Happy Memorial Day!

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!!!

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

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

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:

1. They seem to watch quite a bit of television.


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


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


4. 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

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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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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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

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!

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!