Potty Training Blues

Is Dominic going to 17 and still wearing diapers? It doesn’t seem like there is any hope that he’ll be without them. At school he doesn’t pretty good and usually goes in the potty. But at home, he gets lazy. Will there ever be a day when I do not have to buy three kinds of diapers for this kid? Regular ones, pull ups and night time ones. That boy can soak a diaper like nobody’s business. I mean, sometimes it’s so wet in the morning, it has started to disintegrate. It’s crazy! I’m hoping that he’ll get to a point soon where he uses the toilet full time, because I sure could use those extra dollars I’m spending on diapers!

Oh Happy Weekend

This past weekend was a special one for a few different reasons. Reason number 1 is Eric came out to see us. Dom hadn’t seen him since he was 5 months old, so he was super excited. When I picked him up from the airport, Dom handed him a sign that he had made saying “My Big Brother is #1!” It’s crazy to me that Eric is going to be 21 this year. How did that happen? He was five about 10 seconds ago. But no, he’s a grown man now. And Dom became instantly obsessed with him. He wouldn’t leave his side and told everyone that would listen “Eric is my Brother!” We had an awesome time together and I really hope he comes back out again soon. I loved having him with us and Dom truly fell in love with his big brother. Most of all, Rob was so happy to have both his boys together.

Reason number 2 that this was a special weekend is because we took Dom to Knotts Berry Farm for the first time ever. It was so fun to experience it with him and have Eric along for the ride too. We completely loved all the rides, especially the fast ones. Rob got us season passes (how good to us is he?) so we figured a couple of hours for the first time would be good. We arrived about 3pm and stayed until 6:30pm. Eric and I even got to jump onto “Montezuma’s Revenge” for a quick ride. Oh. My. Gosh. I forgot how terrifying that thing really is. I was screaming the whole time and Eric was so freaked out he was doing that uncontrollable laugh one does when something isn’t funny, but you’re about to shit your pants because your so freaked out. It was awesome. As soon as the ride ended, we wanted to go again!

The final reason that the weekend was so special is……I got a new car! Ahhhh! It’s a 2007 Ford Edge SEL Plus and it’s gorgeous! The color is a carbon metallic dark grey which looks pretty much black, but even better. The inside is cream leather and I can hardly believe it’s mine. Rob is planning on giving his Civic to Eric and was going to get a truck or something similar for himself. Then he mentioned to me about upgrading my car, since it’s the one we use for family outings, and he’d take my jeep. I really liked that idea because I love my Jeep and was sad thinking about it being gone.

We looked online at some different cars, and this particular Ford Edge stood out. Mommy liked. But because the dealership was located about two hours away, we just couldn’t get it to work out. On Friday night, Rob told me that he’ll just go back to his original plan of getting himself a truck since he’s in a time crunch. I was fine with that, because as I said before, I really love my jeep.

On Saturday morning, Rob asked me if I could pick up Eric from the airport and keep him occupied for about 3 hours until he got back. Huh? What? I asked why wasn’t he coming too and he said he had something important to do, something about helping Josh. At first I was kind of irritated but then I realized that if he is giving up precious time with Eric, then it must be important.

The afternoon went by and eventually Rob got home about 12:45pm to grab Eric. He had booked at 1:00pm tee time for them so it was literally a “hi babe, bye babe” type of thing. Off they went and the afternoon continued on. At 5:30pm, Rob text me that they were on their way to pick up Dom and I to go to dinner. They got home about 6:15pm and even thought it was later than anticipated, we figured that we’d still go out, even if it was going to mess up Dom’s bedtime. Eric was here and that doesn’t happen very often.

We all started walking towards the garage and just as I was about to, Rob said to me “don’t forget your keys” and hands me a new set of keys. A set I have never seen before. Definitely not my Jeep keys. I looked outside, and there was my beautiful Ford Edge, sitting in our driveway. AHHHhH!!! He had Josh drive him to the dealership this morning so he could get it for me. How amazing is that? Rob isn’t big on surprised, but man oh man, he really hit it out of the park this time. I love my car so much, and the bonus is that he now drives the Jeep, so it stayed in the family. Dom loves our new ride and calls it “the party car!”

It was a weekend full of family time, surprises and new adventures and it was pretty much perfect in every way.

Tamale Time

I love traditions. They are what brings family and friends together and makes an ordinary experience extraordinary. Lanie and I set out on a mission a while back to start some new traditions of our own. Ones that we would continue through of life and always remember how fun it was. One of the first was Tamale Making. This is tradition that actually started with Lanie’s family. She would make tamales every year with her grandparents and she passed it onto us. The first time we did it was when Dom was only about 6 months old. We were living on Pomona in the jungle house, and Lanie showed us all the tricks of the trade to making them from scratch, including the masa. This year we did it at Lanie’s house, which was pretty special since that used to be her Grandparents home. The very place that she learned from the masters. Isn’t that what traditions are exactly about? Passing it on to younger generations?

It’s a two day celebration. Saturday is when we make the actual Tamales. We all help assemble them, all wearing aprons and trying to see who can impress Lanie the most. Sunday is when we call come back and share a meal together. Everyone brings something and eat the tamales that we worked so hard on the day before. This year was the tastiest ever. Everything came out so delicious that I ate way too much and was ready to pop.

I love that we have these types of things in place. It gives us a reason to come together and celebrate just because we choose to. I hope to continue them for many years to come, and who knows, maybe one day Dom will be rolling out the masa and making his very own tamales!

Valetines Day

Yesterday was Dom’s first Valentine’s day party. I bought him cards to hand out to his friends. I wrote his name on them and he colored them with crayons. He was so excited to have a party and hand them out.

I’m not a huge valentine’s day person. I have no issues with the holiday, and I like it to be acknowledged in some way (a card) but I don’t have any huge expectations for the day. It doesn’t need to ultra-romantic evening with rose petals and being fawned over. Because it fell on a Tuesday, I figured we’d go to the gym ( like we do every Tuesday night) and I’d make us dinner when we got home.

But Rob surprised me. When we came home from the gym, I was instructed to stay out of the kitchen until he said so. I gave Dom a bath and got him ready for bed. We read a story together and then I tucked him in. We had our usual little chat about our day and I said good night.

As I walked towards the living room, Rob announced that dinner was ready. I walked in and was surprised to find a delicious dinner of steak (kobe rib eye) and lobster on the table, along with a bottle of red wine. How sweet of him to go to all that trouble. I had actually been craving steak as it’s been about 6 months since I have had it. Everything tasted delicious and I felt very loved.

We’re not really wine drinkers, especially red, but it was actually pretty good. The best part of the evening was getting that alone time to sit at the table and have adult conversation while we ate. We had a good heart to heart, which I really enjoyed. We don’t get to do that much and I find that without it, I start feeling a bit distant from Rob. It’s nice to come together and reconnect like that.

As if all that wasn’t great enough, he also got me a beautiful card and a gift certificate to “Total Body Care.” So sweet and thoughtful of him. Because it was unexpected and not the norm for him, it really made it even more special!

Heart to Heart

When I dropped Dom off at school this morning, I gave him a big hug and kiss as usual. This is how our conversation went:

Dom: Mama, I love your heart
(Did he just say that? Wow. I’m melting.)

Me: I love your heart too baby boy

Dom: I don’t have a heart Mama

Me: Of course you do baby

Dom: No, I don’t have a heart

Me: Well, where did it go?

Dom: In my mouth Mama, I ate it.

He cracks me up!

Sandwich Victory

Today is a day of celebration in the McCool household. After two attempts and failures of getting Dominic to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (in the cool shape of a dinosaur) he finally did it!

I opened up his lunch box, expecting to see two PB&J dino’s, one with it’s head bitten off....

But there was no food, no crumbs, no nothing. His little Tupperware was empty. I swear, I felt so happy, like I had found a cure for cancer or something.

“Dom! Did you eat both your sandwiches?!!!”
“Yea Mama, peanut butter and jelly is my best favorite!”

And that is what you call progress people!