Do it for me!!!

Yesterday I was playing pretend with Jocelyn. We both laid down on the floor with a blanket and pillow and then pretended to go to sleep. It was very restful and I didn't want to stop 'pretending' when Joss decided that she had had enough.

She shook my shoulder and then said, "Daddy, wake up!" in her tiny little voice.

"No!" cried the grumpy Daddy!

She shook my shoulder again, "Daddy, wake up! Please!"

I grunted out another, "No!"

Then she took out the big guns, "Daddy, wake up for meeee!"

Awwww...she wasn't fighting fair! I had to wake up at that plainative cry.

Dominics "The Sucker" Dad

More Tales from Disneyland

DominicsMom has provided a more detailed account of the kid's time in Disneyland:


We finally took the kids for their 1st trip to Disneyland!! We all had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, Daddy couldn’t be there, but the kids had a wonderful time anyway.

We immediately rode the train around to Tomorrowland. We got off there and went straight to the Nemo submarine ride. We had to wait about 30 minutes (maybe a little less) and that was the longest we waited all day!!!

Once we got on Nemo it was a little dark inside, but the kids seemed fine. Then, Jocelyn spotted Dory. Result: “Dory, Dory. I see Dory!”…mind you, this is said as loud as she possibly can. That’s OK, there were others kids doing the same thing!

As we were headed to Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Dominic spotted Star Tours. He was not going any further until he rode the Star Wars ride. Jocelyn was too small, so I took Dominic alone. This is the one that Daddy should have been there for!! Dominic loved it and wanted to go again. But since Joss was waiting for us, we went to Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. I had no idea about this ride and it proved to be the best surprise. Great ride!! There are laser guns to shoot targets all the way through the ride. I almost liked this one as much as Dominic.

Then we headed to Adventureland where we sailed the Jungle Cruise (the kids really liked the waterfall), had a picture taken with Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, and rode through Pirates of the Caribbean; Jocelyn was sandwiched between Mom and Grandma and Dominic rode behind us with Grandpa. The kids did great and didn’t really get scared, although I have never seen their eyes bigger than that. Even when “there were rough seas ahead” and the boats stopped for about 5 minutes…the kids did really good. (Of all the rides to get stuck on!!)

We also bought “Mouse Ear” hats for the kids with their names on them. While waiting for the names to be embroidered, Minnie and then Mickey came from around the corner. I think 1 out of the 5 pictures came out cute!! The kids also saw Goofy, Donald Duck, and Chip & Dale. After this, we got Jocelyn a stroller so that she could take a nap.

I think after all was done and said that Dominic’s favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain. It is a high speed train roller coaster…he was screaming like everyone else, but he had a huge smile on his face. Since the lines were so short, he got to go a second time!


I haven't had a chance to sort more photos, but I'll get to it after Thanksgiving. We have DominicsUncle Andy and Aunt Laurie visiting with Cousin Jake and Baby Norah! We are all very busy, but are having a great time visiting!
DominicsDad

Brotherly Love

The other day I was returning home from work, having just picked up Dominic and Jocelyn from daycare. Dominic was throwing a fit (something about wanting to drink from a specific water fountain and no other) and he screamed the whole way home. Once we made it home and had pulled into the garage, he still would not let me unbuckle him. So I unbuckled Joss from her seat and pulled her out. She was upset that Dominic was upset, but she followed me into the house. I left the interior door open as I went in to drop off their lunchboxes and folders.

Jocelyn sat down by the door and refused to come further into the house. She kept calling for Dominic, “Come in! Come in!” Of course he ignored her as he continued to cry.

Needing to reduce one distraction, turned on the TV to Noggin’s Wonder Pets and told Joss, “Joss, do you want to watch Wonder Pets?”

Joss leaned around the corner to see what was on, then with a smile on her face she stood up and walked over to the couch and sat down.

Brotherly love and concern only goes so far when there are important things on the tube!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning Dominic rolled over, announced he was awake and wanted to eat, and then proceeded to roust me out of bed (at 630am.) I took him downstairs and made him a bowl of cereal. As I was doing so, Dominic walked up to me and asked, “Daddy, why do you snore so much?”



“Go ask your mother!”

DominicsDad

Counting 1 - 2 - 3

This evening I was reading Count with Bear to Jocelyn. As the title implies, there are bits and parts where she can count berries, honey jars, letters, etc. Dominic loved this book when he was smaller and Joss also likes it quite a bit.

Joss has been learning to count at school and can often count to ten without any assistance. Tonight was not one of those nights.

We started with the butterflies and she went, "One, four, five!" So I gently corrected her and we counted to three together. On the next page, it was pretty much the same story with the berries.

The honey jars went down the same way, "One, four, five, six!"

Since she had made the same omission three times in a row, I asked, "Joss, what happened to two and three?"

"They fell down!"

DominicsDad

Disneyland!!

The kids had an absolute blast at Disneyland. Liked all the Disney characters and rides, well, almost all the rides... There was also a severe case of 'We both cannot look at the camera at the same time' -itis, so there were plenty of cute pictures of one kids. Then the other. Back to the first one. Even Grandma Pat got into the action!

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Honey..."

Joss isn't so sure.

"What's that?"

"Did you see the line for 'It's a Wonderful World?'

(It's a Wonderful World was closed..)

Tigger at a distance.

"Watch out for the hippo!"

Dominics "I Missed It" Dad

Leaving for Disneyland

Today DominicsMom, DominicsGrandpa Frank and Grandma Pat took the kids to DISNEYLAND! Dominic has wanted to go for awhile, and Jocelyn wants to go because he does. I'm not sure if she really knows what it is.

So we drove up last night and early this morning we loaded the kids into the car. At that point I had to tell them that I couldn't go because of my foot (it's a long story...) Both Dominic and Joss were a little sad, but just a little as they were going to DISNEYLAND!!!

They were very excited as they drove off. When they get back, I'll publish some pictures ASAP.

UPDATE: I just heard from DominicsMom and they are all having a blast. Both kids enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean and the new Nemo ride. They've had their picture taken with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Aladin, and Jasmine. Joss is ready for a nap, so they are going to let her take one in the stroller while they continue on to 'Toon Town.

Dominics "Bum Foot" Dad

Flag Football

Dominic continues his sports overview and the other week he was introduced to flag football. One of the drills pitted to kids in a small circle and the objective was to pull your opponents flag before they pulled yours. This led to some hillarious results...

And the end of the chase...

Unfortunately, it looks like the coach said something to the boys and Dominic stopped. His friend was able to pull his flag (and it looks like Dominic helped him take it off) and that was the end.

DominicsDad

Halloween

This year Dominic dressed up as the Transformer Optimis Prime. He was really excited about it and really enjoyed wearing his costume to school. He didn't like to wear the mask as it pressed up against his face too much.

Joss was also excited about her costume as she was dressed up as Princess Cinderella. The costume was a bit too long, so DominicsMom pinned it up for her.

This time around, both kids had the Halloween routine down pat. We went with some friends in our old neighborhood, so Dominic and Joss had lots of company as they went up to each house.

DominicsDad

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa

This afternoon we decided to take the kids to see the new movie Madagascar, Escape 2 Africa. If you remember, the kids danced to the "I Like to Move It" song by Sacha Baron Cohen and both of them enjoyed the first movie.

Dominic has been to one or two movies in the movie theater, but this was Jocelyn's first time. Both did really well. Joss insisted on sitting in my lap for most of the movie, only getting down at the end to stand near DominicsMom. There were a couple of scary scenes where they both became a little concerned as a character was threatened, but we reassured them that all would end well. About 5 minutes before the movie ended, Joss said she had to go to the bathroom, so DominicsMom took her. Unfortunately, they missed the reprise of the "I Like to Move It" song. Dominic stood in front of his seat and danced to the song as the credits rolled. It was pretty cute and I noticed some other movie-goers watching and smiling.

The movie itself was pretty cute and we all enjoyed it.

DominicsDad