This summer FLEW by and we have had a BLAST. This was the first year mommy & daddy took Dominic to see the fireworks in Merrimack NH for the 4th of July. Dominic was a little tired due to a "no nap" that afternoon, but he was determined to stay up. We packed our chairs and blankets and found our spot on the grassy green hill. When the fireworks started, Dominic's eyes were just glued to the sky lighting up and was repeating "WOW" and "look at that". Watching Dominic's 1st timeseeing the fireworks, was so sweet and innocent. Cannot wait till next year.
In the month of July, we focused on swimming and jumping into the pool on our own. Dominic loves to swim, so I did not think we would have too much trouble with swimming on his own. However, finding the "right swimmers" he felt comfortable in would be the most challenging part. After a few sessions with mommy at the YMCA pool and Nanas pool. Dominic became a little fishy. He swims all by himself and LOVES to have that extra independence. Especially now that he can just jump in with his cousins and play, he's all smiles until we have to get out. As a treat for doing such a great job swimming. Mommy and daddy bought "puddle jumpers' for Dominic. At first, we did not know what this was until Dominic explained that they are shoes you use to jump in the rain puddles. Then it made sense. So Dominic picked ones with Lighting McQueen and loves them.
Video of Dom jumping is at the bottom " " "
Since Dominic is more comfortable with swimming on his own and jumping into the pool. The next time we went to the ocean. Dominic wanted to go into the ocean water a little bit further and jump the waves with mommy. This particular day, the ocean was a little bit chilly, but that did not matter to Dominic. He was so excited to jump those waves and then chase them.
In the month of August, this was the month where we were not busy but SUPER busy. This was the last year we would travel to Mt. Washington for our annual climb of the mountain and celebrate Nanas birthday. During this trip, we also had a big surprise for Nana at the top of the mountain. Stacey and myself, took the little ones up on the Cog to the top of the mountain for lunch to surprise Nana. It was so sweet and a memorable moment to be all together at the top. Plus, the boys had a blast as we traveled up and down on the cog. This was Dominic's 1st time on a train and he really did enjoy the whole experience. The boys ran around at the bottom of the mountain and we took a picture at the "lowest elevation point". During the cog ride up, they were well behaved. We had an opportunity to walk to the front of the cog and look up to the top of the mountain, but Dominic was a little scared. So therefore, we stayed in our seats and looked through our window. The long weekend was also filled with laughter, little kids running around and good old fashion family time. This year at our annual dinner at the Mt. Washington hotel was especially very fun. They have this HUG hill outside where we eat dinner. At night, kids gather with their parents and just run up and down the hill and all around. This year, Alex, Dominic, and Frederick were abe to run up and down with Kay-Kay and Brendan. Having all the cousins together is always a blast and making these memories is priceless. Moments like this makes me so grateful for having moved our family back east.
The next few weeks in August, we would be not traveling as much. And we felt that Dominic was ready to start potty training and moved him into his toddler bed to get ready for the big boy bed. The first weekend of Potty training went pretty well. We started in just undies and ran a monk around the house and outside. Dominic did number "1" & "2" throughout the weekend with the occasional accident which is expected. Taking him to school on Monday was very heart-breaking for momma. He was not fully potty trained but he was doing really good and we had to keep going. The first 2 days there were no accidents at school. As we progressed through the week there was an occasional "oops" but he did great. We first started off with rewarding Dominic with stickers, but noticing we needed something sweeter for a reward to get him to go number "2" on the potty. That is when we decided to combine stickers with M&M's. This worked out great and he's making progress. We started to go to the park, Kay-Kays play and other events.
For Dominic's toddler bed, we transformed his crib into the toddler bed. This is a great way to test how well he stays in bed (doesn't fall out & not getting out and playing) before we do the full twin bed. We have just completed week 4 in the toddler bed and he's is doing great. He is staying in bed even when he wakes up and has only fallen out of bed 2 times. Since we have a new addition coming as of January 2016 (little baby girl). We will need to use Dominic's furniture for his baby sister. So mommy took some furniture old pieces we had and refurbished them. We went with black and brown furniture and the theme was cars, trucks, airplanes and motorcycles. I bought cool knobs and made a painting for Dominic as well. He helped me put the payout together of what he wanted in the painting.
To honor the end of a great summer. We had our annual Ambrose cook out. This year we invited not just our friends but their kiddos too. It was so much fun to have us all together and watch these little munchkins play and become friends. For the kids, we set up the sandbox, kids golf clubs, water play AND garden set. It was our first party with the kids and a great success.
Here are some other crazy fun pics from Dominic these past 2 months. Moments that capture his personality and our sweet little man. He is growing up so fast.....
Dom 3 from Meredith Ambrose on Vimeo.
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