WEEKEND WITH THE GRANDPARENTS!

I'm so sorry it has been so long since my last post. I probably won't be posting more than once, maybe twice a week for awhile. I just don't have the time right now. Dominick is doing well, I took him back to the Dr. on Friday and one ear was completely better, the other was not so great so they gave him an antibiotic shot and said that should finish it off. He's doing well at daycare. He got a huge smile on his face when he saw his teacher this morning. He wasn't overjoyed when she took him from me but he didn't cry. He is definitely showing signs of missing me when we get home. He's super clingy and cranky in the evenings. He won't let me put him down for at least the first hour after we get home, which is fine with me but I just feel bad for him because I know he really misses me. That's a long time to go without your Momma everyday. YUCK! I HATE leaving him. This is harder than I thought. Thank God I have a lot of holidays and summers off of work!!!

My parents spent the weekend with us and Jon's parents visited also. Dominick's Maw Maw bought him some new bath toys since he was such a good-boy for his shot. And she bought him a John Deere cell phone and keys for his Valentine's present.

We made ice cream sundae's Saturday night after Maw Maw cooked us a good dinner. Jon loves when my parents come for the weekend because that's the only time he gets a home cooked dinner.

Thanks for the cell phone Maw Maw. I promise I'll call you every day and I'll stop stealing my mom and dad's phones.

GO ULL RAGIN' CAJUNS!!!

Momma, I think the bath water is warm enough now. Can I please get in???

Okay, okay, I'll turn around so you can take a picture of my cute butt! Are you happy now???

I've been looking all over the internet for an Easter basket for Dominick. I've found a few but they aren't exactly what I want. Maybe you guys can help me. I'm looking for something fairly big, so I can stuff it with toys. And I want it to be something that he can use through the upcoming years, so it can't be babyish. I want him to use the same basket every year because it's one of our little family traditions. The only thing I half-way liked was the large basket from Pottery Barn, but it will probably cost me over $60 once I have it personalized and shipped and it isn't even exactly what I wanted. Anyway, if any of you see a cool Easter basket, please let me know.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Haven't had much time to post or take pictures. I was laid out ALL weekend with a stomach virous. That was soooooo miserable. Jon and I were both sick and had no one to help us with Dominick who is also still sick. Then today, when I got home from picking Dominick up from daycare, I read the little note they send home everyday telling me what he ate, etc. It said that he only had one bottle at 3:00 P.M.!!!! SAY WHAT??? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME RIGHT???? So I called them and they explained that his regular care taker left for a few hours to go to the Dr. and this other lady (idiot) watched him and didn't know his schedule and when his regular teacher came back she hadn't realized that he hadn't been given a bottle. When she realized at 3:00 she gave him one. So I called the owner and she's supposed to call me back tomorrow. All I could do is cry. My child went 9 HOURS with nothing to drink. OH MY GOD, I cannot believe this!!! I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. I really like the 2 ladies that usually watch him, but this isn't the first time I've had a problem when they weren't there. I don't want to change his routine AGAIN by switching him to a new daycare, plus last time I checked, there was no openings anywhere else. I will let you guys know what happens after I speak with the owner. I just cried and cried hoping my husband would tell me to quit working, but no luck yet. I can't describe the way I feel right now. I just feel terrible for him!

Here is Dominick playing on his Diego Car.

Notice how he puts his feet up for me to push him.

YIPPEEEEE!!!

I got a super exciting call yesterday from the school board informing me that the schools in my parish (county) would be closed today because of bad weather conditions and hazerdous driving conditions. Woo-Hoooo! Needless to say, I am very happy to stay home with my little man today. It is super cold here, but the streets ended up being fine and we could have gone to school today. My first official day back to work was yesterday and it went great!!! Dominick screamed his head off when I left him which broke my heart but they said he stopped as soon as I walked out the door and never cried again.
Dominick came home from daycare last Thur. with a cold. It has gotten a little worse each day but he never ran a fever. Well, yesterday I noticed him swatting at his ear a few times and decided I'd better take him to the doctor since I have the day off today. Well, sure enough, he has a double ear infection. Both ear canals are filled with puss, poor baby. I'm so glad I took him to the Dr. because last time he had a cold, he got an ear infection that took 2-3 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics to get over. He now weighs 24.6 pounds!

MY PRINCE CHARMING

Don't ask me why, but I wanted Dominick to have a Valentine's Day outfit to wear to daycare on Valentine's Day. All the stuff I found at Old Navy looked a little too girlie. Then lucky me found the perfect outfit at Baby Gap. The hat and shirt both say "Prince Charming". Dominick most certainly is my PRINCE CHARMING. Even though he isn't so charming when he's slapping me in the face or kicking me during his diaper changes, he's still is and always will be my handsome PRINCE.

My little man gettin' his groove on!

Okay, let me explain a little about Jon (hubby). He really, really likes jewelry and as a child and teenager, his family would take him to their jeweler and he'd tell them what he wanted and it was usually custom made. Nothing extravagant, but it was always unique and special to him because it was exactly what he wanted. That is a little odd to me because my parents weren't that into jewelry. So anyway, Jon decided he wanted Dominick to have a diamond cross pendant (but never mentioned it to me). He went to a jeweler and told him exactly what he wanted and they ordered it for him. Then he came home Friday, put the cross pendant on Dominick's neck, without me knowing, and kept saying "Dominick, go to Momma". I wasn't paying any attention to him until Dominick crawled over to me and I saw a necklace hanging from his little neck. I was a little surprised and thought it was a fake necklace at first. Now that I sit back and think about it, I'm surprised that it took Jon this long to buy a piece of jewelry for Dominick.

Here's the pendant, yes they are real diamonds but they are pretty small so it really wasn't all that expensive. I told Jon I thought it was maybe a little girlie and that it would have been better just all gold, no diamonds. But he said he didn't care because he likes diamonds and that the jeweler said it was for a boy.

How do you like my new Bling-Bling Momma??? I'm glad you don't mind that Daddy is buying the jewelry for me now instead of you.

By the way, Dominick suddenly started calling Jon Daddy instead of Dada. I don't know how he figured it out because I usually refer to Jon as Dada, but it's really cute. Dominick is totally in love with Jon now. As many of you may remember, he wasn't so fond of Jon at first, but now he really loves is Daddy.

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

Thank You McKenzie Crew!!!

Dominick got a special package in the mail from the McKenzie Crew on Thursday but I've been too tired to post pictures. They sent him a bunch of John-Bryan's cool clothes, some super cool slippers, and a cool hammer!!! Thank you so much, ya'll are too sweet!!!

Lot's of cool new clothes!New hammer from the McKenzie Crew...It's funny because I had been wanting to buy this hammer for Dominick since before he even came home, but just never got around to it. When he hits it on something, it makes noises and the back lights up.
He loves to watch it light up.

Cool slippers with matching socks...love it!

Dominick has a little cold. I cried and cried when he came home from daycare on Thursday with diaper rash and a cold. We knew he'd get sick from the other kids but I guess I didn't think it would happen so soon. I do like his daycare and he is doing good, but I still just hate leaving him. I was soooo enjoying being at home with him everyday. But I am so thankful for the 3 months I was able to stay home with him and for all the holidays and summers I have off. Our next holiday is in February for Mardi Gras and I get 3 days off, so I'll be counting down the days for that.

Day 2 & 3 of Daycare

Yesterday (Tues.) was Dominick's second day of daycare. I was a little disappointed because his teacher told me he pretty much cried the whole time and kept pointing at the door saying "Bye-Bye". The only cool thing about it was that he did take a nap which surprised me. Today (Wed.) was awesome. He didn't cry at all and really enjoyed himself. When I got there his teacher was sitting on the floor and all the babies were happily playing. There are only 4 babies in his class. He didn't take a nap today but all of that will work out as he adjusts. It made me feel so good that his day went so well today.

No new pictures, just wanted to give ya'll an update. Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments and encouragement. I am so glad I decided to work in my class 4 hours a day and send him to daycare this week. It has really helped me slowly get back into the groove of everything and I really do enjoy being back at work. If only I could go in at 9:00 everyday instead of 7:00, it would be perfect!!! Getting up so early and rushing out the door just ruins my day.

1st DAY OF DAYCARE

Dominick's first day of daycare couldn't have been better. As far as I know, he enjoyed his day and didn't even cry, only fussed a little here and there. I left him from 9:00-1:00. He even took a 40 minute nap which is surprising under the circumstances. When I got there he gave me a big kiss and laid his head on my shoulder for a few minutes to hug me. My day at school was good as well. It was good to be out of the house and around the children and my awesome co-workers. I really do love the people I work with. So far, so good!

Hummm, let me try this out

Yuummm, this sure is good stuff

Momma, I know you don't like to cook, but I sure am glad you spent 5 minutes boiling this corn for me. It sure is good and fun to eat.

This is the shirt that goes with the hat and swim trunks I posted yesterday. It says, "Swimming Shark"

READY TO SWIM

Okay, I was walking OUT of the Baby Gap today and saw this camo hat and just stuck in on Dominick's head for fun. Then I thought, this would be good to protect his face and neck from the sun in the summer because it has a huge rim. Then I saw the matching swim trunks and had to have it! So, Pops and Hunnie, Dominick is all set to come swimming in your new pool. We can't wait! And Maw Maw, Dominick can also wear this hat when he's helping you in your gardens.

Here's the swim trunks and hat with the sides snapped up. My little camo-cowboy!
He is now taking up to 11 steps before falling. Poor baby, he has been falling so much since he started learning to walk, his but must be hurting. But he's soooo proud of himself. He gets so excited when he's walking, he laughs and laughs and I think that's what makes him fall. And here's the sides let down.
By the way, this hat is a size 2-3 years. The 18-24 month size was too small. This child has a HUGE head! It was so funny because this hat is pretty big but it didn't seem to bother him, he just kept on playing.

Dominick is starting his first day of daycare tomorrow. YIKES! I don't start back at work until next Tues., but I'm gonna volunteer at my school this week so Dominick can spend a few hours a day at daycare to start his adjustment process.