Our Busy Socialites

The kids will often bump into their classmates while we are out shopping or dining. We first noticed that in our previous neighborhood and we see it more now. It is mostly Dominic's classmates from kindergarten or his day care that we bump into. We saw one at the park on Saturday and at Costco on Sunday. The kids are always excited to see one another while we get to meet their parents (usually). Jocelyn's friends are smaller and if we do not recognize their parents, no connection is made.

On Saturday I took the kids to the park. Jocelyn wanted to go on the swings, so I obediently set her in her seat and began to push. Dominic walked around for a bit, climbing the playset and sliding down the slide. At one point, he started to play with another girl. For some reason, he let out a monstrous dinosaur roar, "Roooooaaaar!" She immediately ran off... (I don't think she was crying, but she did run away awefully fast.) But the funny thing was, as soon as Dominic let out his 'roar', another little girl yelled out, "Dominic?!?" She was playing on the other side of the playset, but she must have heard him roar and recognized it!!!

I had a good laugh at that. It turns out that the little girl also goes to his school, but is in the other class. Her mom was there, but she spent the entire time on her cell phone so I never was able to say hello.

DominicsDad

More Recent Photos

What a ham! If we are not careful, Dominic will put on some crazy pose and expression for a photo as he did here for Joss (she actually took this photo.)

Feeding the ducks at the lake, there were tons of them!

And feeding the squirrels. There were also a lot of squirrels and one brave fellow actually took some bread out of my fingers. The kids were too fidgety and the squirrels would not get too close.

DominicsDad

Little Sneak

This evening both kids wanted Mommie to tuck them in. So tucked Jocelyn into bed and DominicsMom tucked Dominic into bed as it was there respective turns. DominicsMom then went and sang a couple of lullabyes to Jocelyn. Shortly after that we both went downstairs to catch up on our DVR'd Life on Mars episode.

DominicsMom stayed down to watch Private Practice (yuck!) while I went upstairs. I was wracking my brain, trying to think up a blog entry on the kids, when Joss quickly gave me one... Upon going upstairs, I looked in on Dominic. His door was closed (not unusual, he likes it closed, keeps out the monsters), so I quietly opened and tip-toed in. I was rather surprised to see Joss curled up on one side of the bed, Dominic gently snoring beside her. I was pretty sure we left her in her own bed when we went downstairs and DominicsMom confirmed this. So the little sneak left her bed and snuck into Dominics room!

I think we (I) might be in trouble in a few years...

DominicsDad

Oopsie!

Last night we were putting the kids to bed when Jocelyn wandered into Dominic's room to say good night. As she was leaving, Dominic told me that he wanted her to share the bed with him. They have done this before, so no big deal. But it was Joss's third night in a row with no diaper... dum de dum dummm!

Anyways, we had taken all the usual precautions, do not drink too much and make sure you go to the bathroom before you jump in bed, so we were not worried.

About 2am we are both awakened by Jocelyn calling us. DominicsMom gives me a nudge and says, "It's my turn to wake up early with them, YOU go see what she wants."

So I struggled out of bed and stumbled into the hall. Jocelyn was standing by the kids' bathroom, shifting from foot to foot. As I walked up to her, she said, "I'm all wet..."

This announcement kicked both DominicsMom and myself into high gear. Joss was indeed all wet from the waist down, so I stripped her down and wiped her off while DominicsMom check on Dominic. He was fine but his bed was definitely wet. She picked him up and transferred him to Jocelyn's bed (he never twitched while she did this) while I put Joss in new PJ's. We comforted her a bit and then put her down to sleep (and then stripped his bed yada yada yada.)

The next morning around 7am we heard Joss stirring. She was talking a bit, basically "Dooominiiic! Waaake uuup!" After some moans and groans from Dominic, we both heard him exclaim, "Hey, how did we get into your bed?!?"

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Tonight Joss wanted an extra drink of water, but we were not going to allow it. She was given the choice, drink more water and put on a diaper, or stay in her underwear and forgoe the extra drink. She chose the extra drink...

DominicsDad

Some more Pics

Joss shows off her new hair cut:

Dominic plays the Wii - Lego Star Wars!

And here he shows off one of his creations. He is actually coming up with some pretty neat designs, but he has the unfortunate tendancy to take a cool design and place every single Lego he can onto it... I'm working on that!

DominicsDad

Growing Up Quick

Jocelyn must be in a hurry to grow up quickly. Last week she pitched a fit as I was changing her for bed. She wanted to wear her underwear instead of a diaper to bed. I was hesitant as she hasn't been out of diapers for very long, but she normally has a dry diaper in the morning (but when its wet, oh boy...) That night I didn't give in.

Last night she refused to wear a diaper again. She wanted to wear underwear like a big girl. It took Dominic quite awhile before he transitioned into wearing underwear to bed. Finally I broke down and told her ok, but she had to go to the bathroom before she went to bed. She baulked at this, but I told her, "No bathroom, no underwear." Luckily, Joss accepted this and went off to the bathroom. While she was gone, I placed a waterproof pad under her matress pad in case there was an accident.

The next morning I anxiously checked on her, but she was dry! Tonight she also refused a diaper, but more readily went to the bathroom (where she almost fell in...) So it looks like she is taking another step forward!

DominicsDad

Some Random Stuff

Here are some random photos. I've got tons and I've barely sorted through any of them...

Papa Tom and Dominic pose by the snowman. It didn't last too long and he fell apart by mid-day. But he was good for a few renditions of 'Frosty the Snowman!'

The kids enjoyed this too and I got a work out in the bargain. If you look closely, you can see Dominic dragging one hand behind the sled. I was wondering why it became so much harder to pull them all of a sudden!

I just like this shot because of the contrasts it presents. This was taken at the Portland Children's Museum.

A cute picture of Jake!

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Tonight it is finally raining! Our winter started off very wet, but we had an extremely dry and warm January. I felt bad for the rest of the country as I know everyone is freezing, but on MLK day I took the kids to the beach! We had a blast hanging out at Mission Bay. The kids dug a pit in the sand (mud), built a wall around it, and then had fun trying to keep the wall patched up as I dumped buckets of water into the pit. It was warm for about 10 days, after which it turned chilly for a couple of days, but then it was back to short sleeves with the weather in the high 70's and low 80's. Today the weather began cooling off again and tonight it is raining pretty good as I can hear it coming down as I type.

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Jocelyn has started into her terrible two's, or maybe it's her terrible three's as she does turn three in a couple of weeks. I generally pick the kids up from day care and get home from work first. About a third of the time she starts to scream and yell in the car. Usually its something like her seatbelt is too tight (it's not), she wants a drink of water (I don't have any), she wants her coat zipped up (I'm driving and I can't turn around), or I didn't take her favorite route home (which is by Dominic's school which means its his least favorite route. Dang'd if I do, dang'd if I don't.)

It does NOT take much for her to begin a tantrum. Lots of screaming and crying and sitting down on the floor until she gets her way. If Joss starts a tantrum, I generally just let her go for awhile as I do not like to give in to her crying. I also can't cook if I'm holding her and sometimes she's screaming because she wants to eat NOW! If she gets too bad, I will sometimes just move her by the stairs where she isn't quite so loud. But usuallyI take pitty on her and pick her up. It doesn't stop the crying, but it makes her and I feel better. But I don't often give in to what she wants.... I just try to distract her a bit.

Speaking of her birthday, I think we are going to get her a bike! She's a bit young for it but she wants one badly.

And speaking of cooking, the kids have developed a taste for gravy. So we've been feeding them beef tips in gravy once a week so that we can get a little red meat into them. They are at the point where I just mention that I'm fixing the beef and gravy for dinner and they will both race to their chairs and wait for me to finish cooking and serve them! Or maybe they are just really really hungry...

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DominicsDad

Back on the Air

We are back! It has been a busy month with lots of things going on. DominicsMom is struggling with a new accounting program at work (but doing well!), I moved from my office to sit over with our customer full time and took on some more responsibility, plus we we are bidding on a new contract and I participated on the orals portion of the proposal (lots of time practicing and lots of stress!) DominicsGrandpa Frank and Grandma Pat gave me a Nintendo Wii for my birthday (more on that later!) Dominic got married !!!three times!!! at his after school day care. And Joss is just Joss (she's been asking to go to Disneyland again...)

Dominic really likes the Wii. One of the things that you do is make your Mii (an avatar which can be used in some Wii games.) Dominic really enjoyed picking out all the parts that makes a Mii, the head shape, hair fashion & color, sun glasses, etc. One of the thing you can choose is body height. Of course his Mii is a little short...

The Wii also comes with some basic sports games and we all had fun trying them out. Dominic really likes the boxing game and he is the undisputed champ in the house. I've beaten him once, but the last time I played him, he knocked my character down 3 times and then knocked me out in the second (of three) round. Pretty bad on my part... Dominic's character is pretty hard to hit and I think part of it is because his Mii character is short. The other part is that he moves his arms at about 120 blows per second, preventing anyone from getting a punch in. He also likes to move around and he sometimes gets in my way. So I have to watch him and then stop and move when he gets in my way. It wouldn't be kosher if I hit him and laid him out flat. (DominicsMom might get a little upset...) The only thing that did temporarily derail his boxing career was when he punched the TV screen. That got his boxer disqualified and the Wii turned off for the evening (lots of crying and "Hold me!!" tears.)

Then I bought the Lego Star Wars game which was on sale. That is now his favorite game.

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The other day I was helping Jocelyn get into her PJ's. First I had to lotion her up so that her eczema would not bother her too much. I put her PF top on over her head and then turned around to put the lotion away. Joss had gotten one arm in and was working on the other, but it was a bit of a struggle as the lotion kept her arm from sliding smoothly through the sleeve. As I moved to help her, she exclaimed, "Come on!" in a loud, slightly frustrated tone.

I know my jaw dropped for a moment, and then I started to laugh. She sounded exactly like DominicsMom when SHE gets frustrated! The things they pick up!

DominicsDad