Splashing

Dominic is currently visiting Grandma and Papa Scialdone in upstate New York, where he's enjoying splashing in his outdoor wading pool. (It's all the fun of having a bath, but without the soap, washcloth and annoying mother trying to wash behind his ears.)




Of course the assistance of Jake, Aunt Becky's dachshund, is invaluable:

Stylish

Aunt Rita brought Dominic a stylish new shirt from San Francisco, complete with little tabs and pockets. (NB: David and I have often wondered at the prevalence of pockets on baby clothes. Do babies need a place to store their keys and pens?)

And I think his blue and white stripes give Dominic a vaguely nautical air:

Office Visits

Dominic's busy week continued on Wednesday the 18th and Thursday the 19th. On the 18th, Dominic made his first visit to my office. We took the R train, which Dominic seemed to enjoy:



He definitely enjoyed hugging and snuggling Ella (and Jackie and Yvonne and Christine and everyone else who picked him up!)

The next day, Dominic visited his father's office where he met a whole bunch of people. Then we walked down Fifth Avenue to Central Park, where David's firm has their biennial summer party at the Central Park Zoo. Dominic was a little overwhelmed by all the people and traffic and so interested in everyone else's food that he didn't really see many of the animals, although he did like the seals and sea-lions.

He also took some time out to smell (or, more accurately, try to eat) the flowers:

Finally, to round off Dominic's busy week, we had a visit to Brooklyn from our friend Claudia, of Berlin and Vienna. Claudia has two lovely little boys of her own, so she knew just what would appeal to Dominic - he got two fun German picture books, one with movable parts that, of course, ended up in Dominic's mouth!

A Busy Week

The second week of June was a very busy one for Dominic. First, Aunt Rita came for a visit and discovered that Dominic had grown quite a lot since the last time she saw him:


The day Aunt Rita left, Dominic enjoyed a visit from Catherine L., who came out to Brooklyn to see him. We had tea and croissants at Ici, where Dominic always enjoys admiring himself in their mirrors and checking out the herb garden.

That afternoon, we had one of our many encounters with the various dogs of Fort Greene Park, except that on this occasion, I'd remembered to bring my camera, so I was able to take some pictures. We met Bismarck, the wire-haired dachshund puppy:

Dominic enjoyed being right in the middle of a doggie playgroup:

Highchair adventures ...

As we've noted before, Dominic enjoys his high-chair (and his food) very much indeed. And if we forget what we've fed him, we just have to check his bibs afterwards for the key to that mystery. (In this case, I think it was carrots!)


Sometimes the food runs out and Dominic has to resort to eating the dishes instead:

Bathtime

We weren't quite sure why the penguin bath toy had a life preserver; after all, penguins are aquatic birds, and accomplished swimmers. That was before we watched Dominic trying to drown it:

Dominic loves his bath (and both his parents and the bathroom floor usually get a wash too) but unfortunately, this means that he protests vigorously when it's time to remove him from the cool and soapy water. Sometimes the aftermath of Dominic's bath is peaceful, as the Mother Teresa photo below suggests:

Sometimes there are tears and screaming. Usually, Dominic gets distracted by other things like trying to chew on his toes (which he can actually do!) and the trauma is short-lived.

Visitors

Dominic is still receiving many visits from old and new friends and from family.

Anil Uncle and Pallavi Auntie came down in April to help Dominic celebrate turning six months old:

They were joined by Milind Uncle and Asmita Auntie, who are expecting a little one of their own very soon:

The day started off really warm and then turned unexpectedly cold, which is why Dominic is wearing light cotton trousers AND a hooded jacket. He has an eclectic style:

Then over Memorial Day weekend, Dominic met Aunt Janet for the very first time - we spent a couple of hours enjoying the lush green grass on the grounds of the Pratt Institute:



The following week, Papa and Grandma Betty came down to see how much Dominic has grown. Papa is a genius at making babies laugh and apparently his head was Dominic's new favorite toy. Much to Dominic's chagrin, Papa did not leave his head behind, when he left.


Grandma Betty was very elusive on this visit and there are no photos of her, but we were really happy she was here because Dominic got his second cold and then gave it to his parents last week so she was the only one who wasn't coughing and sniffling.

Last weekend, Kate came all the way out to Brooklyn to meet Dominic for the first time. There aren't any photos of the event because Dominic fell asleep in the photographer's arms, but he does have a lovely little stuffed polar bear as a memento. Thank you, Kate!!

Miscellaneous cute pictures

There's no underlying theme to this post, just a few pictures that Dominic's doting mother couldn't really squeeze in anywhere else.

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Another "baby accessory" that we were ignorant of before we got one was the "Bundle Me" - it's a blanket-thing that zips all around Dominic's stroller, so he can't kick off the blanket or get it tangled up in the wheels or have it blow away in a high wind (all misfortunes that have befallen us.) I like the way he looks like he's in a little cocoon:

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And these are just to show how well he's sitting up at seven and a half months:

Hats

I foolishly assumed that warmer weather would mean not having to inflict the torture of hats on Dominic any longer. But of course, now he needs hats to protect him from the sun. Luckily, Dominic seems to have overcome his aversion to headgear (he saves the screaming for whenever we try to put sunblock on his nose instead) and appears happy to model his two stylish summer hats.

The first is a classic, reminiscent of lazy afternoons at the ballpark:
While the second suggests the jaunty je ne sais quoi of a French foreign legionnaire:

Zoo

On May 4, two momentous events occurred in Dominic's life: his first bus ride, and his first trip to the zoo. (In fact, we took the bus to the Prospect Park Zoo, and it's unclear which part of the afternoon Dominic enjoyed the most.)

We saw a baby kangaroo having a mid-afternoon snack:

And a very curious meerkat (Dominic sometimes has a very similar expression on his face):

Dominic enjoyed feeding the ducks and looking at the monkeys:

On a subsequent visit this past week with his father and his grandmother, he apparently had a lovely time petting an alpaca. But sadly, Daddy forgot the camera so there are no pictures!

Bibliophile

Considering that David and I have hundreds and hundreds of books, it's probably no surprise that Dominic had a budding library before he was even born. And even though he can't actually read yet, he does enjoy a good book:

Walking

Dominic has just started to "pre-crawl" (that means that when he's on his belly, he either goes around in a circle or goes very fast backwards), but he's definitely looking forward to walking, as you can see from this video:

Exersaucer

Those of Dominic's friends who haven't recently had babies themselves may not know about a wonderful invention called the "Exersaucer" - it's like a little desk full of toys just for babies (and after a while, the annoying repetition of "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" just turns into background noise for the parents.) After I spent two hours assembling the whole thing, Dominic was a little wary at first, but he soon came to love it:


Admittedly, he looks a little ferocious in this shot, but it's only because he's quite serious about eating that mirror: