As promised, here’s a video of everyone singing happy birthday to Dominic and then him devouring the cake.
If the video skips on your computer, click the HD icon near the top right of the player to watch the standard version.
Dominic’s Happy Birthday and Cake
Happy Birthday Dominic
I love you little man more than I can ever express!
More Photos and Video to follow soon.
30!
Happy Birthday to me… Holy Crap! I’m now 30!?
I don’t really know how to process that thought/fact and I’m not sure why it (or what about it that) bothers me so much. I don’t really feel any older so I guess it’s just that I’m aging and inching towards the end that is the hardest thing to wrap my mind around.
Enough of that stuff… So I’m now 30 and life is pretty darn good.
I am blessed with an awesome wife and son who I adore and help to make life fun. I have a caring, supportive family I know that I can turn to for whatever. I have some great friends. I am part of a great church filled with good fun loving folks. I am also blessed to be in a thriving business I enjoy along with two great friends who help make the monotony of work tolerable.
Life IS good! So I guess I am achieving (or working towards) all that I have set out to do and can’t ask for much more.
Ok here’s a little more I can ask for… I love this little man, he makes me smile!
If the video skips on your computer, click the HD icon near the top right of the player to watch the standard version.
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Tagged birthday, Dominic, family, friends, Funny, Reflections, Video, wife
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Happy Easter
We are back at home relaxing and resting after a busy Easter weekend.
Friday evening was our church’s Good Friday service. I arrived early to setup and run sound check and drama rehearsal. The service was good and we had a lot of people there so it made for a great energy.
Saturday was our church’s HUGE Easter egg hunt with fun, games and free pancake breakfast. With an estimated 1500 – 2000 people shwoing up, it turned out to be a HUGE event! They setup 10,000 eggs in 3 separate (by age groups) hunt areas and I believe it took everyone about 3 mintues to fully collect all the eggs. 5 lucky winners found golden ticket eggs and won nice gift certificates.
The event was filled with good times and Dominic got to sit with the Easter Bunny for the first time in his life. While waiting in line to take his photo with the bunny, he fell asleep in Lori’s arms while sucking on his new plastic egg friend!
Good thing he wakes up happy!
After we came home and let Dominic get his nap on we went into the back yard and took some fun some Easter photos of Dominic. Later in the evening we BBQ’d ribs and corn on the cob. Dominic enjoyed gnawing on his Corn on the Cob.
This morning I went to church to run sound during both services and then after we went to my grandparent’s house to have lunch with my family. It was really good to get together today but also very emotional walking around my grandparent’s house and being flooded with MANY memories of them.
Lunch was great, Dominic self fed himself peas, carrots, (cut up) hand made ravioli and garlic bread, we have a CHAMPION eater on our hands! After lunch we trekked over to Lori’s family gathering for dessert and visiting.
A Busy but good weekend! Oh yeah, tomorrow Dominic is 9 FREAKING MONTHS OLD!! :)
Baby Babble
Warning this is video for parents, specifically Dominic’s parents. Therefore it may be boring to others!
If the video skips on your computer, click the HD icon near the top right of the player to watch the standard version.
It’s been about a month since I last put up a video of Dominic and I missed his 8 month post a few weeks ago. So here is a little slice of today’s activities with Dominic.
In the last day it seems like Dominic has figured out how to babble a bunch. If you know me, you know how much I love sounds so I’ve been digging his new little noises!
Currently he does the Da Da Dah, and the whisper version where he’s moving his mouth but not much sound comes out and then he does what we call “the old man voice” or “brando voice” which is a super throaty strange noise, as if he’s gasping.
Also not shown in the video is his crawling/scooting which still resembles a butterfly stroke but he does get up onto his knees more and will take *steps* from them if something is close and he wouldn’t have enough room to do the butterfly thing.
He is a fun baby to be with and often wakes up so happy and will spend the morning playing and looking over at me and smiling. I love this little boy so much and while I look forward to him growing up I know I’m going to miss this age!
4 Years Later…
and I still love her! ;)
Today marks our 4th wedding anniversary. It’s so crazy to think it’s been 4 years since we said “I do,” had a blast at our reception and then hours later were off to our wonderful Honeymoon in Maui!
Meeting Lori over 11 years ago truly has changed my life for the better. She is the most loving, thoughtful, caring person I have ever met and no one has consistently shown me these qualities quite like her. It is truly hard to remember life before Lori.
Also without Lori we wouldn’t have been blessed with the joy of Dominic and when I look at him I think of her and I am overjoyed with how complete my life is!
However, due to having an 8 month old baby anniversary celebrations this year have been subdued a bit.
Last Friday Grandma Castelli happily played with Dominic for the evening which allowed Lori and I to go out on probably our first date since 2 weeks before Dominic was born (almost 9 months prior.)
We went to Parkers Lighthouse (same place we went to on our previous date) had a nice dinner and then made our way to 2nd street in Belmont Shore. There we walked around and enjoyed each other’s company while we snacked on some Yogurtland.
It was a great evening and while it felt nice to have an evening together, it became a little harder as the evening went onbecause I was missing Dominic.
We’re hoping in a few weeks to have Dominic sleep over at Grandma Castelli’s house while we spend the evening and following day in some city a few hours away (wine tasting in Temecula?) and wrap up our Anniversary celebration.
Here are the collections of photos from our wedding and honeymoon.
I love you Lori and look forward to many more loving years raising our family and growing old together.
What Time Is It?
If the video skips on your computer, click the HD icon near the top right of the player to watch the standard version.
Why It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
Apparently he’s getting caught up on old Internet Memes. What a funny little guy he is!
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An Interesting Memory/Story, I don’t want to forget!
Recently, my grandfather passed away. I’m sad because in just under a span of two years, both of my grandparents are gone. I love my grandparents DEARLY and I will never forget the HUGE impact they’ve had on my life and I do plan on filling in Dominic on the details.
The reason why I bring this up is to record this memory/story. So with the passing of my grandfather comes the cleaning of the house. While I’m not ready to partake in this, my mother has done a little. She came over the other day and gave me an envelope. I asked her what it was all about and she told me to open it up.
I opened the envelope and in there was a stack of $2 bills clipped to a little yellow note. The note read “Angelo”, the value, and “From Nonna” all written in my grandmother’s handwriting. I immediately felt numb. Not due to the value, which was generous, but from the flood of memories of times in my life that my grandparent’s were generous to me.
It blows me away, my grandmother passed away nearly two years ago and just before Easter. I would assume that my grandmother was preparing little *boosts* for all of her grandchildren which she would’ve probably given to us come that following Easter along with a card where she would write a loving message.
Almost TWO years later my grandmother is STILL GIVING from her heart! She enjoyed collecting $2 bills and since she owned a Pizza Store she often came across them and would save them for her grandchildren.
I’ve never received a posthumous gift before and I’m not sure what to do or even HOW I could possibly thank her. So now, I have these bills, a paper clip and a note and I will save this *gift* for as long as I can.
Crazy Laughing Baby
Today Dominic woke up with a little upper respiratory cold but that didn’t seem to stop him from laughing like a CRAZY baby at me.
If the video skips on your computer, click the HD icon near the top right of the player to watch the standard version.
What a crazy little guy he is!
Teefus, Incoming!
This morning we found out that Dominic has his first tooth poking out of his gums. We guess it decided to wait until he was 7 months old to appear. So far it’s just the tip and he’s been very interested and pushing on it with his tongue.