Dominic

We celebrated Dominic's 5th Birthday last week.  I am sure it gets old to hear parents say how quickly their children grow up, but that does not make it any less true.  I remember the first few weeks after his birth like they just happened recently.  The fact the Cardinals are in the World Series again has a special meaning for us as we watched them win in 2006 while adjusting to life with a newborn.  We did not know then how blest our life became with the addition of Dominic to our family.

Having Dominic has made us better people.  He is a great kid, but we want to influence him to be a great man. Therefore, we have to be great examples for him.  We do slip up more frequently than we should, but I am always thrilled to hear him use phrases I have used that are positive.  He is gentle with Molly and always says what a cute baby she is.  He will exclaim at the beautiful day.  He will be patient with Will.  He will also try to put Will in timeout...the particular time I am thinking of, he locked Will in a room to which I had no key...

From the time he could crawl, he wanted to be moving.  At church, older men would watch me struggle with him and then comment:  "He is all boy".  I took this to mean that his squirming at church was less my fault and more just his natural state and there was little I could do.  Now that I have Molly, I know this to be true.  Molly is still, the boys are constantly moving.  From crawling Dom went to walking, and shortly after running.  But, his running has always been contained.  I rarely, if ever, had him run off.  He loves to race.  He recently completed a 1.7 mile loop at an event on base.  We were so proud of him.  His attitude was positive the whole way.  That being said, he doesn't mind losing.  I don't know where he gets this from because it isn't me.  His love of moving also translates into playing family games of basketball, baseball, football, and soccer.  My one complaint is that he thinks I should be all time cheerleader.  Even though I have tried to explain to him that I was one of two girls who played football with the boys at recess in grade school.  They called me "Tough Cookie" because I could take a hit.  This does not impress Dom, unfortunately.

Dom likes to help me whenever possible.  He will help set the table, pick up his toys (as long as a movie is in the near future), get dressed, and occupy Molly.  On a recent road trip, we had him sit next to Molly and she was content the entire trip.  In fact, we made it back in record time.   I've even used him to calm William down when he is particularly upset.  They have a language that I must have known at one time, but I have aged out of it now.

Of course, his behavior is not perfect all of the time.  He will refuse to eat a perfectly good meal with the phrase:  "I can't love it".  He will throw a tantrum if I turn the television off at the wrong time.  He will get into fights with Will over toys.  His maturity level seems to oscillate between a 2 year old and a 10 year old.  Which I suppose averages out to a 6 year old.  I just wish the 2 year old didn't show up so much....He also has a shyness that makes him ignore adults he does not know. Though, I cannot fault him too much for this, as I share the same trait.

I never understood how God could have unconditional love until I had Dominic.  William and Molly have just reinforced that understanding.  Having Dominic also helped me learn that even if life does not take the course I thought it would, as long as we follow God's plan, where we end up will be much better than what we could have ever planned for ourselves.

We love you, Dominic Joseph, and look forward to many more birthdays with you.