Introducing Norah Louise!

Congratulations to DominicsAunt Laurie, Uncle Andy, and Cousin Jake as we welcome Cousin Norah! She was born this last weekend and both baby & Mom are doing well. Hopefully Cousin Jake will welcome Norah home with more enthusiasm than Dominic showed to Jocelyn...

Another Visit to SeaWorld

DominicsMom escaped to the East Coast to see DominicsAunt Laurie and Uncle Andy. I was left with the kids, so I promptly took them to SeaWorld, which is guaranteed to take up an entire day and leave them so tired that they go to bed early. We all had a great time, but it is debatable on who was more tired, me or them...

Dominic watches the dolphins watch him...we missed the dolphin feeding this time.

Joss and Dominic look and touch the star fish. They both love this pool as they get to touch. But they both came away soaked.

In the shark exhibit, I had to grab Joss's little hand as she tried to 'pet' a shark. Everytime she saw open water, she wanted to dip her hand into it, but these creatures bite!

Further along the exhibit, Dominic calls to Joss, "Come back Joss!"

We missed the dolphin feeding, but we did manage to feed the sea lions. Dominic (that is his hand) put the fish through the feeding tube and the sea lion slurped it up.

At the sea lion show. It was funny, but it was hot!

Yep, those are Jocelyn's hands in the left hole. Joss was too short for this photo op.

But a close-up worked nicely.

Surprisingly, the kids were brave enough to stand on the rail as the cars came down the waterfall. They both were splashed pretty well. Soon we'll have to start coming out in bathing suites.

DominicsDad

Requiem for a Cat

Penelope passed away tonight. DominicsMom found her lying unmoving but for an occasional 'Meow' and so we quickly packed up the family and rushed her to the vet. Unfortunately we had to have her euthanized.

Jocelyn did not understand, but Dominic was very sad that we could not bring Penelope home. He cried a bit when they brought her to the waiting room to say good-bye. He was a brave boy, but he became very sad on a few occasions tonight as he was reminded that Penelope was not coming home. DominicsMom stayed with Penelope to the end and she was very teary-eyed. Penelope had been with her for about 13 years.

On the ride home, Jocelyn kept asking for "Nelope". She did not understand why Penelope wasn't coming home.

Penelope checks out Jocelyn's new haircut.

Penelope had to undergo the indignity of wearing a collar while some cuts on her chin healed.

One of the last photos of Penelope with Dominic, Joss, and I.

The kids always loved playing with Penelope. Whenever she deigned to put in an appearance downstairs, the kids would bum rush her to hold her down and pet her. Penelope put up with it good naturedly. She loved them and she will be missed.

DominicsDad

No Skeletons in the House, Please!

The other day I sat down with Dominic on the couch and scratched at my arm a bit. My arm had just started to peel a little bit as a result of too much sun at SeaWorld. Dominic asked what I was doing and I replied that I was scratching my arm because it was peeling.

Dominic replied, "Oh no Daddy! Don't turn into a skeleton!"

The poor little guy was really worried that I would die, turn into a skeleton, and become a fossil (at least I think that was going through his mind as we had been teaching him how dinosaurs becames fossils.) So I reassured him that I would not become a skeleton and he was happy.

DominicsDad

Congratulations to Cousin Tracey!

Congratulations to Cousin Tracey and husband Steve for the birth of their new son Stephen!

DominicsDad, DominicsMom, Dominic, & Jocelyn