Big Top Dinosaur

Dom has become completely and totally obsessed with Barney. more specifically, the "circus" episode. He can, and does watch it every single day at least once. He likes to climb up into his chair with his bunny, blanket and sippy cup of milk and sits their in awe. He'll jump up when they play music and marches around with a big smile on his face and is happy as if he were at a real circus. I don't know how this happened, and I'm not a huge barney fan..but it makes him so happy, I can't say no.

Pinkie Swear

For the past six months, every morning when I wake up, my right pinkie finger hurts. It feels sore as if it had been bent back or something. I have no idea what's happening in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping, but I can't figure out why it's sore every single morning?!!!

Snap out of it

Almost the whole month has gone by, how did that happen? Someone please explain to me how my baby is going to be TWO next Sunday?! It seems almost impossible to me. The whole year has flown by.

He is a totally different kid than he was at his last birthday. He had just learned how to walk, so he showed off for all his guests and take a couple stumbling steps before plopping down on the floor. Now he’s running around the house, marching and hopping like a pro.

I was looking at old videos of him, when he was about 5 months old, and it almost made me want to have another one. I can’t believe I just said that. But he was just so cute and happy and easy to take care of.

But before I get too taken away with it I remind myself of the sleepless nights, the amount of work and energy it takes and the expense. Not to mention the bed rest for 3 straight months. That snaps me out of it pretty fast!

Yea, I think one is good for us. I can’t imagine loving another kid as much as I love Dom. I kind of get my Mum’s favoritism towards Dimitri now. He’s her first born. I get that that’s a love that is unlike any other. Ok, to be fair, my Mum insists that there is no favoritism and that she loves all her kids the same. We just love to give her a hard time about it :)

Dom Dialoge

I asked Dominic to go tell his Daddy that breakfast was ready, so he leans back in his chair and yells down the hallway “baaaaaabe, brefas ready!” That made my whole entire day!

We're Still Standing

Lanie reminded me of a moment 2 ½ years ago when we were standing in the parking lot of our jazzercise class. Things were hectic to say the least, people were freaking out about Rob and I being together, most of my friends had deserted me, he was living in Arizona, we were both going through a divorce..it was a rough, rough time. Oh, did I mention that I was pregnant and my hormones were out of control?
.
I remember feeling total despair, like things were never going to come together. There were days that I felt like I might not make it. I know that sounds overly dramatic, but it was true. My hormones had taken over my mind and my emotions and turned me into a crumbling mess. My heart literally hurt. I missed Rob so much and needed him so badly during that time, but it just wasn't possible because his job was in AZ. It felt like I was never going to get through the darkness and have a normal life. A normal existence. The idea that Rob and I could be together for real and be in a relationship for real and not be living in different states 400 miles apart…there were times that I felt we’d never get there.
.
And now here we are. We did it. We live together. In the same house. We sleep in the same bed. I get to see his handsome face every single day. We have a beautiful son together. We are living a normal life and we didn’t fall apart. We walked through the fire and came out the other side. Did we suffer some of the consequenses of being together? Yes, we did. I wish I could say it didn't hurt or make an impact on my life, but that would be a lie. It was an extremly difficult time to get through emotionally and something that still plays in mind even today.
.

But we did make it out alive. And the thing we fought so hard for, us, is still together. The love is still strong. There have been uphill battles and times of hurt and frustration. There have been pure joyful moments and obscene happiness. And that’s what this life is all about, right? It may not be perfect every day. There may in fact be days when you want to just hide from it all. But there is never a moment that I wish it never happened. There is never a moment that I don’t look at what we’ve been through and feel proud. And kind of stunned that we got through it. Without it breaking us. That says something. The foundation of what brought us together is still there and still real.
.I love Rob. And he loves me. We’re not perfect. Not by any means. But we are happy. He won my heart and still holds it in his hands. Plus, he makes me laugh and there is nothing sexier than that.

My Domi

I just can't get enough of his face! There are many times in the day that Rob and I look Dominic and then look at each other and can hardly believe our eyes. Who is this boy in front of us? The one who is practically speaking in full sentences? The one who is practically self-sufficient? The one who doesn’t need our help with every little thing. It’s crazy to me that this is our little baby cub, once tiny and helpless. Now he’s strutting across the living room, dancing to Britney Spears and rocking his favorite pair of sunglasses.

He’ll be two next month. To say “two years” doesn’t sound like that long, but the amount of growing up and learning he has done in that short time is unbelievable. To think about him being in our lives for two years sounds like no time at all, but I can’t even remember what life was like without him. I know I thought I had purpose and was coming to terms with being ok if I didn’t have any children. How wrong I was. I have never experienced such purpose or happiness more than becoming his Mom. Nothing makes me happier than getting him out of his crib in the morning. Picking him up from school. Reading him a bedtime story. No matter how tired I am, he’s like an instant pick me up. He’s my living, breathing red bull. I can be feeling exhausted or under the weather, just wanting to lie down and go to sleep…but as soon I see my baby boy, I find a way to put that on hold and take care of him, enjoy him, spend the time with him. He makes it so easy.

His favorite thing to do is be outside. His other favorite this is water. Put them together and you have one happy kid on your hands. On Memorial Day, we set up his water table in the backyard and he had a blast playing and splashing. I rememeber when we got that table, he could hardly even hold himself up let alone reach inside. Now he's this tall kid who can not only rach inside, but towers over his table.

Oh, so he's doing pretty good with his whole potty training thing. We're not pushing him, just letting him go at his own pace. He has told us a bunch of times that he wants to go "poo poo" and we take him to his potty, and BAM! he either goes number one or two. So proud of him!

His birthday invitations have gone out, and I must say, they are pretty cute. Last year was hard to top, because what’s cuter than seeing 12 photos of Dominic, one per month for his first year on this earth. This year we went with a three photo invite. He looks so grown up in the photos. It has a ‘70’s vibe to it which somehow fits with Dom’s personality. He’s such a happy kid, always singing and dancing. I love how he’ll bust out his moves as soon as he hears music. Oh, and he has great manners. “Please, thank you, bless you” The best is when he asks for something, and I give it to him..he says “thank you Mommy.” I die every single time.

Smash Ball

I am not sporty in any sense of the word. My family isn’t really into that whole sports thing. We didn’t really get involved growing up, however my two brothers did play soccer for a brief moment. I’m not all that coordinated and definitely don’t have that abilty to be “sporty.” It’s something that is totally not natural to me. That being said, I have recently started playing racquetball with Rob, and I’m really enjoying it. I always wanted to learn how to play tennis, but this is even better because it’s in an enclosed court with 4 walls. If I was playing tennis, I’d lose numerous balls.

In only 30 mintues of playing, I have worked up a sweat and my heart rate is definitely up. It’s also kind of fun to whack a ball as hard as you can. I’m not great at the game, but I’m getting better. And it’s something fun that Rob and I can do together.