ray's new camera

check out grandpa's new 9.0 megapixel camera! you can see dominic's new teeth...


(click to enlarge)

neighbors

on wednesday a big machine (shovel =)) came and tore down a house next to us.  actually they did it on tuesday night and it was mostly done by wednesday morning.  all day they were cleaning it up.  dominic missed most of it but he still found the big shovel pretty exciting.  here he is watching it.  

then, in the same field, mathias was playing soccer with the neighbor kids and their dad (chris).  here we are watching.  these pictures come out unfocused but still kinda cool.

"i'm having so much fun!"

"hey, what's going on behind me?!"

"mom, i'm just gonna go check this out!"

"dad, i'm coming!"

"hey, why are you walking away from me?!"

"come back here!"

"cool"

meanwhile, i was hanging out with emma - these are the pictures she took (she tends to move the camera a lot while taking pictures)

photographic evidence of teeth

for nearly three weeks i've been trying to get a picture of dominic's new teeth - not easy at all.  

i think part of the problem is that the camera seems to have a problem focusing when zoomed in.  

also, dominic is very protective and hates to open his mouth.  he usually walks around feeling his new teeth with his tongue.

here is my attempt to get pictures, including having mathias hold him down.  all of these pictures are out of focus!

finally i got this perfect picture - and it was out of focus!!  i think this is the best i can do.  

walks with a spoon

it turns out dominic was best at walking when he had something to chew on.  his favorite was this spoon.  this video was taken on sunday evening, after dominic had been practicing all day.  i was trying to film his walk around the living room with the spoon because it was so funny.  it turns out dominic doesn't perform for the camera.  

but this video is still pretty funny.  especially at the end, when playing one of dominic's favorite games, where mathias holds his foot and doesn't let him move.  dominic thinks its hilarious.  

walking practice (or: we're such strict disciplinarians)

if you saw my last post, you saw that i was expecting it to take dominic a while to get the hang of walking.  boy, was i wrong!  

on friday, it was a few steps; on saturday a few more; but on sunday, dominic got serious about practicing his new skill.  he chewed on a big plastic kitchen utensil (a favorite toy) and just walked around and around the living room.  

i tried to get a video of it and got this funny clip instead.  it's a bit long, but worth it.  also, the conversation makes it funny too, if you can hear it.  

baby steps

i meant to write this earlier this week - where does the time go??

a week ago friday, dominic started taking 1 or 2... or even 3 (!) tentative steps at a time.  i thought this was just the beginning of a long process of learning to walk.  but by saturday afternoon he was doing this:

random recent photos

yellow box

i'm glad i subscribe to little emails about baby & child development.  if not, i don't think i would be aware of certain developmental abilities that dominic might be able to master.  

for example, a couple months ago, i got an email saying, "yay! your baby can clap!"  (paraphrase.)  i was surprised:  ummmm... no, he can't.  so i practiced it with him, not just showing him how i clap, but also using my hands to guide his in how to clap.  sure enough - it was only a couple weeks before he started clapping all the time.  

here's another example.  one email told me that a fun game for babies is to get a box or bowl or something and put stuff in, then dump it out.  genius!  everyone loves to put something in a box and then dump it out.  here's my video of dominic learning this new game (now one of his favorites).  

snuggle

dominic is generally so antsy, he never wants to be in one place for long and so he usually does not enjoy snuggling unless really tired.