Alligator Pool!

June was sooo hot this year. We spent a lot of time in the little alligator pool to cool off. We do have a big pool as well but it's a bit tricky to take two non swimmers in by yourself so we only do that when we can be one on one.

Yup I realize I'm behind

I know I know. I'm woefully behind on blogs and photo albums. Things have been so busy but I'm going to try to catch up today!

These pics were from Gee & Papa's memorial day party!

I think he's got it!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to put Dominic in underwear, he seemed to have been backsliding a bit in his pull-ups. Well...we are now on day 5 of no accidents!! Woo hoo! We don't even have to ask him, he just lets us know when he needs to go. I am still putting him in a pull-up for bed but I think we can now say that he is day time potty trained!!!!

Way to Go Dominic!!!!!

Mother's Day

We had a great mother's day at Gee & Papa's house enjoying their new renovations. Here we are throwing rocks in a storm drain and Dominic getting tickled by Uncle Chris.

Got one!

It has been so hard to get pictures of Dominic lately much less trying to get the two of them together but I managed to get one!

Updates

Dominic is now 2.5 years old. He's still working on potty training but he has been using it every day now for some time so that's a good thing. He's talking constantly. As their doc said at Samantha's appointment, he's talking like a three year old. His imagination is in full swing and we're always playing pretend. It's incredible all the stories he comes up with. The other day he said "pacifier" correctly and although I knew he was bound to start pronouncing it right eventually I was a little sad not to hear "rarice" like he normally calls it. He's getting to be such a big boy.

Outside!!

Dominic is thrilled that the weather is warming up and is spending as much time as he can outside!

Easter

Gee & Papa spent the night before Easter so they were there 1st thing in the morning to see Dominic and Samantha get their Easter baskets. The Easter bunny hid a few eggs for Dominic and he found a few but was much more interested in his basket. We managed to go to church, have a great dinner (Good job daddy) and had the whole family over to celebrate Papa's birthday. Dominic had a fun time "playing" the wii with Uncle Chris and Uncle Jerod.

Sleeping

I've been wanting to get a picture of the two of them sleeping. Dominic still comes into our bed at night (although typically on his own which is great!) and Samantha spends quite a bit of time there herself. It's a good thing we have a king size bed. (Thanks Gee & Papa)

Spiderman!!

Dominic is starting to get more mature tastes. He's into Scooby Doo and Spiderman. (Of course I think he thinks that Spiderman, Batman and Superman are all the same thing.) Here he is flying in his Spiderman pj's.

Trying to photograph a toddler

It's getting harder and harder to get pictures of Dominic and this video shows exactly why that is.

Dominic Update

Dominic is such a little boy now. He has a great imagination and we are often running from alligators in our house or hiding in caves. He loves acting along with whatever show he happens to watch and one cartoon can turn the day into pretending to be pirates.

He is still wonderful with Samantha although he tries to help her up with a tug to the arm so we really have to watch. He can't wait till she can run around with him.

After lots of fear of going potty outside of his diaper all of a sudden it's no big deal. Last week he wanted to actually sit on the potty and he peed. I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure how he would be about it. (He spent the last month covering both ends whenever we would put him in the tub.) He was fine and was pretty pleased with himself. To my surprise on Friday he pooped on the potty and told me "I don't cry anymore" and bragged about it to daddy. We're definitely heading in the right direction!

Random Cute pictures

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras this year had much better weather than in years past so it was pretty nice to watch. Dominic did great and loved Scooby Doo and catching beads.

Go Diego Go!

On February 13th I picked up Dominic from daycare early and we headed down to the memorial auditorium to see "Go Diego Go Live." It was a great show and Dominic loved it! He participated, jumped around and helped Diego find the Bo-Bos.

Trip to Florida

We took a trip to Florida for Daddy's birthday. Unfortunately we thought our flight was actually two hours later than it was! In the mad dash to the airport (we made it on time) we forgot our camera at home. We were able to get a few pictures with Nan and Pop's camera though. Dominic had a great time and after a little apprehension, loved playing in the ocean.

The gingerbread house revisited

The baby gates became very important over the holidays with all the sweets in the kitchen. Dominic did a lot of sneaking of sugar!

Christmas!!!!

Dominic was so excited about Christmas this year. He knew about Santa Claus and loved the decorations. Dominic got a kitchen as his big present which he absolutely loves! He took quite a while opening presents since he had to play with each one as he opened it. He didn't open his last present until 6pm at Gee and Papa's house. Although he did keep asking for more presents even after Christmas!

Being a Big Boy

We had a great Christmas eve and Dominic had such a good time being a big boy and helping. Here he is helping prepare the cookies and then decorating them with the big "kids."

As a side note, I had the sweetest moment on Christmas eve. While I was rocking Samantha at the end of the night Dominic decided that he wanted to go night night. As Gee was bringing him upstairs he said good night and then without any prompting he said "Merry Christmas Mama." It was so sweet!

Diapering the potato

Dominic has become very nurturing since Samantha has been around. Here he is diapering his potato after he gave it a bath.

The same face

I have no idea what they're looking at.

Getting the tree!

Samantha stayed with Gee and Papa while Dominic, daddy and I went to get the tree. We lucked out and got the first tree we saw! (We quickly snagged it before another couple did.)
Cutting down the tree.Dragging Samantha to the tree.Decorating the tree.

Such a big boy

I took this picture because he looks so grown up. He is talking so much more now and he's given up his pacifier. All by himself! He hasn't used it in about 3 weeks and whenever he sees one (I haven't thrown them away yet) he says "I don't need that!"

SNOW!!!

Dominic was thrilled when we got snow. He immediately wanted to make a snowman!

SANTA!!!

Dominic is so excited about Santa! This is the first year that we've visited him that he knows who he is. As soon as he saw Santa, he couldn't get out of the stroller fast enough but then he got very shy when Santa started talking to him. He jumped right up though when Santa asked him to sit with him and he introduce him to Samantha.

Thanksgiving

We had thanksgiving at Gee and Papa's house. Great Grammy was there as well and Dominic helped her open her christmas gifts since she will be in Virginia over the holidays. Dominic also discovered pumpkin pie. He loves it!

A bad week for Dominic

The first week of November was not a good one for Dominic. On Wednesday, I got hom from work around 6pm and Dominic was happy and playing. We had dinner and started watching a movie. Dominic was quiet but I figured he was just sucked into the movie. I had him sit with me and noticed he was warm. I gave him some tylenol and then he got really warm. Keith went to grab the thermometer and he was 104! He was completely out of it and was pretty unresponsive until the tylenol started kicking in. At 7:30pm I was driving him to the doctor. It was unreal! The doctor seemed to think that it may have been from his MMR vaccine that he had the week before. We'll keep an eye out the next time he gets it.

On Saturday we were having a great day. We had gone to a craft fair and had just come home to grab lunch before we went to have pictures done. I was getting his lunch when I heard a scream from the dining room. He had touched the gas fireplace. I rushed him to the sink and held his hand under some cool water. It had instantly blistered. The poor guy cried for an hour and kept saying "Mama, hand" and "Mama, all done." It broke my heart because there was nothing I could do. I realized that we are woefully unprepared for burns in our house and since I didn't see how I could take the both of them into the pharmacy with him crying like that I drove them to Keith's work. He got some stuff at the store and got his hand wrapped up. He seemed to do better after that and conked out for almost 3 hours afterwards. My poor guy! He seems to be doing better now and has started using it again now that the blisters have popped. It was awful and I hope we never see this again!! Dominic will tell you all about it if you ask what happened to his hand.

Writing this I realize that I never updated after his 2 year appointment. Dominic measured 35.75 inches and 26 pounds 10 ounces. He was in the 80th percentile for height and 30th for weight. They estimate that if he stays on his growth curve that he'll be 6 foot give or take an inch when he's an adult. Well see! I hope he stays on his curve. He was very good with the doctor although nervous at first and is still way ahead on everything.

Halloween!

This year was the first year Dominic got to enjoy Halloween. He helped Daddy carve the pumpkin (although he thought the insides were icky) and he went Trick or Treating!!!! He loved it.

For weeks I was trying to prep him, telling him what would happen and trying to get him to say Trick or Treat to no avail. Well, after he was in costume, Papa offered him the bowl of candy and said say trick or treat, he did and didn't stop for the rest of the night! We did about a dozen houses and Dominic ran to each one saying "trick-or-treat, trick-or-treat" he knocked on the doors, took the candy and occassionally said thank you. He loved it and it was so adorable!