Dominic's 1st Christmas

Our Christmas holiday was a busy 2 days (what's new?).   It was an amazing first Christmas for Dominic, being the first white Christmas in years and the day of Dominic's first unassisted step.  On Christmas Eve, Brian, Dominic, and I headed over to Brian's parents' house for dinner and a gift exchange.  Sunday morning the 3 of us got up early, did a quick gift exchange, fed Dominic, and went to church.  Sunday afternoon we went to my parents' house for Christmas Day dinner.  Then when we got done with that, we came home for some downtime before beginning to pack to go to Asheville, North Carolina the next morning.

Our house after the 1st white Christmas in over 100 years - and Dominic's 1st Christmas

Although it snowing (and sticking) on Christmas day was a big event, the highlight of Christmas occurred on Christmas night when we returned from all of the festivities at my parents' house.  Brian was sitting at the kitchen table on his laptop as Dominic and I played on the floor beside Brian.  Dominic pulled up on to Brian's leg and then I gave him his new straw sippy cup.  I was excited because Dominic was actually sucking it as he propped the cup on Brian's knee and held onto the cup with both hands.  Dominic then pulled the cup off of Brian's knee so he was drinking from his sippy cup AND without realizing it was standing independently, a very exciting moment for me to see. When he realized that he wasn't holding onto anything, he took a step with his left leg to the side towards Brian in an effort to grab onto him.  I started yelling excitedly, thinking Brian too had seen this amazing event, but unfortunately poor Brian missed it because he had looked back at his laptop at this point.  I questioned whether the step "counted" since it was to the side rather than forward, but after conferring with others decided that it does count because it was an unassisted step.  What makes it extra amazing to me is that it happened on Christmas Day.  I had wished and hoped that Dominic would take his first step on Christmas, and being the perfect little boy that he is, Dominic gave his mommy that gift.  :)

Christmas morning I was the first to wake up - even before Dominic.  Me being the first to wake up on Christmas morning was always the case growing up, and something tells me it will be no different even as an adult.  Santa Claus had set up everything the night before so Dominic could crawl into the living room, which is typically gated off, and find all of his toys.  Santa nicely removed the gate and had Dominic's toys all assembled for easy access.  Santa decided that having them wrapped is a waste of time, energy, and money.  In reality, it's not like Dominic actually unwraps gifts anyway. Plus this way Dominic could begin playing with the toys as soon as he saw them.

To be honest, Dominic seemed pretty disinterested in his new toys on Christmas morning.  He even started playing with his old toys instead, which was a little disappointed but at the same time pretty expected.  Of all of his Christmas gifts, Dominic's favorite toy appears to be his Riding Dino.  This serves as a walker for him at this point as he can walk between the dinosaur's legs as he pushes on the head/neck to make it move.  Dominic does this surprisingly well in walking with it already and is improving each day.  The Dino also sings and flashes lights, which is always a big plus for Dominic.  It's funny to see him with the Dino because he always smiles at it when he's making it sing and pushing it forward.  Once Dominic starts walking, then he can push the Dino's legs together to make a seat and ride on the dinosaur's back.  Below are pictures of some of the favorites.

Dominic crawling into the living room on Christmas morning to see all of the toys that Santa left him!

Dominic's castle to climb and slide on

The biggest hit of his gifts...Dino.

 

stocking stuffers