Getting Creative...

I recently had a friend of Frankie's bring a bunch of toy trains over to the house. Lots of them. And he played and played and played with them. It made me feel bad that we didn't purchase a bunch of trains for him to play with after his friend left the house. But then I thought back to my childhood, which was really short on toys but long on fun. And, we created a new, fun activity for the day... building a car. I can't tell you how many old boxes my sister and I turned into cars, robots, and dozens of other things. Frankie and I made a car out of an old box from Costco and the whole family reeped the rewards. One of the best things... the next weekend when I asked him if he wanted to play outside, he told me he wanted to build another car. :) Photo included of the boys in the car (one drawback: it's only motorized by mom pushing it).

Life here is full of fun. Summer is upon us, but the weather is surprisingly cool and comfortable. It's great! Dominic is a standing machine, Frankie is in a big boy bed and Keith's parents are set to come out for 10 days to hang with the family. Good times!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am missing my mommy pretty fiercely this Mother's Day. She's been gone just over a week and I miss her like crazy. Had the flu for a miserable 48 hours which only makes me miss her worse! This is the first stretch of more than a week I've been without the help of my mom or Keith's and it was frightening to say goodbye to her. But, we're making do. The boys have been so great today... angels in church, less than embarrassing at the nice brunch buffet we went to at a local resort, and now Frankie's down for a nap (wish I could say the same about Dominic who's refusing his). Here's to hoping the last half of the day goes as well as the first! Putting up some pics from our recent family shoot in honor of Mother's Day!

Times are a-Changin'

Well the only thing that you can always count on is change. And, there is no better realization of that than in children. Dominic and Frankie are changing daily - and keeping our routine and energy level on its toes. Dominic is now crawling... it's slow and very deliberate at this point, but movement nonetheless. I'm hoping this translates to better sleep. :) Speaking of sleep, Frankie is now in his big boy bed. We bought bunk beds and put them in his room, thinking that he might want to look at them for a few days before making the change from his crib. Nope. He wouldn't take no for an answer when Keith gave him the option of sleeping in his crib or the bed - the bed. So just like that, we have a 2-year-old who is able to get up on his own any time of night. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I thought I would be bawling my eyes out, but that's not the case. Maybe it's because of how easily he did it... like he could have handled it all along and we're the ones holding him back.

New Update - FINALLY!

Well, life has had its ups and downs lately. We have had two rounds of colds tear through the house the past month - putting everyone in the dumper at one point or another. But, we have had some good times too... and lots of progress from both boys. Frankie is chatting up a storm, with new phrases every day such as, "Sorry about that," and my personal favorite, "Daddy - get back in the kitchen!" Dominic is done with the helmet (already!) and his head is shaped perfectly for it. :) We have one more appointment to make sure everything is okay, but seems to be really good so far. He is also on all fours trying desperately to crawl. We're all scared for when that happens. He just started learning how to put food in his mouth - despite the fact that he has no teeth yet. Frankie had a full set of chompers at this point, so Dom is missing out on all that Frankie was already eating at this point. That's okay though - it seems with #2, you don't mind the pace of progress slowing down a bit. I hope everyone had a great Easter. We sure did! Photos are of Frankie on St. Patty's Day (he is an eighth Irish!), Keith and Frankie at his first pro sports event - an Indians' Game, and Dominic and those big blue eyes (yup, they're here to stay).

Dom's Dome

Well today is day 1 with Dominic's helmet (snapshot taken by Keith at the doc's office this morning). I am in San Diego today through Thursday, so I can't even be there with him (and haven't even seen him in it!) for four days. So sad. From what Keith says, it's business as usual in Dominic's life... he's totally unphased by it. And, I have to say that's pretty much how he is - very, very chill. So, I hope that he adjusts well since he has to be in it for 23 hours a day for the next 10 weeks or so. We're going to decorate it this weekend. I wish I could see Frankie when he gets a look at it tonight! Dominic is sitting up on his own now, rolling like crazy and I saw two "army crawl" maneuvers yesterday that are scaring the hell out of me. He can't be on the move yet!!! :) Frankie is finally liking school - after several weeks of cranky atypical behavior from him. Keith's busy season is done (for now - yea!), so the boys and I are so happy to have him back to a normal schedule. We went two weeks with only seeing him for a few minutes a day (if at all).

Helmet on the way...

We had our appointment this week with the cranial specialist to measure Dominic's head for a helmet. Poor thing! He will be in it for about 10 weeks starting two weeks from today. Every week we need to take him in to get measured/fitted again. Here he is in all his blue-eyed glory, getting more and more personality every day. Love him!!

Updates from the Arnolds

Well life has been more than a bit busy with Keith now in his "busy season" and me back to work full time. Where did the holidays go? We've had quite a few milestones in the past couple of weeks and so wanted to include some updates here. Frankie started preschool at Tutor Time just a couple days a week. And while he's not fully in the groove yet, I do think he enjoys his time there. Dominic started eating cereal a couple of weeks ago, which is somewhat helping him sleep through the night. He is still our blue-eyed boy and we think that in a few more months if he doesn't get some more color to his skin - or darker eyes - we'll be doing some genetic testing!