Christmas 2009

It's amazing how having a kid brings back the fun of Christmas. In this picture, Dominic is pointing to himself and saying (incredulously) "For Me?!?!" after seeing the presents under the tree.

After opening one present, Dominic wanted to play with it and "save the rest of the presents for later." Weirdo. What kid doesn't want to rip open all of his presents at once on Christmas?
Decorating cookies for Santa....
"Cheers"ing cookies with Derek and hanging with Papa on Xmas.

Dominic posing as some sort of mini thug...

Some pictures over the last few weeks.

Batman!

Dominic loved being Batman for Halloween this year. We thought he'd be irritated by the mask because it was pretty tight on his big ole head but he wore it all night and begged to wear it again this morning.

Unfortunately, he also wanted to "fly" all night--we eventually convinced him to ride in style in his "Batmobile" instead. He really got into the superhero persona and told several of the neighbors that he would "get Joker" for them. It was sort of funny, though, because we thought he's be pretty excited about the candy aspect of the whole ordeal but he didn't seem to care that much.

Dominic is ready for the snow! You can see him here on his new snowboard. He constantly asks us when it's going to snow and when we can go to Tahoe to hit the slopes.

Everybody Loves Jesus

Some of you have heard me talk about Dominic's interest in church and various other religious issues (i.e. "Call Me Baby Jesus") but here he is...in his musical debut, singing "Amen..." you have to watch the video for awhile to see when he throws in a couple "Everybody Loves Jesus!" lines in true gospel style.

Love Letters

The quality of this video is so poor...that...well, we could have simply uploaded the audio, I suppose, but..My kid is cute, I'm in love with him and all that. What's a Mom to do? Anyway, the context for the below video is Dominic writing a note to Maddie--our friend Mike's daughter. Derek asked Dominic what he was doing and he told us he was writing her a note. The video is a response to what he wanted to tell her.
Like most of the country, it seems, we've been having a cool summer so far but we did find some time last week to get to the pool (2 of them in fact).



Dominic is quite into impressions. You may recall he likes to do Bono and Gene Simmons. Here, it's Magnum P.I.

Dominic loves to indulge in the practice of saying "cheers"--with drinks, with cereal bowls--and here with his own burrito. Mom shakes head at child having burrito larger than his head....

Just goofing around with Mom and at Annette and Mike's.

Various & Sundry

Well, I have been more than lagging on updating Dominic's blog but I wanted to catch everyone up on how things are going in the Kudzia house. Dominic turned 2, of course, and can now do the following things:

1) Ride his bike with no training wheels (no pedals either but he's got balancing down!)
2) Spell his name ("D-o-m-i-n-i-c, that's spells Dominic, that's me")
3) Tell you that Pelosi is Speaker of the House and that Lincoln in on a $5 bill
4) Throw the kind of monster tantrums that only 2-year olds can throw

Below are some recent pictures of him--one in the new house, one opening up his Sushi set from Gramma Gayle, one with his Mickey Mouse ears (he hasn't been yet, they were a gift) and one just hanging out with his sandals and sunglasses.


And here, of course, are some pictures of the new house--including the bathroom which, as you can see, is being completely redone with much (MUCH!) help from Derek's friend Mike (previously featured on this blog as "Apple Mike"). Dominic is adjusting well to the new place and loves having a big back yard to tear around in. There's still a lot to do but we've really settled in.

See ya 'round, suckers!

Dominic and Derek were snuggling in bed on Saturday when Dominic decided to come into the kitchen and eat breakfast with me. Right before he leaves the room, Dominic looks over his shoulder at Derek and says "See ya 'round, suckers..." Sigh. For once, Derek can't blame the kid's mouth on me!

Dominic is getting ready for summer. Here he is in his sunglasses and his "Play Ball" hat (which he says emphatically every time he puts it on).

Looking oddly sort of like Bono in the picture below.

Here are a few pictures of Dominic in Tahoe with us in early March.

Little Man

Here is the conversation I had with Dominic at dinner on Wednesday:

Me: Dominic, what happened at daycare today?
Dominic: Eric's balloon POPPED out!!
Me: It popped?
Dominic: It popped OUT!
Me: What color was it?
Dominic: Black....Red.
Me: How did it pop?
Dominic: It popped on the grass....it popped on the slide.
Me: What happened after it popped?
Dominic: Ms. Kim take it and put it in the garbage can.

These are the kinds of conversations you can have with Dominic now. It turns out that he's actually a pretty good source of information. His daycare provider, Kim, told me that there were actually 2 balloons that had popped, (one black, one red) and that one had popped on the grass--the other on the slide. The other day, Dominic fell down and told us "Owww...my ankle!" While I miss the sweet baby sometimes, it is SO nice to be able to talk to him and communicate.

The top picture is of Dominic in a coat that used to be Craig's. He loves it so much and calls it "Craigy's coat" and begs to wear it.


Like most kids, I guess, Dominic loves to draw. He'll draw something that looks like a D and an O if you ask him to. He's also getting into play-doh now, although he mostly just wants to make snowmen--go figure.

Unfortunately, Dominic has not outgrown his little sock fetish. He's pretty particular about the whole thing, too. He only likes the socks that have a little rubberized portion on their bottom and he's constantly obsesses with getting new ones. We thought we dodged the whole pacifier thing but it turns out he'll wake up in the night calling for "socks" if he can't find any in his crib. I will be very glad when this stage is OVER.

Christmas 2008

Chris took the above video of Dominic on Christmas at his Tutu and Papa's house. Dominic is growing up to be a sweet and affectionate kid and we had the best time sharing the holiday with him.

Here we are putting out goodies for Santa and his reindeer. Dominic often refers to things by the sound they make rather than what they are. For example, Ducks are "quacks" and cats are "meows." This proved no exception for Santa who has been referred to as "Ho Ho Ho" for the last several weeks.

This is Dominic with his new bike. I think it's safe to say that he's fairly obsessed with it--which is no surprise since Derek and I have been building it up for the past several weeks. The first things he does when we get him from his crib in the morning, is pat his head and say "Helmet, Mama. Bikkkkeee." Also, this bike does not have pedals and is just supposed to be propelled with his feet. Well, you can imagine how many bikes he sees on a daily basis in our garage so he was surprised by the missing pedals. He put he hands where the pedals should be and said "Oh noooooo, Daddy, oooohhhh no!!!"

Dominic is in love with his Papa. If you ask him what he wants to do, he usually says "Go Papa's house" or simply, "Papa". Now, we all know that Kirby is a fun and charming guy but the fact that he lets Dominic "drive" his GTO, play with all of his model cars, and feeds him sweet bread with whipped cream is not hurting the guy's popularity any.

When Dominic is not asking for his Papa, he's asking for his Tutu who is the best playmate that Dominic has. She sings him silly songs and make up stories and pretend things for them to do.We're lucky to have family close by.

Ah yes, and now we get to a few of Dominic's other obsessions. First there is his Uncle Mike (featured here with Dominic) whom Dominic insists on calling "Apple Mike". At least 50 times a day, Dominic asks "Where Apple Mike go?!?" with the most forlorn look on this face. In fact, one of Dominic's new words is "Tahoe" (which he says like Taaaahooooeee) because he's heard us tell him so many times over the past few days that this is where his pal Mike is. Anyway, one obsession leads into another as Apple Mike and his wife Diana purchased a skateboard for Dominic for Christmas. This means that my 20-month old has not one but t-w-o skateboards. And really? He loves them both--maybe even more than the bike. Thanks Apple Mike.

Here is Dominic riding and "maintaining" his skateboard. He loves to hang out with Derek in the garage and ask for "tooools".

Just a few other pics of Dominic...Reading with his Dad and wearing my Tiger's hat.