Happy Friday

This is what's making me happy today: Dom's drawing of a "KWAH-ree." It started out as a simple drawing of traffic cones, until he decided to draw a hole full of dirt and "grabble." That was surrounded by cones, and a railroad track was added. And if you have a track, you need engines. That's Percy at the top right (note the face with stacked eyes) and Mavis at the left. Only in the last week or so has Dominick shown any real interest in representative drawing, so this (for me, at least) is huge. Words cannot describe how much I love it.

Oh, and yesterday, Dom wrote his full name for the first time. Here it is:

He cut another quarry he'd drawn for Noel out of the corner of the paper, in case you're wondering why a piece is missing. Incidentally, Dom's pronunciation of quarry is hilarious, and

he wouldn't stop saying it! He's made me laugh a lot today.

So much for that

We've dropped Dom's gymnastics class. I guess it wasn't a good fit for him. The second class went worse than the first, and any time we mentioned gymnastics at home, he told us in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going. I hate to give up like that, but it just wasn't worth the drama every Saturday morning. Fortunately, we were able to get our money back because we cancelled early enough. Soccer, swimming, gymnastics...what next? Maybe it's Noel's turn.

Weekend update

It's only Saturday morning, but I wanted to share a couple of things. First, Dom finally had his long-dreaded bloodwork yesterday morning. He has been complaining of leg pains for months now, so the doctor ordered some blood tests. Mike took him to the lab back in the summer, but the experience went badly, and no sample could be obtained. This week, I learned that I could take Dominick to one of the children's hospitals, where they're used to dealing with kicking, screaming patients. I sucked it up and took the boys to Cardinal Glennon after their morning snack. On the way, Dominick kept saying, "Don't tell me where we're going! I already know." No problem! He didn't, of course, but once he figured it out, he was none too happy. But between me and two nurses, we were able to get the job done. The results were back by late afternoon, and to my relief, everything was normal.

Dominick went to his first gymnastics class this morning. We had a feeling he'd be unwilling to participate, based on his previous forays into soccer and swim lessons. And so it went. After taking part half-heartedly at the beginning, Dom pulled out of the group and sat by himself on the side. Eventually, he did rejoin the class at the end, when the kids got to hang from a bar and do flips over it (with help from the teacher, of course). When class was over, Dominick didn't want to leave! All in all, it wasn't too bad for the first day.

Dom has also been sick the latter part of this week, which could account for some of his behavior today. There's lots of vomiting going around, and it's hit our house the past two weeks. Please, can it be spring? I'm counting down already.

Still here

It's been nearly a month since my last post. I don't have a good excuse for my absence here. But it's a new year, so I'll try to do better. Tonight, though, in anticipation of interrupted sleep--Dominick threw up at bedtime, so who knows what will happen overnight--I'm keeping it short and sweet by simply posting some December pictures.



Happy New Year!