It's like a zoo around here ...

Almost all of Dominic's clothes, toys, and other accoutrements (stroller, diaper bags, etc.) involve animals of some kind. One of his favorite things is the "Rainforest Play Mat" - as illustrated here. (For some reason, the "rainforest" includes not only butterflies and a toucan, but an albino tiger and a rather abstract spotted giraffe with a velcro tongue.)

I'm happy to report that Dominic is now extremely proficient at batting at the butterflies and the tiger (not pictured.)

Sometimes, though, a baby gets tired out from all the activity, and then there's nothing like a nice soothing penguin by your side as you nap:


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The past week has cemented Dominic's status as a Brooklyn tourist attraction! On Saturday, Rebecca came to visit and accompanied us on a walk through the park. On Sunday afternoon, Stacey, Leslie and Amber braved some nasty weather to come out to Brooklyn, meet the baby and have brunch with me. (Daddy and Dominic stayed at home and made their own brunch.) On Sunday evening, Carl and Siobhan came to visit us and Siobhan revealed her true calling as the Baby Whisperer. Dominic had been a bit fussy all day - perhaps because it was too wet and miserable to go out for a walk - and Siobhan was able to calm him down and change his clothes without any fuss at all.


On Tuesday, Dominic had his two-month visit to the doctor, during which he received his first vaccinations. We were a bit worried that he wouldn't take kindly to having needles stuck in his thighs, but it turned out that he was much more upset by our putting on his hat as we left the doctor's office than he was by the vaccinations. We also found out that Dominic is in the 97th percentile for his height and his weight: he's almost 25 inches (63 centimeters) and 15 1/2 pounds (approximately 7 kilos!) At this rate, we anticipate that he'll be the only six-foot child in kindergarten!

Dominic's final visitor of the week was Aunt Jane, who came over yesterday evening (braving a nasty rainstorm) and practiced some weightlifting:


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Tomorrow, Dominic embarks on what's shaping up to be a rock-star tour - he'll be visiting the Scialdone family for Christmas and then traveling to Boston for New Year's Eve (we anticipate he'll be seeing quite a lot of snow), with scheduled stops in Connecticut as well! Before we leave, though, Dominic and his festive Winnie-the-Pooh hat would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and to express the wish that 2008 will be as joyful for everyone as the final months of 2007 have been for Dominic's parents and family.



See you next year!

Haute couture - Dominic-style

Dominic is quite a large boy - he was born big and has kept growing: he measured twelve pounds and 23 1/4 inches at our last visit to the pediatrician, which was three weeks ago. As there don't seem to be any Big and Tall stores for babies, this has meant Dominic has to have an ever-expanding wardrobe (and an ever-expanding bag of clothes he's already outgrown!) This gives him a chance to demonstrate all the latest in baby fashions.

For some reason, many of Dominic's clothes have horizontal stripes:


Between the stripes and the bars on his crib, Dominic seems to have stumbled into some kind of baby prison. But far from plotting his escape, he appears to have surrendered to his fate:


Aside from all the stripes, animal themes are also popular this fall. Giraffes fit in well with the safari-print pillow:

For those babies who live in wintry Northern climes, warm clothing is a must. I find his reindeer suit irresistibly cute:



My mother managed to get a shot of him in the suit with his eyes open:

Although the pictures are all a few weeks old (his feet come all the way down now!), rest assured that the reindeer suit is being used almost daily now for Dominic's walks, as it's gotten rather chilly here in Brooklyn, so we are extremely grateful to Dominic's great-uncle for this gift!

Also popular are these adorable overalls and long-sleeved t-shirt - a gift from Cousin Marco and his parents - shown here in another photo from Dominic's ajji:


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In addition to growing rapidly, Dominic continues to meet new people. On December 2nd, Mishi, Amadou and Rajiv paid us a visit. Rajiv, whom we've known since he was a brand-new baby living upstairs, is now a very grown-up young man of three years and two months. He helped me make hot chocolate and was an interested observer during a diapering session for Dominic. Also, Rajiv presented Dominic with what is, at the moment, his favorite toy - Mr. Whoozit.

This past Friday, Joerg came out to Brooklyn and had dinner with us (Baby D seemed quite appreciative of the scents of our roast chicken and beans and rice from the vantage point of his father's and mother's laps, but was informed that he would have to wait to sample these delights!)

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Lastly, apologies to those readers of Dominic's blog who have been wondering where the new pictures are! Unfortunately, our computer's hard drive decided to expire about ten days ago and between ordering a new hard drive, replacing the old one, reloading Windows, finding all the files that I had (or in some cases, had not) backed up to an external hard drive, etc., I haven't had a chance to update in a while. But here's hoping the computer is back to normal and the updates will be a little more frequent!

Friends and Family

In addition to his actual aunts and uncles, Dominic has quite a few honorary aunts and uncles as well. His Aunt Rita came to visit him when he wasn't quite two weeks old, and in honor of her visit, Dominic wore a lovely warm jacket that she had bought him.

(It's padded and puffy, which is why he looks like a mini-Arnold Schwarzenegger in this picture.)

Last weekend, Aunt Jane (whom we congratulate on passing the New York bar exam) came to visit Dominic for the first time and brought him Big Bird, the Cookie Monster and a mirror with a song that David and I have already memorized. Unfortunately, because I was holding Dominic, there are no pictures of that summit meeting.

And Dominic has gotten to know Asmita Auntie and Milind Uncle very well indeed, as he's seen them more than anyone else who's not a parent or grandparent (or a vendor of coffee and croissants at Bittersweets on DeKalb!) At Thanksgiving dinner, Dominic, clearly setting up to be a ladies' man, shamelessly flirted with Asmita - there was a lot of intent gazing, a proto-smile and a good bit of eyelash batting going on (not to mention some heavy breathing - well, snorting to be precise - and possibly a burp or two.)


The day after Thanksgiving, Dominic's grandparents Pete and Betty came down to visit and this time, Papa didn't get food-poisoning and got to spend some quality time being slept upon by Dominic:

Anniversaries

This week marked two anniversaries - one sad, one happy.

On Tuesday, November 20th, it was exactly one year since we had to put our beloved German Shepherd to sleep. We miss Aconcagua de la Caramba (known around here as A.C. or Acito or other names depending on what exactly he was doing at the time) terribly and I'm sure we'll be telling Dominic stories about him for years to come.


On a much happier note, Dominic was exactly one month old on Thursday the 22nd, which happened to be Thanksgiving this year as well. It's simultaneously hard to believe that he hasn't been with us forever AND that it's already been a whole month because it seems like yesterday that we were bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital. (Also, it's weird not referring to age by the number of days any more!)

He's already a bit world-weary, clearly!


Today marked another milestone for Dominic - his first bath with water in the baby tub (as opposed to a spongebath with a washcloth). We were well-prepared with a giant hooded towel and a pacifier to muffle the anticipated screaming from Dominic:

But Dominic surprised us - after a brief squawk about being a) naked; and b) sitting in a pool of water, he seemed to enjoy himself quite a lot. (Perhaps enjoyment is a liberal interpretation of his reaction, but he rarely suffers in silence, so he obviously didn't mind the experience that much.) Thanks to Aunt Rita, we had a variety of Bübchen baby products from Germany to use for Dominic's bath, so now he smells of camomile, linden and clean baby!

Grandparents!

When we came home from the hospital on the 25th of October, we were extremely grateful to grandmother Betty for bringing her expertise with babies to help us out. We learned that it's one thing to read about diapering, changing, burping and sponge-bathing a newborn, and quite another to be faced with a hungry and/or wet baby who is Very Upset. Apparently, diapering is a form of horrible baby torture and Dominic usually responds to this assault upon his person with a demonstration of the art of Baby Kung Fu.

Sure, he looks peaceful now, but you should see the other guy:


Grandma also did about eight million loads of laundry and a whole bunch of cleaning. Unfortunately, grandfather Pete got food-poisoning from some bad chicken and didn't get to play with Dominic very much, but we hope his next visit will go much more smoothly! Grandmother Betty's visit marked a milestone for Dominic - he found his thumb. Then he lost it again and that made him cross, but that's a tale for another day:

This past weekend, Dominic's Hinchey grandparents came down from Boston for a visit. Needless to say, Baby D. was a big hit (in both Kannada and English). There was even talk of smuggling him home in a carryon (note to self: search visitors' luggage in future!) Dominic's parents were treated to a delicious Indian feast cooked by his ajji, so they were pretty excited too!

Dominic's favorite activities include sleeping on grandparents:

And holding their fingers very firmly:

Dominic's world

Welcome to the blog of Dominic Rammohan Scialdone, born on October 22nd, 2007. Dominic was born at Long Island College Hospital at 8 p.m. exactly and he came in at 9 lbs., 6 oz. (that's 4,225 gms for the metrically inclined!) and 21 1/4 inches long. He was not 11 lbs, as predicted by one of the midwives shortly before his mother went into the O.R. (and it's really not nice to scare people that way!!)

Minutes after delivery, Dominic was not particularly impressed by this brave new world:


But things seemed to be a bit better some hours later when he'd had a chance to get his bearings: