Speed Demon Dominic

Dominic is a fairly cautious kid. He's not crazy at the park like trying to leap or walk across things that are too tall for his age. He is generally Mr. Careful when climbing at home and performing tasks that could cause injury, but the kid just loves speed!

Now I shouldn't REALLY be the one posting this because I wasn't even there, but I'm grabbing the opportunity to use the video and somewhat re-tell the story.

My Mom takes Dominic every Tuesday so that I can work. I usually drive him out to her house and then pick him up in the evening (there or at the library in RR). It's an all day event. Alex gets to come visit too because Robyn (his moma) works in RR for a couple hours twice a week. Lately, Robyn and Mom have been taking the boys on adventures after Robyn is done working (usually by 10/11am). This week they went to the Bear Creek "Castle" Park. One of the few parks left around here with cool wooden castle-like structures. Apparently they also have a TON of great wide paved walkways that make great bike paths for the boys. They rode their bikes forever on them.

Dominic LOVES to ride VERY FAST down hills. He gets VERY into steering, like weaving back and forth. He's so funny to watch. He acts SO in control leaning his body left to right just perfectly to get a slow turn without spilling. These bikes are NOT the best down-hill bikes - next time I should send him with his "low-rider" (Big Wheel) and definitely a helmet!



My mom said everyone in that area was staring at him careening down this hill with fear in their eyes like oh boy, he's going to eat it big time! ... and he did. Ha-Ha. But he didn't ball his eyes out or anything. The way my mom described it was that he crashed, poked his head up and his hate was pulled way down over his face (whew, no face injuries or missing teeth or teeth-through-the-lip) and dirt up his chin.

His response, "Let's do it again!"

Dominic Climbing a Chain Net

I recorded this from my iPhone maybe back in Januray? Not sure. This was only his 2-3rd time climbing this and then he did it all by himself. He's a wiz at it now.

I realize that I should flip the video but I uploaded it via my iPhone to YouTube and don't have time to flip it. So deal. :)

Spitt'n Out the Window

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Just Another Day at Gramsi's

I know, I've disappeared off the blogging grid. Here's a fun video from Gramsi. :) Dominic and Alex chasing each other with their new tunnel.

First Easter

It seems that we have not done a huge family Easter in years. When we were kids, the Jentzsch's and Rollins used to come down to Oregon (from Washington) and we always had the best time. I have missed that. I am glad that having babies around can bring back these fun times long overdue!

What we used to do: Like any event with the Ford's, Jentzsch's and Rollin's we have a knack for being crazy and having too much fun. We would decorate and dye a gzillion eggs and our parents added a ton of plastic-candy-money-filled eggs to the mix too. There was always a small hunt for the younger kids and then a more intense, harder hunt for the big kids. I mean seriously, our parents were cruel - hiding eggs in snake holes and way up in trees and in berry bushes.

After the egg hunts, we got to search for our baskets... all cleverly hidden by our parents in the woods. My parents have 9-acres so we always used one section of the property that was made into a motorcyle trail. It had a lot of dense brush and was hard to find even the brightest sunniest of baskets. Each kid's parents could help us with "hot/cold" hints. Easter had nothing to do with the candy. It was everything to do with the "hunts". I can't wait for Dominic and Alex .... and I'm sure more siblings and cousins of the next generation to add to the mix.

Dominic & Daddy

Expressions for Lunch

"Banana's Have No Bones"

"Sad Clown Face"

Dominic does is really into making funny faces. He seems to be doing them as small reactions to things or just generally testing out his facial expressions. He does the "Sad Clown Face" twice in this video. I'll have to get a better shot of it, but this was pretty funny. If you can make the video larger, you will have better luck at seeing it.

*update: I've re-uploaded this video from YouTube instead of Picasa for quality purposes. Not sure if you can catch the expression still.

Helping Daddy Get Ready for Work

A Day with the Three Musketeers

Last Wednesday we decided to go to Storytime at the Jacksonville (Oregon) Library. I met a new friend, Ulana ("you-lane-uh") at the grocery store and she had invited me to come. She has an 8-month old boy named Lawson. Robyn decided to come, but she was also babysitting, Gavin, her other nephew. Gramsi also came along. I don't think we would have survived without her there! So here we are, each with a baby. Gavin is about 10 1/2 mos old, Alex is about 10mos and Dominic is about 9 1/2 mos. They are all about 3-weeks apart basically. ha-ha. What an adventure.

The moment we showed up, Alex charged right to the center of the room and sat next to a little girl like he was her buddy and just soaked it all in...."WOW KIDS! I'M IN HEAVEN!" He was being really good and non-bashful going around "meeting" all the kids. Gavin of course started to join in although he was more interested in the "Happy Birthday" sign up front than meeting any of the kids.

I didn't get any good pictures of Dominic at Storytime. He was just chill'n in Gramsi's arms the whole time other than trying to chew on someone's crochet book in front of us. Here is our new friend Lawson. He is 8 months old and not yet crawling. LOL

After Storytime we decided to go out to lunch. GREAT IDEA! ha! Three of us, three babies and lunch in a tiny little tea shop. It was actually not that bad. I imagine Fiona managing two babies by herself and I'm sure our adventure was a breeze. Aside from the extremely grumpy waitress and 30 minute wait for sandwitches, we had a great time and delishous food.Left to Right: Alex, Robyn, Gavin, Gramsi and Dominic.

After lunch we checked out a thrift shop. Not that great. And this toy shop.... super great! Dominic threw trains around while Robyn played the puppet master with Alex and Gavin.

Robyn is the true artist when it comes to making puppets come to life. Gramsi should have a pretty funny video coming soon with their new monkey friend Herman.

Gramsi and Dominic played kick ball.... so of course mommy had to buy Dominic a ball. I figure it's one of those toys that will never become outdated. He loves to throw balls too.
We are planning on going to the Jacksonville Storytime again this week, but Brooke, Gavin's Moma is going to come instead of Gramsi. It should be pretty fun.

Lastly, I took these shots with my iPhone which is a complicated matter when shooting babies as they move lightening fast. The iPhone doesn't have a quick "shutter speed" on it so some can be a little blurry. I thought they were pretty decent though.

A Day at the Park in February

We have a small neighborhood park just a couple of blocks from my house (within the 'hood). Since we live in Pleasantville it is of course a quaint little place for the kids to play and [doggy]poo-free too. I have been meaning to post this for over a week now but couldn't decide om the photos. The result of which is now a fast-scrolling sideshow of the 135 photos we took! ha-ha... enjoy!

BTW - The credits blasted by so... I downloaded the music from www.freekidmusic.com. The SqueeGees "Apples, Oranges, Peaches". Sorry, it's almost 2am and I couldn't really pick the music too well, hope it's a good song! :)

Hot Tub Buddies

Dominic 9-Months Old

I know that I've skipped posting between 6-9 months! What can I say, I've been so busy. Like everyone else hasn't. I just keep telling myself, "I'll do a post tonight or tomorrow" and poof it's 3-months later.

Dominic is, holy cow, NINE MONTHS OLD already?!! I can't believe how big the boys are getting.

He is currently in the 25th Percentile. But not to worry, babies start to take on their parents genetics around 6-9 months. As John and I are Hobbits, it makes sense. He was in the 90th Percentile in the beginning.

9-month stats

Height: 28 in.

Weight: 18.5 lbs.

Head: 12.75 in.

Yeah, he's not as hefty as his cute cousin. Notice Alex's head is a whole 5.5 inches bigger than Dominic! haha! Robyn is quite lucky that he GREW to be that big and was not ORIGINALLY that big coming out! eek! Alex was quite tiny when he first arrived.

Here are some cute mug's from a recent rock climbing adventure at Rattlesnake. Daddy and Uncle Bean were the climbers, Gramsi and Mama were hikers. My mom posted on this day too. Dominic was a little Yoda for the day in my ErgoBaby Pack.

Blog Attachment Baby Tracker

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I added an age tracker for Dominic to the side of the blog. It's just a snippet of code from Lilypie.com. It's really easy! And now that Blogger has added the ability to add a 3rd Party HTML-code-snippet as a sidebar layout thingy-bopper, you can add it yourself REALLY easily.

It's fun and cute. You can customize all the little details of the tracker. Try it out! :)

Raaaaarrrrr!!!

Daddy and Me

4 Months Old

Dominic turned 4-months old on August 26th

Height: 26 inches
Weight: 16 lbs. 3 oz.
Head: 16 1/2 inches
Tempermant: Lots of Fun!

Asleep on the Job

My Bumbo Mumbo

My new big boy chair! Momma thinks this is just the best invention ever.
It's like Crocks! but in a seat (the material).

Baby Buns