Daddy's Little Girl

Some days, I think that Jocelyn feels that she 'owns' me. DominicsMom will often move to pick her up, feed her, etc. She will often be met with a "No Mommy! Daddy do it!" (Although it comes out a bit more slurred than that.) Sometimes it happens when DominicsMom goes to feed her, pick her up, change her, or put her down for a nap. No problem, I can do all those. Today, DominicsMom went to change a poopy diaper and she got a "No Mommy! Daddy!" I had to insist that Joss listen to her mother and let Mommy change the diaper.

Sometimes I think Joss gets a little jealous when I pick up Dominic. Sometimes she screams and insists on me picking her up too. Yesterday, I had him in my arms and she started to scream. So I bent down and picked her up, ending up with one kid in each arm. As I straightened up, Joss tried to push Dominic out of my arms. It wasn't enough that I was holding her, but she wanted me all to herself! What a stinker!

Today, Dominic crawled into my lap while I sat on the couch. Jocelyn soon noticed and waddled over to me and she started to scream, "My lap! My lap!" (Or, "Moi lapt! Moi lapt!") I pulled her onto my lap with each kid straddling one leg. It was not enough for her and she tried to push Dominic out. Fortunately, she soon calmed down and I was able to sit with both of them.

Dominic has his own preferences too. We are still in the habit of lying down in the bed with him and singing him to sleep, but he definitely prefers DominicsMom to tuck him in at night. In fact, when informed that it is my turn to tuck him in, I usually get a "Awww! I want Mommy!" or an "Ahhh maaan!"

DominicsDad

A New House

Today we close escrow on our new house! We will be moving a few miles up the road into a larger house with a backyard that actually deserves the name. DominicsMom and I are both really excited about it. Dominic doesn't quite get it yet and of course Jocelyn is clueless.

I'll post pictures a bit later.

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In other news, I managed to kill Dominic's little Beta fish the other day while cleaning its bowl. The little guy didn't even notice that the bowl was not up on his wall and when I did put the bowl back on the wall, that it was empty.

Yesterday I picked up both kids from day care and made a side trip to the pet store. In front of the store, I looked Dominic in the eye (OK, I had to hold his chin so he would look at me) and told him that I had 'lost' his fish. (I chickened out and didn't tell him directly that I killed it.) I told him that it had slipped out of my fingers and went down the drain.

Dominic replied, "Oh no!" in a pretty worried tone. He had a few questions about why (it was slippery.)

Then I told him we could go buy a new fish right now. Dominic got really excited and ran into the store. Before we went to find a new fish, we had to stop and pet the cats, look at the mice, and some other fish. Then he picked a nice blue Beta fish to replace his old one.

Whew!

DominicsDad

Just for DominicsMom

Just for DominicsMom... what you cannot see in the first picture is the layer of blankets Joss is sitting on.

Here are all the blankets. She pulled them ALL out of the drawer. At least she's trying to put them away.
Silly girl.

DominicsDad

Dominic Wakes Up

This morning I had kid duty, in fact I have it all weekend as DominicsMom is out East visiting her sister Laurie. Normally, Jocelyn is the one who wakes up very early on a weekend morning. Today was different as Dominic woke me up around 530. He wanted to know if I wanted to go down with him. I 'reluctantly' told him no (I was up a little to late the night before) and that he could go downstairs by himself if he wanted to.

I hazily recall him leaving the room. About half an hour later, his calls woke me up. I blearily stumbled downstairs and had to start laughing. Dominic was sitting in his seat at the dining table, eating a yogurt. Our little boy had walked down, decided he was a bit hungry, opened the refrigerator, pulled out a yogurt - a big boy Yoplait instead of his normal kiddy Trix yogurt - got a spoon, sat down, opened the yogurt, and begun to eat. He ate about a third of it (Strawberry and white chocolate) and was calling to let me know that he was done. About this time I heard Jocelyn stirring, so I got her up too. I brought her down and after she finished waking up she finished off the rest of the yogurt.

This was the first time Dominic has gone downstairs on his own. And the first time he's pulled out 'breakfast' on his own!

DominicsDad

Swimming

DominicsMom just flew East to see her sister Laurie. I know she really wants me to keep her updated on the kids swim lessons, so here is a quick post:

The kids started their swim lessons again with Floaties swim school. The kids always have a great time in the water and the instructors at Floaties are always really good with them, making them comfortable in the water. Today's lesson was a continuation of Tuesday's lesson, continuing to acclimatize them to the water again and get them used to getting their faces wet. Dominic makes some great faces as he comes up from underwater, but both he and Joss are real troopers about it.

DominicsDad

Car Wash

I finally did something that I haven't done since I left home, I washed my own car by hand. It used to be a regular ritual, DominicsUncle Lee and I would wash the family car. We even started the old fashion way, DominicsPapa Tom asked us if we wanted to do something fun. And it was fun the first time...

So in time honored tradition, I asked both kids, "Do you both want to do something fun?"

They both watched eagerly as I brought the hose around, filled the bucket with soap and water, and located several rags.



Dominic is old enough that he at least has the concept straight. He would rinse his rag off and wash down the car. I had to prompt him the first few times, but after that he would rinse off his rag with 'fresh' water and keep scrubbing down the car. I did wince a little when I caught him scrubbing a tire and then moving on to a door. Dominic will need to work on his technique a bit as he generally only scrubbed stuff that was chest high to him. Anything else was like, work.



I didn't give Jocelyn a rag, so she managed the bucket for us (you can see her trying to move it as we shifted around the car.) She also tried to fill it as the water level became low, but she wasn't strong enough to press down on the nozzle.


I think the part that the kids enjoyed the most was when I first wet down the car. And them. They also enjoyed playing in the mud created. Notice the white sleeves on Dominic's shirt. They aren't white now. Joss managed to wipe the mud all over her chest.

DominicsDad

Happy Mother's Day

A bit late, but:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

From all of us,

DominicsDad, DominicsMom, Dominic, & Jocelyn

Picking Strawberries

We took the kids to the Carlsbad Strawberry fields to pick strawberries. We came away with a couple tubs of strawberries, some red clothes, red lips, and a set of red arms (mine, we did put sunscreen on the kids.) The strawberries were really red and juicy and we were early enough in the season that they had not been well picked over.

Before:

Dominic picks strawberries in a field of green. It took him awhile to fill his bucket, probably because he was eating a bunch of strawberries.
Jocelyn ate a bunch of strawberries too, but her bucket filled up quicker as I was helping her out.
Nice red face...
There is that little betraying trail of red...

And after. Dominic wasn't too bad, Joss just about ruined her shirt.
That night, strawberry shortcake for desert!

DominicsDad

Lets Go Jogging!

Today I actually went for a short jog! Yaay! Pat me on the back...

Anyways, I was planning on taking one of the kids, Joss in the jogging stroller or Dominic on his bike. Dominic decided that he wanted to go with me. He let me know that, "I want to go joggling with Daddy!"

"Joggling?" DominicsMom asked him.

"Yes, joggling!" replied Dominic as he mimed running in place...

Must be that new Olympic sport the Chinese are introducing in this summer's games, jogging through the summer's events while juggling all the politics...

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For the record, I took (pushed) Dominic on his trike along Miramar lake while DominicsMom pushed (carried) Jocelyn on her trike. I think DominicsMom may have had the harder workout.

DominicsDad

Just a Couple of Pretty Faces

I think the photos speak for themselves...

I'm pretty sure that DominicsMom did not teach them to make these silly faces and I know that I did not...so it's probably another wonderful thing that they learned in school. But to set the story straight, let it be known that our little Miss precious was the first to start making the silly faces!

DominicsDad

Tomboy

The other day, DominicsMom asked Jocelyn, "Are you my pretty girl?"

Joss replied, "Noooo!"

DominicsMom asked again, "Are you my pretty girl?"

"Boy!" Joss insisted.

"You are my little girl!"

"No. Boy!"

Oh brother! I'm in trouble!

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Jocelyn loves to wrestle and run around. She has taken to climbing anything and everything and is doing so at a much younger age than Dominic. We've recently caught her climbing onto the coffee table and then jumping over to the couch, landing with a big belly flop onto the cushions. We've scolded her a couple of times, but she just smiles and laughs...

The other day DominicsMom picked her up from day care. Her teacher told DominicsMom that Joss had been naughty. She was climbing onto the chairs (the small kid-sized ones) and then jumping off of them. She didn't get a sticker that day...

More Pictures from Seaport Village

Here are some additional pictures from our visit to Seaport Village. We bought the kids some ice cream, with some predictable results. Jocelyn had chocolate all over her and she managed to get some on me too.







DominicsDad