Pictures

Since the more observant people are probably wondering. Yes! I've posted 3 blogs today. But Jon took Dominic to the YMCA and Caitlin and I are home alone. So the 1st one was done during nap time and I'm on the computer now instead of cleaning house. =)

These are mostly pictures of Caitlin. I love her cheeks and she looked so relaxed and wasn't crying for a change. Poor little girl is just so fussy unless she's being held. Unfortunately for her, that doesn't happen 24/7.

This is Caitlin on the way to church. I'm not a girly girl, but I keep putting her in little dresses and bows. Poor kid.

Jill had two shirts that she wanted to boys to wear to church on Sabbath. We had several visitors ask us if they were twins.

This one of both of them is cute. I was trying to get a picture of Dominic's long eyelashes right after he woke up and Caitlin kept grabbing the camera. So I put her down beside Dominic and she started crying.

Dancing Girl

Last week Dominic kept asking to watch the Dancing girl movie. We only have a few movies that we let him watch and we couldn't figure out which one he was talking about. So we ran through the list of 3 and it wasn't any of those. So we told him to show us. He went to the movie shelf and picked out "Sound of Music". Since I had to be doing something at the time, Jon was the one who would have to watch it with him. He tried to discourage Dominic by telling him he would be bored to death. Dominic would have nothing of it and poor Jon sat through the whole thing with him.

Today when Dominic got up from his nap he asked me "Mommy, can I watch Dancing girl. I want to be bored to death."

My funny kid

Dominic is always saying funny things. It's really hard to keep a straight face when he's serious and he gets upset if you laugh.

Dominic can go potty by himself and insists on privacy. But he's not real great at wiping yet so I will leave as requested and tell him to call me when he is finished so I can wipe him. Sunday Jon kicked Dominic out of the bathroom so he could have some privacy. As Dominic was leaving he yelled "Call me when you're done, Dad." When Jon came out and told Dominic he was done Dominic said "Can I wipe your bum?"

This morning at the breakfast table Dominic and I were talking about his full name, my full name, etc. I asked Dominic how old he was and he informed me he was "16 yrs old and I'm going to drive to town today." He's been asking and asking to drive the car and our answer is always "When you are 16 yrs. old." So I guess he got tired of waiting. Poor kid!

On the way home he smashed his finger hard enough to make a blood blister. He was crying and kept saying how sad he was. After I comforted him I asked him if he was still sad. He said "No, (still crying) I'm just agarvated." (spelled like pronounced)

When I was putting Dominic down for his nap a few minutes ago he was a little weepy. I asked him what was wrong and he said he was scared for Daddy. He wanted to call Daddy at work and warn him about the motorcycle monster. Since I hadn't heard of this monster I asked a few questions. It seems that he's "just like George" except that he's silver (Jon's motorcycle is silver) and HIS name is Rachel. He lives at Daddy's work and we needed to warn Daddy when he came home. Dominic insisted that Rachel was a boy when I asked. Poor monster.

Doc and Dak (his right and left hand) still have extensive conversations. I find that my disciplining methods are talked about a lot, especially if Dominic has gotten in trouble recently. Dominic will copy my tone of voice and instructions ("go sit on your time out box") exactly. It is very enlightening as a parent to hear how a child views discipline and how he feels about me because of it. Thankfully for the most part Dominic understands why he's been punished and doesn't get upset. And so Doc and Dak don't get upset when being punished. But it's a real wake up call when I hear him in my tone of voice getting upset and realize I messed up. Sigh! Kids are our mirrors so much of the time.

Papis

Yesterday on the way home Dominic told me that he "wasn't eating paper". Since I hadn't asked him I was pretty sure he was telling on himself. Sure enough I could see the half eaten paper in his hand. We had a long discussion about lying and he seemed to understand. A few minutes later he said again "Mommy, I'm not eating paper." Spit, spit. "See! It's all in my hand now. I'm not eating it." Sigh! Another talk about lying and obeying. Because he knows he's not supposed to eat paper.

We get home and I put him to bed. Every day he goes to bed with a blanket, water bottle, papis (pacifier-pronounced pappy-ees), Cuddles (the bear), and he gets to pick 2 toys. He can keep the toys as long as he doesn't play with them until after his nap. Amazingly, this works. But yesterday he was just not in the mood to fall asleep. I knew he was tired and he's required to "rest" even if he doesn't fall asleep. After 30 minutes I went in and told him that if he didn't be quiet and go to sleep I would take away his toys. A few minutes later he lost his toys and was told that if he didn't obey and be quiet that I would take away his papis. He wasn't quiet and I was on my way in to take away the pacifier when I heard him calling me. "Mommy, come take away papis. I was only pretending to obey. I'm not lying now. Here's my papis." It was so cute. He was being honest about being disobedient so I wasn't sure whether to be proud or not. =)

He finally went to sleep 2 hours after I'd put him to bed.

Snow

Yesterday it snowed a little bit. Jon took Dominic out to play in it, but it was wet and cold and I didn't want Caitlin out while it was still snowing. So today I decided to get the kids out and take pictures of Caitlin's first snow.

She was fussy all morning while we were eating breakfast and layering up to go outside. I pulled out her snowsuit and put her into it and she promptly fell asleep. Since she hadn't had her nap I left her on the bed and went outside w/ the monitor. So while Dominic had a ton of fun, Caitlin missed the whole thing. Oh, well! She wouldn't have remembered it anyways.

As you can see, there isn't very much snow. They had predicted about 3-6 inches, but the ground was so warm that most of it melted before it could stick. It didn't really stick until last night when the weather turned colder.

By this morning it was already starting to melt. But that didn't stop Dominic from enjoying himself.

I'm not sure where Dominic learned about snow angels, but he bugged me all morning until he got outside asking if he could make snow angels. So here he is making his angel.

Awesome Daddy!

Jon is a wonderful dad!!! He's also a wonderful husband. I have book club tonight and Caitlin would need to eat right in the middle of it. So Jon offered to feed her a bottle so I could go alone. She's a fussy little girl at times and so I was ready to take him up on the offer. Especially since I've been stuck in the house a bit more than normal w/ all of this cold weather and the recent snow we've had. So on Monday night Jon gave Caitlin her first bottle. She hates the pacifier the few times we've given it to her and so I was a little fearful that although the milk would taste the same she wouldn't even try it. But after the first funny face she made, she settled right down as if nothing was different.

Here is a cute picture of my family sleeping. Dominic was taking a nap and so Jon was trying to get our fussy girl to be quiet and I guess he went to sleep as well. She's also always spitting up so that is a towel underneath her.

Dominic & Caitlin

I've taken quite a few pictures of the kids lately. So I thought I'd put a few up here. Caitlin is growing 

up so quickly.

Caitlin was having tummy time and Dominic lay down to talk to her. It seemed to amuse her. So I was able to get several pictures of them like this.

Not sure what they were looking at.

Miss Melony came to play with Dominic and one of the activities was "drawing" things with shaving cream. He LOVED it. We had to totally strip him down when they were done, but it was worth it.

Caitlin was so upset this day and finally found her thumb and put herself to sleep. She wouldn't take the pacifier so maybe she won't be attached to it like Dominic is.

My precious kids

We take Dominic swimming at the Y several days a week. He's getting very good at holding his breath and diving under water. He'll be swimming like a fish by this summer when the top comes off the outdoor pool. We spent a large portion of last summer at the pool so I'm hoping he can swim by then.

Caitlin is being a sweetheart and only waking me up once at night now. I'm hoping she follows in her brother's footsteps and is sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. She's not sleeping very well during the day though. She fights it so badly. According to my mom, I did the same so I guess it's payback time. =)

Other than feeding her 7-8 times a day I haven't noticed very much of a change in our routine. I'm sure that once she gets older and can be more active that she'll change things, but now it's just making sure I have a few minutes to stop and feed her when we're on the go.

Phone Number

Several nights a week Jon takes Dominic to the YMCA. Jon drops Dominic off in the play area and then goes to work out or play racket ball. When he's done, he picks up Dominic and they go swimming. Last night when Jon went to pick up Dominic the ladies told him that a girl had thought Dominic was cute and had given him 

her number.

When Dominic got home he proudly pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. Sure enough, it had a name and phone number on it.

When I first had my son I knew things like this would happen, but I thought I'd have a few more years to get used to the idea. My two year old was flirting w/ a girl and got a number. I've got to wonder if he's this good now, how he'll be at 16. I think Jon is proud of him. He suggested I put Dominic's 1st phone number in his 

scrap book. =)

Eating out is getting stressful.

On Tuesday we (my mother-in-law, Jon & I & kids) went out to eat for Jon's birthday. Dominic is always full of energy and so we had some crayons and a coloring book to amuse him while we waited.

He kept telling us that he wanted "women" in his water. Finally we understood and gave him some 

lemon slices.

He was all over the place, messing with the blinds in the window, trying to crawl under the table and bouncing on the seat. The poor child couldn't be still if his very life depended on it. One of us noticed he was chewing on something. Guess he'd found some gum stuck to the underside of the table. So gross!

His kid's meal came with steak fries. He doesn't like potatoes, but recently has discovered ketchup. So he used the fries to act as a scoop and ate about half a bottle of ketchup. I didn't think about it until after, but I think ketchup has sugar in it. Sigh!

This restaurant has the best snickers pie. So I'd had the idea of getting Jon a whole pie for his birthday. When I went up to ask them about it they told me that the pie would cost $62 plus tax because even though I would be buying the whole thing I had to pay the price per slice. I went back to the table and told Jon that this was a case of it being the thought that counted. Yikes! I couldn't pay that much for just a pie. I'm going to try to find a recipe online or something.

Jon and I used to eat out a lot before the kids got here. But this is reinforcing in our minds that eating out should be for date nights. Dominic just doesn't have the ability to be still. The poor kid really tries, but even just sitting his little legs are swinging, his fingers tapping the table and his mouth running. Very cute, but not very relaxing.