A visit with Santa

We took Dom to visit Santa for the first time. While we were in line he was so excited to meet the big man himself, but once it was actually his turn he got a bit nervous. He was very stiff on Santa's lap until Santa read him a Christmas story, then he was happy to be there.

Fire station visit

One of the fire stations in Sunnyvale was having an open house where kids could ride and explore fire trucks, shoot water from the fire hose and play in the fire house. Our friend Itay and his son joined us at the firehouse. Here are some fun pics from the day.

Fun at Grammy's house

Here are a couple cute videos from today.

Dom is our little cowboy and loves to ride the pony when he visits Grammy. Yee-ha!


He also had his first experience with karaoke...watch out he loves the microphone!

Playdate in the park

Today we had a playdate with our friend Leslie and her son Peyton. Leslie and I spent most of our time across the park from each other chasing the boys, hardly getting anytime to catch up with one another. Our playdates have completely changed! I remember our first day in the park with the boys, we got to sit on a blanket, talking AND eating lunch. Our boys are busy little guys exploring everything!



Dom loved driving the car

18 Month Checkup

We saw Dr. Blaustein for Dom's well check today. As we suspected, he is developing great. This is our last checkup with Dr. Blaustein until he is two; our little baby is growing up!

Here are our little peanut's growth results:
Height: 31.5 inches
Weight: 22lbs
Head circumference: 50cm

Dominic had a little bit of a cold at this appointment so we had to push back the vaccinations for a couple weeks. We also want to get him reweighed since he hadn't gained much weight since his last checkup.

Fun with cousins!

This has been a really fun week for us, Dom got to spend a lot of time with his cousins! Kier, Conner, Hunter and Keenan came down for a few days to visit and celebrate Hunter and Conner's 13th birthday. We spent a day a the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, saw Jordan's summer camp play, went to ice cream and hung out in Half Moon Bay. By the end of their visit Dom and I were exhausted from all of the action!


Dom wanted Grammy to hold him most of the day.

Buddies :)

Conner, Hunter & Jordan waiting for the Mission Impossible laser game

Kier & Keenan snuggling

Grammy, Dominic & Keenan


Jordan & Conner were the only brave ones to ride the Double Shot...


The end of the ride...

Keenan and 'his little clone' at Grammy's house

Rinaldi fest!

We went up to Ashland, OR for a long weekend with the Rinaldis. It was great getting to see everyone, it had been a long time! We got to see El Grandre, Noni, Aunt Danielle, Great Grandma Adel and Great Grandpa John, Great Aunt Bonnie and Great Uncle John, and Nicole. That's right, 11 Rinaldis in a small town! Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures of the weekend.

We spent most of Friday exploring downtown Ashland; then met up with the rest of the family in the evening for dinner. Saturday we went wine tasting and then off to Great Grandma and Grandpa's house for a BBQ. Since it was a long drive, we headed home on Sunday morning. Dominic was such a great trooper on the long drive. He slept the entire way up and for a couple of hours on the way home.

Sitting on Great Grandpa's lap

Danielle, Adel, Star & Nicole working in the kitchen

This was the first time Dominic stayed in a hotel; he LOVED it. He had so much fun running all over the place and exploring every inch of the room.


Looking at the creek after breakfast

Cute little guy :-)

Gymboree

I've been taking Dom to Gymboree for some classes this month. He loves playing on all of the equipment and meeting the other little kids in the class. Just in the past few classes he has become really confident climbing all over the slides, ramps, tunnels and other things. So far one of his favorite parts of the class is drumming to music on the giant tube.

Here he is playing on the mini trampoline.

A message for Daddy...

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun day hanging out together. We played at Cuesta Park and then headed to our friend's house for a BBQ. Dom was asleep before it was dark so we missed the fireworks, but he'll definitely see them next year!

Happy Father's Day!

We spent Father's Day together, just the three of us. We went to a random indian lunch in Palo Alto, then Gabe got to watch an autocross and we had a fun walk around our neighborhood. Here are some pics from the day...

Photoshoot for Father's Day

I took Dom in to get his portrait taken to surprise Gabe for Father's Day. We got a lot of cute shots, I was too excited to show Gabe I couldn't wait for Sunday. Here are some of our favorites...

Swimming with Daddy

The weather is finally warm enough for us to enjoy our pool! Gabe took Dominic swimming today, this was only the second time he had been in the pool (the first being his lesson which he hated). This time around was completely different, he LOVED it! Gabe eased him into everything including dipping under water. Dom had so much fun he was even trying to blow bubbles! Since Dom had so much fun today, we'll be spending many days at the pool this summer :)

Before the swimming fun

Playing with Daddy

Floating on Daddy

He loves being tossed in the air!

Dom is never too busy to point out an airplane!

Getting warm and cozy after the pool