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!