And we have a swimmer!

Dominic conquered a huge feat today by swimming all by himself for the first time! Mommy did a terrible job trying to video it, so we will have to try again tomorrow. Here's a picture of the proud swimmer, plus one of him and Cousin Vincent. I'm so proud of my big guy and was even happier when he told me how proud of himself he was. 

My little farmers

We had a blast this morning picking lots of sweet NC blueberries. 

The Great "Creation"

In Dominic's words this is the "creation" that he and Aunt Catherine worked on yesterday. Who would have thought you could turn a diaper box into that! I don't about you, but I was pretty impressed. However, the real question is - who had more fun? Dominic or Aunt Catherine? 

What does the piggy say?

Dante loves animals, whether he gets to see them live, on TV or in his books. We are still working on saying all of their names but he's starting to really perfect a lot of their sounds!

 

Aunt Catherine

Having so much fun having Aunt Catherine here to visit! 

Funny Guy

Dante's humorous personality shines through more and more each day! I simply cannot wait until I can understand what all his babble means. Here's a picture of him being silly in the tub the other night. 

Dante, 

Thank you for being you and making Mommy smile every day. 

My Sweet Boys

I can't express how happy it makes me when I find the boys doing sweet things together.

"Holy crap! It's show and tell day."

I felt like I could actually see these words fall out of Dominic's mouth and onto the floor of my closet that morning.  They seemed so heavy; I think might have even heard them land on the carpet.   How did this happen? How did it come to this? My once angelic, little boy being anxious about school and having this ugly vocabulary to express it.

It feels like chaos has been our normal for the last two months.  The holidays, Vinny's surgery, my busy time at work had all been one on top of the other.  Not only had Dominic's new word choices been a concern of mine, but overall his behavior was such a cry for a change.  Dante still refused to walk.  I knew physically he could but I didn't know why he didn't want to. The ear infections, runny noses and coughs just kept coming, one after the next for both boys.  You try and tell yourself and it will be over soon and you can go back and fix all those things you put band-aids on to make it through.  But can you really?

Things have since settled down for a little bit.  Thankfully, Vinny healed great from his surgery and is back on his feet at full speed.  My biggest event is successfully over and done for the year.  We can breathe a little sigh of relief for the moment.  As for the boys, Dominic seems to have done a 180 in a very short period of time and I couldn't be happier.  There are a few key ingredients that came into play there and I pray his new attitude is here to stay. I can also proudly categorize Dante as a "walker" now.  As for the band-aids, the old ones have been ripped off.  There are probably a few scars and I'm sure eventually new ones will be need to be taped on. But I know from my own scars that if we take a lesson learned and keep on moving on, head held high, one day, we can look back and appreciate how we got to where we are.

To my Sweet Pea and my Little Stinker -
I love you more than I can type on these pages and live each day proud to be your Mom.

Our Little Star

Dominic made his debut in the Christmas play at school earlier this week.  His class was the stars and they did a fantastic job!

Dominic,
Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more proud of you!

A Visit with Santa

As you can clearly see, Dante thoroughly enjoyed his very first visit with Santa.  Thankfully, Santa let Dominic stay for a minute longer after I removed Dante from the scene to ensure he had made it to the good list and whisper a few hints on what he might like to find under the tree. Hopefully, there are a few for Dante too, despite his behavior.  There's always next year, right?

Thanksgiving 2012

Since it is almost Christmas, I thought it was probably about time I got our Thanksgiving pictures up here ;-) We had a great Thanksgiving this year with the Miceli's.  The weather was perfect so the kids got to go outside and play and Dante seems to have enjoyed his first taste of fried Turkey. Throw in some awesome pumpkin pie, a few glasses of red wine, a little football and I think we can call it success!

It feels better already

Yesterday was much warmer than it has been and one those days that you just simply cannot justify spending inside. After naps, we decided to take the boys to the playground.  Each was happily expending their energy; Dante, climbing up and sliding down while Dominic found some toy dump trucks to move the sand around in.  All of a sudden, a shriek that we haven't heard in a long time came from Dominic's direction.  As both Vinny and I turned at the same time, we could tell by the creature circling his head that Dominic had just gotten his first bee sting on the left side of face. We grabbed them both and made a quick exit back to the car.  And what do we do in situations like this? Call Mom, of course.  She always knows exactly what to do while you have a screaming child in your arms. Well, after the house phone and both her and Dad's cells went unanswered, we were at a loss for a moment.  So, I told Vinny, "Ok, call anyone with kids and I'll start Googling." Thankfully, ZiZi Frank and ZiZi Denise were home and answered.  Frank started to give some suggestions that he knew, one of which, was to put a nickel on the sting. Vinny handed the coin to Dominic and by his look, I could tell there was nothing he was going to let touch his face, especially not this odd item.  However, with the nickel in his hand, Dominic did stop crying for a minute and said, "Daddy, it feels better already.  Can I just take this home and put it in my piggy bank?"

Thankfully, by that point, we had pulled up to the pharmacy and the very nice pharmacist pointed me in the direction of some Benadryl with some very specific instructions.  In a matter of moments, Dominic was back to himself, running and jumping like the incident had taken place eons ago. 

The farmer and the bear



Halloween was a really fun day this year.  Dominic was very excited about it  from when we first started to think about picking out his costume, to the anticipation of wearing it and the idea of getting so much candy.  He started off the day with a party at school and once he came home he couldn't wait for dinner to be over so we could go trick or treating.  Dante, of course, knew nothing of it and when it was time to get him in his little bear suit was none too happy with me.  After I finally wrestled it on him, we were ready to head out.  Dominic did an excellent job of remembering to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" and had a great time seeing all of the kids in the neighborhood.  Thankfully, once Dante was in the wagon, he happily enjoyed the ride as well as all of the people watching. After rounding a few blocks back towards home, Dominic got so overjoyed with the thought of giving out candy, he decided he has collected enough and was ready to man the door and he did for a little while. Then he and I went back out for one more block in the other direction while Daddy took care of passing out candy.  Dominic finished off the night filling a few more candy bags and as we finally headed up to bed asked "Is Halloween over? Do we have to wait all the way to next year to do this again?"

Celebrating Dominic

To celebrate Dominic turning four years old we took him, his friends and cousins to Pullen Park for his birthday party.  It was a perfect fall day to be outside and the kids had fun riding the train, carousel, boats and running around on the playground.  Dominic got the special treat of a trip to the airport later that day to pick up Grandma who came in from NY for the week. Several days later on his actual birthday, Grandma treated Dominic with dinner at his favorite restaurant, Chic-Fil-A, (Hopefully, his horizons will broaden one day.) which was followed by birthday brownies back at home with Daddy. Dominic is a very lucky little boy and was spoiled, as usual, with presents from all of his friends, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. 





"Hi-yeeeeee"

I think we can officially say that "Hi" is Dante's first word.  He does a nice, long and drawn out "Hi-yeeeeee" to greet everyone now, even strangers as they walk by. Sometimes, he accompanies it with a big wave and is becoming quite the social butterfly.

Another recent addition to Dante's skill set is shaking his head yes or no to let you know what he wants.  Pay attention though, because I warn you that if you don't listen when he tells you "no", you'll likely also get a big hand swat along with that head shake.

Four?

Dear Dominic,
Today, on this perfect fall day, you turn four years old.  Is that really possible? I just spent some time looking at your baby pictures, thinking back to when we were anticipating your arrival, the two days I was in labor and when we first brought you home.  Seems more like a lifetime ago.

You have become an amazing little boy and I am so proud to be your Mom.  I love that you have started to assert your independence in many ways, like wanting to help out and do things on your own, but I'm also glad that you still run up to me and nestle your little face into my legs acting as if you want to just melt into me.  I love that  now we can have real conversations and decide together if something is silly or a good idea.  You are such a thinker that sometimes I swear I can see the gears grinding behind those beautiful brown eyes and wonder if smoke will start to come out of your ears! But then you resolve whatever had caused you to pause and we either get one of those great Dominic smiles or a very thorough explanation of the current topic.  Sometimes we are even lucky enough to get both!

Things you are loving right now include pulling your brother in the wagon on walks around the neighborhood, coloring, monster trucks, Legos, playing your Leap Pad, cookies or ice cream before bed, and as always, anything to do with trains!

Thank you for being you, Dominic.  You bring a light to my life that I never could have dreamed and am so excited to watch you continue to grow.
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Mommy

Roar!

Papa!

I'm not sure why, but from when Dominic was just learning to talk, he's always referred to Dad as Papa. We all call him Grandpa and Dominic calls Mom, Grandma. Just one of those things that stuck, I guess. Hope Dad doesn't mind because I think it would be a lost cause at this point to try and change it. Plus there is something endearing about it to me that he determined this name and not us.
Here are some good shots I got of Dad with the boys while he was here.

Dante's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Dante's 1st birthday at our house with plenty of family and friends there to make it a fantastic party, as well as, a really fun weekend. The kids all had a blast jumping around on the bouncy and even though rain was supposed to be a huge threat that day, Mother Nature decided to give us a big break.  The Birthday Boy seemed to enjoy his first taste of sugary goodness and wore it adorably well.

 

 



Back to School

Last week, Dominic started his second year of preschool  in his new class with Ms. Ann and Ms. Gabriel in the Star Room.  Here he was, all ready to go that morning.

Dominic, may you be this excited to go to school every day for approximately the next two decades!

2012 Colts

Dominic has joined the 2012 Colts to play 4 year old soccer this fall.  The team has had a few practices so far and are ready for their first official game this coming Saturday.  Looking forward to a great season!

To My Little Stinker

Dear Dante,
Sadly, today, at exactly the time you were born, one year ago, I was running through the Atlanta airport switching planes headed to Phoenix for work.  As I snuck into your room early this morning to say "Happy Birthday" before I left, you lifted your little head and smiled as you do every morning when I come to get you from your crib. I picked you up and you snuggled right into me, relaxed as could be and completely unaware what a special day today is for you.  That's the only thing keeping me from feeling any more terrible than I already do for not being there today to share it with you. Your little personality is developing more and more each day and quite frankly, if you did understand, I think you just might hold it against me! Hey, at least I showed up last year, right? I think that's what really counts in the grand scheme of things, don't you?

As the title of this post suggests, I call you "Little Stinker." Your big brother calls you "Mr. Stinker" and I promise you it is said with the utmost affection and rings true simply because you still wear diapers.  I will try and stop before it causes any complexes on your part, however, in the meantime, I know that I will always look back on your first year and remember what a sweet little baby you were. You have been easy going from the start and getting one of those precious little smiles out of you has never been too difficult.  You love to be tickled, play games and flirt with perfect strangers when we are out and about.  You have finally become a master at Peek-a-boo and are starting to do clap hands.  Your tooth count has been at a 6 for a while now and we're waiting to see when some more decide to pop up.  That being said, you use what you've got to chomp whatever you can. As soon as you got a taste of real food, you never looked back.  Garbage Pail may become your next nickname.  Speaking of food and personality traits, you seem to have inherited a little bit of what your Father calls "Jeckle and Hyde syndrome" that Mommy develops when she gets hungry.  As Grandma pointed out this week, you may not be able to use words yet, but you certainly tell us when you need something.

You are still a little hesitant on the walking front.  While you've begun cruising on the furniture and use the walker toys, you really just don't care to stand on your own and prefer to sit down and crawl when you need to get someplace.  Daddy and I, along with Ms. Judy, are perfectly OK with you taking a little extra time in this area.  The way that you are already getting into Dominic's things now makes me believe that he, too, is on board with your decision to delay. 

Dante, I am already a proud Mama when it comes to you and know that will always continue.  I wish you the same health, happiness and successful growth that you have achieved in your first year through all of your years.  You have changed the dynamic of our family by multiplying the love, smiles and silliness and I can never ask for anything more than that! Although, on second thought, a few A's will eventually be nice :-)

Happy Birthday Little Stinker!
I love you,
Mommy

Dominic's first trip to a ballpark.

Yesterday I finally got to use my father's day present from Dominic. It was two tickets for him and I to go see the Durham Bulls play the Gwinnett Braves. This was his first time going to a baseball game and we had a blast!

We started off the night at the Mellow Mushroom, which is a pizzeria. Of course we got a cheese pie with his favorite topping, black olives. As you can see, he was very excited about the crayons because they are triangular in shape as opposed to rounded.

When we got to our seats, he was amazed at how big the field was and how close we were (2nd row, third base bag). Being a curious little boy, he asked hundreds of questions and I answered them all. When I asked him who his favorite player was, he said Wool E. Bull (the mascot, of course). We were able to get up close to him and even snap a picture. As you can see from the smile on his face, I think that was Dominic's highlight of the night. At the end of the game, the kids got to run the bases. I was going to run with him, but he said, "Daddy, I want to go by myself like a big boy". How could you say no to that? So while he was rounding first, he got knocked over by the bigger kids and was a little startled. I was able to get out there and we completed the run together. We left the stadium with a game used ball, his balloon animal (which he named Doggy) and tons of great memories!