Dominick...Our Little Monkey

Geaux Saints!!!

2010-02-04T17:32:00.002-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I've updated this site. I've been preoccupied with Farmville and learning to crochet...very addicting stuff!!! Things have been great, Dominick is now 4 years old and enjoying his new Pre-K4 class. We had a great Christmas at my parents' house with my family and nieces. We also recently took little man to see the show Walking With Dinosaurs...it was AWESOME!!! Even if you have no kiddos and no interest in dinos, the show is super cool and anyone would love it!!! Dominick really, really enjoyed it...well worth any amount of money it would cost. Here are some randon pictures.

Dominick chillin with cousin Izzy.
A picture of one of the machanical dinosaurs in the show. Sound and light affects were so awesome!

At Dinosaur show.

A Christmas present...Lightning McQueen Geo-Tracks.

This was not a staged picture, this is how they were sleeping with Mickey (our dog) one night when I was getting ready to hop in my bed. So sweet!!!

Maw Maw, Paw Paw, my nieces and little man (who does not like to take pictures and always looks drunk unless I bribe him with candy or something).

Nicole and Dominick trying out their new skates from Santa.

4th Birthday

Dominick has to wear Saints clothes to school tomorrow so I had this shirt made for him. I had to bribe him with chocolate candy to get him to agree to a picture.

Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas Trees

2009-11-25T14:02:00.005-05:00

Here are pictures from the last month.

The pumpkin patch.

Carving pumpkins

This was the first year Dominick was allowed to go trick-or-treating. Normally we go to our church party but we decided to let him try trick-or-treating and he had SO much fun!!!

Thanksgiving dinner at school with the parents

Dominick's favorite color is blue, so we bought him a blue Christmas tree for his room. He is so excited over all the Christmas decorations this year!

Growing Up To Quickly

2009-10-14T19:29:00.002-04:00

It feels like I woke up a few weeks ago and I had a different child. Dominick has suddenly hit a new "stage" of development and I'm not so sure I like it. To give a few examples: he is extremely sassy and obnoxious, he suddenly doesn't "like girls" or want to play with them (before, his best friends were mostly girls), he tells me no and refuses to do what we tell him to and no punishment seems to help... A few weeks ago he told his teacher and each child in his class that he didn't care that he was not getting Treasure Chest because he "has better toys at home". Just now, I was folding clothes and he kept jumping over them, I told him to stop several times and them I told him "If you knock over my clothes I'm going to turn off the TV." He walked away and a minute later walked up to me and said "I hid the remote, now you can't turn off the TV Momma". WHO IS THIS CHILD??? I know this is just a new stage but I can't wait until this one is over. I'm purchasing 2 new recommended Christian based books on boundaries and discipline this weekend. Can't wait to start reading them!!!

He loves these new PJ's and wants to wear them every night, even when he is sweating. He told me this weekend, "I'm not sweating. Look Momma, do you see water dripping down me face?" (sassy boy).

My Little Reader

2009-09-16T17:50:00.011-04:00

This is a video of Dominick reading one of his books.

As a first grade teacher, I can not stress the importance of reading to your children every single day. It increases their vocabulary, teaches them comprehension skills, instills a love of reading, teaches them what fluent reading sounds like, helps them understand plot, characters, problem, solution, and that every story has a beginning, middle and end...all by simply reading stories to them (not teaching or explaining anything-just reading). I can not even begin to tell you all the things Dominick has learned from us reading to him daily his entire little life. He can tell me the characters of the story, the speaker (narrator) of the story, he has picked up on many words that I do not normally use in my vocabulary, he can read (recite) all the stories I read to him (which is the beginning stages of reading), he can can tell me the problem from the story, etc. It is really amazing to see the skills he has that many of my first graders do not have when starting the school year. It is truly AMAZING in my eyes!!! So parents, pleeeaaase take that extra 15 minutes each night to read to your little ones! It is great family time and they learn so much from it.

School Projects

2009-09-09T19:55:00.004-04:00

The next three pictures are a few of the projects Dominick's teacher has done with his class lately. She is so creative and teaches him so much. They work on a project every day. I'm extremely grateful he has such an awesome teacher!!!

This little project was to help the children learn their addresses. Each child's address was written on their little bag-houses. So cute!

This was our last visit to MawMaw and PawPaw's house. We went to an indoor place that was full of different fun jumps and slides. The kids loved it!!! This is Dominick and his two little cousins (my baby brother's kids).

This is one of Dominick's pride-and-joys...a lady bug who grows grass out of his head that Dominick loving named Spot. He LOVES to give Spot a hair cut every few days.

Check back soon, I will post a video of Little Man reading!!! He LOVES to read books to his stuffed animals!

Swimming and Icecream Truck

2009-08-15T09:45:00.007-04:00

Dominick has been enjoying swimming at his fake aunt Beth's pool this summer.

He has been swimming more and more on his own, but after seeing many different kids with floaties, I was finally able to convince him to put some on. It gives me a break from being his personal floatation device.

The dogs always magically appear and become Dominick's best bud when he is eating a snack.

Dominick is walking up to the Ice cream Man with his $5 bill. Some how Dominick never fails to hear the Ice cream Man's music coming!

He was so excited! Not only did the Ice cream Man give him a Sponge Bob ice cream, he also gave him back 3 dollar bills!!! He thought that he ended up with more money because he had handed the man 1 five dollar bill and the man gave him 3 one dollar bills back. So in Dominick's mind he ended up with MORE money! He said "Look Mom, now I have THREE dollars!" Hahahaha, what a smart boy for noticing, he never ceases to amaze us.

YUMMMMMM!

Surprises Are So Much Fun!!!

2009-07-16T18:02:00.004-04:00

When Dominick and I got back from a trip to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house, Daddy had a big surprise for him hiding in the garage.

Swim Lessons and Boots

2009-07-06T23:39:00.003-04:00

Dominick didn't learn a tremendous amount from 2 weeks of swim lessons but I am excited to announce that he finally swam COMPLETELY ON HIS OWN at my friend's pool last week. It was so cute. He'd just jump toward us and start swimming and we'd just keep walking back away from him. He swam about 10 foot out to us until we'd reach out to pick him up. He doesn't know how to lift his face out the water for a breath or to stop, so we'd just let him paddle his little arms for about 10 feet and then scoop him up. So cute!

Dominick chasing his swim instructor on a noodle.
Learning to float on his back.

Swimming to his swim instructor.

This is for you Ms. Jeanna. Thanks for the boots, Dominick loves them. I thought he'd like me to post this picture for any future girlfriends to see, ha ha!

Trip To The Dentist and Playing

2009-06-23T22:59:00.002-04:00

Fun in the bathtub

Lucky for me, Dominick likes going to the dentist. This was his second time going for a cleaning. He goes to a children's dentist and they make it fun for the children by doing things like giving them little sunglasses so the lights don't bother their eyes. Too cute!

Trip to the Beach

2009-06-03T21:28:00.006-04:00

We took a trip to the beach with my mom, dad, youngest brother, his two daughters, and our 3 puppies. It was absolutely wonderful. We couldn't have asked for better weather, a nicer condo, or a more perfect vacation!!! The children had a wonderful time and got along perfectly!!!

Nicole (4), Dominick (3) and Izzy (2) on our balcony

My mom and Izzy

Dominick would have stayed in this boat ALL day if we would have let him. It was the only way he felt completely safe in the ocean and he loved it!

My dad and Izzy

My brother and his oldest daughter Nicole

Dominick jumping to my mom

Nicole jumping to my Mom
My two boys crashed out after a long day in the sun!

An amusement park with rides for young children.

We also spent a fun day at a water park but I didn't bring my camera.

Mother's Day, Sleeping and Swimming

2009-05-12T18:34:00.004-04:00

Dominick goofing off with his cousin at our Mother's Day dinner.

Dominick insists on sleeping with a ton of toys each night. We go into his room and take the toys out of his bed after he falls asleep so that he can be comfortable and not roll on all of them. The problem is that is we do take the toys out, he usually will wake up some time in the middle of the night crying and when we go in to see what is wrong, he is mad that we had the nerve to take his precious toys out of his bed, and he insists on us putting them back in.

Dominick's new pool. How sad, this is the largest pool that can fit into our backyard. I've always loved swimming and grew up spending my summer's at the beach and the neighborhood pool. We decided last summer that we'd start saving to put a pool in the backyard even though it is an extremely small yard. But after talking to 3 different pool companies, we found out that it can not be done. There is a city ordinance that a pool has to be 5 feet away from all property lines as well as the house. That would leave us with a pool so narrow that it can't be done. Crazy huh?!? Oh well, this won't be our last house so there's always the chance of a "real" pool at our future house, lol.

Look how wide (or narrow) our yard is!!!

Easter

2009-04-16T23:42:00.005-04:00

Dominick had a busy Easter week. We had several parties, one at our house, one at his school and one at a friend's house. We also spent a day in New Orleans, riding the street car (train) up and down St. Charles Street and a day at the zoo.

Dominick's beloved cousins, he loves these girls sooo much!

His school party was really nice. They had fun jumps, train rides, egg dying, face painting, hot dogs, games and egg hunts.

The big fun jump slide.

This is Dominick's girlfriend Hanna. They have grown up together at school/daycare and they love each other so much. Hanna's mom told me that Hanna said "I love Dominick sooo much, he makes me laugh. I'm going to marry Dominick." I didn't know if Dominick even knew the word marry, so I asked him "Is Hanna your girlfriend? Are you going to marry her like I married Daddy?" He said "Yes, Hanna is going to 'wear' my baby!" Yikes, don't ask me what that was supposed to mean but I thought it was funny.

Fuzzy picture but Dominick was only interested in finding the blue eggs.

Baton Rouge Zoo on Easter Day.

Maw Maw and Dominick on the street car.

Street Car

New Orleans French Quarter

St. Jude's Hospital Fundraiser

2009-03-21T21:08:00.012-04:00

Each day at Dominick's school, 7 children get a "job" such as line leader, fish feeder, and flag holder. A few days ago Dominick came home and said he was the "flag holder" and he kept reciting the pledge of allegiance. Here is a video I was lucky to get, turn up your volume and listen to my precious little man!

As you can see, he is not great at sitting still, haha!

Dominick had a trike-a-than at school to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It was the cutest thing ever, he had soooo much fun and raised $75.00 for St. Jude's! Thanks to all of you who sponsored my Little Man. Here are some pictures:

The bikers are gearing up with their helmets!

I was surprised and quite impressed by Dominick's competitive side in this trike-a-than. He pedaled his little legs full-force for the whole 30 minutes. It was so funny...they had many bike crashes, but once Dominick got the hang of it he was darting around other bikers, trying to stay ahead of certain "friends".

How do ya like my fashionable Guess clothes Lala? Are the shorts to raggidy or do ya think I look hot?Oh cool, now two girls want my attention??? I must be hot after all!

Here's a video of the beginning, before he really got the hang of it.

And yes, the loudest kid that is screaming "MOMMY!" is Dominick. That boy is absolutely the loudest child I have ever heard...all the time-every where we go!

Baseball Fun

2009-03-02T18:36:00.007-05:00

Dominick has suddenly showed an interest in sports and has been carrying balls around asking us to play with him. Jon pitched a few balls to him and he actually hit a few so Jon ran out and bought him a t-ball set and a soccer goal set.

Don't ask me how he ends up hitting the ball with his eyes closed...luck maybe???

I told him Paw Paw would be soooo proud so now he keeps asking for Paw Paw to come visit. Time for Paw Paw to retire and move closer to couch Little Man's baseball team (my dad couched my brothers' baseball teams every summer for many years.

School Project for Little Man

2009-02-15T23:07:00.005-05:00

Dominick had his first assignment from school to do a family project and I was soooo excited to do a school project with him. He had to build a shoe box Mardi Gras float and they are having a parade at school this Friday. So of course I am taking off of work to go to my Little Man's parade at school.

We decided to make a Lighting McQueen float and this is the final result. I spent over 5 hours on this sucker but we had sooooooo much fun!!! It even has motorized wheels on it, ha ha!

Dominick's new big boy dinosaur room.
Bedding is from The Company Store/Company Kids.

Curtains from Wal-Mart.
Dinosaur clock from EBay.

Painting is from The Company Store/Company Kids.

Dominick's first night sleeping in his new big boy bed. He fell asleep with the monkey on his chest, I didn't do that for the picture. He sleeps with a ton of stuffed animals, cars and trucks. We have to dig the cars and trucks out the bed after he falls asleep every night.

Thanks for contributing to my bedroom set and bedding Paw Paw and Maw Maw. You didn't have to do that but we do appreciate it!

Cute Conversation with Little Man!

2009-01-28T18:07:00.004-05:00

We were driving in the truck the other night and suddenly Dominick said "I want to go to Baton Rouge!" Jon and I looked at each other for a second wondering where Dominick heard that word from and then I said "Where do you want to go?". Again Dominick said "Baton Rouge". Then Jon said "Who lives in Baton Rouge?" and Dominick's answer was "GEORGE BUSH!... HE'S OLD!" Jon and I started cracking up laughing, we had both guessed by this point that he learned about George Bush and Baton Rouge (our state capitol) at school. So Jon said "Who told you about George Bush Dominick?" and he replied "Mrs. Jean told me that. He's old. George Bush is old Dad!" Too cute!!!! What a precious conversation with my most precious little man. I guess Dominick is learning something at school even though his teacher says he has trouble being quiet and being a good listener, hee-hee. We have been teaching him at home how to close his lips and keep them closed when Mrs. Jean is "having class time".

Practicing keeping his mouth shut

Demonstrating his "Mater Eye" from the Cars show.

By the way, I asked him while typing this "Dominick, who is Obama?" because I was wondering if his teacher had started talking about our new president and Dominick said "Barrak Obama". Then I asked him "Where does Barrak Obama live?" and his reply was "Ummm, George Bush!"

Christmas Picutres!

2009-01-10T12:50:00.005-05:00

Can you believe it? I'm actually posting twice in a week!

This is Dominick's Pre-K class's party.

We let the kids open their gifts on Christmas Eve. We don't really do the whole Santa thing. Dominick knows who Santa is because of school and society in general, but Jon and I are not going to make a huge deal out of Santa. We want to keep it simple and focus on the real reason our family celebrates Christmas...the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. (By the way, I don't think there is anything wrong with Santa, etc. It is just a personal decision we have made.)

Nicole was is awe of her kitchen set. Too cute!

Izzy absolutely loved her big girl toys. The girls got an ironing board, baby strollers, baby doll beds, kitchen and tea sets, Cabbage Patch dolls, etc. Izzy thought it was so cool to get in her baby doll bed with her baby and she especially loved stripping the dolls and herself naked and changing their diapers!

This was one of my personal most enjoyable parts of our Christmas celebration. My parents take us out to eat at a nice restarant on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun to have an adult dinner and not have to run around the house catering to the 3 kiddos. The kids did come with us and were surprisingly very good.

Happy Birthday Jesus and Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T22:22:00.004-05:00

We had a great Christmas! We went to my parents' house and everything was great! This was our first Christmas to have my two nieces (Dominick's beloved cousins) with us so it was special and fun. Dominick got a big boy bike amongst tons of other things, but one of the fun things for me was all the girly toys my nieces got. They got a kitchen set, ironing board, vacuum, dolls, strollers, etc. I had so much fun putting the kitchen set together. Since I don't have a girl (and probably never will-but that's OK), I love buying the girly toys for my nieces. I guess God gave me 2 little nieces so I'd have just enough fun with all the girly things I would have missed out on otherwise.

The most exciting thing in my life this past week has been planning for Dominick's new room. We are redecorating his room in dinosaurs. I have ordered all new furniture which should be here in about a week, and I've been ordering new curtains, bedding, pictures, and accessories in dinosaurs (Dominick's new passion is dinosaurs).

I ordered the bed, pull-out bed, dresser, mirror and chest of drawers. I will probably also order the night stand later because Jon wants it for when Dominick is older. He said he doesn't like "mis-matched furniture" so he wants me to add the night stand now instead of trying to get one to match later if necessary.

I'll try to post Christmas pictures this week, but you know how terrible I am about updating so don't hold your breath.

Snow Day!!!

2008-12-11T17:21:00.006-05:00

I stopped updating my blog because I didn't think anyone really read it any more but I had a few requests so here we go...

It snowed today! I snowed pretty heavily ( large snow flakes) from about 4:00 am until about 9:00 am. That is a big deal down here in South Louisiana. I haven't seen snow like that since I was in 5th grade (about 20 years ago). I called Dominick to the back door to see it and he said "It's Christmas Momma, today is Christmas!!!".

I didn't get any great pictures because it was still dark outside when I left to go to work and then I took some at school (work) after it had stopped snowing.

We had Dominick's 3rd b-day party early. His b-day isn't until Dec. 31st but with the madness of the holidays we had it early. The party turned out great. It was at a place called Kart Ranch and they had pizza,a few huge ball pitts, a fun jump, slides, go-carts, bumper boats, and miniature golf.

The following day we took Dominick and he beloved cousin to see Playhouse Disney Live. It was lots of fun!

I got my Christmas/Birthday present early this year. It is a salt water mini-reef aquarium and it is keeping my very busy lately. We are at the fish stores several times a week and I am reading and researching constantly to learn about all the crazy stuff I have to do for this little sucker. But Jon and I are both really enjoying it so far.

We attended a Guatemalan get-together held my some Louisiana families a few weeks ago.

Dominick was so proud of the little headband he made at school.

Gotcha Day

2008-10-15T19:16:00.002-04:00

We celebrated our 2nd Gotcha Day on October 4th. Well, Dominick actually insisted on having his cake the day before. He saw it on the counter and insisted on eating it! It is so weird that it has only been 2 years, it feels like Dominick has been in our family forever.

What's new with Little Man? Well, he has always loved books but he loves them more than ever...especially dinosaur books. He has most of his favorites memorised and Mommy and Daddy are so tired of reading the same books over and over. His behavior has been pretty good lately. He loves going to daycare and will be starting Pre-K 3 school in December. He can't wait to go to "big boy school".

This is how he fell asleep the other night. He had been completely knocked out for several hours when I took this pictures. After we have read him books many times, he takes over and reads the books to his stuffed animals until he falls asleep. So sweet!!!

This is the new playground at our local zoo. We have been going every week now that the weather has cooled off a little.

Fun with Family

2008-09-21T18:54:00.004-04:00

My mom and two nieces came for the weekend to visit and the kids had so much fun! I didn't take many pictures... wish I would have taken more.

We took them to the Kart Ranch and they had a blast in the kiddie area and bumper boats. This is where Dominick will have his 3rd birthday party. The pictures don't do it much justice but it is a super cool place for kids to play. They have go-carts, bumper boats, arcade games, and a super cool kiddie are with a fun jump, mini-ball put, huge ball pit, and much more.

Mini-ball pit area

Large ball pit area

I so wish I would have taken a picture of Dominick's room last night. We let him and the 2 girls play in there and TEAR IT APART! They had sooooo much fun and were soooo good but I was a little crazy, biting my nails and hoping they were not destroying his walls. Let me explain, I have NEVER allowed Dominick to play freely in his room before. Normally, he takes all his toys out into the family room and plays where I can watch and supervise and make sure he is not destroying his toys. So last night I kept going in and checking on them every now and then and they had EVERY toy out, the blankets pulled off his bed, books off the shelf and so on. But they were truly having so much fun and behaving so well. Guess I'll have to start allowing him more freedom when we have friends over to play.

Humming Bird Mania

2008-09-06T18:17:00.003-04:00

Humming birds have taken over my backyard. Seriously, there is a minimum of four humming birds at my one feeder at all times. It is usually more like 7-8 birds fighting over the feeder. I've never seen anything like it. There are so many of them it looks like bees swarming. I have to fill up the entire feeder every single day. They make a lot of noise too but my camera didn't pick that up too well. Here is a little video.

Dominick is doing well. He no longer takes naps which is just killing me. We make him lay down for at least 1-2 hours every day but he WILL NOT fall asleep. The problem is, he really needs a nap. He is so cranky all afternoon!!!

Also, don't know if I mentioned it but he is fully potty trained, WHOO-HOO!!! No more pulls-ups, big boy underwear all the way. I even try to match his underwear to his outfit everyday, hee-hee! (Most of them are solid colors)

This is for you mom-I LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH AND I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!

I Want Vivanno

2008-08-13T19:43:00.003-04:00

I'm officially back at school and so far my little class is AWESOME!!! I'm so grateful to have such a great class. I'm praying that it stays that way.

This is Little Man drinking my Vivanno. Before returning to work, I'd stop at Starbucks at least once a day and Dominick would hear me ordering a Vivanno and he yells "I WANT VIVANNO MOMMA...I WANT VIVANNO!!!"

These are pictures of a family day at Little Man's preschool/daycare.

Art Class

2008-07-23T22:30:00.002-04:00

Below you will find another one of Dominick's art projects. However, this time I can not truthfully say that Little Man completed it himself. On day one of this project, he did fantastic. But on day two, he threw several temper tantrums, Mommy completed the rest of the project herself and we left the class early. I was sooooo embarrassed. ALL the other precious children in the class sat like perfect angels and completed their art projects just fine while Dominick laid on the floor and SCREAMED because he did not want Mommy to help him. I know this is perfectly normal behavior for his age, but for parents who have these perfect little kiddos whom are not nearly as strong willed as Little Man, I know they think I'm a horrible mommy with a bratty child. I'm sure they were all talking about me and saying "Thank God she took that big mouthed child home" when I left.

These are pictures of Little Man "measuring his car".

Dominick has always been a big talker for his age but it still amazes me how much his vocabulary continues to progress. He comes home from daycare every day and tells me all about his day. He says things like "Mrs. Amanda rubbed my belly to help me sleep, K*** pinched G****. He got in VERY, VERY trouble!...." He even tells on himself if he pushed someone or had to go to time out. Then I say "Uh-oh, well no T.V. because you pushed today" and he'll say "No Mommy, I not push, K*** push. I good boy at daycare. I watch T. V. pleeease" It's so funny.

Oops...

2008-07-17T11:54:00.004-04:00

Sorry its been so long since I've posted again. Gosh the summer has gone by so fast and we've been keeping busy. Starting next Monday, I officially have 2 weeks to get my class ready before school starts back. Here are a few pictures of what Little Man has been doing lately.

Dominick has been going to Art classes on Monday and Tuesday. This was a two day Art project and believe it or not, he made this whole picture himself (with help of course). It involved drawing and coloring, paining, cutting and gluing.

A friend's birthday party.

Fun at a water park. We spent 4 fun days hanging out with the Pop and Hunnie.

Fun with cousins. Believe it or not, this teeny tiny pool is plenty big enough for 3 kiddos. They entertain themselves quite nicely in this pathetic pool.

Dominick colors EVERY wall of the tub with bath crayons EVERY night. He loves it but Mom and Dad are getting a bit tired of scrubbing this junk of the walls every night.

Murder Mystery Party

2008-06-22T00:23:00.005-04:00

This group of ladies is not only my co-workers (all 1st grade teachers and one kindergarten teacher), they are also some of the closest friends I have. We got together for one of those Murder Mystery parties where you have to dress up. The theme was a Class Reunion but we all had a character we had to dress as and act as for the evening.

Can you guess which one I am???

That's me! I was supposed to be a Hindu Indian. We had so much fun!!!

Little Man relaxing in the pool at his grandparents' house (Pop & Hunnie).

By the way, we are so proud of our Little Man, he is about 95% potty trained. He went about 5 days with no accidents and he has stayed dry all night for the last few nights. YIPPEEE!!!

Sassy Mouth

2008-06-15T00:43:00.003-04:00

Many people have told me that the Terrible 3's are worse than the Terrible 2's, mostly because their children got such a sassy mouth, but I didn't think much of it. But I am already beginning to see exactly what they were talking about. Little Man is only 2 1/2 and has already started it and it is NOT FUN for me. I am always telling him "That's not nice" and he has turned it around on me. Any time I correct him or don't give him what he wants, he points his finger at me and yells "YOU NOT NICE MOMMA, YOU NOT NICE". He also tells me "DON'T TELL ME BE QUIET" or "DON'T TELL ME SIT DOWN" or "GET AWAY MOMMA, GET AWAY FROM ME" or "TURN AROUND MOMMA, DON'T LOOK AT ME". I'll say "Don't talk to Momma like that, that's not nice and he yells "NO, YOU NOT NICE MOMMA, YOU GO TIME OUT". Lovely, my child is repeating exactly what I have been saying to him. It is so true that our little ones copy exactly the things we do and say.

This isn't the best video, he had just recited his letters, letter sounds (a-h) and numbers perfectly before I ran to get the camera. Of course he had to be silly when I got the camera, I can never get it on camera. And if you noticed, stupid me told him the wrong sound for g. Poor child...his mother is confusing him more. He also knows his colors (perfectly), days of the week, months of the year and shapes (not so perfectly). I didn't even know he knew the days and months until he started saying them one day. They must have taught him at day care.

2008-06-07T23:32:00.004-04:00

Dominick has been doing so much better from his little surgery. The first 2 days were bad and then he quickly started acting back to his normal self by the 3rd day. I'm glad we decided to do the surgery now that things are better, although I had doubted our decision the first two days. I kept him home from daycare for the whole week and I played with him all day but he was so bored by Friday, he was asking to go to daycare. I said "Do you miss daycare?" and he said "No, I miss Hannah."

This is a splash park we took him to a few days before his surgery.

We spent the last week visiting my parents. They bought Dominick (& cousins) a water table and swing set just like the one we have for their house.

We took Dominick to the beach in Biloxi, MS It is only 30 minutes from my parents' house. We took him there only to play in the sand with his new dump truck. I had not planned on allowing him to go in the water. I thought he'd be a little scared, plus it is nasty looking water. The sand is pretty but the water is a little gross. But Little Man decided the water was fantastic and he had a wonderful time playing in the water and with the sand at the beach!!!

Excuse the fat chick...I'm not sure who that is (hee-hee). I am on a diet by the way. It is so funny, you can actually walk at least 1/2 mile out into the water and it is so shallow it will not even get up to my waist.

School Is OUT!!!

2008-05-28T21:52:00.004-04:00

Beach Day with my little 1st Graders. I will miss this class, this is the best class I've ever had.

My last day of school was Monday, and Little Man had surgery on Tuesday (yesterday). He was circumcised. We thought about it for 2 years (before he was even home) and we had several reasons for wanting this procedure to be done, but had I known how much pain my Little Man would have to endure, I do not think I would have done the surgery. He seems to be much better this evening, but yesterday and this morning were unbelievable. He would scream at the very top of his lungs, hold on to my neck, and his whole body would shake for about 10-15 minutes every time he had to pee-pee. It was HORRIBLE! I really had no idea it would have been that bad. The surgeon told me it would just be sore...NOT the case!!!

Knocked out for his nap today...Mickey slept by him the whole 2 hours.

It is looking like Dominick may have given up his baby bed. He never climbed out of it like we thought he'd end up doing. But he woke up in the middle of the night crying and insisted on sleeping on the floor in his room Monday night and again for his nap yesterday. So last night we took the mattress out of his bed and stuck in on the floor and he was soooo excited.

2008-05-13T21:29:00.004-04:00

One of the main reasons I have not been blogging lately is because I have become hopelessly obsessed with playing in my yard. I literally stay outside from the time I get home each day until it gets dark outside (4:30-8:00). Then I suddenly realize the time and I have to rush to get Little Man fed, bathed and off to bed. I have flower beds in the front and backyard plus I mess with the grass daily, either cutting it or watering it. I have gone a bit crazy over the whole deal...I count and recount each little bud on some of my plants. All the new growth is so exciting to watch. I take breaks in between to play with Little Man with his bubble lawn mower, water table, kite, chalk... We have been thoroughly enjoying being outdoors.

2008-05-07T23:02:00.004-04:00

Sorry so long with the updates. I didn't think anyone really read my blog any more so I had stopped updating, but I've had a few requests so here I am. I will post a few old pictures and try to update again much sooner this time.

These are pictures of Little Man "pocking" eggs on Easter. Pocking is a tradition we do in our family where one person holds an egg and the other taps the egg and you see which one cracks. The one that doesn't crack is the winner. It probably sounds very strange but it is something I

did as a little girl with the whole family and we still do it. I think it is a Cajun/French tradition and I'm not sure the history behind the tradition, but oh well, guess I should research it one day.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T23:13:00.005-04:00

Dominick has been a busy little man. He went to a b-day party 2 weeks ago and spend time with his 2 favorite people, Maw Maw and Nicole (cousin). Last week he spend more time with his 2 favorite people and went to an Easter party at church. And this weekend he helped his Daddy put up a fence and helped us celebrate our 11 year wedding anniversary. By the way, the fence and more landscaping were my anniversary gifts from Jon. That's what I wanted this year, just to spend time with my 2 special guys and finally get a fence. I'm so thankful to have such an awesome hubby. He is the best father to my Little Man I could have ever imagined!!!

This was the coolest b-day party I've ever been to. It was at a children's gym and was so cool!

Making cookies at Maw Maw's house.

That's all for now (I'm in a rush). I'll try to post more from Easter in a few days.

More Train Parties

2008-03-03T21:36:00.004-05:00

Dominick had so much fun this weekend. He went to another b-day party and they rented the same little train we had rented for Dominick's party so he was able to enjoy it again!

I'm the photographer and videographer of the family so it is rare to see pictures of myself. I guess Daddy was so happy to have off 1 and a half whole days of work that he decided to get camera-happy. (Jon usually works at least 6 days a week, usually 7 days and he's always tired. )

Dominick is looking forward to going to another b-day party this coming weekend. It is his fake-cousins' 2nd birthday (the triplets). He's also soooo looking forward to seeing his Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw and his real cousins.

Today's Wish

2008-02-24T23:03:00.003-05:00

If I could have one wish granted today, I would beg God to stop time so that my precious boy would not grow up. I just love this age (most of the time at least).

I was thanking God tonight and thinking about how absolutely perfect my Little Man is. He has such a great personality, he is so very sweet and so very smart. Not to mention I think he is the most gorgeous human being I have ever seen (I know I'm a bit biased). He's so sweet and innocent. It is too cute, his nick name is Baby and he always refers to himself as Baby. Jon put Mickey (the dog) in the bed with Dominick tonight and Dominick was so excited as was asking Mickey "Mickey. Bed with Baby? Mickey goodnight bed Baby?" And he was just looking at Mickey waiting for him to answer. I just sat on the floor and smiled with tears running down my face, wishing Dominick would stay this age forever.

Fun with Cousins

2008-02-21T18:33:00.004-05:00

Dominick's cousins spent the weekend with us and they had so much fun. They were so sweet to eachother and loved playing together. Dominick absolutely loves other children, especially kids that are older than him. Which confuses me even more about whether or not we should adopt another child. We really like the idea of Dominick being an only child. Life is so hectic and things are just so expensive, Jon and I both love the idea of us being able to totally indulge one child. It would be cool to be able to allow him to bring a friend every time we go on vacation, put him in every sport and activity he wants, send him to the best private schools, buy him a brand new car when he's older, and so on. But on the other hand, what if our Little Man will always regret not having a sibling??? I don't know why we stress so much over whether or not we should have a second child, I feel completely confident that God will reveal to us what his plan is for our future and Dominck's best interest. If He wants Dominick to have a sibling, He will open the right doors and lay it upon our hearts for that to happen. And if not, I will be forever grateful for my one perfect, precious child.

Passed Out

2008-02-07T18:24:00.000-05:00

Here is Little Man passed out with all his beads after the parade.

These pictures are for you mom. For the rest of you, I've been trying to find outfits for Dominick and my neices to take pictures together. We didn't want anything dressy or expensive so it was really hard to find anything to match.

If I could just find a yellow shirt for Dominick, this would be cute. The brown skirts are much cuter in person.

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

2008-02-02T16:09:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have never been to Mardi Gras, it is like the biggest party you could ever imagine. As the sun rises, people are beginning to get intoxicated and setting up for huge crawfish boils with loud music. Whether you are a 3-day-old infant, or a 90 year old Granny, everyone comes out to enjoy the parades. It is a family event with children riding skateboards and bicycles and playing football in the streets all day while waiting for parades to come. Each float usually has their own DJ and loud music, but there are also marching bands, horses, clowns, fire trucks, police cars and dancers. I'm posting a vidoe of a Mardi Gras parade for those of you who may not live in Louisiana and have never been to a parade. We live in a very small town right outside of a very large town, so this particular parade was a small Coon-Ass (Cajun) version of a Mardi Gras parade.

Dominick had so much fun catching beads, cups, candy, stuffed animals and bubbles; and of course he was quick to make friends with the other children while waiting for the parade to come.

Thanks Pop and Hunnie

2008-02-01T20:46:00.001-05:00

Here is Dominick on his way out the door Monday morning in his new outfit from Pop and Hunnie (grandparents).

I told him to smile for this picture but I'm not sure what he was doing.

Mine, Mine, Mine

2008-01-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

After spending the weekend with his 3 year old cousin, Little Man will not stop saying "Mine" about everything. He was already saying it every now and then, but now he thinks it is the coolest game...so aggravating!

Here is Little Man on his way out the door to go to school (daycare) to see his

"girlfriend" Hannah. He looked so cute I had to take a few pictures.

Maw Maw & Paw Paw's House

2008-01-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

We went to my parents' house to see my 2 nieces I hadn't seen in over a year. Almost all of us ended up sick and feeling totally yucky and it was so cold and wet the kiddos didn't get to go outside and play so our weekend wasn't as fun as it could have been for the kiddos. They are coming to visit us in a few weeks so we are crossing our fingers that the weather will be awesome and everyone will be feeling well so they can play outside with all their cool toys and we can go to the zoo, which is one of Dominick's favorite places.

We celebrated my niece/Godchild's 3rd birthday. The kids had fun despite the circumstances of the weather and runny noses. Thank God my fabulous mother was smart enough to buy and wrap a bunch of gifts for Little Man to unwrap also. Smart thinking Mom!!!

Of course we had to light some candles for Dominick (a.k.a. pyromaniac) to blow out along with B-day Girl. The child loves fire...scary!

Busted!!! I walked into the kitchen and caught Paw Paw playing with one of B-day girl's toys all by himself. He hung her little dart board on the cabinets and was throwing the Velcro balls at it. Have you ever heard that saying "Men never grow up!"? It is soooo true.

This is a video of the B-day Girl and Dominick playing their harmonicas (one of their gifts).

Daddy's LIttle Helper

2008-01-17T22:14:00.000-05:00

Dominick is ALL BOY! It is so cute how much he loves to "help" his Daddy hammer or use a screw driver. He also loves to fill his tiny pockets with rocks...so cute!!! It's so amazing and cute how boys are just boys. You don't teach them to like rocks and tools, they just naturally like that kind of stuff...at least our Little Man does. He was SO excited tonight when we got a package and opened it and he saw screws in it. He insisted on getting a screw driver and "helping" Jon put together the Doggie Dooley, even though we had no intentions on putting it together tonight. Too bad for us, The Boss said it must be done NOW. The Doggie Dooley is a septic tank thingy you burry in the ground and put dog doo-doo in so that we don't have to keep throwing our 2 fur-babies doggie doo-doo into the field behind our house. Now that our puppies have their own potty I need to teach Little Man how to scoop the poop and put it in the Doggie Dooley...Just Joking!!!

Then we told Little Man that this was where Mickey and Gizmo are going to "poo-poo" and he said "NO, Baby poo-poo on toilet" and insisted on sitting on it. Silly boy!

By the way, this will be buried in our yard, not sitting on top of the ground.

Behavior is MUCH, MUCH better!

2008-01-07T23:08:00.000-05:00

A few days after my last post I went to the book store and bought several books on toddlers and discipline. I love reading, especially anything that has to do with children and the way their little minds operate. I loved all the child psychology type classes I had to take in college. Anyway, after reading a lot of the info from the books, I've made a few changes in the way I approach discipline and they way I speak to Dominick and it has truly made a world of difference in his behavior. I think I was being way to hard on him before and I have a whole new attitude about his little personality now. I'm sure he will test my patience and things will not always go smoothly with discipline, but for now it is SO MUCH BETTER and that makes us both so much happier!!! He is such a sweet, perfect child...in my eyes at least.

Dominick loves playing with Play-Dough (sp?). His favorite thing to do is cut it with scissors.

It was nice and warm this past weekend so we spent a lot of time playing outside; writing with chalk, playing soccer, running up and down the street, blowing bubbles, swinging, etc. By the way, Dominick can draw a straight line or circle if you ask him to.

This is one of Dominick's favorite things to do...play with his Geo Track train set. He absolutely loves this thing!

These are pictures of my precious Little Man on his actual 2nd b-day (even though we celebrated it twice on days before his b-day). We went to a party and popped fireworks on his actual b-day and he loved it.

These are his new Blow Fish shoes. They're much cuter in person. They are raggedy looking with strings hanging off all the seems.

And these are his new Converse shoes. I love buying him shoes...I try to make sure they are comfortable but I won't let him wear the thick-soled running type shoes. He just doesn't look good in those for some reason.

Hope you all have a good week and a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

2007-12-28T18:04:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas was great and Dominick is doing much better. He still pulls at his ear but other than that he seems to be fine. He is off the breathing treatments but still on medicine for his ears. I did terrible with pictures this year. Everything happened so quickly, I didn't take many pictures of the whole family and none of Dominick opening his presents. We got it all on video though.

This is Jon's only sister and her 2 daughters (our nieces) who came to visit from Arkansas. We hadn't seen them in over 2 years so it was great to share Christmas with them this year.

Dominick with his Granny (Jon's mom).

My family at dinner on Christmas Eve. My dad's head is blocking Beckey, sorry about that.

One of my presents was a robe from my fabulous brother. I thought is was funny because Gizmo saw it and walked in the middle of all the gifts to get to it and take a little nap.

Dominick's actual b-day is Monday (New Years Eve) but the daycare is closed so I brought a cake and party favors to daycare today. It was too short notice for Wal-Mart to do a train cake so they made him the cutest Elmo cake. It turned out so adorable and was only $14.00. It didn't taste nearly as good as his train cake but it sure was cute.

Update on Dominick, his behavior is HORRIBLE. I don't know how I'm gonna make it through the terrible 2's. His vocabulary is unbelievable. He speaks in sentences and never stops talking. He says "what's that" anytime he doesn't know what something is. He wants to do everything himself and says "No Momma, Baby do it" all the time. He dropped a toy in the car last night and wanted me to get it. I said "No, Momma's driving" (I really wasn't). And Dominick said "No Momma! Daddy driving! Momma no drive!". Jon and I were dying lauphing. I guess we can't trick him as easily any more.

Happy Birthday to Meeee!

2007-12-18T22:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was by 31st b-day...luckily we celebrated it on Sunday because yesterday was not a good day. I woke up, got ready for work, got Dominick out of his crib and laid him on the floor to dress him and noticed blood all over the side of his face, neck, PJ's and dripping out of one of his ears. I'm not sure what it is to have a panic attack but I think I had one. I had to keep telling myself to breath. Long story short, after 4 hours in the doctor's office and pharmacy, Little Man has RSV. If it weren't for the ear situation, I would have never known that he had RSV and he would have probably ended up in the hospital. He doesn't have a runny nose and is hardly coughing...I had no idea he was so sick. I of course freaked out again because Jon and I both have lots going on a work this week and neither one of us could take off the whole week of work. Luckily my parents came to the rescue, they took Dominick to their house (3 hours away) for the rest of the week. They will bring him back on Sunday since that is when they were planning on coming into town for the Holidays. I'm gonna miss my Little Man but I know he's in good hands and he more than likely won't miss us a bit. The relationship he has with my parents is hard to explain...it sounds weird but when they are around, Dominick wants nothing to do with Jon or myself. He loves them to pieces!

For my b-day we went out to dinner and then went to the zoo for the winter lights and Jon surprised me with another Couch handbag and matching wallet. I wasn't expecting a gift because Jon just bought me a new dining room table and wedding ring a few weeks ago. I still don't have the ring, the jeweler sent the ring back to the designer and they are gonna make the same ring in my size because I didn't like the idea of them altering (cutting and sizing) the ring.

These are pictures of my class from last Friday. Every year the 1st grade students are allowed to bring blankets and PJ's and the parents are invited to come. I read the story The Polar Express and then we have hot chocolate and Santa Claus brings each child a silver bell (like in the story). Then the children sit with their parents and read Christmas books together. It's so much fun...I love my job!

Birthday Party!!!

2007-12-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

Dominick's birthday is December 31, but we decided to have his party a little early since his b-day is so close to Christmas. To find out what his b-day theme was...check out the videos!!!

Dominick loooved his choo-choo party! He stayed on the train for a solid hour and waved and blew his little train whistle non-stop. It was an amazing party and Dominick had a blast!!!

The train just drove around our neighborhood.

My friend Nanette made this adorable cake.

This was Dominick's present from Jon and me. He also got 2 different train sets and lots of other cool gifts.

Tio (my brother) is a huge LSU fan.

Dominick did not like it when his Momma was pretending to be a football player.

Our Weekend

2007-11-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

These are the ornaments Little Man put on the tree all by himself...Beautiful!

Little Man all dressed up for Thanksgiving (and eating a sucker).

We had to change Little Man's clothes after he ran out onto the pool cover and sunk about 3 inches into the freezing water in the pool at Pop's house.

Little man shaking his hips like Santa Claus.

Coloring with Maw Maw. Thanks Nanny Kate, my mom ended up letting me open your present early and I love it!

Maw Maw, Paw Paw, Tio and Miss Beckey eating at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter

Pictures from the French Quarter in New Orleans

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I'm guilty once again about taking forever to update my blog. I have off this week for Thanksgiving and I'm so enjoying being a pretend stay-at-home momma. Love it!!! I'll be leaving Thursday through Sunday to go to Jon's parents' house and then my parents'. We are going to go to the French Quarter in New Orleans one of those days, I can't wait. It's been over a year since I've been there, other than when I took Little Man to the Aquarium but we didn't actually walk around the French Quarter that time. I've been planning Dominick's b-day party, I'll tell you more about that next time I update.

Happy Halloween

2007-11-02T19:22:00.000-05:00

Our computer crashed so that is why I'm late with new pictures. Little Man did not celebrate Halloween because we were buying our new computer that night. But he did go to 2 parties the weekend before and he had so much fun.

Dominick loved his makeup. He kept pointing at his face and saying makeup. Then on Sunday when it was time to get ready for party number 2, he refused to get off of his swing until I told him it was time to put on his makeup. He jumped off the swing and ran to the door and kept saying makeup, makeup and pointing to his face. Luckily he is all boy or else I'd be a little worried about his love of makeup, hee-hee. By the way, Dominick knows all of his colors most of the time. If you put a bunch of blocks in front of him and tell him to show you a particular color, he does almost always. He does get confused sometimes. He can also tell you a color if you ask him what color is this. He also can count to 5 when he feels like it. But he is best at telling us NO!

Dominick also has a cool looking dragon costume that his Daddy insisted on buying but he cannot wear it because it is way too hot. I'll put him in it one of these days and take pictures.

Halloween

2007-10-22T21:14:00.000-04:00

I've been beyond busy and tired and haven't had a chance to post pictures of my Precious Man. Here are a few pictures.

Thanks so much Maw Maw for making this costume for Dominick. It is adorable!

Uhhh, what is this crap on my head???

Little Man was getting his cup ready so that we could go bye-bye to see some "nannimals at the zoo".

Gotcha Day, Pumpkin Patch and a New Toy

2007-10-10T21:34:00.000-04:00

Happy Happy Gotcha Day to us!!!!

Hey Daddy, remember a year ago I used to cry every time you held me??? Ha, ha that's funny...now you are my favorite person in the whole wide world! I love you more than ANYTHING or ANYONE (even more than Mommy...shh, don't tell her that)!!!

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My parents came to visit Little Man again this weekend. We took Dominick to a pumpkin patch, my mom sewed one of his 2 Halloween costumes and we bought Dominick a new "toy" as his Gotcha Day present.

When Dominick got home from church Sunday he had a BIG surprise waiting for him.
A big boy swing set!!!

I had been saving all the money my parents and Jon's parents gave Dominick so that we could buy him something big with it. I wanted to get him a swing set for Christmas but then I thought it would be pretty chilly outside and most of the stores don't carry swing sets after the summer season ends. So we decided to get him one for his 1st Gotcha Day and he LOVES it.

He stayed on this "big boy" swing for probably at least 30 minutes and refused to get off until his little eyes started to get heavy and he almost fell asleep.

And then he got a second burst of excitement and went down the slide a million times.

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The next 3 pictures were taken by a photographer that goes to the daycare center a few times a year. I wasn't planning on buying the pictures because I knew Little Man had a scratch on his face but when I saw them I couldn't resist.

New Shoes, New Clothes & New Haircut

2007-10-03T22:34:00.000-04:00

We got Little Man's haircut this weekend. The stylist asked if this was his 1st haircut and I had to laugh. His hair grows so fast, this is at least his 10th cut.
Isn't this the cutes little coat and hat? Yes I know, it would look a lot better with pants and matching shoes. I was just letting him try it on and then he didn't want to take it off.Mom, I don't care that it is 99 degrees outside and that my shoes and shorts don't match my new coat and hat. I still want to wear them all because I'm the boss and I said so. Look Mom, Mi Mi is sitting my the door. That means he wants to go for a walk. Let's go walk him so I can do a little sweating and show all the neighbors how cool I dress.

Come on Mi Mi, I'm putting my toys away so I can take you for a walk.

Here are Little Man's $55 shoes ($60 with tax). Is that ridiculous or what? We were a tiny bit concerned because Dominick's feet turn inward slightly and the doctor has been telling us that it is completely normal and there is a 100% chance that it will correct itself on its own. But I mentioned it to him again last week and I asked if a good high top shoe such as Stride Rite would help and he said yes, it couldn't hurt. Well, they didn't have his size in the Stride Rite shoes that I liked and of course the sales clerk said that Ecco shoes are even better, so that is what I bought. I felt guilty paying that much for toddler shoes but then I reminded myself that Jon has paid close to that much for some of Little Man's shirts that only get worn once every 2 weeks or so. At least he will be wearing the shoes several times a week.

Tomorrow is our Gotcha Day...the day Dominick was placed in our arms FOREVER!!! I can't believe it has been a year already. Dominick has brought so much joy into our lives, I can't even begin to describe it. Day and night for over 5 years, I had yearned and longed to be a mother and I had a huge, never-ending void in my life and that void is now filled and overflowing because of this precious child God has so graciously placed into our lives. My mom was just saying last week that she has never seen Jon or me happier. Life will always have its ups and downs, but my life truly feels complete now and I am forever grateful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for this most amazing gift.

The Flower Bed

2007-09-27T22:34:00.000-04:00

I said I'd post pictures of the finished product so here it is. We are going to put a small tree in as soon as I find one I like plus do a little more to the flower bed and plant a rose bed in the backyard in the Spring. I'm loving my new yard... had missed having a flower bed.

Finanlly a Flower Bed

2007-09-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

We finally got our gutters installed, therefore I FINALLY was able to begin work on my flower bed this past weekend. After 8 yards of planting mix, 27 bags of mulch, 1.5 yards of drainage rock, and a bunch of random plants, my flower bed is looking pretty cool. Luckily my awesome mom came into town to watch Little Man while I worked in the yard. She cooked for us, cleaned my house, washed all our clothes, folded all our clothes, and cleaned all the dishes. There was no evidence that she had even cooked by the end of the weekend. Am I lucky or what??? Most people I personally know have their families living within minutes from them and they completely take it for granted. I am not so lucky so Jon and I both thought we were in heaven with all the much needed help this weekend.These are pictures from before the flower bed and of Little Man "helping" to shovel dirt. Unfortunately it is too dark outside at this moment, so I do not have pictures of the finished product yet. I'll take some ASAP and post them. Just wanted you to see some before and after pictures, and I will try to post them soon.

I will pose for you Maw Maw because I love you so much, plus you brought me some cool toys and actually cooked a real meal for me. You're the best!

Dominick washing his hands after playing in the dirt and before eating some of Maw Maw's roast and rice n' gravy.

New Furniture...Not Happening!

2007-09-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

I tried to update my blog a few days ago but Blogger wouldn't let me add pictures. I've been terrible about updating this thing. I have been sooo busy and tired lately. I'm seriously thinking about taking a day off of work and sending Little Man to daycare just to catch up on my sleep. My schedule was mush easier last school year because Dominick went to bed at 7:00 every night. Now that he's older, he doesn't go to bed until 8:00 and Jon and I can't do ANYTHING when he is awake, not even eat our own food. So we don't even begin to eat dinner, take showers, grade school papers, clean, etc. until after 8:00 every night.

Dominick absolutely insists on feeding himself or he throws a fit and won't eat. So we had to give him his own bowl of plain noodles while Jon fed him the spaghetti noodles.

As you can see he fed all the noodles to Me-Me and Mo-Mo (Mickey & Gizmo).

This is why we are not buying new living room furniture for a long time. Jon says as long as we have dogs and little ones, we will be keeping our old furniture. Our recliner got torn up by Gizmo the first week we had it, seriously. And now Little Man stands on the furniture with his shoes and eats on it. Yuck!

Babies R Us

2007-09-02T11:06:00.001-04:00

We have a new Babies R Us that just opened that is connected to our Toys R Us and I'm so excited. I used to have to stop at the one in Baton Rouge on the way to my parents' house which was a total pain. I love their clothes. We went last night and I got Dominick a few outfits and Jon got him a tent. Jon has been wanting to get him a tent to play in, don't ask me why. So now I have a huge, lovely tent in my living room. I'm attaching a video of Jon and Dominick playing in the tent. They were having a blast and I finally grabbed my camera towards the end of the whole deal.

Mom and Dad, I bought Dominick an outfit that has a motorcycle on the front and says "Born To Ride". I got him the shirt, pants, and socks to match. Now I need to find him some cool boots to go with it.

The tent has a tunnel that connects to it but I had taken it off in these pictures.

Here's Jon in the tent with Little Man.

My oldest brother Tio and his girlfriend Becky are here for the weekend. My parents were here last weekend and Jon's parents are supposed to come next weekend.

My mom insisted that I let Dominick feed himself last weekend and after the whole ordeal I said "never again". He actually feeds himself pretty well, but I hate food messes. He feeds himself everyday at daycare so I'm more than happy to let them handle the mess.

I'm Back

2007-08-22T19:09:00.000-04:00

We FINALLY have internet and cable at the new house as of today!!!!!!! We are so excited, I was so missing reading every one's blogs. We also finally

closed the sell on our old house last Friday. What a relief to have that done. This is my second week back at school and it is going great. Surprisingly I was actually completely OK and ready to go back to school. My class seems to be way better behaved than the class I had last year so I'm hoping it stays that way. Dominick is doing great. I took a few pictures of him tonight so I could do a quick post on my blog. I'll try to update at least twice a week now.

Here is Little Man aggravating Mickey. He was not sleeping, he loves to climb up on the sofa and lay his head on my poor dogs. Mickey was growling at him. It is so weird, Dominick and the dogs act like real, human brothers. They fight over food and toys everyday. Seriously, Dominick will throw little hissy fits because one of the dogs snatched his food or toy and ran off with it. Stuff like that happens all through out the day. But they love each other to death. I would have never thought they'd all love each other this much.

This picture is for you Mom. That's the thing I bought for over the fireplace. Not exactly what I wanted but it will do OK for now. The Lampe Bergers are temporary. I just stuck them on the mantle until I find something better to put there. For those of you who don't know me well, I used to collect Lampe Bergers, both new and antique ones. They have some over 100 years old on e-bay. I have a total of 11 at this time. They are fun to buy but I don't know where to put them all so I will try to not buy any more for awhile even though there are a few more antique ones I MUST have.

Here are a few of the other Lampe Bergers. The 3 on the left are from 1960's and 70's.

No Preservatives, Mom!

2007-08-06T19:09:00.000-04:00

I do not cook, so poor Dominick only eats Lil' Entrees when we eat at home. My mom is terribly worried because of all the preservatives and I noticed tonight the package says "NO PRESERVATIVES" so I had to post a picture for her to see. Look at the red circle on the left Mom. Ha ha ha, no more fussing at me about Dominick's meals.

I'm also posting pictures for you (Mom) to see Dominick's new room in the new house. Luckily, I was able to reuse his animal decals from the old house. Those decals cost over $300 so I was glad I was able to salvage them. We had his walls painted a sky blue color with clouds painted at the old house but I just stuck them on the wall at the new house and they look OK. He sure loves them regardless of the wall color. He goes up to each animal and kisses them every morning and every night. Then when he gets in his bed at night he says "ni-ni doo-doo" to the rooster for cock-a-doodle-do, "ni-ni moooo", "ni-ni baaaaa" and so on to each of his animals decals. Please excuse the mess in his room.

Little Rascal!!!

2007-07-31T19:09:00.000-04:00

We still haven't sold our old house and we still have no cable or Internet access at the new house. Who knows when we will sell the old house. The people still want it and everything is fine with the title. The hold up is their loan. They are getting some type of government loan and it is a super slow process. They loss their home in Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans) and they relocated to Lafayette.

Dominick's behavior is HORRIBLE!!!!!!! I can't begin to describe this behavior to you. I'm sure it is perfectly normal 19 month behavior but it is driving us all nuts! He even got into my jewelry box, took out my pearl earrings I had bought in Jamaica and chewed them up and then brought them to me to show me what he had done. I can't even fold clothes if he is awake. He will unfold them, or lay on top of what ever I'm folding, or scream his head off if I do it on the bed where he can't reach. I tried to do a little work for school today and someone came to the door and this is what Dominick did with my tape in a matter of 5 seconds.

He pulled out the entire roll of tape, balled it up, and was walking around with it stuck to his shirt and the dispenser hanging off as if nothing had ever happened. Notie he dispenser still hanging from the tape. He knows when he's doing something wrong. At my parents' house, he swiped the white out tape from their desk in a split second and ran in the guest bedroom and started yanking out all the whit out tape from the dispenser. As soon as you take one thing away from his, he immediately turns around and does something else, such as beating the walls or dogs with his toys. I think the first word he will learn to spell is B-A-D. I'm constantly spelling that word to him. What a little rascal!

Our Weekend

2007-07-28T11:15:00.000-04:00

We had a great weekend at my parents' house. On Friday, we took Dominick to the Aquarium and the River Walk in New Orleans. He really enjoyed the Aquarium. Not only did he enjoy looking at the fish, birds, penguins, etc., but he also enjoyed the kiddie section that had a slide and other things for him to do. It was pretty cool.

Then on Saturday my dad and brothers babysat Dominick all day while my mom and I hung out, even though it was my dad's birthday. It was awesome to have a babysitter. Jon and I have NO ONE to help us with Dominick in Lafayette where we live. My mom and I got our nails and eyebrows done, then we went furniture shopping for my new house, and then we drove out to Biloxi, Mississippi and ate dinner and went to watch a Russian Acrobat show at a casino. It was great to hang out with my mom. We've been best friends since I was in high school. I'm talking like seriously best friends, I've never had a friend as awesome as my mom and probably never will have another friend comparable to her. We talk on the phone every single day, often times for hours. I even call her every morning on my way to work and she calls me every day on her way home from work. My husband and my dad can't understand what we could possible talk about for hours everyday. Luckily they both completely respect our relationship and have never once tried to discourage us from talking and hanging out so much. 11 years ago, I moved 3 hours away from my parents to marry Jon and he has never once asked me not to leave him for the weekend to visit my parents or never once asked me to not spend a holiday with my family. Smart Man! I even asked my mom to be my maid of honor when I got married. Although she was honored to be asked, she felt awkward being a bride's maid at her age and told me to ask my other best friend who I had gone to school with since the 5th grade, whom I love dearly. Sorry to ramble on so much about my mom. I'm just so grateful for my family. I'm the only girl and I have a very special relationship with each one of my family members. They are so awesome!!!

This was the kiddie section at the Aquarium. Dominick is sitting on a huge whale that would blow water vapor out of his blow hole every few minutes. Every time Dominick heard it blowing the water vapor, he'd run up to it, push the other children out of his way, and hold his hand over the blow hole.

Dominick was riding this fishy like a horse, silly boy.

They could pet the manta rays here.

Penguins!

Go Diego, Go!!!

2007-07-26T18:47:00.000-04:00

We took Dominick to see Diego live last night. It was the cutest play but unfortunately Dominick wasn't all that impressed. He did get excited but he didn't really realize that it was live, if that makes any since. I figured he was a little young for a play but I still want to expose him to all that type of stuff. Whether he likes it or not, I want to expose him to symphonies, plays, museums, sports, etc. as he gets older. Hopefully he will develop an appreciation for the Arts but I wouldn't be surprised if he has no interest in any of it. Isn't that how it usually works? You have all these perfect plans for what you want your child to do and like and they seem to have their own seperate plan that doesn't quite mesh with yours. He is ALL BOY and super active...that child can't sit still...EVER! He was running fever at 103.8 the other day and he was still running around and would not take a nap.

The Diego pictures are fuzzy, I guess because of the lighting or the distance from the stage.

I'm at my mom and dad's house for a few days before I go back to work. I am going back to school next week to get my class ready and then I start back the end of the following week. I'm a tiny bit excited about getting back into a new school year but jeez did the summer go by fast. Unbelievable! We are taking Little Man to the Aquarium of The Americas in New Orleans tomorrow. That should be a lot of fun, it is one of the few things that we can do that we won't pass out from the heat since it is air conditioned. I'll try to post pictures of that within a day or two.

Still No Internet

2007-07-22T19:09:00.000-04:00

We still don't have internet access at the new house and probably won't for about 30 days...UGH!!! We are supposed to possibly close on the old house this week so I don't know what I will do for internet after that happens. We have internet access at school but I can't access my personal email or any blogs because the school board blocks all that type of stuff because of the students.

We are enjoying the new house. We just got grass seed sprayed in the yard yesterday. It is such a mess because it rains everyday and it is so muddy for the dogs, etc. We should have gotten sod but it is much more expensive and it would have been a few more weeks to get the sod in and we are so tired of the mud already. Here are a few pictures of them spraying the grass seed. The green stuff is the seed (hydroseeding).

I had them leave this section without grass so we can do a flower bed.

This is Little Man's new seat... the fireplace box!

Out of Order

2007-07-15T19:09:00.000-04:00

Just wanted ya'll to know that I won't be blogging for a few weeks. We moved to the new house on Friday but they don't have our cable installed yet and we use the cable service for our Internet so I have to drive back to the old house in order to use the internet. Luckily we can still use the internet at the old house because we didn't close on that house yet. There was a minor problem with the title so it may take a week or two before we can close on the old house. There are still a few things to do on the new house such as landscapers, sealing the slate, and finishing off the upstairs bonus room, plus it is a disaster trying to unpack everything so I won't have much time to go to the old house to blog. Don't give up on me, check every week or so and I'll start blogging as soon as possible.

Booger Eater

2007-07-05T17:56:00.000-04:00

I don't know if any of you remember my post dated October 31. It was about Dominick banging on the television screen and how Jon loved it and hoped it would break so he could go out a buy a newer, better T.V. Weelllllll, guess what happened...yep, the T.V. is seriously messed up! And yep, Jon is totally happy because he thinks he's getting a new plasma or LCD T.V. that he can hang on the wall. Ha ha ha, he is so mistaken about that, at least for now. I will be calling a repair man to fix that sucker. Suddenly we noticed that the screen is really blurry and distorted. We should be able to fix it by using the remote control to simply adjust the projection guns but NO LUCK...the guns must be so out of whack that it can't be adjusted with the remote. Is it a sign that Jon deserves a new T.V.? Anyway, Dominick does not bang on the T.V. anymore. He has moved on the bigger and better things to do these days. Like exhibiting full-blown TERRIBLE TWO's, eating french fries and ice off the floor in Burger King, slapping his mom in the face, terrorizing the dogs, and eating boogers. Yep, I have caught him twice repeatedly putting his finger in the nose and then straight in the mouth. This is especially disgusting to me after watching my first graders eat their boogers for the past 8 years. Aren't I just so lucky to have a booger-eater in my home.

SHORTER but SMARTER

2007-06-28T19:09:00.001-04:00

When I picked up Dominick from daycare this afternoon, I thought he looked shorter than the other kids so I asked his teacher if he was the shortest. I'm always curious to know how tall he will be because to me he seems so short. She said "Yeah, I think he's the shortest and the smartest". Huh??? I asked her what she meant and she said that he is just so smart and he says way more words than any other kid in his class. Of course that made me so proud! I guess Little Man will take after his Momma in both height and brains, hee-hee (just joking about the brains comment!).

I was transferring some home videos the other day and I could not believe Dominick had been home 4 weeks and was just a little bitty chunk and he already knew the sounds for a cow, dog, duck, and sheep. I am just so amazed how quickly these little guys pick things up. The child had only heard Spanish his entire 9 month life and he caught on to English immediately. My mom taught him to do sweet eyes in 15 minutes on our 2nd day in Guatemala. It just amazes me how God creates little ones and makes them so special.

One of Dominick's art projects this week was making a hat. He was sooooo proud of his hat, he ran all over the house looking for his Daddeeee to show him his hat.

The hat created by Dominick

Oh, by the way, Dominick's surgery went great! He was a terror coming out of Anastasia and took a long nap that day, but other than that I pretty much couldn't tell much of a difference in him. He ate and drank like his usual self. However, I forgot about his tongue and must have brushed his bottom teeth too hard tonight and he said "Bo-Bo Momma" and I noticed it was bleeding a little under his tongue. Poor baby! That's one of his new tricks now, anytime he barely bumps himself, he says "Bo-Bo" and wants you to kiss that spot. Sometimes he just holds out his arm and says BO-BO so I'll kiss it. So sweet!

I'm going to my parents house until Monday so I definitely won't be blogging over the weekend. Hope you all have a great 4th of July. I'll probably be at home packing more boxes, fun, fun!

Finally a Haircut!!!

2007-06-28T19:09:00.000-04:00

Little Man finally got a haircut. I've been wanting to cut it but Jon really didn't want me to. I finally asked him last night if he'd really mind if I cut it and he said OK. I looks so much better!Before haircut
After haircutDominick likes to be super neat when he eats. I have always kept a wet rag with me when I fed him and I'd wipe his face or hands or tray if any food accidentally got on it so that Dominick didn't end up rubbing it in his hair or something. Well I guess he got used to it and now he holds out his hand after every bite for me to wipe it and then he purses his lips for me to wipe his face. Too funny! Unfortunately he's not that neat outside. He picked up a tiny snail the other day and put it in his mouth, YUCK!

Dominick is ready for tennis lessons.

Looks Like We Are MOVING!!!

2007-06-21T22:08:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been knowing that we might be moving for a few weeks but I didn't want to say anything and give myself bad luck. If everything goes according to plan, we will be moving in 2 weeks (July 6). I'll tell you guys the story of the "bad luck" I mentioned. We had a cute little house that I adored, and then Jon bought another house to fix up and sell. Weellllll, we were paying 2 house notes for over a year while we tried to sell the fixer-upper house with no luck. We ended up having 3 contracts on the OTHER house ( fixer-upper) that fell through because of the buyers having financial problems. That is seriously bad luck, all 3 contracts falling through. So, Jon bribed me and told me that if I would agree to sell OUR house (the little one that I adored) and move into the other house, it would free up some of our money and I could start the adoption process sooner than planned. So that's what we did and we have been living in the OTHER house for 2 years now. We tried to sell it in the Fall of 2006 with NO LUCK. It was on the market for 4 months and only 2 people looked at it the whole time. So we put it on the market again last month and in 3 weeks TA-DAAAA, we had a great offer on our house. We tried not to get excited because of the bad luck we've had in the past. But we really had no choice, we had to hurry and find a house because IF this contract DOES go through, we have to have somewhere to move. So anyway, we found a house that was in the final stages of construction so we are able to pick the flooring, counter tops, faucets, light fixtures, and a few upgrades. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the upgrades in advance and if for some reason the people don't buy our house, we loose all the money we've paid in upgrades on the new house...OUCH!!! So please pray that everything goes OK.

Here's a picture of the new house. It is nothing fancy and quite a bit smaller than the house we are living in now, yet it is the nicest house we will have ever had so we are just so excited!!! Some of the upgrades we added were granite counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms, a gas lantern on the front porch, a gas hook-up on the back patio for a gas grill, slate around the fireplace and slate on the back patio floor. There is a 4th bedroom over the garage which we will probably use as a computer room.

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Dominick's surgery is scheduled for next Monday. They are gonna put tubes in his ears and cut the skin under his tongue-OUCH! While looking at his tonsils, the Dr. noticed that the skin under his tongue goes a little too far, if that makes any sense. It doesn't appear to affect his tongue but there is a slight chance it could cause speech problems later so it is best we do it now while he'll be put to sleep anyway. Poor little guy, I doubt it will slow him down anyway. He is one busy dude!

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Oh and one more thing...

Mom & Dad,

Hope you have a WONDERFUL and safe time in Nova Scotia. Wish I was going with you. I'll take good care of Tigger and hopefully Jacob will give your plants lots of TLC. Love you bunches and can't wait to see you when you return.

Back from Florida

2007-06-17T19:08:00.000-04:00

We had an awesome time in Florida. Dominick got to experience a lot of new things he had never done before such as going to a water park twice, playing in the sand, playing in the beach water, swimming in a big pool, seeing a dolphin & sea lion show, and riding on rides at an amusement park.

My parents and brother and his girlfriend came the last 2 days we were there and helped with Little Man. Thank You Guys! Because of you, Jon and I were able to enjoy a few moments of adult rides and activities.

This was the water park. They had 3 really cool kiddie sections.

Dominick loved this slide! It was the cutest thing, as soon as he'd slide down into the water he would scream to do it again.

This was his 2nd day playing in the sand. He didn't like it the first day but he enjoyed the sand and water more each day after getting familiar with it. One of Dominick's new 2-word sentences is "Eewwww-Daddy". It's hilarious, he says it all the time, even when Jon is not around. You can hear him saying it in this video.

Dominick had a blast at this amusement park. They had a bunch of kiddie rides that he loved. He would scream when they tried to take him off the rides so we would pay for 2 rounds on each ride and then he didn't cry half as bad when they took him off.

On our way home from Florida, we stopped at Jon's parents' house to visit. As you can see, Jon's dad (Pop) is already teaching Dominick to play with your fork and napkin in restaurants. Dominick is well on his way to being spoiled by the grandparents.

This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Jon was sweet enough to stay at the condo with Little Man while the rest of us rented scooters and a 3-wheel car and drove up and down the beach for a few hours. The chicks in the red car (it had 2 wheels on the front and 1 on the back) were me and Becky, the cool chick on the baby blue scooter is my mom (yes, she can even drive a motor cycle) and the guys on the green and blue scooters are my dad and brother (Tio). We had so much fun!

2007-06-06T21:08:00.001-04:00

We are leaving Friday night to go to my parents' house and then leaving Saturday morning to go to Florida for the next week so this will probably be my last post until after Father's Day. We will be coming home on Father's Day.

Dominick went to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor yesterday because he has had so many ear infections and they are going to put tubes in his ears. We don't have the date scheduled yet. I am so glad and hope it works.

The next few pictures are for you Hunnie and Pop.

This is the outfit ya'll bought for Dominick for my baby shower last year. I was surprised it fit him when I tried it in the Spring. He has worn it a lot but the shirt is getting too small so you guys might not get to see him in it.
Dominick never has done well when it comes to smiling for the camera, but now I can't even get him to stand still so I sat him on the kitchen counter for this picture and you can see what he did immediately. Reached for the purse, pulled out the wallet and started pulling everything out of the wallet. This child is into EVERYTHING. Before I can bend down to pick on thing up, he has already gotten into something else. He has been super strong-willed lately and needless to say he has been serving some TIME OUT in his pack-n-play. I keep that stupid thing set up in a spare bedroom for time outs. I usually don't have to use it often, but when I do IT WORKS.
Here is Little Man with a broom in his hand getting ready to sweep. I bought him his own broom because he fights me for mine when I'm trying to sweep but unfortunately it did not work. When I'm sweeping, he wants MY broom of course. I had to put him behind his kiddie gate to keep him out of the kitchen to sweep yesterday because he refused to let me use the broom. And of course he screamed his head off the whole 5 minutes I swept.

I'm OFF!!!

2007-06-01T19:08:00.000-04:00

I'm officially off for my summer break and it feels so awesome!!! We are leaving next Saturday and going to Destin, FL for 8 days, can't wait! We rented a condo that would allow us to bring our 2 fur-babies so I didn't have to hear any of my family members complain about babysitting them. The condo sleeps 6 people so of course we invited some family members to help out with Dominick. My parents and at least one of my brothers will be staying with us for 3 days.

Part of my Mother's Day present from Jon and Dominick finally came in the mail yesterday so I will post a picture of it. Jon had ordered it about 4 weeks before Mother's Day but he knew it wouldn't be ready so he had just given me a picture of it. Here it is.

It is a huge blanket with Dominick's picture on it. So cool, I LOVE it!!! Notice my head at the top of the blanket. I was standing on my toes in the picture, the blanket is taller than me. Dominick didn't realize it had a picture on it so Jon stood further back with him for him to see it better and Dominick got a big smile and said "Dee-Dee" which means Diego. So cute!

Dominick will be enrolled in daycare on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I had to keep him enrolled in order to keep his spot for when I go back to work next August. I'm kinda glad I had to keep him enrolled because it will give me a chance to go grocery shopping and catch up on some things around the house and I think it is good for him to be in that environment with other children. By the way the biting issue has been resolved, at least for now. Unfortunately, there ended up being 3 toddlers who started biting and they were doing it up to 3 times and day so the daycare had to dis enroll them.

Dominick now has 14 teeth and 2 more that are about to pop out any day now. He is talking like crazy. I can't even begin to write all of the words he says because he says so many. Probably at least 50 words, maybe even twice that much. He tries to repeat anything we ask him to. Not many of his words are very clear, but I understand just about all of them. He is also saying a lot of 2 word sentences like "bye-bye, da da", "Momma-meee" (he says meeee when he wants something) " Momma-more", "Dada-shoe", Dada-truck" and today at the zoo he said "Bye-bye, crocodile". He also does sign language for the words night-night, more, go, stop, all gone, out, baby, momma, drink and eat. And he counts EVERYTHING. Seriously, he walks around the house, holds up one finger and says "three, three, three" instead of one, two, three. I'm sure that now that I will be home with him for the summer he will learn even more with the one-on-one attention from me. It is hard for me to catch him doing all of his "tricks" on camera and I have a good video of him doing all his sign language in the bath tub but I accidentally got a tiny shot of his pee-pee so I will have to try again so that I can post it.

Happy Memorial Day!

2007-05-27T21:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Memorial Day and THANK YOU to all you men and women in The Armed Forces. I appreciate all you do and pray for you all everyday.

My parents are so awesome, the daycare is closed tomorrow for Memorial Day but Jon and I both have to work so my parents drove 3 hours to spend the weekend with us and babysit Little Man tomorrow.

Momma, I know Daddy put you on a new budget an told you to stop spending so much money, but do you think you could maybe get my bangs cut?

This is Jon's b-day present from
Dominick. He really liked it!

I only have 4 days left of this school year, only 3 days left with my class. I hate to admit it but this year was the worse class I've ever had. But as I was typing this poem I write to each student every year, I got teary eyed and really sad. You can't help but grow attached to these students every year after spending 9 months with them and investing your heart and soul into them. This is the letter I write on cute paper with a class picture attached and then laminate it.

Dear Amy,

You're a very special person

And Amy you should know,

How I loved to be your teacher

And how fast the year did go!

We did a lot of special things-

We learned, we laughed, we cared,

I always will remember you

And all the fun we shared.

Please come back to visit me

As through the grades you grow,

Try hard to learn all that you can

There is so much to know!

The one thing I tried to teach you,

To last your whole life through

Is to know that you are special

Just because, Amy, you are you!

Love,

Mrs. Duhon

This was our "Beach Day". The first graders got to wear sunglasses and hats, have a picnic with hot dogs, and bring beach balls and sign each other's ball. We did some art activities and read books that were beach related. It was so much fun!

Happy Birthday Dadda!!!

2007-05-20T19:45:00.001-04:00

So sorry I've been a terrible blogger lately. I've been super busy and tired with all the extra things going on at school lately. Only 9 days left then off to the Florida beaches we go, Hippeeeee!!!

Jon's 34th b-day is this coming Friday so I took Dominick to Clayfish Bisque ( a pottery place) to paint something for his Dadda. He painted a flask-looking vase thing and we put his hand print on one side. The finished product won't be ready until Sat. because they have to glaze it and fire it and stuff. It was really fun and we will definitely be going back to do more pottery in the future. I'll post a picture of the finished product next week.

This is Little Man getting ready to paintDominick is pretend painting with water here.

A lady was sponge-painting his hand to do the hand print and Dominick was not happy.

This is the vase with his hand print.

When we were finished our painting, Dominick went and sat under the counter in a booster seat and thought he was THE MAN sitting in a big-boy chair. By the way, I took off his shirt so he wouldn't get paint on it in case you were wondering.

The next few pictures were taken on one of our many trips to the zoo.
Dominick's hair is getting so long. I don't especially like it long but I'm trying to let in grow out in a bowl type hair style. I just love his straight hair. Everyone in my family has super curly hair, which we are not so fond of, so I'm in love with his silky straight hair.

Week #2

2007-05-05T21:57:00.002-04:00

Dominick is doing pretty well at the new daycare center. He cries really bad when I leave which tears me up, but they are telling me that most days he stops crying almost immediately after I leave. One day he cried for 45 minutes, which is not like him so of course I was broken hearted. About the biting, children are STILL being bitten by 2 particular children. I won't comment on Dominick, even if he did get bit I wouldn't say so on this site because I don't want my mom to know because she gets too upset. What happened is this one child started biting all the other children a few weeks ago and then one of the other kids learned to bite from him and she started biting as well. My biggest fear is that Dominick will start biting also. He is so sweet and innocent, I just hope he doesn't start that behavior. I spoke with the daycare administrator in depth and recommended that she give the parents some literature on biting and she did. Many parents do not realize it and they "play bite" by nibbling on their child's feet, hands, etc. and professionals believe that is a huge part of how children learn to bite. There are many other factors such as frustration, teething, etc. But once a child starts biting, nibbling is a huge NO-NO for parents. Also, many parents don't know the correct way to discipline their child and so the behavior continues. So hopefully the administrator can educate these parents and maybe help these children to stop this behavior.

Speaking of parents and discipline, you guys seriously would not believe the things I encounter with parents on a daily basis at school. I've been teaching for 8 years and I still am AMAZED every single day by the things I see and hear parents doing. It is UNBELIEVABLE. I have been dealing with one particular CRAZY parent on and off all year. Well, she crossed the line this week. After yelling and cursing in the office, the principal said DO NOT GO TO MRS. D'S ROOM, and she did anyway. No reason, she just decided she was going to walk her child to my door and stare at me because she felt "she had the right to do that". What is up with these people and "their rights"??? Do I have "the right" to walk in their house and give them evil looks??? Do I have "the right" to barge into their home and demand a meeting immediately and then get in their face and curse them out??? Yeah, I know they pay taxes and that pays my income. Big deal, I probably pay 10x's the amount of taxes they pay because of my husband's income. That doesn't give my the right to act like a lunatic to government employees. So anyway, my principal immediately got on the phone, called our school's superintendent, who in turn called the school board's attorney,who called a judge and now they are having a police officer go to her house and serve her with a restraining order!!!!!! The psycho-chick cannot step foot on our campus, EVER! I seriously never wished this lady any harm, but I do think it is quite funny that this ended up happening to her. Don't ask me what would happen if she needed to pick up one of her 2 kids early because they were sick. I am so lucky I have such a supportive principal and co-workers. My principal doesn't even want me walking to my car after school without a co-worker watching me because of this lunatic. And just in case you are wondering, I do not work in a bad area or bad school. It is actually a really nice area with average families ranging from very rich to very poor incomes. Anyway, just wanted to let off some steam to you guys, hope you don't mind.

I'm not posting new pictures tonight because I am too tired. I'll try to post some by Sunday night.

New Daycare

2007-05-05T21:57:00.001-04:00

I switched Dominick to a new daycare this past Monday and I love it!!! I did like the daycare he was attending before, but I wasn't completely satisfied because:

They seem to watch quite a bit of television.

He was with the "older infants" because they didn't have room for him in the 1-2 year old class.

It was more of a "child care center" and not as much a "learning center".

It wasn't run as professionally as it should have been.

So I had him on a waiting list at another center and they finally had an opening. I took him to the new center everyday after I got off of work and stayed with him for about an hour, just for him to get familiar with the place. Then this week he officially started and I took off of work half days for Monday and Tuesday so he would only have to stay for a few hours and then he started full time on Wednesday. He has done an awesome job of adjusting, which shouldn't surprise me. I was so worried I couldn't even sleep last Saturday night. I love the new "learning center". They have a very structured schedule and they actually have a curriculum beginning with the 1-year old class. There is NO TELEVISION in the entire building so he will NEVER see T.V. at this place. I don't mind him watching T.V. at home but it bothered me not knowing how much or what he was watching at daycare. The new center does Art every single day for 30 minutes. They also go outside twice a day and have story time and puzzle time. Most of the Art and the curriculum are too advanced for a 1-year old so the teachers have to help big time, but I love the fact that they are still exposing the children to so much at such an early age. They also have classes in French beginning in the 3-year old class. I wish they had Spanish but we live in a French speaking community so all of the schools (even public schools) only offer French classes.

There is one huge problem and I hate to even mention it because it bothers me so much, but I'll tell you anyway. Dominick got BITTEN by another child on Thursday. He has this huge, full-mouth bite mark on his arm. It even broke the skin a little. As you can imagine, I am furious and Jon and my mom are even more upset than I am. My two biggest goals I had for him as a baby was for him not to sleep in the bed with us and for him not to be a biter. Well, after children are bitten several times, they will often start biting. I don't feel like going into details on the whole issue, but I have done research and spoken to a lot of mothers and the counselor at my school about this and it is completely normal at this age. I will stay on the daycare administrators back about this until this "biter child" stops the biting or is KICKED OUT. Like I said, I just don't feel like saying any more about the issue. I still feel 100% like I made the right decision about switching him to this new daycare because although the other place was OK, this one is outstanding (other than the fact that some little animal is biting my precious baby).

So anyway, here are pictures of Dominick's art work for this week. The theme for this month is Ocean Animals: Salt Water vs. Fresh Water. And although I do think my child is the smartest child I've ever met, hee-hee, I do know that the majority of this art work was done with 99% of the teacher's help.

Our Weekend

2007-04-30T21:28:00.000-04:00

We had a really enjoyable weekend with Little Man. It was 89 degrees on Saturday so we finally took out Dominick's water sprinkler and pool. Then on Sunday, we took him to the local zoo for a few hours. We had previously taken him to the Baton Rouge and New Orleans zoos, but never got around to taking him to the one here in Lafayette. We ended up going to the early church service on Sunday, and the zoo is on our way home so we decided to swing by and get a membership and stay for a few hours. It was so, so nice. It is much more natural than the other 2 zoos we had taken him to. We all had a great time.

This is Dominick in his PJ's and baseball cap feeding his Cheerios to the dogs.

You can't really see the sprinkler very well, but here it is. Dominick wasn't too thrilled over it. He did run in it a little but the water was a tiny bit cold so maybe that's why he wasn't too interested.

He LOVED the pool. I filled my mop bucket with warm water from in the house to make sure it wasn't cold.

This is a video of Dominick in his pool for the 1st time. Please excuse my ugly yard. Jon just put the wooden fence on the right up in hopes of helping us sell this house by hiding the run-down house next to us. The rest of what you see was not done by us, we never planned on staying in this house so we never did any landscaping. We bought it as investment property and just want to sell it and build/buy a NEW house. FYI, Dominick is saying "Rock-Rock" in the video, just in case you were wondering what he was saying over and over.

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2007-04-18T20:34:00.000-04:00

As all of you moms already know, usually your child does all of his "tricks" for you beautifully and then when you want him to show someone else, he refuses to do it and completely ignores you as if he has no clue what you are talking about. That's what Dominick does, as soon as we take out a camera he refuses to smile or do any of his "tricks". I got lucky tonight and he performed a little for the camera. He wouldn't do his "Quack-Quack Song" or count to 3 which he had just done so beautifully in the bath tub, but he showed me all his body parts. Sometimes he does what I ask him instantly, and other times he completely ignores me.

Here is a video of him showing his body parts. The only one he messed up was his "bootee". He even knows where his "pee-pee" is!!!

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This is another video of him hugging and rocking his frog. He is so affectionate, he's always hugging, kissing, rocking and trying to feed his stuffed animals. He was also saying the animal sounds but you can't hear it too great because I was trying to hide the camera. He started to kind of sing his "quack-quack song" but he usually does much better. Notice at the end of the video he had flipped his tee-ball set upside down and was trying to flip the switch to turn it on. He watches EVERYTHING we do and repeats it.

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2007-04-15T19:31:00.000-04:00

I've been home with Dominick for the last 10 days for our Spring Break. I'll admit, the first few days of this past week were not very enjoyable. Dominick was sick and the most cranky I had ever seen him. But around Wednesday, he started feeling a little better and I have just enjoyed him soooo very much. He is such a blessing and is beginning to do so many new things. This child completely amazes me!!!

Dominick is beginning to try to say so many new words, he probably says between 20-30 words. They aren't clear but I can understand what he's saying. He can also count to 3!!! No joke, I've been counting items around the house with him for months (remember I'm a first grade teacher, that's what I do). So this week when I said one and held up my finger, he'd held up a few fingers and say "two" and then "three". Now he doesn't hold up the correct amount of fingers, he's just imitating me. He also knows the sign language for "Momma, Daddy, more, eat, go, no more, bath". Also when he's excited he usually says "Oooooo". He saw a new toy at the mall last night and he brought it to me and said "Ooooo" and I said "Wow" and then he started saying "Wow". So cute! He seems that he understands everything I say to him. It kinda freaks me out sometimes.

One more thing...this child LOVES to watch THE WIGGLES!!! He has been walking around the house for the last week flapping his arms like a duck saying "QUACK-QUACK, DOO-DOO-DOO" . I finally figured out today what he's doing. There is a song on THE WIGGLES that says "QUACK-QUACK, QUACK-QUACK, COCK-A-DOODLE-DO..." and they dance around like ducks. Sooo sweet! My Little Man is a genuis! And I can say that because he didn't get his brains from Jon or I.

This is an outfit we bought Dominick in Guatemala. I had forgotten about it and then remembered the other day and was hoping he hadn't out grown it before he ever wore it. He wore this to his doctor's appointment. I took him to see a pediatric surgeon to discuss having him circumcised. Because of the way Dominick is formed, the doctor recommended waiting a year to have it done. I've done a lot of research on circumcision and have given it a lot of thought over the last year and I really want it done for several personal reasons. If any of you have an uncircumcised boy and have any input, please let me know. Because I have to wait a whole year, I'm going to stay open about the whole decision.

This is Dominick's chocolate Easter bunny that still hasn't been opened. I'm scared to open it because I don't have a lot of selfcontrol when it comes to chocolate.

Easter Weekend

2007-04-08T14:19:00.000-04:00

We took Dominick to the beach to play in the sand but he did not like it one bit.

He was okay if he was sitting on some one's lap but did not want to sit in the sand or walk in it.

Can we please go? This wind is messing up my hair! We took Dominick to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Saturday. This is one of the 4 biggest/nicest zoos in the U.S. I was disappointed because Dominick started running a fever right before we left to go to the zoo, plus it ended up being VERY cold. It was as cold as a typical winter day in Louisiana. But despite the circumstances, Dominick really did enjoy it.

Dominick, Pop & Hunnie

This was the Mayan section of the zoo

Dominick had a total of 4 Easter baskets this year from us and his 3 sets of grandparents. This was his basket from Jon's parents.

This is a blanket his grandmother (Hunnie) had made for his dedication but it wasn't finished yet so they gave it to him for Easter. I love it!!!

This basket also had Elmo toys, a children's Bible, Diego pool shoes, a sippy cup, a rubber duck, and books.

This is a Lego wagon from Maw Maw and Paw Paw Rougeau.

I stayed up late boiling eggs, dying them, and painting some of them. We have a tradition that comes from the Cajun French culture called "Pocking" or "Pock-Pock". Each person, both adults and children, pick an egg. One person holds their egg cupped in their hand and the other person gently taps his egg on the top of the other persons egg, top top. Which ever egg cracks first is the loser and the winner goes to the next person and tries again. When we were kids we would go to all our cousins and grandparents houses and "Pock-Pock" with each family. It may sound strange but it is a TRUE Cajun tradition and we loved it as children.

These are the ones I painted with Puffy Paint.

This is Dominick's basket from us.

He got a Diego doll, eggs with Elmo and Diego characters in them, a Bible, and a Diego book.

This was taken right before we discovered Dominick had a temperature of 103.4. The doctor said he has puss on his tonsils and it is viral so he didn't give him any antibiotics. Poor baby, I've never seen Dominick more miserable than he has been for the last few days. He is also cutting 3 incisor teeth and a huge molar. His mouth is all swollen and looks terrible!

2007-04-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

Dominick went to his first Easter egg hunt last Saturday and had a blast. It was at our church and they had about 10 fun jumps, pony rides, face painting, games, and food. It was really cool.

He loooooved riding the pony. He had a smile on his face the whole time after they started moving.

They painted a little chick on his face, so cute!

Here's the egg hunt!

Dominick is growing so much! He's not a baby any more :(

He is wearing 24 month clothes. He can still wear 18 month easily if it is separate shorts and shirts, but in the one pieces he's wearing 24 months. We just bought him a new pair of Puma in a size 6. So sad, they don't even come in the cute extra small shoe boxes like his older shoes came in.

Sorry this is so blurry, but they are brown Puma's.

He's Dominick with his Easter gifts from his Granny (Jon's mom). She gave him the cutest elephant Easter basket.

This is the only candy I bought Dominick f0r Easter. I bought him the BIGGEST chocolate rabbit I could find. It's about 2 feet tall. And NO,he will not be eating ANY of this so don't freak out. Dominick rarely/never eats sweets. He's a wonderful eater and will eat all the fruits and veggies I offer him! Jon was so mad at me for buying this because he doesn't care for sweets which means I will be the only one eating it and Jon would REALLY like for me to lose weight instead of gaining it. Oh well, hopefully my brothers will help eat it.

Guess what, today was my last day of school for the next 10 days and the children's Easter party. Weellll, I got a call 1st thing this morning at work telling me Dominick had gotten kicked out of daycare AGAIN. This time for pink eye. I panicked at first because they couldn't find a substitute teacher for me and I didn't want my students' Easter party ruined. But when they did find a sub., I was so super happy to go home a day early. YIPPPEEEEE!!!

We will be going to my parents' house for the next few days. We're gonna take Dominick to the beach in Biloxi tomorrow just to play in the sand. And on Sat. we are taking him to the New Orleans zoo. It should be a fun weekend!

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A BLESSED EASTER AND REMEMBER, JESUS SUFFERED AND DIED ON THE CROSS AND THEN ROSE FROM THE DEAD JUST FOR YOU!!!!! SO THAT OUR SINS COULD BE FORGIVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN!

2007-03-27T22:54:00.001-04:00

Okay, so sorry everyone but I haven't posted because Blogger wouldn't let me. Don't know why,it just wouldn't.

Here is what has been happening:

#1 I got a call at work Monday telling me that my sweet Dominick got kicked out of daycare for 24 hours...

for having diahrea 3 times. So I got to stay home with him today and loved every minute of it!!!!! He was totally fine today, but I didn't give him any milk at all. I really think it is the milk that does that to him.

#2 Dominick has a big Easter egg hunt at church this coming Saturday, along with pony rides and a petting zoo. So he has been practicing his egg hunting skills daily. He could be a good little egg hunter if only he would keep the eggs in the basket and not throw them all back out!

#3 Jon and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary last Thursday. He bought me some beeeautiful roses, and a Coach purse, Coach wallet, and Coach key chain. He also gave me the OK to go out a buy a new wedding ring set which I've been wanting for a long time. I just can't make myself spend that much money at this time. But if you know me, you know I could change my mind any day on that issue. I'll keep you posted. I bought Jon a collector's set of solid gold China Bear coins (he collects them). We also went out to eat at...

Chucky Cheeses!!! Yes, quite a strange place to eat on your Anniversary.

These are making my dining room smell oh so good.

Jon picked this out all by himself. I love surprises!

Notice Little Man's hand in the left corner trying to grab my wallet off the table. He thinks my keys and wallet belong to him since he helped his Daddy pick them out. Seriously!

I have a cute story about our "Anniversary Dinner" at Chucky Cheeses. Jon wanted to have his picture taken with Dominick in a little picture booth and he redid it like 4 times b/c Dominick kept turning his head. Then he wanted me to have my picture taken with Dominick. Okay, no big deal. Then he took home a handful of the little game token coins...I didn't think anything of it. Well, a few days later he said "I want to have those pictures from Chucky Cheeses framed with one of the game token coins." And I was like "WHAT THE H-LL!" Then he said, "Do you realize what night those pictures were taken? It was on our 10th Anniversary plus that was Dominick's first time at Chucky Cheeses". And I was like "Aaawwwww, how sweet!" I must admit, I didn't think my husband could be that sentimental. I guess strange things happen to you when you become a Mommy or Daddy.

Just testing

2007-03-27T22:54:00.000-04:00

I've been having major problems trying to post anything so this is a trial.

Baby Dedication

2007-03-20T21:23:00.000-04:00

We had our Baby Dedication this past Sunday at church. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is what our church does for new babies instead of a "christening" which is done by Catholics. Our church waits to baptise our children when they are old enough to understand. But the Dedication is just a little ceremony that welcomes the baby into the church and the parents dedicate the baby back to God, promising to raise him as a Christian and everyone in the church prays over the baby. It isn't a big deal, yet it was very special to me because that is my biggest dream for my precious Dominick; for him to serve the Lord ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE. Because I know if he's serving God,everything else in his life will fall into place. I didn't get a lot of pictures of most of the people that were there because the day was just busy and Dominick was way too busy playing to take pictures.

The blond holding Dominick is the pastor's wife and the man to her right is the pastor. The chick in the blue shirt is me and the tall dude is Jon. Everyone else to the left is our families.

It was a beautiful day so we all ate and hung out outside all day. This was the outfit Dominick wore. He got it nice and dirty playing outside all day.

Dominick loved all the attention from his cousins. He didn't take a nap and was so sleepy he laid his head on Christian's shoulder for a long time. It was so cute!!!

This is us. Dominick was having a hissy fit that we took him away from playing to take this picture.

Hot Sunny Day

2007-03-13T22:11:00.000-04:00

It was super hot on Saturday so Dominick enjoyed playing outside, picking flowers and eating them, and wearing his summer clothes. I can't believe he can still fit in this outfit.
Dominick loves this little playhouse/slide.
This is Dominick sitting in the car and pointing at his new T.V. Jon didn't want to "spoil" him but I talked him into buying a T.V. for the 3 hour drives to my parents' house. I didn't intend for the T.V. to be an everyday thing, but guess what...IT IS! Dominick points at it immediately and says "TT, TT, TT" and then hollers until I turn it on. He LOVES IT!!!!
A picture of the car DVD player. We also bought him a Diego chair, Diego pillow, and some Diego fabric which I used to sew a cover for his little nap mat at daycare. He now sleeps on a mat on the floor at daycare instead of a crib. He is doing awesome with it now but they had to hold him down (lovingly) for 30 minutes while he screamed the first time. Yikes, I'm glad I wasn't aware of that at the time. I think it is kinda funny now, he's such a tough little guy, yet the most affectionate and loving baby you'll ever meet. I just look at him everyday and think "I didn't know you could possibly love someone this much". (I think Jon got a little jealous wen I told him that)
I love this outfit from Pop and Hunnie. Dominick looked sooo cute in it Sunday for church. He likes to drink out of my fountain Diet Cokes I get everyday so I decided to try a juice box and see if he liked it. I bought a little holder for it so that he can't squeeze it and make it overflow. He LOVES this thing. He drinks the whole thing within minutes and he isn't normally a big drinker. I think he just feels like a big boy drinking out of his own real straw.
You did good buying me this juice box holder Momma. It is super cool!

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share PhotosDominick loooves to play outside. He is getting so big and grown-up, yet he is still such a baby in many ways. He is now brave enough to climb the steps to the slide with one hand while holding his new juice box in the other.

Mommy's Little Helper

2007-03-01T21:36:00.000-05:00

I was mopping last night and looked around the corner and Dominick had picked up the broom and was sweeping up a storm. He was so into it, I went to get my camera but when he saw the camera he stopped. So I kept the camera hidden and he later picked up the Swiffer mop and started mopping. It was so cute. He stopped when he realized Mickey (dog) was eating his snack.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share PhotosHere are a few pictures from our trip to the park last Sunday.

SQUEAKY SHOES

2007-02-24T21:36:00.001-05:00

Sorry it has been sooo long since I last posted. I went to my parents' house last Sat.-Tues. for the Mardi Gras Holidays. We went shopping and bought Dominick tons of summer clothes and a few new toys. Dominick must have thought it was Christmas again because my mom had bought him tons of new toys for her house. Then on Tues. we went to Jon's parents' house and spent the day with them and did a little more shopping. Thanks for all the new toys and clothes Maw Maw & Paw Paw and Pop and Hunnie!!!

Dominick's Maw Maw also got him some new Squeaker Sneakers that came in the mail today. Dominick seemed to think they were pretty cool. The video below was taken about 5 minutes after he tried out his new squeaky shoes.

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Lounging on his big bear eating his Cheerios at Maw Maw's house.

Here is Dominick with his Tio in a little outfit Maw Maw bought him that we had to exchange for the 24 month because his tummy was too big for the 18 month.

Maw Maw was digging quarters out her wallet at the mall so Dominick could ride all the rides. The horse is the only one he really liked.

Another ride at the mall.

I bought this bike for Dominick because I felt bad for him. He is always begging us to push him on his 2 little cars and our backs hurt too bad to bend down so far and I feel like a mean Momma because he doesn't understand why we don't want to push him. So I broke down and bought this one for him because it has a long handle so we can push him easily.

Dominick was sticking his hand in the freezing cold pool water at Pop and Hunnie's house. When Jon let him up he proceeded to try to walk right into the freezing pool.

He was making me so nervous walking around the pool. He wanted to get in so bad!

Another Ear Infection and a Video

2007-02-14T20:16:00.000-05:00

We went to the doctor Monday and Dominick has his 4th ear infection. Poor thing! His new measurements are:
Height 30 1/4 (50%)
Weight 24 lbs. 10 oz. (70 %)
Head Circumference 18 3/4 inches (75%)

I thought he would have weighed more, his belly is looking BIG these days! The doctor fussed at me (not really) and told me to get him off the bottle NOW. He's been off the "bottle" since about 11 months, but he's on a sippy cup that has a bottle-type nipple and he refused to take anything else. I told the doctor I'd get him off that "bottle" over the Easter Holidays since I'll be home. He said NO, that is too long. He said the longer I wait, the harder it will be on me and Dominick. He said at this age they are getting more strong-willed by the week and super attached to objects such as a bottle. Sooo, we ditched the bottle-type nipple last night and only offered him a regular sippy cup with a hard spout. He didn't take it this morning at home or daycare and just had to be thirsty, but he finally started taking it after lunch. Yipppeee! I'm not giving in, so he will just have to deal with it... "Tough Love".

He is getting so big and does so much. He loves to push buttons and recently discovered the button to turn on and off the computer. So you CANNOT use the computer if he is in the same room as you. He crawls under the desk and repeatedly pushes the power button turning the computer off and on and off and on. He used to say "Bo Bo" for bottle. We, of course always pronounced it correctly. And now he calls it "Bo Doo". It sounds a lot like bottle. Then today, I turned my head for a few seconds to answer the phone and I heard him hollering 5 feet behind me. I turned around and he had the T.V. remote in hand and had crawled onto his little rocker and was standing up (squatting) on the chair holding on the the back of it and didn't know how to turn around and sit down. I didn't know he could climb up like that, Yikes!

Okay, I deleted the video because his pee-pee showed a little and edited it and tried to republish it but I'm having trouble so I'll just have to do a video later...Sorry.

2007-02-10T22:44:00.000-05:00

Dominick is doing well at daycare. One day last week, he was having so much fun he didn't want to leave or even come to me. It made me feel soooo good to know that he was that happy. He still has the same cold, I'm starting to wonder if it will ever go away. We are going back to the doctor on Monday for his 3rd round of shots (6 month shots). His doctor has a lot of experience with international adoption and he repeats all of the immunization shots for all international adoptees.

We did some shopping Friday evening and had SO much fun. We bought Dominick some new outfits for his Build-A-Bear for Valentine's Day. Jon bought a bunch more Hot Wheels cars. He's driving me nuts with those stupid things. They are only $1 a piece, so it is just too cheap for Jon not to buy at least 5 every time we go to the store. We also bought him an outside ball and some bath toys. We finished buying all of Dominick's teachers and friends their Valentine's gifts. I got his 3 teachers some stuff from Bath & Body Works and since his little baby friends are too young to read Valentine cards, I bought them each a Valentine's book and wrapped it from Dominick.

Here is a little video of Dominick with his new Diego Matchbox cars. Yeah, they aren't Hot Wheels but Dada let him have them since they were Diego. He loved them! He kept saying "Dee-Dee" for Diego. You'll see him kissing Diego in the video. Please excuse my singing, Dominick thought it was so funny so I had to do it.

These are the little Valentine books I wrapped for the babies in Dominick's class.

These are the new underwear we bought for Dominick's bear.
And here's a Saints outfit for his bear. Now I need to go back and buy the black football shoes to go with this outfit. Hummm, maybe there is a uncle or grandparent out there who wants to buy them. Just joking!
And this is Valentine boxer shorts and a matching hat for Mr. Bear. Too cute!!!

Here's the lovely Hot Wheels cars Jon is so proud of.
More Hot Wheels and a case that holds 100 cars...isn't that lovely??? Now Jon will have more motivation to buy more cars.
The inside if the car case