5 months--5 years

While Dominic is turning 5 months old, Derek and I had a 5 *year* wedding anniversary this week. Here is a picture of Dominic who was captivated by the flowers his Dad got for me. Derek and I went to dinner and left Dominic with his Tutu and Grandpa--it was the first time we had actually left him and gone anywhere together. It was nice to have "adult" conversation and not to have to rush over dinner.

Speaking of his Tutu, I was alarmed a few weeks ago when I realized that we barely had any pictures of Dominic with her. She spends tons of time with him because she watches him 2 days a week but for some reason, no pictures. So I begged her to sit for a quick snaphot before heading home one day last week. You should see the kid when she walks through the door in the morning--he starts squealing and laughing...It sure does make it a little easier to leave him and head to work.

We are headed to Michigan next week and it will be so good to see our family and friends. It will be Dominic's first time on an airplane so Derek and I admittedly a tad nervous about the whole thing but we'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best. We'll definitely have lots of fun family pictures to post when we get back.

Dominic Gets Teeth (and other stuff)

Dominic has gotten his first tooth! Well, sort of. He has the teeniest edge of a tooth poking through his bottom gum. I think I saw another one along side of it but it's actually harder to get his mouth open and his tongue out of the way (so I can see) than I would have thought. Anyway, I'm glad to actually have some progress on that front as I was beginning to think the kid was just a drooling, sopping mess 24 hours a day for no reason.

Dominic also started using his high chair for the first time this week. He's still on the "all liquid all the time" plan but it's just nice to have him up at the table with us when we eat. He actually seems to enjoy being up that high. Here are a few pictures of him in his highchair. In the first one, he appears to really want some food. In the 2nd, he's playing with his new favorite toy--a stuffed elephant that our friend Jodi sent him.

Dominic also "talks" --nonstop. I am not kidding either. Except for a few moments right after he gets up, the kid is more or less constantly exercising his vocal chords. In fact, I am pretty sure that his open mouth in the 2 pictures above are really just because he's "talking." I did mention to get one picture where he seems to be more interested in snuggling his Dad than talking.

Toys

Now that Dominic is 4 months old (!!), he is really starting to enjoy some of his toys. Below, you can see pictures of him playing with one of his stuffed animals as well as his new toy piano.

After all of the playing, there is usually a lot of sleeping. Generally, those pictures are not as fun but here are a few good ones from the past week.

This is a photo is of Dominic pretending to do tummy time but actually watching TV (which we only let him do for about 5 seconds a day). The kid is completely mesmerized by it and will devise all sorts of strategies to sneak a peek at the idiot box.