Dragon Party

Dominick is 6--he's now on two hands. We had a great party on Sunday. Dragon themed. It was a lot of fun. Amazing how much louder and more rambunctious the kids were compared to last year. On Monday Xander and I went with Dominick to school and stayed for the morning and lunch. I'm glad I got to share in his works and be there for the birthday celebration. He walked around the earth 6 times and each time around we'd talk about what he did as a baby, one year old etc. Mostly I shared where we lived--since that has changed a lot over his little life! He also got to be the line leader, a job he takes quite seriously--so cute to watch. I was really impressed with what a little leader he is in the classroom. It's really built into the montessori system. I sometimes wish more of the school Dominick came home, but I guess there is only so much self-control and most of it gets used up at school.

Xander has been doing his 5:30 am wake up thing . . . so he's just been a bit all over the place with his behavior. I think it's partially a lack of sleep and also just part of being 2.5. I remember 2.5 to 3.5 being a bit of a challenge for us with Dominick. Xander's a different creature but some of the clingyness and neediness seems familar.

Christmas Party

Today was Dominick's school party. We all were able to go--lots of fun. His teacher has parties down. They are very Montessori with lots of little stations the kids go through. I did bracelet making and Dennis helped with cookie decoration. I was quite happy with my station. This age is just so fun, they have so many ideas and opinions. It was fun to just chat and string beads. Xander loves coming to school. He's quite popular. Today he was sitting in the rocking chair and there was a group of kids all trying to read to him. I caught a picture of him and our friend Gretta playing house so cute!


Very fun to spend time with Dominick in his element. It's amazing how much less clingy he is--how he just goes and does his thing. Today he wanted to do a work with me and so instead of his usual crafty work he chose his red reading/writing workbook. I miss him on Tuesday and Thursdays because he's in bed when I get home from work so it's a treat to see him mid-day.

Here is helper Xander with that beautiful Frost smile :)

I got creative on a night that Dennis was away--I only make dinner 3 nights a week so I decided to make a rainbow meal. Mostly they liked the blue jello with blueberries.
Last weekend we had a playdate with our friend John and wanted an indoor space that the boys could run. We found a two story indoor playland that is part of Cincinnati Recreational Department. Cheap, clean, and tons of fun!

Our Year

Recently I've been writing more on Xander's caringbridge site. So I thought I'd include a kind of highlights of our year here. Looking back, it really has been an eventful year. Every year we don't move seems kind of uneventful to me . . . and thankfully we've stayed put for quite some time now.

Our year started off with Dennis' sister Alisha's wedding. She was just starting chemo for breast cancer and wanted to get married before. This year she has been battling through surgeries, chemo, and radiation. A year later . . . the cancer has spread and is not responding as well to the treatments as hoped. All prayers, good thoughts, vibes etc. would be greatly appreciated for her and her family.

Dennis has had a good scholarly year. In February he was invited to Harvard to give a talk about his then manuscript. I was able to come, the boys stayed with Nanna and Gramps. We had a fabulous weekend in Cambridge. Most of the drama was kept quiet until we were back--the first night my mom hurt her knee and ended up in the ER. She spent the weekend immobilized while my dad, brother, and sister-in-law had a crash course on cathing and child-care. We also found out that Daniel and Stacey were pregnant :) My mom had knee surgery in the beginning of the summer and was back to gardening soon after.

Soon after our return Dennis got a call and his manuscript was accepted for publication by the Harvard University Asian Center. Hooray!

In May Xander and I were out for a walk and we ended up with three abandoned kittens in our bathroom. Charlotte joined our family and we found homes for the other two. She's a beautiful cat, but so much trouble! She bolts for the door anytime its opened. Kumo has recently taken to perching himself on the couch as a way to prevent her from using it as a launching pad for escape. The cat fights continue but we think they do love each other. When Charlotte was away for her girl surgery Kumo cried and wandered aimlessly about the house.

In June we took our first ever family vacation. We drove to upstate NY to visit with Dennis' family and Dominick's godmother from NYC. Dennis did some research on his next book at Cornell University and we all enjoyed the sites of Ithaca. We then drove over to Lake Magician in Michigan for a family lake cottage retreat. We met up with my parents and Daniel and Stacy. Great fun. Discovered Dominick loves fishing--as do I!

Dominick started school as a kindergartner. He returned to his same teacher and school as he had in preschool but was now going all day. The best part about school are the "specials" especially gym. He has been organizing "gangs" on the playground and there has been a lot of chinchilla hunting.

Xander has had a pretty amazing year as well. He went from a crawler to walking with a walker, walking with our hands, to most recently walking independently. It is just amazing to watch him walk across rooms, walk across gymnasiums. I've had to ramp up my parenting skills because now I have a fearless independent walker--and he just goes. In the library I left him in the kids room and I was looking at children's books. Suddenly I looked up and didn't hear him --then he and the librarian came walking up to me. He didn't know where I was so he walked to the front of the library and asked for help. Lesson learned! And I'm very grateful we have a good local library.

My work, at Cincinnati State Community College library continues to go well. Work is mostly my escape from mom life. It is wonderful to use other skills and deal with adults for a few hours each day. This is also a great time to be at a community college--our enrollment is up almost 50%. My escape has been filled with more and more work, but it feels, mostly, like good important helpful work so I feel satisfied.

Books and Bunkbeds

I had a wonderful break week, between terms at Cincinnati State, so I was able to be home all week cooking and playing house. We made a major run to Ikea and are now, after 2 years working to make our house a home. We got the boys a bunk bed. It has a tent over the top so Dominick is super excited about this new bed. Xander wasn't as excited by his "cave." But he's managed to actually stay on the mattress which is a big improvement. Usually we find him on the floor, which is why he's sleeping under the bunk bed on a mattress on the floor.


Yesterday Dominick read his first book. It was a Bob book, an early reader series which I guess they have in school. I read it to him and he listened to the CD so the "reading" part of it is a bit of a stretch. But he was sounding out the words and slowing down to look at the words instead of just guessing. (I was impressed with the books because the pictures didn't line up exactly--instead of lion they used the words "big cat" so the kids actually have to look at the words.) He was super, super excited though. Had to run and tell Dennis and read him a story from it. Love how excited he was :)

Speaking of love, Xander has been our big lover recently. This morning he began professing his love for us, our cats, Dominick, the kittens we found homes for so loudly that he woke Dominick up. It would have been even cuter if it hadn't been 6am. His little expressions are just adorable. He opens many a conversation with "Hey guys" and has been calling me "love" or "sweetie."

Daniel and Stacey, and our soon to be appearing niece :) :) came for a visit this weekend. We made a kid-free trip to Ikea which was nice and the boys enjoyed some quality time with their aunt and uncle. Mostly, with Daniel it consisted of some chase/running/hiding game. Shout of "Uncle Daniel" began soon after they walked through the door. Stacey read their bedtime story :)

First Day of Kindergarten!

Dominick had a great first day of Kindergarten. Dennis took him to school this morning and there were no tears :) He was chatting happily after school and the teacher said he did great. Hooray!

Xander and I went to PT and tried out wheelchairs! We picked out a chair and while he was a little scared at first, once we brought out the basketball he smiled and shot the ball a few times. He then got down and insisted on pushing me :) I was quite impressed with the chair and all the features and functions. It rolled really well, almost like a sports chair.

Sara Lee and Michael

Today is the first time, we've seen anyway, that Dominick has followed Xander's lead in play. Xander announced that he was Sara Lee (from the Little People's video) and Dominick was his brother/sister Michael. Xander's currently having some confusion over masculine/feminie words. For awhile I think he thought that you were either a person (female) or a guy. So he was trying to insult his PT by saying that she was not a person. I think anyway, so hard to get in their little heads. But anyway, he was so proud being Sara Lee. Dominick kept calling him Michael by mistake and Xander would correct him each and every time. "I not Michael, you Michael. I am Sara Lee." Xander also wants to be a sister when he grows up so I guess he's practicing now.

Today we also gave our first "sex talk" with Dominick. Somehow we were talking about mama's milk with Xander at lunch. He said that Dominick drank dada's milk. So we explained that dad's didn't make milk that only women did and only women had babies. Dominick was listening intently and asked if I could make milk now. So we explained, no it was only right after you had a baby that your body could do that. Then he asked how you stopped it. Stopped what, we asked. Stopped making a baby. So I said that you have to choose to make a baby. You need a male and a female. Why? Because that's how everything works. He's kind of realized that as he talks about male/female cats. So his next question, "What about Chelsea and Tina (our new neighbors) how are they going to have a baby?" So we quickly realized that we perhaps had to give a few more details on the process. We explained that there are these tiny things called sperm and tiny cells called eggs and you need one of each to make a baby. We explained that doctors now can help people get the part that they need, like Chelsea and Tena. These two tiny cells come together and start dividing and dividing 2,4, 8, 16 . . . that is the beginning of a baby growing.

That seemed to answer his questions, for now. I think I might get a book.

Fun Fest 09

We had a great weekend back in North Manchester. Dominick described Fun Fest to me today (I was pretending to be Allie Finkle) : "What you do is wave at cars and they throw candy. It's mostly about classic cars but I really like the waving and throwing candy part." Needless to say the boys had a great time and came home with a ton of candy.

Xander was a bit freaked out by all the sirens that start the parade and then again by the clowns--happily the theme was "Under the Big Top" so there was NO shortage of clowns! My parents haven't been around Xander for a little while and they were a little shocked by how he's come into his own little personality. He's become quite contrary. "I not stinky, YOU'RE stinky." And throws his fair share of temper tantrums. But he's still quite snugly and lovable. He's quite taken by Uncle Daniel and once refused Dennis' offer of a pick up because he wanted Uncle Daniel.

Dominick has been going through some really good behavior recently. He's been really helpful or has fed the cats without being asked--things like that. One day Xander woke up at 4am and refused to go back to bed. I was so tired and explained that to him. As we were outside walking I thanked him for doing something and he told me he was "being extra helpful." So sweet. Of course he's had his fair share of trying times but on the whole we've been winding down the summer on a good note.