this blog is moving...

...four months later, i'm finally getting around to updating my blog! sorry it's taken so long. i've been busy, plus my computer is unbearably slow. i think i can only use mathias' computer from now on.

but, please visit my new location for all posts about all family members (zoe no longer excluded!). it will all be at my other blog, starting with zoe's birth:

http://pattyleighonearth.blogspot.com/

thanks!

happy birthday, grandma!

how was your day?

this is the first time dominic actually answered this question:

me: what did you do today?

d: uuuuhhhm... play? (most of his statements end like a question)

me: you played?

d: uuuuhhh... jesse's room?

me: you played in jesse's room?

d: yes. uuuuuhhh... jacob?

me: you played with jacob?

d: uuuuuhhh... cale?

me: you played with cale?

d: uuuuuhhhh.... jesse?

me: you played with jacob and cale and jesse?

d: yes

me: what about baby skylar?

d: baby skylar.

wow, a conversation about something that happened in the past!

yucky

dominic plays on the floor while i put on extra makeup to go out with mathias.

after a while, dominic looks up at me. he looks puzzled at the makeup.

finally he says, "yucky"

(i am happy that mathias disagreed)

Jesus is cooler than the doctor

mathias took dominic for a checkup today. one of the things he had to get was a finger prick to check his blood.
while they were waiting for the doctor they had been reading a children's bible in the exam room.
so when dominic saw what was going down, he started crying and saying "i want Jesus! i want Jesus!"

mom & pop

(thanks to george for this picture)

christmas 2009

well, the camera is getting old and the battery was dying so i didn't really get that many pictures. but here they are...

decorating the tree, which we only got about a week before christmas. =) the advantage was that it was 50% off:

dominic loved getting out the decorations

and decorating, although he had to restrained and did manage to break one ball.

playing in one of many boxes that came with presents.

Christmas Eve!

Chinese food... dominic loved the chopsticks.

...but let's get to the presents!

oh yeah... here's the big one!

and then papa & dominic get to work

even after he was supposed to be getting ready for bed, he kept coming back to play with it...

even when he was supposed to be in bed...

they just had to play!

tuckered out

the next morning - christmas day - we woke up to snow. it was very cold so we didn't play outside for long.

sunday morning pancakes

dominic always calls mathias "papa" or sometimes "poppy" (which cracks me up). but yesterday, when the pancakes were ready, i said, "dominic, pancakes are ready to eat!" i guess he was really anxious to eat them. he ran over to mathias and said, "'thias, 'thias, pancakes! 'thias coming!" i guess he's just heard me call mathias to meals so many times. =)

catch the moon

the other evening when dominic and i were driving home... as we drove up our little cul-de-sac, there was the moon, big & bright in front of us. i was looking at it, but didn't say anything.
after a few seconds, dominic says, "moon."
"yes," i say, "there's the moon!"
then a few more seconds... and he says (it sounds to me like) "catch the moon."
i pause for a second, and then ask him, "catch the moon??"
he gets all excited: "YA! catch the moon! catch the moon!"
so, i get him out of the car (we've arrived and parked) and he wants to catch the moon!
"help me, mommy!" ---and he's reaching for the moon.
i say, "yes, let's try to catch the moon!"
then we stand there for a minute looking at it and he says, "by the tree."
yes - it's next to a tree... and i think he actually thought it was right there by the tree. so then he gets all upset when we go inside and i don't help him catch the moon!

i think when he's sixteen, he'll be somewhat embarrassed by this story when i tell him about it. =)

happy birthday, dominic!

what do you say, dear?

teaching dominic his manners:

dominic: "mint! mint!"

mathias: "what do you say?"

d: "say"

m: "how do you ask?"

d: "ask"

m: "no, how do you ask nicely?"

d: "nicely"

m: "how do you ask for something you want?"

d: "please?"

m & pl: "YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!"

snapfish contest

wouldn't it be awesome to win free christmas cards? then we could send out a card with a hilarious family picture like this one...


here's the link to snapfish's new card designs...

http://cards.snapfish.com/

funny guy

this little guy is pretty hilarious these days. he's going out of his way to talk even though he's really not very good at it. he'll repeat any word you say. and he gets better every day...

he's very good at saying "thank you." sometimes you hand him something and he just automatically goes, "Tanks!!" sometimes he gives you something and then says "tank oo. oor ell-come." he hasn't quite gotten "please" down yet. i usually have to remind him to say please.

he can also count two items which is funny. especially when he first started doing it. he would shout, "two tucks!" and sure enough... two trucks. sometimes he tries to count to himself but he just says, "eight... nine..."

i've tried to teach him colors. he can say all the colors, but if you ask him what color such-and-such is, he always says "geen!" but every now and then he'll show me something pink and (unprompted) yell, "pink!"

another funny thing is that he really likes to say "i got it!" he'll say it at appropriate times, like when he's trying to do something and he manages by himself. but sometimes he'll say it when he asks for help - for example, climbing onto something - and then you help him and he says, "i got it!"

the other morning mathias was making coffee and dominic walked up to him and said, "hey buddy."

in the morning, mathias always puts on dominic's shoes and jacket or hoodie before we leave. dominic loves this. he says, "shoes! shoes" and then he says, "hodie! hodie!" which sounds to me exactly like the swahili word "hodi" so that cracks me up.

and the SECOND he comes in the door, "shoes OFF. shoes OFF. hodie OUT."

this afternoon on the drive home we saw kids playing soccer. we see them almost every day and i'll say, look at the kids playing soccer! today i also said, do you want to play soccer someday? he didn't answer me... but then like 15 seconds later he shouted, "YAAA!" which was still pretty funny. he used to (and sometimes still does) just laugh when you ask him if he wants something and the answer is yes. but lately he's started yelling "YA!" which is pretty funny.

tonight after dinner he was in a really giggly mood, which is fairly unusual... generally at that time he's pretty grumpy because it's close to bedtime. but he was being so silly. anything mathias would do would make him laugh really loud. and then mathias was asking him to make faces: "show me your big face" (mouth open); "show me your silly face" (pulling your cheeks back and making a funny noise); show me your happy face. then we said, show me your crying face and he totally pretended to cry.

last night we read a bible story book that we haven't read since before he could really understand much. and then this morning he saw the book and said, "giant and david!!!" because they were on the cover and he TOTALLY remembered that part. he kept saying "giant!"

last night he also enjoyed 1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish... but he still said all the fish were "geen"

last night i taught him to "kiss baby sister" and he remembered tonight how to do it (kiss my belly). it's cute. he makes a funny kissing sound, but usually AFTER his mouth has made contact with whatever he's kissing.

well, that's it for now. sorry i don't write more. i find it hard to work all day plus 1 to 2 hours of dominic-craziness in the morning and 1+ in the evenings. i also don't take as many pictures. someday i'll do more. =)

goodnight.

sausage

the other day, dominic was done with his shower and he says, "sausage? sausage?" haha. =) he wants to get wrapped like a sausage in his towel, just like he learned for auntie melissa.

little sponge

this little guy is trying his best to talk! he tries to say every word he can, but most of the time i still can't understand him.
last week i sneezed and dominic said "bess you!" mathias was like, "did you teach him that?" but i hadn't - he just heard me say it to him after he sneezed.

fun with a straw

dom-n-mom