Changing Every Day

Remember to visit our photo gallery here (www.TheUrenos.com).  Loading the photos on Blogger is just too much of an ordeal, and time to post is so rare now that Dominic is running everywhere he goes!

So much is changing every day.  I'm amazed that the person who could not even hold his own head up just over a year ago is now balancing as he walks across a wooden beam in our backyard. (The wooden beam is a 2-by-8 to be used for scaffolding that was brought by the construction workers who will soon be sandblasting our horrible stucco. Yay!)

It has probably been about 2 weeks since the first time Dominic took a kleenex from my outstretched hand and followed my instruction to "put it in the trash can". He was so proud of himself and I stood there with my jaw on the floor. I was just as amazed when I said "pull the string on your chair" (a musical rocking chair his Nana and Nano gave him that plays "Jesus Loves Me"), and he not only went over and tried to pull the little ball, but succeeded!  It takes quite a bit of force to pull it enough to start the music and it required some great balance as the chair can't be used for standing stability while it is rocking.  With the trash can thing, I had carefully "taught" the words "trash can", but I never had pointed and said "string" or "chair".  He just got that by osmosis.  

I bet he has been getting everything by osmosis for some time now.  It increases my alertness to watch what I say. 

I am definitely beginning to hear a difference between the word "dog" and the word "truck".  When we hear the trash truck coming, Dominic runs to the window or the gate so we can go out and watch it lift the cans and dump them.

Dominic's inseam is now 10 inches long.  Since he started at 20.5 inches and is now over 30.5 inches, that means that he has added that entire leg to his length.  No wonder he is waking up in the middle of the night crying sometimes... must be some growing pains!  He is 1.5 times his original length and 3 times his original weight!  (75th percentile for his age in both height and weight.)

We carved our first pumpkin together on Monday.  See pictures here.) Dominic didn't want to touch the squishy guts, but he really liked pushing the cut sections into the pumpkin to reveal the features.  It was a pumpkin we got free at a home show at the Orange County Fairgrounds where Granddaddy was working the Seashore Pest Control booth.  Thanks to Granddaddy for carrying it home for us!

Before Dominic, I would always try to make a different face on my carved pumpkins.. something other than the "same old" triangle nose and toothy grin.  But this year I figured even the regular face was new and different to him, so we made a classic jack-o-lantern.

We went to a couple of pumpkin patches - the big one at Tanaka Farms in Irvine and a smaller more commercial one across from Nana and Nano's house in Buena Park.  Dominic loved the giant wheels on the tractor at Tanaka Farms.  We got to ride in a wagon behind the tractor and pick onions, radishes and carrots out of the ground!  Dominic really loved pat-pat-patting the baby goats, too.  At the Buena Park one we rode the train and watched in awe as cousins Asaiah, Alex and Christian went on the huge inflatable tornado slide!

I said that Dominic has been having some trouble sleeping, but the past 2 nights he has been almost back to normal.  Both nights he woke up twice (about midnight and 3) and cried for about a minute each time.  It makes me so upset to think something might be scaring him in his sleep.  I try to be careful that anytime he is within earshot the TV is either off or on some "good" kids show like Sesame Street or Thomas and Friends, but I'm sure I haven't been 100% consistent.  He for sure sees too much political news... with the presidential election less than a week away, don't we all?!

Uh oh, it's time for our walk to the park with Aria.  Will have to write more later!  Bye for now, and thanks again for visiting!

The Crossroads

I've been watching from our bonus room windows the moms taking and picking up their kids from the elementary school up the street. I see them congregating and I wonder what they are talking about. I see what they are wearing and what they are driving and I get a little of the jitters I remember having before the first day of high school. Will I be a cool mom or a nerd mom?

Then a day or two later I catch myself almost ready to wipe Dominic's nose (which has become runny, I assume from the 1-year immunizations for measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox) with the corner of my sweatshirt. Aghast! Am I doomed to be the frumpy snot-covered mom?

I went to dinner with my friends the other night and they reassured me that I can be both the snot covered mom and the cool mom, that they are not mutually exclusive! Thanks guys!

I just hope as I meet more moms that I remember all of what I think I learned after high school about what's really important and who really matters. My prayer is that I focus on pleasing God and living a life of integrity and that Dominic does, too.

Happy Birthday 2U

We had a little family get together for Dominic on Sunday the 28th of September. Since we have so many weekend workers in our family, I planned the start to be 4pm, but told everyone whoever wanted to come early could since some were expected from all the way in Corona and I didn't want them having to drive home in the dark.

Needless to say most people showed up by 2, which was fine because it was a very low-key day and we had decided not to go over the top with decorations and stuff. We just borrowed a blowup pool from the Etheridge cousins and Dominic and his cousins played in it while the rest of us ate Karla's famous macaroni salad (love those green onions in there), Lorraine's yummy appetizer dip, rainbow fruit skewers (thanks mom for all the skewering!), hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken.

The weather was nice and it was a great relaxed afternoon. I made a cake (from scratch, but just because I forgot to buy 2 matching cake mixes) that looked like a race car with real wheels that Dominic could spin. That is still his favorite thing: he'll turn over any toy, stroller, skateboard or ?? just to flick the wheels and watch them go around! We took our first trip to a toy store the other day (to get a present for the first birthday party he has ever been invited to - a 2-year old neighbor girl called Malia) and he went right past all the balls and books and remote controlled dinosaurs to see the strollers and flick their wheels!

Well when Ihad first thought about what his cake should be, I was going to do a giant wheel, but I decided it wouldn't be any fun if it didn't turn and not only that but black frosting I bet would stain his hands for weeks. So I went with the racecar idea. Eddie went on the amazing search in hobby store after hobby store for the perfect wheels (what a great Daddy!) and even though he brought some fantastic ones, they were pretty heavy so we ended up dismantling a toy 4x4 to get its wheels for the cake. Sure enough, Dominic went straight for the spinning wheels before putting one hand then the other into the cake! (In case you can't tell in the photos - which you can see at http://www.theurenos.com/, the front license plate said BIG D and the rear said QTP2T (as in "cutie patootie".)

Guests included Linda Cardoza, my friend from San Diego, and Karla Etheridge, my brother's wife, who both helped Eddie with my labor way back a year ago. Linda's fiance Craig and my other friend Marti Michalis ("Aunti Marti" to Dominic) were the only other non-relatives. Of the family was Great Auntie Marlys, Becky and Liam Carpentier. (Rob, Lisa, Ryan & Mackie had to miss it due to Ryan being sick... as well as Uncle John who had to stay home with stomach flu stricken Karoline... awwww!) Cousins Kaylin and Kira came with their mom. Of course both sets of grandparents were there: Cleo and Jim Masingill (Nana and Nano) and Martie and Johnny Etheridge (Gram & Granddaddy). Eddie's sister Maryke brought cousin Christian (Tia Cynthia couldn't make it all the way out from Vegas), and Cousin Yvette brought Cousin Asaiah who helped blow out Dominic's candles! A big surprise was cousin Danielle back in town after her AirForce training before she deploys to North Dakota - BRR! Danielle brought her boyfriend, Rick. And Karla's parents Noni Lorraine and Pop-pop Fred completed the party group.

Other people who sent cards or gifts for D's birthday - Aunt Mary DiFiori, Aunt Louise and Uncle Mike from New Jersey, Michelle Garofolo and her son Corban who is just a little older than Dominic, Lynne and Chuck Stoner, Cruz & Frances Ureno, Delia Arroyo, Bill Cuppy and Kathey Rowlands, Kay Gregg, and Auntie Joy Cove.

I wonder if having a birthday so close to the beginning of the school year is going to mean there will always be some key guests home sick with all the new school year germ/bugs that manifest themselves at that time.

Dominic's stats at his 1-year doctor's well-check on 10/6:
24 lbs 7oz (75th percentile for height)
30.5 inches (75th percentile for weight - perfectly proportioned!)
size 5.5 double wide shoe (wow!)
diaper size 4 (either Pampers Baby Dry or Pampers Cruisers)
8 teeth