Head- Shoulders-Knees and Toes

We love singing and dancing in the Ambrose household.  Dominic likes to shake his little booty and bob his head.  A new song we enjoy singing is "Head-Shoulders-Knees and Toes".  Mommy has decided to challenge Dominic by adding more body parts such as feet, fingers and neck. Last week on the way to daycare, we were singing our song and when I looked back i noticed Dominic had taken off his shoes and socks and was clinging to his toes, saying "tooo'es". Our second favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider".  His little fingers try to crawl up in the air, its a work in progress, but him trying is the cutest.

When Dominic goes to Nana's and he is hungry, he opens the pantry doors and grabs cookies or crackers and starts munching.  Now, at our house, we don't have those treats so accessible but we have cheerios that he can reach.  He seems to have a morning ritual now when he wakes.  We get dressed and have our milk then he heads to the food closet.  He grabs a handful of cheerios, goes back to his room, sits and eats.

On June 4th Mommy turned the Big 30 and such a wonderful day to share with my men.  Dominic and Daddy took mommy out for dinner and it was such a treat.  We made an early reservations and had the whole restaurant to ourselves.  Dominic was pretty well behaved for such a fine dinning restaurant.  Being almost 18 months old, he can be a handful but he was very well behaved.  We colored, ate, sang and took pictures with our Playschool camera.  

 Mid June we were lucky to have my Aunt Pat and cousin Marie travel up from North Carolina for a quick visit.  This was the first time they met Dominic and it was such a treat. My aunt Pat trains dogs for various organizations, governments, police and much more.  They were transporting a 12 week old black lab to Maine named Ink and had time to spend the night with us.  It was such a sweet visit filled with puppy kisses, reading and running around.  My aunt was teaching Dominic to say her name, "Pat" and she would point to herself and say her name. So yes, Dominic knows "pat" and touches his chest.  Melts my heart because she taught him that. 

Now that is is officially summer, all the cousins are out of school and poolside at Nana's.  Dominic loves when he heads to Nana's on Wednesday and Fridays, especially when his cousins are there to play with.  Dominic loves to sit and watch his cousin Brendan play ball, swim and run around.  I am interested to see how Dominic does with his swimming this year, especially now he has his Frog Life Jacket and loves to mimic what others do.  Dominic's oldest cousin Kayleigh loves babies and is certified to baby sit so she is very hands on and it is wonderful to see how big she has grown since I met her.

 

These past several weeks Dominic has really been chatting it up and pronouncing new words, sounds and conversations with Ellie.  He has started to say some new words such as "apple, mouse, Hello, Bren (for Brendan), Kay (for Kaleigh), Bee and Book".

Since Soccer is such a Big Deal at the Ambrose house. We have had many gatherings with family and friends and Dominic loves all the attention.  He has been kicking his balls around with Ellie and all our friends. He is getting better but still likes to kick then run and pick up the ball.  Silly Silly Boy.

LOVE LOVE this because Dominic doesn't watch t.v even  though we have cartoons on.. ONLY SOCCER entertains him. Dominic watches his daddy and his emotional expressions and reads off that. 

Near the end of June we scheduled a play date with Mark's cousin Jamie's kids and it was a blast. Sean is about 3 and Thomas is a few weeks younger than Dominic.  The afternoon was filled with time at the park, slides, sand, tons of play at the house with toys and baby jabber.  They are still pretty young but they played together and laughed.  It was fun to see them interact and the reactions with each other.

   

                                                                                   (the end of the afternoon... can we say SCORE)

Some fun GLAMORE shots of Dom.....

 (on my morning runs with my man..,, what we see on  our adventures)

(month of June at school they had Teddy Bear picnic each week... this was the 1st week)

4 Yr anniversary with Mark                                                                                      Tickle Time

Spring in Full Force... Ready for Summer

Humpty Dumpty.... It's a great place that Dominic has grown to love.  He has learned so much over the past several months.  I am just so in love with all the things Dominic is learning from his teachers and friends.

One of Dominic's favorite things to do is sing and dance.  He has stared to mirror the hand movements for songs like "itsy bitsy spider" and "twinkle twinkle little star".  I will catch him randomly belting out... E-I-E-I-O like old McDonald.  If you really listen to him, he's trying very hard to say the words which melts my heart.  The past several weeks I have been noticing when we sing "head-shoulders-knee and toes" song he would point to these body parts.  Recently, he walked up to me and started to point to mommies ears and nose.  I was so excited.  So now, Dominic knows his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head and his FAVORITE part...his BELLY. 




One thing that Dominic and I love to do is travel to our local park. The park has so many slides and bridges which he loves.  He is not liking the swings as much, not challenging enough I feel for our little dare devil.  However, last week Mom found a new park named Benson Park in Hudson NH.  This park is beautiful and designed based off of a tree fort.  It has many trails to walk/run, a dog park and 9-11 memorial with the 2 beams from the twin towers.  Dominic is able to run & climb everywhere.  One of his favorite things is to scare mommy and climb all the way up the twisty slide.  Many of the children play tag together and run around.  Dominic is not able to play with them YET he yells at them and runs around with them as much as he can.  I think that by him running around he feels a part of the kiddos.  

This past weekend, Mark's parents held their annual Memorial Day party and Mark took Dominic into the Ambrose pool for the 1st time this season.  It was chilly but all the cousins were in and having a blast. So Mark took one for the team and brought the little man in and he LOVED it.  He was even more excited for his cousin Kaleigh to take him around and play.

Over the past few weeks we have been working on our "listening skills".  This is a bit of a work in progress.  I have noticed when we are running errands or if Dominic wants something (like a cookie or drink), he will sit down and just look up like a good boy.  It totally took me by surprise and we have been praising him when he does this.  However, once in awhile he will have fits and wave his arms all around in a hitting frenzy.  If he catches you right... it hurts.  We have a game plan for the "time out" area in which it will either be the chair or step.  We have not had to use it yet but I feel it's a matter of time...:)  

 







 The past several weeks Dominic has been mommies big helper and feeding Ellie.  In the mornings after were dressed and get our milk. Dominic walked over to our utensil drawer and opens it up for me to grab a fork and the food cover then grabs mommies hand and we make our way downstairs to Ellie's food bowl.  When we get downstairs, he LOVES to grab the bowl and talk to Ellie letting her know were about to feed her.  He walks to the back room to grab the food and then stands by my side as I prepare everything.  We feed Ellie and he just waits till she is done then claps.  He is such a little person.