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!

What is safe, really?

I have been so sick lately with a cold and I’ve been thinking how in the world would I get through the day without any cold medicine like a good pregnant woman should! There are so many medicines that are on the “NO NO” list when you’re pregnant. Some women barely take a Tylenol, but others freely chug Nyquil… Where is the even ground? What can we “safely” take to relieve just one more thing that is making us tired, or sick, or crabby?

I’ve done some light reading and all books point me to ask my doctors about any medication I would want to take. That will be my first conversation that I have with Dr. Purdue (who I completely adore – more on her later). What’s safe to take, and what’s not? I’ll probably opt for staying as medication free as possible. That’s my goal anyway.

And food… there is a whole set of nutritional guidelines to follow on the road to conception and pregnancy. The first and hardest for me was to limit caffeine. Can you believe it!? Me – who received numerous gift cards to Star-Bucks this holiday… and obviously have a caffeine habit… I have successfully limited myself to one cup of coffee a day. And if I really need it, I’ll have a caffeinated soda in the afternoon. I’m so proud of myself. I used to think that caffeine ruled my life! I like this feeling of being in control!

The sad part is limiting my favorite foods - no sushi, which really sucks because Frank has actually grown to really like it! I’m sure there are things I can have, cooked rolls and tempura, but it won’t be the same. I also have to limit certain sea foods – only one tuna salad once a week and certain other fish is off limits completely because of their mercury level. And I stopped that a while a go because I learned mercury is stored in fat for many, many weeks. And since I have a lot of free storage places… I cut that out right away.

I have to be sure I eat fully cooked meats (medium-well! Yuck!) and no unpasteurized or soft cheeses. This includes my beloved blue and brie cheeses! I’ve also heard, not from a reliable source so I’ll confirm this with my doctor, that I’ll need to avoid artificial sweeteners. Now, does that include aspartame, aka Splenda? Or did that warning only apply to vast amounts of NutraSweet?

How things change – my mom used to drink Dr. Pepper and Tab like it was going out of style when she was pregnant with me and I turned out just fine. But new research has proven good reasons for the limitations.