Dominic's Birthday Present Wish List

OK, I hesitate to make a birthday wishlist for D because I seriously want everyone to consider NOT BRINGING A GIFT to his party. In this economy, do you really need to spend on a gift for a child who has so much already that we frequently have to fill a bag to donate to the battered women's shelter just so we can move around the house?

Nevertheless, some of you simply MUST bring a gift no matter what I suggest, and I don't want to make life difficult by making the shopping impossible with zero help. So I'm listing some things but PLEASE CONSIDER NOT BRINGING A GIFT. Perhaps just view this list as some insight into the mind of the little prince!

He loves Thomas the Train, cement mixers and garbage trucks, airplanes and helicopters, Bob the Builder, school busses and fire engines, and tractors and dumptrucks, etc., probably in that order. Are you sensing a theme here?

"Things that Go" and "Trucks" are his favorite books (although he is requesting longer storybooks with actual plotlines at bedtime) and "On the Go" is his favorite Baby Einstein video. Probably would love a video of real garbage trucks and cement mixers picking up cans and pouring cement over and over. Definitely has a bit of obsessive-compulsive, this kid.

Loves to study the little paper Bruder's catalog we got free at the toy store of garbage trucks and cement mixers, although we have none of those because let's be real even the Bruder's toddler line ("Roadmax") is waaaaay too expensive for a 2-year old! We did just get a Tonka garbage truck (did not pay anywhere near $46 like they are charging on Amazon) and he has probably dumped the little motorized can thing a zillion times already.

D also likes to study the Thomas the train catalogue. He can point out just about every different Thomas the Train character in this giant sticker book when asked "Which one is Alfie? Which one is Diesel? Which one is Arthur? Which one is Daisy? Which one is .." .. there are 700 stickers, so I have a little cheat sheet because I can't remember all their names.

He has quite a few of the Hasbro-Playskool-Tonka "Mini Wheel Pals" cars (also known as the "Chuck & Friends" line) but none of the track, so that might be good. I saw a spiral tower for wheel pals trains that looked perfect - he doesn't have any wheel pals trains and there are 2 included. And this speedway looks pretty cool, or this carrier truck (also available in purple and red/gray, which might be nice since he already has the backhoe that comes with the red one, but those colors are strangely more expensive), too. I know the carrier is for the minis but I can't tell if the spiral tower and speedway are for that size or the full-size ones? Most of the ones we have ar the minis, which measure about 1 inch by 2 inches. He got the first 5 as a set from his first non-family babysitter, Hope, as a Christmas present. We are up to 13 now.

We have no toy airplanes or helicopters. He'd probably love one.

He loved the Bob the Builder die-cast vehicles he played with at the Robertsons', especially the tiny Dizzy character, but I'm having a hard time finding the tiny size characters online, so maybe they are discontinued or maybe they came in a Happy Meal or something. But I see Bob has a cement mixer, too. Can you say "Love"? One of our birthday presents to him is the Lego-Duplo Bob characters.

As for Thomas, here is what we have so far, including birthday gifts I know family have already got:

1 single piece of the Trackmaster size battery operated trains: Thomas. (Bought at garage sale - 2 wheels missing but he plays and plays with that thing - I have had to replace the batteries already and we've only had it 2 weeks.) Trackmaster-size trains have their own track but it seems like they go on the regular "Wooden Railway"-size track just fine. Oh and the Target brand track is _exactly_ the same size as the uber expensive real Thomas Wooden Railway track.

Talking Railway line:
Thomas
Emily
Toby
Cranky + 2 cargo cars
James
Percy
Spencer
Edward

Wooden Railway line:
Jack
Musical Caboose
Sir Topham Hatt's Car
Harold
Rheneas
Skarloey
Rusty
Duncan
Bertie the Bus
Harvey
Bill & Ben
Monty & Max
Molly

TagAlong line:
Thomas
Easter Thomas - Thomas, Dye Tanker, Egg/Chick Car, Easter Caboose
Lights & Sounds Gordon

Videos:
Hero of the Rails
Calling All Engines
Sodor Celebration
Thomas and the Jet Engine
Come Ride the Rails
High Speed Adventures

Our gift to him will probably be either a used set of Thomas stuff from craigslist or one of the destinations such as the Talking Railway Haunted Mine or Railroad Crossing.

You can see, there is already plenty of "stuff", so now that you've read all about the toys he enjoys playing with, once again, please consider your presence at his party to be present enough!

Facebook and Mac Gallery

Dominic turns 20 months in just 8 days.

I haven't been on the blog in a while, but this time it's not the same ol' reasons.  It's because I've been Facebooking, to use a newly conceived verb.  If you were reading the blog and are not yet my friend on Facebook, please do look me up.  I am actually doing a decent job of posting phone-camera pictures of the baby angel and my musings (many of you will be glad to hear I'm much less wordy there) because it really is about a gadzillion times easier to post there than here.  Although for long stories like my Cindo de Mayo Surprise post, I don't really see a place in Facebook where that should go.  I think you'll find me if you search for Maggie Etheridge Ureno.

Also, I've been updating my Mac photo gallery (http://www.TheUrenos.com) pretty regularly, too.  You can see Easter, Mother's Day, and Dominic doing all sorts of cute firsts and other things.  Very few of the photos/videos are captioned, but I do go back and caption when I have time, so remember to click refresh every time you visit so you'll be sure to see all my hard captioning work (and thus be able to tell what you are looking at).

At my Mac training classes, I've learned how to make a movie, so as soon as I finish the roman shade for window #2 in our bonus room, I'm going to give it a shot and maybe post it to uTube or something and link from Facebook and here.

Thanks again for coming by to see what we're up to!  

What's New with D?

* Sliding on the slide by himself.

* Climbing down the 3-stair set from our living room to our dining room unassisted.

* Still crazy for all kinds of trucks - in books, on TV, and live.  Cement mixer and Fire Engine seem tied for his favorites.  He loves to take his little mini Tonka trucks (as well as the Thomas the Train characters he got from Gram & Granddaddy at Easter) and place them over the matching truck/character in whatever book he sees them in.

* Pointing out by name all the hundreds of Thomas-the-Train characters in the sticker book he picked out on his first trip to the book store. (Mama had to write the names in the book because she can't keep them straight yet!)

* When he points to things that are small or cute, like an ant on the ground, The Grouchy Ladybug in the book of the same name, the baby ducks in the Baby's First Words book, or the little Dalmatian puppy shown next to the fire engine in the lift-the-flap book, he raises his voice to a little squeaky sing-song pitch as if to say "oh look here's a little teeny tiny __whatever__".

* Still seems to prefer footie pajamas despite the evenings getting warmer.

* Definitely falls to sleep better (like in Catalina or when visiting one of the grandma's houses) when he has something musical that he can press a button to play while laying down.  I guess that's what they call "self-soothing".  (Note to moms-to-be: consider putting a Baby Einstein Duck where your baby can learn to press its tummy for a short little symphony.  Dominic used that duck to soothe himself to sleep at an age when I was shocked he had the power or will to control it.  Today, he has 2 devices he can press-for-music attached to his crib railing, and often turns both of them on in a cacophony of clashing lullabies that seem to knock him out like a drug.

* Often must have a Thomas character or truck book with him when going for a walk in his little push-car or for a drive in the carseat.  

* Enjoys crunching on raw carrots and still likes frozen peas right out of the freezer. Will almost never reject bite-sized pieces of cooked chicken breast or a plain shredded wheat.

* Has humungous feet.  Somewhere around here I wrote down his measurements at 18 months.  I'll have to find them and add here.

* Plays with his belly button with one hand while the other is holding his bottle at nap/sleep time.

* Still loves to push a broom or Swifter as well as take just about anything to the nearest trash can when asked.

* Runs; rarely walks.

* Looks like his eyes have settled on a gorgeous golden brown, unlike both Mama's and Daddy's.  

* We have his first coloring projects hanging on the wall in the bonus room.  I was inspired by a Chuck Jones biography on Turner Classic Movies to break out the weeble-like first Crayolas.  I've since gladly discovered they wash quite easily off of upholstery and tabletops. Whew!

Upcoming plans: first trip to the dentist and some sort of swimming lessons.  I've been cutting his hair myself and doing a darned decent job if I do say so myself, except, unfortunately, for the haircut just before an OC Register photographer captured D admiring a pro surfing contestant on the beach (was featured on page 2 of the local section that day - you can go to OCRegister.com and search for "Dominic Ureno" and you can see the picture in color), at which time his hair made him look like a conehead.  Just cut it today again and he looks like a miniature Clark Kent - awww!!!

A Cinco de Mayo Surprise!

It's about noon on Cinco de Mayo, 10 days ago.  Dominic and I are in the front yard digging the weeds out of the little strip of dirt that I'm finally planning to put some flowers in on the north side of our property.  Our 80-year-old neighbor has come out and is helping to rake the flower bed despite my protests - is she just being neighborly or is she, too, sick of looking at the weed fest?  haha.  

Dominic walks to his wagon in the garage where his food bag is (my term for the cooler bag we usually carry his bottles and snacks in).  I figure, since he is now not napping until 1pm these days, that he must want something to eat.  Carrots? no. Graham cracker? no. Banana? no.  *whimper* He rubs his eyes before his little arms reach longingly for the only thing left in the bag: the bottle, and I surmise that all this hard work weeding may have brought on the need for an early nap!

I give him the bottle and his eyes immediately start that rolling-back-into-his-head thing that proves my hypothesis.  I scoop him up and cradle his now 32-lb mass like a little baby and carry him into the house and up the stairs to his room, leaving my elderly neighbor raking alone.  Blinds closed, fish aquarium light out, mobile-less mobile music playing, D melts into the crib mattress with bottle fully engaged.  Once I load the teether and Thomas the Tank Engine into the pockets of the little toy organizer suspended on the crib railing along the wall so he'll have something to do between when he wakes up and when I bound up the stairs to him, I hurry back down to my indentured servant in the garden.  The time is about 12:20.

I show her the monitor and we huddle around it for a couple of minutes.  D is singing his little tongue-rolling-I'm-happy-to-be-relaxing song each time he comes up for air from the bottle (19 months and still not talking, by the way) and slowly kicking his feet. We resume gardening and continue to hear the singing until nearly 1pm.  At 1... silence.  My mind celebrates his slumber.  But alas, about 1:15, new sounds come from the monitor: its the    uuuuunnnnhhh...   uuuuunnnhhh whine that usually means "ok I'm done sleeping; come get me!"  Ugh.  I pray, "Please God, let today not be one of the very few days so far in his life that he skips his nap."  I try to ignore the sound, hoping he will realize it's nap time and lay back down.  No luck.  At 1:30, I look at the monitor and he is fully standing up, griping away.

I stall another 15 minutes.  It wouldn't be the first time that he stood up after finishing a bottle and 5 minutes later was out like a light.  Not today, though.  At 1:45, the griping takes an unhappy turn and I decide I'd better go get him.  

Ok; here's the punch line...

When I opened the door to his room, the smell of baby poo almost knocks me over!  When my eyes stop stinging and start to focus, I begin to see that my little angel has reached into his poopy diaper and what he had pulled out was now all over the crib railing, crib sheet, his clothes (diaper is still on, by the way), his hair, the wall, and the window blinds barely in reach of his crib.  Ay carumba!?! 

Amazing how 2 years ago I would have hesitated to put my hands into that situation without a hazmat suit but now I rush to him and sweep my suffering prince into my arms.  (Yes, now I am poopy too.)  I drop him onto the changing table, strip him nude, and reach for a wet wipe to attack the bulk of the ... uh ... situation.  When I turn to use it, I see his beautiful little peach bottom, pristine and literally "soft as a baby's bottom" just a couple of hours ago, is now raw like hamburger and covered with blisters.  Good grief, what did I feed him that did THIS?  (He did have his first bite of grapefruit that morning, just a bite, but I assure you we won't be eating that again anytime soon!)

So I took the whole mess into the master bathroom and turned on the tub.  Now he's pretty much crying hysterically thanks to my feeble attempt at wet-wiping the solid matter without further injuring his acid-burnt flesh.  Once about an inch of water had accumulated, I tried to get him to sit in it but he screamed out in pain so we switched to an on-the-knees position where he seemed to get immediate relief.  Whew!  I used the little hand shower to gently sprinkle some cool water on his blistered buns with the drain open, and closed the drain again once he seemed clean enough to soak.  Before my very eyes, the little white blisters covering his derriere began to vanish.  He quickly returned to the happy-go-lucky angel boy I see 99.9% of the time.  

As I leave him happily sticking the little rainbow of foam sea creatures to the side of the tub and turn to my mirror to begin my own strip-and-clean act, I am touched by his sweetness.  It must have been during the 1pm silence that this menace had presented itself, yet he tried to take care of it himself before calling out to me gently, as if to say, "Uh, excuse me.  Can someone please come and help me with a little problem?"  It was nearly an hour of him stewing with a pants full of hot coals before he started to elevate his requests: "Helloooo!  Help! Someone save my burning bottom!"

Even covered in poop, I feel really lucky.

It's starting...

Saturday night, Dominic hung out with his Nana while Daddy went to the USC basketball game with Nano and Mama went to 2 birthday parties with Gram and Granddaddy. Sunday, he was absolutely like the smiliest, happiest, sweetest little boy he had ever been, which is saying a lot because he's normally pretty sweet. Click superhappysmilie to see a picture from that candy-sweet day.

Then came Monday.

It started with us in the garage ... I was loading clothes into the washer and dryer. He was tinkering with the little car he got for Christmas like he usually does while I'm launder-ing. But then when I was done, and it was time for us to go back into the house, he wouldn't come. Ok it's not the first time that's happened. But normally I go over to him and just break his concentration from the fun that he is having and he easily switches to whatever activity I want him to switch to, in this case walking into the house.

Not this time. This time as I lift/turn his little body toward the door with my usual "ok, sweetheart, it's time to go in now" song, he pulls his legs up under him so when I go to set him down, there's no legs to stand him on. I dip him up and down a bit trying to get the legs to unfold to a standing position, but no luck. So I set him gently down onto his bottom figuring he just wants to get up himself. Uh... no. I end up carrying his writhing body inside. Once inside, however, he returns to his sweet obedient self.

One point for me, I think to myself.

Not 1 hour later, though, he is beside me in the master bathroom while I'm fixing my hair. He has opened the drawer in my bathroom cabinet and is doing what he always does: reaching above his eye level, feeling around in the drawer, taking out whatever feels interesting, examining it, and dropping it on the floor. Every other day, when I'm done fussing with my hair, I turn to him and instruct him to put all the items - chapstick, hair elastic, makeup brush, band-aid, etc - back into the drawer and then to close it.

This time, he pretty much tells me "no". As much no as one can say without using the word "no" since he isn't talking at all yet.

He makes a complaining noise and starts to walk off.
I pick him up and return him to his little pile of articles and reissue the instruction.
More sounds of complaining.
He picks up the chapstick and I think we're making progress.
I say "That's it, sweetheart, put it in the drawer right here" {pointing}
He throws it on the floor in obvious defiance.

Hmmm.

He starts to walk off. When I pick him up and return him to the scene of the crime, the leg buckling behavior from the garage incident is repeated. When I set him on his bottom and repeat the instruction to pick up the items and put them back in the drawer, he starts to cry.

The beautiful thing is that I'm really not losing my patience at all during this. I attribute this levelheadedness to an episode of "The Dog Whisperer" I saw just the previous night. I keep hearing in my mind that I need to be "calm-assertive". I consciously focus on my belief that children test their parents to see if they can be trusted so they know if it's true when Mama says "I will be right back" or "There are no monsters in there". I want Dominic to be able to trust me. I remember my brother warning me not to make any threats I'm not willing to carry out.

I tell Dominic I know he's normally such a good helper and all this crankiness must mean he is tired. I say "C'mon, sweetheart, let's pick up these things," and I try to force his little hand to close around the chapstick. Hysterics ensue.

No biggie. I say, "Aww, Angel Boy! You are always such a good helper. You must be just sooo tired to be this cranky. How about we go into your room and you can rest in your crib a few minutes and think about this?"

I carry Mr. Hysterics to his room. You can really tell he is super tired, way early for his naptime. Maybe it's a growth spurt after his super happycute day? I set him in his crib and tell him I love him and I will come get him after he rests so we can pick up the things.

1 minute and 30 seconds later (we didn't call it a "time out" or a "naughty spot", but the Nanny says those "rest times" should be 1 minute per year of age, right?), Dominic is calm in and standing in his crib. I come ask him if he's ready to pick up the things. He is quiet. I carry him to my bathroom where he picks up the hair scrunchy and lifts it into the open drawer above his head. I exclaim, "There you go, Angel Boy! That's my big helper!" After he gets item #2, I help with the other 3-4 items.

5 minutes later, about an hour before his normal naptime, he is out like a light.

Thanks, Cesar Milan. Thanks, Jesus!

I’m Baaaaaack!

Ok. The old adage that I should treasure every minute because it goes so quickly?... well, they weren’t kidding! It’s been an embarrassing 3 months since I wrote in this blog and so much has gone on that I can hardly think of it all.

Hopefully you’ve been checking out our photos at http://www.theurenos.com/, because I’ve been a lot better about keeping that updated than here.

Ok. On October 29, I wrote that it sounded like he was distinguishing “dog” and “truck”, but either I was wrong or he has regressed. Maybe all his brainpower has gone to making teeth, because he has 4 new molars – 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. But as far as talking… not really. He doesn’t say mama or dada any more. He points at all kinds of things in books (with his thumb… it’s so cute!) and wants us to tell him the name of what he is pointing at. Along with the point comes a sound somewhat like the word “that”… “daa” is more how it sounds. It’s like he is saying “what is that?” We say “pig” “tree” “sunscreen” “spaghetti”… whatever. It’s really funny when he points and either gets no response or what he perceives is the wrong response because he repeats his “question” but louder this time. “Daaaa!” nothing? “DAAAAAAAAAA”.

His cousin Kira was working with him on this little puzzle where each wooden cutout letter, when removed from its wooden home in the alphabet, reveals a picture of a word that starts with that letter. Remove the E and see a picture of an elephant… like that. Well, under the letter J is a “jet”. Dominic has seen that sort of picture before and it’s one of his favorites, but the book we read says it’s an “airplane”. So Dominic is pointing away with his little thumb saying “daa” and Kira responds “queen”; “daa” .. “orange”; “daa” .. “jet”. Silence. A puzzled look. Points again. “Daaaa”. Kira: “jet”. Hmm. How come this big girl doesn’t know what an airplane is called, he seems to be asking himself. Points again. “DAAA”. Kira: “JET!” “DAAAAAAAA!! DAA DAA DAAAA!!” Kira: “WHAAAT??!! It’s a JET!” Gram interjects: “Kira, he's expecting you to say airplane.” Kira: “Airplane”. Dominic, finally satisfied that he DID remember it right, moves happily on to the next letter, “daa”. Kira: “dog”.

He has also started turning himself around and around (standing up) until he gets so dizzy he sometimes falls down. It seems to start when it might be appropriate for him to dance, like when Sesame Street characters are dancing or when Mama is dancing, so it may be his idea of dancing. What do you think readers… should I keep him from doing this? Of course I take care that he doesn’t start it when there’s any sharp corners too close by. But should I try to stop him as soon as he takes his first turn? My cousin Becky, who is a trained occupational therapist, says that it might actually be a good thing because it helps him develop an aptitude for handling motion.. it may make him less likely to get seasick or carsick later in life. But part of me worries that satisfying his little brain’s craving for a dizzy spinning high might make him more likely to crave chemical highs someday. Hopefully he will find his satisfaction in roller coasters and boating and not anything harmful or illegal.

As far as his tendency toward risk, he’s still right there where I think it’s best for him to be. He has climbed/fallen out of his crib once but I haven’t seen him try again since then. He loves me to hold him tightly and barely rest his feet on the little skateboard Daddy gave him for his birthday, and then I move/carry him resting just enough of his weight on the skateboard that it rolls along with us. He also likes to put toys on the skateboard and push it, but I have never seen him even think about stepping or crawling on the skateboard himself. Don’t worry, Fry family, I never EVER leave that skateboard where he can even SEE it when I am not right there with him. I know that even though he hasn’t tried yet to step on it, I’m sure he _would_ try if I took my eyes off him for a second and next thing you know we would be rushing to the hospital with blood gushing out of his ear or something.

I’m going to just go stream-of-consciousness with some random remembrances/facts from the past 3 months:

Dominic now wears a size 7 wide shoe. Most of the clothes that fit him well are 18 months but the pants are starting to look a little like he is waiting for a flood. 24 months the arms are still a little long and some pants need to be rolled up one turn. I try to measure his length all the time, but it’s really hard because he doesn’t want to stand still against a wall for me to mark his height yet. My best measurement shows about 35 inches, I think. He weighs about 28 lbs.

He has started becoming interested in storylines of the stories we read. He used to not be able to stand a book with too many sentences… just point and tell me the name of each thing. But now he is getting into stories like The Grouchy Ladybug. He especially likes to search the page for the ladybug, who is smaller and smaller on each page as her adversaries grow larger and larger.

In one of our lift-the-flap books, there is a toy plane shot close up (big) and far away (small). I say “HERE’s THE BIG PLANE” in a deep voice, and then in a super high-pitched voice I say “here’s the little bitty teeny tiny plane” and when Dominic points at the little plane, he will squeak out a little high-pitched sort of sound like “ee-ah-ee-ree-ah”. So he’s getting the inflections, just not the vowels and consonants. The pediatrician seemed concerned but oddly enough, even the pediatrician’s concern doesn’t really phase me. I’m sure he’ll talk when he talks. I know for sure he can hear perfectly well because he can execute instructions I give him even when he is in a completely different room.

For Halloween, I made D a little mariachi costume. You can see pictures here. What I did was I took a pair of comfy black sweats and tacked on this sequin strand down the outside of each leg. Then I took a comfy black onesie and sewed a strip of Velcro across each shoulder and down each side seam. Then I made this sort of mariachi jacket dickey that attached to the onesie with the Velcro. Seriously when you looked at it it looked like he was in a really uncomfortable shirt, cummerbund, jacket, tie, etc. But it was really just this faux façade of all that. At the end of the night when he was all wiped out from Halloweening, we just ripped the Velcro accessory off and he was comfy for the night. The next day I removed the sequin tacking and we had a great pair of warm sweats that fit him for another 60 seconds. It worked out so great I thought maybe I should start a company that makes super comfy Halloween costumes that velcro onto the front of soft onesies. (Side note: he did hate the hat.)

We started Halloween night by going to our office in downtown HB. There’s a big thing downtown every Halloween and our office joins in the fun giving away balloons and candy on Main Street with lots of other businesses. Then we drove to Fountain Valley where D trick-or-treated with cousins Kira and Karoline (Kaylin was with her older friends) in the same neighborhood where I used to trick-or-treat! Our home base there was Dominic’s Uncle John & Auntie Karla’s house, where Karla fed us dinner too. We finished off the night back in our own neighborhood in HB where there was rumor of a neighborhood bring-your-kids-to-this-adults-and-kids party. I think Eddie and I were the only two adults who were dressed up so it was a bit awkward, but most of the kids knew me from the park anyway, so I fit in with them!

We took Dominic to a USC football tailgate party at the USC campus early in November. He’s not big on loud noises so we decided it was still too early in his life for him to enjoy a game. But he had a great time with his cousin Asaiah, particularly playing with the wheels on the dolly some other group used to carry their party gear. The campus security officer let us stand on his patrol scooter… very cool. You can see pictures here.

Next we went on a charity walk benefitting Muscular Dystrophy. We were invited by one of our close friend/clients whose son is fighting the disease. It was a rainy gray day but it was still a lot of fun. Before the walk, Dominic ran around the Pier Plaza, splashing in the puddles, flanked by his harem of 3 cousins with an umbrella making sure nary a drop fell on his beloved head. During the walk, he stayed bundled up warm in his stroller with the rarely-used rain cover on it. More cute pictures here.

Thanksgiving, Dominic’s first day at Disneyland, our trip to the Colonial area – Williamsburg and Yorktown Virginia and Washington DC – and to see Tia Cynthia and Nano & Nana’s new investment home in Vegas… our office Christmas party at Gram & Granddaddy’s house, 2 days of Christmas boat parade – one with the Carpentiers and Aunt Martie and one “Adult Night” (Dominic went to both – the rules don’t apply to us!)… Christmas Eve at the Etheridge house and Calvary Chapel, Christmas Day at home and at Nano & Nana’s house, New Year’s Eve in Catalina. SOOO much to be thankful for! And practically every day photographically journaled, on our gallery. If I wrote about it all in this one post, it would be a small novel. I'll try to go put really good captions on all the pictures in the gallery.

Bottom lines: he’s a great traveler, has had a couple of bouts of super-high fever (last one was 103.8 degrees on Friday the 13th (of Feb 2009)… was it from his flu shot that Monday or from being exposed to cousin Kira’s Scarlet Fever that Tuesday? Ped says neither!) and he always seems to have either grown a lot or broken through to some new layer of learning during those fevers! He’s really pretty calm and sweet and smiles a lot (when he isn’t scrunching up his eyebrows and pursing his lips in some serious act of concentration). He eats most things (mainly likes blueberries, scrambled eggs, lentil soup, goldfish crackers, and cottage cheese). He likes books, mostly ones with bulldozers in them.

Now I am going into the office on Wednesdays and Daddy spends all day with Dominic then. It’s great for both of them because poor Eddie was having to work pretty much 7 days a week with Mama goofin off at home with the cupcake every day! I was, and still am, doing real estate behind-the-scenes work after Dominic goes to bed every night, but it is kind of fun to put on a suit and see my colleagues. (True, about noontime, I am going crazy with withdrawals from missing my “Pubbie”.)

Ok. I’m sort of caught up. So maybe I will get back on track here and make writing more regular again. No more apologies. Just results! I’m proud of myself that I’ve got pretty much all caught up on filling in his baby book, too!

In closing, here’s a quote I read on a plaque that Gram, Dominic and I saw when we were walking through the Harvest Festival Craft Faire at the Long Beach convention center a few months ago:

The secret to having it all is…

…believing that you do!

I do! Do you?