Lots of fun

I've let another week go by without posting. Things are very busy here, with my sister's wedding coming up on the 23rd and another major event happening in less than eight weeks. Yikes!

We took Dominick to the Family Fun Fair sponsored by Parents as Teachers on Saturday. They had all sorts of activities for the kids: riding toys, a petting zoo, a bounce house, a parachute, face painting, play dough, water play tables. There were also two fire trucks, a police car and a helicopter on the site. Dom had a blast. He had never gone in a bounce house before, so we weren't sure what he'd think, but he went right in and bounced around with a few other kids. When it was time for him to come out, he was very obedient and came over to the door. He tried out most of the riding toys (or so it seemed) and was especially interested in the various kid-sized signs set up around the court, such as the stop sign and yield sign. (No surprise there!) Dom sat right down at a table full of kids and played with play dough. He enjoyed running under the parachute. He also loved the animals and was reasonably gentle with them, though his version of petting the baby goats was more like trying to push them over. The helicopter took off while we were there, and the noise didn't bother Dom.

All of this reinforces something Jacqui said the other day and that I've also noticed: Dominick really seems like a different kid lately. When we hosted playgroup last week, there were about 20 people in our house, and instead of being upset, Dom was happy. At one point he was running in circles, smiling. It's so exciting to see him like this.

Dom's speech keeps improving. We're starting to hear a few more sentences now. The longest ones so far have been "I see food in the tree" (referring to a picture in a book) and "I want Daddy in the bath." He still says "I want more ____, please" when he wants something. He's destroyed several of his books and would always say "Fix it" when pointing to the tears. Last night I finally did work on the books, and now he says "Mommy fixed it." Good use of the past tense!

It's funny how some of his words are becoming very clear, but others are still quite creatively pronounced. I love that he calls grapes "beeps." It follows, therefore, that grapefruit is "beepfruit." Milk is still "muck," and the computer is "bee-oh bee-oh." It does appear that Dom has abandoned "guck," which used to mean both truck and duck. No more requests for "uh guh uh guck" (Duck in the Truck). He can say the actual title now.

Time to go put Dominick back in bed. He's taken to sleeping on the floor in front of the door again. That can't be comfortable.