Santa

Practice Makes Perfect

Dominic's spent A LOT of time lately trying to figure out how to get on and off his bike by himself. This morning he got it!

And his other latest trick....walking and reading :)

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

We've got our tree up and decorated and Dominic is loving playing with all of the plastic ornaments on the bottom. He brings them all over the house and constantly has one in hand. This is probably the best picture so far of his two little bottom teeth (if you look closely). We think one of the top of the top ones may be on its way in.

He's spending more and more time lately looking at his books. If he's quiet for too long in his room we start wondering what he may have gotten into only to find him sitting quietly on the flooring wooing away and whispering like he's actually reading all of the words. I love watching him play and especially 'read'. He's walking more and more everyday and crawling less and less. He's getting quite the little sense of humor and loves to dance whenever there is any music at all.

The Park

Grandma Sylvia

My Grandma was the best Grandma in the whole world. She has been struggling with Alzheimer's for the last several years and today, we lost her. It's been exactly 30 years to the day since my Grandpa died. She had 7 granddaughters and 7 great-grand kids. We are going to miss her very, very much. She was the kindest, sweetest woman and I hope to be even half as great of a grandma as she was to all of us.

Dominic's 2nd tooth came in this morning. I've yet to be able to capture a picture. His little tongue always seems to be in the way :) He is loving his assortment of balls right now. He wakes up looking for them and must say 'ball' about a 100 times a day. He loves sitting on the floor and playing catch. It gets rolled to him and he's getting really good at throwing it back to whoever is playing with him. He still loves being read to. His newest thing is shaking his head no to whatever he's not suppossed to be doing, or doesn't want to be doing. It's pretty cute and pretty hard not to smile at when it's time for him to be doing something he doesn't want to. He waves hello and goodbye now whenever he hears the words or whenever he thinks someone left, this includes trips to the bathroom :) It's getting more and more fun to watch him play with his cousins and friends. I love watching him get excited by different things. Can't believe 1 is just around the corner.

Yes, that's an outlet cover in Dominic's mouth. He got his hands on one and was crawling around the house with it earlier today :)

Hanging with Larissa

Larissa came and hung out for the night. They had so much fun. It's going to be fun watching them grow up together. Dominic followed her around everywhere. Love both of their little crossed feet.

I thought she was going in for a kiss, looks like Dominic was starting to realize right at this exact second that she may have had other plans :) The makeup kiss :) pink nose and all

Walking, Talking and Teething

So, I haven't been doing very well keeping up with the blog lately and a lot has been happening. Dominic got his first tooth on his 10 month birthday. None have followed, but I have a feeling another one will be making an appearance very soon. I feel like almost everyday he starts saying a new word. The other morning while walking to the kitchen I asked Dominic if he wanted to come with me and help me make coffee. He said "ok". Brian and I couldn't believe it so we kept saying it over and over again and he just kept repeating it over and over. Yesterday he started saying "tickle, tickle, tickle". I've resorted to grabbing my phone and recording what he's saying because he never seems to want to talk on demand for me to show people :) I'm currently trying to figure out how to upload sound bytes from my phone on here. Dominic's been cruising around walking on everything for quite awhile now but has yet to venture out on his own without holding on to anything. We had an early pre-thanksgiving dinner last night with friends. Dominic finally decided to take his first couple of steps while everyone was here. It's funny what emotions come with parenthood. I'm so excited about all of the new things he's learning and sad at the same time that he's growing out of his little baby stage.

Pumpkin Patch

10 Months Old

New Wagon

We've been looking into getting Dominic a Radio Flyer wagon. I liked the good old classic one that I had growing up. Brian had something else in mind. This one has a 1,000 lb capacity :) because that's important, 13" all terrain tires, and turns into a flatbed.

First Official Haircut

Dominic got his first official haircut last night. He was a little champ. Sat there happy as could be the whole time and barely moved. Just for the record...it wasn't cut into a mohawk, just styled that way for the pics we took.

Dominic and his cousin Jake

We got to go fishing a couple of weeks ago with Brian's sister and her family. As always, Dominic loved hanging out with his cousins. I wish we all lived closer.

Our Motorhome Adventure...

Or should I say disaster? We had a trip this last weekend up to a beautiful lake in the El Dorado Hills. We had a very generous offer to borrow a motorhome which we jumped at. It started out great. Then there was rain, then there was leaking, then there was the drive home. Or, the attempted drive home. We left early Sunday morning in order to make it home for my friends wedding later that afternoon. We were only on the highway for a very short time when all of a sudden the transmission gave out. Fortunately, we were near Placerville and were able to find a guy who worked on old motorhomes. A few hours of sitting in what looked like a vehicle cemetery later we were told that there was no way we were going to get the good old RV home. So, we got on our phones. No rental car companies open on the weekends in the mountains. We would have to stay there for another night, miss the wedding and wait till the morning to be able to get home. Once morning came, we were told by the company that we had made a reservation with that they were out of cars! By early afternoon we were finally on our way home. You just gotta love trips like these.

9 Month Check-Up (a little late)

Dominic is in the 5th percentile for weight at 17 lbs 8 oz. He's 28 1/4" long and his body is catching up to his head in size :) He's very active, never stops moving. He's walking while hanging onto furniture or his little walker but has yet to take any steps on his own. He can balance on his own, standing up for a few seconds at a time so far. He loves to talk. His vocabulary now consists of Momma, Dadda, ball, yum yum and whoa. He's started to give kisses lately. It's pretty funny, he leans in with his mouth wide open and leans into your cheek. He can't get enough of seeing and petting dogs. He giggles like crazy when we play catch with Molly. He loves to play with his cousins, no one can get him laughing like Vincent. I keep thinking each phase he's in is my favorite :) It's so fun getting to see how much he learns everyday.

Cruisin'