Growing up

So the other night I was thinking about Dominic when Samantha was born. At that point he was in the stage of pointing out body parts and when we showed her to him he pointed out "Eyes. Nose. Mouth." It's hard to think of him doing one word sentences when all he talks about now is starting school. He really wants to start and I am so not ready! My little boy is definitely growing up.

Florida

After Samantha crashed at Bayley's party her and I went to bed which I very much needed. Dominic wanted to wait for the ice cream so he stayed with Daddy and apparently got a second wind! He ran like crazy until the party was over and he came to bed at 11:30pm. This was before he got sick.

The next day he had a great time playing bartender at Pop's party and had made a good $25 at one point, putting ice into cup and passing out tiny amounts of cranberry juice. Nan told him to hang on to the money but he handed it all back out.
All in all we went through a bottle of children's tylenol and 3/4 of a bottle of children's motrin. Both kids had fevers and I knew we were on a bad day for Dominic when daddy suggested staying in bed all day and Dominic didn't argue.

Even still, we had limited time and Dominic had really wanted to see the beach. So our last day we dragged everyone out. We stopped multiple times in the car because Dominic felt ill but we got to the beach and he loved seeing the waves. After about 20 minutes we left to get to bed before our very early flight in the morning.

Magic Kingdom

We had planned a week in Florida to be there for Bayley's Sweet 16 and Pop's Surprise 70th birthday. At the last minute we decided that first we'd do a day in the Magic Kingdom. It was a good thing we planned it first because it was the only remotely healthy day we had the entire trip. Me and the kids all spent the week sick.

The Magic Kingdom was great. It still had the Christmas decorations up and Main Street played Christmas music. Dominic insisted on going on the Haunted Mansion first (he had seen it on the computer) and promptly started crying when we got inside. Thankfully he made it through and a trip though It's a Small World helped get the creeps away. He had a wonderful time on the rides and liked seeing the characters although he refused to go up to Mickey. The Spectrovision parade and Fireworks were amazing!

Igloo!

Papa made an igloo with his snowblower that Dominic thought was very cool!

Finally Some Snow!

We finally got a big storm right after New Year giving us a couple feet of snow in one fell swoop. Dominic loved it!

Christmas!

Daddy of course made way too much food on Christmas Eve but we had fun having everyone over. The kids were of course excited about Santa and we tracked him with Norad all day. The next morning they had completely forgotten about it being Christmas. Once I reminded him that it was Christmas, Dominic ran down the stairs and he laughed and said "Cool" as he saw his toys. He played with his work bench for a good 15 minutes before we could convince him to open any presents. It was a wonderful morning and around lunch we went to Gee & Papa's for Christmas Take Two! They had a great time there as well. It was a wonderful Christmas and thankfully it was white!

Lo-way?

Dominic: "What road are we on now?"
Mommy: "This is the Highway. This is our exit, it's where we get off."
Dominic: "Are we on the Loway now?"

Preparations!

The plus side of the weather this year was that it was easy to get a tree but 50 degrees in December is just downright wrong! Dominic was very nervous that if it didn't snow, Santa wouldn't come!

Mommy: "Even if it doesn't snow, Santa will still come."
Dominic: "But Santa doesn't come in the spring!"

Preparing for Santa

The entire month of December was planning for Santa's arrival which involved lots of talking about Santa and playing Santa. Over and over and over...

Dominic had an entire sleigh set up upstairs with his rocking zebra leading the way and Dominic dressed in a Santa hat sitting on a table behind it!

We had to pretend to sleep and he would deliver gifts. He was very excited so I thought we would have a good visit with the Santa at the mall. We waited for a half an hour dressed in pjs since we were going to the Polar express after and Dominic was excited. He told me what he was going to ask for and was bouncing around. Finally it was our turn!

And he wouldn't go anywhere near him!

I was so bummed. This is is the first year we haven't gotten a picture with Santa and he had a real beard and everything. :-( After he talked to Papa and told him he didn't go up to Santa but that it was ok because Samantha was sleeping when we went to see Santa last year and he still brought her Elmo. He's a smart kid!

So we made our way to Burlington's Polar Express which was cute for very young children. Dominic wasn't falling for it. We tried to leave the decision of where we really were up to him but told him that Santa has lots of magic. He was extremely skeptical. We won't be doing that again but it did get us thinking that if we're going to do the Polar Express in NH again it should be soon!

Eating habits

Dominic: "What do giraffes eat?"
Mommy: "Plants."
Dominic: "What do tigers eat?"
Mommy: "Meat."

*long pause*

Dominic: "Mommy, are we meat?"

Halloween

It was really nice to have a Halloween on a Saturday. The weather was beautiful, although it did rain a bit when it was time to trick-or-treat. Dominic and Papa made a great scare crow in the afternoon while Samantha slept. Dominic was so excited about being scary and scaring everyone. Once we were out in the dark though he decided he may not be quite ready for that. He stopped trick-or-treating early after we went to a house decked out in cob webs but we convince him to go back out for a couple of houses. After a talk we decided that next year, we'd bring a flashlight!