Dominick Eleven Months

Dominick has been growing, growing, growing. He’s wearing 12-18 month size and he loves to explore the world around him. He’s much better at cruising – walking while holding on to something. He even took a few steps behind a push and walk toy yesterday. He’s not hesitant to walk, but we can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. His personality is really starting to show.

He wants to get everywhere by himself. Don’t even try to stand him up and hold his hands to help him walk, he’ll plop right down and find something else to hold on to. He also is very rough on his toys. Throwing them all over the place! He’s starting to arch his back if he wants down or off your lap. So we let him slide to the floor and go on his way. It’s funny to watch. We’re pretty sure he’s going to be a handful as a toddler. It’s payback for being such a wonderful infant.

Speaking of toys, his favorites right now are anything with wheels. He loves to turn his wagon on its side, put something on top of the wheel and spin it to watch it go round. He’s even started to stack things on the wheel and spin it to watch them tumble.

Dominick is eating everything under the sun! He’s got 10+ teeth. He pretty much eats what ever I cook for dinner. This means, I have to cook more often. This month he’s had beef stroganoff, chicken pot pie, baked ziti and chicken tortellini. He loves bananas, pancakes and waffles. He hasn’t refused anything! I usually cook on the weekend and we have enough leftovers to make it to Thursday when Frank’s home and he does dinner.

The absolute cutest thing Dominick does is the “roll it” part from pattycake. I have to get it on video. When he wants your attention or wants to show of for new people he meets – he just does it! And he rolls his hands backwards. It’s so cute. And of course every time he does it, we make a huge fuss and give lots of kisses.

We’ve had a break through with our signing – Dominick has understood signing for a few months now. He’d get excited when we’d sign “eat” or “more”. Just last week he signed the word “more”! He pretty much just putts his hands together when we ask him if he wants more food, and he always does! He still says mama, dada and Ozzie. We’re working on Yaya, Grammie, Pop, Papa, Auntie etc.

We have been battling ear infections lately – this week he’s on his fourth. Doc says that he should be fine and prescribed a stronger antibiotic. Let’s hope this one clears up completely.

Just this week he started waving bye bye! We were at the doctor’s office and we said bye bye to the doctor and he did it! He kind of waves his entire arm, but he gets it! I was shocked. Now he does it every time someone leaves.

I’m getting teary eyed just writing this. My dear little boy is now eleven months old and we are so close to him turning the big one!

I’m happy and sad at the same time. I would love for him to stay little, cuddle and oh so cute for ever. But I also enjoy seeing him accomplish new things and grow! I’m sure lots of moms have these mixed feelings…

We’re going to have a small celebration at our house next month. Small meaning, under 50 people in our house! We have a HUGE family and this is only the locals. When we started planning, Frank and I agreed – small is best. But after we started thinking about it, we really want to celebrate with everyone! The party is really a celebration for making it through the first year! I’m all about celebrating!

Cesspool

Dominick’s been fighting a cold for little over a week now. Once we hit day ten of coughing, runny nose, sneezing and sleepless nights – we headed into the pediatrician’s office.

Now, we love our doctor. We love the practice and the nursing staff. What we don’t love is when ever you go there, you feel like your walking into a cesspool of sickness! Lucky us they have “walk in hour” every weekday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. We were sure to arrive pretty close to 8 a.m., not knowing how busy it would be and we wanted to limit the exposure time we’d endure waiting in the waiting room.

The waiting room wasn’t too crowded: a grumpy teen ager to my right, a four year old playing with his business suited dad across the way. No one looked horribly ill. Thankfully we get called in the room pretty quickly.

Long story short – Dominick was prescribed his first antibiotic, zithromax. The nurse practitioner said his symptoms were lasting too long and he had fluid in his ears that could easily turn into an infection. I wasn’t too happy about the antibiotics, but if it’s going to help Dominick get better – I can deal. I have huge issues with taking antibiotics if they’re not needed… but that’s an entirely different post.

On our way out – it was extremely crowded. We were literally stepping over patients as we made our way to the door. One little girl had a very pink eye – I tried to keep my distance… two twin boys were both hacking up a lung and god knows what other sicknesses were brewing in the several other dozen kids slumped in their chairs.
I literally wanted to cover Dominick with a plastic sheet and hold my breath as we made our way through the waiting room.

I’ve heard of some doc offices having “sick” and “well” waiting rooms. Brilliant! But even when your kid is “sick” you have to endure the torture of sitting on the vinyl covered benches, hoping that the room was disinfected just before you came.

I admit it, I have become a germaphobe. This coming from a person who would never think twice about double dipping – yes I admit it! But I’m a completely different person now. I can’t help it. I work in a children’s hospital where they constantly cram infection control down your throat… now I have to deal with other people’s sick children! That just put me over the edge.

I have since stocked up on disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer and I literally had to hold myself back from buying those surgical face masks we all know don’t do a thing.

Hopefully Dominick will start feeling better soon so we won’t have to go back to the cesspool any time soon. I’m sure we’ll be there again… but let’s hope it’s after flu season.

PS - still loving the electronic snot sucker! I get personal joy out of seeing how much snot I can get out of my child. Weird... but true!