I keep getting intimidated about how I'm going to get back to this blog when there is so much to recap. So the intimidation makes me put it off until tomorrow, when I think I will somehow wake up with a brilliant idea for getting 4 months of amazing events into a quick blog entry.
Today I decided that I just have to jump back in or else. So someday I might post the missing months, but right now I'm starting with recent events and going forward.
First, an event of today.
Today marks a small breakthrough in Dominic's cognitive development, I think. Whenever I am changing him on his little changing pad on top of the dresser in his room, I always point to the nautical flags hanging on the wall above his head and recite "D-O-M-I-N-I C". He always smiles and studies how my lips make the letters, and looks at the flags as i tap each one. But later if we are in the room and I spell his name, he just studies my mouth. Today, however, when i started spelling D-O-M-I..., he turned his head up to look at the flags, which were behind him. I think this is honestly the first time I've ever really noticed him linking a random sound to an actual thing. My dad always wears a baseball cap, and when we see him, Granddaddy always says "hat", at which point Dominic looks up at his hat, and he has done that for some time now. But this flag thing is the first time I've seen him link something that's not right there in front of him with a sound.
Here are a couple of recent pix and a video of Dominic's first crawling steps (5-31-08) and first carousel ride (6-3-08).
Dominic with our guests, the Carlton family, from England taking the Long Beach Passport bus to the Aquarium
5-29-08
Dominic touching the rays on his first visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
5-29-08
Dominc can almost balance on the rocking horse he got from Uncle Greg and Auntie Jenn
5-31-08
Cooling off in the parking lot of the Boomers activity center
6-1-08
Dominic in his stroller on a beautiful walk we took with our guests on Balboa Island 6-4-08
As a gift for my mom for Mother's Day, I took her and Dominic back east to New Jersey to visit her side of the family. Dominic's namesake, my Grandpa Donald Carpentier, has 2 sisters and 1 brother still living there, as well as my cousins (Grandpa Don's nieces and nephews) and now their kids. After our trip to Cabo on March 31 thru April 5, this was Dominic's second plane trip.
I think it is thanks to our friend Jack Snow's mom, Julie, a veteran flight attendant for American Airlines, that the only empty seat on our red-eye flight to JFK Airport in New York was the one between Mom and me, so even though we hadn't bought a seat for Dominic, we could still stretch out a bit. Dominic was an absolutely perfect traveller. This is saying a lot when you hear our trip back included
* a 5-hour traffic jam drive thru Manhattan followed by
* a hasty exit from the rental car,
* schlepping with volumes of bags (one of which was completely full of yummy New Jersey crumb cakes to bring home!) through the airport, followed by
* a 5-hour flight
at the end of which one passenger told me that he flies 100 days per year and this was the best baby he had ever flown with!!
Our visit with the family was amazing. I couldn't believe how big all the "kids" are getting. We stayed with Aunt Louise and Uncle Mike, and Robbie and Donna hosted us for dinner one afternoon, too. Seeing Aunt Netting and Aunt Connie were highlights... I'm so glad Dominic got to meet them and they him! Here are some photos:
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