My Little-Big Man

Dominic is TWO! And he threw 3 tantrums today to prove it. But aside from his rollercoaster of emotions, we had an awesome day! It started out like this...

When he saw me taking pictures of it, he decided to play in it again.

Little Stinker.

Here is what I did not get a picture of... I bought a new pack of diapers for Damon. Emptied it out into a basket, and in my rush to get the kids out the door... threw the empty bag carelessly on the floor. Later that day, we came home from the park. I sat down to nurse Damon and Dominic found the empty bag. While preoccupying myself with the task at hand, I heard the toilet lid slam shut. While hurling myself accross the bedroom (nursing baby in tow) I heard the toilet flush.

"Oh no he didn't!"



"Oh yes... he did."



After pulling the empty diaper sack out of the toilet (luckily it got stuck before it went all the way down) and mopping up the bathroom floor I realized that this phase of my life has only just begun. I'm sure he'll come up with many more ways to prove he's two.



Like this...





And this. Mmmm-hmmm.




On the bright side, he's learned how to do something for himself that makes my life a little easier. He can now feed himself oatmeal with a spoon! Woohoo!

A little messy? Yes. But nothing a good bath can't fix. And what does it do for me???

I get to either ...

a. Nurse Damon in private (as fate would have it, they always wake up at the same time and they're both very hungry) or

b. Eat my own breakfast

Thank goodness for small blessings. :)

Oh... and here's a picture of Dom's latest silliness:

He's not so much into hot dogs anymore... just the ketchup. He'd drink it through a straw if I'd allow it. Gross.

So anyway... what did we do for his birthday!? We went to the park. It has a carousel, (which Dominic is terrified of), mini-wave runners, a mini-ferris wheel, and a bunch of coin operated rides. We chose the coin operated ones. Dom is still a bit of a ninny. And they looked safe. :)

Here he is driving the Chevy.

And here he is on the miniature carousel.

And here he is... being cute.

Next, we fed the ducks.

And the highlight of his day? We went on a train ride.

Dominic is really into trains. We're lucky enough to live pretty close to a railroad crossing and whenever Dominic hears the whistle blow, his eyes light up and he runs around the house yelling, "Tain!? Too-toooooo!!!"

So, here he is on the "Tain".

Don't let that stone face fool you. I was wondering if he was having any fun until the train stopped. He threw himself to the floor of the train car and there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Apparently he enjoyed the ride.

That night, when Daddy got home, we opened presents and Dominc wore his special birthday cake hat. It's spiffy.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

I love you, and your tantrums too.

P.S. On Saturday we had a birthday party for Dominic and all his cute little friends. I'll post pictures soon! :)

Sick.

You don't ever realize how great life is until something out of the ordinary happens and then you realize how wonderful you had it. I thought life was pretty hectic with two little guys... being up multiple times a night with Damon, and dealing with Dominic's tantrums. But now, that seems like a piece of cake and I'm grateful to do it. :)

Last week, Damon and Dominic got runny noses and Dom got a cough. Dom was pretty sick for one of the days and then the next day, Damon was not himself. He had a bad cough, didn't want to eat, was really irritable, would cry and cry unless I was holding him, couldn't sleep at all, had a runny nose, and a fever, and had really rapid breathing and I could hear crud in his chest.

Ok... now that I'm writing this, it sounds pretty bad and I guess I should have known to take him in. But in my defense, I remember a couple of times that Dominic was (what I thought) pretty sick. I took him to the doctor only to be told to take him home, run the humidifier, and "suction, suction, suction". So that is what I was doing.

However, at about 4:30p.m... after Damon hadn't nursed for more than 3 minutes in about 12 hours, (I know, should have called sooner) I called the nurse. I told her his symptoms and she said she needed to see him right away.

After being examined, the doctor sent us straight to the hospital and told me that Damon was really sick and was having a hard time breathing and that his oxygen levels were too low. About this time, I'm feeling like "mom of the year". I called Rich, crying my eyes out, and he met me at Cardon Children's Hospital. After spending waaay to long in the ER, and after a wonderful blessing given by Rich and one of the nurses in the ER, we were checked in.

Damon was taken such good care of. The nurses were great and very positive. He was diagnosed with RSV and bronchiolitis. He received an IV with nutrients and sugar water to keep him from getting dehydrated. He received oxygen, and breathing treatments, lots of deep suctioning (which was heartbreaking to watch, and hear) and chest physiotherapy. After four days, he was able to come home with a nebulizer and I give him treatments every four hours.

I'm so happy to say that he is doing much, much better! He still isn't eating much, but the pediatrician just found a pretty severe ear infection. So that probably explains it. He's on antibiotics now for that, so I'm sure our little guy will start nursing well again soon!

Here's Damon's hospital photo-shoot... because he looked so stinkin' cute in his little miniature hospital gown. ;)

"Hi. I'm sick." :(

I am so grateful for such a wonderful circle of friends and family. Thank you so much Rachel and Matea, Kendra, Vanessa and Melanie for watching Dominic while I was in the hospital! Thank you Vanessa for helping me pass the time in the ER and staying at my house until all hours of the night until Rich was able to make it back home. :) Thank you Jennifer for driving an hour and a half to spend the day with Dominic and then visiting me in the hospital before driving the long drive home again!!! Thank you Bishop, for coming to visit us. Thank you Mandi for feeding Rich and Dominic while I was at the hospital with Damon. Thank you Kristen for the wonderful dinner you made us when we got back home. Thank you to our parents and siblings for putting all our names in the temple. And thank you soooo much to all of our wonderful friends who continuously texted me to let me know that you cared and were praying for us. We are so very blessed. We love you all!