Discovering Dominic

Dominic's Birthday Present Wish List

2009-09-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-05-16T04:47:00.000-07:00

* 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!

2009-05-16T03:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-02-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

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?

Measurements

2008-11-02T23:21:00.001-08:00

I took some measurements on October 23 that I intended to get into the blog, but then I misplaced the paper on which I took the notes. I think I posted a couple of them from memory, but here they all are from my notes:

inseam - 10 inches
collar to crotch - 17 inches
waist - 20 inches
thigh - 12 inches
head - 18.5 inches
armpit to wrist - 8 inches

Changing Every Day

2008-10-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-10T23:11:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

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

Dominic Turns 1

2008-09-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a year.

A year of absolute Heaven.

He started walking Sunday September 14.

Dang, this is awesome.

(He's also simultaneously figured out how to climb up stairs by himself.

Dang, this is terrifying.)

He got a fever Thursday the 18th that went all the way to 104 degrees on Saturday. Went to the doctor Friday because he was teetering around after a few days of walking perfectly straight, so I thought the fever might be an ear infection. But Dr. Willis says that sometimes just a fever will make them off-balance. He gave me one of those looks that he must give all hypersensitive parents... didn't stop me from calling him at 10:00 Saturday night wondering if the fever might be from Dominic swallowing something that was blocking his intestine (since there hadn't been any activity down there for a couple of days). Dr. Willis assured me that was not it. Sure enough, all #2 activities resumed on Sunday and by Monday night the fever was gone. I'm glad Dr. Willis was right. Maybe he just got a fever from all the neural connections he was making learning how to walk. Last time he got a fever, his appetite totally changed (he used to eat anything and everything and now he's a lot pickier), and I'm wondering if it wasn't a case of chicken-vs-the-egg with the neural connections (from him developing an opinion) causing that fever, too.

During these most recent fever days (which finally ended just in time for his birthday), and even a few days before, Dominic started having some trouble sleeping through the night. After his fever broke Monday, that night when he woke up, Eddie and I decided to tough it out and let him cry himself back to sleep. It was agony. Eddie says we're probably going to have a lot more moments of "it's going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you" over the course of our parenting.

And sure enough, last night (Tuesday), he slept great all night. Hopefully he will tonight, too, after he had a wonderful birthday day.

Oh here's some video from our new video camera of the Birthday Song over Dominic's Happy Birthday blueberry pancake breakfast.

Thank you, Jesus, for a whole year with my baby angel!

Metaphors

2008-08-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Before I get going, let me mention the new photo gallery I have set up from my new Mac computer. Loading pictures onto this blogger blog has become incredibly problematic, so hopefully this will be a nice place for you to see pix of the prince. I am just learning how to use it, so each time you go make sure to click Refresh so you can get the captions as I add them.

http://gallery.me.com/magned

I've been thinking about what's around the corner for me in this wonderful new world of parenting that I'm living in. I'm trying to visualize myself doing all the right things in those moments at a crossroad... will I be able to keep my cool during a tantrum? will I know how to get Dominic interested in healthy activities and keep him from getting involved in unhealthy ones? will I have the strength to stand firm when necessary, proving to him that I can be trusted?

I'm thinking now of these things even though we haven't really entered the "discipline" phase yet. Dominic is really a good baby, thank God, and I haven't had too many moments where I've had to say "no" or put up with any fits or anything. So I'm using this time to research and plan what I will do when that time comes, so I'm not caught unprepared.

One thing that has occurred to me is that I recognize now a few metaphors for challenges I anticipate are coming later.

The first one is his hair. Dominic has pretty much always had at least a little hair since the day he was born, and it has pretty much always had a natural clockwise cowlick that naturally forms a perfect little part on his left. Those of you who know me know that I pretty much like an ultra-conservative style, and this natural way that Dominic's hair goes could not be more perfect in my opinion. But just recently, I guess as his head is getting bigger and his hair is getting longer, the natural part is moving a bit more to the center. So what do I do? About a hundred times a day, without even thinking about it, I run my fingers through it, reforming the part on the left where I like it. I hope he will like his hair nice and neat like this and that we won't someday have to have a fight about mohawks or spikey, gelled, bleached tips that scream "I'm angry at life".

Now you may be asking yourself, what on earth is this hair a metaphor for? Well, I think Dominic's nature so far seems to be naturally pretty sweet. But any time I see a little turn here or there toward the dark side, I hope I'll be able to gently, subtly and consistently guide him back to his better nature in the same way I comb his little hairs back into place.

Some of you may be saying to yourself that I am going to be an evil stepford mother, forcing my child into the mold I want him to be in with his little conservative hairstyle and conservative clothes and church and homemade Halloween costumes and geeky pastimes. Well, frankly, I kind of think that is my job as a mom. The moms who let their kids wear mohawks and dress up as Freddie for Halloween when they are 7 years old... in a way, aren't they imposing their belief system on their children? Some parents teach their kids that an orderly lifestyle is not valued and that you can do what you want because you're pretty much on your own in this world and you've got to look out for number one.

I hope to teach my son that authority should be respected, starting with God, parents next, teachers and bosses and policemen, too. I hope to... some would say "shelter" but I prefer "shield" my son from the sounds and images of anger and violence this world makes so easily available either as "news" or "entertainment". I hope to help him to dwell on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, anything excellent and anything worthy of praise, as I myself attempt to dwell on these things. There's so much negative that it takes a conscious effort to be positive, but there's plenty of beauty and joy and serenity around if one just chooses to seek it out.

Ok well enough of that...

Another metaphor I've noticed is that as Dominic is getting more opinionated about what he wants to eat, sometimes I will try to give him something and he will wave his hands in front of his face and grimace before he has even taken a taste. At first, I would give in and try to move on to something I knew he would like. But lately, I've started... I know it sounds terrible... but I've started grabbing his waving hands and shoving one bite into his twisted mouth. He always shakes his head and winces even worse.. at first. But about half the time he will stop.. I see the expression on his face change... and he realizes that he actually likes what he has just eaten. (The other half of the time he reaches into his mouth and scoops out the offending morsel and slams it indignantly onto the floor.) I hope in the future when Dominic is resisting trying something that is good for him that he will realize when I try to impose it on him that it is because I love him, and because he is likely to like it after all.

Finally... well, I don't know if this is a metaphor or not. My husband, Eddie always says, "The worst thing you can do for someone is something he can and should do for himself." I find that I have to consciously remind myself of this all day long every day. Dominic drops something and I go to pick it up for him. Dominic falls and I pick him up. I'm feeding him something he could easily be feeding himself, and it occurs to me. These little things I need to let him do for himself will give him confidence (if not better balance, too!), and he will learn independence.

Now, I'm not saying that I think I should let him do something dangerous or that I don't run and cuddle him if a fall has produced a bumped noggin and tears! But just that the things he _can_ and _should_ do for himself, I am trying hard to resist doing for him. And I think this will only get more complicated later, like when he wants me to drive him somewhere he could get on his bike, when he wants me to write one of his term papers or buy him a car. Hopefully if I resist the urge to make his life "too easy", then he won't come to me someday wanting bail money.

That's it for my thoughts on metaphors. Here are some of the latest pix of the cupcake:

Man, those are a lot of teeth! 8 all together. If you look closer, you'll see the river of drool that is pretty much a constant during all this teething. But he keeps his spirits high in spite of his pain 99% of the time, as you can see!

I was going to put some more pictures but blogger is making it incredibly difficult. So just go to http://gallery.me.com/magned and check out pictures of Dominic's first steps, first golf-ball noggin lump, first terrible fever, new face-forward carseat, all his fashion statements and antics and smiles. Remember to click Refresh because I keep adding captions as I have time.

Gotcha!

2008-07-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I never published this picture I got the second time I caught Dominic standing up in his crib. That day, we lowered the mattress to the lowest setting.

He looks pretty proud of himself, huh? I think I shocked him a bit when I swung open the door and snapped this pic.

My Pregnancy Prayers

2008-07-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

When I first found out I was pregnant, and frankly even before, I prayed for a healthy baby.

After the first trimester non-invasive tests all came out showing a very low probability for health issues, I then decided maybe to make one more request and humbly ask God to give the baby a sweet personality.

At probably about the halfway point, as I was chowing down on lots of Omega-3-rich salmon for baby brainpower, I started throwing in a request for the baby to be smart.

There was a point when I even secretly prayed for a little boy, although I would have been really happy if I got a healthy, sweet, smart little girl, too!

But never, not once, did I pray for CUTE. That just seemed like too much to ask.

But we got cute anyway. Thanks for the bonus, God!

D's Faves

2008-07-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

Loves:

Flicking wheels and other spinning things

The "barrel of monkeys" on his exersaucer

The swiveling patio chair

The ride-on dump truck turned on its side

Prunes and Blueberries

Watching me yawn

Opening and closing doors

Cheerios

Computer and piano keyboards

The Baby Einstein "Baby Newton" shapes video

His walker / his jumper

Favorite books

Hello Bee, Hello Me

Baby's First Words

Things that Go (Lift the flap)

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Fun to Learn Collection - My First Book of Numbers

Graham crackers

Tub parts (like the spigot and valve handles) vs tub toys (not so much!?)

Elmer the Frog, Einstein the Duck, and Mortimer Moose

Controlling the mobile

Pushing buttons on anything - TV remote, computer power, etc

Drinking water.. out of a bottle, sippy cup, regular cup, hose, even the tub water! eww

Ringing the windchime bell

Touching the (dry) cat food

Closing the animals on the popup animal toy

Removing the wooden coasters from their holder

Experiencing different textures

Kicking his feet when laying down

Lightning McQueen programmable car

Drums

Adult electronics

Dislikes:

Being in the carseat

Having his face wiped

The sound of someone blowing his/her nose

Nursing and Napping

2008-07-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 10 months of breastfeeding, so I thought I'd jot down some random thoughts on the subject.

First of all, I have all but forgotten how hard it was to get started. I looked at one of my feeding logs from the first week and it was only that that helped me remember what a struggle it was. I was writing in Dominic's baby book the other day about things he liked during his first weeks, and I started to write "eating" but Eddie had to correct me that he really didn't get going very well on that front for a few days. I remember I had to use this "sandwich" move that Kay Gregg, the lactation consultant, gave me.

Next, the weight loss factor. Dang, if I knew that breastfeeding would be such an effective weight loss mechanism, I might have hooked my boobs up to siphons years ago and tried to make something happen. I'm still no Twiggy, but I haven't weighed this little literally since high school. And this despite the fact that I eat like I'm never going to get another meal. Do I want a donut? Yes! In fact, I'll take 2! :-)

I wanted to mention that I went to the breastfeeding classes at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and I remember at the time being disappointed in them. They spent at least 4 hours - nearly all of the first session - talking about the advantages of breastfeeding. Eddie and I were both sitting there mumbling to ourselves that we GET it and that we were OBVIOUSLY believers in the value of breastfeeding because we were THERE, so couldn't we just get on with learning some techniques? Well, looking back in hindsight, I realize that they really did need to spend all that time talking about how great breastfeeding is for making smart, healthy babies because around 5-8 weeks you hit a wall and you really need to have those truths firmly implanted in your mind to continue. Dominic would eat and eat and eat and then throw up everything he had eaten and then need to eat again right away. Ee-GAD I pretty much felt like he should have been surgically attached to the boob!

I remember going through a period where feeding him on my right side was excruciating. I don't think I had anything like a yeast infection or anything... just a painful period in the progress I guess. I remember whenever I would look down at the little bracelet that kept track of which side I fed him on last (especially useful since I could barely remember my own name for lack of sleep), and when the bracelet would indicate this upcoming feeding should be on the right, I would physically cringe at the dread.

Every time I would feel like quitting, I would remember the 4+ hour speech of the merits of breastmilk and I would try try again.

All the pains and struggles seem like nothing more than a foggy memory now. Other than the occasional worry that I'm having a supply problem after a particularly unfruitful pumping session, breastfeeding couldn't be easier. In fact, it's soooo much easier than feeding regular food - way less messy and super convenient with 0 preparation and nearly 0 cleanup. Oh and did I mention it's free? Ok Ok... I guess you have to factor in the cost of all the donuts, so maybe it's not exactly free.

I will say that teething does, indeed, present nursing challenges. I have been bitten a couple of times and that is horrible. But Kaye taught me that if he bites that I should right away remove him and put him in his crib alone for 30 seconds before picking him up and resuming the feeding. That has pretty much put the kabash on the biting... not completely, but I don't fear a chronic issue.

My only other complaint is the state of "the girls". The breastfeeding advocacy books say that it is the pregnancy, not the nursing, that causes the ladies to lose some of their former glory. But personally, I think it's that period in the beginning when the baby's supply-demand relationship hasn't been established and you walk around with 2 bowling ball boobs for a bit. Inflate... deflate... inflate... deflate. You, too, might lose your elasticity under the circumstances!

Despite the downsides, I'm dreading stopping. First of all, will I gain a thousand pounds when I stop sharing my calories? Next, I'll never be able to handle a forgotten lunchpail as well once ever-present milk is not a dietary option. And let's be honest, I just like the closeness to him I feel from this simple act, and I know I'll miss it.

As for sleeping through the night and napping... Thank God for naps! During the week after D started standing up when he wasn't napping much, I realized that even though I love every second I spend with him, I really really need the 3 hours he naps to accomplish _anything_, whether it be a work project, housecleaning, or just a nap for myself! Is it bad that sometimes when I see him stir in the monitor that I say "stay asleep!" under my breath?

I will offer the following as suggestions for anyone struggling with getting their baby to sleep. I acknowledge I am no authority - I think I just lucked out and got a baby who has a talent for sleeping. But in case something I did had even the slightest to do with his success, here goes.

When I would nurse him, I would start out with a blanket under him. That way, when he nodded off, I could set him into the bassinet and later the crib without disturbing the texture against his cheek, holding the blanket as I slid my arm out from under it. I remember we swaddled him a lot while he was in the bassinet, but not so much once he started sleeping in the crib.

I also do a few things to distinguish between nap time and overnight sleep time. For naps, I say "time to reeeehssssst" and reserve the word "sleep" for the long one, in addition to reserving the bedtime routine and lavender-scented baby lotion, too, for 8:15 pm. I also make sure to close the blinds so the room is as dark as possible during the naps. Isn't there a chemical called melatonin in our bodies whose levels are related to light and darkness that help us get back on track after a bout of jetlag? So I think darkness is much more important than silence.

Speaking of silence, we are fortunate that Dominic took so well to the mobile and the Einstein Duck because he uses both of those as "self-soothing" activities. We will often hear him stir-stir-stir but as soon as he hits the duck or mobile, it's like a tranquilizer dart and he's out like a light. And we aren't very careful to talk quieter than normal or stop the dog from barking at the postman during Dominic's naps, so that way he isn't overly likely to be awakened by a noise. Finally, to get him to fade, I stroke his hair from his part across his forehead and gently drag the backs of my fingers across his closing eyes while I'm audibly breathing deeply like heavy sighs. This not only seems to help him doze off, but I seem to do my best nursing when my shoulders and mind are relaxed by these practices.

Dah-deh-darnit!

2008-07-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Since the day after Mother's Day, Dominic has been saying the syllable "mah". Eddie worked really hard to get him to say it by Mother's Day, and he missed it by just one day. Since then, he says mah-mah-mah-mah as well as dah-dah-dah-dah. But I haven't noticed that he sees a relationship between the sounds and the people.

Yesterday, Dominic put 2 different syllables together: dah-deh! And I think he might actually be beginning to put those sounds together to equate them with Daddy! I joke that I'm jealous that "daddy" is his first word (thus the "darnit" in the post title), but the truth be told, I have been repeating "I love you, Daddy" and just "Daddy" specifically so Dominic would learn to say those words. I don't know what he will choose to call me, but I think I like the sound of Mama more than Mommy, so it's fine with me if he sticks to the mah sound alone for my "name".

Other developments:

Yesterday, Daddy installed the baby gate at the top of the stairs. Whew, one more babyproofing step we can check off the list!

Today, Dominic climbed up one stair. We have 3 stairs from the dining room to the living room in our split-level home, and Dominic made it up the lowest stair and had his hands tightly grasping the living room floor-level stair when I couldn't take it any more and had to pick him up. After the big stair climbing accomplishment, I didn't want the moment to end with an injury!

Another development that I _think_ I noticed before but feel sure about today is that he has developed some self-awareness about the state of his diaper. Here's what I mean...

Dominic's "routine" (self-imposed) usually includes 2 naps: 10:30-12 and 3:30-5. When he learned to stand up a few days ago, the naps were put on hold, seeing as he began to view the crib as a "stand-up station" rather than a BED FOR SLEEPING. But as the days since then have unfolded, he has started to use EVERYTHING as stand-up assistance (including my leg when I'm trying to brush my teeth), so on the 14th, he returned (pretty much) to napping on schedule.

Well today, I nursed him to start the 3:30 nap winddown, but when I laid him dozing in the crib and left the room, I saw on the monitor that he immediately awoke and struggled, groggy, to a standing position. So I went back in, cuddled him until he was dozing again, and put him back down. Same story... 30 seconds later he was standing/crying. I was starting to get frustrated, thinking that we were regressing back to no-napsville, when I realized he was carrying a load in his diaper! Goodness gracious!

Once changed, he couldn't fall asleep fast enough. I'm hoping this is a sign he will potty train easily. Don't worry, I realize it's probably not. Haha.

Here are some photos and movies to enjoy!

Here's Dominic wiped out after Huntington Beach's 4th of July parade (rumored to be the largest this side of the Mississippi River!) Love the little Converse high tops!

On July 5, we met our friends, Saye and Brad, at Fashion Island for lunch. Dominic enjoyed the pop-up water fountain there.

On July 6, Gram came over after church and helped Dominic practice his walking. Later that day, we went to the concert behind HB's Central Park Library. Dominic's favorite seemed to be the tympani in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Here's a photo of the second time I caught Dominic standing up in his crib, which was July 9. (The first time was 7/7.) Needless to say, we moved the crib mattress down that day.

This picture from July 10 shows how his seat attaches to the breakfast bar. This was the first day he ate "big people" turkey. I diced up a slice of deli turkey that I, too, had in my sandwich.

Here's Dominic, also on July 10, pushing his stroller around. He pushed it and pushed it all over the dining and family rooms for probably upwards of an hour. While he did do some straight lines (God help the walls and furniture), his favorite was going around and around in circles. Made me dizzy just to watch. He was very intent and rarely looked up during his important work.

Uh Oh... Here we go!

2008-07-08T03:24:00.000-07:00

Today (7/7), I went to visit Chuck & Lynne Stoner during the hour and a half that would normally have been Dominic's 2nd nap: 3:30 - 5pm. Dominic was getting really tired, and he fell asleep instantly on the 3 minute drive back from our visit.

But once we got home, and I tried to move Dominic to his crib to finish his nap, he woke up. Nevertheless, I laid him in the crib hoping he would get just a little rest before we hit the home stretch, those last exhausting activities of the day that prompt the deep all-night sleep Dominic has been enjoying since he was 3 months old.

No such luck. I watched Dominic on the monitor twist and writhe and kick and squirm. I watched him turn on his mobile and then turn on his little Einstein Duck. I listened to him whine and complain, hoping he would eventually realize he should be sleeping.

I got on a business phone call, and during the call, I noticed Dominic's monitor became suddenly quiet. I pushed the video button on top of the monitor expecting to see him finally still and sleeping. Oh, he was still alright, but not sleeping! Nope, instead he had pulled himself into a kneeling position along the foot of the crib. Gasp!

Trying not to let on to the customer on the phone, I sprinted up the stairs 3 at a time. I threw open the door to find not only had he been on his knees, but he was now fully standing up. For a microsecond, I considered running for the camera. But I thought better of it realizing that I could never forgive myself if he toppled over the foot of the crib onto the floor and hurt himself while I was focusing on documentation.

So here are some milestone dates that I should've been blogging about:

nine months

7/7 - stands up on his own

7/6 - 4th tooth (first upper)

7/1 - first voluntary wave "bye bye"

eight months

6/21 - 3rd tooth (his lower left)

5/31 - first official crawl

six months

4/19 - 2nd tooth

4/9 - 1st tooth

five months

3/22 - 1st solid food (banana)

3/20 - 1st belly laugh

3/10 - rolls over

See You in Heaven

2008-07-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

Once, when Dominic was only a few days old, he was having trouble falling asleep after a late-night feeding. I had been cautioned to lay him only on his back to reduce the risk of SIDS, but Dominic kept wanting to curl onto his side to sleep. I would dutifully roll him back onto his back and then cinch in his receiving blanket on both sides so he pretty much couldn't move onto his side, but he was just crying and fussing. The idea came to me that maybe I should let him be on his side... sure, I wouldn't sleep because I'd be sitting there watching his little chest rise and fall, ready to give CPR should the dreaded SIDS make an appearance, but at least one of us would get a little shut-eye.

As I released the tension on the blanket and Dominic made himself comfortable, an amazing peace came over me. It was as if God Himself spoke to me saying that He was the one who brought Dominic into my life, and it would be He who decides when we would be separated from each other by death. I realized that every day - even every breath - we get to share is a gift from God, and that one day one of us would go on and have to wait for the other in Heaven.

That night I slept like a baby, and the feeling of seeing Dominic alive in the morning absolutely brought tears to my eyes. It was like giving birth all over again. My heart almost popped out of my chest at the thought that I get to spend some more time with my Baby Angel.

Those of you in Southern California may remember last February the funeral of the first SWAT officer to be killed in the line of duty in L.A. named Randall ("Randy") Simmons. I've been inspired by the speech that his 15 year old son gave at the funeral in which he told of how his father would always say his daily goodbyes as if they would be his last, thanking God for the time they had together and promising to meet them in Heaven if he didn't live to see them again.

So every night since hearing young Mr. Simmons' tell the story of his father's goodbyes, when I lay Dominic in his bed, and when I go into his room in the morning and find him alive, I pray,

"Thank you, Jesus, for another day together! I pray we please get another one tomorrow! But if not, I'll see you in Heaven, Dominic!"

I hope I continue to pray that prayer long after Dominic has grown up and started his own family. I hope he comes to understand just how grateful I am to God for the wonderful gift that is him, and for every minute I get to spend with him. I'm sure there will be days when we will frustrate each other, and I hope on those days the feeling of that moment of waking up so thrilled that both of us are alive to enjoy another day will return to me... and maybe Dominic can share that feeling then, too.

Dominic = Belonging to God

2008-07-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

Those of you who saw Dominic's birth announcement know that his name means "Belonging to God." We pray over Dominic every night and every morning (and sometimes in the middle of the day, t00) for God to help us to surrender him to God's guidance and for His purposes.

Although we do this daily, this June 29, we _formally_ dedicated Dominic to God at our church. It's our version of a christening, as we believe that a person should decide for themselves to have a water baptism and that babies are too young to make such a decision. So what we do is modeled after I Samuel 1, where Hannah makes a promise to God that if He will give her a child, she will dedicate him to God forever. Basically, our pastor just held Dominic up in front of the congregation and said a short prayer before the regular lesson of the day. Here is what our pastor, Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, prayed:

"And now, Father, we hold Dominic up to You. Again, Father, we pray that You would just put Your hand upon this little life. And You'd begin to guide him, Father, according to Your perfect plan. We realize, Lord, that there are so many destructive elements in the world - influences, that are just tearing down. Lord, guard him from those. And bring into his life, Lord, those influences of Your Holy Spirit whereby he might just be drawn close to You, and become the man You would have him to be, accomplishing, Lord, Your will. So, Father, we dedicate Dominic now, and we pray, Lord, Your hand to be upon him, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Here are Dominic and Pastor Chuck during the prayer.

And here we are after all the babies were dedicated thanking Pastor Chuck.

Then the lesson of the day just so happened to be on a topic quite appropriate for us parents of this newly dedicated child of God: "Pressing Toward the Mark", covering Philippians 3:12-14. The gist of the message was that we must, ourselves, rededicate ourselves to our service of God, constantly reminding ourselves that we were "apprehended" for His purpose, and that we should seek out this purpose for our lives day-in and day-out. Needless to say it was a good reminder as I can get caught up in not only selfish sinful behavior, but also just in the mundane business of getting through the days.

We had a BBQ at our house afterward for anyone who could be there to celebrate this important day. I felt a bit bad because I hadn't sent out invitations or even got the word out about the "event" until a few days before. But in my defense, I was seeing this moment not as one to be made a spectacle but rather as genuinely an opportunity to commune with God on an intimate level... it seemed almost inappropriate to invite an audience. Yes, I can see how that sounds incongruous with the whole point that Dominic was being presented to God publicly, but the "public" was members of our church. Anyway, the bottom line is that I realized there were a lot of people who love Dominic who would've really loved to be present, and I'm sorry I didn't take better care to make folks aware earlier of the date.

Here are just a few photos of the BBQ.

We represent the Lullabye League

2008-06-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to make a note of all of Dominic's favorite songs, and I'd like to invite anyone who is reading this to either post comments or send me email with suggestions of other songs to sing for him, perhaps songs from your own childhood or songs you sang to your children that they enjoyed.

Old MacDonald

Old Mac Donald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

And on that farm he had a _____ (animal)

E-I-E-I-O

With a ___ ___ (animal's sound) here

and a ___ ___ (sound) there

Here a ___ there a ___, everywhere a ___ ___.

Old MacDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

(Animals we use are duck-quack, dog-arf, cat-meow, cow-moo, sheep-baa, donkey-heehaw, owl-hoo, and we've even thrown in lions-rrrrowr, and monkeys-oo-oo-ah-ah, and the occasional bee-bzzbzz. What animals do you use?)

Old MacDonald is a great song for stopping a booboo face, like if something scares him or if you take something away that he wanted to put in his mouth like a pen.

A great song for preventing a tantrum when wet-wiping Dominic's face and hands is "Happy and You Know It". We sing "If you're happy and you know it, wash your face (wash wash), If you're happy and you know it, wipe your hands (wipe wipe), If you're happy and you know it, then you're face will surely show it! If you're happy and you know it wash your face (wash wash)." It's remarkably the perfect length of song to get both hands and his face clean before it's over.

Night-time lullabyes...

My mom used to sing this to me:

I see the moon and the moon sees me

The moon sees the somebody I want to see

So God bless the moon and God bless me

And God bless the somebody I want to see

I really think

That God above

Created you for me to love!

He picked you out

From all the rest

Because He knew I would love you the best!

If I get to Heaven and you're not there,

I'll write your name on the golden stair.

I'll put it there

For all to see

That I love you and you love me!

And this one she would sing to my little brother, John. It's so incredible to be singing it to my own little boy! I looked all over the internet to find a version of Bing Crosby singing it that I could link you to, but couldn't find one that you don't have to pay for. You can click here and then scroll down to number 21 and click the little arrow in that row to get it to play. If you have iTunes you can search the iTunes store for "little man bing crosby" and they will let you listen to a snippet. The lyrics shown on his version are not 100% the same as the way I learned it.

Little man, you're crying

I know why you're blue

Someone took your kiddie car away

Better go to sleep now

Little Man, you've had a busy day

Johnny won your marbles?

Tell you what we'll do

Dad'll get you new ones right away

Better go to sleep now

Little Man, you've had a busy day

You've been playing soldier

The battle has been won

The enemy is out of sight

Come along now, soldier

Put away your gun

The war is over for tonight

Time to stop your scheming

Time your day was through

Can't you hear the Sandman softly say

Better go to sleep now

Little Man, you've had a busy day.

We also love "You Are My Sunshine" (we sang this to Dominic when he was first born, hoping he would recognize it from all the times we sang it to him before he was born), and when we open the blinds to let in the sunshine in the mornings, we always sing "Sunshine on my shoulders"

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely

Sunshine almost always makes me high

If I had a day that I could give you

I'd give to you a day just like today

If I had a song that I could sing for you

I'd sing a song to make you feel this way:

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely

Sunshine almost always makes me high

Sometimes we play the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun" and dance around the bonus room. Have you ever noticed that most songs with "sun" in the title are pretty fun, positive songs?

Here's a video of Dominic singing...

Growing and Remembering...

2008-06-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last night we lowered the crib in Dominic's room one notch. He has been starting to get up on his hands and knees in the crib and just yesterday started reaching up and taking a hold of the crib railing, so I figured it's just a matter of time before he launches himself.

Lowering the mattress made me feel about the same as when I bagged up the first tiny clothes that stopped fitting him. "Wow, this is going fast."

It's weird because part of me is so excited about him crawling and eager to hear his thoughts on everything when he can talk, but part is melancholy for the tiniest time. It's remarkable, really, because while I have always loved children, I've never been much for infants. My favorite age of child has always been between the ages of first talking and I've-got-to-have-THAT-label-of-tennis-shoes-mom. But with Dominic, I have really really enjoyed his infancy, memorizing the shape of his belly-button, watching his eyes change color, looking deeply into those changing eyes and imagining all of what's going on behind there!

I say I'll never forget the feeling of pressing my cheek against his for the first time, but I also thought I'd never forget the feeling of him moving inside me for the first time, and while I do remember the emotion of it, I can't honestly say I could fully describe the feeling. If we ever give Dominic a little brother or sister, I'm going to write it all down. So here I'm writing the feeling of that cheek just in case it all goes blurry.

It was probably a whole week or two after he was born. I had cuddled him innumerable times and was absolutely in lala land (possibly partly from lack of sleep, but mostly from joy), and I don't know why I pressed his little face against mine that particular day. I had expected his cheek to feel ... I don't know ... less substantial, more like it was filled with air. But it was so firm and squishy (wow these aren't very good words for it... putting things into words is harder than I thought, especially for someone who talks as much as me), and this rush of feeling came over me. It was sort of like a realization that this little person would some day be a man.. almost a fast-forward feeling. I felt so connected to him at that moment, and my body felt filled with the joy of it, as if joy was something physical and there was so much of it inside me that it was pressing against the inside of my skin.

This picture is from January 12 (Dominic was almost 4 months old), so it was long after the cheek incident. But you can see those lucious cheeks pretty well here... doesn't it just make you want to squish them against yours?

Now where was I?

2008-06-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

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:

Rewind to: Cabo or Bust!

2008-04-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Dominic's Daddy, Eddie, is a studly ocean yacht racer. He goes on these long races from Newport Beach to Ensenada and has even raced twice from LA to Hawaii in the Transpac. This year, he wanted to try something different, so he formed a crew of 9 to sail from Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas, a total of about 800 miles as the crow flies.

Well, it's just about always nice in Huntington Beach; nevertheless, a trip closer to the equator sounded like a plan to this lover of warm weather, so I (and the cupcake of course), Eddie's parents, sister and brother-in-law, and my parents all decided to make a vacation of it. So here's the beginning of the pictoral history of our trip to Cabo.

Daddy left March 28. Here he is getting some goodbye cuddles that are going to have to last maybe a whole week!

The morning of the race, a bunch of us met the crew at our yacht club to see them off. From Eddie's family, present were his mom and stepdad, Cleo and Jim, his sister, Maryke, and his niece and nephew, Danielle and Christian. My mom, Martie, really wanted to be there with my dad, Johnny (aka Granddaddy) and Dominic and me, but she had to work... (thank God someone is!) Thanks Mom!

Here is the crew getting ready to set sail. Left to right is Ross Nemeroff, Bill Boyd, Scott Atwood, Bill Cuppy, Eddie (aka Daddy), Rob Rice, John Rossbach, Robert Rice, and Linus Ralls.

Granddaddy was very generous to take us out to the starting line to watch from his powerboat, Rapid Fire. Joining us were Mareen and Elisabeth Rossbach (wife and daughter of crewmember John Rossbach) as well as Karen and Christine Rice (wife/mother and daughter/sister of crewmembers Rob and Robert Rice). Jim Masingill, Eddie's stepdad, served as Firstmate.

*****

Blogger is giving me fits. Uploading pictures is a bit of a tug of war. So I think I will sign off for this entry and pick up again later with more pictures of the departure to Cabo. Better to give you a taste for now rather than add more and end up crashing it and losing everything. It's midnight anyway, so I'd better cash it in. With Dominic's teething, I may be up with him shortly.

Thank you to those of you who come by this blog to check us out. I'd love to hear from you (so I know I'm not writing into a black hole) so leave a comment or send me an email: maggie@powerofE.com.

Teeth = 2!!

2008-04-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today, Dominic's second tooth broke through! It is right next to the first one on the bottom, this new one being just right of center from D's perspective (left of center as we look at him). I sort of got the feeling all day that he was... well... not even really "fussy" but I guess the phrase I would use is "needier than usual". And sure enough, this afternoon I noticed a second little sharp edge popping through where there wasn't one yesterday. Here are a couple of pictures.

Rewinding to: My First Foods

2008-04-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

On March 22, I had left the plum pudding with Gram & Granddaddy (my parents) at their house while I went to pick up one of Eddie's sailing buddies in Corona del Mar (where they had moved the boat they were taking on the race to Cabo) and bring him back to his car in Long Beach. Due to what should have been a totally expected traffic jam on Belmont Shore's 2nd Street, I got stuck, and the babysitters called on the cell to report that the chubba wubba was ready for another meal. Uh oh, I was at least a half hour out... so here we were only 2 days before the magical 6-month milestone after which solid foods can be introduced... so what the heck? Give him a banana.

Needless to say, I missed the look on his face when he realized that there's more to these tastebuds than breastmilk and nasty cherry-flavored baby Tylenol. I got there about 1/2 hour after he devoured a tablespoon of banana (carefully scraped off the edge of the banana by his loving grandparents so as to avoid any of the tiny seeds in the center). As he sat in my lap for the ensuing nursing session, he looked up at me with a look I will never forget. Then he placed his hand on my shoulder in a way he never had before. It was as if to say, "Oh my gosh, Mom. You'll never believe the amazing thing that just happened!" as if he was in awe of the taste of banana and wondered if I, too, had ever known the thrill and joy of this Flavor of Heaven?

I think this must yet another benefit of parenting: the taste of banana in my mouth since that day is as if it is my first taste, too. I think I'm going to enjoy seeing the whole world as new again, to re-experience all the beauty and majesty and sweetness of God's creation through Dominic's innocent eyes.

Here are some pictures and video of Dominic checking out some different foods. So far he has had avocado, papaya, apple sauce, plain yoghurt, water (just enough to fill the lid of a water bottle), Cheerios, baby oatmeal, and banana, as well as prepared baby food of peaches and apple sauce. At his 6-month checkup on April 7, Dr. Pellman taught us that while Dominic is still nursing, we should concentrate on supplementing with iron-rich foods, which are the cereals and meats. Welcome welcome daily Cheerios! And Tia Nini (Eddie's sister Maryke) and Nana (Eddie's mom, Cleo) gave Dominic his first taste of meat in the form of baby food chicken on April 10.

March 26 - First food since the emergency banana: oatmeal (with added b-milk)

March 28 - Trying Avocado at the Market Broiler restaurant
Hmm. Not sure if that's a happy face or not...?

March 30 - First Cheerios along with banana and baby oatmeal

April 10 - First taste of meat: babyfood chicken at Nana's house

By Jove! It's a TOOTH!

2008-04-12T23:46:00.000-07:00

OHMYGOODNESS! Where do I even start?

Sooo much has been going on since I last made an entry in this blog! I can’t even keep up with it all! Dominic has had his first real food, been on his first plane flight (and out of the country no less!), rolled over, made his first belly laugh, become ticklish, and now he has his first tooth! And there’s so much more than that.

I really don’t know where to start so I’m going to start at today and work backwards for a few days. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pick up with some more rewinding. But I promised myself I would make an entry tonight no matter what!

Ok, so the pictures I took today were of 7am this morning, Dominic gurgling his little lugie song on the video monitor. He woke up extra early today (5am, which he usually awakens between 6 and 6:30 and then entertains himself until about 6:45). I’m thinking it’s the new tooth that woke him so early, but he really wasn’t fussy; just up early. I fed him and because it is such a warm day today, when I put him back in his crib I left him in just a diaper. He started his little concert around 6:30 and by 7am I just had to get up and go get the camera. He turns on the mobile music himself and then sings to it and plays with the little pillow hanging on the outside of the crib bars. (Side note: today he has also figured out how to work the velcro fasteners on his diaper, so he was stark raving naked when I came to get him out of bed! You can kind of see at the beginning of the video Dominic playing with the dislodged diaper.)

After getting up for the day, we walked over to meet Daddy who was showing a house in our neighborhood to some prospective clients. They have a little boy named Dominic, too! Then we left with Daddy to go meet some friends who are considering a move to Belmont Shore, which is such a nice place to walk around, even on a super warm day like today. These friends (who I shan’t name in case they don’t want anyone to know they might move) have family in from out of town so we all went to lunch at Lucille’s on 2nd Street. Dominic ate Cheerios and enjoyed having his teething ring cooled in a big cup of ice water. I did manage to spill a small Tupperware full of Cheerios on the floor… good thing the hostess had strategically placed us by the kitchen entrance! (Although I did notice that there must have been at least 5 other strollers parked adjacent to tables as we passed to our booth, so I wasn’t the only one taking a little one for a little stroll on 2nd Street!)

While he was a perfect angel (like almost always, frankly), I must admit that by bedtime tonight Dominic had his first teething fussy episode. That is, I’m guessing it was from teething because normally he has no trouble going to sleep, and because I’ve never heard him make a “real” crying sound other than when he gets his shots. His tooth broke the skin 3 days ago (on the 9th) with exactly zero fanfare. I couldn’t believe it because I had heard I should expect fever, sleepless nights, lots of fussing and crying and drooling. Yet, there it was last Wednesday: a little sliver of rough edge poking out of his soft, pink gums. It’s the lower one just left of center (from his perspective). Here’s a picture of it, taken on the 9th. Boy, you can barely see it in this picture but I could definitely feel a little sharp edge with my finger. And no, it hasn't seemed to impact the breastfeeding, not yet at least. I don't feel anything different at all, so I'm guessing so far Dominic is not choosing to use my boob as a teething device.

Oh and here are another couple of pictures from the 9th. Super smilie despite the tooth showing up! What a love bug he is!!

So tonight about 6pm he started with a little whimpering. Now this, we have heard before and it usually means “I’m tired of ___ (doing whatever I’ve been doing for a half hour, such as lying down, playing in my activity dish, being on my tummy, etc.)” So I tried picking him up… then feeding him… then giving him to Daddy… then carrying him around. After each change of venue, he would quiet down and even smile, coo, or laugh, but just for a couple of minutes. Then the whimpering resumed. By 7pm, it was a bit more than a whimper.. more like a complaint. I handed him off to Daddy because his mattress cover was in the dryer so I knew I’d have to get his bed put back together before the 8:30 witching hour (bedtime, that is). As I was upstairs making the bed, Daddy brought the cupcake up, and he had on a full-fledged boo-boo face! Daddy’s and my hearts were both breaking to see that!

I figured he had got himself over tired, so I went through the bedtime routine a bit early. The routine is basically to change his diaper, cover his little dry/heat-rashed spots with hydrocortisone, then give him a rubdown with lavender lotion and put on some lightweight footie pajamas, feed him and put him to bed asleep. I figure the scent of lavender is some cue to his little mind that it’s time for that 10-hour stretch of sleep that he has made into a (wonderful) habit since December 21. He always smiles when the lavender smell hits him, like he is really happy the day has turned out so well and now he’s ready for a lovely rest. And tonight was no exception – Mr. D was smiling even though we later realized the teething was really bothering him! So I fed him and put him to bed. But he wasn’t down 5 minutes before he began with the whimper. A minute later it was a complaint. Then it was another boo-boo face which Daddy had to go rescue because I was in the ladies room.

Once out, I took him back to the feeding chair while Daddy broke open the as yet unopened box of baby remedies we got at Dominic’s shower. Hmm… little tummies, little fevers, little .. ah here it is! Baby Orajel (as well as some teething tablets and some other teething gel stuff). The Orajel box had both a daytime tube and a nighttime tube. And WOW that nighttime stuff must be some pretty strong stuff because Dominic was nursing and sort of squirming in a gripey uncomfortable way, and I put a dab of the pink, cherry-scented gel on my pinky finger and touch his gum with it (I think most of it got on his tongue, actually, but maybe a little came in contact with the actual tooth site), and PRESTO! Instant sleep. It was actually a little bit disconcerting.. like wow I must have just totally drugged my precious angel. I think I’m going to have to do some research on that stuff (great mom, check it out AFTER you give it to me!) But in the meanwhile, the suffering is over and the peanut blossom gets to rest. That was about 7:45 and I haven’t heard so much as a peep from him and it’s now 11:30.

Trust me, though, I can see him breathing in the monitor. ;-)

Visitors and Outings

2008-02-16T07:23:00.001-08:00

Another entry to do some catch up on all of our exciting adventures.

Here we are headed to church on a rainy day, February 3.

The next 4 pictures are from January 19, when we went to the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for lunch with our Texas family who were here for a visit.

Foreground is Karoline, then Kharley (visiting from Texas), and in the background is Kira.

Here is Dominic with Daddy at the other end of the outdoor bar at the Club.

And here is some of the rest of our party inside by the cozy fireplace:
Karla & Kaylin on the left and Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Laura Alice (both visiting from Texas) on the right.

We spent some more time with Aunt Dorothy and Laura Alice at Gram & Granddaddy's house on January 21.

Aunt Dottie makes Dominic verrrry comfortable.

Laura Alice gives Dominic some sugar.

Pix Fix

2008-01-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent pictures of the cupcake!

Can you see a smile behind those fingers?

One of my first experiences in the exersaucer.

Thanks Julie & Jack!

Caption on the shirt says "Daddy's little buddy" .

Shoes are a new experience.
What a fashion plate!

Do I look like Daddy or what?
(Except I have slate grey eyes..
or sometimes green or gold or even blue...
but not brown!)

Had my 4-month checkup and shots this past Wednesday & Dr. Pellman says I'm healthy as can be! 16 lbs 15 oz and nearly 26 inches! It must be all that good clean livin'!!

A 16 pounder!

2008-01-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

On Monday, January 7, I weighed myself (still not a pretty sight but I'm a couple of pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight and heading down!) and then weighed myself holding Dominic. The difference was 16 pounds! Wow!

On December 24, he was technically 3 months old but most of the clothes he is wearing now are 6 months. (Strangely, some of his 0-3 month things still fit, though.. must be those "forgiving" styles like Mama wears!)

So here are some recent pictures of our little cupcake.

A Baby's Prayer

2007-12-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a poem that was in the card we got from Aunt Phyllis that I wanted to share with you.

A Baby's Prayer

Dear Lord, I am so little. Still, I’m not sure why I’m here.
I know I am a child of Yours; that much is all that’s clear.
I do not have the words, as yet, to tell these ones nearby
That I’m homesick for Your presence, Lord,
And so, sometimes, I cry.
For I’ve so lately come from You to tarry here awhile
That Heaven’s light still clings around
The corners of my smile.
Give them eyes to see it, Lord. Bless them as they do.

And help them raise me knowing I’m a precious trust from You.

C'mon Mom!

2007-12-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to make a quick post to apologize for not posting in a while. I have a bunch of half-done posts and I am going to sign off of this one to finish at least a few of them today.

With Christmas coming, I found myself busier than I have been since Dominic arrived. This is quite ironic, since I have felt busier than ever before in my whole life since he arrived (yet feeling like I am accomplishing very very little and virtually nothing on my todo list such as thank-you notes for all your amazing and thoughtful gifts for Dominic as well as publishing blog entries!)

Anyway, I will get to the posts now. Just wanted to say thank you for your patience and hang in there for some new news! --Love Maggie

Winter Solstice

2007-12-27T08:26:00.002-08:00

Before Dominic was born, I thought I should pack in as much real estate work as I could, figuring that once he was born I would be "just sitting around the house" and able to do all sorts of things. HAHAHAHA.

On December 7, my friend who is writing the blog that inspired me to write this one did an explanation of her day and how hard it is to get stuff done with the new baby. She started out saying "Let's say I sleep 10 hours a day." And then went about telling how the remaining 14 hours were spent.. 7 hours of feeding, 4 hours of diapering and educating baby, which leaves 3 hours for eating and hygiene. 0 hours for anything else.

When I read that, I could relate pretty well, but I couldn't believe she worked in 10 HOURS of sleep! I was sleeping only about 4 hours and still not accomplishing much. My big achievement was completing the entire humungous stack of Dominic's and my laundry that piles up due to being spitup on. My mom kept telling me to "sleep when he sleeps", but I couldn't resist the temptation to stay awake to wrap a Christmas present, change the cat box, or actually brush my teeth.

On the night between December 20 and December 21 - the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice - Eddie and I decided to try letting Dominic sleep in his own room in his big crib. He had been sleeping longer in his bassinette (and growing longer in his bassinette), and Eddie had read in the "What to Expect" book that babies can benefit from being in their own room so the parents don't turn a small stir into a full-blown wakeup. So we decided to give it a try.

And on the VERY FIRST NIGHT...

Dominic slept 12 hours !!!

Of course, I didn't sleep a single minute that night. Here's a picture of what I did...

I stared at the monitor for 12 hours non-stop. I kept nudging Eddie and asking him if it looked like Dominic was breathing. He would mumble that he was sure everything was fine and I should go to sleep. Every now and then Dominic would stir and I would be both relieved and concerned he might wake up. He didn't.

Here is how the cupcake looked in the morning after 12 hours of sleep. Sooo happy! (There will be no pictures of Mama from that morning. Can you say "crow's feet"?)

Christmas Joy

2007-12-27T08:26:00.001-08:00

Here are some images from Dominic's first Christmas:

"Candy canes and icicles,

music and Christmas lights.

Giving gifts to ones we love

is our heart's delight,

for God so loved the

world that He gave his only Son

that we might have the gift of love

every day and not just one.

We have Christmas joy in our hearts to stay.

Not once a year, but every day.

We have Christmas joy, the gift that never ends.

Love keeps on giving, keeps on living here within."

Dominic in church watching his cousins sing in the Christmas Eve service. Cousin Kaylin had a solo on "Silent Night".
Dominic after the church service - matching with his cousins but apparently eager to sleep so Santa will come!

Waking up Christmas morning with a smile!

Christmas day at Nano & Nana's house.

From Head to Toe

2007-12-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

As I'm sitting here feeding Dominic, I always notice these little details about him. I mean, he's laying there in my lap, and I do so enjoy this time I have to just study every inch of him. So I thought I'd share with you what I see starting with the very top of his head to the very tip of his toes.

He has lots of medium brown hair on his head, and a natural "part" on his left side (our right in photos). Even though he is losing his hair, he still has quite a bit. His scalp is mostly really soft, but there is a patch about 3 inches wide starting from the hairline on his forehead back to where his natural part ends where his scalp is covered with thick flaky skin someone told me is called "cradle cap". It's not very noticeable, especially right after he takes a bath and is really clean. People who have noticed it tell me that his is not as bad as most. I don't worry about it. As the flakes come off, they take little clumps of hair with them, so he might be bald on top for a little while when it's all over.

Over his left ear you can see where I have cut his hair. The hair there used to hang over the top of his ear, so I figured he wouldn't miss it if I cut a little to put in his baby book. It wasn't really his "first haircut".. just a little lock of hair so we'll be able to look back at this first fine baby hair and remember.

His ears are a lot bigger than they were when he was born, but they still lay pretty flat against his head. They stay pretty clean although with all the growing, I have to use a Qtip to brush away some of the molted skin about once a week.

His eyes and eyebrows look so much like Daddy's! Above his left eyebrow is a vertical line of pink that somedays you don't notice but other days looks like a scratch. Dr. Pellman says that is a birthmark, as well as the pink scratched-looking section on his right eyelid. With as much as he pokes his fingers in his eyes while sucking his thumb, he occasionally has a real poke mark in addition to the birthmarks, so I try to keep his nails very short.

We debated keeping hand mitts on him (Dr. Pellman says we have to be careful he doesn't scratch his cornea), but with the thumb being such an important element in the sleep-all-night schedule, we opted to forgo the mitts at night. Believe it or not, a couple of drops of breastmilk on a scratch or poke mark moistens them and heals them up in no time! This stuff is better than neosporin, which you couldn't put on an eyelid anyway. Just another amazing breastmilk fact!

Dominic definitely has at least one dimple. We see the one on his left cheek almost every time he smiles now, which is - thank God - quite a bit! His nose and mouth... it's debatable whether they are Eddie's or from my side of the family. I think his mouth looks a lot like my brother, Dominic's Uncle John. But the dimple definitely comes from Daddy.

He doesn't have any millia (tiny white dots like baby whiteheads) on his face any more, but there are one or two left on his arms. I remember he used to have one or two on a couple of fingers at the cuticle line, but those are gone too. His face does still have a couple of minor "baby acne" bumps (I bet they'd go away faster if my diet was healthier - the new year's resolutions ought to help there), but overall the skin on his face is really soft and smooth. Fine little hairs grow all the way down where a sideburn would be. I think he will have thick hair like Daddy's but it doesn't look (yet) like it will be as dark.

Many of the pictures on the blog look like Dominic doesn't have much of a neck, but he really does. I work hard at keeping patooey (my word for spitup) cleaned out of there! When he is in a sitting up position, his head tends to compact into his shoulders, but laying down you can see he loves to stretch his head up and show off his nice (clean) neck.

I have already noticed his shoulders are becoming broader. When I feed him, he rests on his side on this doughnut-shaped pillow I got at the family shower from Frank & Yumiko Lee called "My Breast Friend".. haha. Now that he is growing, I sometimes have to put a folded cloth under his head because the distance from his shoulder to the side of his cheek is far enough that, if resting on the feeding pillow without additional support, his head will tilt uncomfortably. Sometimes during the day feedings I don't put the cloth so Dominic is forced to work his neck muscles to stay in his most comfortable feeding position.

His hands, in my opinion, are still larger than I would expect relative to his overall size. I guess that might come from me, as I have pretty long fingers. The knuckles on the backs of his hands are dimpled, and the skin is amaaaaazingly soft. His nails grow quickly, and the nail beds are really pink as well as the skin of his fingers just around his nails is particularl

y brown - a characteristic from his latin heritage. He still occasionally keeps his hands in very tight fists, although that limits thumb access, plus he is much more likely to hold them in a more relaxed, open position.

He has a nice, round belly! Definitely a good eater! His belly button - can't tell if it is exactly an "innie" or an "outie" - is still a bit dark and bruised-looking, but I'm sure it will continue to change color as it heals. His thighs are thick and chubby cute, and are covered with rolls and rolls of skin. All those rolls of extra skin will likely come in handy if his legs are going to grow to match his giant feet. From day 1 the little newborn socks have not fit him. We'd put them on just to try to keep his feet warm and the heels would never go much further than halfway from his toes to his heel. His big toe is longer than the other toes on both feet. Will it stay that way or will his second toe eventually be longer like on my feet? Only time will tell!

He has dry patches on his knees and elbows. I put baby oil on them when I change him, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Hmm I bet breastmilk would fix that... Mental note to try it.

His dark olive complexion is not as dark as Daddy but not as light as Mama. He looks best in dark colors, and although I bet he is not likely to sunburn easily when he is older, we still keep a little fisherman's hat on him when we go out on a sunny day (which are most days in California). When I hold him naked, his behind has little dimples like cellulite but they don't show up when he's laying down. He hasn't had a single occurrence of diaper rash (yet?), and I attribute that to Dr, Pellman's advice to "slop on the Vaseline" (he says petrolium jelly is better than any dedicated diaper rash product), my friend Michelle Garofolo's advice to air-dry his tooshie after wet-wiping and before diapering it, and my mom's advice to change him immediately when I notice he's wet. We've definitely moved on to a size 2 diaper.

So that is our little tu tu (as in "you you" in Spanish) as he is today. Maybe next post I will put some comparison pictures so you can see how he has grown.

Bye for now, and thank you again for reading!

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

2007-12-12T12:23:00.000-08:00

How old is Dominic now?
11 weeks 2 days today (December 12)

Do you have him on a schedule?
No. Kay Gregg, an RN who we've been seeing for 'lactation consultation' has coached us to just feed him on demand and assures us he will get on a schedule himself.

Is he sleeping through the night? (or Are you getting any sleep?)
Remarkably, Kay is right! Just last Sunday the 9th, he went to sleep at 8pm and didn't wake up to eat again until 4am. That's 8 hours! The "What to Expect the First Year" book says that even on the longest-sleeping nights, breastfed babies might have to wake up once in the middle of the night to eat (i.e. 4am), but I think that might just be God's way of keeping Mom's boobs from exploding.

We have had a couple of nights of last-feeding-around-midnight and next feeding after 5am. So we are actually doing very well in the sleep department. I try to nap every couple of days in the middle of the day with Dominic. Those of you who know me from before Baby D, you know that I had the sleeping habits of Dracula anyway... so this lifestyle suits me ok. One tough factor, though, is that Dominic wakes up at 6:30am just about every day and is up for the day. Dracula is trying to learn to "do" mornings.

I have one request of you readers.. does anyone recommend a good under-eye-dark-circle coverup product? ;-)

Does he take a pacifier?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Auntie Karla has been most successful getting our little cupcake to take a pacifier. Gram has also had moderate success. For most of the rest of us, he may keep it in for 30 seconds, and for that you pretty much have to apply light pressure to get it to stay in. Then he tries to spit it out but he doesn't fuss or cry much about it.

The good news (bad news?) is that he has found his thumb! This has just happened in the past week. I have started an entry about that and will add video and post it soon.

You look great (a.k.a. Have you lost all your baby weight yet?)
Well, today I weighed exactly the same amount as before I got pregnant with Dominic. The bad news is that I hadn't lost all the weight from the earlier miscarriage when this pregnancy started. So bottom line is that I still have a ways to go. I can fit in some of my pre-pregnancy "fat clothes" though. Which is good because the maternity clothes are all a bit big around the waist.

How's breastfeeding going?
Even though I have had a few hurdles, a few days of soreness, a few days of engorgement, a few days of leaking, I totally love breastfeeding. I know for sure I haven't had as many challenges as most, and even on my sorest day, I haven't experienced any "wounds".

I mentioned I've been seeing this lactation consultant, Kay Gregg. Whenever we visit her, she weighs Dominic with nothing on but a clean diaper. Then I feed him and then she weighs him again to see how many ounces of milk he is getting. Crazy huh? The very first time Kay ever measured how much Dominic was drinking, he took only two-tenths of an ounce! That was when he was not even 3 full days old yet. I haven't been to Kay for a while to measure what he's doing now, but I would guess it's about 3 ounces each feeding.

I try to pump some every day, so I have a little supply going of breastmilk for babysitting days. This also helps with the worry I have from one day to the next that I'm either not producing enough or producing too much. I have to be careful not to pump longer than 5 or 8 minutes, because if I go for 10, then the next day I am walking around with two 10-pound rocks where I used to have boobs. It's amazing how God has this supply-and-demand thing coordinated so perfectly!

I hope we can continue for the one year that is recommended for Dominic's healthiest start. A friend of mine has managed to continue a bit past that with just one feeding a day right before bed, and I think that sounds great to me. Maybe I can continue that until he is 1.5 or so. (Don't worry, I won't be one of those people who's still breastfeeding their kindergartener!)

What size diaper is he using now?
We are just transitioning him to size 2. 2 already! Ouch. Being 8lbs and 4oz at birth, though, meant he wasn't in the size N (newborn) for long. Although it feels like he wasn't in the size 1's for long either.

Are you going to give him formula/bottles so you can go out?
You may remember, from an earlier post, a picture of Gram (my mom) giving him his first full bottle. Since then, we have given him about one bottle per week and he has taken to bottle feeding very well.

I have been out one night with my girlfriends when Daddy and Gram watched/fed him, once out with Gram and some friends to a Christmas thing when Granddaddy took care of him and later that same day to an after-party for a USC football game (with Daddy) when Gram & Granddaddy came to our house to finish the babysitting here (this was due to a power outtage at their house that day), and just today (December 12), I went to a Realtor holiday charity thing and Daddy took Dominic to Nana & Nano's house (his parents).

We aren't doing any formula yet, though, and I'm glad we haven't had to. So far, the only things that have passed his lips are breastmilk and a couple of milligrams of "cherry flavored" baby Tylenol from the day after his shots. Once during a day of particularly out-of-control spit up, I allllllllmost gave him some of the tummy drops, but I held out and we haven't had to try them yet.

When can I babysit? :-)
Dominic is blessed with so much great family who a) love him enough to give up their afternoon or evening to watch him, and b) love me enough to encourage me to get out of the house for an adult activity now and then. Truthfully, while I have enjoyed my moments "out", I really do miss Dominic. But I know that not only are the babysitters probably enjoying themselves (maybe more than I can when I'm away from him), it's probably also good for his development to be separated from me for a while. boo hoo!

I know I have been guilty of letting him sleep on my lap or in my arms when I probably should be putting him down in his crib so he learns that's where sleeping takes place. Sorry but I can't resist now and then!

It has taken me a couple of days to get to finishing this entry, so now it's 12:14am on 12/14, and later today a group of us will be seeing the Radio City Rockettes' Christmas show. Nana is planning to come to the house to hang out with Daddy for that babysitting job.

Do you have any nicknames for Dominic?
Of course! Cupcake, sweet pea, cachetes (pronounced ka-CHE-tess, meaning "big cheeks" in Spanish), big boy, big D, precious angel, mister man, angel boy, and a slew of other names as the inspiration hits us.

Gram calls him sweet plum, peanut blossom, and other things. Nana and Nano call him poo-poos or poops, but somehow it works. For some reason, my dad (Granddaddy) wants to call him Dewey. He says he had a sweet friend in gradeschool named Dewey, and with initials like DEU, it seems appropriate. Ok.. I guess. :-)

Oh, you meant like do we have a short version of Dominic that we call him? No. We call him Dominic. But some of our friends are saying they are going to call him Dom or Nick. Personally, I'd rather him be called Don or Donny before Dom or Nick, but people are going to call him whatever they are. Some people say it will be hard for him to spell his whole name on his early papers because there are so many letters... and hard with both an m and an n. But I bet he learns it quickly. Or maybe he will just write Don, which is what his great-grandfather was called, after whom he got his name.

(When) Are you going back to work?
Technically, I sort of am doing some work (admittedly not much since my mom and Eddie work on my real estate team and both are picking up the slack and working double duty so I can be with Dominic.) Eddie has taken over my out-with-the-customer roles like open houses and buyer showings, and I have begun to do the things he was doing before... things that can be done in front a computer at home such as setting up our newsletter and other paperwork or vendor interactions. Don't count on me being out with customers until after Christmas, and even then probably not so much that I'm away from Dominic too much.

I've heard from so many parents that these first years are soo precious and soo critical (and soo fleeting) that I'm hoping to be mostly present until Dominic starts school. My mom watched other people's kids, washed other people's windows and laundry, and sold Avon to be able to be with my brother and me during our before-school years, and I know it meant a lot to me. She became a Realtor for a lot of reasons, but one was because she wanted a schedule flexible enough to be there for our bake sales, concerts, games, recitals, and award ceremonies. If I can be half the mom she is, wow... that will be great.

Is he ______ yet?

talking? No words yet but he makes so many different sounds and so often (and carefully studies when the rest of us talk to him) that I bet he will talk early.

getting much 'tummy time'? Any of you who have had a baby probably in the past decade probably have heard this phrase. If your children are older, maybe not. That's because doctors noticed a 40% decline in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrom) deaths when they started instructing parents to make sure their babies sleep on their backs and not on their stomachs, and due to this, a conscious effort must be made to put babies their tummies during waking time to develop their neck and arm muscles and a sense of the-world-from-another-perspective.

That said, Dominic hasn't had much tummy time because he doesn't really like it. Just in the past couple of days, I have decided it's time to make one of those adult decisions and do it anyway even though he cries because it's important for his development. I am already noticing that he cries less each time, so I hope there will be a time when he likes it after all.

rolling over? No sign of this yet.

eating solids? You read above that he is strictly on breastmilk now. Our pediatrician, Dr. Pellman, is recommending to stick with that exclusively until 6 months.

crawling? Actually, in these past couple of days of forced tummy time, during Dominic's ranting and raving, he has managed to scoot himself quite a distance forward.. probably 12 inches in 5 minutes, mainly just by kicking his feet/knees. He still has a long way to go in the upper body department, though, before anyone could call it crawling.

solving quadratic equations? No, not yet~! But we are speaking Spanish to him from time to time, so I hope he is picking some of that up. I plan to put English and Spanish labels on everything soon ("door/puerta") which if it doesn't help him, it will at least help me remember my Spanish vocabulary.. haha!

How IS he?
He's an absolute peach and the love of our lives! Most days, he is really happy, sleeps about half the time and vocalizes and studies the other half. Some days, he fusses and/or sleeps a lot. Yesterday (actually 12/13, since it has taken me 2 days to finish this), he actually cried out in what seemed like pain a few times. Eddie thinks it is bad dreams but I'm hoping it's pain from growing. Nobody wants to think your little baby has anything in his little mind that would give him a bad dream so early in life (if ever, right?)

How is Eddie?
Eddie is the best husband and dad he could be. He reads the books; he changes diapers; he cuddles Dominic and tells him "cariños", which is Spanish for those lovey-dovey little adoring names and conversations you have with someone you love. "Mi corazon, mi cielo... senior cachetes" is an example... that means "my heart, my heaven... mister chubby cheeks". And Eddie takes great care of us. He rubs cream on my feet, brings me a bottle of water, puts up with my feeble attempts at wife-ing, and makes it possible for me to be home.

I hope those of you reading this blog will post comments when you think of them on these posts, and then I can have a new set of FAQ's to answer another day. Thank you again for visiting!

Eureka!!

2007-12-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

"I found it"

Uh oh! Looks like Dominic finally figured out that the fist he's been trying to suck on for the past week has some appendages that fit quite nicely in his mouth. Yesterday (December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day - coincidence?) he finally got the thumb, and Daddy and I were afraid he was going to suck it right off his hand!

The picture at left is dated 12/20, and Dominic is wearing the cutest elf outfit given to him by Auntie Lisa and Uncle Rob Carpentier (ok they are really cousins). The behind has a trap door that says "B'Jolly"... cuuuute!

Here's some video too.

Hanging Out in the Park

2007-12-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

Monday, 12/3, after making it in to REMAX and back for our company tree-decorating day, Dominic and I decided to take the stroller to the park to finally say hello to the cluster of a dozen or so nannies that gather at lunchtime with a gaggle of kids at the park about 100 yards from our house. The red circle is our house and the red X in the park (when viewed this small looks more like a red blob) is the nanny hangout spot.

We walked near the cluster of nannies and I spread out a blanket on the grass. Some of the nannies looked my way but didn't say hello. Then I took Dominic out of the stroller and put him on the blanket and right away many of the nannies smiled and seemed to warm up a bit. One of them asked me how old he was, and when I said "diez semanas hoy" (ten weeks today), they decided maybe I wasn't so bad after all. Of course, that brought on a flurry of rapid Spanish, which I am not fluent enough to follow at native speed. I learned a couple of names and look forward to seeing them again (and practicing some more Spanish) in the days ahead.

Dominic enjoyed touching grass for the first time.

Here is a picture of Dominic and me on the blanket, and another one of Dominic's view from his vantage point on the blanket. Doesn't he look handsome in his collared shirt (from the tree-decorating party)? Don't I look like I need a little more sleep? Haha.

Dominic's 2-month checkup -and- Hard-stuff Parenting 101

2007-11-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the point of the theme of this post, let me just give you a couple of pictures and a little commentary.

Dominic has been doing more and more every day, and smiling and enjoying more activities. Here's Dominic on Daddy's shoulders on Saturday 11/24. We had planned to go to Catalina after Thanksgiving, but the seas got rough so we hung around home and played.

Then on Sunday, Dominic was cooing up a storm. Here, he's dressed all warm from the stroller walk we just took to the park, and he was telling Daddy all about how he'd like to do that again sometime soon. (Ok, that's what we think he was saying.)

On Tuesday night, we went with Gram, Granddaddy and the Etheridge cousins to see the Christmas tree lighting and carol performers in the park across from South Coast Plaza.

Dominic seemed to like "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" the best! (when he wasn't snoozing)

On Wednesday, he was in the best mood ever! But alas, it wasn't to last. It was time for his 2-month checkup, which means lots and lots of shots... yuck!

The good news: He is really healthy and growing big and strong! He is nearly 13 lbs (ok, 2.2oz short: 12lbs 13.8oz)! He is nearly 150% of his birthweight. He has put on 3 inches in length, too. Some of his newborn clothes are already getting too short or too tight. It's exciting but I'm a bit melancholy that we are already saying goodbye to the tiniest version of our baby angel.

Here's a picture of Dr. Pellman examining Dominic. Then... it was time for the batch of vaccinations... a total of 5 shots! Thanks to an experimental version of one of the vaccines, we were able to knock it down to 3 pokes, but he still hated it. He cried during the shots, but right away he was smiling and cooing and supporting his weight on his legs again. On the way to Gram & Granddaddy's house, a trip we planned so they could help us with what we were expecting would be a cranky feverish Dominic, we started to wonder if we had over-prepared. But then at 4:15pm, he woke himself up from a sound sleep with a bloodcurdling scream of pain from his sore leg muscles. For the next hour he cried bloody murder, and for the following hour, he slept and kept waking up bellowing every time he would make the slightest move of his legs, so we decided to give him his first dose of baby Tylenol ever. Afterward, we measured his temp at 100.4. Awwww! Gram's awesome snuggly hugs and singing were the only things that could console him.

We thought sure it would be a loooooong night, but he ended up sleeping great. His fever actually increased to 101.9 after the Tylenol wore off, but with another dose it decreased under 101. This morning, he had stopped freaking out every time he moved his legs.

So today, we decided to accompany Daddy to the Brea Mall and walk around and do Christmas shopping while Daddy got his hair cut. Dominic really enjoyed the lights and sounds of the mall despite his slight lingering temperature. (Here's Dominic checking out the food court with Nana.)

I consider each of these events some introductory lessons to the challenges of parenting. The way I see it, there are several things to consider when you're deciding a course of action for your child: what God wants (not always readily apparent, but if you can figure it out is clearly always what you should do), what you want, what your spouse wants, what the child wants, what various other family/friends/onlookers want, and then what is the healthy thing to do. Then you make your decision based on those factors.

For example: When we were leaving the mall, Dominic was tired and cranky and really just wanted to be cuddled. Lord knows cuddling him is certainly what I wanted to do! And for a brief moment, I was tempted to just hold him (and kiss him and kiss him) in my lap for the drive home and say balderdash to the carseat. But that would have been really irresponsible, even though it is what both he and I wanted. No matter how careful we were on the drive home, some fool could run a red light and then I'd be really glad Dominic was strapped into his seat.

Earlier at Dr. Pellman's, I wanted to just explain that we'd be really careful and make sure Dominic doesn't get exposed to polio or rubella or whatever else he was needing a vaccine for. I didn't want him to have to go through that pain, and he certainly was in agreement with me! But again, that would not have been prudent, to quote a famous comedian quoting our former President.

Even earlier, when we went to the tree-lighting show... well, I probably sort of failed that test. It was chilly and late. Eddie was hungry and wouldn't be able to eat until after the show. But I wanted to go, and Gram and the girls wanted me to go and to bring Uncle Eddie and Dominic. So we went. Now, I'm not going to say we didn't have a good time because we did... even Dominic and Daddy. But it was something that a better parent may have decided to save for next year when Dominic might be able to enjoy it more. It's so hard to say no! Especially when you have such great and loving company!

But there was one time when all the planets lined up and what I wanted is what he wanted is what Daddy wanted and was the healthy thing and likely what God wanted us to be doing, and that was the fun time we had just being a family and playing together at home. My best memories of childhood are of that very thing. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

So I'm going to thank God for those times it's easy because what we should do is exactly what we all want to do. And I'm going to try to keep my eyes open for those moments I should decide to put God's will and the healthy/smart thing above my own wishes... and Dominic's wishes. I'm sure it's only going to get more difficult, but God and Daddy (I mean Eddie) and my other earthly angels will help me. And perhaps those of you reading this will say a quick prayer for me to get most things right. :-)

Ode to Family

2007-11-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

This so should have been my first post. But it's appropriate that it is going up for Thanksgiving. I am long overdue in doing a tribute to Dominic's extended family. From the first day, we have had so much support and help that it's about time I gave these Earthly Angels a mention.

My mom: Martie Etheridge ("Gram"). All I can say is wow. Did you know that even though Gram was there right from the moment Dominic made his appearance in the delivery room, she didn't get to hold him until he was 3 days old? You know WHY? Because her daugher (me) was so paranoid about making sure everyone ELSE got their turn that I never realized she hadn't got hers. And my mom just waited patiently and didn't swoop in and take over. Nope. She cooked a huge stroganoff dinner for everyone for Dominic's homecoming, and I never offered for her to hold the baby. What a louse I am! Even then, Mom spent 5 nights in our guest room, waking up every two hours to help me (finally getting a chance to hold him). I felt bad to be disturbing her and tried to do it myself and send her back to bed, but I bet she would've loved it if I would have let her fuss over her first grandson (and her own baby, me), even if it was 3am.

She has really used AMAZING restraint... she has so much wonderful insight and so much wonderful experience, yet she tries so hard to let me find my own way. When she makes a suggestion, I often retort with some anecdote I read in a book or something one of the "experts" has said about knocking down an "old-fashioned" technique. Yet, she keeps coming, keeps helping, keeps loving me and trying to give me some confidence as a mother myself. How on earth can I ever thank her enough? I thank God that she is here and I pray she will be here long after Dominic has his own children to help me learn to be as fantastic, patient, and inspiring of a Grandmother as she is. Here is Mom giving Dominic his first full bottle, which was November 6. Isn't she beautiful? Even moreso inside than out.

My mother-in-law: Cleo Masingill ("Nana"). She has seriously been here sweeping up dog hair and making sure I am eating probably 3 times a week since Dominic's arrival. She loves Dominic so much, and it shows. She changes him and holds him and pushes him around the house in the bassinette. She worries he is warm enough. And she, too, puts up with me and tries not to tell her opinions but bites her tongue and just waits to be asked.

One day, Dominic was going through a "growth spurt" where he was eating and eating (and throwing up and throwing up) voraciously for like 6 hours. When Eddie called to see how I was doing, I tried to sound like I had it all together on the phone, but Eddie saw right through me. He asked if I wanted him to call someone to help me, but I said no NO! About 10 minutes later, Cleo called, saying she "just happened to be in the area" (which is actually about 40 minutes from her home in Buena Park... hmmm). And she and Eddie's sister, Maryke, came over and sat with the baby while I showered and ate. I'm so blessed to know I can count on my own mother and father to deal with my idiosyncracies, but it is a really wonderful feeling to know the in-laws will come to my rescue, too.

My brother and sister-in-law: Uncle John & Auntie Karla Etheridge. As if raising 3 perfect Angel girls wasn't enough of a gift from them to the human race, these guys see to it that I have lots of encouragement, extra hands, and an invitation to dinner anytime I need them. The other night when Eddie was away at an SC game for dinnertime, they invited me for brisket. Due to my ill-planned feed-and-leave timing, I arrived an hour after dinner was to have started. There was dinner, all Saran-wrapped with love, waiting for me, and the whole Etheridge family welcomed me with open arms rather than being bent out of shape for my tardiness. Anyone can tell Karla is dying to hold Dominic whenever she sees him, but if she has even the slightest sniffle, she restrains herself to keep him safe. Karla has also had the magic touch when it comes to working on Dominic accepting a pacifier. And John always has some little kernel to feed my soul.. some word to prop me up so I can make another run at parenting as well as he and Karla have. The support from both of them means so much.

The Grandpas: My dad, Johnny Etheridge ("Granddaddy") and Eddie's stepdad, Jim Masingill ("Nano"). Not only do these guys put up with their wives being MIA, sacrificing their own dinners, home maintenance, and movie dates so the Grandmas can feed me and clean my house, but they themselves are over here constantly making sure Eddie and I and our new little boy have everything working right and all our dreams coming true. Just a few days ago, I had complained to my dad about a gross tree we have in our back yard and the next thing I know, a beautiful avocado tree appeared, soon to be transplanted into the twisted tree's vacant spot. And just today, Jim was stapling up lights to our patio cover to make sure our Thanksgiving would glitter just perfectly. They, together, made sure the downstairs bathroom remodel got finished before Dominic arrived. And both of them are such doting Grandpas to little Baby D! Most of all, they give the most loving hugs and look with loving eyes that make me feel safe and cherished. (By the way, Jim wanted me to mention that Dominic was able to be sleeping comfortably in this picture because by this moment in the the Thanksgiving Day USC football game, the Trojans were well ahead of the Arizona State Sun Devils.)

The Etheridge Cousins: Kaylin, Kira & Karoline. These guys are tempted to fight over who gets to hold Dominic first, last, longest, etc. But instead, they cooperate and take some of the pressure off me to keep things fair and decide. I wonder if they can fully grasp how helpful it is to me for them to be so nice to each other? With Dominic, they are so attentive, careful, and above all, near-perfect examples of sweetness and respect that I hope he will emulate. My favorite thing of all is how they actually run to kiss and greet me whenever I see them. There's not much can make a person feel better than that enthusiastic, warm reception. And we never part without all three making a special effort to kiss me, Uncle Eddie, and Dominic and to say "I love you."

Kaylin is nearly babysitting age, and she is very responsible and detailed so I know she will be a fantastic sitter when the time comes. She is always helping the other girls with pointers on how to position their arms to keep his head supported and all.

Kira can't take her eyes off Dominic whenever he's around her. She always asks to hold him, and she looks deeply into his eyes in what seems to be true love whenever she does get a turn. But when the answer has to be no and she can't hold him for whatever reason, she never pouts. She is always understanding and patient for her next opportunity.

Karoline is not only a great cousin to Dominic, holding him and pushing the stroller very carefully when it's her turn, but she is also tuned into Aunt Maggie (that's me) and is always looking for ways to do helpful things for me. She massages my shoulders and arms; she carries a bag I may be struggling with; she runs to get me a glass of water when I'm immobilized feeding Dominic. Really, all of the girls have been taught so well to unselfishly put their attention to others, and it makes them a sheer joy to be around (whether I'm getting fussed over myself or whether they are fussing over someone else). Totally gives me hope in their generation.

My sister-in-law (Eddie's little sister), Maryke Santizo ("Tia Nini"). Maryke often appears with Cleo to take care of Dominic so I can rest. She never seems to mind that the minute she arrives, she often gets saddled with diaper duty. She has the unique perspective on life with Eddie, and her stories and insights always help me appreciate him more. Like my own brother, Maryke always has something encouraging to say, and those comments boost my confidence and help me keep a positive attitude when I'm running on less sleep than I need. And like my sister-in-law, Karla, Maryke has a remarkable delicate and loving demeanor when she's holding the little prince.

There are lots of other family that I should mention, but if I kept typing until everyone who helped, cooked, visited or sent advice, wishes, or gifts was represented, then this entry would never get posted. All of you who read this, please do know how much your love, support, encouragement and time has meant to Eddie, me, and baby Dominic. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Dominic's Coo Coo (NOT "Dominic is Cuckoo"!)

2007-11-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

Dominic is really doing a lot of talking! Ok, not necessarily talking as you and I do, but making lots of different sounds and getting to know how his mouth and tongue work. Here's an example. Sorry it's sideways, but I can't figure out how to make a video rotate.

The Contingent Mobile

2007-11-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

On Halloween, my friend Heidi gave me a book she had read during her daughters' toddling years called "Baby Minds". I haven't got through the whole book yet, but what I've read so far has been very interesting. One story was about how babies love to realize they have some control over their environment, and one way they suggest to help them is to set up a "contingent mobile". You know the little mobile over baby's crib that plays music and turns around? Well, they suggest that you attach that to baby's leg or arm with a soft ribbon and rather than use the crank to move the mobile, let the baby do it. The mobile's movement is contingent on the baby's action.

So I attach his leg to the mobile with my bathrobe belt. And sure enough, in no time he has figured out how to get the mobile to move. Seems like he's having fun, huh?

Speaking of Halloween, here is a picture of our little "sweet pea" with Daddy as pea farmer...

And here is a picture of the Etheridge cousins and Heidi's girls with Dominc at the Downtown HB Halloween Street Faire.

And another of Dominic's Gram & Granddaddy working the REMAX booth at the Faire. It's easy to see how Dominic turned out so cute with such cute grandparents! :-)

A Couple of Pictures

2007-11-15T04:25:00.000-08:00

This is sort of a strange picture to be posting first - I mean the first picture should probably be just the Cupcake himself in some cute outfit with his eyes open and a cooing expression, right? But I thought this might be a good one since we're sort of on the middle-of-the-night feedings subject. This photo was taken the night between 11/8 and 11/9, which was the night I got 6 hours and 11 minutes sleep. It's a self portrait of Dominic and me at a moment I wanted to remember forever. You can't tell my left arm is up taking the picture, huh! This was one of those moments my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I guess that feeling of nirvana is part of what happens after a nearly full night's sleep. Haha.

Tonight, Dominic actually has slept great, from 10:30pm to 2:45! So I did pretty well executing the sequence without any forgotten steps -- due to the over 4 hours of sleep that has tuned up my brain perhaps?

I didn't make any entry at 2:45 because I was busy reading my friend Bianka's blog (check it out here). She had her baby last night in Florida and the first pictures are already up! I've been absolutely riveted by her blog - she's a really fantastic writer which I'm sure you'll agree if you check it out.

I will add one more picture before I go hit the hay. This is from our first trip to Sears photo studio:

I need to figure out if I can get this picture to show up statically at the top of the blog. Maybe after a little more sleep.

Thank you again for stopping by!

The Wakeup Sequence

2007-11-14T03:44:00.000-08:00

Ok. (Why do I feel lke starting every post with "ok"? Hopefully I don't start every conversation that way...) it's 3:42am. That was just about 2 hours to the minute from when he stopped eating. I must admit, I thought it would be a short sleep because it didn't seem like he ate much last time.

In case you're interested what the routine is, here's the sequence:

I awake to the sound of a tiny disturbance in the rhythm of Dominic's breathing, which 8 weeks ago I would've easily slept through but today might as well be the sound of a 747 landing on my head. I lay there, my eyes like saucers, listening for the next sound, hoping it will be something between nothing (which means I have to hope that I'm actually competent at baby-CPR from simply reading/memorizing the instructions from one of the zillion pregnancy books I read) and a whimper (which means I have to get up and feed him). What I'm wishing for as I lay there is for the breathing to return to its normal rhythm and after that, the superhuman ability to fall back to sleep instantly from this state of possible emergency. I get the whimper. Rats!

I look at the clock. Well, I'm supposed to remember to look at the clock but I frequently don't. So yesterday I just moved it for the 75th time to another new place in the bedroom hoping that I will actually be able to see it from wherever I am when I realize I forgot. After I look at the clock, which I remembered this time, I try to remember what time it was when he stopped eating last. 2 hours. Darn. The calculation goes like this: if less than 1.5 hours, I begin hoping the whimper goes away and start worrying why does he need to eat so soon if it doesn't go away. If greater than 3 hours, I say quick prayer of thanks to God for such a long rest and continue the wakeup sequence. If between 1.5 and 3 hours, I say quick prayer of thanks to God that Dominic is still breathing, adding request for next sleep to exceed 3 hours, and continue wakeup sequence.

Next, I go to the bathroom. That is, I go if I remember to go before I pick Dominic up from the bassinette. Are you starting to see a pattern? It seems that even though I've been going through this sequence what feels like 10,000 times since 7 weeks ago, I still manage to forget at least one of the steps. Sleep deprivation? Hormones (or lack thereof)? Senility? This shall be one of the questions I ask God if we get to ask questions in Heaven.

It seems that Dominic's hearing is just as bionic as mine has become, for with the first tiny rustle of the comforter as I move to make my way from the bed to the bathroom, his whimper increases. (My theory is that the increase is what makes me forget to go.) After my restroom break, which these days the experience is just beginning to show signs of returning to normal, I try to remember to stop at the sink, fill the water glass, and carry it to the end table Eddie has set up as my feeding station before picking up Dominic. I remember to do this about 33% of the time.

Slippers on, water at the ready, I put on my glasses (this is the step I forgot this time), put a ponytail in my hair (another frequently forgotten step) and then pick up the now-squirming Angel from Heaven. "Dang, he is cute," I think to myself, "even in this pitch blackness!" We walk from my bedroom to his bedroom trying not to wake Daddy. (Tonight, Daddy is in Las Vegas for the N.A.R. convention, his first night away from the Cupcake, so I didn't have to worry about that.) As I place him on the changing table pad, he begins to remember we have this diaper-changing pit stop before mealtime, and he starts to cry. I've tried everything to stop this cry, which usually only happens during nighttime feedings, but to no avail. Talking or singing to him, leaving his blanket around his upper half, picking him back up for a moment, playing with his feet... everything I've tried so far just seems to increase the volume, probably because all are just postponing mealtime further. I'm hoping he'll someday appreciate that meals are a lot more enjoyable when your bottom is clean, but for now, I just hope the neighbors are insulated from his hysteria.

Once the diaper is changed and I pick him up, the cries vanish in exchange for him beginning to nuzzle and sometimes suck on whatever of my skin is most handy: arm, neck, etc. It is usually right about this second that I realize I forgot to go to the bathroom, if I forgot, so I ask myself if I should set him back in the bassinette and go (and thus bring on a cry that could wake the dead) or just try to tough it out until he's done eating. At this moment, I usually don't have to go very badly, so I usually decide to tough it out, forgetting (yes, there it is again) that I will likely regret this decision in about 10 seconds.

I carry the nuzzler to the reclining chair. I sit, attempting to get the feeding pillow thingie (called "My Brest Friend") situated around me with one hand as I hold him with the other. The pillow thing is really a 2-handed job (note to self: attempt to invent a 1-handed breastfeeding pillow), so sometimes it ends up on the floor. In this case, I have to do one of those deep knee bends with the 12-lb Angel that I hope is a) giving me the great legs that I hope will go with the svelt figure that I hope the breastfeeding is giving me, and b) adding years to my life so I can live to see Dominic married and have a grandchild even though I waited until I was an ancient relic to have him. Dominic's sense that eating is imminent is beginning to transform him into a panting, squirming pirana. So I click the pillow fastener, prepare the "head side" by putting a small pillow under it and placing a clean cloth diaper on top to catch milk dribbles or attacks of spit-up, position him, wrestle his bottom arm out of the way to down between my stomach and his, and get him latched on before the transformation is complete. Those of you who know me know that I am not exactly the fastest gun in the west, so the latch-on often resembles the scene in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex ravenously chomps down on the outhouse with the attorney in it. 2 seconds of excruciating pain later, all is well! Dominic and mommy are both happy!

That is, until I realize I forgot to look at the clock and can't see it (seems I have that problem licked with the new clock location, though). Or that I forgot my glasses (which will explain why this post might have some severe typos in it). Or that I realize I really do have to go to the bathroom after all. Or that I forgot the water glass. Or that I forgot something else that is now about 1/2 inch beyond my reach. Nevertheless, I usually manage to fight off the frustration with the feeling that can only come from snuggling with a living, breathing gift from God. I thank God again for this amazing opportunity and, being the overemotional schlub that I am, I struggle not to cry with joy as I pray.

I still can't believe this is real.

Dominic has been finished eating for nearly an hour now, so that means I'm missing that all-important sleep time. Guess I'd better sign off. Wish me 3+ hours before the next entry!

Welcome!

2007-11-14T01:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome!

Ok. Welcome anyone and everyone to my first blog. My name is Maggie and this blog is all about life in the Ureno family with our new son, Dominic Edward. Dominic (a.k.a. Cupcake, Big D, Baby D, Mr. Man, Precious Angel, Mr. Grunts [sung to the Grinch theme song], and a myriad of other names he will not likely allow us to continue past his 4th birthday) arrived on September 24, 2007, at 10:24pm (9/24 at 10:24... coincidence?), which makes him 7 weeks and 2 days old today (if we are counting today as Wednesday, November 14.. which it is.. except that it is only 1:26am right now which means my body still considers that it is "Tuesday night".

I figured that the best time to make blog entries will be during these middle-of-the-night feedings. Then when Dominic figures out that nighttime is for sleeping, I'll have to figure out some other plan for making entries.. most likely during daytime feedings since typing on the computer is one of the only productive things I can do while feeding him (thanks to this handy computer desk my parents presented me with that has the perfect shape to snuggle up to the round nursing pillow thingie). Ok, if Eddie was reading over my shoulder I think he would say that feeding our son is pretty productive. What I meant was that computer typing is the only other productive thing I can do while engaged in the productive activity of feeding the Angel from Heaven.

Ok now he is done eating for the moment so I'd better go for now because, while it is tempting to sit here and try to type 7 weeks of catch up info, I know I most likely have 2-4 hours of sleep time starting when he stops, so I have to go for it when I can! So I will make another post later... maybe as late as 5:30am! Wow that would be great! (Incidentally, the longest he has gone without eating so far is 6 hours and 11 minutes. Ok that's the last thing I'm saying and now time for sleeping!)

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the adventures of Discovering Dominic with Eddie and me.