Baby Bounce!

I took out the jumper the other day and Dominic thinks that it is the most wonderful thing in the world! I keep having to tell him to be gentle but she seems to like it. He always insists that the "baby bounce."

Buddies

Dominic and Samantha are so close. They light up to be around each other. I had to snap this picture when I saw him go up to her and put his arm around her. They stood like that for a while watching tv.

Crashing on the Couch

Although we have decided to be done with naps (Mommy decided after still trying to get Dominic to sleep after 10 pm!) occasionally he still crashes out. He's become attached to his stuffed animals lately which is pretty cool considering he never really cared about them before. Now he requests specific ones when it's time for Night Night.

Apple picking

Dominic had a bit of a hard time pulling the apples from the trees but he did love climbing up the ladders and eating the apples! Not to mention sitting on the pumpkins.

The face

Dominic has discovered a new emotion. Embarrassment. I've noticed it off and on for a while now if we would look at him while he was pretending he would stop and smile at us. Now he has this face that is very reminiscent of Uncle Chris. He loves riding ponies (and didn't want to get off when Gee tried to take him down) but he was a little embarrassed of us looking at him and taking his picture.

Chalk!

Unfortunately mommy had to go back to work on the 10th. It wasn't any easier leaving him the second time than it was the first. But, he had a great time with Daddy. Here he is coloring with chalk while they were waiting for me to come home.

Luv a sister

Dominic has really learned the gentle concept now and is so good with her. He has stopped calling her Pete and now he sometimes calls her "Baby Sister" although mostly just "Baby".

Florida

Dominic is becoming quite the veteran traveler when it comes to Florida. I was a little worried this time though since he can now walk and rarely wants to sit still and because we had him and his sister. He did great though and the timing of the flights were perfect so that he slept most of the flight between NYC and Florida both ways.

He had a fantastic time with Nanny and warmed up to Pop by the end as well. He was constantly running around calling "NANNY!" or saying "Pop go? Pop, where are you?" We through the schedule right out the window though and pretty much let him go until he fell asleep on his own. He loved the pool but wasn't a big fan of the ocean.

One of the reasons we went down to Florida was to attend Chelsea's Sweet 16. I thought Dominic would have a good time since he's so social and is into dancing right now but it was a bit late and a bit intimidating to him so we stayed until just before 10pm and then I took him up to the room to go to bed.

Dominic had a great playdate with Kaylea while Daddy went to the Space Center with Alex and Shane. I haven't seen Stacy in years and it was great to get together. Hopefully they will come to visit us!!

Storm watching

We had quite the intense storm by us with a few breaks in the weather where we could be outside. It knocked a huge branch down in the backyard and we were without power for 6 hours. The firetrucks storming by made Dominic nervous and the power outage totally confused him. There was even a tornado that went by a few miles up the road.

Love-a-baby!

Dominic is such a great big brother and loves Samantha so much! Samantha is really starting to focus in on him as well and I think they're going to be buddies!

BBQ

We had a random BBQ at our house and Dominic ran himself ragged playing with the other kids! He finally collapsed for about an hour at 5pm. He loves having other kids around and being right in the middle of things!

Dominicisms

I haven't updated on Dominic's activities lately so I thought I would write down what he's up to now.

He's on a big Harry Potter kick which we discovered by accident as we tested a DVD player. He's a maniac on the playground, insisting on going on the big kid's jungle gym and making Mommy very nervous! He's constantly asking "who's that" or "what's that."

He has also mastered that very annoying kid coversation of "mama" "Mama" "MaMa" "MAMA" "MAMAAAA" "What is it Dominic?" "Hi."

"Wacku" = Motorcycle or Bicycle
"Pete" = Samantha. After a few attempts of calling her "Da" I thought we were getting close to Dominic saying her name. Then he decided that her name is Pete and if you ask him what the baby's name is he will tell you... it's Pete.

We are sort of working on potty training. After peeing on the potty twice he doesn't seem too interested right now. We're encouraging him but not pressuring him. I still think he's a bit young to expect him to be potty trained.

BEES!!!

It has been an awful year for bees. Daddy has found several hornet nests in our yard and has been stung numerous times. So it was bound to happen.

We were over Gee and Papa's house and Dominic was playing on the neighboor's play structure when he absolutely screamed! Gee grabbed him and ran for the house and we saw several bees chasing them. My poor little man got stung at least 3 times that we could see on his face. The good news is that he's not allergic and he now has some respect for bees which previously he had wanted to go touch.

He was a little nervous in the house the other day though when a fly landed on him. He started whimpering and saying "bee." We were able to explain the difference though and now he knows that flies won't sting him. I've been on the lookout for bees though and we found 4 hives starting under our pool edge. Thankfully Daddy sprayed them. I just can't beleive how bad the bees are this year.

Alex and Shane

Alex and Shane are in town and Dominic absolutely loves having them here.

He first saw Alex as Daddy was bringing them back from the airport. As we stood in the door he said "Who's that?" I told him that was Alex, which he responded by saying "Alec." However, he kept calling them both Alex and I tried telling him that one was Alex and one was Shane. Dominic looked at me and pointed to Alex and said "Alec," I said "yes that's Alex." He then turned to Shane and said "Alec too." LOL!

Helping Daddy and Alex

Alex and Daddy were cutting and clearing a tree that had fallen in our yard and Dominic did an excellent job helping!

Mozart Fest

Gee and Papa had extra tickets to the Mozart Festival in Grand Isle and invited us to come. It's an outdoor concert so we figured it would be great for Dominic to run around. WRONG! It was the quietest, snootiest Mozart Fest ever! Any sound that Dominic made was instantly noticeable. It was actually pretty funny. So we moved off to the side and Dominic and Gee had fun pretending that the caretaker's house was Pooh's house.

Too big!

We've been having a hard time explaining to Dominic that he is just too big for Samantha's toys like the playmat or the swing. Suddenly the things he outgrew are just too hard to resist!

Trip to Stowe

We decided to take a drive down to the Arts and Food festival in Stowe and wandered around town for a while. Dominic enjoyed playing in these sculptures.

Following little sis

So even though Dominic was never a fan of his crib when he was supposed to be in it, now that Samantha goes in there he wants to join her. No, I did not put him in there, he climbed in himself!

Sitting with Samantha

Dominic has been such a good big brother! He always wants to be close to her and is always saying hi to her. He's very concerned when she cries and is really trying to share with her, often forcibly! He just doesn't understand why she can't have an apple or a cookie or his pacifier!

A little big...

Here's Dominic climbing into the baby tub. One of Dominic's favorite activities now is helping me give Samantha a bath. In fact he's even brought the tub out and tugged on her clothes saying "off" "bath." He strung his first 4 word sentence out all about it. He said "Dada, Mama baby bath." Ok, so he's missing the verbs but it's coming!

Lots of babies!

Amanda and I on the couch with our gorgeous babies. Amazing how things change!

4th of July

On the 7th Gee and Papa had the annual 4th of July Party. Unfortunately it rained all day but Dominic had such a blast with Cameron that he didn't care about the whether. This was the first year that there were a large contingency of babies! I really felt like Dominic was getting to be a big boy when he barely checked in with me the entire day. He had so much fun running around. They did a great job sharing and Daddy riled them both up at the end of the day!

Jorja taking her turn!

Dominic ratting out Cameron's hiding spot!

Echo Center

We took a trip down to the Echo Center to see the dinosaur exhibit. Dominic loved the dinosaurs but especially loved the Echo Center mascot, Newt. He would have followed him around all day if we let him!

Parade!

The one good thing about living on a main road is that the 4th of July parade goes right by our house.

Choo Choo!

When Daddy went back to work Gee came by everyday for a few days to help out. (Thanks mom!) One day we went downtown and Dominic got to ride the Choo Choo! He was very excited and didn't want to get off when the ride was done. I think this might have been the same day she told him there was a monster in the basement... (In her defense he has been really big into Monsters Inc lately)

Visit from Nan and Pop

Nan & Pop came up to visit us for a few days and Dominic had a wonderful time with Nan. He even slept in his own bed until 4:30am after Nan put him to bed!