I guess this weekend marks a few things: Summer is over, Lori goes back to work and Dominic is now 7 weeks old!

Ok now to the meat of the post, Dominic.  He is growing!  Getting bigger and more alert every day it seems.  He’s finally starting to be playful, smile and cooing a bit which makes for extra fun times for Lori and I.  He recently went through a few days of extra grumpiness due to milk sensitivity so we did formula shuffle and he’s finally on SOY and doing LOADS better than he was.  He will go in two weeks to his 2 month checkup where he will get vaccinactions.  He’s still sleeping about 9 hours a night and he’s been in his own crib / bedroom for the last two weeks now and doing well with it.

Besides being busy with work we’ve both both done a few things since the last blog.  Lori’s been working on setting up her room along with Gina.  Lori and Dominic have had a few weekly Chic fil-A lunch dates along with Gina, Emma, Linda and Charlotte.  Dominic and Lori have also visited me at work just about every Wednesday along with uncle Donovan.  We’ve gone to church 4 times with Dominic and he’s finally made his way into the nursery the past two Sundays and has done well.

We had a fun Photo session graciously photographed by my best friend Richard and later attended/assisted by my other best friend Donovan. Last Saturday we had a BBQ and I cooked another great pulled pork roast and awesome BBQ beans!  It was a good turn out considering the last minute nature (we decided on Wednesday) of the event and the unknown overlap of a larger Graduation / Birthday party that most of our friends were going to.  I was also able to sneak out and see Tropic Thunder along with Richard and Donovan.

We’ve also been enjoying the cooler than usual summer evenings with walks to the local parks and other car outings with Dominic.  I think we made it to Ikea twice in the last month for dinner and browsing!  I think next weekend we may make Dominic’s first trip out to Disneyland.

I haven’t blogged much lately due to the busy nature of life (work and baby).  I have been twittering / facebooking from my phone the daily nothings that happen.  I have captured some video but he’s still not doing much exciting stuff yet (hey, he’s only 7 weeks old) but I’ll start posting video soon as I capture some fun or interesting clips of him. I HAVE been taking photos of Dominic and posting them every so often to our flickr account.  Here are a few I’ve pulled out of the recent batch:

With Lori going back to work, I officially start my 2 or 3 days a week of daddy day care.  Though I’ve had a few challenging days in the past few weeks, I’ve noticed he and I are getting into a better rythm and I look forward to the time we’ll have together.

That was a long dizzying list of stuff and in no real order except how it fell out of my head…  until next time!

Today Dominic turned one month old!  One of his (or our) favorite things to do is to raise his hand(s) for no reason, so we ask him absurd questions that only be answered by raising his hand, look at how silly babies make you! :)

He already looks bigger and much different than he did when he first appeared that morning one month ago.  I can’t believe it’s been a whole month!  I enjoy coming home from work and seeing him and giving him a hug and a kiss.  I can’t wait until he’s a little older and (hopefully) has that “dad is home” excitement.

Not much to say other than that I’m enjoying our new family life and we’re starting to get into a decent routine and of course he’s such an amazing sleeper.  Thanks little guy you must’ve known it would be a busy month with my work!  He’s also been doing well going out and visiting people and places with us.  We’re able to make lunch together and Lori’s been able to take him to her little lunch gatherings also.  Last night we were able to have dinner at Donovan’s place and even though he fussed a little it felt pretty good/normal to have Dominic along with us.

Also I have to lift up Lori.  I am so amazed by her natural motherly ability.  It’s a good comfort to know that the woman you love enough to want to marry and spend the rest of your life with also turns out to be a fantastic, paitent and loving mother.  I love you Lori and I don’t know what we  would do without you!

Here is one of the earlier (from the first day) photos taken of him, next to a more recent (taken an hour ago) photo of him:

It’s been a life-changingly good month and I’m trying to take as many photos and videos to continue to document the growing / changing of him.  Videos aren’t always as interesting so I take them more infrequently and post them even less often, however I promise to post any new videos to this blog (via Vimeo).

WIth regard to photo updates I’ve been adding them to our flickr stream as I dump them off the camera (every few nights or so) so I don’t always post them to the blog that often.  So if you want to see the latest photos of Dominic be sure refresh our flickr stream often (or subscribe to the RSS feed here for automatic updates via your google reader).

Today Dominic turned weeks and I know I’m a broken record but it’s so hard to believe it’s almost been a month!

This weekend was filled with many outings for us and while it was somewhat busy for a newborn it felt so good to get out of the house and do some normal activities.

Friday night we drove to the country of IKEA walked around and had dinner.  On the way back we had a quick layover in Fry’s territory and returned home for the evening.  He slept 8 hours that night!

Saturday morning Lori went to get her hair done which meant it was time for my inaugural Daddy Day Care session.  He did well and I was able to get over my fear of not being able to soothe him without Lori’s (fantastic motherly) help.  Lori returned, picked up Dominic and headed out to my sister’s baby shower in Downey while I headed over to the new Wallace ranch to help/get in the way/hang out.  We stayed in for the evening and watched a movie. He slept 9 hours that night!

Today after waking up, feeding and bathing we got him ready for his first outing to church.  It was SUPER nice to be back at church after the month of Sundays and people we have missed.  Oh, before I forget (and if I didn’t see/tell you today) we would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the Revolution Supper Club for the constant stream and variety of tasty meals.  You all blew us away with generosity and I know you’ve inspired Lori to join this ministry!

Back to the service, Dominic did super well and slept right though the loud/thumping worship.  He only started to wake a bit during the sermon but as soon as worship resumed he fell right to sleep.

After church a few of us headed over to (Mother)Fudd Ruckers for lunch and you guessed it he slept right through lunch (newborns are great.)   After his afternoon lunch and nap we fed him, loaded him into the car seat and drove down the street to Heartwell Park and walked a big lap.  I rigged the stroller with my ipod speakers so we had a good soundtrack to walk along with.  I so have been looking forward to finally doing this walk and plan on continuing to visit some of the other local parks during the remainder of the waning summer days.

After the walk we headed down the street to the new Wallace ranch and hung out for the remainder of the evening.  It was good for us to have a place outside our house to go to and hang at with good friends.  Thanks to Ray and Judy for the awesome BLTs and tasty brocolli salad.

Now Dominic is winding down and eating his evening meal while we finish watching The Shawshank Redemption and we’re off to bed.

It feels like the last year and a half of our lives have been a busy, distracting blur with us getting baby ready and then the pregnancy.  I can’t say this enought but I’m so glad he’s finally here.  As each week goes by it feels more normal to have a baby and I’m finding it harder to remember exactly what life was like before the *thought* of baby entered our life.  I highly recommend parenthood if you’re on the fence…  children are pretty awesome and they can make some funny faces and noises! :)