he loves, but Pupo said that when he got in he pulled the seat belt. He knows that you need the seat belt before you drive!! It is amazing how smart and how much knowledge a little person has that often we are so unaware of!!! It also really makes you conscious of your actions as someone is right there watching and soon to be mimicking them!

Our Trip to Northern Maine

Northern Maine was very beautiful and extremely desolate. The people were very friendly! The town had a whopping 230 people in it. We would drive 50 minutes to reach a grocery store, movie store and Walmart. It had a few other things to offer, but those were the big things that were offered.

Most of the time we were there it was extremely cold with it being around 10 degrees out with a wind chill that would freeze you in no time! So, Dominic and I only went out to play about 5 times in the entire month we were there. We did however enjoy the benefit of having a whole house to ourselves!!!! This experience contrasted with our little tiny apartment was a wonderful foreshadowing of things to come. Dominic enjoyed doing laps (running, not walking) around the house. He had his own playroom with a ton of sunlight that warmed it up wonderfully in the day time.

The whole house was full of picture windows and sky lights. It was a place that made you feel like you had enough sun light without even being outside. (Great for winter) The downside to this was that the windows were very drafty, especially at night when the sun was not there to compensate.

Dominic and I spent many days playing and reading together. One new thing he found that he loved doing was finger painting. We have finger painted before, but here he would bring the paints to me and drop them in my lap. It was my cue to get the paper so he could finger paint. He loved it, even though it was over in like five minutes. I learned quickly though to get a smock or to strip him down to a onsie. Unlike his cousin Christopher, Dominic loves to be messy.

There are two big things I remember. The first is the day I was doing dishes in the kitchen (open floor plan to the house) and realized it was too quiet. I peaked into the dining room where Dominic was only to find him sitting perfectly in the middle of the table! That was the last time the chairs were up to the table. The second was the last day we were there. (Cleaning with Dominic is like beating your head against a wall!) We needed to clean the house so I put him in his play room with the gate up. Three minutes later he comes running out. He broke the gate down!!! So I decided to put the gate up in the hallway just outside the room so it would be more secure. I put it up to the wall as tight as I felt comfortable without damaging the sheet rock. Again, three minutes after leaving him he came running out again. So, he was on the loose as we were cleaning. In the time we were cleaning he had climbed up on the table and was playing with the plant on the table pulling the leaves off. I screamed at Matt to come and see what he had done (the first time the chairs were back at the table since the first time he climbed up on it). In the process of him coming to see what happened he left the toilet seat up in a hurry to find out what I was screaming about. He forgot about the toilet seat and Dominic found a old soap bottle that was to be recycled. He picked it up and started playing with it. Two seconds later I hear splosh, splosh....he is playing with the soap bottle inside the toilet!!!! UGHHHHH.... (Nap time was a no go because of all the commotion.) So finally I had him with me cleaning the stairs with the vacuum cleaner. The hose end is not long enough and it pulled the base of the vacuum on an angle long enough for curious George to try and catch the spinning bar. It was the end of trying to do anything with him! Matt played with him while I completed my end of cleaning. Then we packed up and put him in his car seat. He fell asleep in two minutes flat!!!!

I can't remember all of what we did or the highlights of each day (sadly), but I can tell you that Dominic grew at least an inch, gained weight, learned how to run, climb bookshelves, dive off sleds, get his boots when he wanted to go outside, finger paint when he wanted to and much more. However, the biggest thing that I noticed was his ability to speak more words and learn how to sign "more". He now says, ma ma, da da, tractor, car, bear, hot, go-gurt (yogurt), up, kitty, all done, cheesey (cheese), ball, block, book, and I think that is it. It seems like he is picking up words at least twice a week and new sounds daily. It is amazing how quickly he learns. Now he also points to help you with what he desires. If you say the right thing he will smile and laugh to show you that you have hit the nail on the head.

The last thing I will write about is that he now will give you a hug and make the kiss noises to go with it. It is one of the most adorable things that I treasure about his age!!!

Last Post for a month

This will be the last post for a month, until we return from Northern Maine. Unfortunately, they do not have internet up there. So, this is it until we return!

Dominic is recovered from his cold, but he still has a bit of a cough and runny nose. He is just about running as fast as his little feet will carry him and he is mastering going up and down stairs.

Two days ago we turned his car seat around so he is now facing forward. I think he really enjoys looking out the big window and seeing things as they happen and not as they have passed. Tomorrow will be our first adventure in seeing how entertaining this new position really is.

Grandma Mo bought Dominic a "Minke" sleep bag. It is like a sleeping bag with a tank top. It works really well. She got it for Dominic as he uncovers himself during the night and thought it might be one of the reasons he wakes up so frequently. His room is also much colder then the rest of the house and we end up sweating just to keep his room at a decent temperature. Last night and today were the first time using it and I'm sure it will come in very handy when we go to Maine as well. Plus, it is so soft and plush. I want one for myself!!!! :-)

Wish us good luck on our long journey/adventure! I'll write all about it when we return and post pictures as well. (I know that is something I have not done in a while, but with Dominic being sick since Jan.8, there hasn't been much to take or time to do it. ) Hopefully, we will get some good pictures in the next month!