A Family Visit

We recently made the 10 hour trek across Pennsylvania and Ohio to South Bend, Indiana, where my brother lives with his wonderful wife and three terrific kids.  My parents trekked  from Minnesota across Wisconsin and Illinois to meet us there.  We had a lovely time.  Nothing could be better than hanging out with fam.  Here are some pics from our visit.  Click on it if you'd like to see them larger in Picasa.  I also added some more February pictures from before our trip to the slideshow in the previous post.

February Pictures

I'm not really sure where this month is flying away to already. Dominic, Grandma, and Mommy all got sick, so we took a little break from the library and swimming to keep the germs and whining inside the house. Two humidifers, vicks vapor rub, tylenol, and lots of sleep later, we're all back up to speed. 

We read Harry, The Dirty Dog, Baby Animals, and Jamberry at least 50 times each, sat on the potty (or waited in the bathroom) countless times with a few small successes, and baked lots of yummy treats together.  Dominic is becoming quite a conoisseur--that's a hard word to spell!--of all food things.  He can now identify not only salt and pepper but oregano and garlic.  He loves to watch sauteeing, mashing, and even dish-washing.  His favorite, though, is the Kitchen Aid mixer.  Then again, who can blame him; it is awesome.     

Cate rolled over from her tummy to her back (although this may have been an accident. . .she was playing with her ear--a new discovery--and happened to twist one leg over the other).  She is actively and intentionally trying to roll from her back to her tummy.  I think this will happen in the next week or two, and then we maybe in trouble if she takes after her brother and rolls all across the house before crawling.  She discovered the doorway jumper, too, and thinks that's pretty neat.  I think she likes the view as she can be part of the action.  Her favorite place continues to be in someone's lap.   

Matt is hard at work translating Domingo de Soto with his ambitious brother and reading Capreolus in latin for his dissertation research.  He is grading 70 undergraduate papers. And he just finished reading the acclaimed novel Force Unleashed, a graphic novel based on the popular video game, Star Wars.   :)  

As for me, I take care of everybody else, and edit papers and drink coffee in-between.  Oh yes, I also cut my hair off.  Here are some pictures to enjoy.  Click on it to make it bigger.

More January 2009 Pictures

Here you can see Dominic's first haircut and our trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We've been fighting off the winter blues (although winter here is "bliss" compared to MN winter!) by taking trips to the library for story hour, learning to jump into the pool at swimming lessons, and seeing all the fish, frogs, sharks, and puffins at the aquarium. We build gigantic lego towers and then make them "crash."  We read Harry, the Dirty Dog over and over and over.  We watch Winnie the Pooh at least once a day.  And we eat a lot of food, well, at least Dominic does.  He has even added salad to the list of foods he likes, asking for seconds and even thirds of a Caesar salad...  Cate is maintaining her petite little figure and is more of a "nibbler" than Dominic ever was.  As of this week, though, she matched up with Dominic's sleeping abilities-- she slept 7 1/2 hours each night, for the last four!  Here are some pictures so that you can feel like you're here with us.  We wish you were!

Woo-hoo!

Dominic went pee-pee in the potty! Yippee!! After 20 something trips to the potty (we count these trips by the number of Pooh stickers in Dominic's coloring book) we have our second success. It feels good to be productive... :) It's hard not to be hoodwinked by his pleas for "potty", even when he's just gone. Sometimes he does have to go, and I just can't know when that is. So, he gets to go potty as many times as my patience holds out. Is saving $300 a year worth all that time waiting in the bathroom for something to happen? Since part of our job as parents involves transforming a diaper-wearing, mommy-dependent little boy into a real man who can hold his own (pun fully intended), I may as well bite the bullet now and reap the rewards sooner--at least that's what I keep telling myself. Wouldn't you go pee-pee if you had a cushie-tushie seat and got stickers if you just tried and received candy or 1/2 a cookies if you succeeded...bribery is alive and well.

Pictures~!

Fortunately for me--and for you, actually--pictures speak a thousand words. So, rather than write or read 21,000 words, here's a little glimpse of the latest with Dominic and Cate. There's a even a picture with me in it. :)

Video: December 2008

I'm back!  Here's a little video from Christmas and the week before.   Cate is growing fast and has started smiling and beating up Dominic (j/k).  Dominic is more inquisitive every day, learning new words, and tricking us into doing things.  His newest words are "sip" (he says, "sip...coffee...peas..."), "i-oh-oo" (I love you), and "bwess oo" when anyone sneezes.  

Christening Pictures

Catherine Rose was baptized on December 13, 2008, at St. Patrick's in York, PA by Father Hauser. We had a lively party at our house afterward. She was a doll for the whole thing, not even crying at having water poured on her head! She just opened her eyes and looked around, as if she were thinking, "What was that?!!" Since Saturday's washing away of her original sin, we've noticed a remarkable change in Cate. Whereas before she was a good baby, now she is perfect. Ah, if only the sacraments could take away concupiscence as well...

Catherine Rose's Baptism