More Playground Fun

Dominic is having a Mom weekend because Marcos went to Chicago for a wedding.  By 9:30am this morning, we were sitting in the front yard sharing a donut we got at HEB after doing all our grocery shopping for the weekend. The second load of laundry was in the washer.  We'll see how long this efficiency lasts. 

After our donut - which we ate while watching the activity on our street from day 2 of our neighbor's massive garage sale - we managed to squeeze out of our own driveway and head down to the neighborhood playground.  The HOA put a new playground in about a week ago.  For about a week while it was being built, the parked skid steer by the mail boxes was the most talked about thing in our house.  Then one day, the skid steer was gone and the new playground was open.  Dominic was pretty sad!

Hopefully he'll move on after seeing how much fun the new playground is. Check this out:

My only complaint is the gravel makes everything so dusty. Dominic had to take a bath when we got home.  I guess the gravel works as intended though, because Dominic fell through the railing of the stairs and got up like it was nothing.  There were lots of places to climb, which was awesome for him.

Too much for Dominic Morales?

I think not!

After climbing it several times, he decided there were too many rocks at the bottom.

My little neat freak.

When he started looking longingly at the kids swimming, I knew it was time to go!

Now the boy is taking his nap.  I hope this Mama earned a good long break!

Temper Tantrum?

I think Dominic is experimenting with temper tantrums.  Giving them a whirl to see if they're any good.  I wish someone had taken video of this afternoon's episode.  Here is how it went: I was sitting on the couch watching Dominic play with some toys.  He was trying to put a fire truck into the door of his barn toy, and he could not get it to fit.  He tossed the fire truck down onto the floor, visibly frustrated.  I said in a calm but serious tone, "Do not throw your toys."  He looked at me.  Then he picked the fire truck up, and flung it behind him.  It landed on the couch.  I said in a stern and louder tone, "DO NOT throw your toys."  He looked at me again, and then ran crying into the wall on the opposite side of the room.  Still crying, he turned around and ran toward me with his arms up, and I pulled him onto my lap.  He buried his face in my shoulder and continued to cry.  After about 30 seconds, I calmly said, "Dominic, you're not even sad.  Nothing happened."  He immediately stopped crying, got down from my lap, and went back to the coffee table to play with other toys. 

In the past few weeks, there have been several instances where he acts angry and throws things, but he seems like he is faking it to gauge my reaction. Last weekend he was playing with his crayons, which mostly involves taking them out of a small box and putting them back in.  For no apparent reason, he suddenly threw them on the floor, one by one.  He acted angry, but I didn't see anything happen to cause him to be mad or frustrated.  I calmly told him that he needed to pick them back up.  He gave me an angry look and ran out of the room crying.  Before I could even finish picking them up (they then disappeared into my closet) he was back in the living room acting normal.  We talked about how he made Mama mad and there would be no more crayons for awhile.  It made me wonder if he observed a kid at school doing something similar, and thought he'd give it a try.  It seems kind of comical.  We have been trying to react calmly and ignore them; I hope that's a good strategy.  Nothing has happened in public. It seems like he does it at home when he's bored.

Splash Pad

Ever since we went to Brushy Creek Lake Park for a professional photo shoot in Sept 2011, I've been looking forward to going back with Dominic to play on the park's huge splash pad.  I love the splash pad concept, and would have been crazy about this place when I was a kid.  In my day, we ran in the sprinklers on the front lawn. 

We went last Saturday, sometime between making donuts and the evening fry fest mentioned in my last post.  Dominic loved it!  He ran around like crazy.  I found it much more relaxing than our recent trip to the pool, because I didn't have to stay by the boy's side constantly.  And although Dominic got soaking wet, the water was easy to avoid for bystanders.  Here are the pics I took on my phone:

He had to come over to my bench periodically and climb on it. He has been such a climber lately! Not to get off topic, but he recently started climbing onto our dining room chairs (which are tall), he can get in his tall high chair by himself, and he can get on my tall bed by himself (he uses the side rail to get on the nightstand, and goes from there to the bed).  He also gets on my bathroom counter by climbing onto the adjoining bathtub.  I think it's only a matter of time before we find him wandering around his room when he's supposed to be in the crib.

 We spent a few minutes at the playground but soon went back to the water.

I think we will make many trips here this summer.  It's a must in the Texas heat!

Donuts

We made donuts Saturday morning to try out our new deep fryer, which arrived in the mail on Friday.  I used this recipe, cut in half.   The donuts were fun to make and came out good. I don't think we'll do this often though.  The process took all morning, and the donuts taste best when fresh.

First I made the dough and left it to rise.

It took over an hour to get to this size.

I rolled out the dough.

Used a round cookie cutter to cut the donuts, and a shot glass to cut the hole.

Then they had to rise again after they were cut.

This was at least another hour of rising.

Finally, it was time to use this puppy.

The donut holes were hard to flip because they were so round.

The donuts were easy.

This is the glaze made from butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

You are supposed to dip both sides, but I only did one.

They were good!  Better yesterday than today.  Luckily, we were able to give some away.  Later that day, Marcos made fried pickles, onion rings and chicken tenders. They all came out delicious.  It was not a healthy day!!

Swimming Fool

Dominic had a blast at our friend's neighborhood swimming pool on Memorial Day.  It was his first time swimming since last summer, when he couldn't walk and seemed bored sitting in his floatie. The swimming pool looked something like the pic below except there were people everywhere.  Lots of kids too.  Dominic climbed in and out of the baby pool (foreground of this pic) about a million times, and loved running into the wading pool and playing under the water spraying toys pictured.  The water was 18 inches deep by those purple and blue poles.  Dominic is about 30 inches tall, so he was a little unstable just from being so much lighter weight than he is used to.  I had to stay right by him the whole time.  He dunked under several times, and I was surprised how well he handled it.  I'm kind of terrified of water now because 1) he was fearless and walked off the edge several times and 2) when he did go under, he didn't seem able to get his head above water on his own (not that I waited long) even though standing up straight would have done the trick.  We definitely will not be buying a house with a swimming pool (well, unless we can remove it)!

Swimming pool at Tia Weiss' house. Aka "the other Aunt Steph"

Making sure the swimsuit fit earlier that day.  Tia Gloria gave him this outfit last spring!

I had to force him to take a break. He ate about 2 goldfish and wanted to go back and play.

I wish I could have taken more pictures, but I was too busy chasing after this boy.  He had such a great time.  He was really hungry when he got home, and we were both exhausted.  He was in bed with the lights out by 6:50 and he slept until 7am the next morning!  We were shocked after the 5:45am streak he has been on.  We tried an earlier bed time again tonight, so we'll see when he wakes up tomorrow.

The other thing I discovered yesterday is the awesomeness of this:

This stuff is so much easier than the lotion.  I don't think I can ever go back. 

In other news, Dominic did have a little bit of an adjustment at school today.  The teacher's prediction was right.  He cried a little when Marcos dropped him off.  I picked him up at 2:30ish, and they told me he was kind of sad in the morning, but cheered up in the afternoon.  He ate lunch (3 fish sticks and some oranges) and he slept, but only 45 minutes.  Conversation as I was putting him in the car:

Dominic: Car. Choo Choo
Mama: You want to watch Candleshoe?
Dominic: Myeh Myeh
Mama: You want to watch Candleshoe with Aunt Emmy?
Dominic: Ah (means 'yeah')
Mama: Aunt Emmy went bye-bye. Can I watch it with you?
Dominic: Ah

He talked about Emmy a lot today.  It makes me so sad.  Future Uncle Josh needs to work on getting back to Texas!

School Update

Dominic ended last week doing much better at school - thank goodness! I called to see how he was doing around 10-11am each morning for the first four days.  Mon-Wed I was told he cried off and on, so we went and got him before noon each of those days.  On Thurs, they thought he was doing much better and should try staying for nap time.  They got him to rest quietly, but he never fell asleep.  My Dad and Emmy went to get him around 2pm and they were told Dominic got really sad after nap time, and cried each time the classroom door opened and we weren't there.  I worked from home Friday, so I got to take him to school in the morning.  His classmates were outside when I arrived, and he was eager to join them on the playground.  He started to whine a little when I said goodbye.  He ran over to me and I hugged and kissed him, and then he happily said goodbye and ran back to play.  I went to get him at 2pm, and he was passed out on his cot.  All the other kids were awake and playing. The teacher said he slept really well and she couldn't believe he was still sleeping.  He awoke within a few minutes and was happy to see me.

I hope next week continues to go well. The teacher said that Tuesday could be a little bit of an adjustment again.   We talked about school several times this weekend, and he always seemed like he wanted to go.  He also got excited when we drove past it and he saw it out the car window.

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes.  I'm amazed last week improved as much as it did.  

First Day of School

Dominic had his first day of Montessori school today, and it was a little rough.  First of all, he woke up at 5:45am! He has been waking up so early lately.  I know the sleep book ('Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child') would say he is sleeping poorly because he is not well-rested, and that his bed time should be moved earlier.  His bed time has creeped up in recent months, to almost 7:45pm some nights.  And though he is quiet when we leave the room, we can often see on the monitor that he takes almost 30 minutes to fall asleep.  Maybe he does need an earlier bed time?  I know I am getting way off topic, but if anyone has any advice please leave a comment.

We arrived at school about 8am.  We were led to Dominic's classroom and met one of his teachers, Miss Michelle.  She seemed really great, so that was a relief.  Dominic explored the classroom and interacted with the kids for a few minutes while Marcos and I chatted with the teacher.  I told her we wanted to do some short days the first week while he is getting used to school, and I wasn't sure if we should come get him before nap time or right after.  She suggested I call later in the morning to see how he was doing.  Then we said goodbye and Dominic started crying and tried to follow us out the door.  We took care of some business with the Director at the front desk and then I spied on Dominic through his classroom door; he was happily sitting on Miss Michelle's lap during circle time. 

I called the school for an update at about 10:30am and they said Dominic had been intermittently crying.  He did great when they went outside.  Since nap time is around 11:45, they suggested I call again in an hour to see if things were better.  At 11:30, things were about the same, so we decided the poor boy had enough for one day.  When we went to get him, he was at the front desk and one of the ladies was showing him the fish tank.  He looked pretty emotionally fragile.  Then he saw us and started crying and clinging to me.  He cheered up pretty quickly at least, and even said "bye" to the ladies at the front desk.

I think the rest of the week will be pretty hard. The Director told us it usually gets worse for a few days because the kids know what is going to happen and they aren't happy about it.  I'm glad Emmy is still here this week and we can do shorter days, but I'm not sure how much good it will do.  He may still be really unhappy next week.  I can handle some crying when we leave, but to hear that he cried off and on throughout the morning is just too sad.  Please say a prayer that Dominic will learn to like his new school!  This whole transition just makes me think (for the millionth time) that we have been so blessed to have Dominic's Aunt Emmy watch him for the past 16 months.  He loves her so much, I can barely stand to think she is leaving this weekend.  One hurdle at a time I guess. :(

Here are the few pictures I got, starting with before school:

 And entering school:

 Here is his report card for the day:

After we got home, he took a 2 hour nap and woke up in a great mood.  We all felt sorry for him, so he got to watch the end of Candleshoe (his favorite movie) and then Emmy took him to the playground.  I talked to him about going to school again tomorrow and he seemed ok with it.  We'll see!