He's a preschooler

He wrote his own name.

What's the difference between Duke and hell?

Yesterday afternoon I took several of the kids to a local Oratory with one of our favoritest priests. Dominic especially loves Msgr. Ingham, and although Msgr. can sometimes be a bit reserved, he loves Dominic too.

Later in the evening I took all the kids to our parish mission, and Dominic began to cry because he hadn't hugged Msgr. goodbye. Tearfully, he looked at me and asked, "Are we going to the purgatory?"

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The parish mission started with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament which is my favorite devotion. I go weekly, and Dominic first crawled in the Adoration chapel so last night's exposition was nothing new for him.

After the Eucharist was placed in the monstrance, he looked and me and asked, "Jesus can see me?"

"Yes," I assured him. "Jesus is right there and He can see you."

"Yesss..." Dominic nodded to himself. Then he looked at me and asked, "Will He wink?"

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In hell, people want to go to purgatory.

Bedtime Prayers

He has already been shaken
off and Joseph has been refocused

When Dominic started to stand independently, it happened during our evening decade of the Rosary. But we made the mistake of breaking off our praying to encourage him, which has led to a bad habit.




While you might see seven people kneeling reverently in prayer, Dominic sees a human bowling alley. We make the Sign of the Cross and up go his arms over his head to elicit a "hooray" from the encouraging crowd. Then he unsteadily walks over toward the group and wham! slams himself into his brother, knocking him over. The other pins are usually fairly eager to wrestle rather than reset themselves. And I cannot help but laugh, a rare commodity these days which is why I haven't worked too hard to train him out of it yet.

There he goes again!

Those are some luscious looking cheeks!

Odds and ends

Spring, birthday season, Easter. They are coming; they are here. Here are some glimpses into our recent past:

Maria in front of the USS Yorktown

Cecilia was especially excited by the "vendor" machines

Dominic and I got to see the berthing quarters

Look at the relaxed and happy faces of the unplugged, living it up outside, pre-teens!

Charles' valet service

Dominic's first time driving the cart

ready to hit the strawberry patch

Introducing Solids

A typical reaction to any kind of food

Dominic is now 7 months old and has started to show an interest in solids.  Or he has an interest in grabbing them and trying to get them into his mouth.  His usual reaction after that is violent gagging and .... 

Like all babies, though, he does love to orally explore anything left on the floor and he never seems to mind what he finds there. So, I came up with a  system for introducing new foods.  We are going to throw food on the floor around the dining room table--only one new food per week!--and let him try them that way.  So far he has been introduced to Cheetos, grass, and crayon packaging with perfect success.

Dominic, 6 months!

Bill and I went running for 6 minutes and
he decided to sit up for the first and only time so far.

And, yes,  he chose to learn to crawl at Adoration. 

Also a single occurrence. 

With Pop on Christmas Day

Happy little back-wrapped baby

Today

Recently, I've been reflecting on the idea that 12 is really only 2 plus 10.  Two year old emotional fragility, two year old limiting testing, two year old blossoming into a new level of independence...with 10 years of self-discipline and experience to give it a different flavor.  Fortunately, I've always enjoyed 2 year olds.
*****
My niece has recently told me that she wants to come live with me because I am so much fun.  I was going to tell her this isn't really true, but when I went to write her back, I realized that I am in the midst of planning a week off of our usual curriculum to do star-gazing, a field trip to the local kids science museum, and a morning riding in and learning about hot air balloons. These are on the same week as Halloween and All Saints Day parties.  


Isabel, come visit.
*****
Tonight the kids tried to help me make a grocery list for tomorrow morning.  The conversation went, "How about [delicious food]?" followed by a chorus of "Not, that!" Since I'm going through a phase where nightly I say, "I have to cook dinner again?", things are looking bleak. 


On the list right now:  baby wipes.  
Yum.
******
Last weekend, we all went on a family campout for AHG.  The computer ate the pictures, so while I can find them on Iphoto, Blogger can't.  This one is courtesy of my friend Jill.

Clone Army: who's who?

One of them rolled over today!

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

Winter Hat on our 3 month old

Yellow

We repainted the foyer a fresh yellow, and I really like it.

Maria has recently learned how to use my wrap.

Tonight we were super excited when we figured
out how to have her wear Dominic on her back. 

Growing and growing--8 weeks old already

I can't believe how the summer has flown by.  Dominic has already been smiling at us for almost a month, and now he coos and sometimes even goes to sleep without too much trouble.  Recently he got salmonella, probably from someone with dirty hands letting him suck on their finger.  He had a few very unhappy days, but now he is much better.  A few weeks ago we started easing into school, and mostly he has worked with me rather than against me by napping nicely in a pack and play in the living room.  

Dominic in his wrap and apron helping me make tortillas.

8 weeks old

Wearing his new outfit from our super great midwife

Enjoying some special brotherly love from James

Dominic's song

Here's some music to go along with the slideshow of Dominic's baptism.



My brother did an older baptism rite with a Mexican flair.  The bread, salt and lime were all integral to the baptism.  We saved the tequila for later.  The older rite is all about the godparents, so Bill and I stood aside and while Mike and Paula dealt with the very unhappy baby.   He just didn't know what was best for him.  Good thing we're the parents, right?


Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Dominic--2 week old cuteness

Dominic's birth

Dominic's story will always begin with our decision to have him at home.

With the 7 kids we already had filling our days and the two babies we lost last year, Bill and I have had a variety of good and bad experiences with hospital births. Over the the years good friends have shared their encouraging experiences with homebirthing, but it always sounded too risky and crunchy and not for us.

Our minds were more open after seeing the movie The Business of Being Born, and when we found out in Oct that I was pregnant again, we decided to look into homebirthing with Donna. It didn't take much--was it her saying "Stop running and gain weight"?--for me to feel like this was the right place for me to be. And that is how, after 40+ weeks of pregnancy, appointments that felt like Mom's Day Out with the kids in tow, and lots of repeating "a certified nurse midwife is a medical professional" to concerned friends and family, we found ourselves here.

At 8:40 pm on Tues I called Donna and told her--or she told me?--it was time for her to come.  Between contactions Bill and I got sleeping bags and kids together and Bill dropped them off at our friends' house.

Unfortunately, a severe thunderstorm blew up immediately after I called Donna to come, so they drove almost an hour in the pouring rain and on the way one of their windshield wipers blew off. The room we chose for the birth flickered with the lightning outside which was a beautiful distraction for me while I bounced on a birthing ball and waited.

11:10 pm About an hour after Donna, Dawn and Karen arrived, I was at 8 cm,
  in the birth pool and laughing with Bill while telling the story of how we met.

12:30 am An hour later I realized I was having too much fun and would have
to force myself to focus if I was going to ever have a baby.

Joseph's birth had been so fast and easy that when this baby didn't just shoot out, I was surprised...and even at one point missed Pitocin!  Well, Pit does the work for you.  Without it, I had to spend several contractions praying and telling myself to move into a better position.

1:10 am with minutes to go:  In the hospital it had been hard for Bill
to be close with all the wires and tubes.  When I felt him take my hand
and start rubbing my hair during a rough contraction, I instantly relaxed.
I felt so grateful that we were where we were.

And then...tada!  There was this little person in my arms and
Bill was grinning at me.  We all felt all along that the baby would be a girl, but we decided
to look anyway.  My determination: "It's ... an umbelical cord?"  I couldn't see.

A boy! A boy!  We have another boy!

So surprised and so happy!

Shortly after this things became more serious when I started to hemorrhage.  Donna's eyes became more focused and intense beneath her headlamp as she took control of the situation.  While Donna directed everyone and massaged my uterus, Dawn gave me meds and started an IV and Bill kept time.  The atmosphere was calm and under contol, and Bill and I felt very comfortable the whole time--not at all nervous or fearful.  In about 15 minutes Donna's face relaxed and she took off her headlamp and smiled. 

I thought my brother John would enjoy seeing this pic of the baby being weighed
on a fish scale.  The IV and the scale are also a nice juxtaposition
of the different ends of the spectrum of midwifery care.

Newborn exam shows we have a healthy 8 lb boy. 

We are so grateful to have little Dominic Peter here as a part of our family.  The kids are ecstatic and a little too enthusiastic to see him, kiss him and love him.  Bill will be home for a few weeks to help while I recover, and I feel typically tired but otherwise fine. Baby Dominic is eating, sleeping, snuggling, and working his way deep into our hearts just like he should