More birthday

For months, Noel had been telling me that he wanted a red birthday party and a traffic light cake, so that is what we planned. The party was scheduled for Saturday, but he was sick, so we postponed it to Sunday. By then he felt better, the weather was still amazing (short sleeves in November?!?), and my mom was still in town, so it all worked out beautifully.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. The first was taken at Monkey Joe's, the rest at our house.

Somebody had a birthday today

Our little guy turned three this morning, at 8:08 to be precise. It's scary how fast we've gotten to this point. Didn't we just have a baby? Noel is no longer considered a toddler but a preschooler, although his birthday falls too late for him to start preschool this year. He does some big-boy things (talks in long sentences, pretends to read, writes a couple of letters, opens doors) but hasn't figured out how to give up diapers or pedal his tricycle. He's still a sweetie but has gotten very bad about dumping things out and refusing to pick them up. Biting has given way to what he calls "blubbing." Ah, don't you wish you could be blubbed by Noel!*

Here is more about Noel at three:

--chose to eat at Sweet Tomatoes and play at Monkey Joe's for his birthday

--enjoys riding his tricycle and jumping the trampoline (I love the way he says that, by the way)

--started a parents' day out program in September

--wants so badly to go to school with Dominick

--asks for crackers and raisins for morning snack every day

--likes chocolate (I wonder where he gets that?)

--navigates the iPhone amazingly well, just like his brother

--loves lollipops but gets himself way too sticky when eating one

Some recent words and phrases:

--pootie (breast)

--big booty puddle

--cameloupe

--fire eraser (extinguisher)

--two bless yous (after sneezing twice)

--"Hi, stupid butt grabble." (gravel)

--"I going to the pool. My penis going to the pool."

There are many more of these, if I could only find the various scraps of paper I wrote them down on. And now for the best one:

--"I love you, Mom."

*Blubbing is when you put your mouth on somebody's skin and blow to create an interesting noise. Is there a real word for that?

The big day

He did it! Dominick successfully attended his first day of kindergarten. Mike worked from home today so that he could join us on that first walk to school. Our neighbor/goat lady/crossing guard guided us across the street safely. May I say how extremely lovely it is to live half a block from school? I had the same luxury growing up, although not until first grade. I rode a bus to kindergarten. But I digress.

The building and grounds were somewhat chaotic, but Dom picked his way through the crowd and led us to his classroom, showing Mike his star on the door. (We had visited the school yesterday after receiving a call on Friday saying that Dom's immunization records were not up to date. I had the doctor's office fax said records in July and confirmed with the school secretary two weeks ago that they had been received. Oh well. While there, Dom found his name on the classroom door and got further acquainted with his room and teacher, who was there setting up. He even helped by placing colored folders in the appropriate baskets. I loved how chatty he was with Mrs. C. And just like that, I've digressed again!)

So anyway, we got inside, and all was well until Dominick wanted us to stay, so I gave a quick goodbye and left him drawing at the table. Neither of us cried, which is quite a miracle. At pick-up time, the parents waited outside the main entrance, and the principal--great guy--came out to greet us and gave our kids a thumbs up. Shortly thereafter, the doors opened, and the morning kindergarten class emerged. Dominick was first (how nice it must be to be an A in school!) and came running to me. He was in great spirits. Later, he said that he'd had a "really good" time at school. Bring on day 2!

Meet and greet

Dominick attended his final day at preschool today. [sniff sniff] Mike picked him up early to take him to Six Flags for one last bit of fun before school. Only five more days until the first day of kindergarten!

Yesterday morning was our meet-and-greet at the elementary school, so the transition is in full swing. Dominick led the way as we joined the wave of parents and kids heading to the school carrying bags of supplies (crayons, glue, paper towels, hand sanitizer, etc.). I was surprised to learn that Ms. Walker, the teacher we met back on registration day, was no longer there. Word on the street is that she wanted to teach full-day, so she's now in a neighboring district. The new teacher is Mrs. Casey, who seems as sweet, energetic and enthusiastic as Ms. Walker. We also saw Dom's preschool friend Calvin, whose mom told me that he is also in morning kindergarten, so there will be at least one familiar face.

After leaving Dom's new classroom, the boys and I explored rest of the school. The art room is full of wonderful things. It even has a kiln! I didn't have access to one of those until high school. The gym has a climbing wall. The cafeteria seems tiny. Dominick got acquainted with one of the bathrooms. We bumped into some neighbors, and they introduced us to another boy in Dom's class. Dom and Noel didn't notice the tables full of donuts near the office. Everything went really well. Now for the big day...

The end of summer is near

The first day of kindergarten is only fourteen days away. We received our first school newsletter in today's mail, and a quick phone call to the school told us that Dominick will be in morning kindergarten. Now that we've gotten what we wanted, I hope we can really be ready and out the door by 8:20 every day. That will be a feat. The boys have recently started sleeping a little later, so that some days we don't actually get up until 7:45. (Don't tell Mike!) Dominick may be coming around to the idea of kindergarten. He was able to talk about school today without getting upset, so that's a good sign.

In other news, we harvested and ate the first yellow squash from our garden today. My blog entries have been rather few and far between this summer, so I don't think I've ever mentioned that we even had a garden. We started it in May after hearing Dominick talk constantly about vegetable gardens. Why not? I thought. So we found a suitable spot, prepared the ground, put up a little fence to keep the bunnies out, and planted peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, peppers, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower and cabbages. The peas are dead, the tomatoes are dying, and the watermelon and cauliflower don't look too impressive. We've had three grape tomatoes over about as many weeks. Still, we should have a sweet crop of root veggies; the peppers have rebounded from a sorry state; the cabbages look like baby cabbages; one cucumber has been picked and two more are growing. It's really just a big experiment, considering we've never done this before. The boys love having a garden. Several times a day, they ask to check on it, and Noel loves to water.

The garden about ten days after planting

Our first cucumber

Noel watering the garden

Dom's new hobby

Look what Dominick did this afternoon:

Don't you love that look of concentration on his face? Despite the apparent seriousness, Dom was so excited to do this project. We used burlap and a monster tapestry needle, which is fairly blunt. I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I'm not nearly crafty enough: it came from this book.

The design began as chocolate and an apple, but the apple became a cone and the chocolate a hole in the ground, and then for a brief moment the cone went back to being an apple. Ultimately what we see is a dirty cone next to a hole in the ground, all surrounded by grass. It's pure Dominick, both in style and execution. All I did was tie off ends and prepare the thread for him. I think we'll be buying some different colors of embroidery floss soon to see what else he can create.

I'm very proud.

Vacation!

Mike decided he was tired of waiting around for the CWA to strike and said the heck with it, we're going on vacation. So we booked a cabin in the Smoky Mountains and headed out on June 20, with an overnight stay with Mike's brother and family in southeast Missouri. We returned Saturday the 27th. We spent a week in Pigeon Forge and had a great time just getting away, especially considering the heat wave we escaped here. Cabin rental is the way to go when you have kids. The boys had their own bedroom with twin beds, we were upstairs in a master suite, and we had a full kitchen, air hockey table, our choice of gas and charcoal grills, and a hot tub (though we never used it). We lucked into a good deal by booking last-minute.

Here's a quick summary of our vacation:

Sunday: arrived around 5:30, checked in, ate dinner
Monday: Dollywood
Tuesday: Smoky Mountain National Park, including the North Carolina side
Wednesday: Splash Country, dinner at the cabin, Smoky Mountains again
Thursday: WonderWorks, tubing on the river (Mike and Dominick)
Friday: Dollywood
Saturday: drove home

Dominick's favorite part was Dollywood, Mike's was tubing, mine was the Smoky Mountain National Park, and Noel's was throwing rocks into creeks and down steep embankments.

I have almost 300 photos to go through, but I'm planning to post some soon. Right now I'm just thankful to have a working computer again. When we came home, the computer appeared to have died, but Mike took it apart and repaired it last night. Whew!

Birthmark treatment update

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from Noel's dermatologist's office informing us that our new insurance covers pulsed-dye laser treatment of his birthmark. Mercy is smart enough to realize that removal of a port-wine stain from the face, especially one near the eyes, is not a cosmetic procedure. Why couldn't GHP get that?

While this is certainly good news, I'm feeling a little conflicted, mainly because I don't love the idea of putting Noel under general anesthesia 6-8 times. Maybe I'm also so used to his appearance now that I don't want to change it. I mean, could he be any cuter? But I know that treating the birthmark is in his best interest, obviously for Noel's self-esteem but also to prevent it from worsening. Doing so sooner rather than later means less disruption for him (imagine him going to school with bruising after a treatment) and a greater chance that he won't remember much of the experience or the birthmark. I just saw some before-and-after photos of kids who have undergone laser treatment for port-wine stains, most of them far worse than Noel's, and the results are amazing. Of course now I can't find the web page to share!

So I think we're probably going to go ahead with the treatment but wait until the first of next year. Even though it's covered, we'll still have a deductible and 10% copayments for each treatment, so we have to set up our health spending account accordingly.

New toy

Something that's been on our list a while...

You've got to love Craigslist. We're still working on the enclosure, but in the meantime the boys are having a blast. We just have to keep a close eye on them so that nobody gets launched off the trampoline.

Crib for sale

Lately, Noel has been coveting Dominick's bed, so much that every naptime and bedtime, he's run and jumped into it. For a couple of weeks, we've searched antique malls, garage sales, and Craigslist (haunting it, actually) for a twin bed. We wanted to find one in a style and wood tone similar to Dom's, preferably with footboard, rails and mattress included, and not too far from Webster Groves. (Hauling was going to require the use of a friend's truck.) The right bed hadn't shown up yet.

My neighbor Judy was back in town for two days from Rhode Island (Dominick asked, "Does it have a lot of roads?"), where she's been on a year-long sabbatical/fellowship that she has extended through next summer. Before leaving today, she mentioned offhand that she had a complete twin bed in her garage. Ooh!, I thought. I said we might be interested in it if it was compatible with Dominick's existing bed, so she showed me the bed. Well, take a look at this:

On the right is Dominick's bed, and on the left is what is now Noel's bed. It certainly fit our criteria, and all we had to do was fetch it from the garage next door. How easy is that? Now I have some shopping and/or sewing to do: pillow, bedskirt, comforter, sham, etc.

The boys were very excited about this new development. I suppose it's a pretty big milestone, moving out of a crib and into a big bed. They're growing up so quickly. [sigh] As expected, Noel has had trouble staying in his bed tonight. May the novelty soon wear off! In the meantime, anyone need a crib?

A chapter ends

Not to be dramatic, but Dominick's last day of preschool was today, and I'm feeling a little sad. He's had a wonderful year and, according to one of his teachers, grown exponentially. I can see it, too. He's changed so much since he began in the Red Room last year, but perhaps most dramatically in the Yellow Room. Emmanuel is such a familiar, comfortable place, full of great people. We'll really miss it, but the good news is that Noel will be starting there next fall, probably in the Parents' Day Out room on Wednesdays. That means we'll bump into some of Dom's friends or their younger siblings and parents, so we'll be able to stay in touch. The other bit of good news is that the summer program starts June 9, so Dominick still has a couple of months to see some familiar faces before launching into his elementary school career on August 18.

The Yellow Room seemed so bare today because all the projects were taken down and sent home with the kids. This was exciting enough, but at the bottom of his bag Dominick found a special gift from his teachers: a small photo album of pictures taken throughout the year, kind of a day-in-the-life of preschool. Dominick absolutely loves the album. When he first saw it, he said he wanted to thank his teachers and make them a gift, too. Then he hugged the book to him. He has looked through it several times today with both me and Mike. I just hope he doesn't love the poor thing to death!

Dom with his painted counterpart. He drew the face. We taped the other Dom to the living room wall, and it freaks me out every time I turn around and catch a glimpse of it.

The beach picture, a current favorite of Dom's. He's very proud of the sand he glued onto the paper. Note the octopus with more than eight legs.

Dom embracing his photo album

Dom's first dental checkup

Yes, I know...Dominick is five and should have been to the dentist long ago. Bad me. I put it off forever, telling myself it was because of insurance questions when the real reason was that I dreaded it. Given Dom's refusal to let the dentist (our dentist) see his mouth after he knocked his tooth out last spring, I didn't have high hopes, but the boy surprised me: he did great! He went back (without me) willingly and cooperated marvelously through x-rays and all, though he said he kept closing his mouth during the cleaning portion. There were no tears, no fighting, nothing. At the end he got to pick out a toothbrush, a prize and three stickers. You can imagine his joy to discover that Lightning McQueen was one of the toothbrush choices. (Of course, now Noel wants one, too.) Also, he got a sticker and photograph for his book, mailed to him prior to the appointment. Here's the picture. He's looking pretty tough in it.

I made good on my end of the bargain and took Dom to the dollar store for a treat after we were finished. He picked what might have been the worst possible item in the store: a four-pack of whistles. What?!? I blame my five-day-and-counting headache for preventing me from thinking clearly enough to veto that decision. Maybe I can barter with him for something else.

Lazy Saturday night

In lieu of a real post, I'm just letting you know I uploaded more photos from Dominick's camera onto the Picasa site (see embedded slideshow). He obviously likes to take pictures of his brother, who also had a turn with the camera tonight, resulting in a few self-portraits (chin and mouth only). There's quite a lapse between the earlier images and those just loaded, but I think it's because SOMEBODY cleared off the camera in between. Too bad--I'm sure there were some cute ones! I'm also updating the boys' likes in the sidebar.

Dom at age five

Height: about 44 3/4" (90th percentile)
Weight: about 47 pounds (75th percentile)

I knew he was tall! These numbers are not specific because I was expecting the usual growth sheet from the doctor today, but he has now outgrown them.

I've decided to start doing a little interview with the boys each year, so below are Dominick's answers from last week. Noel was a bit sick today, but as soon as he's feeling better I'm going to ask him the same things.

Favorite movie: Cars, the big long one

Favorite TV show: Little red train [the Little Einsteins episode "Go West, Young Train"]

Favorite book: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Favorite song: "Puff, the Magic Dragon"

Favorite food: Hot dog

Favorite drink: Root beer [He's had it once, on his birthday three weeks ago. I don't let him drink soda.]

Favorite color: Black and orange because I like drawing cones out of them.

Favorite clothes: Thomas shirt but I'd like to have a picture of a hot dog on a shirt.

Favorite place to go: Monkey Joe's

Favorite restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes

What do you like to play? Thomas box car with Mr. Jolly's Chocolate

What do you like about Mommy? I like zipping things. [zips my jacket]

What do you like about Daddy? It's tricky to remember...I like Daddy to play with me.

One-year anniversary

I posted this on Facebook as a status update but can't let the day go by without a mention here: today marks one year since Noel's fingertip was partially amputated by our front door. I still shudder thinking about the accident, but as far as Noel is concerned, it never happened. He's healed remarkably well. Scarring is minimal, and the only noticeable reminder is the little line across the nail. That he even has a nail there is amazing. Noel's young age was working for him. Dominick remembers and mentions it occasionally, but I still don't think he knows exactly how the accident occurred, and that's a good thing.

As far as Noel's toileting goes, there's not too much to say, except that he did pee in the toilet two days after first using it. What was interesting about that was that he woke up in the middle of the night to go. He may have done a little more tonight, but that's it. Still, I'm happy he's doing it at all. Dominick was nowhere near trying at this age.

Speaking of Dominick, he has his five-year checkup tomorrow morning. If I'm remembering correctly, there will be at least one shot. Woo hoo. I'm curious to find out Dom's stats. He seems so tall. How long before he catches up to me?

Noel's latest milestone

It's a good one, too: he pooped in the toilet! He's been asking to sit on it lately, but nothing had happened until tonight. He told me he wanted to sit on the toilet and headed to the bathroom, so I got him set up on the seat. He said "need poop," and within a few seconds, ta-da! I'd heard the second kid was easier to toilet-train than the first, but I wasn't expecting anything like this. Noel pretty much did it himself, almost as if it was no big deal. I'm so proud.

Registration: check

Today was the first day to register for kindergarten, so I did it this morning. I requested the morning session, but we won't know until August whether we're am or pm. Dom wasn't with us at the time, so after Mike got home from work we all went down to the school so he could meet his future teacher and see the classroom. On the way, Dominick told me he was excited (!). He went right into the classroom and started checking it out. In typical fashion, he didn't talk directly to Ms. Walker, but she was okay with that. He'll be chattering up a storm next year once he gets used to his new surroundings. I already really like Ms. Walker. She's young, energetic, and sweet. The classroom looks like a fun place to be. Now maybe I can start getting excited for Dominick. I'll save the emotions for the first day of school.

Holy cow, I have a five-year-old!

It's hard to believe, but Dom's had enough birthdays now to cycle through a full week. He was born on a Saturday and turned five on Saturday, perfect for a party.

The celebration began on Friday. Mike took the day off and we let Dominick choose what he wanted to do, so he picked Monkey Joe's for play and Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. We went to Monkey Joe's last year on Dom's birthday, too. The choices for activities are so limited in winter. I'm jealous of kids with spring and summer birthdays. But I digress. Noel was a little scared of the size of the inflatable equipment and general noise level of Monkey Joe's, but Dom had a blast.

We had a party for him on Saturday, his actual birthday. The theme was signs and cones. Cones lined the sidewalk, and road signs--a Christmas gift from my parents--were placed throughout the house. I made the cake per Dom's request: it featured a hole in a road with a pile of dirt surrounded by orange traffic cones. Fondant road signs decorated the cupcakes. We had a make-your-own-sign station for the kids.

Everything went really well, but I am happy for the return to normalcy after the party and all the preparation it required. Here are some photos from the weekend:

Valentine's Day

Dom and I have a preschool tea party this afternoon, just for the kids and their moms, grandmas, aunts, etc. No dads allowed! It'll be heaven for us, considering that he has inherited my sweet tooth. We'll come home on a major sugar high, I'm sure. We started the day with a special breakfast: whole-wheat peanut-butter waffles. So now we're off to squeeze in a workout between all the eating. Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Budding artist

Indulge me for a minute here. My first child has suddenly developed a passion for drawing, so I've scanned several of his works to share with you. Dominick has never cared for coloring books, and now he creates his own pictures. I love that. As you'll see, the subject matter is fairly consistent (signs, railroad tracks, cones, etc.), but just yesterday he drew his first tree (cherry) and stick figures. I will caption the photos as soon as I have the chance. For now, enjoy the pure beauty of these wondrous creations.

Looking forward

Tonight Mike and I attended a kindergarten orientation for our school district. I'm feeling a little sad right now. I mean, my first baby is about to start school--actual school! I hadn't thought much about how different kindergarten is going to be, and what a huge step it is for Dominick, until tonight. The building is a half-block away from our house, so he sees it all the time, but it's huge and bustling compared to his comfy little preschool. How will Dom handle the transition? Six months out and I'm already anxious for him! We register on March 2, by the way.

January pictures

I'm not too sorry to say goodbye to January. What a blah month--which is probably why I took so few pictures. February, though still cold, has much more to recommend it (with the exception of the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl) and is that much closer to spring. Here are some of the few images from our last month:

Stay warm!

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!