Another new video starring Dominick

This video is a few days old, but it was sideways as originally recorded, and I was determined to find a way to fix it. The answer was on my computer all along. Someday, I'll go back and rotate the video of Noel in his crib. For now, enjoy this one. It's really quite amusing.

Okay, I have to share this, too: last week, I joined the Y! I'm very proud of myself because this is a big step for me. I've never been able to stick with any form of exercise in my life, but over the past few months I've decided I need to do something. My very active and fit parents inspired me to take Pilates, so after doing a lot of research I found just the right place: it's convenient, not too expensive, and offers free child care to boot. I was actually excited to sign up and get started, which is very strange for me. And now I'm talking about it here. Please forgive me.

Finally, a new video

Mike and Dom dismantled the Dust Buster tonight and did some amusing tricks with it, and since I haven't posted any videos in a while, I grabbed the camera. I like this video because, among other things, it includes Dominick saying "hamburgerger." You can hear Noel making noise in the background.

By the way, I added tickers to the blog a couple of weeks ago. Scroll down to see just how big our two boys are getting.

Hairdryer, the sequel

This is how we diffused Dom's anger over not being allowed to play with the new hairdryer. Mike decided to make a lesson out of disassembling the old one. He showed Dominick how to power the fan with a 9V battery. Tonight I mentioned that it's time to throw out the broken Dustbuster, but Mike wants to take it apart with Dom tomorrow first.

This weekend wasn't as productive as we'd planned, partly because Mike worked from 7 am Friday until about 5 am Saturday, but we did do some fun things, including a visit to a pumpkin farm. I really wanted to get pictures of the boys sitting among the pumpkins, but Dom wasn't in a cooperative mood, so I have several of Noel. Dom took a kiddie "train" ride. Each car had a squeaky horn on the front, which the kids dutifully squeezed as they rode, and the resulting noise was absolutely hilarious. The driver would probably disagree.

Noel relaxing with some pumpkins, and Dominick riding in the yellow car.

Sick day

Dom stayed home from preschool today because of a nasty cough. I'm sure it sounds worse than it is. His voice has been adorably raspy for two days. Fortunately, he seems to feel fine. I'm letting him hang out in his pajamas on this perfectly dreary, rainy fall day. If I didn't have kids, I'd sink into the world's most comfortable couch, which happens to be in our study, read a book and then take a nap. Of course, if I didn't have kids, I probably wouldn't need the nap.

Would somebody please shoot me for buying a new hairdryer yesterday morning? Dom hasn't stopped asking for it since then, and he even had a fairly significant tantrum over the stupid thing. I'm going to scream if I hear about it one more time. Last night before bed, he said the new hairdryer would help him sleep. Uh, no. You never know what's going to obsess him on a given day. I guess that's life with small children.

It looks like we'll have another busy weekend coming up. The tile for the counters downstairs is in, so that gives us another big job to do, in addition to more caulking, filling and painting. Will it never end? Oh, and we still need to take our broken window for repair. I could do it myself (in my copious spare time), but I shouldn't have to.

First crush?

While Dominick was lying under the dining room table today, he said, "I like Emma in my class. I like her dress." Hmmm. Could it be that he likes a girl at the tender age of 3 1/2? He usually doesn't talk much about his classmates or activities at school, so this came out of nowhere. I hope this Emma is a nice girl. She'd better not break my boy's heart!

The three classrooms at preschool had their Color Days parade and picnic this morning. They'd been working on tshirts and a banner over the past few days. The parade was incredibly cute. The Red Room, Dom's room, lined up first, some marching music was played, and the kids paraded, holding hands in pairs, around the lawn. Unfortunately, when Dominick saw me, he left the parade and never really made it back in. He did sit with his class for a photo op.

The Red Room

Dom in his Color Days t-shirt: along with his soccer shirt, he's starting to build a collection for a future quilt. (Hint, hint, Mom!)

I haven't posted any Dominisms lately, so here are a few new ones. In addition, he's peppering his speech with certainly (e.g. "I certainly am hungry") and isn't it? doesn't he? etc. It seems like half his sentences end that way. I guess I say those kinds of things more than I realized, so now I've gotten really self-conscious about it. On to Dominick's sayings:

canative movement (creative movement, which they do on Mondays at school)

canola bar (sounds yummy!)

areo (radio)

osteraunt (restaurant)

Wisabelle (his older woman--she's six--two houses up the street)

I like these. These are incredible. (He was looking at a box of colored pencils.)

Something else funny: Dom went to sleep tonight holding a fabric swatch from Crate and Barrel. Some kids have their loveys, he has a square of chocolate microfiber.

Eleven months

Only another month until Noel's first birthday! Wow. Here he is at eleven months. I really had a hard time getting these pictures tonight. Apparently Noel thinks it's funny when I'm trying to take his picture and he won't stay still. (I'll upload more of my attempts to the Picasa account.) He made up a new game where he sits up, immediately falls backward and laughs hysterically. He did this on the bed, so he had a soft landing.

This morning, after Dominick had meltdowns at soccer and the farmer's market, we all went to the local fire station's open house. We averted another meltdown by heading straight for the hot dogs. After we ate, Dominick got to sit in a helicopter. He was disappointed he couldn't ride in it. Later, the helicopter took off, so of course everybody gathered around to watch. Nobody anticipated the dust storm that the helicopter created, and we were all covered in dirt. It was a little humorous.

Closer

We've just finished doing a little work downstairs, and Mike's being a guitar hero, so here I am on the computer.

The big news of the week is that we had our carpet installed on Tuesday. It's so nice! Even though we haven't finished everything and have no furniture, we've taken the boys downstairs to hang out. I promised to post pictures, and to make the result that much more dramatic, I'm showing the earlier shot again. A lot has changed in three months.

One more thing about the carpet installation: the installers broke one of our basement windows. It came crashing shut after they put the carpet through (the easiest way to get very long things into the basement). Can you say Total Landscape flashback? This was minor compared to a rafter crashing through our sunporch window. For anyone who doesn't know this story, Total Landscape exhibited gross incompetence on their very first day of work, when the crew's equipment broke one of our pergola posts in half. While replacing the post, they lost control of a rafter. Brilliant.